*Whoosh*
Just as he was about to lose hope, the elder appeared in front of him. She waved her hand at the incoming fireball and a mana ripple wrapped around it and extinguished it in a puff.
Sigh!
Both Lacron and Max sighed simultaneously. The only difference was that Lacron's sigh was of relief while Max's sigh was of regret mixed with slight relief.
Although Max wanted to kill him for trying to kill him, he was still not used to killing so he was inwardly relieved when the elder saved him.
Lacron stood up and looked fearfully at Max. He could imagine if elder wasn't here or didn't want to save him, what would happen to him. He clearly remembered when in the elimination round, this very fireball turned a man with hight earth defense into Ash. He was now regretting that he tried to kill him.
Max glared at him and was about to say something when the elder looked at them coldly and released her aura. She glared at them both and said "Don't you guys know the rule of no killing inside academy or do you take the rules as jokes huh? If you have such death grudge, you can go to the disciplinary hall and ask for permission for the fight to the death."
She then continued "This time I'm only giving you guys warning because both of you are guilty and no harm was done. However, if you do it again, I'll personally deal with you."
She then flicked two tokens at them and said "I will allow you to choose only one spell from the library as for the extra rewards, you can forget about it."
Under the pressure of her aura, Lacron was barely able to breath and was sweating profusely while Max only felt siglt discomfort because he has already 'endured' the Crimson monarch's and the white haired woman's aura pressure.
Although Schwartz helped him endure Crimson monarch's aura while the white haired woman didn't unleash hers at full strength, it was still stronger than the elder's who was only a three star mage and was holding back a bit.
After finishing her part, just as she was about to retract her aura, she noticed Max completely fine and frowned. 'How come he isn't affected by my aura? Does he have some artefacts in him?'
However Seeing Lacron suffocating, she retracted her aura and said "Go now."
It was as if Lacron was granted amnesty from certain death, he ran away, not wanting to stay near them. While clenching his jaws in anger and regret, he glared at a man standing among the disciples 'You bastard, I'll make you pay for setting me up.'
The man only looked at him coldly before shifting his gaze to Max who was walking towards Flavia. This man was none other than Dalton's trusted aid and servant, Bartan who joined the Cloud Academy for the sake of killing Max.
...
Max walked back after giving Lacron a last glance 'I'll take care of you after this.'
As he stood beside Flavia, he felt many prickling gazes at his back. Everyone was astounded by his performance so everyone was paying more attention to him. However, by now he has become used to such gazes and it didn't bother him much.
Flavia glanced at him and said in a bit self deprecating tone "I thought I knew how strong you were but you were still hiding your true strength huh!"
Max looked at her without saying anything.
He knew why everyone seemed to think that he was hiding his true strength. It was because when he fought against Haory, he could only use his attributes' at half of their potential.
After fighting in the recruitment and training by himself this past week, he now could better utilise the strength his attributes provided. That's why he was faster and stronger than before.
So everyone obviously thought that he was hiding as one could improve their physical strength in one week as much as him.
However he couldn't tell her this as no one was like him who had higher strength but not able to use it properly. If he told her this, she would treat it as a jock.
He smiled and said "It's not that I was hiding my strength but that I didn't need to fight with all I got. I'm sure you are the same right?"
Flavia looked at him for a moment and nodded. It was true that those like her, Dalton, Vincent etc didn't give it their all as their opponents weren't strong enough to force them to use their full power.
After Max and Lacron finished their fight, The elder called out more disciples to fight and gave them Library token and if she found someone outstanding, she would give them extra rewards.
"Flavia and Bartan come forward." The elder called out once more after the previous fight was completed.
Flavia calmly walked out to stand in the fighting ground. Bartan flinched upon hearing that he was going to fight against Flavia.
He was 24 years old now and as long as he could remember, he and his family worked for Daltons and were taken care of by them. So they were loyal to them.
Therefore, he was hesitant to fight the woman his lord was interested in but he also wanted to get one spell from academy as their spell would undoubtedly be stronger that what he has now and will make his strength grow.
Seeing him not come out, the elder frowned and shouted "Who is Bartan? Come here at once."
Seeing that Elder was getting angry, he sighed and walked out.
"Hmm?" After seeing him, Flavia raised an eyebrow as she recognised him and quickly understood why Dalton's trusted man was in the same academy as him.
Realising this anger started boiling up inside her. 'That guy dared to send his men to keep an eye on me? Who do he think I am, his slave?'
As she grew furious, the mana around her swirled intensely. She didn't attack him yet just because elder hadn't tell them to begin fighting.
The elder frowned seeing this while Bartan smiled wryly. She looked at Flavia and warned seriously "Let me remind you once again, killing is not allowed. Or you'll be receive punishment worse than death. Understand?"
Flavia nodded "Yes elder."
"Okay then. Start the fight." Elder nodded seeing that she was able think clearly despite clearly being very angry.
Before Flavia could attack him, Bartan stepped forward and bowed "Mistress, I apologise in advance for fighting you. If it wasn't because I also need another spell, I would've refrained from fighting you. However, don't worry I won't attack you."
Bartan was serious when he said this and had no intention of mocking her. He knew Flavia was strong but not as strong as Dalton and he could hold his ground against Dalton.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" The way he addressed her and told that he won't attack her, was her breaking point as she couldn't endure anymore and cursed through clenched teeth.
Her mana swirled and three metal ball appeared before her and turned into sharp lances. Without waiting for him to get ready to fight, she shot the lances at him at very fast speed, almost equalling Samuel's lightening arrow's speed.
Seeing this, Bartan quickly chanted a spell and half a foot thick water barrier materialised around him. However, he didn't stop there and chanted another spell rapidly.
"Water Serpents."
Three water serpents came out of the water barrier and launched themselves at the lances.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
All three water serpents were pierced by the metal lances easily however, they reduced the speed of the lances by one-tenth.
Bang!
By the time, Flavia could use her mana to make their speed faster, the lances banged into the water barrier and pierced it but before they could reach Bartan, they stopped.
Flavia was stunned. This Lance attack was her one of the most powerful attacks and it was stopped so easily by a Lackey of Dalton.
Bartan didn't do anything apart from blocking her attack, and raised his hand and gave up. He felt like this was enough to show his strength to the elder.
Following this, elder gave them their library tokens and rewarded bartan with 200 mana stones while Flavia with 100. Although their fight only lasted a few seconds. As an experienced mage, she could gauge their strength easily.
However, Flavia wasn't focusing and her face was pale. Even after the she received her tokens and Bartan returned to his seat. She stood still in the middle of fight ground, dazed.
Seeing this, Max sighed and walked towards her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't be discouraged. If you had continued fighting, he would have lost. That's why he gave up. Believe in yourself."
Hearing his soft and comforting tone, she snapped out of her daze and fell in his embrace.
Max was stunned. He didn't expect her to do something like this in front of everybody.
