Two academy instructors arrived, Mathias and Misa. 60 cadets were in the arena, sitting in a circle with two cadets in the center to fight each other later.
"Hey, Noah. You might need this!" insulted Caleb, the best cadet in the class who constantly bullied Noah.
Caleb threw a wooden sword at Noah, which Noah immediately grabbed with his right hand. All the cadets laughed loudly; they couldn't wait to see Noah fight with the wooden sword.
"Since Noah has arrived, how about the first battle between Noah and Talon?" Mathias suggested.
Misa couldn't argue because Mathias would be the referee in this sparring match. A fight that Misa didn't think was fair, the weakest against the strongest. Noah, known as the weakest cadet in the academy, is against Talon, who is known as the strongest cadet and the future successor to Ares in The Legion's Elite Unit.
"Talon will destroy him in one strike!"
Noah had expected it. The 58 cadets in the arena fully supported Talon. Not a single one wanted to support Noah.
Their cruel insults, scorn, and ridicule towards Noah made Noah furious and annoyed. His eyes closed as he tried to take a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
"I'm sorry, Miss Natasha. I had to protect my pride," Noah whispered.
His right hand began to remove the wooden sword. This surprised everyone, even Mathias and Misa, who watched what Noah was about to do.
"What are the rules, Instructor Mathias?" asked Talon.
"The fight begins on my signal. You are free to use any power, whether elemental magic or talent. The winner will be determined when the opponent surrenders or dies," Mathias explained.
"Is it clear?" asked Mathias, and Talon and Noah nodded in agreement.
Noah and Talon jumped back, taking a significant distance so that both could prepare their strength. Mathias turned to the side, asking Noah to take back his wooden sword.
"That's not necessary!" declared Noah, confident in his decision not to use the wooden sword.
"It's up to you. I'm not responsible if you die."
Mathias' hand shot up, signaling the match was about to begin. Mathias' hand came down quickly. Talon had already prepared his magic and charged straight ahead, targeting Noah's body.
Noah managed to run in a circle to avoid Talon's magic attack. Some students laughed loudly, realizing Noah was helpless against Talon.
"Keep running, loser!"
Several students shouted the same thing, asking Noah to keep running without stopping. However, they all never knew that Noah was actually preparing something.
[Blood Manipulation Talent!]
[Skill 3: Spiked Blood Pit]
Noah bit the tip of his index finger, letting his own blood flow through his fingers and down onto the arena floor. The amount was increasing, and the cadets who saw it began to worry, as did the instructors.
Following the skill description of Noah's third skill, the blood from Noah's body would continue to flow towards the Talon's feet and create a large pit of blood with a rancid odor.
"Wh-What is this?" asked Talon, panicking.
"What is that? What power is that?!" Mathias couldn't hide his shock at finding Talon on top of a circular blood pit, the blood being supplied from Noah's injured right finger.
Misa could only gape in shock, never knowing that Noah had such an ability.
"I-Isn't that blood?"
"What's Noah doing?"
Freya made a big face. Her guess was correct; Noah had a talent, and the aura's color surrounding Noah's body was exactly the same as the blood's characteristics.
"What are you doing?!" asked Talon, panicking.
"This will make you limp for a while!" declared Noah, the hand where his finger was injured instantly clenched into a fist.
An explosion occurred in the blood pit, not creating a blast of fire but an explosion of blood that pierced Talon's body. Talon's body bounced off Noah's crowd control circle, thrown with his uniform stained blood red.
Right after doing so, the blood flow that had formed the pit began to be drawn back into Noah's body like it had never happened before. Talon crouched down, his breath ragged with small puncture wounds all over his bleeding body.
"STOP!" shouted Mathias, not wanting Talon to die.
[Blood Manipulation Talent!]
[Skill 1: Blood Absorption]
Dragonlance formed again from Noah's blood. The young man continued to speed forward to end Talon's life. For Noah, killing Talon was the same as restoring Noah's pride, which had been shattered by the cadets' ridicule.
"Die!" declared Noah, shrouded in anger.
[Light Control Talent!]
[Skill 1: Light of Divine Justice]
Natasha, who had been secretly watching Noah since his arrival from the Legion base, began to unleash the skills of her talent. The woman dashed lightning-fast into the arena to block Noah's dragonlance.
"M-Miss Natasha?!" startled Misa and the other cadets.
"Take it easy, Noah! I expected your temper to be unstable," Natasha replied, glaring at Noah.
"I need to kill him! I need to restore my pride! I'm sick of being scorned!" snapped Noah, shouting in front of Natasha.
Natasha squinted her eyes and watched intently as Noah's eyes started to take the effects of his blood manipulation, turning completely crimson.
The woman immediately punched Noah hard in the solar plexus, making Noah groan in pain and instantly faint from Natasha's blow.
The situation was gradually conducive. Misa walked over to Talon, who was pale-faced with fear at the horror of Noah's power.
"T-That's terrible power!" complained Mathias.
"I told you, he's the strongest of all the cadets at the academy."
Natasha deactivated her talent and took Noah to the infirmary for treatment. Misa, who was curious, took Talon to the same room as Natasha brought Noah.
"What exactly happened? Why does Noah have such a monstrous talent? Is it because he killed a beast?" asked Misa, speaking to Natasha after arriving at the infirmary.
The Legion member could only remain silent, seeing Noah's incredible inner potential. Noah's ingenuity was not to be underestimated either; the young man could master his talent skills well.
"I can't tell you," Natasha replied, turning coldly to Misa.
"Most importantly, you must never make him angry or humiliated again. He might kill everyone if his temper gets out of hand," Natasha explained, asking Misa.
"I-I can do it. Let me help you look after Noah here," Misa requested.
Natasha continued to stare at Misa intently; there was no ambitious look in Misa's eyes. Natasha let out a long breath, and it seemed like she could give Misa the responsibility for Noah's time at the academy.
"Can you do it? You have to take care of him because, after this incident, many will hate and fear him," Natasha emphasized.
Misa smiled as she nodded slowly, "I'm sure I can."
Noah opened his eyes slowly. The pain in his stomach was still there right when Natasha hit him in the solar plexus.The young man got up immediately and cast his eyes around the surrounding area. He was in the infirmary, and no one seemed to be near him. The bed he lay was surrounded by closed white curtains, so Noah couldn't see his surroundings."The bleeding hasn't stopped. I've only seen something like this. It seems Noah is the only one who knows how to stop it.""Really? Unfortunately, Noah is still unconscious.""I'm here," Noah announced, drawing the attention of the two women talking.The curtain to the right of Noah's bed opened, and Instructor Misa arrived with one of the doctors in the infirmary. Misa smiled to see Noah was fine. The crushing blow from Natasha didn't seem to significantly impact Noah."Thank goodness you woke up fast. Are you alright?" asked Misa, looking worried."I'm fine. It's just my stomach still hurts," Noah explained, pointing at the solar plexus w
***The next day.Noah found it peaceful at the academy. He found no intimidation or bullying from his cadet classmates. Not only were they not bullying Noah, but none dared to approach Noah.Although Noah was avoided because of his talent, Freya still wanted to be friends with Noah. The girl thought Noah's powers were unique, and she wanted to know more about Noah's talents.At lunchtime, Noah and Freya went to the academy's backyard to eat their lunch peacefully —the cafeteria was noisy."Susan is a good girl. Her talent is Cloning; it allows her to create clones that look like her." Freya sat on a garden chair with her legs crossed, her hands no longer holding a sandwich but a packed lunch of fruits and boiled potatoes."She seems to have a problem with me," Noah revealed, raising his head to look at the sky above the garden."I don't know about that. Why don't you try talking to her?" Freya asked, suggesting."I've tried, but she's so rude. I'm at a loss when it comes to talking t
Dr. Nana finished making warm porridge for Kira. Kira accepted the porridge and ate it with gusto. Noah was happy to see her eating the porridge happily."So, you're in the same group for the Final Exam?" Dr. Nana pulled out one of the chairs and sat to the right of the bed where Kira was still lying. Kira was still busy with her food, Noah had to answer Nana's question."Right, with another girl named Susan," Noah said."I always remember those Final Exams, full of suspense and pain," Nana replied.Noah squinted when he heard Nana's statement. None of the three in the group knew exactly what the final exams looked like, especially the suspense and pain Nana had described.The young man only knew that he and his group members
***Two days later.London Cadet Academy."Hey, you already lost against us. You have to keep your word!" Kira sternly spoke to Susan while the class was on lunch break. Noah just watched and didn't help Kira force Susan.Noah was confused. What exactly made her hate him and Kira? Noah didn't feel like he had done anything wrong, intentional or not, to Susan. Kira didn't seem to either —considering Kira's quiet nature."What a noise! Can't you see I'm busy?" Susan asked, showing Kira a book."What's the need to learn that book if you're not training to be strong?!" snapped Kira, trying to snatch it out of Susan's hand.The book Susan was holding was a beast encyclopedia. The 500-page volume contained hundreds of beasts with different characteristics, which had been recorded before.According to Susan, a trainee cadet needs to know the characteristics of the beasts they will fight later. Only a fool would continue to train hard without knowing the weaknesses of the beasts they would fa
***Three days later.London Cadet Academy.Since the night incident, Susan began participating in preparation exercises with Noah and Kira. Not only that, but Susan also participated in explaining about various ordinary-level beasts that she had remembered through the beast encyclopedia.According to Susan, the beasts appearing during the exam would undoubtedly be ordinary-level beasts. The Beast Slayer's higher-ups must have arranged precautions so the cadet candidates would not encounter dangerous level beasts.That day was the last day Noah and his team members practised. Since yesterday, the other teams have stopped training and are fully rested for tomorrow's Final Exam.Noah, Kira, and Susan were forced to use their rest time to practice, especially attack and defense combo exercises. Susan apologized that her attitude the other day was causing Kira and Noah trouble at the moment, Noah and Kira didn't mind at all.The three sat on the arena floor, their bodies covered in sweat.
Noah went through the forest cautiously. He tried to keep a high alert so that he wouldn't get hurt a lot while walking alone in the middle of the forest, especially lest he be attacked by beasts.Screams of pain could still be heard, echoing off every tree in the forest. However, the intensity had decreased compared to when the cadets finished parachuting.There were several possibilities as to why the screams had subsided. Either the person was dead, or they had been rescued by their team members.Noah encountered several beasts with low abilities, such as goblin beasts, insect beasts, and snake beasts. It was easy for Noah to defeat them, especially when the young man already knew the weaknesses of the three beast.He lifted his head and looked up at the sky. The sun had already slipped to the west, a sign that noon was ending."I need to find shelter before nightfall," Noah muttered.Along the way to finding shelter, Noah collected a lot of firewood that he found along the way to
"I heard you managed to defeat Talon. Is it true?" asked Freya's teammate, Noah knew him as Allen."Aren't you from A class?" asked Noah.Allen shook his head. He was from C class, where C class had never had a sparring match with A class. However, news spread quickly among the cadets in the academy, especially about the best cadet being defeated by a loser cadet who couldn't even use magic.Noah had expected the news to spread like a virus through the air so even the cadets in C class would know that Noah had defeated Talon."It seems so." Noah was still standing at the cave entrance, and it was his turn to stand guard in the rain, still falling. The intensity of the rain was not as great as before; only a small trickle remained."No wonder you were able to kill those three beasts," Allen pointed out."I managed to defeat those beasts because I put my training and knowledge of their characteristics to good use. My victory against Talon has nothing to do with my victory against the be
Kira slowly pointed to the stream that flowed right before the cave. The girl explained she had seen a glowing object from within the stream, buried not too deep.Noah, hearing the explanation, felt relieved and calm. If they had gotten the pendant, Noah and Kira needed to continue hiding until the final exam time was over."I thought it was something else, but I was surprised to find out that it was a pendant," Kira replied, releasing her hold on Noah."Now, our job is just to find Susan's whereabouts." Noah returned the precious pendant to Kira, as Kira was the only one with a large backpack behind her back. Kira nodded, accepting the pendant and storing it safely."Did you see where she was?" Noah asked Kira, to which Kira responded by shaking her head.She and Susan parachuted from different planes, also because the screams kept filling the forest, made Kira undo her intention to look for Susan. It was pretty dangerous, according to Kira, if she had searched for Susan's whereabout