9. Blaze Vs Liam: Scheme! Scheme!! Scheme!!!

Blaze's training sword was already coated with a thin membrane of water. He was ready for the fight.

"I thought he wanted to keep a low profile. Giving up would have been the best course of action," Aphrodite muttered as she watched the tense standoff between Blaze and Liam.

Blaze and Liam locked gaze with narrow eyes while watching each other's subtle movements. Liam had heard about how Blaze beat Princess Cherry, so he refrained from moving; Blaze was calculating how to move and end the battle swiftly. After his first absorption of mana, his physique skyrocketed, which improved all his basic abilities.

After the unending standoff and nobody moved, Liam decided to make the opening move. He took a step forward with his left foot before swinging his ablaze whip vertically downward. The whip hissed through the air like a venomous fire serpent, breaking the static standoff.

Blaze was already expecting the strike, so he sidestepped. The whip smacks the ground while leaving light fire sparks, a deep gash, and an intense vibration of the ground.

The next strike came faster than Blaze expected, like an unrelenting fire serpent. Blaze was compelled to block the attack with his wooden sword, which he had previously coated with a thin layer of water.

The whip tore through the thin layer of water on Blaze's wooden sword, reducing it to vapor, and then snapped the sword at the point of impact. Without slowing, the fiery whip struck Blaze with its tongue, sending him hurtling backward before he rolled to a stop some distance away.

Despite the impressive fights that other students were putting up with their respective elements, the epic battle between Blaze and Liam had already disrupted their practice. The intensity and spectacle of their confrontation overshadowed the other fights, rendering them dull by comparison.

The acrid scent of burning filled Blaze's nostrils as he was hit with tremendous force, feeling as though a train had collided with his chest. He worried that he might have broken some bones, but upon touching his chest while lying on his back, he found that he was still intact. However, he noticed a black, charred substance nearby. His training robe had been reduced to ash, but to his surprise, his uniform remained unscathed.

The crackling sound of the whip snapped Blaze back to reality, prompting him to roll aside and avoid the strike. With swift movements, he used his left hand to propel himself back to his feet.

The whip came hurtling towards Blaze's face at breakneck speed, appearing like a red blur. It was too swift for Blaze to evade, so he twisted his body and used the scapular region of his upper back to absorb the impact of the attack.

When the tongue of the whip struck Blaze's right upper back, he felt the impact of a heavenly hammer and was knocked to the ground. However, he quickly rolled to his feet and confirmed his speculations: his uniform acted as a mini-armor that protected him from the fire and absorbed a portion of the whip's destructive force. This realization explained why Liam had been intentionally aiming for his face. Additionally, Blaze realized that the whip was too fast for his eyes to track and too quick for his body to react to.

As Blaze got up, Liam sent the whip at him again, but Blaze narrowly dodged it this time. Liam was surprised, but quickly regained his focus and aimed his whip in an upper, slanted direction towards Blaze's eyes. However, Blaze dodged it once more. Liam swung the whip at Blaze again, but Blaze narrowly avoided it by a hair's breadth. Liam's attacks became more aggressive, but Blaze deftly swerved through the whip's strikes with lucky dodges.

The fight became intense with Liam's whip resembling multiple red blurs dancing fiercely around Blaze. The air made a series of sharp cracks as the whip danced with the aggression and ferocity of a wild beast. Blaze was like a boat dancing irregularly in a storm. He looked like he would get swept by the storm of whips at any moment. The ground bore multiple gashes of different widths left by the whip. Sparks flew every time the whip struck the ground. The ground of the training ground vibrated intensely in response to the smack. The other students, who could only see blurs of whips, paused their fights to watch the epic battle that gave them goosebumps.

"He's slower than the whip, but always dodges it at the last moment. How can he see the whip?" Cherry approached Zara and asked the question plaguing Liam.

"He's not watching the whip. He's watching the hand," Zara muttered as she peered at Blaze with interest.

"Watching the hand?" Cherry asked in confusion.

"He observed Liam's hand movement and dodged in advance," Zara turned to Cherry and clarified with a smile.

"Doesn't that mean a wrong assumption, and he's smashed in the face? The whip infused with fire element can kill him," Cherry asked while staring at Zara with wide eyes.

"That's what makes him dangerous. Dancing on the tip of a blade without anxiousness. Treading on thin ice like its flat ground," Zara said solemnly and focused on the heated battle that had reached its peak.

Liam was already sweating profusely. It took a toll on him to continue releasing mana non-stop. His hands were feeling heavy, and his breathing became ragged. The battle intensity hasn't reduced for a moment. Whenever he reduces the speed of his whip or reduces his mana supply, which in turn limits its destructive power, Blaze dangerously approaches him. He was feeling the pressure despite suppressing Blaze.

Blaze's uniform and face were covered in dust, but his eyes gleamed sharply as he studied Liam's movement. His speed was still uniform. He noticed Liam's weakness: he could only move in one direction while controlling his mana and whip at the same time. Although he got the rhythm of Liam's whipping technique, the speed of the whip barred him from approaching Liam.

Blaze's reflexes were lightning-fast as he twisted his body to the right, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have wrecked his face. The fiery whip lashed out with ferocity, and Blaze felt a hot blast of air graze his cheek as the weapon whistled past him. His brain was firing on a full cylinder. Suddenly, Liam's hand moved to the left instead of the right–a critical mistake in the heat of battle. His eyes widened in shock as he realized his error and tried to rectify it, but in the unforgiving world of combat, one misstep could mean defeat even for the mightiest of generals.

Blaze sprang forward at Liam like a tiger pouncing upon its prey, but when he was just four meters away, Liam suddenly displayed a vicious smirk that made Blaze's face scrunch up in confusion and apprehension. As if in response to Liam's menacing expression, the whip returned with a sudden and explosive force, catching Blaze off guard. He realized too late that he had fallen into Liam's trap, with no means of escape from the deadly attack.

Liam had a victorious grin plastered on his face. He noticed Blaze watching his hands but feigned ignorance. He performed a feint move to lure Blaze into an inescapable trap he laid close to himself. Suddenly, the lips of the panicked Blaze curled up into an eerie smirk that made all the hair on his nape stand erect.

In a split second, Blaze infused his element into his broken training sword, as if he had been waiting for this moment. With a resounding smash, he struck a certain point on the whip, causing Liam to lose control of his mana. The controlled flames dissipated with a puff, and the tapered end of the whip went flying in the opposite direction. Liam went from heaven to hell.

Without pausing to catch his breath, Blaze dashed towards Liam and used his broken training sword like a baton, slamming it into Liam's left cheek with incredible force. The impact sent Liam staggering sideways, blood spilling from his mouth and a red mark forming at the point of contact. But Blaze wasn't finished yet. Blaze followed up with a spinning kick that landed on the same spot on Liam's face where he had struck him with the broken training sword. The force of the kick sent Liam crashing to the floor, his body limp and unresponsive. The combination of the loss of mana, the force of Blaze's attacks, and the final blow proved too much for Liam, and he passed out instantly.

Zara's mouth opened in an 'O' with surprise visible on her face.

"Okay, you guys can continue your training. Blaze and Liam are done for today. I've explained the crux of the technique. Don't forget to absorb mana or else…" a bone-chilling grin crept onto Zara's lips. "You will be flushed out of the academy."

"Blaze, you can join me in the carriage to go back to your room," Zara said to Blaze before walking away.

Blaze spat out the pent-up blood from his throat before following Zara.

Zara was quiet as she looked outside the carriage window. Blaze sat beside her but kept his mouth shut.

"Do you like to kill?" Zara suddenly asked and stared at Blaze.

"Kill? Only when necessary. I'm not a psychopath." Blaze turned to Zara and stared at her directly in the eyes.

Zara nodded before returning her gaze to the window.

The carriage fell into a strange silence.

When he got to his house, he alighted from the carriage. The carriage left after Blaze got down.

—

"I thought you wanted to keep a low profile," Aphrodite asked as she sat down on the bed.

"The more you hide me, the more interesting you become," Blaze said without turning while studying the uniform that strangely cleaned itself. He was sitting on the chair while the uniform was placed on the table. He just finished bathing.

"In the battle against Liam, what you did was risky. Smashing the part where he had the weakest control over his flame. That made him lose control of his mana. What if you missed it? Worse of all, you couldn't see the whip clearly," Aphrodite chided with her hands folded across her chest.

"I thought you would praise my observation skills. Life without risk is uneventful. Besides, I wouldn't have beaten him. Why do you even care?" Blaze asked Aphrodite, who was fuming at his nonchalance.

"If you die, I wouldn't have anybody to talk to. Humph!" Aphrodite humphed in annoyance and threw her face to the side.

***

The night sky was illuminated only by the stars and a half moon, casting a dim glow over the dark room where four people were seated. The room was lit only by a small white crystal light, casting eerie shadows on the faces of those present. Two people had their faces covered, while the other two were known: Zara and Avery.

"So, what's your opinion about him? You've seen his battle close-up," Avery asked Zara with a solemn tone.

"Well-trained, cool-headed, scheming, sharp instinct, high endurance, high battle prowess," Zara replied solemnly as she recalled the battle.

"Those are the abilities of a spy. Dark moon, kill him tonight. Make it clean," Avery ordered coldly.