Chapter 124 - End to the Battle Royale

"Hmph. That boy thought too highly of himself. Did he really think that he could take on all of the first-year students by himself? Such a fool!" Said, Cindy.

Roman, seated next to her was, however, silent, focusing intently on Nerun. Most people also thought that Nerun was done for, however, soon many of them lost their control and stood up in astonishment.

Before Nerun was hit by the Magick Spells, Nerun had already gathered the energy of his surroundings and crossing his arms, fire surrounded his hands in a powerful conflagration that made him look as if he had wings.

"Χέρι διπλής φωτιάς" - /Chéri diplís fotiás/*

Nerun then opened his arms launching the two spells towards Jason and Mirna's Magick attacks. The five small fireballs from each hand joined together and formed a larger fireball which had a small blue-coloured centre. The spells clashed against each other right when they were passing above three of his remaining attackers, including Lala.

- BOOOOM

The wave after the attack was quite near the students, and two of them were immediately taken out of commission with a small concussion. Lala barely managed to dodge the centre of the explosion, however, the shockwave sent her flying close to Bufford who barely managed to hold her and helped her avoid taking more damage from the attack.

In the meantime, both Karles and Reina had approached both Jason and Mirna, who had been distracted by the fight with Nerun, and once close to them attacked them with their full strength. These two adepts were quite skilful, however, once an Adept gets close to an opposing Warrior, his defeat is almost certain. Karles and Reina didn't waste their attack and although Jason and Mirna tried to use last-minute spells to save themselves, Karles defeated Mirna with a <Grand Cross> and Reina bested Jason with her <Hundred Lightning Kicks>.

Gonzo and Marcia had also defeated their respective opponents and were about to go towards Karles and Reina.

However before the four of them could start fighting, Nerun had already landed and immediately using his <Ethereal Walk>, got right beside Bufford and Lala. The chaotic fight didn't help them defeat Nerun, on the contrary, as he expected, it actually hindered them and allowed Nerun to take advantage of the circumstances and defeat his enemies. Without proper training trying to fight the many against one who is a true expert in this type of skirmish is tantamount to foolishness. Of course, had it been any other first-year student apart from Nerun, they would have probably been defeated in a jiffy.

Bufford and Lala tried to fight back against Nerun, but it was already too late. Nerun had appeared right next to them and his hands were already on their heads. Nerun then simply applied strength and slammed both their heads into the ground, making them lose consciousness.

"FINISHED!" said Anastasia right then.

Gonzo, Marcia, Karles and Reina stopped in their tracks. Nerun then got up and looked towards the main box, straight into his big brother's eyes.

"The victors of the First Year students' Battle Royale are Gonzo Dai Morena, Marcia Halloran, Karles Dai Soltana, Reina Dai Aitana, and..." After saying the first four names, Anastasia turned her beautiful eyes towards Nerun who was standing in the centre of the arena like a great general coming back from a victorious campaign. Nerun reminded her of another dashing young man she had once loved in the past and couldn't help smiling. "Nerun No Rademia".

Many of the members of the audience clapped happily and gave loud cheers towards Nerun's great display of ability. Even many of the students cheered as well and were amazed by Nerun's prowess. Julieth's beautiful eyes were completely entranced by Nerun's gallantry and could not keep her eyes from him, her heart beating furiously.

"Congratulations Lord Elijah. Your brother is quite something, I might add. We have all been surprised by his ability, quite incredible," said Phillip with a smile on his face. He was thanking his propriety before and not mentioning whatsoever the rumours that had previously affected Nerun and Elijah. Otherwise, his face would have been slapped mercilessly.

"Thank you so much for your praise, Your Highness. I will make sure to pass on your congratulations to him," answered Elijah.

"I do have a question. Why did you say that your brother's chances to pass depended on something? From what I have seen, he is more than capable to fight for the number one spot in his year's student ranking," asked Philip, a question that caught the attention of the rest of those present, with the exception of the Headmaster, who was staring at Nerun with some interest.

"Well..." said Elijah while looking towards the rest of the people present and then staring at Cynthia whose face was as pale as a piece of paper. "I said it all depended because sometimes when my brother attends certain tests, he is stopped abruptly for no good reason and is not allowed to actually finish them, but actually manhandled."

Elijah's voice was cold and stern, and in Cynthia's ears, they sounded as if coming from the very depth of hell.

"Is that so?" asked Philip while also turning towards Cynthia and connecting the dots with the rumours about Nerun. He stifled a laugh and turned towards the Arena once again. Cynthia wanted to find a hole to crawl into when those present turned towards her and looked at her with a disapproving stares. Cynthia tried to find help in Vega, however, the latter had a cold attitude towards her and left her to fend for herself. She had wanted to talk back and answer Elijah scathingly, however the bit her own tongue and managed to hold herself back with some tears in the corner of her eyes. Her uncle Justin was the only one that finally approached her and instructed her to leave calmly and go talk to her father. Cynthia obeyed and left after saying goodbye to those present. She didn't dare stay in the main box any longer.

All of the students and their parents, that had also heard about the rumours of Nerun being a wastrel and not passing the tests to enter the Royal Military Academy, found the hearsay ridiculous and understood that someone with deep malice had tried to mistreat the boy and his brother. Many started gossiping and some even swore to themselves to find out what had actually happened. And the one thing that of course called their attention the most was the last technique had used to fight against the spells. Did Nerun use a Magick Spell as well? Then what was he? an Adept or a Warrior.

"There is one thing I'd like to understand. Is Nerun a warrior or an adept?" asked Karel who had not taken his eyes off Nerun since the fight started.

"About that. He is actually both. He has trained in both systems since he was a child and has managed to become both a Grandmaster and a Grand Adept at the same time. His energies remain pure though, during the entry test at the Royal Military School they confirmed that Nerun's energies were balanced and completely pure." said Elijah. The fact that Nerun could also use Mana was bound to be discovered soon, and they had long decided not to cover the fact.

Although they knew that the path ahead was both difficult and thorny, Nerun had long decided that he would wall it through to the end. After all, he was not alone. He had a secret with him, the help of the mysterious Ego Sum, who had taught him the way to enhance both energies at the same time.

"WHAT?" asked most of the people in the main box. Only Karel and the Headmaster remained silent. The former with a frown on his face and even a small hint of disappointment. The latter with a strange glint on his face.

"That is preposterous! Maybe that is the very reason that he was rejected from the Royal Military School, wouldn't you agree Dragon General Elijah?" said Vega with some derision in his voice.

"It is indeed an odd path to pursue," said Karel. "I would have chosen to become either an Adept or a Warrior since that is the orthodox path. From a purely theoretical standpoint, even if such a way was possible, it directly contradicts the First Rule of EON. That's the reason that none have been successful in this path before. The most someone has ever managed to train is up to level 19 in Qi and Mana, and even then they were not that much stronger than their pure counterparts. And inexorably all of them got stuck in the lower realms, no one has become a Mage or a Centurion, much less an Emperor or a Legend. He is wasting his potential."

Karel's tone was harsh, however, Elijah could tell that this came from Karel's true feelings and concerns towards a path that he considered implausible. Karel was mourning for Nerun, for with such a talent he could become whatever he desired. But he had chosen a path that had no future.

"I can't say that I don't see your point Young Master Karel, and I have also considered it as well, and have talked with my little brother long about the subject. I even took him to Lord Rafal who even offered to clean his meridians to a blank slate so he could start his cultivation and training all over. However, Nerun is quite stubborn in his views and so far has managed to prove to both Lord Rafal and me that his path, albeit difficult and with no previous precedents, is not completely hopeless. He told me something quite interesting once. His interpretation of the First Rule of EON. I wanted to chide him the first time he told it to me, yet, he proved with facts that it wasn't entirely the ideas and dreams of a madman." said Elijah.

"His interpretation of the First Rule, you say. I would love to hear about that," followed Karel.

"You are more than welcome at our manor, Young Master Karel. There, we can discuss more in-depth about Nerun's path. I know that some of you are concerned about Nerun's potential, and him biting more than he can chew, trying to become both a Warrior and an Adept. The truth of the matter is that he doesn't want to become either of them. His path is his alone, and it's quite unique. He calls it the Way of the Magick Warrior."

When Elijah mentioned this name there were different reactions to his words, some were surprised, and some treated it as if it was nothing more than nonsense. Whatever the case, most of them believed that nothing would come out of this.

"Please, the only thing I can ask of you, is for you not to judge too quickly. I'm sure my little brother will show you today, during the coming round-robin competition what his true path is all about. Even Lord Rafal and I have decided to trust him for now and lend our aid to him. For we have seen the possibilities that his path may bring. I can claim without a shadow of a doubt that Nerun is unmatched by any other warrior or adept at the same rank, even with a perfect set of meridians open. If he manages to break the mould and overcome the barrier that none other has done before, his future will not simply be considered limitless."

"Big words from you, Lord Elijah. I hope that your brother is worthy of them. Since you say that Lord Titan himself has given him the benefit of the doubt, I will keep my opinion of such a travesty to myself. I'm sincerely interested in watching what this so-called Way of the Magick Warrior is all about." said Samuel who had been silent about the issue so far, however, his opinion was the same as Vega and company.

The Headmaster remained silent all throughout the entire conversation. Nevertheless, he wasn't frowning, or even dismissal about Elijah's words. If Samuel had seen the Headmaster's eyes he would have noticed something entirely different, something that would have caused goosebumps all over him. Something that no one could have told whether it was actually good or bad.

It was boundless curiosity. The Headmaster was looking at Nerun as if he had discovered a new toy, with eyes that were trying to pry every little one of Nerun's secrets. He almost wanted to take Nerun directly and dissect him. Such was his craving for knowledge and for the strange. A new Path of power. Now, that was something worth investigating. But he wasn't entirely ready to bet too much on Nerun. After all, what the latter had shown so far was far from enough. Even if he could be considered good, even among thousands of genius on the continent, he wasn't truly superior. He couldn't even be named in the same sentence as Karel and many other one-in-five-hundred-year geniuses. Therefore he wanted to see what more could Nerun show.

At that exact moment, Nerun didn't know why. But he could feel his skin crawling all over. However, since he discovered that nothing seemed to be wrong, he thought that he was overthinking. If only that were the case...

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Χέρι διπλής φωτιάς - /Chéri diplís fotiás/: Double Fire Hand