Chapter 22 Arena 1

"Mom hurry up or we'll miss the match!" I yelled at Yuna.

Today was the day I would be able to see a high level match, I had a large arsenal of fighting techniques but I have yet to find one that is high ranked. The best technique I had would be a Yellow Ranked technique with the war glaives.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Yuna began to walk down the stairs waving off my concern.

"Who are we watching today anyways?" She had withheld all information so far so I was curious.

"I made sure to find someone who had a lightning affinity so you could finally incorporate it into your fighting style, I think you'll be surprised." Yuna smirked.

One of my biggest issues so far was that my fighting style was one dimensional right now, I could either cast spells or fight.

Sure I could imbue my weapon with an element but that was still beginner level, I haven't made any progress in combining the two.

Lightning was more simple since I could just be fast, gravity was good too since I could change the weight of my weapon. But those of these applications were primitive and easily countered, I got lucky in the tournament since my mana core was leagues better than everyone else's.

I was lacking a lot of things and hopefully once I step foot into Unity Academy, hopefully all of those inadequacies would be remedied.

"Let's go." Yuna waved her hand and like always a giant portal appeared.

"Wait!" From behind me I heard Aiko and Ryota running towards us.

"I heard about the match so I'd like to attend." Ryota said to Yuna.

"The more the merrier." She replied.

-Central Coliseum

"Welcome patrons." A guard met us as we went to enter the coliseum.

Yuna handed over our tickets and the guard escorted us to our private booth.

"So who's fighting?" I asked Yuna as we sat down in our lavish booth.

The booth had a very warm vibe to it, it had multiple couches and recliners that were made from powerful beasts. It had a bar that had a bartender at it at all times, along with multiple maids that were delivering food to us. In front of the couches was a giant window that was one way so only we could see out of it. It overlooked the entire arena where all the matches today would take place.

"It's someone from my home country." Ryota said with a bright smile.

"He sounds famous." Clearly Ryota was as excited as I was.

"He is, he goes by Raiju. He's one of the most powerful lightning users I've ever seen, it's a shame what happened to him." Ryota said.

"What happened?" Someone that powerful being in the arena almost always has a bad backstory.

"He got hired in one of the human wars as a mercenary, but he was betrayed by a Duke and forced to be a gladiator here in the central coliseum. To this day most Beastkin utterly despise humans, you'd do well to remember that at the academy." Ryota said with concern.

"Thank you for the heads up master." I doubt any beastkin could hate Reiner honestly.

To this day I still have no idea what race I am, each time I ask my mother she changes the answer.

Some days she says I'm a half elf, while other days she says I'm half dragon. My body has a lot of the same advantages of other races, but I don't suffer the same disadvantages as them. Dragons have one of the most powerful innate bodies but suffer from over inflated pride, I don't suffer from the pride problem thankfully. Elves have one of the best bodies to sense mana, but they grow much slower than other races since they live so long which makes their mana cores much weaker at the start.

Despite having these advantages, I had no idea what race I was. Clearly whatever I am is a big deal so Yuna won't tell me, I'll pry it out of her at some point.

"A few matches will take place before the main event starts, another added bonus of high profile matches like this." Yuna said as she smiled, she clearly wanted praise for doing such a good job.

"You're truly the greatest mother to ever live." I clapped ironically.

A few hours passed by before the 2nd to last round was about to begin, I had gleaned a few new techniques that were better than my previous ones. Mainly I saw a man with a greatsword who was capable of using it as a shield half the time while delivering incredibly powerful strikes, then another man who used a bow that could transform into twin blades. Both of these techniques seemed incredibly useful so I made sure to commit it to my memory, gravity especially would be incredible with arrows.

Suddenly there was a knock at our door, after the maid opened it a Lionkin walked through the doorway and stared at Ryota and Aiko.

He stood at around two meters tall which was huge and had a golden mane, his body was covered in scars so clearly he had a large amount of battle experience. He wore a black and gold colored yukata, the material of it though was incredibly silky but dense looking from what I could tell.

The most eye-catching feature about him though was the black eye patch on his left eye, you could see a scar running across the top and bottom of the latch.

"Ryota, it's nice to see you again." His voice echoed in the room, even without enhancing it with mana it boomed loudly.

"It's nice to see you again also, King Faren." Ryota and Aiko both bowed.

"I believe it's time for you to return to your duties." Faren said, leaving no room to fight back.

"I refuse." Ryota looked up and stared back.

"That was an order." Faren unleashed his mana pressure, everyone in the room buckled except for Yuna and Ryota.

"Silver core." I thought to myself, this was probably one of the strongest people I've met so far, only because he didn't care to hide his power.

Suddenly an even more terrifying pressure descended on the room, coming straight from Yuna.

"It's a bit rude to come into my booth and steal my son's teacher, don't you think?" Yuna was clearly angry.

"Stay out of this you ignorant elf." Faren began gathering mana into his hand which started to form a set of fiery claws.

"I dare you try it, kitty cat." Yuna said mockingly.

Dragons were incredibly prideful beings, but Lionkin were a very close second.

As soon as Faren started to dash towards Yuna, a blur suddenly entered the room and restrained Faren.

This man was another Foxkin that looked a lot like Ryota, except that all of his fur was white. His outfit consisted of a simple set of golden armor that only covered his chest, shoulders, and leggings that stopped right above his knees.

"My king, this is the central continent." He whispered in Farens ear.

"I don't care." Faren replied before kicking the foxkin off him.

"Very well, proceed." The foxkin quickly gave up.

As soon as Faren started to charge forward again, a female Lionkin entered.

"Honey." Her voice was incredibly demanding.

Hearing his wife's voice, Faren immediately stopped and looked back surprised.

"My love, why are you here?"

"I knew you would act like an idiot, so I came here to make sure you didn't screw up. Thank god I checked up on you." The woman walked forward and slapped Faren.

"Go back to our booth, i'll be there shortly. Damn dumbass." The last part she muttered.

After Faren left it was only the woman and the other foxkin.

"Sorry about that, let's start again." She fixed her outfit which was exactly the same as Farens.

"I'm Queen Amber, I wish for Ryota and Aiko to return home to their duties." She said this nicely but clearly it was a demand. A part of me felt bad for Ryota and Aiko, Beastkin society seemed way too primal for my taste, everyone's demands and never asks.

"I refuse, please leave." Ryota said bluntly.

"Ryota, this is an order from your queen." She demanded once again.

"Why do you want me to come back? Better yet, why do you think I would ever come back?" Ryota asked.

"You have a duty to your nation, this is law in our nation. You should know this Ryota, our country needs your bloodline." Amber started to calm down some.

"You should've thought of that before you let my wife die, Amber. After all you both were "best friends" right?" At this point Ryota started becoming agitated, which was impressive since over the years I had never seen him act out before.

"Ryota, this was years ago so just drop it. You'll have no trouble finding another, bring you and your daughter back home."

At this point Ryota slammed his hand against the wall and left a giant crater in it.

"Leave, you still haven't learned anything about humility or respect." Ryota bellowed.

"I tried to be nice, don't expect it again." Amber hissed before leaving the room with her guard.

Right before the guard left the room he looked back at Ryota.

"It was nice seeing you, brother-in-law." He said with a smile before quickly leaving.