Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

The cheering never stopped, even when Shin was losing. Moreover, the number of cheerleaders has only risen. Even Elior was there, cheering for Shin, though he knew there was not much of a chance for Shin to win.

Leroy's body burned in white as he rushed at Shin, who used all he had to withdraw. Certainly, the half-devarian had to use some of his secret abilities against Shin's concentrated waves that could cut through metal like mud. And it appeared like he was learning from Shin on how to concentrate his light. Light flows in the forms of waves, after all.

Like all the devarians, Leroy was blessed with the power of Light. Well, he might rather be far better at that compared with many pure-blooded devarians. This was the power he once hated to use, but it had become his closest ally over the years. And now he was learning another trick to use from a fellow classmate.

'Why have I not thought about this?' Leroy questioned himself. He never saw anyone use his ability in this form—anyone but Shin. But he could tell there were likely other people who have used their abilities in this kind of form. Mana had been there for thousands of years and there was no shortage of prodigy who came up with something new, while others started to figure out the trick behind it. There is no shame in it. Well, even if there was, Leroy did not care.

Certainly, concentrating light was far harder compared to simple waves, but Leroy had the highest affinity with mana, and the blessing of their immortal god.

His sword burned in white, emitting light, illuminating even in the open sun. Narrowing his eyes, he swung his sword towards Shin, who never stopped in his movement.

His opponent felt the incoming charge of light, and he tried to block it. It happened as the other time. The flash of light collided against his new sword, though he could not stop it. It broke into two bars of flash and assaulted his armament defence. It broke the defence where it hit it, but other than leaving a thin line on his light armour, it did nothing. Moreover, Leroy seemed to have not figured out how to make a mess of the armament defence. It only troubled his defence in a thin, straight line and with only a little more effort, Shin solidified the defence again.

Perhaps it was harder to control light waves than just to attribute normal waves. Even though Shin was no master of it, he could manipulate the waves to have a larger effect on the opponent's body, but the light did not seem to have that advantage. Still, the way it could ignore his sword was already overpowered enough.

Even if it only attacked in a straight line, Shin had suffered too many blows of it, while never succeeding in dealing anything to his opponent. Actually, Shin did get better at Leroy a couple of times, but his attacks did not seem to have much of an effect, with how he was emitting white rays of lights. The light has an innate healing factor as well.

'I can very well guess why seniors said they were the perfect race,' Shin wondered, checking another blow. Even with his high speed, if he deals a blow with these concentrated waves, all it could draw were rays of light. There was no blood on the edge of his sword.

"Shin  . . . Shin . . . Shin. . . ." The cheering of the girls came into his ears and poured him with more vigour to win the match. Or at least give it his all.

On the high stadium. Elior finally settled with his cheering. He rested the flag on one of the cheerleaders before coming down to sit with his friends just on the stand next to it. They all looked at him quite eccentrically—never knew he would do something like this.

"So how did you manage to get so many girls to cheer for Shin?" Ileana could not help but ask. She and the others finally figured out what he was doing the other day, meeting with so many girls. He was preparing this for Shin. There were currently close to 40 girls. Cheering for that fool as if he was their knight in shining armour. Shin certainly liked this surprise, as it was one on his bucket lists though he was currently in no position to enjoy it.

"There are many ways to get the consent of someone to do something stupid," Elior smiled, "Here, I bribed them with the right thing." 

"And the bribe is?"

"I will listen to their commands when I become the next president," Elior laughed.

Ileana snorted, knowing he was only joking. "You joke as if the role is already yours."

"Well, I already have the current president on my back," Elior said, looking at Aanya. "What I do have to fear."

Aanya perked up her legs—not knowing if Elior was only joking about the offer she gave him or if he's serious about it.

"Really, how did you get them to do something like this?" Ileana asked.

"Well, I only promised to deliver some resources that will help them in their growth, and that includes some of the things Aanya gave us," Elior said. 'Though I was intending to give it to all the students, getting something out of the first did not look bad.' Yes, he did exploit them. Shin and the girls both, but it was necessary.

'Humans do not appreciate free things very much.' He thought and confirmed he was doing the right thing. Though nothing was free in the first place, they have to pay it with blood and sweat one day, and he has to do the same. They all have to do the same.

"What?" Ileana reacted far more violently than Aanya, whose content he had distributed. "How could do that just simply to make this stupid wish come true? You could just make something else for Shin? A new artifact, perhaps."

"Ileana, you're still too young to understand my grand scheme of things," Elior said, sitting more comfortably, tucking her shoulder.

Ileana snorted, throwing his arms and got her interest back into the match. The match did not turn bloody, even though it was going on for a quarter of an hour. The one who wins in this game will go to the finals, which means one spot of the freshmen was secure in the finals, though she was not sure if they could win it. On the other end, the other finalist very well is Katherine, who could defeat the opponent within a blink of her eye. Ileana had mended her misinterpretation of Katherine, but she still felt chills remembering what she felt in that blink of an eye. It was certainly not a power to kill, but something that would leave a trauma for the years to come.

Though Aanya had told Katherine to not use that ability on any of the students, Katherine's mindset was nothing but of a child of half a dozen years. There was a very good chance she would do the same again if she felt a little threatened. She wondered which one of the two would go against her.

Shin went to the attacking currently while Leroy on the other hand blocked, narrowing his eyes. From the sides, she heard Elior say, Leroy was attempting to learn the moves from Shin. That's why the match progressed for so long. That means Leroy already had control over the match, but Shin, on the other hand, was lucky as hell, and unknowingly came up with things at the last minute.

Ileana did not know who to cheer for. Even though she detest Shin, and argued with him for a long, he was a friend. She hated to admit it, but she felt some security with him when she was inside dungeons, like how she felt under Elior. Lara did not give her that feeling, though. Lara was a good friend and a damn good apprentice, she was mostly stern when dealing in the dungeon, while Elior stood like a wall, as if no monster could stand a chance against him. While Shin joked about his insecurities, cheering the mood of others. She hated to admit it, but it helped a lot.

Then there was Leroy. Her eyes drifted towards the figure, emitting golden light, looking quite divine. His face reddened without her noticing it. Was it just because he was handsome? She wondered. She had never talked to him in longer terms, only some greetings, nor had she seen him talking with someone for longer than a minute or two and even in them he was mostly the listener. So, in one sentence, she knew nothing about him.

'I really know nothing about him,' Ileana thought, though her heartbeat was a little faster. "Nothing other than, he's a loner . . . handsome, focused . . .. and afraid? It was as if he's hiding something."