Ch 20

Welsh calmly stared at Areth, conjuring a fireball twice the size of his.

"You should just give up now. I can't control my powers well, you see."

As if to emphasize his point, the flames of his fireball grew and roared in the wind.

"What a shame." Areth shook his head in disappointment. "Do you expect to beat me with a power that is not even yours?"

With a flick of his wrist, the small fireball was sent flying at high velocity. This made Welsh panicked, he didn't expect it to be so fast. The fireballs he had seen earlier compared to this, was like a child swinging a stick and an expert swordsman swinging the same stick.

"Go!" With a loud cry, he sent his own fireball. But before it could get far, the collision already occurred. The hot air blasted him a couple of steps back.

'Not good!' The second fireball had already arrived before him. Thanks to him playing action games, his reflex was quite good. He was able to turn his head on time, the small fireball whizzed past his head.

Ignoring the heat at the side of his helm, he hurriedly swiped his hand in the air. Wind gathered and formed a strong current, blocking the succeeding fireballs. This bought him enough time to counter attack.

The spectators watching the fight stood with mouth agape.

Lina tugged Rachel's sleeve and asked, "Was senior always this strong?"

"I- I guess so?" Even the rest of his childhood gang was baffled at his sudden display of skill.

Only Anne had a knowing smile on her face. "You kids thought that your Vice-leader is weak didn't you?"

"But he is weak. You bullied him most of the time!" Lian retorted.

The fight went on. Areth displayed his superior spell work, pushing Welsh into the brink without even moving from his position.

Welsh's fireballs were powerful, but they could not touch Areth as they were intercepted by the same spell.

"Do you think you can keep on casting fireballs forever?!" Welsh was mentally tired. He could not just hide behind the Wind Screen he had set up, because he found that fireballs could curve. This made him feel like he was playing dodgeball, sometimes he got hit and the consequences were very painful, and embarrassing.

The only thing he could be thankful of was that the freakish fireball of his opponent could not do a u- turn.

Areth ignored him, sending out fireballs nonchalantly. His casting rate was constant, but the trajectories of his spells were unpredictable, causing immense stress to his foe.

'Hahaha! Serves you right you right you mainstream Mage!'

'Fireballs have a very low mana cost! Sending out hundreds is not a problem with my optimized spell blueprint, 'mini-fireballs!''

Leyfin was doing the role of a commenter. Unfortunately, only Areth could hear her.

'By the way, when did you learn to curve fireballs? Did I already taught you that? I must have, I am indeed a talented teacher.'

'You wish...'

Under the stressful situation and his fear of defeat looming in his heart, Welsh was able to unleash his full potential.

"I can't lose!" He sent out two powerful wind blast, extinguishing all little tinders in the air, even pushing Areth back near the border.

Areth sighed. "Took you forever to use it. Now I can show you my final form."

"Hmmp! Cheap tricks." Welsh extended his arms and gathered mana. His immense mana was pouring towards his palm, such that it gave a blue glow. Normal people would have exhausted their mana at this point, but not him.

The spectators started murmuring.

"He's gonna use Wind Blast to push Areth outside the ring!"

"A Wind Blast conjured by Welsh's monstrous mana can't be stopped, and there's not enough space to dodge it, the other side will lose for sure."

Welsh's was already prepared to fire his spell.

"That's not how you do it, kid." Areth spoke. "Air Blast."

In the air underneath Welsh's hand compressed, and then exploded. Gasps could be heard from the spectators as Welsh's hand was forced upwards.

Welsh's face was colored with disbelief. "Shit!"

The powerful Wind Blast was fired on the ceiling, the powerful wind had nowhere to escape and pushed against everyone in the room.

They raised their hands to cover their faces. While everyone was still processing what happened, Areth raised his hand and fired a Wind Blast. His spell was less powerful than Welsh's, but the power was contained in a small area. It was enough to lift Welsh's feet up from the ground and throw him out of the ring.

After a moment of silence, there was a great clamor.

"He used...Air Blast?"

"Isn't that a pseudo-intermediate skill that the instructors asked us to learn during our freshmen years?"

"Nobody actually learned it. It was a difficult 'aimless' spell, the power was nowhere near practical as Wind Blast, and it cost more mana...I didn't think that there would such a hardworking freshmen this year."

"This Retribution Guild, I'm afraid each one of them are monsters."

Suddenly, one of them spoke softly while glancing around.

"Monster? You jest. The real monster is there." The man secretly pointed his chin to Anne.

"Naturally, she's the leader, so she would be the strongest."

"You don't understand do you? Did you know why the leader even bothered to have a mock battle against this freshmen club?"

He continued, "Anne Dekralt, does it ring a bell?"

The man who was in magic course widened his eyes upon hearing this. "T-that Dekralt?!"

"You shit! Shut your mouth! Do you want to die!"

The man covered his mouth and shook his head nervously. He looked around, and fortunately, no one paid attention to him as they were all trying to break down the battle.

There was a rumor that there's a fierce freshmen in the fighter course. On the first day of classes, an instructor, a C rank Hunter, wanted to demonstrate fighting skills and randomly chose someone for a light sparring.

That legendary freshmen is said to have cornered the instructor and it turned into a proper fight. In the end, the legendary freshmen emerged victorious, unscathed.

People who heard it thought it was a hoax. Today, that legendary freshmen became something like a demon with three heads and six arms in the imaginations of the students.

Areth walked to his team and smiled at them. He reached out and pushed Kyle's jaw upward, closing his gaping mouth. He did the same for Richard.

Shocked? Surprised? Didn't see that coming didn't you?

Lian looked at him, feeling betrayed. "Who are you? Where is Areth?"

"Areth, I didn't know that you are so skilled!" Lina was was staring at him with shining eyes.

'What the hell's wrong with these kids? Just how pathetic am I in their minds?'

"Areth, from now on you will join our sparring sessions!"

Rachel said, her eyes brimming with fighting spirit.

"Fine, I will join." 'I will beat you kids so hard that you would forget where the sun rises. You'll know why Anne did not let me spar with you.'

The mock battle concluded smoothly. Krau's group left with a gloomy atmosphere, unable to snatch even a single victory. In fact, if he had matched up Welsh to anyone but Areth, they would have won at least once. That kid also had a great potential.

It was weekends tomorrow and everyone bid farewell. Areth took a ride back home.

After arriving, he saw his father and two little figures playing around.

One of them turned his head and happened to see him, widening his eyes, the boy shrieked excitedly.

"Areth! Areth! Here!"

Areth smiled warmly at them.

"Monster! back!" Squealed another

Areth walked toward them while trying to maintain his smile.