Chapter 153: Is this a Joke? Ava vs Marcus
Chapter 153: Is this a Joke? Ava vs Marcus
The noise inside the Grand Central Void Arena was so loud that the stone walls seemed to tremble. Two hundred thousand people were standing on their feet, screaming, shouting, and waving colorful flags.
High above the ring, the giant floating screens broadcasted Lynx’s handsome face across the entire human continent.
Millions of viewers watching from their homes in the four empires were still talking about his single punch that had shattered A Rank rock armor.
On the main stage, the referee finally finished checking Drake’s unconscious body. He raised his hand toward the sky and shouted into his crystal microphone.
"Match 1 goes to Lynx of the Aether Blessed Academy!"
The Aether section broke into wild cheers. Lynx walked off the stage with easy, calm steps, his hands still tucked into his dark uniform jacket pockets. He walked up the short stairs and sat down right between Kira and Lira.
Kira looked at him with warm eyes, leaning her head against his shoulder. "You really like making a big scene, don’t you?"
Lynx chuckled softly, wrapping his arm around her waist. "He was talking about breaking my teeth. I had to teach him a quick lesson."
Ophelia laughed, shaking her head. "A lesson? You sent the poor guy flying into the wall like a rag doll."
Before they could say anything else, a loud pinging sound echoed through the arena speakers.
The gold letters on the giant public crystal board began to shift and shuffle, picking the names for the next fight.
The public board locked onto two new names:
[MATCH 2: Ava Musk - Aether Blessed Academy YEAR 2 - VS. Marcus Yul - Heather Blessed Academy YEAR 4]
Ava Musk stood up from her seat instantly. A bright, excited smile spread across her face as she stretched her arms above her head, her long white hair swaying gently with her movements. Her sharp blue eyes sparkled with crackling energy.
"Would you look at that," Ava said, clapping her hands together. "They put me right after Lynx. And my opponent is a big guy from the Heather Empire."
Lira looked at her with a gentle expression. "Be careful, Ava. Marcus is well known for his deep physical reinforcement and Earth affinity control. Year 4 students from the Heather Empire train their bodies hard. I looked it up online."
"Don’t worry," Ava giggled, checking her hair. "I won’t let him touch me."
She looked down at Lynx. Lynx gave her a calm, approving smile. "Remember what we practiced," Lynx said smoothly. "Do not waste your time and mana on broad lightning wild strikes. Focus your lightning affinity into a tight point. Speed is your biggest weapon against heavy fighters."
"Understood... boss," Ava said with a bright nod and a wink at the "boss". She turned around and bounded down the steps toward the main fighting ring, her short skirt fluttering as she moved.
As Ava stepped onto the wide stone stage, surprised whispers began to spread through the spectator stands.
"Wait a minute. Is she a Second year student?"
"Why is Aether Blessed Academy sending a second year girl to fight a Year 4 Tank from the Heather Empire?"
"Are they crazy? Marcus is a heavy physical brawler! She is going to get hurt!"
"What are second year students doing in this tournament in the first place!"
From the opposite tunnel, Marcus stepped out onto the arena floor. He was a massive young man with thick shoulders, broad arms, and a shaved head.
He wore the heavy dark purple clothes of the Heather Empire. Every step he took made a heavy thud against the stone floor.
When he looked across the ring and saw Ava standing there with her hands on her hips, his face twisted into an angry scowl.
"A second year kid?" Marcus grunted, his deep voice carrying across the stage as the translucent energy barrier rose up around them.
"Is this a joke? Is Aether Blessed Academy disrespecting the Heather Empire by sending a little girl to fight me?"
Ava smiled sweetly at him, her blue eyes gleaming. "You talk very loud for someone who has to fight a second year to stay in this tournament, big guy."
Marcus’s face turned bright red with rage. "You arrogant little brat! I will snap your arms in half before you can even say the word surrender."
The referee stepped between them, raising his arm into the air. He looked at both fighters to make sure they were ready.
Marcus took a wide, heavy stance. Ava just stood there casually, thin arcs of white electricity beginning to dance across her skin and through her white hair.
"Fighters ready," the referee shouted. "MATCH 2... BEGIN!"
"GET LOST!" Marcus roared.
He slammed his heavy right boot onto the stone floor, surging his dark gray Earth mana through his veins.
Through his deep understanding of his Earth affinity density, his skin transformed into a dull, rock hard gray sheen.
His muscles swelled, and his body became as hard as solid granite. He did not need fancy moves, his whole body was a heavy tool of destruction.
Marcus charged forward like a wild bull, cracking the stone floor with every step. In less than two seconds, he closed the distance and swung a massive, rock hard fist straight at Ava’s face.
"EARTH CRUSHER!" Marcus shouted.
BZZZZZT!
A bright flash of pure white light blinded the crowd for a split second.
Ava Blessing Storm Monarch activated. In an instant, her entire body converted into a living storm.
Every single attribute surged drastically as her stat gains spiked, sending her already terrifying new base agility into an absolute realm of speed.
Before Marcus’s fist could even come close to her skin, she triggered a Thunder Clone. A brilliant afterimage made entirely of living white lightning remained frozen in her spot while Ava vanished completely.
Marcus’s heavy fist smashed straight into the white lightning clone.
BOOM!
The static afterimage detonated on contact, releasing a localized shockwave of explosive lightning that blasted against Marcus’s stone armor, cracking his gray chest reinforcement before he could even process what he had hit.
"What?!" Marcus gasped, his heavy eyes widening in shock as electrical discharge scorched his front.
"Looking for me?" Ava’s voice came from right behind him.
Marcus spun around furiously, throwing a heavy backhand strike, but Ava was already gone again.
CRACKLE!
White lines of lightning cut across the stone floor in sharp, ninety degree angles. Ava was using her understanding of her Lightning affinity and raw speed to shoot across the stage like a bouncing spark, leaving explosive thunder clones scattered behind her like blinding landmines.
The two hundred thousand people in the stands watched with open mouths.
"She is too fast!"
"Is that really a second year student’s lightning control?"
"She is moving like a real bolt of white lightning."
Marcus was losing his temper. He spun in circles, swinging his heavy stone reinforced arms, but he was only hitting thin air and triggering tiny electrical pops from her fading afterimages.
"Stop running around like a bug. Stand still and fight me like a real warrior. Is that how Your Academy fight or win matches? Running? Really?"
Ava stopped twenty feet away, her body wrapped in glowing white electricity, her white hair flying in the electric draft and her blue eyes glowing like twin brilliant stars.
"If you say so, big guy."
She pointed two slender fingers straight at Marcus’s chest. Channeling her massive new massive mana, she pushed her mana into her Lightning affinity, compressing the wild white electric energy around her into a single, razor thin needle of blinding light at the tip of her fingers.
"Lightning Needle," Ava whispered softly.
THUMMM!
A sharp, high pitched noise rang through the air. A thin beam of compressed white light shot across the stage faster than anyone could follow.
Marcus barely had time to cross his thick, rock reinforced arms in front of his chest to shield himself.
BOOOOOOM!
The thin lightning needle hit his Earth defense directly. The sheer sharp power of Ava’s compressed white lightning did not stop at his reinforced skin. It shot straight through his dense rock defense like a hot needle through paper.
The high voltage electric current flooded past his skin and slammed into his inner body.
"AGGGGHHHH!" Marcus screamed at the top of his lungs.
His massive body stiffened completely as millions of electric sparks disrupted his muscles and nerves.
The dark stone color on his skin vanished instantly. His eyes rolled back into his head, and his giant body collapsed forward, hitting the hard stone floor with a loud THUD. Smoke drifted up from his scorched clothes.
The entire stadium went completely quiet.
The referee stared at Marcus’s twitching body on the ground, then looked up at Ava, who was deactivating her Storm Monarch state and calmly patting her short white hair back into place with a cheerful smile.
"K-KNOCKOUT!" the referee called out, his voice shaking through the microphone.
"WINNER OF MATCH 2... AVA FROM THE AETHER BLESSED ACADEMY!"
The Aether student section exploded into wild shouting and cheering.
"THAT IS OUR AVA!" Lira screamed, jumping up from her seat and waving her arms. "SHOW THEM WHAT AETHER ACADEMY CAN DO!"
Across the live big screens in all four empires, viewers were staring in complete shock. A second year girl from Aether Academy had just completely destroyed a Year 4 elite Earth Affinity user from the Heather Empire in less than forty seconds without taking a single scratch.
Ava waved happily at the cheering crowd, her blue eyes sparkling as she turned around and skipped up the stairs back toward the player seats. She walked right up to Lynx, looking up at him with expectant eyes.
"How was that, Lynx?" she asked, her hands behind her back.
Lynx smiled smoothly, reaching out to pat her head gently. "Very clean control. You compressed your mana perfectly. Your understanding of your Lighting Affinity is getting better my princess."
Ava’s cheeks turned pink with happiness, and she sat down next to Lira, who immediately pulled her into a tight side hug to celebrate.
In one of the high VIP boxes across the stadium, officials from the Heather Empire were looking down at the stage with dark, heavy expressions.
"They brought a second year student whose stats and affinity control completely dwarf our fourth years," a Heather leader growled, slamming his fist onto the wooden desk.
"What kind of monster is Aether Academy hiding?"
Further down in another comfortable VIP box, Isabel and Amira watched the fight with bright, proud smiles.
"Lynx really changed that girl," Amira said softly, her eyes full of warmth as she watched Lynx interact with his group. "Her Affinity control, raw attributes, and her mana are astronomical for a second year."
"Of course," Isabel said with a gentle smile. "He gave her his Yin energy or whatever he called it. She is completely different now."
"This tournament is ours for sure." Amira said as she locked eyes with Lynx.