Chapter 381: Inter-Academy Tournament (XXXIII)
The atmosphere around the main stronghold turned deathly silent for a single second, but just as fast, the silence shattered.
"Attack him all at once!" Adrian roared, his multi-colored aura exploding outward like a storm.
"Don’t give him any room to breathe!"
The combined forces of Gloria Academy’s remaining core students and the newly arrived 4th-years charged forward in a chaotic but coordinated wave of power.
Vaelor was the first to recover fully.
He slammed his greatsword into the ground, cracked stone exploding beneath his feet as he launched himself upward with a burst of pure physical strength.
"Heaven Breaker!"
His greatsword came down in a vertical arc, crimson-red draconic energy forming a massive blade of pure force that aimed to split Gray in half from head to toe.
The air screamed under the pressure.
WHOOOOOOSH!
BOOM!
Gray didn’t even take a full step.
He simply tilted his body slightly to the side and raised his rapier at a precise angle. The tip of the thin blade met the descending greatsword exactly at its weakest point of balance.
CLAAAAAAAAANG!
The impact should have driven Gray into the ground.
Instead, Vaelor’s arms trembled violently as the force of his own attack rebounded.
The Crown of the Abyss flared, multiplying Gray’s magic attack power tenfold for that single moment of contact.
Gray twisted his wrist.
The greatsword was violently redirected, the massive blade slamming into the stone stairs beside him and carving a deep trench several meters long.
Before Vaelor could recover, Gray’s free hand shot forward and tapped the larger boy’s chest with two fingers.
A pulse of pure abyssal energy exploded outward.
BAAAAAAM!
Vaelor was launched backward like a ragdoll, crashing through two of his own teammates and slamming into the outer wall of the stronghold with enough force to crack the ancient stone.
"Guhrh!"
’...Abyssal Energy, huh?’ Gray’s lips curled up slighly.
He only noticed now, but now his attacks were being enveloped by a purple energy, which could only be the energy that came from the abyss.
This only made him happier.
The moment Vaelor’s body hit the wall, the rest of the 4th-year students from both academies moved at the same time.
From the left came a tall, broad-shouldered Gloria 4th-year named Kael, one of the academy’s hidden elites.
His entire body was covered in glowing golden runes as he activated a rare body-strengthening art.
"Iron Body: Titan’s Form!"
His muscles expanded, his skin hardened like living metal, and he charged forward with pure brute force, both fists clenched.
BOOOOM!
The ground cracked under every step he took.
From the right, a Dragon Slaying 4th-year girl with long silver hair and a pair of dual short swords appeared in a flash of pure speed.
Her name was Lyria, and she was known as the fastest student in her year.
"Phantom Blitz!"
Her body split into seven afterimages as she closed the distance in less than a second, both blades aiming for Gray’s vital points.
WHOOSH!
Behind them, another Gloria 4th-year, a calm-looking young man with glasses named Elias, raised both hands and created a massive multi-layered barrier array.
"Sealing Array: Absolute Lock!"
Dozens of glowing chains of pure mana shot out from the ground and tried to bind Gray’s limbs, torso, and even his rapier.
At the same time, a heavy-set Dragon Slaying 4th-year named Torren slammed both hands into the earth.
"Earth Magic: Mountain’s Wrath!"
The ground in front of the stronghold rose into a dense forest of thick stone spikes that shot upward and inward, aiming to impale Gray from every direction at once.
"[ Spirit Eyes ]"
Gray instantly activated his skill and decided to deal with the attacks in order of priority.
First, the sealing chains.
The glowing mana chains shot toward his wrists, ankles, waist, and the hilt of his rapier with perfect accuracy.
The moment the first chain brushed against the back of his hand, Gray simply rotated his wrist. A thin, almost invisible layer of abyssal energy coated his skin.
The chain shattered on contact as if it had struck something that rejected its very existence.
CRACK!
The second chain aimed for his left ankle. Gray lifted his foot slightly and stepped on it, crushing the mana construct under his sole.
The remaining chains that tried to wrap around his torso and rapier met the same fate.
One after another, they snapped and dissolved into harmless sparks of light the instant they touched him.
Elias’s eyes widened behind his glasses.
"The Absolute Lock... was broken that easily?!"
[-390 Soul Points!]
While the chains were still dissipating, Gray turned his attention to the forest of stone spikes rising from the ground.
Torren’s Mountain’s Wrath was designed to leave no room for escape.
The spikes were thick, sharp, and densely packed. Most fighters would have been forced to jump high or use a powerful technique to destroy them.
Gray did neither.
He simply began walking forward.
His first step landed lightly on the tip of the nearest spike.
The stone should have crumbled under the pressure or forced him off balance. Instead, his foot remained perfectly stable.
He took a second step onto another spike, then a third, then a fourth. In less than two seconds he was running up the rising forest of stone as if it were a set of uneven stairs.
The spikes continued to grow and try to close in on him, but every time one got close to his path, Gray’s free hand flicked casually.
Swip...!
A small pulse of abyssal energy shattered the tip of the spike before it could touch him.
By the time he reached the highest point of the stone forest, he was already looking down at Kael Voss, who was charging beneath him with both metal-hard fists raised.
"Iron Body: Titan’s Form!" Kael roared again, putting everything into a double-fisted upward smash.
Gray jumped lightly from the highest spike.
As he descended, he rotated his body and brought his rapier down in a clean, vertical line. The tip of the thin blade met the exact center of Kael’s joined fists.
CLAAAAAAAAANG!
The sound was deafening.
The golden runes covering Kael’s body flared brightly for a single instant, then cracked.
The metal-hard skin that could withstand high-level techniques split open along the path of the rapier.
The force of the clash traveled up Kael’s arms, through his shoulders, and exploded outward from his chest.
BAAAAAM!
Kael was driven straight into the ground.
A deep crater formed beneath him.
The golden runes across his body flickered wildly and then faded completely. He lay in the crater, coughing blood, his Iron Body art completely broken.
While still in the air from the rebound of the clash, Gray twisted his body to face Lyria.
The seven afterimages of the silver-haired girl closed in from all directions at once. Her dual short swords flashed toward his throat, heart, ribs, and spine with perfect timing.
Gray’s free hand shot out and grabbed the wrist of one of the afterimages.
It was the real one.
Lyria’s eyes widened in pure shock.
"How the fuck?!"
Before she could finish the word, Gray pulled her forward with brutal force. At the same time, he brought his knee up in a precise strike.
THUD!
His knee slammed into her solar plexus.
"Kurghhpf!"
The air left her lungs in a painful, choked gasp. Her dual swords dropped from her hands as her body curled forward from the impact.
Gray did not stop there.
He spun on his heel and used her own momentum to throw her directly into Elias, who was still standing in shock after his sealing array had been destroyed.
The two 4th-year students collided mid-air and crashed hard into the ground several meters away, rolling across the cracked stone in a tangled heap.
Torren, seeing all three of his companions taken down in less than ten seconds, roared in anger and slammed both hands into the ground once more.
"Mountain’s Wrath – Second Wave!"
An even larger wall of stone spikes erupted, this time denser and sharper than before.
Gray landed lightly on the ground and simply walked forward again.
’...It’s been a long time since I used Sword Aura,’ he thought with a faint smile.
Shing!
He raised his rapier and flicked it once in a small horizontal arc.
A thin, almost invisible line of Soul Chasing Qi shot outward from the blade.
Every stone spike in its path was cleanly severed at the base. The entire wall of earth crumbled and collapsed into a pile of broken rock before it could even reach him.
Torren stared in disbelief.
Gray appeared in front of him in a single step.
The heavy-set 4th-year tried to raise both arms to defend, but Gray’s rapier was already moving.
The tip of the blade tapped Torren lightly in the center of his chest.
A pulse of pure sword energy exploded from the point of contact.
BOOOOM!
Torren was launched backward like a cannonball.
His body flew more than twenty meters before slamming into the outer wall of the stronghold, leaving a large crack in the ancient stone.
In less than fifteen seconds, the four simultaneous attacks from four different strong 4th-year students had been completely dismantled.