Alyssa Hearth

Argos heaved a sigh of relief seeing as the four Year two students didn't make a scene before leaving. He wished to anger as little people as possible before the last stage. Their chances would be much higher if they weren't sore in the eyes of multiple students far stronger than them.

They would be okay for now since infighting wasn't allowed during the first and second stages of the competition. But during the third, if they met with a team they had somehow managed to offend during the earlier stages, they would be decimated quite ruthlessly. As a Battlesoul master of the Soaring Star Academy, one could only imagine the amount of pride and ego that would bubble up in an individual if they allowed it.

Noah, on the other hand, didn't really care. The competition was just a matter of convenience to him, he could always just accept tasks from the academy to acquire Credits. He looked down at his sword and revealed a satisfied smile. 'Although it took a lot of time to finally acquire the Dual Circulation insight, it was very much worth it. My fluidity and attack speed is indeed faster now that I can meld two aspects of my battle strength together.' He knew that if it were a year before, even if he possessed the same strength as he did now, he could never execute Battle arts with such fluidity as he did now.

Due to the Dual Circulation technique which combined his Battle Arts and Martial arts, he could perform seamless attack patterns that required less time compared to when he had to individually circulate both his Essence and Blood Essence. If he could, he would have fused each and every art he practiced at the moment into one single technique, but unfortunately he still did not have enough insight into the workings of Essence and everything related to it. More importantly, he didn't think his body could handle such strengths yet.

He reckoned that to achieve that he had to have been able to use the true Azure Dragon Art and would have fully mastered all the moves in his current Battle Arts. All of this could only be possible after the Expert Stage. 'At least I now understand why mentor said the true starting point of strength in Maest is the Expert Stage.' An expectant light shined in his eyes as this thought ran through his mind. 'I can't wait to reach that level of power.'

Only at that point, would his true path to strength on the world of Maest start. Only then would he be able to seek power that would exempt him from any form of manipulation or scheme his possible enemies would plot. It was even possible that he could find his way back to Earth through some miraculous encounter.

If he could go back to Earth… If he could see Ian once more. If he could see…

His eyes became cloudy at the thought. "… Isabelle."

"Oi, Noah!"

Leonel's voice pulled the transmigrator from his thoughts. He glanced to the side and noticed that his team were awaiting his instructions on how to move forward. "Oh, I was lost in thought." His eyes brightened one more time as he activated his Silver Dragon Eyes. Immediately, the world erupted into a plethora of colors in Noah's mind but he had long been used to it so he merely focused on what he wanted to find, erasing things that didn't matter. The colors died down, allowing him to locate multiple ash colored beacons in different locations around him.

Most of those beacons seemed to be surrounded by dots of light, featuring different colors, which approached in groups of four. And he quickly memorized the locations of those that weren't surrounded by any dots. "This way."

Noah moved forward, moving with a speed that was close to surpassing the sound barrier, probably at about 250 meters per second. He realized that he would probably surpass that limit once reaching the Adept Stage. Emery was just like him, though a tad faster. His edge was that he could teleport whenever he deemed fit, allowing him to bypass obstacles without the need of slowing down and dodging. Emery could also do this, but his Shadow Jump wasn't as seamless or as instantaneous as the transmigrator's Flicker.

The team quickly arrived at their destination, appearing before a tree that seemed to have collapsed onto the ground. But the path before them suddenly split apart, same as what Noah had done before.

But unlike the students who had been helpless against such a distraction, he wasn't. He and Emery moved, disappearing with their respective movement techniques and appearing on the other side of the rift.

They headed for the fallen tree immediately but were disrupted when a wave of power was released from the ground, sending it into the air and causing them to crash into its empty spot.

Noah's legs tensed, his muscles becoming firmer while they increased in size and power through the execution of Flowing Partial Embodiment, as he twisted to regain his bearings before he jumped into the air, chasing after the rising tree.

But surprisingly something moved even faster than he did, causing a sonic boom as they passed by him from behind and almost sending him flying in disarray. He landed onto the ground and looked up to see a familiar set of dark feathered wings that flapped occasionally to keep their owner afloat.

Noah instantly knew who the female before him was. She had grown a lot but he could still easily remember her. They had spent more than half a year together after all.

In the sky, with a silver token in her hand, was a beautiful dark haired teenager who had fought by his side inside the cursed realm of the wretched Devilsoul master, Evan Hill. One of the few friends that Noah seemed to have in the world of Maest. Alyssa Hearth.

"How are you doing, Noah?"