Chapter 684 The last Matchups
The Crimson Crane had followed the order to charge, and the bulk of them ran in without a second thought. This included Reno, Kizer, and Lily.
Both Reno and Kizer had obtained items made by the Dark Magus. Reno was able to progress his poison powers to another level, becoming a stronger middle-stage warrior.
At the same time, his poison Qi had grown far stronger. When fighting middle-stage warriors at the same level as him, even if not being hit directly, slowly they would be worn down.
A drawn-out battle was not one anyone would want against Reno.
Then, with Kizer’s weapon, the Crimson Crane member had the strongest attack; he carried the large orange-colored greatsword.
A sword which grew in power depending on how many people were in the area. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an all-out war, or a large-scale battle like when they had gone against the Behemoth Clan, so its effects were diminished, but it was still incredibly strong in other ways. He just had to keep in mind the curse attached to the weapon.
Then there was Lily, whose main weapon was a spear. She hadn’t had any gifts given by Raze, the Dark Magus, and was patiently waiting for her turn, like a few of the others.
These three charged in and looked at the opponents on the ground. Many of them had quickly gotten into battles, but out of a large bulk of them, there were two that concerned Reno.
“Can you feel it?” Reno asked. Staring into the group of Dark Pagna warriors.
“Yeah!” Kizer replied as he continued to charge forward and looked straight ahead. “There are two really strong ones here, and if Tilon is dealing with that one, then we need to deal with this one!”
Kizer jumped in the air, both of his hands on the handle, holding the large sword behind his back, and flung it forward, ready to smash it down on the woman in front of him.
As the sword came down, though, the woman quickly moved to the side, and the sword, with all of its power, looked like it was ready to strike the floor. Part of it was breaking before the sword had even made contact.
Before it even did, though, the woman had lifted her leg, and visual Qi of flowing water appeared. It went through the air and hit Kizer right on the side of his head, sending him flying to the side.
Immediately, Lily came rushing forward, but the woman then kicked the ground, sweeping it. The visual Qi suddenly made Lily feel as if her feet were unstable. When she went to thrust her spear, it was off target.
To her surprise, the woman had grabbed the spear and went to pull Lily forward, ready to throw a punch right at her head.
That was until her fist was blocked by Reno. He had grabbed it, and his poisonous Qi was seeping onto the surface of her skin.
She didn’t hesitate, as a large amount of Qi came out from her body. Both Lily and Reno felt spits of light rain on their faces, and they soon saw both of their bodies crashing into one another.
As they banged heads, Lily quickly stomped her foot on the ground, unleashing her own Qi, and then stabbed her spear into the floor, breaking a large part of the flooring in front of them.
It allowed for space between the three of them and the woman they had decided to take on.
“That woman, she’s so strong,” Lily said. “It looks like your instinct was right. If we want to help out those students, we need to make sure she doesn’t join the fight.”
“Who even is she?” Kizer said.
“That doesn’t matter. It would be an embarrassment if we weren’t able to beat her, even with two items made by the Dark Magus,” Reno said as he readied himself. “And although there were two obviously showing off their power… I’m worried that there might be those among their group hiding theirs.”
The woman they were going against was called Suzan. She was a member of the Flowing Force Clan and was one of the strongest members of the clan.
She had fought with Crine for his position and ultimately lost. After her loss, she had secluded herself, trying to grow stronger.
She had agreed after her loss that she would do whatever it was Crine asked of her. That was why she was at the event and why she was unknown among them all.
A person who was strong enough to be a clan head of one of the five major clans.
—
Elsewhere in the arena, Rayna, who had also appeared to help Raze out, was now facing a middle-aged man called Wendart.
“What is this, Rayna? You are only a little older than the children that I teach. You must have only reached the middle stage not too long ago, no?” Wendart asked as he pulled out his thin long sword and circled the area.
“You shouldn’t talk to me on a first-name basis. I know that I am quite well known, but that gives you no right, especially when I have no clue what your name is,” Rayna replied.
When learning of the plan that Raze had come up with, she, of course, asked to join, and with Raze knowing he would need all the help he could get to go up against the Dark Faction, he didn’t deny her coming either.
She knew that things would turn out this way as well, with her fighting on her own. She wasn’t a true member of the Crimson Crane, so she had to accept that they would be doing their own thing.
“Me? I am Wendart, the head teacher at the Dark Pagna Academy,” Wendart replied. “My skills are not lacking, especially for someone like you. You should go home.”
Wendart charged in and thrusted his sword while Rayna pulled the spear from her back and swung it, hitting the sword to the side. Explosive Qi bonded between the two of them.
“I’ll have you know that right now I’m married, and I’m fighting for my husband!” Rayna declared.
—
With all of the Dark Faction warriors held up, there was only one left and not engaged in combat: Crine, the head of the Flowing Force Clan.
All he could do as he looked at the person standing in front of him was shake his head.
“I’m surprised you can even stand in front of me right now,” Crine said. “After you almost lost your life before, do you really want to lose it again? Do you really think you can do this alone?”
Crine started to walk toward Mada. With each step, ripples were seen on the ground. Mada took a fighting stance and a big gulp along with it.
‘It’s finally happening, I’m finally going to fight against my father… but there’s no way I can win… there’s just no way.’
With each step, the ripples in the ground were growing even larger. Seeing this, thick beads of sweat were running down Mada’s face, and before he knew it, Crine was right there in front of him.
“As easy as that, you are just a child after all.” Crine reached out his hand, going toward Mada’s head. Until a sword swung in between the two.
A powerful strike like erupting flames caused Crine to pull back for just a moment.
“Nearly chopped off your arm there, that would have been fun,” Ricktor claimed.
Mada was surprised to see Ricktor. He was sure that he would have gone off to fight his father, that was his wish after all, and this was his chance to do it.
So why was Ricktor here?
“It looks like both of us have severe father issues. It seems it’s not just limited to women,” Ricktor smiled. “Let’s deal with your daddy issues first, and after that, we can deal with mine.”
“I’ve grown attached to having you around, so I wouldn’t want you to go missing,” Ricktor claimed.
With that, all members of the Dark Faction were engaged in deep battle, against a mixed group of people. Some of the most powerful members were battling against each other.
The Light Faction was witnessing all, and in their minds, they could only think one thing: Who was going to be the first to fall?
Chapter 685 The Biggest Mistake
Cronker specialized in assassination techniques, focusing on taking out an opponent quickly and silently. He had been with the Crimson Crane group the longest and was by Alba’s side before anyone else in the group.
There were rumors that the Crimson Crane had managed to grow larger because of him. The hardest jobs requested of wanderers were assassinations. This was because it would either involve them angering one of the other factions or the kingdoms and empires across the land.
If a person completed such a job, no one was to know who had actually done it. This was why it was simply rumors that Cronker was part of the mass growth of the Crimson Crane.
But then begged the question: Nearly every faction and even clans had groups of people specializing in assassinations or spying techniques, so why did the Crimson Crane have such a person? Maybe the rumors were true after all.
Right now, Cronker was dealing with an opponent he couldn’t outright beat or sneak up on. Whatever he had tried didn’t work, so he looked to his side, at the three students he had trained, and also at Froma, his fellow ally.
“I know you don’t usually work with others and like working on your own, but it looks like you could do with some help,” Froma said. “I think it’s best you take it.”
After finishing those words, she shot out arrows fast and powered with Qi. They were perfectly aimed at Akron, who looked unfazed as they came at him. He carefully stepped forward from side to side.
It looked like he was taking a peaceful stroll through the arena, but each time he would completely avoid the arrows no matter what happened.
“Will you keep him still!” Froma shouted.
“Fine,” Cronker said as he lifted up his black covering from his mouth to just slightly over his nose and dashed forward.
The arrows had stopped attacking, and Cronker went from being directly in front of Akron to suddenly disappearing. Quickly, Akron lifted up one of his sword-like needles and stopped a dagger from reaching him.
He then swung both of his needles several times. Cronker, who had attacked from the side, was ducking and weaving each of the attacks, perfectly keeping attention on both of the needles this time.
Froma was carefully aiming an arrow pulled back, and then let go. The arrow went faster than the others before it. In the middle of attacking Cronker, Akron turned his needle weapon to the side and sliced the arrow completely in half.
Seeing this, she couldn’t help but click her tongue.
‘This is hardly better than when he was just moving toward him. He needs to be on the back foot. He’s so much in control of the fight that he can even block an arrow like that. Just Cronker alone isn’t going to be enough.’
She then looked down and could see the students were tense.
‘Based on what I saw, these little ones weren’t so bad. Cronker isn’t going to hurt them, and he’s going to get hurt at this rate. He’s not made for long drawn-out fights.’
“You three, when you think there’s a chance, just like I did just then, you need to help your teacher, and then I’ll strike. I don’t want to rely on you guys like that… but I think we’re going to have to,” Froma asked.
The students didn’t need to be told twice. They were tense because they wanted to help Cronker but feared that the fight was at too high a level and they would just end up getting in his way. Now that they had been given the okay, they were ready.
“Just like we trained,” Tilson said, and the other two nodded.
They moved out in separate directions like a blur. Their footsteps were silent; their Qi could be felt by Froma, but she was a skilled middle-stage warrior trained to see these things.
“I’m counting on you little ones,” Froma said.
Cronker was putting up a good fight. After dodging several hits, he was getting used to the rhythm and was now throwing in strikes of his own. However, each of them was still easily blocked by Akron.
It was the most skilled fighter he had been up against. With Cronker’s specialty being assassination, he was naturally quite strong at the start of the fight. Sharp Qi, with fast attack speed.
Cronker still hadn’t reached the stage where his attacks were slowing down or weakening, but Akron was still blocking everything and had the same smile on his face.
Cronker then took a swipe with his dagger at Akron toward his neck, and Akron took a firm step back.
Immediately, three of the students appeared from all sides. They had been waiting for this chance, and it appeared it was time for them to do their work. Froma was ready, expecting Akron to block the attack, which would leave the perfect opening.
That was until Cronker could see a smile on Akron’s face.
“I never make mistakes!”
The three students stopped short of reaching Akron, as they felt large stinging pain in their abdomens. When Tilson, Joe, and Violet looked, they could see a strange thin black substance had gone through their stomachs and had pierced the floor.
It wasn’t just them, but it was Cronker as well. When they looked at their opponent, they could see the black needle he had, it had branched out like spikes, sharp thin needle-like structures had come from the base of the blade and had gone through all of them, including Cronker’s stomach as well.
“You were the one that thought I had shown you all that my sword had to offer,” Akron said. “But you should have gotten the hint when I told you that I don’t make mistakes.”
Cronker looked at the students that had been pierced by the sword, blood starting to swirl out of their mouths. It was clear these weren’t any normal weapons.
He started to wonder, why hadn’t Froma fired her arrow? What was she doing? But with the second needle, he saw Akron’s arm stretched out, it went across the arena and had pierced the arrow, then hitting the bow, it looked as if it had deflected slightly, but just like the other needle, it had spread out branching like a sea urchin.
Several of the spikes had pierced Froma in different areas, stabbing right through her body and piercing her to the floor, making it impossible for her to move. She was still alive, but she felt like she couldn’t even use her hands.
“You bastard!” Cronker shouted and moved forward, allowing the needle to go further into him, but he did not care.
“The first mistake you made.” Akron retracted the needle that had pierced Froma. When the needles exited out of her body, she fell to the floor. “You relied on students to do work that should be done by adults. I guess that’s what happens when you follow a student that has gotten you into all of this mess.”
Akron glanced at Raze when making that comment. He then lifted his hand with the other needle and pointed it toward Joe.
“When people make mistakes, they need to be punished so they don’t do it again.”
Cronker knew what Akron was intending to do. With this, he pushed forward through all of the pain, and allowed the needle to go deeper into his body, he ran to the side, allowing the needle to cut part of his body, and dived forward with his dagger.
Reaching out, his dagger moved right in front of the extending needle, stopping it before it hit Joe. At the same time, though, Cronker suddenly felt as if he was falling.
His dagger was dropping onto the floor and so was the rest of his view, until he finally felt his chest hitting the floor.
Cronker had his legs sliced off. Akron had already taken out the other needle from the other students. They had fallen to the ground, and Cronker had done so, but it was because the other needle had been used to completely slice his legs off.
“You need to learn, how are you meant to protect those you care about if you don’t protect yourself first? You could have kept fighting against me if you didn’t try to protect these, and now I will teach you that protecting these students was a stupid endeavor in the first place.”
Both of the black needles were in Akron’s hands, and once again he looked to Joe, who was on the floor. While on the floor, Joe looked toward his teacher, looking into Cronker’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to do something,” Joe said, his mouth red.
“No… I was the one that started to like you guys, and I should have protected what I liked… I didn’t know the Dark Faction were so cruel!!” Cronker shouted.
Violet and Tilson were looking at the situation. The needle had done something strange to them. They had only been pierced in one area, yet for some reason, they were unable to move. It was almost as if the needle also had a poisonous numbing effect that worked on them.
It showed how amazing it was that Cronker was still able to move despite all of that.
Akron placed his needle right above Joe’s head, ready to extend it out. Having it over Joe’s head, a strange shadow-like wolf jumped from the side and almost went to bite his hand.
Quickly, Akron sliced through the shadow, and it disintegrated, but the lingering part of the dark shadow from the beast fell onto Akron’s skin, hurting him.
“I think you are the one that has made a mistake,” a voice said.
Looking up, Akron could see a man standing and walking over to him with his sword covered in a shadowy mist.
“The mistake of touching these students,” Raze said.
Chapter 686 All Formations
In order to regain his Qi and mana as quickly as possible, Raze needed extreme concentration while performing his cultivation meditation techniques. It was the quickest way to draw energy from the places around him.
He wasn’t a genius like Safa, who could cultivate just by simply standing and breathing. The return of his energy was depleted after using a cursed Qi pill to restore his mana and producing a second spell to bring the Crimson Crane here. If he wanted to fight, he needed to regain his energy.
Still, it was impossible for Raze not to be distracted by what was going on outside. In the middle of his focus, he would listen in and take a peek at how the others were doing in the fight.
‘The Dark Faction has brought stronger members than I thought. I didn’t even know there were strong members outside of the main five clan heads. It seems that there was more power in the Dark Faction than expected.’
Raze was done with filling his magic core, and in response, he closed his eyes and started the life and death cycle to restore his Qi. He slightly changed his sitting position, from his hands’ gestures together raising up, to lowering down.
Through magic, Raze had learned the effectiveness of trigger words. By linking certain words and phrases to spells, one’s mind could create the magic circle needed to produce the spell.
So, similar to his trigger words, he was cementing certain actions to switch between cultivating methods so it wouldn’t take him long to get into the routine again. He knew by switching his hand gestures that his body naturally went into taking demonic energy rather than dark energy for his magic core.
As he was cultivating, there was a slight worry in Raze.
‘Is the blooded woman going to come again? By using this technique, I’m not in the Demonic Faction or Dark Faction, and right now I don’t really have a choice. If anything, it might be handy for her to come down.’
Ignoring the risks, Raze went ahead and was gathering his demonic energy back. After a while, Raze couldn’t help but once again take a peek at the situation, and he noticed someone who wasn’t doing well.
‘Cronker and the students, who even is that they’re going up against!’ Raze thought.
‘I’ve gathered a lot of Qi and mana back. I can fight and help out, but I was cultivating so I could go against Murkel.’
Looking at the situation, Raze could see that Alba, Dame, and Amir seemed to at least be holding Murkel back. Murkel was finding it tricky dealing with Amir’s transformed state, almost being careful with it.
On top of that, there looked to be a lot that Amir knew about Murkel, making it easier for him to fight against, and the news and techniques had been passed to Dame as well, who was holding his own.
‘If I don’t do something, then all of them will die, and I was the one that involved them!’ Stopping his cultivation, Raze stood firm. He knew he wouldn’t be able to reach in time, so he activated one of the formations of the Dark Edge Sword Arts.
‘The third formation, Nightmare Veil formation, magic.’ Raze’s Dark magic was being added to his Dark Edge formations for the first time. It was something he had kept hidden during the tournament, only using the Dark Edge formations themselves.
His sword was lingering with a dark mist that spread out. Then he swung his sword, and an image of a beast appeared—a wolf created by his Dark magic, moving and attempting to bite onto Arkon’s arm.
When Arkon turned to look in the direction of where the wolf had come from, that’s where he could see Raze.
“You speak too much, your first mistake!” Arkon said as he attempted to charge forward against the student.
From Arkon’s assessment, he had gathered that the most dangerous person out on this arena floor right now was this man. He assumed he was resting but had been called out from his rest due to the worry of his colleagues.
This was why Arkon found it so easy to deal with the other factions. They just didn’t have it in them to do whatever it took to win.
When Arkon came close, Raze swung his sword multiple times. A large scene appeared from his sword—a large bear- like creature among other things were all heading toward Arkon.
Arkon had no clue what this technique was, but he was unfazed as he went to cut them all down. The beasts almost felt like they had a type of physical body as he swung his needles to go through them. Each time he broke them apart, the lingering Dark magic would hit him, and he learned it was something to avoid.
Then appearing right in front of him was a large bear made from the magic. Arkon had no choice as he felt like just slicing through this magic beast would just harm him more. He lifted up his two needle weapons, and they started to expand out, spikes in all directions ripping through parts of the shadow.
It had hit the magical beast so much that it had practically become nothing, and there was next to no damage done to Arkon as well. That was until he saw, now having defeated the bear made of Dark magic, he could see Raze on the other side, with both hands holding onto the hilt of his sword.
“I’ve seen this before. Although this was effective on the students you faced, do you really think it’s going to be effective on me!” Arkon claimed, as both of his needles were covered in a dark red energy.
“This is not the same as what you saw. The second formation, Dark Magic Sword Eclipse Strike!” Raze called out. The magic was swirling around the sword itself, even though it was already covered and condensed into an obsidian black.
Arkon’s two needle-like weapons, which were held up, stopped the sword, but his Qi didn’t even last a moment as it was engulfed by the attack. The whole of Arkon’s body looked to be covered by the Eclipse Strike.
The attack had covered part of the entire arena, engulfing the entire area. Then finally, the attack had stopped. Arkon had been pushed back partly by the attack.
His upper clothes had been obliterated, leaving only his skin to be on show, and even that was covered in strange markings that almost looked like burns.
Yet he was still smiling.
“You are strong… that was a lot stronger than I thought… you are seriously dangerous,” Arkon said, still with his weapon in his hands.
Raze wasn’t done though. Taking the sword down, he charged forward.
“I don’t have time to talk, old man, I just need to get rid of you all.”
“Dark Edge Sword Arts Fourth Formation, Magic Void Pulse!” Raze rushed across the area, along with his sword. A large pulse of magic mixed with Qi propelled him forward, and a wave was sent out behind him.
The sword went right through Arkon’s head, aimed perfectly. He could do nothing to stop the attack.
“That’s one of you down,” Raze said as he pulled the sword out and Arkon fell to the floor.
Chapter 687 Protect Raze
The fourth formation, the second formation, and the third formation. All of them had been used against a single opponent. The legendary Dark Edge Sword Arts were used by the Noctis Clan and only by the founder of the Dark Faction.
However, there was one more detail added to this all, and that was the fact that they had magic added to them—Dark magic, the most destructive magic there was, produced by a mage with a dark core.
Seeing how strong his opponent was, Raze had wasted no time using all of his skills. And doing so in succession like that, he was confident he could strike down his enemy in one hit, which he had achieved.
“Just what type of power is that? That power is immense, and he used it in succession. He must have been hiding his strength during the tournament!” Beatrix said.
She looked at the ground where the sword had hit. The entire flooring was torn up by the second formation strike. Then there was beyond where the pulse attack had been made.
The wall, the stands, and the arena—part of it had folded in, the concrete it was made out of had been obliterated, and rocks were piling on top of rocks. It was hard to imagine anyone would have been able to survive such an attack.
“You’re right, there is no doubt about it. No wonder he was confident in starting this battle against the Dark Faction,” Ricar commented. “But I think you’ll see, he’s worn himself out.”
Ricar was right, because almost immediately Raze had stumbled, falling onto one knee. He grabbed his chest, and then moved his hand to hover over his stomach.
‘I used up all my mana that I had gathered, and all of the Qi already. I nearly pushed myself to the point where I nearly passed out,’ Raze thought to himself.
‘I have no choice, right now… I have to.’ Forcing his legs to move, he changed position from being down on his knees to a sitting position. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes, letting out a few deep breaths.
Then he gathered both of his hands upright and started to use the Dark Faction’s cultivation technique, restoring the mana back in his heart again. Right now it was the only thing he could do.
‘I don’t know if Cronker is okay, or the rest of the children, but this is all I can do for them for now. I can’t fight against Murkel or the others; they will have to be left on their own,’ Raze thought.
Murkel, of course, noticed what Raze had done. He had seen it all and sensed the great power within.
“I should have known, that child was hiding more,” Murkel said as he leaned back and then punched Dame’s hand down, so a blast hit the floor. He then delivered a strong fist right to his chest, sending him back.
As Alba came close, Murkel lifted his arm in the air, and the dark Qi started to gather. He moved it forward, almost touching Alba’s swords. Rather than connecting, though, he then pulled back, and Alba felt her sword pulling like a magnetic force, sending her off balance.
With her body off balance, he then grabbed her by the hair behind and pulled her head back, slamming his knee right into her back. Before he could do more, though, Amir charged forward with a kick to the chest, sending him back, and then a swing of his large axe beast hand.
It continued to hit nothing but air.
“That kid, you know he is most likely from the Noctis Clan. Is that why you sided with him?” Murkel asked. “It seems that might be the reason you are so confident in him, but things won’t work out for him, just like it didn’t work out for the Dark Faction before!”
When Amir went to strike with his axe beast hand again, he felt it being dragged upward. Murkel had gathered and condensed his dark Qi and then lifted it in the air. In doing so, his visual Qi lingered but still had the same effects as before, dragging his arm upward.
Murkel then charged forward, running past the outstretched beast arm. Only he wasn’t aware that as it forcefully retracted back to normal, the axe beast arm was now coming toward him.
Sensing it, Murkel jumped and did a backflip in the air, avoiding the axe hitting him completely and landing back on the ground.
“You are one of the most extremely talented individuals I have ever come across, Murkel,” Amir stated. “One of the few people who has been able to use the full properties of dark Qi, something only a handful of people have managed to achieve.
“It means the world felt like you were destined for great things.”
Murkel smiled at this comment.
“It seems we both can agree on that. That’s why you stood in my shadow and had to force your body to change to this, to even do something against me,” Murkel said.
Amir shook his head.
“If only your ambition wasn’t so short-sighted. While you are busy trying to take over Pagna yourself, you’re unaware that there might not even be a Pagna in the end!”
Amir jumped up, and as he did, both of his arms changed into axes. He swung them from both sides, stretching them out, one from the left and one from the right.
Quickly, Murkel kicked himself from his position and grabbed the wrist of Amir, stopping his attack. He could see that Alba and Dame had gotten up and were striking from either side.
Pushing away with a strong force, Murkel then slammed his foot into the ground, surging Qi through the floor and breaking the ground up, creating barriers in their path.
A perfectly controlled amount of Qi, with plenty of fighting experience. This was the type of opponent they were going against.
Both Dame and Alba continued their attack through the concrete that had risen, breaking through it and turning it to rubble, but now on the other side, they could no longer see Murkel.
“He’s going after Raze, stop him!” Amir shouted.
With his arms stretched out, he was the furthest away, and it would take him the longest to get to Murkel, and Murkel was faster than him.
“The one that needs to be dealt with and will get in my way is him. The past needs to be completely gotten rid of in order for the future to progress!” Murkel stated.
“That student is a fragment of the past that cannot exist!”
The Noctis Clan was continuously in his head. Ever since he had seen Raze use the skills, he felt like he was someone to deal with. He just wasn’t aware of how dangerous of a threat he was, nor how much alive he was.
He could see now that Raze was defenseless. It was an easy target for him to take out and a way to lower their morale.
“The man who killed Arkon will die!”
Murkel continued forward until he felt something pull on his leg. Looking down, he could see a white substance that was wrapped completely around his foot.
As he looked at the substance, he followed it with his eyes and could see that it was coming straight from Dame’s mouth, which was open wide and had two curved large teeth growing from the side of his mouth.
“You…You were a hybrid as well?” Murkel asked.
Chapter 688 Who Am I Now?
For a while now, the students that had been fighting for the Dark Faction remembered what had occurred in the past. About their escape in trying to get out of the academy. They were left with no choice after everything that had happened.
One of the main clan leaders had been killed, and the Dark Faction, on the order of the principal, was treating all of the students like lab rats. If the rats didn’t act the way they wanted, then they would get rid of them.
With this fear in mind, and already being put through a lot, they attempted to escape. They had the help of many along the way, but in the end, they were caught by none other than Murkel himself.
The students knew they were no match to take on Murkel. At the time, they hadn’t even gone through intense training with Amir, and Ricktor hadn’t even reached the middle stage.
It was hopeless. Among the students, there was one person who didn’t belong, and who had been with them, and that was Dame. Seeing how the situation was occurring, he had decided to do his best.
To help the others, he felt part of this fault was his mess. This whirlwind of an adventure he had decided to take on because of his situation at home. He felt like he could amount to more, but in his situation with his brothers and sister, and working under his father, he couldn’t amount to much.
At most, he could just please his father, and then from there take over his father’s legacy, and that was while fighting for the position with his brothers. Instead, he wanted to do things his own way, and he had found that through Raze.
The Dark Magus was able to sell incredible Qi pills as well as craft items that could change the outcome of things. Dame had experienced that himself when he had bested Beatrix, a feat that no one thought he would accomplish.
Change was finally happening, and it was because of Raze. As Dame started to hang around those around Raze, he started to get the same feeling from the others as he did from Raze.
These individuals that had managed to gather around the same person. Each one of them was incredibly special and he could tell they would amount to great things.
Maybe that was the reason why he had decided to stand up and fight against Murkel that day. At times there would be many that would call him selfish. A person that only cared for himself and never cared for the Neverfall Clan or his father’s legacy.
In a way, that was quite true, Dame didn’t care, but he cared extremely about those he had decided to care about. Fixteen, along with his other close friends, knew this, and they knew when it came to those close to him, he was extremely selfless.
When Murkel had thrown a devastating attack, he didn’t hesitate to jump in front of Simyon to stop the attack. His body was hurt, his eyes were in the middle of closing, and the last thing Dame could remember was opening his eyes and just seeing the mist, and the very edge of one of the cliffs in the distance.
“I hope… they will make it through all of this somehow,” Dame weakly said as he continued to drop through the mist, and soon a loud bang was heard with his body as it crashed on the floor.
His whole vision went black, and Dame was quite confident that he wouldn’t be able to open his eyes again, but he learned that he was wrong.
His eyes slowly started to flutter open and the view of mist appeared all around him. He wasn’t quite sure if his image was blurry or it was just the effect of the mist itself. He tried to move anything but his head, which seemed like an impossibility.
‘Even if I could move, I don’t think I would want to see the condition of my body right now. Taking the hit straight on, and after that falling from that height with virtually no Qi protection.
‘I had used it all up just trying to block the damage of that strike as much as possible. Much use that was, and now it might be my downfall.’
Dame wondered, maybe if he had used less Qi to block the strike and he had landed down here, then he could at least force his body to move. Which was an impossibility right now.
When he thought about it more, he realized that there was another situation that was a possibility as well, that if he hadn’t used so much Qi to protect himself, he would be dead.
Either way, it was useless to think about the what-ifs because he was in the current situation he was in now.
‘Those kids, I wonder how they’re doing as well. They looked scared, as if they lost all hope. I thought that maybe I could stall him at least for a minute or so, so they could get away. I guess I was really stupid.’
Dame wanted to lift his hand to cover his face, as he felt his eyes well up, and something wet rolled across the side of his cheek.
As he lay there on his back, unmoving, unsure about how many bones were broken, or if he would die of hunger, he started to think of all of his life he had been through.
One of the weak links of the Neverfall Clan, his brothers, always being superior to him, talking down to him, and the whole clan comparing him to the rest.
Why wasn’t he able to do the things they could when he was their age? How he was a failure of the Neverfall Clan. It was a place he never felt like he belonged to in the first place.
Which was why he had gathered people around him that didn’t care about that. It was why, in secret away from the eyes of any clan member, he practiced as much as he could. He researched as much as he could trying to better himself.
It was only a few times that Fixteen would catch him doing such things.
‘If I did care more, if I did push myself harder, would things be different now?’ Dame started to wonder as he could feel a deep pang in his stomach, which was followed by a growl that echoed in the misty space.
He started reflecting on everything, including all of the fights he could have had. Soon the mist that he could see in his vision started to look like shapes of people. Warriors fighting against each other using their own set of special techniques.
He wasn’t sure if the mist was actually moving or his mind playing tricks on him. He soon figured it was most likely the latter, as his stomach made an even louder growl than before and the mist figures broke up.
“Wow, it looks like someone is hungry,” a voice said through the mist.
Turning his head slightly, he could see the mist moving and breaking apart and a figure starting to appear.
“It looks like Amir was right. He said you looked strong and would still be alive,” the man’s voice said. “Anyway, I guess I should help you if you’re going to be part of us.”
“Part of us?” Dame replied as the man walked closer. Dame realized he had never seen this person in his life before. A young man with short facial hair and clothing that looked like that of a regular citizen with basic cloth.
“Yeah, the Bonum Society,” the man claimed.
Chapter 689 The Way In
The man stood there observing Dame for a while, placing his hand on his chin while looking him up and down. Once in a while, he made questionable faces that made Dame feel worse about his condition, and not wanting to know about it as well.
In order to distract himself and the man in question, he started to ask his own questions.
“From the way you’re speaking with me, someone sent you. Was it that Vice Principal? I think he said something about being in that particular group as well,” Dame said.
He remembered the conversations vaguely, but so much information was loosely spoken about here and there, Dame never even had much time to find out the finer details about things.
“You’re right,” the man said as he reached into a pouch that was strapped around his waist. It was brown in color, made out of leather, and fairly worn. It didn’t take him long to pull out a few round-looking Qi pills.
“The Vice Principal you are talking about is part of the Bonum Society as well. He seems to have taken a liking to you and told me to come here, saying that you might be alive. He said it was a fifty-fifty chance, but I would say more like ninety-ten, with a ninety percent chance that you would be dead, judging by things.”
The man then knelt down and placed the Qi pill into Dame’s mouth. Dame wasn’t going to deny the pill, even though he didn’t know who this stranger was. He could tell, if the stranger was going to poison him, at least it would be a quicker death.
Without the pill, he would most likely die as well. So out of death, death, and a chance of survival, he was going to take the latter. After consuming the pill, he realized it was just an ordinary Qi pill.
Energy had restored to his dantian, and he could start using it to power his cells in his body, speeding up the natural healing process, but it wasn’t as good as the Dark Magus’s pills. Perhaps Dame had now gotten too used to them.
“You’re a lucky man, you’ve broken a lot of bones, torn some ligaments as well, but the fractures, like those on your ribs, haven’t pierced any of your internal organs. You don’t have a lot of internal bleeding, at least not that which is too dangerous. Which is why, despite you being here for so long, you’re still alive,” the man explained.
Although Dame could feel his body more now, and it was healing, he didn’t think just a Qi pill was going to cut it. Not unless he wanted to take several months to heal.
“The Bonum Society you are talking about, what do you mean I’m going to be a part of it? What even are you guys, and what are you trying to do?” Dame asked.
The man wagged his finger in the air.
“Think about it this way, the fact that you don’t really know about our society means that we’re doing a good job. If I was to tell you everything, well, that’s how I would lose my job.”
It was clear by the conversation that the man wouldn’t say much, either because of his duty or other reasons, so Dame wouldn’t pry into it much, at least not now as this person was trying to save him.
While Dame was lying on the ground using his Qi to restore his body, the man popped another Qi pill into his mouth, having the same effect as before. After that, he started to wrap certain bandages around Dame’s body.
In the position Dame was in, he couldn’t see much, but he kept hearing a strange spitting noise each time before his body would be bandaged.
‘He can’t be spitting on the bandages each time he’s wrapping them up, right?’ Dame thought. ‘I… I’ll just have to imagine it’s something else… why couldn’t a beauty come and save me instead of this man… not that I am ungrateful, but it appears I haven’t had much luck these days.’
Dame was thinking back to the effect of the gauntlets, which was why he hadn’t had much, or if any, time to play at all.
After the bandages had proactively been wrapped up in nearly every part of Dame’s body where he could feel something, the pain was diminishing. The areas that had been wrapped were heating up, but they felt good; they felt better, and it was then that he could start to move his entire body.
Lifting himself up, he slowly stood in the mist area. His body didn’t seem to be too badly damaged. He still found it hard to stand, but going from thinking he might never move again to this was short of a miracle in his eyes.
“What did you do to these bandages?” Dame asked.
“Hey hey hey,” the man quickly said, pointing to the bandages. “Don’t take those things off. You were badly hurt, so they need to be left on for a while. You can at least move for now though.”
Dame was still amazed he hadn’t heard of such physicians doing things, and this wasn’t like the Qi pills or the strange magic that Raze would use. This felt different from all of that.
“Your name,” Dame said. “I would like to at least thank the person who helped me by your name.”
“My name?” The man pointed at himself. “I’m called Chip, so you can say thank you, Chip.”
“Thank you, Chip,” Dame said wholeheartedly but was unable to bow properly due to his position. When he raised his head, he looked up at the cliff. Still wondering what had gone on, and just how long had he been on the floor for.
“What are you doing, are you going to follow?” Chip said, having moved only slightly ahead into the mist, but he could still be seen.
“Follow you?” Dame asked.
“Yeah, or do you really want to stay out here and just wait for something to happen, or for them to jump down and finish the job?” Chip replied.
Dame knew he was right, so he picked up his feet and started to follow.
“So where are we going?” Dame asked. “Where do you plan on taking me?”
“I told you when we first met, didn’t I?” Chip replied. “We’re heading to the Bonum Society to make you one of us.”
