12 Challenging Noriaki!

The battle between Noriaki and Ashley was, on the surface, considered to be merely a "friendly match," however the reality was totally the opposite. Even the faculty knew that the grudge between them was so notorious that the seniors would often talk about it. Only Noriaki would be brazen enough to pick a fight with someone who was the child of legendary excavators Heather and Ken. Regardless, they felt a mixture of pity and schadenfreude for the Old One who had finally snapped and issued a formal battle challenge to Noriaki the following day.

It was a simple matter to expedite the process because the two of them were in the same class. Through their homeroom advisor, Ms. Hagiwara, they were able to quickly arrange the "friendly match" between the two of them and had it held after school. This was actually announced publicly, since the grudge between them would most likely be settled here. A lot of people were convinced that Ashley had lost his mind.

Only Rin knew that he must have had a trump card in order to compete against Noriaki's superior control over ether and superior combat experience. After all, his strength was something not unknown to the school. Most of those who didn't bully Ashley were worried, while the others simply reveled in this event, as if already anticipating Ashley's resounding and humiliating defeat.

After school, a metal battle platform had already been assembled and prepared at the high school's gymnasium. It was incredibly large, and bleachers had also been prepared for students to watch the match. Obviously, students and teachers alike wanted to watch this battle. The teachers were far more interested in the reasoning behind Ashley's decision to take the initiative to challenge Noriaki.

Why would this kid decide to go on the offensive himself? Did something happen to him over the spring vacation? Their curiosities would be satisfied today. Little would they know that this very fight would become one of the school's resounding legends - a modern time David versus Goliath.

Ashley and Noriaki stood opposite one another on opposing ends of the battle platform. Ashley could see the fire burning in his eyes. On the other side, Noriaki could sense that something inside Ashley had changed. As someone who transcended Ashley by an entire evolutionary stage, he was far more cognizant of the strange phenomenon now surrounding this kid, who seemed unremarkable before the spring break.

Ashley simply glared back and cracked his knuckles. This sound broke the awkward, jarring silence that permeated the gymnasium. "I will pay back the humiliation tenfold, with interest!" Ashley confidently bellowed out.

"Do your worst, girly boy." Noriaki grinned. Unfortunately, despite his increased wariness towards this kid, he still underestimated Ashley.

Like a furious gale, Ashley suddenly thundered forward with an unprecedented speed. It shocked everyone, audience and Noriaki alike. However, Noriaki was someone with immense combat experience for his age. He often picked fights with everyone since young, and abused his ether power to get the upper hand. How could this speed intimidate him? He was merely shocked that this ant-like existence could achieve such a speed.

Ashley channeled <Qilin Step> to the best of his ability despite only having practiced it for one evening. It had already promised results, sadly his experience compared to Noriaki was like the difference between heaven and earth. Noriaki immediately detected Ashley's position and used his ether ability to cause heat to congeal and explode. The burning heat caused Ashley to stop in his tracks, stumbling backwards so he wouldn't be burned by the flames.

"Idiot. Just with this speed, you want to overwhelm me? Try again!" Noriaki sneered as he immediately launched his counterattack, coating his fists with flames as he attempted to launch a barrage of punches on Ashley. At this point, everyone was silent and tensed up. They didn't expect such a scene to happen right at the beginning of the fight.

Despite this, Ashley was undaunted and attempted to evade Noriaki's incredibly fast and furious strikes. Using <Qilin Step>, he was able to avoid a majority of the strikes as if he was dancing. However, Noriaki was still able to hit him occasionally even though Ashley was using such an eccentric movement technique, proving his own strength. Noriaki's expression turned ugly as he realized that when he touched Ashley, it was akin to punching a concrete wall.

It didn't injure Noriaki's tough hands but he now knew he couldn't just play around anymore. The fruits of the <Goddess Weaving Technique> were already being proven in this fight alone. Ashley was able to temporarily befuddle Noriaki's senses, but the bully was no longer messing around. He turned serious and began to use ether power properly.

Ashley quickly started to get suppressed as Noriaki cleverly and sneakily controlled the atmosphere around Ashley to quickly rise in temperature. Flames began to tickle Ashley's body from all sorts of angles and on occasion some of these pockets of high heat exploded into flames, tossing Ashley about and disrupting his movement technique.

At this point, despite all the surprises that Ashley had given Noriaki and the audience, it was clear that Ashley was just too green in the world of ether combat and would quickly be defeated by Noriaki, despite the fact he most likely wouldn't be injured badly this time. Ashley himself was struggling to break through the encirclement of explosions and flames that Noriaki was continuously channeling onto him.

"I need to break through the explosions! But the high heat and explosions keep messing up my tempo!" Ashley grumbled inwardly. "I can't keep this up forever. My body will get tired even if my Fairy Energy is self-sustainable!" Nemea was also conspicuously quiet this time, as if urging Ashley to figure out the trick himself.

Eventually, Ashley looked at his feet. Then he looked at the flames curling all around him. Fire overcame wood. Unfortunately, Ashley's Jupiter Verses engendered Earth. However, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he could use this to his advantage. Feed the fire, then watch what happens next! With wind, he could both increase his speed greatly while causing the fire to go out of control, breaking Noriaki's own rhythm!

As if undergoing a breakthrough, Ashley's eyes gave off a ferocious glint. Noriaki was the only one who clearly saw it, and suddenly felt a sense of dread.

As if possessed, Ashley's voice rung out throughout the entire stadium.

The trigram symbol for "xun" emerged on his forehead. "Purple Wind Form, Galeforce!"

Suddenly, Ashley's legs and feet were surrounded with ferocious winds.