“Are you praising yourself? It was you who beat me up into such a state,” Garen said calmly. He intentionally squirmed a bit to mimic being in pain, pretending~ to make an agonized expression. Truthfully, this kind of pain was almost commonplace to him. If not to appear more normal, he could even sit up and move about. Furthermore, he could even treat his own wounds, but that would not fit his appearance as a kid who hadn’t even hit his twenties.
“To tell you the truth, I was aiming to get into the Top 3 to become an Elite Student,” Celine thought back to the feeling she felt earlier, almost as if her entirety was being seen through. It left a bitter taste in her heart.
“What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing,” Garen ‘forcefully’ let out a chuckle.
“Oh?” Celine turned her head towards him. “And here I thought there were a lot more experts like you over here at Blackboard.”
Garen remained silent. He continued lying there letting the nurse wipe off his sweat.
“If there really were so many experts, then my dreams of getting into the Top 3 would be impossible,” Celine continued.
“What was the name of that pure willpower attack that you used at the end?” Garen already knew that the tournament was already over for him, but he managed to show his true potential. Gaining the attention and respect from Blue Narcissus shouldn’t be an issue now, so he might as well focus on the stuff he was interested in in the meantime.
“It’s Shapeless Needle, a skill that I can only use once,” as Celine was speaking to an opponent of her level, she has completely lost the prideful air she had earlier and looked a lot calmer. “Pure willpower-based techniques are extremely difficult, even I only managed to learn two types – Willpower Concussion and Shapeless Needle. In addition, most of them require a lot of self-exertion.”
She paused, “You, on the other hand, even though you were being suppressed by me, how did you manage to initiate that strong counterattack?”
Garen laughed, although Celine could be foulmouthed at times, she wasn’t necessarily a bad person; she simply just has a desire to attain more strength.
“That was purely just my offensive instincts, I could predict your actions,” he didn’t hide anything from her, as even if he revealed this to her, there was no way she could easily learn this. This was something that can only be obtained from large amounts of experience in combat and a high level of physical prowess. Otherwise, with the countless amounts of martial artists present in the Secret Technique World, there wouldn’t only be a couple of King of the Century level experts.
Unsurprisingly, Celine also understood that point.
“What are you talking about, this level of proficiency can only be achieved by the likes of the Inheriting Pilots. How old do you think you are?”
“Well, your offensive tactics weren’t that advanced either,” Garen responded.
“Err…” Celine was left speechless. It was true that if the opponent were much better when it comes to such tactics and strategies, this would not be impossible.
However, Garen managed to read in between the lines of what she was saying.
“Do you mean that there really have been people who managed to achieve that high level of proficiency?”
That had to be a joke, out of billions of people, barely a handful could be considered at the King of Century level. How could there easily be such a person here?
“Of course, Inheriting Pilots are all experts in battle strategy, this degree of offensive instinct would only be the foundations of their skills,” Celine naturally replied.
Garen pondered a bit more, this was indeed nothing too surprising.
The King of the Centuries of the Secret Technique World were hailed as kings, but in that world, the number of people who practiced secret techniques was only a few million. Out of that number, there was a one in a million chance that they would become a King of the Century. On the other hand, in this world, taking the entire planet as a unit of measurement, this planet contains easily billions in population. Learning to pilot mechs was also one of the most mainstream paths and out of the billions of people, at least tens of millions would pursue a career in mech piloting. There were countless students from institutions and academies all aiming to become a mech pilot, aspiring to be the one-man-army of the heroic legends.
With this ratio, having more King of the Century level people would not be strange at all.
Celine did not notice Garen’s pondering look as she continued to talk to herself.
“Even within our Blackboard Academy, there are these types of experts. Dean Cruz and Vice Dean Sims are both top-level experts. Combining their expertise with their willpower, their strength is almost comparable to the fearsomeness of the one-man-army from the legends.” Celine’s eyes were full of admiration.
“Alright, let’s change the topic. Since we got a tie in our match, I wonder what arrangements they would have for us,” Garen asked.
“There are no arrangements. We won’t be able to continue on in the tournament. Damn! If I didn’t have to face you, I could’ve easily beaten Caus. I might’ve even stood a chance in a heads-up battle against Bally,” Celine had a dissatisfied look on her face.
“Save your strength for healing your injuries. If you’re dissatisfied, just go back to challenge them in the future,” Garen lazily said.
Celine suddenly felt like a deflated balloon, glaring daggers at Garen. She helplessly just turned her head and went to rest.
******
Caus was seated in the contestant area, discussing the previous bout with instructors.
“Those two fellows…” beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.
“If you were the one facing off against them, do you have the confidence to win?” the instructor asked in a low voice.
Caus wanted to answer but he still had his own dignity, and the answer wouldn’t change anything anyway. Disregarding everything else, merely with the Willpower Concussion technique, he would’ve been utterly defeated, or even just one-shotted.
“Let’s just focus on your preparations for the next match,” the instructor sighed. “Don’t think too much of it. Since they have already left the battlefield, let’s just consider that your fortune. There are only 3 top spots after all.”
Caus let out a long breath.
“Understood.”
However, one thing continued to linger in his mind, since when had Nonosiva possessed such a strong potential and strength? If he continued on with their grudges, was it really worth it? It was something he had to take into consideration. Luckily he wasn’t the one who directly confronted him back then, he was only supporting his juniors in their actions. He could push all the blame onto them and start over with a clean slate.
When faced with an opponent that you cannot easily escape, especially if the opponent was one that constantly grew stronger, under these conditions and the constraints of a legal system, no matter what grudges one had before, the first thing anyone would think of wouldn’t be how to defeat the opponent, but rather how to solve this issue.
Only a dumbass would continue on under these conditions.
Caus had already planned out his strategy to win over Nonosiva. The guy was from a poor background, giving him some small benefits should be enough, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue.
******
Garen was forced to withdraw from the tournament as a result of his draw with Celine. Although they didn’t manage to advance to the final stage, they managed to show off their true potential and extraordinary abilities. The top brass should give some sort of acknowledgment.
After settling the placings for the tournaments, Instructor Hamm, Fervale and company rushed off to the hospital after the ambulances. Mia and Aier also followed them.
From the spectator stands, the two Blue Narcissus spectators were exchanging their opinions.
“Let’s just report it as it is, we’ll just leave it to the people in charge of Grade C to decide.”
“I think they should pass, they have the makings of an Elite Student.”
“However, the fact is that they still didn’t pass, I think…” the two didn’t continue on, they genuinely felt sorry for Garen’s misfortune. “They definitely had the potential to be Elite Students, what a waste.”
“Yeah.”
The tournament did not come to a halt just because of Garen and Celine’s withdrawal. The tournament continued on as scheduled after a wave of discussions at the judges’ seat. Regrettably, they still remained inconclusive and they decided to focus on the upcoming matches in the meantime.
However, the recordings of Garen and Celine’s battle were leaked out, and their reputations as prodigies started to spread. Whether Garen or Celine, the battle had proven their abilities as pilots. Although both of them were heavily injured in the match and were forced to withdraw from the tournament, their final battle had left a lasting impression on everyone who saw it.
As Merseus, Bally, and Caus made their way into the Elite Council, Nonosiva and Celine also became the strongest First Seats in every Grade C student’s heart.
Especially mid-level students like Fervale, they were mostly students who had Upper Level 1 willpower, they were far weaker as compared to Celine who almost reached Level 3 willpower. They were also the ones who fully understood the difference in their strengths. Regarding Nono who managed to hold his own against Celine, linking it with his past winning streak, they naturally also regarded him as a perceived Level 3 when he combines his general abilities.
Who would’ve thought that an expert like Nonosiva was still at a Level 1 willpower? If Celine had started off the battle with her pure willpower attacks, it was unlikely that Garen would have been able to attain this result.
At the same time, all throughout the Blackboard Region, all eyes were on the Qualifier Match of the Academy. The matches sent shockwaves through the outer areas of the Southwest region of Blackboard.
******
Southwest of the Blackboard Region
The sky was a stretch of clear blue, without a cloud in sight.
Hiss!!
Suddenly, a twisted black ball appeared in the sky out of nowhere. The ball was engulfed in glowing black electric discharge, making a crackling sound. The ball started off at the size of a soccer ball, but it rapidly expanded.
Bang!
With a loud noise, the ball burst open, revealing a damaged black and red mech. The mech was in humanoid form, and half of its head had been sliced off by a sharp object. Its right arm and leg were covered with some sort of cast in an attempt to keep it in one piece. It was holding a long black curved knife, but the knife was full of chips and had various dents and blunt edges on it as if it had been used to block strikes.
Just as the black and red mech appeared, it started nosediving straight towards the ground. Although it was trying to stay afloat using its thrusters, it could barely slow down the fall.
“I’m… not done…!!” from inside the mech, a voice shouted in agony.
Crash!!
The mech collided with a hard rocky cliff and exploded into countless bits and pieces. The yellow and red flames formed intersecting light rings, slicing through everything it came in contact with. Only after spreading a few hundred meters did it slowly fade away.
All the areas that were sliced through by the two light rings were perfectly cut through.
The edge of the rocky cliff also started to crumble, as if the light ring had sliced off a huge portion of the cliff.