Arwin falls to his knees, struggling to stay upright. He gasps, doubting the strength of the child in front of him. Arwin feels that Zorka's level is beneath his own, yet Zorka manages attacks that almost conquer him."You're impressive, Zorka. If it weren't for the competition, we could have been close friends," Arwin says with a sly smile.Zorka gives a disgusted look, refusing to be friends with someone aiming to exploit the competition."Disgusting!" Zorka exclaims."I've never been interested in being close to you, especially in this competition. I knew what kind of person you are from the beginning, Arwin!"This time Zorka attacks first, creating a rune with ice magic."Agkístri!"The heavy rain suddenly slows down, turning each drop into sharp ice thorns. Zorka's spell transforms raindrops into ice thorns created from his magic rune.Then, the ice thorns, originally directed towards the ground, change course towards Arwin."Attack!" with a single command, the ice thorns strike
"How come I didn't encounter the attackers?" mumbled Zorka. "Earlier, they said 'they,' implying there's more than one person."Zorka tossed a log into the crackling fire, the sound echoing in the quiet night. He couldn't head to the Kathina committee's post near the forest, worried about the condition of the victims.Suddenly, Zorka felt a surge of magic energy and heard distant cries from the west. He faintly saw smoke rising.He thought of heading toward the smoke but worried about those who might still be alive. He decided to wait until morning to go to the committee's post. Nights are riskier, and he needed to be extra cautious. Unexpected attacks could come from monsters or other participants aiming to seize the artifact.For Arwin's fate, Zorka relied on the committee to help him, unaware that Arwin had turned into ashes.Meanwhile, Azurks kept a close watch, testing whether the kid was worthy of being his partner. If Zorka failed, Azurks wouldn't just let him suffer; he'd even
Momentarily caught off guard, a beast grabbed Zorka's leg, slamming his body forcefully onto the ground. The impact scattered the earth, leaving imprints of Zorka's body on the surface."Argh. Cough, cough," Zorka coughed, spitting fresh blood.Another ape raised its hand, ready to strike Zorka with a powerful blow.Bam!Luckily, Zorka swiftly dodged the ape beastmaster's punch. His eyes widened, seeing the sizable hole left in the ground from the strike."Oh no, if I took that hit, my body would have shattered into pieces!" exclaimed Zorka in his thoughts.Despite this, Zorka couldn't relax in his fight against Erlan, especially with the beastmasters now closing in on him. Moreover, Erlan seemed to be casting magic.The rune beneath Erlan's feet glowed a dark red, containing elements of fire."kaftós meteōrítēs!" Erlan directed his magic towards Zorka as his target.A shadow of a rune identical to the one beneath Erlan's feet appeared floating above Zorka's head. It was quite close,
Erlan's sudden competition was halted by the royal committee. He's now in jail, awaiting trial for using illegal drugs, participating despite disqualification, and facing serious charges for assaulting participants and the competition committee.Meanwhile, Zorka is in recovery, and Azurks visits at night to help. On the third day, Zorka wakes up to find a dragon, now cat-sized, curled up near his shoulder.Daralam, the competition committee head, checks on Zorka after his fight with Erlan."Feeling better?" Daralam asks, concerned, seeing Zorka sitting in the hospital bed.Zorka nods slowly."You should've reported directly to the committee instead of facing Erlan and his beastmasters," Daralam says with worry in his eyes. "If the committee you helped didn't report in time, who knows what could've happened to Erlan."Zorka looks puzzled. He remembers wanting to kill Erlan but blacked out after that."What was I supposed to do to him? Last I recall, I wanted to kill him, but honestly,
The news didn't escape the attention of the five individuals from Hexonia. They were all shocked to hear about the infiltration and murders in the competition in Prabhutpura."The perpetrator is named Erlan. He used happy flying powder. He was defeated by a 10-year-old boy who, according to the old man Daralam, is said to possess energy with six basic elements," Zephyra explained, relaying the news she received from her subordinates."I'm puzzled about the security in Prabhutpura. How could a disqualified participant re-enter the competition?" Aurelius interjected."It turns out that despite the competition being held there for hundreds of years, this is the first time there's been a murder. Could it be that the tight security of the kingdom has slackened?" Seraphina listened to Aurelius and Zephyra's conversation. In her mind, she shared Aurelius's sentiment. There shouldn't have been any infiltration or murder, especially with the perpetrator using illegal substances to boost his po
The island where Hexonia's ship docked turned out to be uninhabited by humans, only a few small non-monster animals lived there. There was no trace of dragons on the island. However, something caught Obsidian's attention."Hey, guys! Wasn't this supposed to be an uninhabited island?" Obsidian suddenly asked, pointing at a building integrated with a large tree on the island, occupied by small animals.His four teammates immediately looked towards the building he indicated."Tell me, if this island isn't supposed to have humans, then how come these small animals built a structure typically inhabited by humans?" "What does that have to do with what we're looking for? Humans living here?" Argent snapped.The other three fell silent. Obsidian rolled his eyes."You're really dense, Argent! This proves that Azurks isn't a free-roaming beastmaster. From what I see, Azurks has likely made a contractual agreement with someone. The proof is that the red magic dust stopped on this island. There'
It was a hot day when Zorka decided to leave the Parvati kingdom in Prabhutpura. Earlier, Daralam had apologized for the incident that led to the competition being halted."Thousands of apologies to you, Zorka. The competition is halted until the second round. Oh, yes. I see you got the rare artifact we scattered in Kathina Forest. Just take it, as it might come in handy for you in the future." Daralam placed his right hand across his chest, slightly bowing."Also, accept this! Just a little for your journey."A small pouch containing silver and copper coins was given to Zorka. Initially, Zorka wanted to refuse, but Azurks whispered that he might need it, so he took the pouch and thanked Daralam."Take care out there, Boy. Keep honing your skills. You might become someone above anyone else."Zorka nodded. Then he walked towards the exit of the Parvati kingdom."Where are we heading this time, Azurks?" Zorka asked.Azurks didn't answer, floating beside Zorka in a size resembling a cat.
This time, Azurks brought Zorka into the dimension space he had created. Prior to this, Zorka bought a lot of food and gathered drinking water as instructed by Azurks."Is that all the food you gathered, Zorka?" Azurks squinted as if the food piled up in one cart didn't seem sufficient in the eyes of the blue crystal dragon."Hey, hey, I almost spent all the money given by Daralam's leader just to collect this food." Zorka was annoyed by Azurks' seemingly irritating attitude."Well, never mind. Let's enter the dimension space!"Zorka and the pile of his food suddenly disappeared. Then they reappeared in Azurks' dimension space. Azurks appeared a moment after Zorka arrived in the dimension.Zorka looked worriedly at the stacked food."Will this food not spoil just being stored here like this?""Hoho, young one. Are you doubting the power of my dimension space, huh?" Azurks seemed a bit bothered by Zorka's question. "My di