Evening 4:30;
Indoor Arena, Emerald Academy, Emerald City;
The students gathered just like in their first combat class with Azzy two days ago. Some of them were excited while some of them were nervous.
With the Reaper locking their memories of their encounter with the Fenrir using a memory sealing technique, none of the students remembered the events that occurred on the outskirts of the Emerald City.
Fortunately, the entire scene only lasted a couple of minutes. Hence, no one felt anything amiss too.
And right now, they were hoping to receive some valuable tricks which will help them on the following day's combat test, now that their 50% quota was scrapped away by the school management.
Looking at them, Azzy spoke, "Today, all of you gonna learn a simple sealing technique."
"A sealing technique?" The students looked at each other's faces.
Azzy let out a smile as he nodded, "Yes, this is an intermediate-level technique and is usually taught in college. But, I believe one doesn't need to become an elementary sealing master to start learning of intermediate ones."
"What is this technique called?" asked Julius curiously while wondering how will it help them become stronger.
Azzy answered, "It's called Super Eye. Just like its name, it will enhance your vision to see the movements of your opponents more clearly so that you can plan for a counterattack. An attack, regardless of its power, is only useful if it connects.
After you learn how to unleash the sealing technique, we will be moving toward improving your reflexes, meaning, we will be continuing your yesterday's training from the wild zone."
"Will we go back to the wild zone once again?" The same thought came to everyone at once before they heard Azzy pay attention to him very carefully.
Azzy went on to teach them the runes and the hand movements required to unleash the seal. With 24 runic alphabets, there are literally more than 6 trillion combinations that exist. And more than 99.999999998% of them are harmful to the user.
Hence, Azzy was on his guard as he observed each and every one of them, making sure there are no mistakes. Fortunately, all of them excelled in academics and they have quite a good memory to remember the five required perfect combinations of runic alphabets.
Twenty minutes later;
"Well done, Student Margaret. You took time but you still did it."
*Clap*
"Everyone, now that everyone successfully learned it, you should all try to maintain the seal around your eyes while fighting your opponents."
As the students nodded in understanding, Azzy continued, "Now, we shall go into the next step. Pair up. I'm going to divide this place into 24 blocks. All of you must stay in your area and fight. That means you will have very little room to move around but it is what we want to achieve.
If you have more space to move, you will focus on dodging but if you have less space to move, you will also focus on counterattack. Your job is to try your best to dodge your opponent while successfully landing blows on him/her. I'll give scores based on your performances.
Note that you will be fighting against one opponent for a maximum period of 5 minutes. Then, your opponent will be randomly chosen by me. In total, you will have 7 sparring sessions. The scores will be added.
The top three performances will receive a reward in the form of an activated skill card, which could help you in real emergencies. Good luck."
As the reward was added, everyone was motivated to score more points in their sparring.
The next day evening, around the same time;
In the arena, the students of 10-A appeared to be quite depressed as they lost quite a lot more than they expected. 10-B students, on the other hand, were full of enthusiasm. They were cheering for their fellow classmates.
Miraculously, so far, they have secured two of three duo teams and two of the five singles. Of course, those two single matches were no surprise as they were won by Raydon and Ace.
However, the fact that they did a lot better in duo battles showed that they had great teamwork. Adding on top of that, Azzy's sealing technique had greatly helped these students in counter-attacking their opponents, who looked down upon them because of either lower soul power or lesser Arcana grade.
Currently, the knockout battles were happening one after another. In these group battles, there were no substitutes. The teams only have five members, and of course, those who participated in other categories couldn't participate either.
Eventually, four teams remained in the race by the time everyone's classes are over and rushed to the arena.
Of the four semifinalists, three belonged to Class 10-A, and one belonged to Class 10-B. Yet, 10-B students seemed to be more excited in the audience section.
Led by Julius, team JB made it to the center of the arena, and from the other side, Team DA led by Daniel Eranyl made it.
All the team members of Team DA weren't just from influential families. They were also children of noble families, specifically from the kingdom of Rivendell where the monarchism is still thriving. On the other hand, Team JB was full of students with no surnames (commoners) and from humble backgrounds.
All of a sudden, the semifinal had become a battle between two social groups.
"JB" "JB" "JB" "DA" "DA" "JB" "JB" "JB" "DA" "DA"
Perhaps, the spectators were overwhelmed by the performances given by 10-B students. Or perhaps, their fear of these bullies decreased because of Azzy's presence. Or perhaps, it is because of the fact that they couldn't be singled out in such a big crowd.
Whatever the reason it might be, the reality is that the group representing class 10-B was receiving more support from even the rest of the students despite the fact that they were afraid to face these arrogant noble children.
As the two groups stood before each other, Proctor Snivy spoke, "The same rules as before, nothing changed except that I need to remind you about the sunset. If you take too long, those who make it to the finals might have to battle in dim light."
The tenth-grade students nodded in understanding and stared at each other.
Daniel couldn't help but smirk in response to her warning, "Don't worry, Ma'am. This battle will be over before you know it."
"The teams before you also spouted the same nonsense, Eranyl," Julius responded coldly. He was dead serious about winning this match.
Daniel's teammate and his girlfriend, Serena Blaze burst out into laughter and commented, "Please, huh. Don't kid yourselves. We have been teammates for the past three years. We understand your strengths and weaknesses better than them and we also watched your previous matches. Except for those quick reflexes, you didn't improve a bit."
"Some people are just born talentless. It's not their fault but the fault of their talentless parents and ancestors." Another teammate of Daniel also chimed in. He further said, "A noni fruit comes from a noni tree and an apple comes from an apple tree. Originally, you would ignore them but when that noni fruit pretends to be an apple, it becomes one's duty to show the difference between the two of them."
"You…" Julius clenched his fist and took deep breaths to calm himself down. As the faces of his teammates reddened in anger and they looked like erupting at any moment, Snivy shouted, "What are you lot wasting our time for? Prepare for the battle. 10 seconds."
*Whistle*
As Snivy blew the whistle, everyone summoned their Arcana.
Team JB has only one mutated purple grade Arcana (Julius), one purple grade Arcana (Susie), and three silver grade Arcana.
On the other hand, everyone from Team DA has purple grade Arcana.
White, Red, Blue, Silver, Purple, Gold, Platinum, Celestial, and Divine; this is the order of grades of Arcana spirits.
The average genius during the time of Emperor Arthur used to have a platinum-grade Arcana.
Then, it was gold grade when Azzy went to the past timeline.
Now, it was reduced to purple in this new generation.
It is also why the Arcana Master who oversaw Azzy's awakening when he was 8 labeled him as a genius when he sensed (misunderstanding) that the death scythe was a purple grade.
Even Barbara was also termed a genius in the clan as she too awakened a purple grade Arcana, which became platinum due to the mutation caused by the protos energy.
It is said that those with purple grade Arcana had the potential to reach either the 7-star realm or the 8-star realm. And if they had luck in mutating their Arcana to gold grade, their potential will only increase further.
On the other hand, those with silver grades only had the potential to reach the 6-star realm. Since they only had one chance to mutate, during the breakthrough to the 4-star realm, these Arcana Masters practically don't have a chance to reach the Exalt realm.
Only those who crossed the 7-star realm are labeled as true experts and the pride of humanity. Only those beings receive respect everywhere on the planet.
Hence, in the views of a neutral spectator, it is obvious that Team JB has no chance against Team DA for the latter is full of geniuses with great potential.
Even Julius was aware of this fact but due to the overwhelming support from the audience, he wanted to give his best.
As long as he wins this battle, he will register his spot on the team. The academy is sending a 7-member team but the battles are between 5-member teams. So, where did the remaining two come from?
The remaining two will be picked from the runner-up team in the finals. They will join the winning team as substitutes and represent the academy. This is how Azzy designed this mini-tournament.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦