The long, intense exchange continued without pause.
Alex took another glancing cut across the upper arm from Rylan’s wind-boosted blade.
The line of blood was thin but visible against the black training suit.
Kael’s spear tip scored his ribs a heartbeat later, water spraying across the fabric.
None of the hits were critical, but the damage was starting to show on both sides.
Dorian’s left sleeve was torn open from an earlier exchange.
A shallow cut ran along Kael’s forearm.
Rylan was breathing harder than he wanted anyone on the platforms to notice.
"He’s still not slowing down!" Rylan shouted, wind whipping around him as he reset his stance.
"How is he still pushing this hard after taking those hits?! That level 0 bullshit is totally false! This is no level 0!"
"Stop talking and cut him!" Kael snapped back, water already coiling around his spear again.
"At least he’s bleeding, so keep the pressure on and he has to break eventually!"
Dorian didn’t waste breath on complaints.
His dual blades stayed low, shadow still clinging to the edges, eyes locked on Alex’s center of gravity with the focus of someone who had finally stopped underestimating the boy in front of him.
"Both of you, less shouting, more killing intent, he’s reading the wind and water specifically, so don’t give him free information." Dorian muttered.
Alex’s full-body enhancement was still running clean.
The Mana Heart fed it without strain.
He answered every combined rush with short, precise cuts from the Viper’s Spine, forcing the three of them to work harder than any of them had expected when the match started.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks sprayed.
Water mist filled the air.
Sharp gusts tugged at clothing and hair.
On the platforms the tension had thickened.
Through the bond Zara’s presence stayed sharp and steady.
’Alex, they’re getting desperate, watch the synchronization carefully.’
’I see it, I guess it is time.’
Then Alex changed the rhythm.
Mid-swing, he triggered the Viper’s Spine’s full expansion.
shhh-CLACK!-whirrrr-CLICK!
The segmented blade snapped outward with a sharp metallic sound that cut cleanly through the noise of the hall.
SHING-CLACK!!!
The weapon doubled in effective length in a single violent motion, every scale-like segment locking into place with brutal precision.
Alex did not pause.
He carried the momentum into a wide horizontal arc that started at his left shoulder and tore all the way across to his right.
The sudden reach and weight were devastating.
Kael’s eyes went wide.
He threw himself backward with a curse, water threads flaring in a desperate shield that got shredded by the extended edge.
"What the—?!"
Rylan used a burst of wind to fling himself clear, boots skidding across the boundary of the circle.
"Shit!"
Dorian dropped flat and rolled, the tip of the fully expanded blade passing so close it cut a clean line through the shadow still clinging to his shoulder.
"Move!"
All three recruits landed outside the immediate killing arc, forced to reset hard.
Alex compressed the blade back to its normal size in one smooth motion.
The segments folded inward with a series of sharp metallic clicks and locked tight again.
He exhaled once.
A faint mana steam rose from his shoulders in the cooler air of the hall.
The three stared at him, now fully tense.
"That weapon..." Rylan’s voice was tight, almost disbelieving.
"It can expand so fast mid-swing? Are you actually kidding me right now?!"
"We can’t let him keep controlling the pace," Kael said, spear point lowered but ready, water still swirling around the shaft.
"If he gets another clean expansion like that we’re done, let’s go full power with everything we have, and together at the same time."
Dorian’s jaw was locked.
His eyes never left Alex.
"We end this in the next exchange or we lose the circle, he is controlling the whole space with that damned weapon of his, Rylan, prepare the wind wall, Kael, pin him, I’ll cut the opening."
Alex lowered his stance slightly.
His eyes locked onto Dorian Shade.
Dorian felt it first.
Something wrong moved through his own shadow affinity, a sudden pressure that did not belong to any of the three of them.
’Huh?...what is this feeling?...’
The air around Alex’s feet seemed to darken and pull inward.
’N-no way!’
Dorian’s instincts screamed at a level he had only felt from high-ranking shadow users years above his own level.
He froze for a fraction of a second, dual blades halfway raised, every muscle locked by pure recognition of a superior shadow presence.
"What... is that...?"
Alex’s voice was calm and clear.
"[ Shadow Mantle ]"
It happened almost instantly.
His cast shadow rose like living liquid.
It climbed his body in a single smooth wave, black and dense, wrapping him from the boots upward without a single gap.
The layer sank inward the moment it covered him, merging with flesh and training suit alike until the distinction between shadow and skin disappeared completely.
The temperature inside the sparring circle dropped sharply.
Breath misted in the air from more than one of the recruits.
Alex’s presence changed in the same instant, it became heavier, colder, sharper, as if the boy who had been fighting them for the last several minutes had been replaced by something that belonged to the dark itself.
The entire hall reacted at once.
In the Winterfang section, shock and open disbelief hit the platforms like a physical wave.
Officers sat up straight.
Several nearly left their seats.
Murmurs broke out immediately, sharp and incredulous.
"When?..."
"But there was no class or recorded elemental awakening—"
"He just activated a clean high-level shadow skill in public, that was not in any report, how is that possible?!"
In the Abyss section, exhilaration tore through the black-and-silver ranks.
Younger retainers grinned openly.
A few of the older ones let out short, sharp breaths of pure satisfaction.
Fierce pride and approval burned across their faces.
This was an Abyss.
This was what the bloodline was supposed to look like when it finally stopped holding back.
But in the Bloodworth section, dark expressions settled across the red-accented platform.
Valerius’s looked at him with cold intensity in his red eyes.
The retainers around him looked grim, their jaws tight and shoulders locked.
A twelve-year-old.
Reported to be still at Level 0, if it was true, then where did the attributes come from?!
No class, then what was this high level shadow class skill they were watching right now?!
When did he awaken a high-level shadow elemental skill, this was an unprecedented anomaly that should not exist, unveiled in front of every major household that mattered.
Through the bond Zara’s presence flared with sharp, focused satisfaction.
’Now finish it!’
Dorian recovered first.
His eyes went wide with pure alarm as the full weight of what he had just felt through his affinity finally registered.
The temperature drop, the pressure, the clean activation, everything about it was wrong from what they had heard and seen in the past.
"Unleash everything!" he yelled at the other two, voice cutting across the sudden silence of the hall. "All skills—now!"
🌿 ─ ❦ ─ 🌿
End of Chapter 139: Shadow Mantle
🌿 ── ❦ ── 🌿