When Emery arrived at the Hyperion Center Arena, he was surprised to find a place that seemed to be packed with more spectators than usual. It was still only half full, but there were definitely more people than at the start of the year.
Emery was accompanied by the two people he had been with for the past few days – Klea and Magus Shena. Their appearances, especially the latter, caused many pairs of eyes to turn in their direction.
Ignoring the muttering and discussion going on around them, Emery cast his gaze to find someone.
It didn't take long for him to find the person he was looking for because the other party waved their hand at him. Without further ado, he walked over to the section of the arena where a female figure could be seen sitting while the magus decided to watch somewhere else.
"Here! Come here!" called Annara rather loudly, waving her hand in the air.
Looking at the couple, the red-haired Bat bloodline had a mischievous smile on her face as she looked at Emery. "No wonder there's no news about you.. I see what you've been busy doing these past few days." She said, throwing a cheeky grin at Klea.
Klea stepped forward and glared at the red-haired girl saying, "What's your deal? Can't find a man for yourself?" She scoffed. "Stop teasing mine!"
Hearing such words, Annara only chuckled before saying, "Calm down, girl. Come, sit here with me."
Emery couldn't help but smile wryly at the interaction between the two, especially when he realized he was being stared at by the top privileged class acolytes sitting around them.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThose he recognized from these people were the half-machine acolyte Atlas and the Demon Nunchaku Dyoo, the latter of whom were staring at him with a somewhat fierce gaze.
Emery couldn't help but wonder what was the reason for the hostility the latter directed at him. He was pretty sure that he didn't do anything unbecoming towards the young man.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a chance to ponder it because Annara suddenly shouted, her finger pointing at the arena.
"There, your Harlight friend is entering the arena."
Just like before, the monthly arena started with those with the lowest rank. Therefore there was actually still time before Emery's name was called to the arena.
Right now, Roran was in the arena battling an acolyte who was twice his size. The opponent was definitely someone with exceptional battle power seeing how the Harlight protégé kept getting pushed around.
Alas, battle power alone was less than adequate to defeat Roran.
With the latter's cautious and steady fighting style coupled with a light energy sword, despite being overwhelmed, he managed to stay on his ground while at the same time gradually exhausting his opponent's condition. In the end, victory landed in the hands of the Harlight Faction Prince.
It shouldn't be a fight that drained his strength, yet Roran didn't try to fight anymore to increase his ranking. Therefore he stopped at the rank of the person he had just defeated – Rank 75.
Her eyes staring at Roran who was walking down from the arena, Klea opened her mouth. "He's a tricky one, isn't he?" to which Annara answered, "Yes.. He's very cautious but .. too boring"
After Roran's fight, there were several other fights that took place since everyone was trying to climb up the leaderboard and gain more resources. The one Emery recognized that caught his eye was the fight between YunXiao and Xiao Ling.
As the two of them practiced a similar discipline that was Dragon style, with the difference being one wielded a spear and a water element acolyte while the other wielded a one-edge sword and an ice element acolyte, Emery was quite curious as to what would happen if they clashed.
The fight between the two was quite an extraordinary spectacle, with multiple dragon-shaped aura attacks manifesting and clashing against one another. Powerful gusts of wind rocked the entire arena as they battled it out.
Xiao Ling tried her best, but in the end, YunXiao was able to defend his Rank 44.
After a few more fights, a familiar name was called by the referee in the arena.
"Annara Vermont"
The red-haired girl stood up from her seat and Emery cheered her on. "Good luck, Annara."
She replied with a smile before saying, "I wonder which one you will support more between the two of us, a real half-blood or someone like me."
At first, Emery was confused as to what the red-haired girl meant. However, he quickly understood when he saw the opponent she was facing. Annara had challenged another half-blood Vida Themari for Rank 26 the latter had.
It was quite a surprising revelation for Emery as he remembered that Annara was in the 40-ish rank two months ago. It seemed that the red-haired girl had been working hard since their separation.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe moment the referee announced the start, the two quickly used their bloodline transformation. But compared to the bird of prey Vida's transformation that appeared to be full-scale armor with a pair of razor-sharp wings on her back, Annara's transformation only consisted of her skin turning pale and eyes turning blood red. She was underwhelming, to say the least.
Seeing the stark difference between the two, Klea couldn't help but say, "She… her bloodline, the girl doesn't depend much on her bloodline isn't she?"
Emery nodded his head. He knew because Annara had told him in the past that she was born in a family with less line of bloodline and more humans making some complex situations for her.
When Emery explained Annara's situation to Klea, Dyoo who was sitting nearby interjected into the conversation. "Did she tell you that? I didn't realize you two were that close. There are not many who know about this in the academy."
After hearing the Demon Nunchaku's words, Klea turned to Emery, not saying anything. A dark smile was on her face as she quietly pinched Emery hard on his thigh, causing his body to tremble for a moment.
The fight between Annara and Vida lasted quite a while. Like a tug of war, the flow switched hands many times throughout the fight. It was to the point that even Emery himself wasn't sure who would win.
At the last minute, when Annara looked cornered and on the verge of losing, Emery could have sworn that the red-haired girl glanced at him before suddenly making a sudden attack with a secret weapon, which was the catalyst of Vida's defeat.
Even though she was quite injured from the fight, the red-haired girl seemed to refuse to go to the medical center. Instead, he walked back to where she had been sitting earlier.
"Annara, you should go to the medical center. Your wound looks pretty bad," Emery said in a concerned tone, to which she replied, "You have pretty decent healing spells, right? You can help me instead."
Turning to Klea with a smile, Annara said, "Of course, if your girlfriend is fine with it."
Klea quickly stood up from her seat. There was neither anger nor irritation on her face as she approached the red-haired girl. In fact, she lowered her body slightly and began to heal the wounds herself.
Annara simply chuckled at her actions. Afterward, she turned to the half-machine acolyte who had been silent ever since and said, "Besides, I can't miss seeing what is coming next."
As if responding to her words, the next name to be called was the half-machine acolyte's name – Atlas III. As for the one he would be fighting against, it was Zetto and their fight will contest the 11th rank which was just two ranks below Emery.
Knowing it was finally his turn, Atlas calmly stood up from his seat and walked toward the arena.