Chapter 85: The More The Merrier! (3)

A fierce wind circulated around the sword, blurring it before vanishing from sight.Julian lunged forward again.

A gust of wind surrounded his limbs and waist, amplifying his speed.

He arrived before me in an instant once more.

The strain of activating both the magic sword and his sacred art was already weighing on him.

The hand that gripped the sword swung forward.

I swung my sword at the last moment.

CLANG!!

Our blades collided.

I twisted my grip on my sword and dragged it down like a lever.

Julian’s expression turned to surprise. Then, fear.

I outlined the length of his blade with my sword.

Julian attempted to leap back, widening the distance between us.

Fire Spark!

A crackling flame formed at the centre of my palm and shot towards Julian.

Julian moved his head to the side, narrowly dodging the attack.

Despite that, his movement didn’t stop.

And I followed him.

I reversed the grip of my sword and thrust it forward.

Ptui!!

The blade pierced through Julian’s hand.

He was dragged to the ground before he could properly gain control of his footing.

"ARGGGH!!" Julian let out a deep, visceral scream.

He involuntarily let go of his sword.

Fire Spark!

I launched another crackling flame at his chest.

Bamm!!

His combat uniform was burnt to a crisp.

He staggered backwards. His face paled.

I gripped my sword back correctly and unleashed a whirlwind of attacks.

One..

Three...

Five...

Seven...

I unleashed seven consecutive slashes at his chest.

Steel tore through his flesh. Blood stained the steel and scattered across the training platform.

Jurian fell limply on the stage on his back.

He looked at me in a daze.

I didn’t know if he was overwhelmed by the pain or was too shock to react.

However, at the next moment...

"ARRHHHHGG!!" Julian released a guttural scream as his back curved inwards. He smacked his body against the ground like a salted worm.

The training ground was silent.

I turned to look at the crowd.

Many had their gazes on Julian. A few were focused on me.

One thing they all had in common was that their expression were filled with a mixture of shock and disbelief.

Eldric and Andre’s expressions were no different.

Our gazes met.

They scrutinised me from head to toe. Then, they shifted their attention back and forth between Julian and me.

"The winner of the duel is Ezekiel Zahara, third-ranked Magical Swordsman of Class Three!" Elric gulped and announced loudly.

"Someone take the opponent off the stage and get him to the hospital quickly for treatment!"

As Elric finished speaking, five members of the Windcrest Clan rushed into the inner circle of the training ground towards Julian and checked on his condition.

Eldric became silent.

He was supposed to announce the beginning of the next match. He may have realised that it was inappropriate to announce to the next member of the Windcrest Clan to climb onto the stage, after witnessing the scene of me defeating Julian like a sheep in a slaughterhouse.

After all, the Windcrest Clan was a prestigious clan of the Magical Swordsman Path, as the Lupindral Clan, it would be rash for them to do something that could cause trouble, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

They were at a crossroads between fulfilling their tasks as the Disciplinary Committee’s enforcers, or crossing their hands.

However, someone like me didn’t naturally care about that.

I turned to the members of the Windcrest Clan and spoke loudly,

"Next."

***

[ Third Person P.O.V ]

’Why me?’ Jaran had never imagined that he would ever pose this question to himself.

He had always believed that power was predestined.

The hierarchy of the Windcrest Clan was divided into two groups: those who had awakened the clan’s famed bloodline and those who had not, but inherited a bloodline attribute.

The chances of a child awakening the Windcrest Clan’s bloodline were high if both parents were bloodline carriers.

This also means that they were awakeners.

Awakeners were required to explore dungeons and eliminate magical beasts or creatures that posed a threat to humanity, so they had fewer children.

Even if they did, none of them would be willing to give up their adventure to spend the rest of their lives raising children to sustain the prowess of their clan.

As such, bloodline carriers had more than one partners.

Although this significantly reduced the likelihood of their children awakening the bloodline, the chance of awakening a high bloodline attribute remained the same.

The probability of awakening a bloodline was also slightly lower than average.

So it became an unspoken rule.

Many prestigious clans adopted this approach, even those that possessed secret powers.

Born to an elder of the Windcrest Clan and a concubine, Jaran fell in the latter category.

He was the eleventh child among twenty-two siblings.

He didn’t awaken the Windcrest Clan’s famed bloodline; instead, he inherited a high attribute, Wind.

He was destined to be stronger than an average awakener.

Because of this, Jaran had always been a staunch believer in the dividing line between nobles and commoners.

The foundations for the strength that an awakener could possess were laid down from the moment they were born.

None could cross it unless they discovered a life-changing opportunity that would transform their fate into something extraordinary.

However, such an occurrence was extremely rare for the average awakener.

And the probability of him encountering such a person in his lifetime was close to zero.

Power was predestined.

There weren’t many who could fight against destiny.

Yet, Jaran had never expected to meet one so quickly within his academy.

Ivory!

A monstrous genius picked up by the Zahara Clan due to her ability to use a Rank Two Trait.

He had never heard of such a genius capable of such a feat, and neither could he believe that it was possible until he witnessed her abilities himself.

Then came Milas Segrum.

A descendant of the Segrum Clan, a Mage Path Clan!

An awakener with a defective spirit vein, meaning that they either have a misaligned or partially blocked spirit vein, which makes it difficult to channel mana or break through higher ranks.

These two had fought against destiny and won.

Their strength wasn’t something peers like themselves could fight against.

They were like insurmountable walls that blocked his ascent to become the brightest star of his generation, making him feel as though he was fighting against destiny herself.

It felt as though destiny had undid her armour and left the doors of her fortress open and unguarded for anyone to challenge her.

Then came the third..

Ezekiel Zahara!

Born to the head of the Zahara Clan, and an outsider. Despite the expectations, the fact that he hadn’t awakened the Zahara Clan’s famed bloodline didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

When the Zahara Clan descendants had secretly offered him a price to aid them in eliminating Ezekiel, in exchange for Ivory stepping down from the top-ranked position of Class Three Magical Swordsman Rankings, Jaran wasn’t surprised.

Even as a direct descendant, without an awakened bloodline, Ezekiel was ineligible to become the next Clan head; however, he could still be seen as a threat to those vying for that position.

However, Jaran rejected their proposal.

Ascending to the top in such a way would leave him open to being challenged by Milas, who would surely defeat him. And if not Milas, there was a possibility that Ivory would rechallenge him.

Although the Zahara Clan possessed a greater power and higher status as a Beastmaster Path Clan, compared to the Windcrest Clan, they couldn’t act rashly, since they were allied with another Beastmaster Path Clan.

Jaran wasn’t afraid of refusing their request directly.

Jaran believed that sending a figure like Ivory to eliminate someone like Ezekiel was overkill.

There was no way he could win against someone who had won against destiny.

Yet, contrary to his expectations, Ezekiel had defeated Ivory.

He sustained more injuries than she, proving that he had sacrificed a lot to emerge victorious. However, that didn’t change the fact that Ezekiel had won.

Destiny remained unfaithful.

So, Jaran targeted Ezekiel before he rose, causing his light to diminish even more.

He used the Windcrest Clan’s Sacred Art unprovoked; however, their first meeting ended in his defeat.

Nevertheless, that opened an opportunity for him to challenge Ezekiel to a proper duel.

It had ended in a much more humiliating defeat.

After four more members of the Windcrest Clan also suffered a humiliating defeat at Ezekiel’s hand, he realised that this was an opponent he couldn’t face alone.

However, he had never expected Ezekiel to challenge them all to an official duel.

The plan was to end this quickly.

He had warned Julian to prevent him from underestimating Ezekiel, as he had done.

After the duel began, he watched with relief as Julian launched a swift attack, pushing him and inflicting an injury.

It would be embarrassing if all three of them were to face the Worst One.