As Atticus's spinning kick aimed for Jared's right side, anticipation hung in the air.
However, before the brutal strike could land, Atticus's eyes widened as a blue translucent barrier flickered to life, effortlessly intercepting the devastating kick.
Before Atticus could understand what was going on, Jared immediately countered.
A rocket like punch shot forward, appearing almost instantly in front of Atticus's airborne form.
This exact situation was among the scenarios in which finding himself in a dangerous situation would trigger what Atticus had chosen to refer to as an instinctual response.
Every single time he had fought someone or something stronger than him, every time he had sparred with Magnus, which always ended up with him unable to lift a finger, Atticus had always experienced this feeling.
It wasn't planned; in fact, Atticus didn't even have any idea when his limbs started taking action.
All he knew was that as soon as his kick had been blocked, Atticus's hands started moving.
They both formed a protective cross over the top of his chest just in time to intercept the brutal blow.
The punch landed with a great impact, the force of the blow and the lack of proper footing sent Atticus's form flying through the air towards the other side of the earthen platform.
Just as everyone had already assumed that Atticus would be sent out of the stage, he suddenly executed a backflip mid air, skillfully adjusting his weight.
His descent ended with a controlled skid for a few meters at the edge of the platform, stunning the onlookers.
The hall erupted into murmurs and hushed whispers among the students, each astonished by the unexpected turn of events.
There was one single thing that immediately appeared in every single one of the students' heads: cheater.
That translucent blue barrier that had just blocked Atticus's spinning kick had unmistakably been created with mana.
Each one of the students in the room might be inexperienced, but they were all far from dumb.
Their instructor had utilized mana when he wasn't supposed to!
None among the crowd could say that they liked Atticus. And even if they did, there was no way anyone of them would speak out for him. He was among the competition after all.
Even though they wouldn't be able to permanently get rid of him, many among the students, especially students who had been jealous of Atticus from the start, would like to see him get humiliated.
None of the students even understood how Jared had been able to use mana during the spar.
And for now, only a small number of them even cared enough to want to know how it had happened.
Many of them subtly smirked while looking at the stage.
Zoey's doll like beautiful features suddenly morphed into a deep frown, her gaze narrowing slightly.
'He's cheating!' Zoey thought, an unexplainable anger bubbling up from within her.
Zoey's frown seemed to deepen as she noticed just how angry she was getting witnessing this situation. 'Why am I getting so angry?' she pondered.
And with her usual perfect timing, a petite voice sounded within her head, responding to her question, 'I told you to stop acting like a clueless fool dum dum.' Lumindra said, taking a second before continuing the next instant,
'Anyways, I'll save that for later. About your instructor, I can't believe you, out of all people, could make such a wrong judgement. I always told you to observe everything at every instant, but no! You never listen! You just never listen to me!'
Zoey rolled her eyes as Lumindra started her very usual routine of self accolades,
'I am more than a thousand fucking years old! Do you know how feared I-'
'Lumindra!'
Lumindra's blabbering was abruptly interrupted by Zoey's inward scream.
Lumindra seemed to notice she went out of topic once again praising herself, she cleared her throat awkwardly and decided to stop her ramblings, 'Just take a closer look,' she instructed.
Zoey subtly shook her head. 'A thousand years old my foot!' She thought.
Deciding to listen to Lumindra, Zoey turned her gaze back towards Jared where the translucent barrier that had blocked Atticus's spinning kick was flickering rapidly.
And in the next instant, the barrier went off, its energy dispersed in the air.
Zoey narrowed her gaze even more as the realization struck her like a thunderbolt. "Lumi.. you mean..'
'Yes!' Lumindra screamed in her head; she continued, 'This is why I told you to always be observant!' Lumindra lectured in her signature cute and petite voice.
But it was not just Zoey who had realized somewhat what had happened.
Lila, who just like Zoey, had a deep frown on her face along with the other tier one youths who had a subtle look of realization on their faces.
Seraphin's expression had long since changed. Rather than his usual smiling and playful demeanor, Seraphin currently wore a cold neutral look as though his earlier smiling expressions had always been a facade.
He simply focused his gaze on the stage.
Resonara, unlike Seraphin, had an irritated look on his face.
'Fuck, I really hate the noise,' Harmonic whined.
Individuals from the Resonara family, anytime they were outside or in public spaces, always and unfailingly wore an irritated expression on their faces.
The Resonara family hated noise so much.
It didn't even matter if someone was simply talking or even breathing loudly; with how sensitive their hearing was, everything that would make one function normally as a human was noise.
And this was exactly why most of the time, individuals from the Resonara family were always irritated and quick to get ticked off.
The massive figures of Aislan and Eldric simply stood, just a few meters away from each other with their massive hands crossed over their chests, their eyes fixed on the battle, wanting to see how it would end.
There was only one person amongst the tier ones that didn't show any visible changes, and that person was Kael, who was still looking at Atticus with his hand clenched and a berserk aura subtly seeping out of his form.
