From what William knew, there was a clan in the dark spirit master community in the outer world known as the Grand Black Mamba. They were indeed dangerous and deadly, thanks to their darkness spirit element.
It seemed they got a relative here in this tiny world, and it was known by the same name without the 'Grand' word.
The difference between the two clan's spirits was obvious to William. This Garlend had one horn while the weakest and youngest Grand Mambas had five!
Not to mention the size of the scales appearing on Garlend's body were smaller than what William used to see on the Grand Black Mambas.
As Garlend got momentarily stopped thanks to getting his identity discovered, William's sword didn't stop.
"Ahh!" The heart curdling scream that came next made the body of Garlend tremble in anger. The last member standing on his team got stabbed by William's deadly sword, ending up thrown in the air for tens of metres, falling down there outside the arena.
At this moment, there was no use in clinging to the rules of the competition. As Garlend's identity got blown out, he knew no one would care about rules anymore.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Don't bother with anyone else," William's words came at this moment of Garlend's hesitation, "I'm the one you shall worry about."
"Humph! You just got lucky," Garlend's hatred got reignited the instant he heard William's words. "If not for hiding yourself too deep and well, we'd have killed you first before dealing with anyone else in this pathetic bunch of losers."
In Garlend's eyes, William was no way a bronze spirit master. Like himself, that dude must have controlled his spirit power, lowering it to the bronze level.
If Garlend knew this beforehand, he'd ask his team to focus solely on William, taking him off first from the battle as fast as possible. If he knew and did that, none of this would have even happened!
Garlend didn't stop anymore. He knew he got little time in his hands before the true terrifying elites of the academy would arrive.
If he already showed his true identity, then he should go all out. Garlend's vibe suddenly changed, while his aura started to skyrocket.
"You… You aren't a silver spirit master… But gold!" The judge felt anxious the moment Garlend revealed his true strength. The spirit power emitted from him changed the colour from silver to pale gold in the next few seconds.
"Hahahaha, you idiots! There is a trick in this world known to control one's spirit power, hahahaha!" as if he scored a goal or something, Garlend laughed.
In his eyes, William was a silver grade spirit master, at most a gold grade one. Being at the same grade as William and the judge made Garlend feel more reassured about his plans to kill these two and then escape later on from here.
"Die!" without any warning, and in the middle of his laughs, he suddenly flashed, moved in a fast fashion forward, heading towards William.
Garlend placed his top priority over taking William down first, venting part of his anger by seeing him falling dead on his hands, before turning his attention to deal with the judge and try to escape.
"Watch out! He is a darkness element spirit master…" the judge wanted to jump in, intervene and stop Garlend, but he knew he'd be too late to do so.
So, he shouted, trying to warn William, wanting to tell him to activate the rescue totem to escape with his life intact.
However, in the middle of his words, and before he'd completed what he wanted to say, a mind blowing thing happened.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
Out of nowhere, five knives appeared, clashing against five different spots that were all around William's blind spots, stopping all the hidden and sneaky attacks that came asking for his life.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm*Fwoosh!* and the next instant, William vanished, flashed for five metres, bypassing the incoming behemoth in front of him, and hitting Garlend with his sword and flying knives.
"You…" Garlend's dash stopped abruptly while parts of his scales fell. If anyone looked closer, they'd see in the places where these scales vanished, small and short stub-like pieces of flesh were there, bleeding profusely with red blood.
"How did you know…?!!" Garlend's face didn't appear from the thick scales covering up his entire body and face. However, William was sure he was quite scared and shaken.
"I know more than what you possibly imagine," William waved his sword, controlled his knives to fly in short circles, cleansing them of Galrend's blood.
"I will kill you!" Garlend roared, but he wasn't like before. He was like a terribly wounded beast, one who got hacked and trapped by hunters, lost much of his flesh and strength.
If any other spirit master faced Garlend, even if he was a dark gold grade, he might have fallen under the deadly attack Garlend just issued.
But William was well aware of how the Grand Black Mambas fought. He fought against members of this hideous clan many times before, got wounded by many of them, and killed tons of their members.
William didn't know how the Black Mambas in this world differ from the Grand Black Mambas he was well acquainted with. But when Garlend dashed forward in such a way, and when he heard the subtle soft noises of something cracking, William got what was going to happen.
It was the Five Black Fangs attack. This kind of attack wasn't that deadly actually if one knew where these fangs would attack from.
The five fangs coming at William weren't guarded by any scales! They were just vulnerable, and in front of his knives and sword, they got chopped off quite easily!
The sneaky part of this attack lied mainly in deception. Just like Garlend here, he dashed forward, taking all the focus and attention of William on blocking his incoming body, while five long and cylindrical limbs would pop out from Garlend's body, circle around William, and hit him from his blind spots at his back and flanks.