Cold Ice

As I walk back to my room, I meet my father in the corridor, leaning against the wall. He seems to be waiting for me.

...

My father walks to me once he sees me standing from a distance.

"If I were your mother, I would have constantly nagged at you saying that you were too cruel against your opponents. However, you are lucky that your mother went with your siblings to the toilet during your match." My father says.

...

"The assassin?"

My father takes out a square dark metal device with a circular jade engraved into the middle. It's a communicator.

"My man caught him. Thanks to your protective scrolls, everyone is safe."

"Kill them! Kill those motherfuckers! Kill all of them! I will make the Krist bloodline suffer for all of eternity!!!" Says Henry from the communicator.

I throw a glance at my father and he passes the communicator to me.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," I say into the communicator.

!!!!

"Y-You... Bastard."

I can feel Henry's voice trembling from the other side of the communicator. My father takes out a dagger and pierces it into the jade, cutting the line.

I pass the communicator back to my father.

...

"Don't look so down," my father smiles.

...

My father sighs. "The Igniz family, leave them to me. Don't you know, I have many connections outside of the capital and in the capital. I can easily end the Igniz family. So don't worry too much."

I know that. But his connections aren't very loyal to him, that's what I'm worried about.

...

"If it is about the match, you did the right thing. On a battlefield where death is imminent, showing mercy to an enemy will get you killed."

I nod and went back to my room.

----------------

The fifth round soon begin. My opponent this time is Irina. Not surprised she made it this far. On the other side of the tournament rankings, Mina has also reached the semi-finals.

I heave a sigh of relief. During the finals of the tournament, Mina will surrender to Irina because what she wants is the fire affinity stone that only the 2nd place can get.

I'm currently in the semi-finals, so as long as I beat Irina, I have pretty much won Mina.

"Ahem... Well, after the previous relatively intense match, we were able to witness the true power of our solo contestant. However, will he be able to stand up against the ice queen and king? Let's find out!" Says the Emcee.

I enter the arena. Nobles were glaring at me. Audiences were cheering loudly as if they have forgotten the bloody scene from an hour ago. I sigh as a rush of cold blew past the Colosseum. Opposite me, Irina and her brother, Clifton, enter.

A horn is blown as Irina freezes the entire arena.

!

...

The ground turns into slippery ice as clouds gather above the arena. Snowflakes start to rain down.

She did this to prevent me from using the sword array. A barrier was set up in the auditorium to protect the audience.

"That was a nice performance in the quarter-finals, but it will not work here," Clifton says. He has white hair and blue eyes like Irina.

I don't need the array to defeat them. I stomp on the ground, breaking the surrounding ice and charge at them.

Clifton stands in front of his sister and our swords clash.

!

My sword starts to freeze up.

Clifton smiles.

I deflect his sword away and ram at him using the side of my body. In an instant, I jump back as an icicle pierced into the area I was standing.

Clifton throws a glance at his sister and they exchange nods. The intensity of coldness becomes severe and a blizzard brews up.

Mana particles gather around Irina as it forms a ball of icy snow. Irina swings her hand down and the snow leaps toward me

I held my sword up.

"Zepes!"

!!!

A shockwave explodes from the tip of my sword. The ice in the surrounding dissipates and the snow Irina flung at me turns into nothing.

"What?!" Irina exclaims.

Zepes in an ancient language is translated as "return to zero". Mana can be manipulated into different temperatures, elements, molecules, characteristics, etc. That's why magic exists. Anything can be created from mana, even to cultivate our body stronger and increase our life span.

Zepes is an ancient spell that can dispel tier 1 to tier 3 spells or formations around the caster when said loudly by returning all mana into its natural form.

However...

*Aheck* *Aheck*

I cover my mouth as I cough, small drops of blood can be seen. The spell tends to take a toll on its caster.

I wipe the blood off my lips using my sleeve and charge toward Irina.

!

Clifton takes the chance to ram against me, sending me flying to the side.

"Now is your chance!" Clifton shouts.

Irina cast a huge avalanche of snow and throw them at me.

The avalanche collides with the walls of the arena, the entire Colosseum is trembling with dust falling everywhere.

"Did we get him?" Mumbles Clifton.

I abruptly appear from the dust.

!

Clifton was unable to react in time as I strike Irina in her stomach with my knee.

"ACK!"

Irina grits her teeth to endure the pain but I strike the second time on her nape using the pommel of my sword. 

Her body falls limp to the ground.

"Irina!" 

A whirl of blizzard surrounds Clifton as he charges at me. He slashes down from above as my body turns to the side, dodging his attack. The momentum carried his sword to the floor. As the sword collides with the ground, an icy explosion occurred around the sword.

I sacrifice my sword to block the impact as Clifton goes in for another strike. He attempts to slash at my chest as I step back to dodge it. 

At the perfect moment when the momentum carried his sword to his hips, I kick his calf.

!

Clifton loses his balance as I grab both of his wrists with my right hand as he is gripping the sword with his hands near one another. With one swift spin of my body, I use my right elbow to strike Clifton in his Chin as I pry his sword away from his grip. 

Clifton falls back as he grasps his chin. My movement just now placed Clifton's arm in a weird position, wrapping his arm around my body. Thus, forcing him to let go.

I take a firm grip of his sword and point it at Clifton.

...

He raises his hands in defeat.

"OHHHHHHH!!"

"What an amazing fight!" the emcee cheers with the audience. "The undefeatable twin geniuses have fallen from their ice throne! What a sight to behold!"

I stare at Clifton. He is gritting his teeth as he glares at the floor. The fact that he is not glaring at me means that he acknowledges my strength and simply is blaming himself for being too weak. But... he looks very desperate to me. Is there a reason he has to win no matter what? I remember Irina's family, the Nelson family is a Viscount family. His family is really rich and influential; they can provide the twins with any support. This means that it is not the prize that is bothering Clifton.

It may be the family's expectation of them or their pride as one of the strongest. Will they be reprimanded for not achieving the top place by their parents?

"Hey, Clifton, mind lending this sword to me? I need it for my last match." I ask.

"You can have that sword, my family can provide me with another," he says.

I smile brightly. "Thanks, buddy, I will repay you next time."

... 

Without looking at me, He walks out of the arena as healers rush in to carry the wounded Irina out.

I walk out on the opposite exit and return to my room.

I sit on the couch in my room as I examine the sword, there is a 5 minutes intermission between the semi-finals and finals. 

"Wow..." I mumble.

A Golden shiny sword with a jade guard and brown gold grip was made from a Category 6 Chimera scale. The sword can withstand even the cold in the Region of Death or the devastating heat in the Volcano of Dragon. Truly a sword that people fed with a silver spoon can obtain. 

A knock was heard in my room, the escort has come for me. I get up and left the room.

"Now then, is everyone ready for the endgame of the tournament? We have two contestants who are currently at the bottom rankings of the Akatski Academy yet have dominated the entire tournament. We have our famous solo, Loi, fighting against another famous group Sirius! Will our dear solo beast manage to win the last hurdle or fall? let's find out!"

A horn was blown. 

Normally, Mina would have immediately surrendered but instead, he steps up and attacks me.

!!

A gush of fire jolts out from four sides around me. It forms several massive swords in the sky and rain fire swords down at me. 

I fight fire with fire and summon a massive pillar of inferno blaze, cancelling out Mina's fire swords. I managed to find a use for the Inferno spell I extracted from Mina. 

However, when the chaos stabilizes and the dust clears up, I can see Mina with her eyes wide open.

"How...How do you know that spell?!" she mumbles. 

I sense sudden killing intent.

...