“Why is someone from our clan who is this good even allowed to go to such a run-down academy?” Aeron asked the Blade Clan elder who had stayed behind to brief them on what they needed to do, since they too would be fighting soon.

“Well, he is what the clan would like to call an unexpected growth,” the elder replied.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Kaelus asked this time, as he had been interested in matters concerning Lucas for quite a while, even if he acted like he didn’t care.

He just didn’t like the fact that there was someone who wasn’t part of the Blade Stars yet was that strong, and he literally didn’t know much about him.

The feeling of the unknown, not knowing his strengths or what made him tick, was another thing that pissed Kaelus off.

As someone who wished to become the clan’s next leader, he had to be the strongest or at least have the future elders firmly behind him, otherwise he might not last long before being overthrown.

Because in the Blade Clan it was all about strength ruling above all else, though there were rare cases where the strongest didn’t want to rule, Kaelus still didn’t like the fact that a clan member who had supposedly remained unknown all his life and supposed to be unimportant suddenly just appeared out of nowhere and was now receiving the same treatment as the core mages the clan intended to nurture.

“Like I said, he’s an unexpected growth, he literally just returned to the clan for his first holiday, and is already a force to be reckoned among the young generation with his realm, this is what immediately caught the elders’ attention.”

“And after his martial display in the Blood Moon war, they decided to start grooming him properly, giving him private lessons, helping him acquire the right techniques that fitted him and everything. In fact, they were even adamant about pulling him out of the War God Academy.”

“But he seemed really adamant about wanting to return, the clan elders felt that without the Northern Kingdom supporting the academy, it would become even harder for him to grow, and clearly they didn’t want a mage who had shown elder-rank potential to just waste away, but he fought hard for it, and the Patriarch agreed.”

“Literally, they just felt he might have a master he truly respected in the academy, so they gave him some pills to help cover his cultivation demands, that’s all I know,” the elder concluded.

“Well, I guess he really loves the academy then, let’s go prepare , we still have to fight another Northern Kingdom academy too, though he might be family, but he’s on the other side of the coin now, let’s just wish him luck,” Aeron said as he walked away from the viewing window.

Though he might have said that, but even he didn’t truly believe Lucas could weave any magic capable of turning the tide against the School of Silent Night.

After facing them firsthand and losing he and the team had a lot of grievance until the Grand Elder told them not to feel bad about losing, since Takeda hadn’t even been serious against them, as he rely on just two main body clones as if looking for a fair fight when he could have overwhelmed them from the start, he just made them realise with someone like Takeda the odds were insurmountable.

_ _

Looking at the Takedas before him, Lucas couldn’t help worrying, though Wind Takeda was proposing a fair 3-on-3 battle, it clearly wasn’t so, it almost felt like they were underestimating them.

Beatrice had already summoned three puppets and still looked like she had another card to play with the coffin she was resting her back against, yet the Takedas seemed to overlook all that and simply counted her as one opponent.

“What are you stalling for? It’s clearly a good setup. We’ll attack first if you don’t make the first move, you know that, right?” Wind Takeda said again as Earth Takeda focused his gaze on Lucas.

Meanwhile, the new Takeda wielding a kusarigama turned toward Beatrice, and as for the last remaining Takeda, it was obvious who his target was.

“GO!” Lucas shouted, as he didn’t want them attacking first, so he moved towards them immediately after giving the command, with Lucas charging at them he had his glaive coated in wild Qi energy and the air was quaking under the pressure, the two other Takedas on the other hand just simply sidestepped before splitting off in opposite directions.

Meanwhile, the Earth Takeda, who was far bulkier, charged forward. In response, Lucas swung his glaive to meet the sweeping slash head-on.

Bang!

A thunderous explosion rang out as their weapons clashed in a deadlock.

“Arrggh!” Earth Takeda bellowed, channeling his strength and Qi through his blade in an attempt to shove Lucas backward.

But after a few tense seconds, he realized it wasn’t that easy, Lucas’s Qi had an unrelenting quality, stubborn, and refusing to yield an inch, sensing he might lose this initial exchange, which would look bad for morale and the cheering crowd behind him, Earth Takeda decided to pull out a trick.

He shifted his left leg forward into a grounded martial stance, and that wasn’t all, from his legs, a brownish hue spread upward to his knees, as he used his leg to channel mana into the dark ground beneath them.

Lucas didn’t know much about spells, let alone earth-element ones, but he wasn’t about to wait and find out what his opponent was brewing.

As he spread his mental senses wide, scanning everything around him for potential threats, while he used the weight of the clash to push himself backwards.

Bang!

Spiked rocks erupted from the ground, thrusting upward with ferocious speed.

Lucas backpedaled in controlled steps, dodging the deadly protrusions, but the spikes kept coming, relentlessly, driving him toward the arena’s edge.

He twisted his body and swung his greatsword in a wide arc, as a blade of pure Qi shot forth in a crescent moon form, shearing through the rising spikes in a clean line, the energy wave continued onward, slicing apart every earthen protrusion all the way back to Earth Takeda at the source.

In response to the now weakened blade Qi, all he did was brace his sword against his left shoulder, he gripped the hilt firmly with his right hand, holding the blade angled downward from above, while his left shoulder acted as an additional brace.

The Qi energy slammed into it, shoving him backward, while he dug his heels deep into the ground, carving a long furrow in the earth, thin wisps of smoke curled from the blade as the Qi energy finally dissipated.

At the VIP section, the King of the Northern Kingdom couldn’t help gritting his teeth in anger.