Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

"What just happened?" Enna asked, bewildered still, eyes glued to the screen where a tall female was standing with knitted brows while unsheathing her sword. A few metres away from him was another swordsman, though he did not have the bearing of one. Currently on laid pathetically with broken light armour on his body, losing his sword.

"They are just class apart," Elior answered the question.

It was not just Enna who was drumstickened, even most of the others were in the same position as him. The audience did not understand what happened at first, but as they watch the replay in the big, all of them thundered in cheers.

Lara's match actually ended with just one move. Her sword thrashed her opponent in a full swing, while her opponent could not even connect his blow. Be it his agility, skills, all were lower compared to Lara, coupling with the fact that he took Lara lightly as she was only a freshman even after two defeats of his classmates, Lara managed to defeat her opponent with just one single blow. She would be an idiot, or someone like Leroy, if she did not capitalise on the advantage.

"Still, the opponent was weak, right?" Enna asked, still could not believe it.

"Perhaps," Elior answered and watched Lara come in with a knit on her brows. She could not help the curve in her lips as she saw her friends, but still, the thoughts about the match were on her mind. It had not gone down like she had assumed it would be.

"They are still cheering for you," Ileana said, pointing towards the screen. "I did not know you were so powerful."

"I did not know either." Lara smiled, sighing lightly. "All I see during the match was a huge hap in his defence and he was too slow. All I did was swing my sword before he could."

"And here you are," Elior completed. "Don't expect the other matches to go like this. After this, the upperclassmen will be far more alert, not just you but every one of us."

"Looks like you are the one who needs to worry about that first," Ileana said. "El, you are next."

"Really?" Elior looked at the screen and really it was him on the screen. Another person appeared on the display, and it was someone Elior was familiar with. It was none other than the leading fellow who staged the little play a month ago. He was the one along with a few more Elior beat up for messing with him.

"Ethan," Shin muttered. "Brother, isn't that the guy, you had some problem with?"

"Looks like it," Elior said and stood up, walking towards the door of the dressing room.

"Are you not going to take any weapons?" Ileana shouted as the thought itself was outrageous. Though Elior had beaten this guy before, at that time both of them were barehanded and they had not used mana. Though she knew Elior was stronger than anyone here and probably had the strength to defeat this fellow again, she did not know why he was taking about chances.

"I forgot to bring my spear." Elior did not look back. "Just have to make it with a bare fist, that's all.

Elior slowly appeared in the ring while his opponent was already ready with his sword.

"Long time no see, Ethan," Elior greeted, raising his arm.

Ethan frowned, seeing no weapon on his opponent, and it was not only him that appeared like that. Many of the audience were bewildered with Elior, presenting no weapon.

In one particular area of the stand where Elior's family were staying, Aanya raised her eyebrow looking at Elior.

"Is Elior a magician?" Mrs Viswas asked, not seeing anything threatening with her son. Though mages could cast spells without the help of any weapon, they were likely to come with a wand, staff or other magical instruments. Perhaps because they were poor, she thought. Many of the studnets come from second generations or highly influential family of guardians who could decorate their sons and daughters with good weapons and artifacts, but not them.

"The institute would not let anyone barehanded here." Her husband knew better than her. He was, after all, a reputable sergeant and many low-level apprentices came in his hospital for check-ups and whatnot. He already collected all news he could get hold on to about his son—not that he said a word to his wife or anyone else. "It's likely your son wants to show his power without using any weapon."

"Dear, at least don't grumble today," Mrs Viswas said, knowing why her husband was like this. "Perhaps he forgot to bring in his stuff."

"Ileana told me Elior is trained by the finest Mage of the academy," Ileana's mother said from the side. "Aleister Scribe himself. Perhaps he really did not find any useful artefact—after all, those things were quite costly. We are also looking to buy something for Ileana, and you would be surprised to know, nothing comes under a couple of million credits." She sighed heavily after that, focusing on the screen. "Perhaps Ileana will come in empty-handed as well."

Mrs Viswas was bewildered, but not her husband. Aanya, who was working as the volunteer, kept her eyes on the ring, and ears at them. She could not help but smile—after all, she knew there might not be any students richer than Elior himself. The metal they purified today alone will go for a couple of hundred million guardian credits.

Meanwhile, in the match, Ford was looking at Elior, with the whistle in his mouth, arching his eyebrows. He was implying if Elior needed to get his weapon or not.

Elior nodded, telling Ford to start the match. Ford did, whistling, but none of the contestants came at each other.

"You think you can compete against me without anything like the other time?" Ethan yelled at him with narrowed eyes, arched eyebrows, unsheathing the sword. "You will be disappointed to know it won't go easy like that time."

"How about you make it fair for me?" Elior smiled and saw his opponent's sword glittering out. "How about you drop your sword, and we fight in bare fist? At least you can do that for an old friend, right?"

"You are no friend of mine," Ethan shouted as his legs moved towards Elior, as his sword bared threateningly.

"Aree, aree." Elior watched his opponent come at him with swift speed only a few strides away. He swirled the mana inside his channelling path and lowered it further into his legs. "You broke my heart."

Ethan was only a couple of strides away from him when Elior flung up into a summersault. His body arched up above the swordsman as Elior moved like a master gymnastic, jerking his leg to deal a hard kick on the back of the swordsman, before having a landing gently.

Ethan blew away a couple of metres, but the upperclassman was able to control himself, yet the crowd burst into an uproar. He came at Elior again, with a high swing towards Elior's chest, releasing his amount of mana.

Elior ducked and saw through the feint. Ethan's sword turned into stony as well as his body. Soon, the sword changed its direction and jerked toward his neck.

'Stone reinforcement,' Elior thought and raised an arm in the path of the sword. The stony sword connected with his palm, as a clang sounded out in the ring.

Ethan looked bewildered and saw the shock wave warping from the clash. Elior did not actually stop the blow barehanded, he had raised a counterfeit of void armament to block the attack. Even when the void armament had not reached its threshold of initial success—meaning not appearing at his status window, it was still better than Stone reinforcement. That means it takes a lot more mana as well.

Elior twisted his arm surrounding the sword, trying to free the sword form his opponent's palm. Sadly, Ethan was not that big of an imbecile, he twisted it along with Elior's palm, before pulling it back. But he could not do anything for the kick that came afterwards.

Elior dealt another kick—this time on the chest, jerking the fellow with the sudden release of a shock wave. He did not let Ethan go then either, shot at him, before he could stumble himself.

Elior went for the arm that held the sword again, and broke the grip with his two fists, working against one another. Elior could have done this easily, just shooting enough disturbance of spatial element at that, Ethan would have no other way, but to drop it. Then again, why bother? Using physical strength looked far more troublesome, but it was far less than using the abstraction of the void—it takes a lot of precision, perception, mana, and most importantly, his mental energy.

So why bother then, when the result is the same?

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Believe me, I wanted to make this tournament small, but it appear it will take about 15 chapters.