Chapter 139: A Seed And Invisible Attack
Everyone was visibly disappointed by the pairing for this battle. Michelle was truly strong, but she had encountered this monster. It was rare for Michelle to battle for this long, as she often defeated her opponent in a single move.
“I’m sure that you won’t be able to take it for much longer. Let’s get things started!” Big Pao mumbled to himself. He hadn’t forgotten the time Xi Yue had pressured Michelle into using her innate gift, which was quite powerful as well.
Michelle’s expression turned cold as she dodged yet another explosion. The red glint in her pupils deepened. She never thought that she would be forced to use her innate gift in the very first battle, but with this monster before her, she had no choice.
In the next moment, red lotuses blossomed beneath her feet. They were enchanting, beautiful, and enticing, and when Michelle stood above them, she was like an incredibly gorgeous enchantress.
Darkvoid’s finger twitched and he darted past her. Michelle’s eyes gleamed red as she took a step and disappeared. A void eruption exploded where she vanished from while she reappeared a kilometer away. Her speed was simply unbelievable. Michelle then raised her hands, causing specks of red light to shoot out before consolidating into a bow and arrow. She quickly fired one at Darkvoid.
The bright red bow and the arrow hurtling through the area caught everyone’s attention. A strange flicker disrupted the air as something black appeared, blocking the lotus arrow’s path. There was no loud explosion, but the clashing techniques caused tiny spatial cracks to spread everywhere. It was a shocking sight to see, and even if this battle was taking place in another academy, these spatial cracks would still be there. Being able to shatter space while in the Melder realm was something limited to only the most powerful freaks.
Between the fractured space, the black light and lotus arrow wore each other out as they were of similar strength.
For the first time since this battle started, Darkvoid was shocked. He flicked his finger and sent another black light flying toward Michelle. She used the red lotus to dodge before firing another arrow, forcing Darkvoid to block it with another void explosion. The space around him continued exploding in a chain reaction, just like it had in the beginning. But compared to when he had done so at the beginning of the battle, the current explosions’ power was incomparably greater. Their battle kept escalating in scale and the attacks only intensified. The onlookers could feel their fear settling in as they continued to watch. Very few had the courage to even go near attacks of this level. Even the average Limiteer from the Astral Combat Academy would find it difficult to retreat from this situation unaided.
All of a sudden, a lotus arrow turned to ash and faded away, causing everyone to perk up—was the winner about to be determined?
The spatial eruption continued expanding, and it engulfed Michelle in the blink of an eye. Everyone paled, fearing for her life, but before anyone could react, another Michelle appeared behind Darkvoid. Her feet was planted on her red lotuses, and after appearing, she loosed the nocked arrow aimed at Darkvoid.
Darkvoid was focused entirely on Michelle who had been in front of him, and he didn’t expect that another Michelle would appear behind him. This wasn’t extreme speed, but a clone technique. The Michelle that had been devoured by the spatial explosion dissipated into a flurry of red lotus petals before scattering. And behind Darkvoid, the red lotus arrow had already hit him.
Michelle’s innate gift left everyone shocked, and they were all excited at the results of the battle. Michelle was clearly extremely powerful, and now that Darkvoid had been hit at point blank range, the battle should be concluded.
With a dull thud, Darkvoid’s body flew dozens of meters away before he landed on the ground. The fiery attack left his body smoking, the trails rising all the way into the clouds.
Everyone watched on in silence.
Big Pao and Little Pao eyed the situation in disbelief, shocked that the battle could end in a single move.
Michelle frowned. The battle had not been easy, and technically speaking, that attack should have been enough to decide the victor. However, for some reason, her instincts were screaming that Darkvoid wasn’t finished.
Everyone remained focused on the battlegrounds, and before long, a soft thud came out from amidst the smoke and dust. They watched as Darkvoid used a hand to help himself up before slowly standing. Everyone felt a chill crawl down their spines. How could he be fine after that attack? This doesn’t make any sense! He’s a monster!
Michelle’s right fist tightened and her pupils dilated as she stared at Darkvoid. He slowly walked out, seemingly unphased by the attack he had suffered. He seemed to be uninjured, but the clothes on his back had been ripped to strings. And through the hole, everyone could see a tattoo of three green leaves.
“Shamrock Enterprises?” Zora cried out.
Everyone stared at Darkvoid’s back, which was tattooed with the symbol of the Shamrock Enterprises.
Michelle was astonished. So this person was from Shamrock Enterprises!
“They say that Shamrock Enterprises specializes in finding talents of the universe, nurturing them, and then summoning them back once they reach a certain amount of power. However, I never thought that it was true! So Darkvoid is a talent that Shamrock Enterprises has been nurturing. They call these people ‘seeds,’” Zora explained. Windrift Hall as an organization was on a similar scale as Shamrock Enterprises, so its members were quite familiar with the company. And it was precisely this knowledge that formed the base of their fear. Every seed of Shamrock Enterprises was an absolute genius that would mature into a beyond terrifying expert.
Michelle must have heard similar rumors because she also paled once she saw the tattoo. The person before her was a seed of Shamrock Enterprises, and her sister Mira had told her how powerful that company was. It was far more difficult to become a seed than it was to enter an Astral Combat Academy, and yet, she had encountered one such seed here.
Darkvoid faced Michelle and raised a hand, but Michelle shook her head and bitterly said, “This battle is done. I admit defeat.”
Everyone was shocked.
Lu Yin sighed when he realized that Michelle had used up all of her star energy. While her innate gift was very powerful, it also consumed a large amount of star energy. On the contrary, the amount of star energy that Darkvoid’s innate gift used was rather small. What a horrifying innate gift!
“The sixth match’s victor is Darkvoid!” Big Pao announced.
And with that, all six initial rounds were done. The victors were Xia Luo, Lulu Mavis, Silver, Zhao Yilong, Lu Yin, and Darkvoid. These results upset many people’s expectations, as no one had expected Hui Daynight or Michelle to lose their battles. Xia Luo and Silver had also turned out to be surprisingly powerful. The two had been very low key after entering the academy, barely participating in the ported battles, and yet, they had easily won their rounds.
And then, there was Darkvoid. He was so powerful that it was terrifying. Whenever anyone looked at Darkvoid, they couldn’t help themselves from glancing at Lu Yin. No one was surprised when they discovered that Darkvoid’s opponent for the second round of battles was to be him. Poor Lu Yin.
“It’s fine even if you lose, Mr. Lu! You’ll be able to win in the future!” Coco grabbed Lu Yin by the arm as she preemptively comforted him.
Lu Yin was struck speechless by her response. “I’m not guaranteed to lose!”
Coco pursed her lips. “Even Ms. Michelle’s terrifying attacks didn’t do anything to him. I don’t think anybody here can beat him.”
Lu Yin burst into a fit of laughter. He wasn’t sure how many people had noticed it, but Michelle’s attack had actually been blocked by Darkvoid. There had been a thin layer of defense on his back and the arrow hadn’t touched him at all. Or to be precise, the arrow hadn’t been able to penetrate through that layer of protection.
Additionally, Michelle had overestimated herself. The reason why her attacks were able to shatter space was mostly because the space had already been weakened by Darkvoid’s innate gift. She wasn’t able to cause such cracks unassisted; otherwise, she would not have spent that much time to see through the rain and find the Rainmaster’s gift. However, Lu Yin didn’t see any need to explain all of this to the small girl beside him.
“Cough cough. To avoid wasting too much time, the competition will continue. Round seven, Xia Luo versus Lulu Mavis. Begin,” Big Pao announced.
Xia Luo walked out and gently gazed at Lulu.
Lulu knocked her fists together, letting out a dull thudding noise each time. She was such a cute girl, but her actions were extremely brutish. Every time Lu Yin saw Lulu eagerly anticipating a fight, he would be reminded of that turtle back on Earth. The girl really did not fear anything.
“Be careful. This isn’t a friendly duel, so I won’t hold back,” Lulu said provokingly.
Xia Luo laughed in response. “You don’t even hold back in our friendly duels. But you’ve since become a Melder and gotten much stronger, so I will need to be careful.”
With a flip of her hair, Lulu charged towards Xia Luo, the ground splitting underneath her forceful movement in an impressive explosion. Xia Luo’s eyes sparkled and he took two steps backwards to perfectly dodge the attack. Lulu hit nothing but air, but the air formed into a conical shockwave that shot off into the distance. The air was distorted, and the shockwave ruffled Xia Luo’s hair as he was forced to take several more steps back.
Lulu snorted and used White Flash to disappear. When she reappeared, she viciously kicked out at Xia Luo, who lifted a leg to block the kick. There was a tremendous crash, and the ground beneath them collapsed, causing both of them to fall to the bottom of the pit. Massive cracks began radiating out from the hole and toward Lu Yin and the other onlookers.
Everyone was surprised by the amount of force the two could use even without any battle techniques. How was this possible?
Michelle was shocked as well. She could feel a sense of pressure just from the aftershocks of this battle, which showed just how powerful these two were.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth trembled and the cracks spread even further. Lu Yin and the rest had no choice but to take to the air as the ground beneath them ruptured. The level of destruction in this match was surprisingly not any less than Michelle and Darkvoid’s. The major difference was that those two had fought each other from a distance while Xia Luo and Lulu were fighting in close combat, which made their feat only more impressive.
Boom!
After landing a punch, Lulu felt surprised. From the very first encounter in this battle, she could tell that Xia Luo had a technique that forced his opponents to use up their star energy. She could also tell that he was much stronger than their last duel. Because of this, she didn’t bother using any of her star energy and relied solely on her physical body to attack. But even though she was using pure physical power, Xia Luo was able to take her attacks. Lulu was from the Mavis family and was still annoyed that she had lost to Lu Yin in terms of strength. If even Xia Luo was stronger than her, then her humiliation would double. The Mavis family’s name couldn’t be disgraced like this.
She shouted, and the image of a towering tree appeared behind her, causing her strength to increase greatly. With this timely powerup, Xia Luo was sent flying by her next attack. With a White Flash, she appeared behind him and directly punched him again. Xia Luo was bashed into the ground so forcefully that the earth was pulverized for a kilometer in all directions. With Xia Luo at the center, the destruction rippled out like waves. It was an incredible sight. The damage done to the ground with this single punch was far greater than the previous battles combined. It was impossible for anyone to remain standing in the mess, as there was now a huge pit in the center of the arena while smoke and dust rose into the sky.
Coco covered her mouth in shock. “She’s terrifying.”
Lu Yin raised his eyebrows in surprise as well. Lulu had become much stronger. The Mavis Family truly did consist of human dinosaurs!
Hovering up in the sky, Lulu looked at everyone with a grim face and said in frustration, “I lost.”
Everyone was surprised. She had lost? How?
At that moment, Xia Luo dusted off his clothes with a wry smile and looked at her, “Can’t you be a bit more gentle? I was nearly smashed to bits.”
Lulu rolled her eyes at him. “What’s with this bullshit even after you won?”
Amidst the masses, Big Pao announced, “The seventh match’s winner is Xia Luo.”
Many people were confused by the outcome, and even Michelle didn’t understand.
Lu Yin eyed Lulu’s neck and saw that there was a thin red mark along it. No blood could be seen, but if the attack had gone any deeper, then she would have lost her neck. This was definitely from Xia Luo’s attack, but when had he done it? Lu Yin hadn’t seen it at all.