Chapter 400

The cries of Ar rippled through the gathering, triggering an immediate and radical shift among the scholars of Azonia.

They were far from the only ones affected.

A heavy crash vibrated through the air.

Having undergone his own transformation, the Shadow Lord, Kirin, tore through the ranks of the Hero Hunters, separating heads from shoulders with blinding velocity.

A sharp snap echoed.

Kirin pulled his claws from a severed throat and casually flexed his fingers, popping the joints.

In the midst of the chaos, his gaze drifted.

He watched Chen Xia systematically cutting down the Hero Hunters, a quiet commentary running through his mind.

Her lethal choreography was a mesmerizing display that held his attention completely.

‘It appears the Princess maintains her radiant brilliance even when she plunges into the deepest shadows by her own choice.’

Throughout his existence as a living reflection, he had crossed paths with countless legendary figures.

The figure Chen Xia cut in this moment bore a striking resemblance to those historic icons.

‘That feline, however, is truly remarkable.’

The mechanics eluded him, but Ar’s vocalization had somehow granted the beastfolk the precise empowerment usually reserved for the zenith of a full moon.

‘The currents of the world are undeniably shifting.’

A profound realization settled in.

Having spent ages operating in the background, Kirin could read the signs of the era with absolute clarity.

‘And Leo Flobe is undoubtedly positioned at the very center of this vortex.’

Meanwhile, the student holding the second rank among Azonia’s sophomore class made his move.

Dion unleashed a savage, sweeping strike with his massive greatsword.

A resonant ring filled the area.

“Ha ha ha! Not a bad effort!”

Deflecting the heavy blade, one of the Hero Hunters erupted into a loud laugh.

The amusement, however, was dripping with pure contempt.

“Impressive for a wet-behind-the-ears child!”

The laughing hunter’s expression twisted into something thoroughly malicious.

“What worth is there in bragging about inheriting the bloodline of Arion? You stand there completely incapable of executing the very shape-shifting technique that Arion passed down!”

Dion offered no verbal reply, merely fixing the speaker with a cold, unblinking stare.

“Tell me, boy. Does the lineage belong to those of us who actually wield Arion’s shifting arts, or does it belong to a failure like you who remains stuck in human form?”

Confronted by the relentless mockery, Dion finally broke his silence.

“If appearance is any indication, someone as degraded as you could never claim kinship with Lord Arion.”

“What did you say?”

The hunter’s features instantly twisted into a mask of rage.

“You arrogant little piece of trash! I will tear you apart!”

Driven to near madness by Dion’s measured, understated insult, the hunter bared his teeth and lunged forward with absolute fury.

Dion tightened his grip on his weapon.

‘A formidable adversary… and one who possesses the shifting arts.’

The gap in their current capabilities made this an incredibly daunting matchup for Dion.

‘Yet, yielding is not an option. Defending the honor of a legendary figure demands that I stand firm against anyone who drags it through the mud.’

Just as a fierce determination took root in Dion’s gaze, a profound sound disrupted the battlefield.

“Cooooooraaaaaaang!”

A deep, resonant roar rolled across the terrain.

Dion’s ears twitched instantly in response to the sound.

Simultaneously, a violent thumping started in his chest.

An uncontrollable surge of raw energy began to flood his veins.

The young warrior immediately recognized the nature of the phenomenon taking hold within his physical form.

‘A transformation?’

A look of utter bewilderment crossed Dion’s face.

He wasn’t the only one caught off guard.

The hostile hunter opposing him froze, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief.

“What kind of sorcery is this?!”

Dion looked down, observing a shimmering golden radiance rolling off his skin.

The manifestation mirrored the historical descriptions of Arion’s legendary energy precisely.

Yet, woven into this familiar light was an entirely distinct source of strength.

‘Ar…!’

Dion squeezed his hands into tight fists.

‘The underlying cause remains a mystery, but…’

He channeled every ounce of resolve into his physical frame.

‘In this moment, I will deliver justice to the turncoat standing before me.’

A massive surge of energy rippled outward.

An unparalleled aura of martial intent exploded from Dion’s position.

“This brat is getting out of hand…!”

The hunter’s gaze flickered with dangerous intent.

“A child needs to learn his proper place!”

A deafening roar split the air.

The hunter unleashed a massive wave of personal energy, screaming through the noise.

“Stop trying to match strength with your betters and learn to cower!”

A succession of violent explosions shattered the ground, sending chunks of earth flying in every direction.

The devastating energy forced from the hunter’s blade completely swallowed Dion’s position.

A dense cloud of pulverized stone and soot billowed upward, raining debris down upon the immediate area.

“That is the price for lacking worldly wisdom and overstepping your bounds. A fitting end!”

A smug sneer formed on the hunter’s face as he prepared to celebrate his apparent victory.

A sudden rush of air cut through the clearing.

“…!”

Covered in crimson, Dion charged straight through the curtain of dust, appearing instantly in the hunter’s immediate space.

The sheer volume of trauma to his body suggested he should have been on the verge of collapse.

Instead, an undying spark of defiance burned brightly in Dion’s eyes.

“How… how are you doing this? That look in your eyes…”

The hunter stammered, visibly unsettled by the sight.

“What grants you the right to stare at me with such unyielding defiance and press the attack?! Just give up and shatter already!”

Despite holding a massive advantage in raw destructive capability, the hunter found himself mentally drained by Dion’s relentless, uncompromising advance.

Answering the frantic outburst, Dion spoke clearly.

“A broken coward who chose betrayal over honor possesses no power to break me.”

A sharp whistle sliced through the air.

Dion brought his greatsword around in a powerful arc.

“When granted the gift of valor, the only path is forward, regardless of the ultimate cost.”

A heavy impact resounded.

Dion’s blade cleanly parted the hunter’s head from his torso.

“That is the fundamental truth I absorbed from the legacy of Lord Arion!”

The severed head traced a high arc through the atmosphere before crashing back down into the dirt.

A dull thud followed.

Dion spat a mouthful of blood and sank heavily to his knees.

His gaze drifted across the battlefield, settling on Ar.

“The method remains beyond me… but in this moment, he truly embodies the spirit of a genuine heroic successor.”

A sharp crackle filled the atmosphere.

Vibrant gold electricity crackled violently across Duran’s frame.

With matching golden radiance burning in his eyes, Duran launched himself directly toward a colossal concentration of dark energy.

He gripped a massive two-handed blade firmly in his hands.

A grinding screech tore through the air.

Transforming into a living manifestation of lightning, Duran closed the distance to the dark mass with terrifying swiftness.

More concussive sounds rattled the area.

At that exact instant, a razor-sharp protrusion of shadow erupted from the dark mass, rocketing straight toward Duran’s position.

A high-pitched chime rang out, followed by a metallic clash.

Mere moments before the shadowy projection could impale Duran, a precise magical strike delivered from the rear forced the dark projectile off its intended course.

It was Juen’s specialized long-range magical intervention.

The assault didn’t stop there.

A sharp freezing sound hissed through the air.

Betty, acting under Chloe’s direct tutelage, deployed a freezing spell that successfully ensnared the dark manifestation.

The combined efforts represented the peak output of two exceptionally talented freshman sorcery students.

Even so, the maximum output of these two prodigies only managed to temporarily arrest the progress of the advanced Dragon Language magic.

Nevertheless, that fleeting moment proved entirely sufficient.

A blinding flash illuminated the space.

Utilizing his peerless agility, Duran capitalized on the microscopic window of opportunity, slipping past the obstruction to reach the core entity.

Duran stood as the undisputed speed specialist among the second-year cohort of Lumern, a group widely celebrated as the Golden Generation.

He brought his blade down with a two-handed grip.

Light exploded outward in a chaotic pattern.

Like a localized storm, tendrils of electricity discharged violently in every direction.

The display unleashed an immense concentration of destructive power, rivaling high-tier incantations.

Under the oppressive brilliance of the illumination, the dark mass appeared to lose its cohesion.

Duran’s edge bit deeply into the core of the shadow, driving inward.

Almost instantly, however, a counter-offensive spike manifested from the depths of the darkness, aiming to run Duran through.

A sudden gale howled.

An accelerated slipstream materialized even faster, plucking Duran from harm’s way just in time.

“A fraction of a second more and I would have severed it completely.”

“A fraction of a second more and you would have been turned into a pin cushion!”

“Would it have killed you to provide your acceleration support a bit sooner?”

“Do you honestly believe my sole purpose on this battlefield is to clean up after your reckless gambles?!”

Chelsea barked back, her eyes wide with irritation.

Duran merely offered a dismissive grunt in response.

“Pace is severely lacking.”

“Keep it up and I will drop you right out of the sky!”

Chelsea ground her teeth in sheer annoyance.

Within the sophomore rankings, her swiftness was surpassed only by Duran himself.

While Abbad shared her affinity for wind manipulation, his approach leaned toward traditional spellcraft, making the combat-oriented Chelsea vastly swifter than her sibling.

Even with that advantage, bridging the gap to Duran’s natural velocity remained an impossibility.

An aggressive roar echoed.

The dark protrusion pivoted, pursuing Chelsea at extreme speed.

Dismissing the threat with a sharp exhalation, Chelsea raised her magical focus.

“Cyclone.”

A massive rush of air answered her call.

Manifesting an advanced incantation with effortlessly compressed casting speeds, Chelsea scattered the oncoming shadow into nothingness.

“Rafale.”

Without a moment’s pause, she finalized a secondary spell aimed directly at the heart of the darkness.

A series of thunderous concussions rattled the battlefield.

A localized tempest completely swallowed the shadowy form.

The pressurized air currents concealed within the vortex began systematically shredding the dark mass.

Watching the display from a distance, Juen clamped her jaws tight.

‘We belong to the exact same age group, yet the gap is…!’

Instruments like Cyclone and Rafale represented advanced benchmarks that presented significant difficulty for the average practitioner.

To execute such demanding magic via rapid-casting techniques was a testament to extraordinary skill.

While a single year of development at Lumern typically yielded substantial growth, witnessing peers operate on an entirely different tier of capability despite sharing the same age was deeply humbling.

Elsewhere on the field, a transformation occurred.

A massive pressure wave rippled outward, generating a gale that dwarfed Chelsea’s previous efforts.

A sudden roar of wind was immediately joined by an immense eruption of blazing fire.

“Are your preparations complete, Abbad?”

“I certainly hope yours are, Celia.”

“If you are set, then nothing else matters.”

Celia gave a sharp, confident snort.

Offering a brief smile to his partner, Abbad released his gathered power.

“Tempest.”

Abbad triggered his signature magical manipulation.

The sound of tearing air intensified dramatically.

The localized atmospheric currents converged directly upon Celia’s weapon.

“Prominence.”

The aeromancy of the Rwalin family integrated flawlessly with the pyromancy of the Zerdinger line, creating a raging inferno.

Channelling their absolute highest possible offensive capacity, the duo targeted the remaining darkness.

A blinding flash accompanied a roaring vortex.

The fused forces of magical wind and burning martial energy completely enveloped the target.

Another frustrated roar sounded from within the cloud.

The vast majority of the shadowy mass was stripped away, exposing the underlying silhouette of a human shape.

The confrontation, however, was far from resolved.

Quietly and with immense stealth, the Dragon Language magic initiated a secondary phase, causing a new wave of deep ink-black energy to swell outward.

Right at that critical juncture, a thunderous boom shook the area.

An enormous fist descended like a meteor from the upper atmosphere.

The strike came from the Great Earth Spirit Titaum, acting in accordance with the pact forged with Wardeden.

The shadow distorted violently under the sheer weight of the colossal blunt force impact.

Yet, this was merely the prelude to the main assault.

A sharp, crackling frost began to spread rapidly across the terrain.

Positioned at the absolute rear of the Lumern formation, Chloe stood motionless, her entire form enveloped in a violent aura of cryomancy.

An intimidating vortex of pure magical energy swirled around her position.

When evaluated purely on the basis of raw destructive potential, Chloe stood as the undisputed peak among the current sophomores—a spellcaster in the truest sense.

From the very opening moments of the engagement, she had remained dedicated entirely to maintaining a continuous incantation loop.

For a practitioner of her discipline, accumulated duration directly translated to overwhelming capability.

Chloe’s icy blue eyes locked onto the dark entity.

Sensing the immense threat radiating from her position, the darkness shifted its focus and lunged directly toward her.

A sharp metallic ring cut through the air.

Wardeden forcefully intercepted the entity, dragging the dark mass backward.

The sheer physical resistance forced the darkness to stumble mid-charge.

Refusing to be completely deterred, it discharged a volley of dark spikes aimed squarely at Chloe.

“Form a barrier!”

Chelsea’s urgent command echoed across the line.

Stepping into the trajectory of the dark projectiles were Aina, Harviden, and Sasha, who had maintained a defensive perimeter around Chloe to handle precisely this type of crisis.

Harviden utilized a specialized gale-infused aura to arrest the momentum of the incoming spikes.

Simultaneously, Sasha deployed a collection of conjured entities to block the remaining vectors.

Despite these efforts, the dark projectiles fragmented into an array of smaller, multi-directional splinters.

Reacting instantly, Aina brought her weapon around in a sweeping motion.

A succession of rapid metallic deflections rang out in quick succession.

Golden arcs of light flashed through the air as she neutralized the fragmented projectiles with blinding speed.

The display of martial precision was nothing short of breathtaking, leaving observers stunned.

The brilliant display of swordsmanship forced the dark assault to a temporary standstill.

A sharp sound punctured the brief quiet.

A stray dark spike, traveling along a vector that slipped past even Aina’s guard, rocketed directly toward the vulnerable Chloe.

Chloe, who had kept her eyes closed to maximize her mental focus, snapped them open.

The precise moment a spellcaster releases their accumulated power typically signals absolute ruin for their target.

Conversely, until that exact release occurs, the practitioner remains at their most defenseless.

Even so, Chloe had factored such variables into her tactical approach.

She began preparing a localized, short-range spatial displacement.

Naturally, shifting her focus to defensive casting would diminish the ultimate payload of her primary offensive spell.

Nevertheless, the volume of energy already gathered remained more than capable of delivering a catastrophic blow.

Just as Chloe prepared to release her magical payload, a brilliant silver flash split the air, cleaving the final dark spike entirely in two.