BXBX NOVEL Chapter 160: Demolished
In some of the arenas, other academies were already going back to their academy stations as their last matches of the day concluded.
Some academies were surrounded by a dejected aura while others walked back with smiles on their faces–a sharp contrast between winners and losers.
The referee looked at his wristwatch.
Seeing that it was already time to start the match, he didn\'t wait for the two parties to introduce themselves.
They didn\'t look like they wanted to anyway.
Thus, under thousands of eager eyes, the referee decided to start what was possibly the last round between the underdog Colzen and the proven elite, Amarantha.
Though, ironically, it was the underdog who was winning decisively.
"Begin!"
Colzen\'s duo had limited aggression options since Wendy was a priestess, hence, Shye couldn\'t simply attack and leave Wendy unguarded.
He was really quite lucky that Ho-bin was a crossbow user so if the guy wanted to be effective, he had to come a little closer, unlike longbow users who could simply snipe him from afar and annoy him to death.
Immediately after hearing the start of the match, Wendy placed her life staff on Shye\'s right shoulder.
Her life staff then glowed in different colors of aquamarine, crimson, and emerald in a span of two seconds as Wendy used her talent [Contact Casting] to boost Shye\'s strength, agility, and dexterity with three times the effectiveness.
Naturally, everyone was shocked at the priestess\' casting speed.
Three buff skills in three seconds were already considered fast so casting three buff skills in two seconds was truly a bit insane for a 20-year-old young woman.
Experienced adventurers on a scouting mission nodded approvingly as they observed Wendy\'s skills, contemplating extending a recruitment offer to her.
Carlos did try to stop Wendy from casting as he ferociously charged towards her, his sorcery gauntlets were ablaze as he viciously threw a right straight towards Wendy\'s face.
Although he wasn\'t able to stop her casting, his strategy proved clever, as it compelled Shye to reposition to shield Wendy, making it more challenging for him to safeguard her.
He also expected Shye to intercept him but what he didn\'t expect was the tremendous attribute boost.
As Carlos\' flaming gauntlets clashed against Shye\'s thunderous greatsword, a nightmare for the Amaranthian crowd ensued.
Carlos Andrade, the strongest representative of Amarantha Academy, known to have no weaknesses–an overall beast of an adventurer, flew across the stage while puking a massive amount of blood.
Carlos felt his gauntlets crack as his internal organs churned due to the absurdly strong blow.
\'How…the fuck is he so strong?!\' Carlos inwardly thought while thanking the gods that he decided to train his body.
The path of the battle-mage is hard.
Not only does one have to train like a warrior, but they also have to increase their intelligence and wisdom or their elemental skills wouldn\'t be as effective.
However, being a battle mage is a boon in the long run since one would have a higher growth ceiling than staff or wand-type mages.
Unfortunately, he didn\'t expect to encounter such a brutish warrior student whose blows made him feel like he was hit by a mana-powered iron train.
On the bright side, he was still conscious.
As long as Ho-bin could give him some time to recover, then they would have a chance to turn things around.
As for Ho-Bin who suddenly became Amarantha\'s last hope, he was dumbfounded and horrified for a few seconds as his head slowly turned to watch Carlos\' massive body fly through the air.
He even thought that Carlos died on the spot so a small part of his heart was consumed by despair.
*BANG*
Carlos crashed on the cold and hard ground of Large Arena 4, making the crowd go absolutely bonkers as the strongest representative of Amarantha Academy struggled to get up while spitting out blood.
As an archer with fast reflexes, Ho-Bin immediately realized that Carlos was fine so he quickly turned his focus on the two opponents in front of him.
His thoughts resonated with Carlos\' as he strived to hold the Colzen representatives back to give his teammate some time to recover.
However, how could Shye let such a huge chance go to waste?
He immediately decided that now was the time to reveal one of his trump cards so he quickly used [Dash Lv.3] to instantly appear in front of Amarantha Academy\'s archer.
Ho-Bin wasn\'t your everyday crossbow archer though.
His insanely fast reflexes allowed him to instantly determine the threat in front of him and like a swift cat, was able to get out of harm\'s way by using one of his short cooldown repositioning skills, [Tumble Lv.3].
The cat-and-mouse game continued for a while as Ho-Bin skillfully dodged Shye\'s attacks with the help of his masterful skill usage, allowing him to weave back and forth as he kept the Colzen warrior at bay.
\'Tch! This slippery bastard…I can\'t get in range…\' Shye complained as he struggled to land his skill, [Draconian Roar Lv.2].
Although the range increased upon leveling up, it still wasn\'t enough to catch the slick Amarantha representative.
When he was starting to contemplate revealing his dual wielding for a stat boost that would help him chase Ho-Bin down, azure mana roots suddenly sprang out from the ground catching Ho-Bin\'s left foot.
\'Crap!\' Ho-Bin inwardly cursed as the Colzen priestess successfully managed to impair his movements.
Unfortunately for him, the short delay gave Shye enough time to get in range.
A primal roar suddenly bellowed across the entire Valenzia Arena, capturing the attention of even those watching other matches as Shye\'s skill squarely hit his target.
Ho-Bin, who was the primary target, was petrified on the spot.
His entire body was shaking in fear as he fell on his butt, even forgetting to grab his crossbow tightly.
Meanwhile, Shye was akin to a modern-day golf player as he swatted the petrified Ho-Bin out of the Arena using the blunt part of his greatsword.
He could\'ve killed him if he wanted to but he wasn\'t that type of person so even though all of them were initially angry towards the Amarantha representatives for treating them like lowlives, he would never use this as a reason to intentionally kill someone.
Ho-Bin flew out of the Arena, his once sharp eagle eyes now turned completely white as his unconscious body violently skidded through the ground after landing.