Raelis ducked under a sword attack, and in the next moment, he thrust his daggers forward, digging them straight into the chest of the senior.
He missed all the vitals, but even so...
"The match is over," Julian announced with a sigh. "Raelis... are you sure you don’t want to take a break? You’ve defeated six seniors. You’ve already proved that you’re strong, so there’s no need to overwork yourself."
Raelis wiped the smudge of blood off his lips and let out a chuckle.
He pointed toward the archer standing beside Jean.
"Instructor, I’d like to fight him next."
Julian grumbled. "Alright. Do as you wish... not like I can stop you."
With that, Julian grabbed the injured senior Raelis had just defeated and dragged him away.
As for Raelis, he waited for the archer to approach. Once he did, he gave Raelis a curt bow. freew\ebno\vel..(c)om
"My name’s Cael. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Raelis."
Raelis raised a brow. "Why?"
"I doubt it." Cael smiled faintly. "Though I’ve heard plenty about you. At least, the way you carried yourself in the entrance exam. It’s amazing. You got an even better score than Jean. That’s something to brag about."
Raelis didn’t understand where this guy was going with the praise, so he entered a fighting stance, getting ready to end this fight and move on to the last one.
"Let’s just get this over with."
Cael didn’t argue. He took a few steps back, fingers hovering near his arrows.
After a few moments, Julian came back and raised his hand.
Then, he swiftly brought it down.
Raelis lunged forward in a flash, trying to end this fight in an instant.
Yet at the same time, Cael had similar intentions as he loosed his first arrow, sending it flying at Raelis rapidly.
Because of the momentum Raelis built up, he just barely managed to dodge the arrow. But what followed was a sharp pain from his lower back.
Glancing behind, he realized there was an arrow embedded in his back. It wasn’t too deep, so he simply pulled it out and let his Vitality do the rest.
All of a sudden, Cael smirked as he held a tiny marble in his left hand.
And then, he tossed the marble to the ground, causing a thick smokescreen to erupt and obscure Raelis’s vision.
Raelis’s senses flared as the hairs on his right arm stood up, prompting him to turn his body sideways.
Thankfully he did, since he just barely managed to avoid a sharp arrow from hitting him.
Since he didn’t want to be trapped, Raelis took a deep breath, then exhaled a tiny trail of fire.
But with each passing second, that fire expanded until eventually, the smoke screen ignited.
He spread those flames outward and soon, he caught a trace of Cael behind him.
His Flame Sense kicked in, practically slowing down time as an arrow neared his head.
Just before it hit, Raelis tilted his head, dodging the arrow effortlessly.
Cael’s eyes widened as he nocked another arrow and prepared to shoot it.
However, Raelis had used that very same flame smoke screen to arrive behind Cael, ready to strike him down.
But before he could do that, Raelis felt another wave of pain from his foot, then his arm, and finally, his shoulder.
He hadn’t even realized what happened, but he was already riddled with arrows.
As he glanced ahead, he realized Cael had already vanished.
And what followed was a distorted laugh.
"Pfft... I wasn’t going to use my special ability on you, but you forced me to do it. I’d say that earns you some brownie points," Cael said. "But I’m afraid this is where we have to end the fight. I have a date with one of your classmates later."
Immediately, another smoke screen burst from Cael’s body, messing with Raelis’s senses.
Raelis’s brows twitched. Then, he closed his eyes and focused.
Moments later, he heard a faint whistling in the air to his right, to the left, and lastly, right above him.
He wasn’t sure if Cael was using some kind of cloning technique, or if his arrows could home. Either way, this was a bit of a problem.
Or so he wanted to believe. But before those arrows reached him, Raelis activated his Flame Body technique.
Immediately, his body turned to flame, letting the arrows pass harmlessly through him.
Then, another arrow flew in, which he didn’t bother to dodge.
But that seemed to be a mistake, as the moment the arrow reached his body, it exploded, disrupting his Flame Body technique slightly and inflicting a serious internal injury.
Raelis held back the pained groan and took another deep breath, falling into focus.
That was when he realized something. Every time Cael shot his arrows, he was standing still.
It seemed like some sort of pattern, and while Raelis couldn’t understand the actual cause, he would exploit what he knew.
Raelis activated Flame Step and shot into the air like a thunderbolt. And when he was finally high enough, he activated Flame Step again, shooting back down.
The impact split the ground and lifted Cael slightly into the air.
Raelis’s gaze sharpened as he shot forward and pierced Cael straight through his gut. But despite that, Cael still had a smile on his face.
"Gh... haha... that was close," Cael said, when all of a sudden, Raelis felt something prick his neck, a tiny dagger that seemed to pierce through his Flame Body technique.
Raelis’s eyes widened as he clutched the wound and turned around in an instant.
To his surprise, he saw two more Caels standing beside him.
One was holding a shield, and the other, a sword.
As for the Cael that Raelis had just stabbed, he had fallen unconscious.
Raelis’s vision turned slightly blurry from the damage he accumulated, but as he was about to go all out, the Cael with a sword raised his hand and spoke.