The arena floor continued to explode in the places where Ion and Cyril collided.
Some of the weaker students could only see shadows clashing.
As for the stronger ones, they could barely make out the figures of Ion and Cyril in the arena.
Their speed kept increasing, and the force of their collisions rose at a pace that spelled trouble, to the point that if you sensed the ground beneath the students' feet, you would feel a slight tremor…
Rin Evelyn could not help but frown slightly as she watched the scene.
She was not surprised by Cyril's strength—after all, she had fought him several times over the past year on different occasions.
She knew his power well; until now, he had only used 40% of his strength.
He had not yet activated the Heaven and Earth Rune, nor had he used any spells, and most importantly, he had not activated his bloodline yet.
Instead, he was still engaging in close combat with Ion, even though that seemed to be in Ion's favor at the moment.
What shocked her was Ion—a new student who had barely been enrolled for a month—matching Cyril using aura alone.
What made her shiver was that Ion still looked relaxed during the fight and had not yet reached the stage of struggling just to endure.
This meant that Ion had not used his full strength either, and his calm facial expression during the fight made it impossible for the spectators to know what he was thinking—like a bottomless abyss.
She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a loud crash.
She quickly refocused on the scene and saw that Cyril had increased his power once more and kicked Ion backward several meters.
Then he jumped back, extended his hand forward, and a half-meter-wide circle of bright red color with strange engravings began forming in the air in front of him, carving itself into existence.
"!!" someone exclaimed, "A white-rank magic art!"
The mana circle began spinning as it rapidly absorbed mana from the surroundings.
Cyril said slowly, "Visendra Fire."
In less than a second, a torrent of flames shot toward Ion, who had finally stopped being pushed backward from Cyril's kick.
The moment he steadied his gaze, he saw a pillar of fire heading straight toward him.
Rin glanced at Professor Elara to see if she intended to intervene to protect Ion, but it seemed she had no such intention. Her emerald eyes remained calm.
Then she suddenly turned toward Rin when she sensed her gaze and smiled gently at her.
Meanwhile, in the arena, the flames covered Ion's figure, making him no longer visible to the students.
They thought the match had ended there and that the professor would intervene.
Explosion.
The ground trembled slightly as an aura burst outward explosively from Ion's position, blowing the flames away.
When he became visible to the spectators, they saw that Ion had shaped his arm into the form of a sword.
He raised it slowly as his aura condensed on his arm into a sharp blade that extended from the tip of his hand without a single drop leaking.
Then he brought it down at incredible speed, releasing a two-meter-long blade that split the pillar of fire like tofu and shot rapidly toward Cyril.
Cyril was startled and had barely moved his head when the blade passed by his face, cutting his cheek and then his ear, blood flowing from them…
He then turned his gaze toward Ion, who was already raising his arm again. When he saw the sharp blade, he felt a sting in his eyes.
Ion lowered his arm and sent another blade, which let out a sharp whistling sound as it shot even faster toward Cyril.
Cyril reinforced his legs with mana and moved to the side; the moment his foot touched the ground, he saw another blade launching forcefully toward his shoulder.
He hurriedly erected a mana barrier in front of him. He had barely finished when the blade reached him, and his eyes widened as he saw his barrier cracking.
Then the blade struck his shoulder.
…Silence…
The arena fell into silence as the spectators saw Cyril's training uniform turn red. His bones were almost visible…
That was only because the mana barrier had already reduced the blade's power, and only a tenth of the strike had hit his shoulder.
The gazes of 300 students turned toward Ion, their eyes filled with absolute shock.
Even Rin was no exception, while the professor stood calmly as if she had already expected this, though her eyes concealed a faint glimmer.
One of them muttered in a low but audible voice in the eerily quiet arena,
"This is complete damn nonsense."
Another voice followed, louder and filled with utter confusion,
"How the hell can he already use that move?!"
Cyril, still shocked by his bleeding shoulder, suddenly roared as he looked at Ion,
"How the hell can you use a move that's exclusive only to those at the Integration rank—"
His voice suddenly cut off when he saw Ion panting heavily, drenched in sweat, his face pale, barely able to stand upright.
Ion raised his gaze to Cyril and said with a smile dripping with undisguised sarcasm and disdain:
"Who the hell is the idiot who said it's exclusive to the Integration rank… bring him here so I can slap him a few times and open that dog's eyes."
(Leave a comment if you've made it this far...thx)