Chapter 1046: Brief Battle [part 1]
Northern and Eli stood ten meters apart from each other. Everyone who had gathered around them had withdrawn even further away.
Both stared each other down. Eli gripped the matte black staff while Northern lowered the Illusioned Hefter to the ground as if the sword meant nothing.
Behind them, their spectators watched with rapt attention.
Nahia burned with fury.
To her, this was sheer madness. A Sage against a Paragon—and not some watered-down Paragon like the new ones. Eli had been a Paragon for the past five years. He had grown tremendously and couldn’t be ignored by nations.
His talent was lethal beyond measure. The thought that he would be tested by a mere Sage made her blood boil. Even she wouldn’t dare.
"Tch. I await his crushing defeat. Perhaps after the Headmaster finishes with him, I’ll add a lesson or two."
Selis glanced at her with a stunned, guarded expression.
She stared back.
"What’s wrong, dear sister?"
Selis shifted her gaze away and shook her head with a strained chuckle.
"Nothing..."
Selis wasn’t sure either. She doubted he could defeat their Headmaster.
Sure, she had seen him defeat a Leviathan. There had been a terrible fight she hadn’t witnessed directly, but the ruins it left behind showed how devastating the battle must have been. Because of that, she believed her Headmaster could also fight and defeat a Leviathan.
Though uncertain and confused, she refused to disrespect her Headmaster by thinking he would lose to a Sage. At the same time, she had seen what Northern could do. She had watched Nahia fight for years.
Nahia didn’t even come close.
And Nahia was an Ascendant.
As if that wasn’t enough, strange people surrounded Northern. The white-haired man who smiled wickedly most of the time made her skin crawl.
Staring at him felt deeply unsettling. There were monsters absent from here right now.
Every time, only one of them was sent into the pit of monsters terrorizing the nations, and it rarely took thirty minutes for the storm to be completely wiped out.
This showed their true strength.
And all of them bowed to Northern. The boy was far greater than she had imagined.
He was like a walking nation. Nothing could contain him, nothing could touch him, nothing could own him.
In fact, she now saw their attempt to recruit him into their Citadel for what it truly was. No one recruited this kind of walking disaster into their Citadel. Even the idea itself now sounded childish and ridiculous.
Yet her mind struggled to believe that Northern could defeat the Headmaster.
Because she also knew the Headmaster was strong. And no one—absolutely no one—had ever witnessed the peak of his strength. No one had seen him break a sweat.
So... this battle would be more valuable than watching anything else, anywhere else. She felt wildly lucky to be here at this moment.
***
Raven stared with sharp focus. Helena stood behind her, arms folded.
"Who do you think will win?"
Raven glanced back slightly over her shoulder, then returned her gaze to the two combatants standing apart. She paused for a moment.
"I saw Northern battle a Luminary and nearly slaughter him in a way that defied all reason. Something I don’t think I could achieve. It shames me as a Paragon to realize he’s only a Sage. And I’m confident I could hold my ground against this man."
Helena frowned in confusion.
"Do you always have to circle around everything instead of just answering?"
"However... experience plays a large role. He looks very experienced. Much will depend on how he uses that experience. But I think he’ll lose, because he’s underestimating someone stronger than him."
Helena chuckled.
"I see Northern has won you over."
She turned back with a puzzled expression.
"What do you mean?"
Helena grinned wickedly.
"Never... mind."
Nahia overheard their conversation and simply scoffed.
’They don’t even know my Headmaster.’
***
The wind whipped violently around the two main stars of this show.
Eli’s black staff stood on the ground beside him. He gripped it somewhere around the middle. The staff looked sleek and plain.
Until Eli moved.
Eli’s movement was insane—his speed was ruthless and unfair to anyone with a speed-type talent.
He flashed forward before the wind could even flow in his path. The explosive speed shocked everyone into gasps.
Of course, Bairan simply kept his wicked grin. Jeci and Lynus remained unmoved.
Everyone’s expressions lasted less than a heartbeat.
The two collided, and the entire landscape shook violently. A shockwave exploded outward in a circle, then another ring of dust and debris rolled away from the impact.
They all turned and shielded their eyes from the center of the battlefield.
Eli was certain that with his crushing speed, he had ended the battle before it began. However, the small smirk on his face slowly crumpled, replaced by a tight frown.
Standing in place, with his sword easily arced over his head, blocking the strike Eli had brought down.
And looking completely unbothered.
"That’s it?"
Northern swung his sword to the side as though swatting away a fly. The movement of his hand was so casual.
However, Eli felt himself fighting against tremendous force that sent him flying sideways. He sailed through the air, unable to control his own momentum until his feet hit the ground and he used the friction of earth and rubble to skid to a halt.
He lowered his head for a moment, his expression filled with disbelief.
’What?’
He couldn’t believe it at all.
’What’s happening? How is that the strength of a Sage?’
It made no sense. No reasonable sense.
’Could he be pretending to be a Sage?’
Eli narrowed his eyes and peered even deeper into Northern’s soul. There was nothing there—nothing at all—but the presence was that of a Sage. He wasn’t mistaken about that.
He would admit he hadn’t been trying, so maybe the boy was extraordinary enough to block his strike, but that effortless sweep just now...
A Paragon can crush any force from any rank of drifters lower than them instantly. Because they were overwhelmingly powerful and deeply attuned to the world’s workings, the world actually listened to them.
Things like force and momentum could be commanded in a certain way.
But just now, all of that was useless. Eli felt like he’d been struck by something far stronger than himself.
And it was...
He frowned darkly.
’Impossible.’
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