Volume 15 - CH 8

After hearing about the strategy that was equal to not hearing anything from Senior, I returned to our little group.

“Yang Yang!” Miao Miao waved at me: “The two of us will be in the back. Elma and Jules are in charge of the horse in front.” She pointed to the other two schoolmates who were temporarily rounded up and told me.

I looked for a moment. I didn’t actually know those two people, schoolmates from Class B. The one with short black hair like me was named Elma. From Miao Miao’s introduction, he’s also a human. The other person with brown and similarly short hair was named Jules, a Fairy. His face is slightly freckled, and his appearance and height made him look a lot like a middle schooler, being a whole head shorter than me with a rather cute baby face.

“Jules is also a white robe,” Miao Miao added.

“Uh, please advise me well.” I cautiously stretched out a friendly hand to them.

“Please advise us well, Classmate Chu. You’re very famous, being able to enter the athletic meet as a new rookie. Today we’ll be waiting to see your performance.” Elma reached out first, but his tone didn’t sound very friendly, which gave me a bad feeling.

Since I generally don’t interact with people very often, this is my first time being directly stabbed with words like this, even though I knew many people were unsatisfied with me during the athletic meet.

At the side, Jules glanced at him and raised his eyebrows, “If Elma plans to behave even worse than a beginner, we wouldn’t mind watching your performance well.” With a voice as soft as a child’s, he casually retorted with sarcasm before extending his hand toward me: “I’m sorry you had to see that. I hope you won’t hold on to the idea that Class B is full of these kinds of people. I am Jules Rocovar. Let’s do our best together this time.”

Hearing his soft youthful voice, I almost forgot for a second that this white robe in front of me is actually my age and nearly reached out to pat his head.

“Uh, please advise me well.” I hurriedly returned his handshake.

Jules revealed a cute smile, then politely withdrew it.

Standing at the side, Elma’s complexion wasn’t good, however, he didn’t seem to dare say more to Jules.

“Are you ready?” Just when the mood became a bit stiff, Ryan, who had strolled off somewhere or simply never left, suddenly popped up behind Miao Miao, and Miao Miao, who was clearly startled, moved directly toward me.

Not paying any attention to this, Ryan glanced at the two teammates who didn’t seem to get along well.

“We’re ready, Ryan.” Elma walked over, slinging an arm around Ryan’s shoulder like they were very familiar with each other: “Speaking of which, have you considered the suggestion I asked you about last time…”

They spoke in low voices, so I couldn’t hear clearly, but since it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with me and I don’t want to eavesdrop either, I automatically moved a distance away.

“Cough cough, Elma always wanted Ryan to be his partner.” Following me over, Miao Miao whispered to me: “But Ryan has Chifuyu so he refused.”

“Partner?” Wasn’t Chifuyu decided as Ryan’s partner a long time ago, and plus, that’s publicly known.

“Elma doesn’t think so. He always thought that Ryan and Chifuyu will definitely be unsuitable together, so he’s working hard to create trouble between them.” Also coming over to whisper for some reason, Jules and Miao Miao looked quite like siblings together: “But he still hasn’t succeeded so far.”

“Nn nn, how could Ryan and Chifuyu disband? Elma’s dreaming into the outer world.” Miao Miao nodded hard and said.

“Haha…” Your behavior right now should be called “gossiping,” the very standard type too.

Before I could reply to them, Ryan and Elma walked over: “It’s almost time.” He glanced at those of the white team who had already turned into human piles beside us, “We should get ready to set out too.”

Saying that, under Jules’ instruction, I successfully set up a small human platform with the others, before Ryan slowly climbed on.

Seeing how most people had finished preparing, the staff below made a gesture at the announcer above, and Lucia immediately stretched out her hand: [Okay, we received a message from the on-site staff now. The groups that haven’t finished preparing yet, please finish immediately within three seconds or you will be directly eliminated!] Once she said that, the few absent-minded groups instantly jumped up and obediently got ready: [Then our riding battle event officially begins!]

Saying that, a noise rushed toward the sky, and then red fireworks exploded.

I didn’t have time to experience those brilliant sparks when a pull came from the front, and that Elma who didn’t listen to directions at all rushed out right away. Being pulled by him, we in the back had no choice but to follow immediately.

However, we couldn’t be considered the first ones either. The instant the game started, at least five teams on our side simultaneously charged out. The opposing side was in a similar state, before they started fighting as soon as we met in the middle of the field.

That said, I don’t actually expect this to be a cute, peaceful you-grab-me-I-pull-you safe game, but…this is too dramatic!

“Yang Yang! Watch out!”

Two seconds after I ran forward, a shiny silver object suddenly swung over from the side, and with a clang, it slashed onto Ryan’s knife that he’d pulled out at some point. Then, I could clearly see that it was a large sword. The other side of the sword reflected the color of the enemy team.

“Classmate, take up your weapon.” Jules told me, before he freed a hand and a gleaming knife was thrown out right at the opponent’s hand, knocking down the weapon.

The four people below the opponent pulled out their weapons at the same time to attack us.

Everything happened in a flash—

Ryan had jumped on the opponent’s horse at some point and soundlessly went behind that person above. He then cut his neck with his knife, grabbed the headband and pushed the person down, leisurely jumping back to us in the end.

Like it was only natural, until that person fell down, the four people below him didn’t realize anything had happened.

Ryan, turns out that’s how you killed your opponents in the hunting game before!

Looking at Ryan, who had no hair tied up, no killing aura and no sense of presence, I was suddenly moved. Turns out Ryan is more suited to being an assassin than the five-colored rooster head. Like this, his prey wouldn’t even know how they died, too terrifying!

If Ryan focuses on practicing shinobido, I think in a few years he’ll become the strongest shinobi dominating the region apart from the assassins!

After all, where would you find this type of automatically-disappears-without-even-using-a-disguise person!?

Just when I felt moved on behalf of this future shinobi, a loud voice was raised from the side.

It wasn’t directed at us but the large amount of people attacking Senior. They probably knew the principle of it’s-easier-to-fight-if-you-focus-on-destroying-the-demon-king-first. A big, big bunch of people who didn’t look easy to deal with closed in on him, but our team wasn’t just taking the beating either. There were already people going to assist.

As a rider, Aslaine swung his saber far and started to engage in guerrilla warfare from the periphery, even taking down quite a lot of headbands.

But his happy pursuit didn’t last long when he abruptly met senior Gasai who came to block him. The two then began to face off against each other.

The moment I was distracted, a certain extremely familiar wind-piercing sound came.

Raising my head, sure enough, I saw the rider Chifuyu loosening his bowstring at us not far away.

Elma and Jules stopped simultaneously, and the other side stopped as well. We glared at each other like beasts on two sides, with the sense of wanting to crush the opponents at once.

“Shimu.” Switching to a new pair of Illusionary Weapons, Ryan slowly turned his arms and relaxed his bones and muscles.

“You half-transparent person, don’t try to use the same trick to slip away.” Speaking resolutely, Chifuyu wasn’t wearing his ordinary glasses. His face that resembled senior Gasai’s carried a certain degree of murderousness, before his hand pulled the bowstring taut and an arrow was leveled at his own partner.

“Which trick?” Ryan issued a confused sound.

“The disappearing trick.” Saying that, Chifuyu swiftly released an arrow at us, and less than two seconds later, I heard the crisp sound of it being knocked down, followed by the sound of the arrow falling on the ground.

Almost in the same instant, Ryan had thrown the knife in his hand and it directly curved toward Chifuyu like a boomerang. The attack was strong, but Chifuyu wasn’t a character who would let himself get beaten for nothing. With a turn of his hand, a wind-charm-turned blade knocked down the knife sent over.

I’d just wanted to see more clearly what Ryan planned to do next, when my body already felt lighter and at some point, our rider disappeared in midair!

A second later, Ryan directly appeared on top of the opponents’ horse, and used his remaining knife to slash at Chifuyu.

No, dear classmate, if you want to disappear to attack an enemy, you should tell us! Otherwise we’d think we lost you!

On the horse, Chifuyu reacted quickly as if he had long predicted that he would do this, directly turning his bow and successfully blocking the blade. His other hand then flipped over and a wind charm knife sliced down at Ryan’s hand holding the knife!

Releasing that hand, Ryan, whose expression couldn’t be seen, turned and kicked down at his partner—except it didn’t work. Because the rider’s classmates below saw that something was wrong, and one of them took out his own Illusionary Weapon and pointed it at the intruder who didn’t belong to their team.

With a clang, before that person’s weapon could touch him, it was knocked off course by a small blade.

“Scatter first.” Jules said, and took the lead to kick forward away from the group. He quickly reached the front of the enemy horse and a few small blades appeared in his hand at the same time, shooting the red team before him at close range.

Noticing the situation below wasn’t good, Chifuyu steadied himself and then swung a knife at Ryan. The instant he dodged, he switched to his bow and nocked arrows. A few wind-piercing sounds forced Jules to retreat and even his weapon was knocked down to the ground.

Taking advantage of his opponent’s distraction, Ryan clasped both hands and the dual weapons from before simultaneously appeared in his hands: “Get down!” Saying that, he brandished them one above one below at Chifuyu.

This angle must be difficult to avoid, for a normal person.

Reacting nearly at the same time, Chifuyu withdrew his bow in half a second and stepped on the lower blade slashing over, before flipping himself up to dodge the second knife. That kind of movement was similar to the flip and jump in gymnastics. The whole thing looked elegant, without any excessive moves at all. A second later, while landing, he turned and reached out to grab the headband on Ryan’s head.

Tilting his head, Ryan jumped back without even looking. Just when everyone thought he would have certainly fallen on the ground, Jules, who was still in the same spot behind, supported his feet and threw him back, and then Ryan somersaulted back on top of us again.

“You see how your partner doesn’t show any mercy to you. I told you that you two aren’t that suitable together. I think it’s better to split and replace him early.” Taking in that moment of conflict just now, Elma issued an aggrieved complaint.

Ryan lowered his head to look at him: “I didn’t show any mercy either, it won’t end till we win.”

…Well said.

Looks like Ryan has completely inherited Senior’s famous saying.

In the moment the two were talking, Chifuyu had already changed his Illusionary Weapon and fired an arrow at us.

Not continuing to talk nonsense with the person in front of him, Ryan pulled out a long knife and knocked down all those flying arrows. At the same time, Jules also returned to the team: “Yang Yang, fire everywhere!”

Suddenly being called by him, I gave a start, staring wide-eyed at that baby-faced schoolmate who was even shorter than me.

“There are a lot of enemies around us. Whoever you hit is one.”

Once Jules said this, I noticed that there were many red team clothes in the vicinity, running around in a confrontation against our team.

After saying that, as if to demonstrate for me, Jules dug out a short blade and tossed it in the air before throwing it out, coincidentally hitting the shoulder of a group’s rider. Probably not expecting to be plotted against, that person issued a short cry before falling down, and the whole group was simultaneously disqualified by the examining staff.

…This classmate, your sneak attack activities will soon make us the public enemy of the red team.

Clearly not having this thought, Jules instantly sneak-attacked two groups again, and standing on the other side in front, Elma actually helped him sneak-attack. All of a sudden, our area was full of the sound of several curse words and falling down.

Honestly, please forgive me for not being able to do this.

“You guys can disperse first.”

After saying this, Ryan once again threw the knife in his hand, likewise aiming at Chifuyu and likewise getting knocked down. During this period of alternation, he pulled his hair over and tied it up, instantly upgrading from no-presence vagrant to a murderous white robe expert.

Withdrawing his knife with the back of his hand, Ryan, who’d switched to flame-colored dual swords this time, stepped on my shoulders hard, before rushing forward and instantly returning on top of Chifuyu’s horse: “Swirling Flame.” He narrowed his eyes and the flame-colored dual swords he clutched seemed to vibrate at the same time. Then a red flame burst out from the tips of the swords and traveled to the entire blades. Even I from a distance away could sense that the surrounding temperature was rising continuously.

In the blink of an eye, the edge of the fire-stained swords swept toward Chifuyu. Because it had blazing flames this time, Chifuyu seemed to be unable to avoid it using the method before and could only jump up, simultaneously shooting down a torrent of arrows from high in the air.

Unfortunately, every one of his horse classmates below screamed and scattered at once, patting off the flames that spread to them.

After landing, he didn’t step on the ground. Chifuyu stopped on top of the dozens of arrows he had just shot, steadying himself as he looked at Ryan who was similarly standing on a sword inserted into the ground: “Honestly, sure enough, if we don’t get serious, we won’t be able to fight hard. Come on.” He smiled with half-narrowed eyes and the bow in his hand whirled around. He renocked on the spot and fired two volleys in a row at Ryan.

“Thermal Dragon, Xiang Shui.” One hand clutching the handle of the flaming sword, Ryan replaced the other with a single-handled sword that looked more delicate. The two handles combined at the same time and a large amount of steam instantly burst out of the air to block the flying arrows.

As soon as he saw that high-temperature steam moving toward him, Chifuyu immediately shot several arrows at the ground again, turned, and dodged to a new position.

Inserting that delicate sword forward into the ground, Ryan also jumped over: “Xiang Shui, Thermal Dragon.” He turned his hand and an exact copy of that delicate sword just now appeared in his hand and that flame-colored one became the long knife that attacked in the beginning. After putting both handles together to become a rather long double-ended sword, Ryan directly threw the double sword in his hand forward like a boomerang.

This time it was different from the simple attack a moment ago. The combined double sword swept up a huge gust of wind and the entire ground began to move as it charged toward Chifuyu like a small tornado.

Freezing for a moment but recovering right away, Chifuyu immediately withdrew his bow as soon as he saw that it wouldn’t be able to effectively deal with the attacking double sword. He created a new long sword from a wind charm and simply met the double sword gale.

The arrows on the ground were blown till they shook violently, with some lighter arrows even blown away to the back.

Chifuyu, who only had enough time to confront the wind and not to beat off the double sword, frowned and turned his head away. In an instant, a line of blood dropped from his cheek and the double sword chasing the wind whirled a few times, creating several more wounds on him.

Freeing his other hand to summon a new long knife and sticking it into the ground, Chifuyu steadied himself and brandished the blade in his hand. In less than a few seconds he struck down the double sword that was causing trouble for him.

Looking up, Ryan suddenly appeared in front of him.

For a moment, I saw Chifuyu’s eyes abruptly widening as if he didn’t expect Ryan to appear suddenly.

While he was shocked, Ryan had already taken the opportunity to grab Chifuyu’s neck, his other hand moving to pull the headband on his head.

With a clench of his teeth, Chifuyu seized Ryan’s wrist with both hands, not dodging. He suddenly surged forward and smacked their heads together hard, knocking the unprepared Ryan away. Redness immediately appeared on the two’s foreheads, and I could guess just how strong Chifuyu is.

After being knocked dizzy for a few seconds, Ryan pressed his forehead and jumped back, standing on top of the sword just now and shaking his head forcefully.

Not in any better condition than him, Chifuyu pressed his forehead, then endured the pain and dizziness to take out an explosion charm. With a flick of his hand, it became a curved sword and routinely swung over to where Ryan was, very much an implied retaliation against what he did before.

“Diren.” Still dizzy, Ryan extended his hand and a strange sound suddenly came from the ground in front of him, followed by a broadsword with a strange shape and large size springing out of the ground. It charged up rapidly and directly blocked in front of Ryan like a wall.

The curved sword flying over crashed right into that strange broadsword, and a second later, I saw a flash of light. The curved sword created a huge explosion on the spot but was blocked by that strange sword. Behind it, Ryan didn’t seem to be hurt at all.

I suddenly realized that all the Illusionary Weapons Ryan summoned since a while ago were still stuck in the ground, not a single one missing. The strange thing is that this was the first time I saw someone who can summon so many weapons at the same time…Yido and the others’ don’t count. Moreover, the weapons seemed very obedient and could even combine and transform at any time.

Basically, I’m already beginning to understand why Ryan is known as an Illusionary Weapon expert.

Chifuyu’s attacks were ineffective for the time being, but he didn’t seem too restless.

Just like when senior Gasai faced Senior, they hardly ever showed any mercy to their partner, and instead, went as heavy-handed as possible. While fighting, they also looked very happy, as if clashing like this was something entertaining.

I can’t really understand.

Just when I thought about regrouping with Miao Miao and the others to form the horse, a weird commotion quickly came from the other side.

“Get out of the way for this uncle!”

This was my first time thinking that it was quite marvelous to be able to see something like the scene of a dinosaur emerging at a horseriding battle.

Being the rider, the five-colored rooster head opened up his two large beast claws, and with his teammates, they sprinted while beating people up everywhere. Since they arrived viciously, several groups on our side couldn’t react in time and were all struck down. Soon the five-colored rooster head also amassed a certain number of headbands.

Noticing that fierce offensive, Senior, who originally looked like he was just playing around, swiftly knocked down those in his surroundings and turned toward the five-colored rooster head.

After seeing a strong contender appear, the five-colored rooster head suddenly became excited.

“It really is this uncle’s lucky day. Come come come, no one’s going to leave unless we fight to the death today to see who’s better.” One foot on the head of an unlucky person in his group, the five-colored rooster shouted in a very hot-blooded voice: “This uncle walks the jianghu with a blade; today I will take down the number one in the entire martial arts world to show all of you!”

…When did you become a martial arts blade?

Senior’s expression was very profound. If it could be interpreted, I think the look on his face currently meant that he’s embarrassed by the five-colored rooster head, but since Aslaine and senior Gasai were locked together in combat and Ryan and Chifuyu on our side haven’t stopped at all, he had no choice but to unfortunately go over to face this martial arts blade living in the jianghu.

“Fiery Cloud Felling Spear.” After swinging out his Illusionary Weapon, Senior patted the classmates propping him up, before narrowing his eyes at the enemy across him as if he wanted to beat him up in one fell swoop.

“Facing a powerful enemy, let this uncle release all of his strength as a response!” The cheery five-colored rooster head said, and then I saw that his body was actually slowly enlarging apart from his hands.

This scene was very familiar to me.

Then, those four people holding up the five-colored rooster head wailed in pain.