ATPnovel Chapter 344: The Absolute Suppression
Chapter 344: The Absolute Suppression
[Arena.]
The translucent, high-density energy barrier shimmered under the arena lights, completely sealing off the combatants. Stellar stood near the edge of her designated zone and bowed lightly at Ethan, her posture adhering strictly to the formal dueling etiquette of the Eagle Academy. With a smooth, practiced flick of her hand, a complex, glowing blue rune rapidly materialized in the air before her, thrumming with highly concentrated elemental energy.
Ethan, however, displayed no such honor. He aggressively clenched his heavy broadsword, staring at her with a cold, hollow expression.
"I won’t go easy on you because you’re a lady." He muttered, and shot forward with explosive force, shattering the stone beneath his boots.
"I don’t want you to." Stellar replied instantly. She seamlessly joined her palms together, interlocking her fingers, and sharply separated them. The large rune floating before her instantly divided into two perfectly symmetrical, highly lethal magical arrays, and shot directly towards Ethan with pure killing intent.
Ethan didn’t slow down his violent charge, and swung his heavy sword fiercely at the incoming runes, relying entirely on brute physical damage to break the magic.
BAM!!
The force of the runic detonation was massively more than he expected, and the shockwave aggressively pushed him five feet backwards, halting his momentum and deeply stunning his own team watching from the sidelines.
"What is Ethan doing? He could easily take care of this girl, then why?" Nirvana asked with a slight frown. Her understanding of Ethan’s abilities couldn’t justify him losing ground to an Eagle Academy rune master.
"He was injured in the fourth round, and kind of have some mental breakdown... I am worried about Stellar." Honky said, his massive arms crossed as he was staring intently at Ethan’s erratic combat posture.
Ethan slowly raised his head towards her, stabilizing his footing and standing completely upright, his sword tip aiming downward in a relaxed stance.
"Seems I underestimated you." He said.
As the words left his mouth, an insidious, thick dark energy violently rose from his feet. His standard aura immediately cloaked it, his spirit energy perfectly hiding the corrosive demonic energy hidden within. It was a camouflage so profoundly absolute that it bypassed even the sensory perception of the Lv500 elders in the audience.
However, there were two exceptions. This dark frequency was entirely laid bare before the apex anomalies of the Dragon Academy: Mirabella and Carl. The former possessed a latent, terrifying resonance due to a tiny blood of demons buried deep within her, and the second could perceive the absolute hierarchy because he had an ancient golden Angel blood flowing in his veins.
"Big Sister--" Carl started, his blue eyes narrowing as he recognized the foul stench of the Abyss.
"--Don’t say anything, it isn’t our team battle." Mirabella ruthlessly cut him off, her piercing blue gaze fixed unblinkingly on Ethan.
’I was right, both him and Jessica are the same.’ She slowly nodded her head, finally confirming her darkest thoughts.
_
Stellar stared at the violently shifting energy around Ethan, and her expression also got entirely serious; something deep within her survival instincts told her Ethan wasn’t holding back anymore, and if she doesn’t go with her absolute strongest attack, she will surely die here, regardless of the tournament’s safety rules.
With a deep, grounding breath, she quickly raised her hand, and forcefully bit her index finger, drawing a stream of crimson blood. Channeling her life-force directly into her energy pathways, she rapidly started draining a massive, volatile blood-red rune in midair.
"Wow! Using blood to increase her attack! Stellar isn’t holding back!!" Davy yelled, staring at the terrifyingly dense rune taking shape.
"Do you think I will stand still, and watch?!"
Ethan violently shot towards her, abandoning all technique for sheer, predatory speed, his heavy sword tearing the wind behind him and creating a localized vacuum.
Stellar grimaced, rapidly increasing her channeling speed to match his advance, and with all her remaining spirit energy, she heavily slammed her palm directly onto the finish rune:
"Blood claw rune!!!"
BOOOOM!!
The massive, visceral attack shot towards Ethan with deadly, hypersonic speed, forcing him to aggressively dig his boots into the stone and stop charging forward to brace for impact.
"Such a strong rune." He coldly muttered. He held his sword tightly with both hands, maliciously channeling all his corrupted, heavy energy deeply into the blade. His eyes glowed brightly with unnatural darkness, and with one devastating horizontal slash, he sent a huge, highly compressed dark crescent energy blade flying directly towards her.
"This?!"
BOOOOM!!
The sheer, overwhelming difference in raw power was absolute. The dark attack instantly divided the heavily fortified blood rune cleanly into halves, utterly destroying Stellar’s defense, and kept moving mercilessly towards Stellar without losing any momentum.
"I won’t die here!!"
She desperately raised both her hands, burning her Vitality as golden defensive runes rapidly appeared before her, and she violently smashed them together, intending to physically block the catastrophic incoming blade.
"Don’t block that! Get out of the way!!" Eve yelled frantically at her from the sidelines. Even with the absolute safety of the new rule, the Eagle Captain wasn’t confident she can block that attack head-on without suffering permanent, irreversible bodily destruction.
BOOOOM!!
The dark crescent smashed right into Stellar’s golden shields, instantly shattering them. She violently flew backward, her body skipping across the arena floor, before smashing heavily on the ground; violently spurted out a massive mouthful of thick, dark blood... Weakly, she slowly turned around, still collapsed on the ground, only to see Ethan’s heavy sword pointing directly at her face.
"You are still alive because I don’t want to be disqualified, if not, I would have taken your head right now." He said coldly, completely devoid of empathy, and smoothly sheathed back his sword, simply walking away from his fallen opponent.
"The Winner of this round is, Ethan from the sword academy, they gain 100 points!" Davy yelled, his booming voice reaching everyone on the massive Arena, officially concluding the brutal mismatch.
Eve instantly rushed towards Stellar, bypassing the barrier, desperately checking her bleeding arm: "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. The trauma of the Earth weighed heavily on her; Stellar was the absolute last living member that came with her from Earth, the remaining girls under her command were all brutally killed on earth by the monsters. She was absolutely not ready to lose her remaining friend.
Eve gently helped Stellar up, her eyes blazing with helpless fury, and slowly led her off the arena.
__
[VIP Seat.]
"Now I understand the No-kill rule." Yakima said, slowly closing her white eyes, realizing the terrifying lethality gap between the academies.
"Yes, the eagle academy’s Captain is a bit weak, the No-kill rule also protects others." Hayatobi said, slowly nodding his head in absolute agreement, his foresight fully appreciating Mirabella’s mercy.
__
[Arena.]
The medical teams cleared the field, and the arena reset back to new.
"Okay, let’s welcome the next on the list!!" Davy said, his enthusiasm returning, and smoothly turned his head to the massive holographic screen; the whole audience strictly following his gaze.
"Nicolas from the Eagle Academy, and Carl from the Dragon Academy."
The two Assassins confidently stepped forward into the ring, both adopting their respective stealth stances, standing a precise 100 meters away from each other.
"Begin!"
WHOOSH!!
Nicolas didn’t waste a single, precious second. Tapping directly into his agility build, he shot forward at blinding speed, as two highly venomous daggers appeared seamlessly before him:
"Assassin deadly blades." He yelled, activating his killing skill, instantly closing the gap and reaching Carl.
Carl didn’t even bother drawing a weapon. He simply stood perfectly still and calmly stretched one hand directly towards the charging elite, his gaze completely cold and indifferent to the incoming threat:
"Legendary class skill; Assassin Grip."
BOOOOM!!
An immense, localized and entirely invisible force instantly smashed Into the charging Nicolas, abruptly halting all his physical momentum in a microsecond, and violently gripped his throat like a vice of pure, unbreakable spirit energy.
"This..." Nicolas’s face instantly turned a deep, suffocating purple as his windpipe was brutally crushed.
Carl’s expression remained terrifyingly flat as he slowly raised his outstretched hand higher into the air. The absolute, invisible grip perfectly mirrored his movement, forcefully also rising Nicolas into the air, completely separating the Eagle assassin’s feet from the ground and leaving him helplessly dangling.
"Let... Me... Go..." Nicolas forced out through his crushed throat, his legs kicking wildly in the empty air, his face completely turning blue from the extreme oxygen deprivation.
The sheer, insurmountable gap in dominance shattered his will to fight.
"I... Surrender!!!" He yelled with all his remaining, desperate strength, his voice cracking violently.
Instantly, Carl dropped his hand, and let him go, completely severing the grip.
BAM!
Nicolas fell heavily on the hard stone ground, desperately gasping and violently coughing for air. And just like that, the battle ended in a matter of seconds, profoundly stunning absolutely everyone in the Arena with the sheer, effortless display of suppression.