[“Ah!”]
[“What the— where?!”]
[“Where’d that attack come from?!”]
The night-purple shadow darted across the battlefield like a reaper. Every time it materialized, it claimed another unprepared classmate.
Watching one knight toy with over fifty opponents, even the four teachers on the viewing platform widened their eyes.
“Damn, that Nal kid is no joke.”
“Didn’t they say he was just recently taken back by the family?”
“If I were limited to the same spell levels…”
“I couldn’t even guarantee my combat experience would surpass his.”
Hess squatted unceremoniously at the platform’s edge. Several magic circles resembling binoculars had appeared before his eyes.
[Second-Circle Vision Enhancement Spell: Farsight]
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Maybe it’s precisely because he was only recently taken back that he has such refined combat experience.” Teacher Vis beside him remarked casually, as if it were obvious.
Magic was a resource heavily restricted by environment and opportunity. To survive in this cruel world without ample magical growth, one had to hone other skills.
“Remember that kid who won the Magic Academy’s Six-District Championship for us five years ago?” Vis reminded Hess idly.
“Of course — way too monstrous.”
Just recalling the scene still sent a chill down Hess’s spine.
That boy had been an illegitimate son left outside by the previous head of a marquis house.
He’d struggled alone in the world for sixteen years. His immense talent had even led to him being kidnapped young and raised as an assassin weapon.
He was caught while attempting to kill his own biological brother — the current family head.
A quick check revealed their blood relation, and he was brought home.
He wasn’t from their academy, yet during the tournament, he’d treated the champions from all six districts like level-one magical beasts along the roadside.
It had been a match with zero suspense.
A bunch of pampered noble young masters versus a killing machine forged in mountains of corpses and seas of blood — any comparison was laughable.
Even if their spell mastery was slightly higher, the vast gap in combat experience meant ordinary opponents were still crushed before him.
Recalling the brutal finale, Hess felt a shiver.
He also began wondering why Vis had brought it up.
But realization soon hit.
“Illegitimate son.” “Wandering outside.” “Immense talent.”
Hiss — why does that sound so familiar?
The thought had barely formed before Hess whipped his head toward Ye Xu below — who had already taken out over twenty opponents.
“No way — this is practically identical!”
An illegitimate son wandering outside, suddenly reclaimed by the family one day.
As for talent — though details were hard for students to fully grasp, the teachers all knew about Ye Xu violently thrashing upperclassmen outside the grand hall yesterday.
Without exaggeration, the magical aptitude he’d displayed then already surpassed that kid from five years ago.
“You~”
Vis rolled her eyes at the slow-on-the-uptake Hess, then turned back to enjoy the match below.
Standing behind the teachers, Isxila overheard their assessment of Ye Xu. A hint of amusement flickered in her eyes.
Well, the specifics were a bit different.
But her family’s Ye Xu — every ounce of his combat experience had been earned through real killing. Nothing like the flowery styles of those nobles.
Otherwise, how could he be this amazing~
“Hmm~ hmm~ hmm hmm~”
At the thought, the lovestruck princess couldn’t help humming a little tune. Her body swayed slightly in time, betraying her excellent mood.
Seeing the princess display this adorable side again after so many years, Lol — perched on Abyss’s shoulder — grinned and pulled out a magitech device resembling a camera. He snapped a photo.
He saved it carefully, already calculating how high a price this cute shot of Her Highness could fetch from the daughter-obsessed queen back home.
Then, like the teachers and Isxila, he turned his attention back to the battlefield below.
By now, the terror inflicted by Ye Xu’s Nightfall had forced the remaining classmates — twenty-four already down — to instinctively form something resembling a battle formation.
Using the three personal machines as cores, the others circled the perimeter to provide protection and sustained mana supply. The personal-machine pilots organized counterattacks whenever Nightfall approached.
Defend instead of attack. Wait at leisure for the weary enemy. Fully exploit the match rules and numerical advantage to grasp even the slimmest chance of victory.
No wonder pressure spurred growth.
Without such an overwhelming opponent, who knew how many years of self-study and drills it would take to reach this level.
— Though it still wasn’t enough.
[“Tch”]
Twenty minutes into the fight, after several failed assaults and with mana nearing empty under the system’s restrictions, Ye Xu knew that if he didn’t want to reveal more strength and draw attention, this was his limit.
With a helpless exhale, he began channeling all remaining mana.
The next instant, Nightfall’s night-purple monitors flared with terrifying light. As mana surged, the greatsword in its hand shattered and reformed — reassembling into a massive bow before Ye Xu.
An arrow of mana, pulsing with apocalyptic power, condensed into existence.
Ye Xu nocked it, then aimed at the three tightly packed formations clustered around the personal machines.
[“Wait — what is that thing?”]
Seeing Nightfall deploy a never-before-seen armament, the classmates — who had formed the arrays only out of desperation — didn’t register it until the bow turned toward them.
[“No — wait!”]
By the time they thought to scatter, it was too late.
In a single instant, the devastating armament — powerful enough to tear through top-tier defensive spells — shattered one formation. Ye Xu’s tally jumped from twenty-four to thirty-three, adding nine more — including one personal machine.
Nightfall’s internal mana hit zero. The monitors dimmed.
Teacher Hera checked the time and announced: “Group One victory. Target mana depleted. Time: twenty-three minutes, forty-three seconds.”
As her words fell, the duel systems disengaged. The “defeated” classmates strewn awkwardly across the ground groaned, rubbing their heads as they stood.
Nightfall’s night-purple monitors relit. The machine rose once more.
Ye Xu offered a clasped-fist salute to the recovering classmates and the teachers on the platform, then modestly left the field.
Seeing this, the teachers quickly called the students down and summoned Lol · Nat in Abyss to face the second group.
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