Chapter 131: Vlad vs Emily
After fighting three more duels, Vlad finally reached the 52nd rank. He had not even stepped down from the stage when the referee told him, "Once a participant is eliminated, they cannot challenge other participants anymore. They have to wait for the tournament next month."
With a calm tone, he continued, looking at Vlad with slight awe, "You have reached the 52nd rank from unranked in a single day. Defeating the last opponent will allow you to enter the central arena. However, if you lose, you will have to wait for the tournament next month to rise in rank again. Also, you are free to stop here. Since all the opponents below your rank are already defeated, you cannot be challenged. It is up to you whether you challenge the last opponent of the preliminaries right now or tomorrow."
Vlad gave a brief thought to the referee’s words. He was barely feeling any physical fatigue. Sixty to seventy duels were nowhere close to draining his high stamina, which he had built through hundreds of duels against Chloe over the years. Still, the same could not be said about his mental fatigue, which had accumulated due to his low mana reserves and the strain it put on his weak meridians each time mana channelled through them.
’Only a quarter of my mana reserves remain,’ Vlad murmured inwardly. ’The optimal choice is to call it a day and fight the remaining matches tomorrow.’
After thinking for a few seconds, Vlad replied to the referee, "Please call the next opponent for the final match."
The referee’s eyebrows rose in annoyance at his choice. It was as if he was calling Vlad an idiot with just his eyes.
"Are you sure? Don’t make a reckless choice. Think it thoroughl—"
"Sir, you cannot influence the choice of students," Emily declared, cutting the referee off mid-sentence as she slowly climbed the stage, her hips swaying with each step. "As a referee, you must remain neutral."
Jimmy, the referee, released a brief sigh and didn’t speak further. After watching this first-year kid challenge his seniors and rise through the ranks while barely using any mana, he had earned great respect from Jimmy.
In his many years of serving the academy, Jimmy had seen his fair share of talented students break records set by their seniors. Still, none had affected him as much as Vlad. Even Seraphina Cendral, the prodigy among prodigies who had claimed the first rank in the Arena during her very first participation and still stood at the top with no student daring to challenge her, had never inspired this level of admiration in him.
The reason was simple. All the prodigies he had seen in the arena till now were gifted with abundant mana and high talent. But Vlad. He was fighting with sheer skill refined from years of relentless training. He might also possess incredible talent, hiding it for some reason, but the skill he had shown so far was nothing short of admirable. Without even realising it, Jimmy instinctively wanted Vlad to rise higher. Now that it was a decisive match, he did not want him to lose simply because he was being impatient, which was why he tried to insist that Vlad think it over.
As for Vlad himself...
’Even though I made a reckless choice, I don’t regret it,’ he murmured inwardly as he looked at his palm. ’I feel like something inside me is changing with every match. I don’t know what it is, but I know I’m getting closer to something. If I stop now, I might lose this feeling. I have to keep pushing forward.’
While Vlad was having these thoughts, a hand suddenly pressed against his chest.
It was Emily’s hand, as she was standing closer to him than necessary. He instantly took a few steps back, creating distance between them.
"Hehe~ you do not need to be so scared," Emily said with an amused smile. "I am not going to bite you or anything."
No response came from Vlad, as if he had not even heard her. For some reason, this tangerine-haired girl was making him feel uncomfortable.
’Just my darn luck. This creep is my final opponent,’ he thought, releasing a weary sigh that did not go unnoticed by Emily.
Her fists tightened at her sides at the sheer audacity of this commoner boy to sigh because a noble, higher-class girl such as herself had touched him. Still, she suppressed her anger and said, forcing a smile onto her face, "Junior, don’t you think these matches are too boring? There is nothing at stake to make it thrilling."
"I’m not fighting for thrills, senior," Vlad replied in a respectful tone, keeping his expression neutral.
"Don’t be like that, junior," Emily persisted in a coaxing tone. "How about we make a bet?" Her cheeks turned a rosy hue in shyness as she continued, "If you win, I will do anything you want for twenty-four hours. But if you lose, you must be the one taking my orders."
The bet caused a ripple of gasps among the students who had stayed only to see this final match of the preliminaries.
"Dammit! He’s one lucky bastard to get a bet like that from Emily."
"No matter how I look at it, it’s a win-win situation for him. I’m so damn jealous."
"I wish I could be the one against her."
The teenage boys muttered, giving envious glares to Vlad.
’Hah! These horny dogs aren’t even hiding their disgusting desires,’ Emily scoffed with a smug smile. ’I bet even this commoner is going wild with his imagination. Now then, take the treat I’ve thrown at you, commoner dog—’
"I’m not interested," Vlad said, pulling her out of her thoughts. He turned to the referee and continued, "Please begin the match."
For a moment, the entire hall fell into complete silence.
"Pfft—"
A boy nearly burst into laughter before his friend quickly clamped a hand over his mouth to avoid offending Emily. Even so, the friend himself was struggling to hold back his own laughter, his face turning red. It was as if Emily had been rejected before she’d even confessed.
"Wa-wait! Why would you reject such an offer?" Emily demanded, her tone both confused and offended. "Are you not interested in women?"
"I’m not interested in creeps like you," Vlad replied, his brows furrowing in annoyance. "Keep at it and I’ll report you for sexual harassment."
Another brief silence fell over the hall as everyone stared with wide eyes and open mouths. A few suppressed laughs followed, slipping out of the students’ lips beyond their control.
As for the girl in question, she was almost on the verge of coughing up blood from the sheer rage burning inside her. How dare a commoner like him humiliate her? She had already decided to make his academic life a living hell.
"N-now, stop... ppft... wasting any more time," Jimmy said, hiding his red face behind his hand, struggling to hold back his laughter. "Begin the duel."
Surprisingly, neither of them made a move. They both stood in their positions, Vlad assessing his opponent while Emily plotted all the ways she would make him pay for this humiliation.
After a few seconds, Vlad decided to make the first move. With a sudden burst of motion, he bolted forward, swinging Éclair in a wide horizontal arc.
Just as the blade drew closer, several sharp vines erupted from the ground, coiling around Vlad’s sword and limbs like serpents.
’So she’s also a dendro mage, like Lorenzo,’ Vlad murmured inwardly as he laced the blade with crimson electro mana, slicing through the vines.
In the split second his weapon was free, more than twenty pink tulip petals came at him from the front.
"Two Ring Spell: Tulip Blade!"
With the flawless swing of his blade and his heightened reflexes, Vlad sliced through and dodged most of the petals. Still, one of them managed to brush past his face, leaving a shallow cut from which a bead of blood flowed.
’You’re done for, bastard,’ Emily laughed inwardly, a victorious smirk on her face. ’Just one cut from my poisonous petals is enough to gradually drain your strength. Now I only need to defend myself until the poison kicks in.’
That was what she thought, at least. Over five minutes had passed since the petal cut Vlad, yet his movements, instead of slowing down, were actually becoming faster.
She was barely holding her own, dodging at the last moment or blocking his attacks with her vines.
’What’s going on? The poison should have taken effect by now,’ she muttered inwardly as she launched several thorned vines at him, which he cut through with relentless precision while closing the distance between them.
"If one petal wasn’t enough, try this," she shouted, swaying her arms in a circular movement.
"Two Ring Spell: Charm Pollen Burst!"
Several unbloomed flowers materialised around Emily before shooting toward Vlad at a blurring speed.
Vlad remained calm in his position. From his body, only the hand holding the sword moved, each swing cleanly cutting through the incoming flowers.
Boom-boom-boom!
As soon as the flowers were cut, they exploded into pink smoke, covering the whole stage. The smoke spread out from the stage, reaching the spectating students. A single sniff and their whole demeanour changed.
"Master... punish me, master..."
"I am your lowly dog. Give me an order, master."
The students murmured, their faces red, eyes dazed, as they slowly began climbing onto the stage.
Jimmy swept his hand, pushing the students back with just his mana before quickly forming a series of hand signs that materialised a barrier around the stage, sealing the smoke inside.
’A Two Ring hypnotisation spell?’ Jimmy gasped, lacing himself in mana to block the smoke from affecting him.
"Hahaha, this is what you get for being arrogant, lowly commoner," Emily laughed, her eyes narrowed in delight at Vlad, who stood still inside the smoke.
"Now, crawl in front of me like the dog you are and accept your punishment," she commanded, gesturing at the floor.
Vlad did not respond, remaining completely still in the pink smoke.
"I said crawl!" Emily shouted, a hint of anger in her voice.
Still no response. Not even an inch of his muscles moved, as if he had turned to stone.
"Let me show you what happens to a dog that doesn’t obey its master," she muttered, fury clear on her face as she summoned all her mana, a dense pink energy covering her silhouette.
"Pseudo Three Ring Spell: Hundred Tulip Blade!"
As the spell’s name suggests, hundreds of tulips materialised around Emily’s arms. Following the movement of her hands, they shot forward.
No movement came from Vlad until the petals were just a metre away from him. It was then that something strange happened.
His eyes, closed until now for some reason, suddenly opened, their bloody crimson hue glowing like a pair of stars in the pink smoke.
Flickers of crimson lightning danced around the sword in his hand, wrapped in a crimson mana blade.
Once again, only the hand carrying the sword moved, swinging the blade with incredible speed. The spectating students could not even follow the movement of his blade. Only Jimmy saw what was happening, his eyes widening in shock. There was not a single unnecessary movement. Each swing sliced each incoming petal cleanly in half.
In less than five seconds, Vlad had sliced through all hundred petals shot at him, burning them to ash with his electro mana.
"Th-This kid has entered the State of Enlightenment," Jimmy muttered, his mouth hanging open in astonishment.