Chapter 252: Blue Phoenix

A month passed by since Jade managed to get his sentient weapon and reach 7th grade. During this one month, Angus didn't get out of the inn too much. He decided to focus on refining and to cultivate his chi.

After Jade's weapon sentient incident, Angus consumed more than half of his chi to fight against the intruders. The domain is worthy to be called as the pinnacle technique of martial art in Angus's past life. Just by utilizing it, he could fight on par with a high-grade combatant.

However, the chi consumption for its usage is enormous. If Angus didn't have the mysterious heritage chi to refill his chi, he probably needed to exhaust all his vitality to produce his current amount of chi.

Staying inside this dangerous dimension, Angus feels that he will never have enough no matter how much chi he has. Moreover, as the time for Endless Battlefield comes near, he feels the need to increase his strength further. 

He didn't know what kind of danger was waiting inside the Endless Battlefield. However, judging from the story and rumor about the place, he feels the need for a certain amount of power to get out alive.

After finishing a session of refining chi, Angus opened his eyes from his meditation. Currently, he feels exhausted while his whole body is covered with sweat. Refining chi from the heritage chi is different from refining mana.

In refining mana, Angus has the help of mana core to produce mana from heritage chi or the ambient mana. In refining chi, he needs to do all the processes manually without a single error. This was an arduous task and exhausted his mind.

Because of this, Angus couldn't continuously refine his chi and needed to take a break. He will be prone to creating more mistakes in refining chi with an exhausted mind, which is dangerous since a single fatal error could kill or cripple him.

Opening his eyes, Angus found Jayna in the room. Looking that Angus is waking up from refining his chi, Jayna gets a towel and gives it to Angus to wipe his sweat.

Receiving the towel, "Thanks. What time is it?" asked Angus.

"It's eight in the morning." replied Jayna as she was putting on some of her gear.

"Eh.. It's morning already. Time really passed by." said Angus.

Since Angus needs all his focus in refining chi, he often forgets the surroundings and time. Sometimes he could even refine chi from the evening to the morning the next day without realizing it.

Fortunately, as a second-grade combatant, he could stay awake for a few days without sleeping at all. Although his body is fine, he will still be fatigued from refining the chi.

"Are you going to the Battle Arena again?" asked Angus as he looked at Jayna putting on some protective equipment.

"Yeah, Do you want to come?" asked Jayna.

Angus didn't reply but looked at the window for a while. Jayna doesn't mind this since she knows Angus is also tired from cultivating the chi and sometimes refuses her invitation.

'Hmm… Today is a bright day. Might as well go out for a while.' thought Angus inwardly.

"Sure, let's go together." said Angus as he began to clean his body with spells and change his damp clothes.

"Ehh.. You are coming?" asked Jayna as she didn't expect Angus to accept her invitation.

"Yeah, today has good weather. It will be a shame to just coop inside the room. Is anything wrong?" asked Angus back.

"N-No, This is great. I mean... Sure, you can come along." replied Jayna cheerfully.

Soon, both of them were already on the street, going towards the arena. Besides them, Ilgor and Anna also accompany them. Learning from the previous incident, Angus and Jayna decide not to leave Anna alone with Ilgor.

Sometimes Ilgor couldn't stop Anna even if he wanted to as she is a real troublemaker and very unpredictable. Fortunately, she only makes some trouble in a new environment. In regular times, she just behaves herself while playing with the bubbles like a child.

While walking towards the Battle Arena, "I wonder how uncle Jade and cousin Gilford are doing?" asked Jayna.

"Don't worry, Gilford is probably 'researching' at the nearby public library. As for uncle Jade, we could just hope he could control his power as soon as possible." said Angus.

After Jade reaches seventh grade, his control over power becomes worse. Sometimes he could radiate terrifying fire mana towards the surrounding without realizing. 

Because of this, he stayed at the Old Man Draught place and trained with Warton to control his power. Since he is already a seventh-grade combatant, his power is very destructive. 

A casual burst of fire could become a massive fire explosion without proper control. Therefore, Jade needs a special place to train and adapt to his new power. 

Some rumors even said a new seventh-grade combatant usually would need to go secluded training or experience a lot of battle to grasp their new strength. This leaves Angus and his friend on their own to do their things.

After walking while enjoying the good weather and the lively commercial district, Angus and his group arrive at the Battle Arena. Since everyone has a lot of spare time, Jayna and Ilgor decide to train themself inside the arena.

Jayna wants to get more experience in combat, while Ilgor decides to temper his axe mastery to break through the fourth grade. The fourth grade is the threshold between low grade and high grade. It is also called mastery grade.

To reach fourth grade, people need to have some sort of mastery, be it weapon mastery, elemental mastery, spell mastery, or other mastery. This is also why starting from the fourth grade above, people often referred to them as the realm of the expert.

However, for ordinary people to achieve mastery is a very difficult thing. Only talented people could reach mastery. Without talent, people only could train all their life before reaching a mastery state.

Arriving at the battle arena, Jayna and Ilgor go to the registration area like usual while Angus and Anna go towards the audience area. After the opening speech from the announcer and a few fights, it is finally Jayna's turn.

Jayna already became a regular fighter during this one month and had her own audience betting on her. She even has her own fans since she is quite a skilled and talented sword fighter.

Fortunately, she uses a helmet and hides her identity. Otherwise, it will be a hassle every time someone recognizes her outside the arena. Her name inside the battle arena is Sword Princess.

"Alright, everyone. The next match is our beloved Sword Princess fighting a newcomer called Blue Phoenix." said the announcer.

Hearing the Sword Princess, everyone began to cheer. However, Angus and Jayna are surprised at hearing the name Blue Phoenix.

'It should be just a coincidence. Well, this is inside Porros. Even a seventh-grade combatant didn't dare cause trouble, much less a sixth-grade beast. But, I hope nothing bad happens.' thought Angus.

'Blue Phoenix?! Is it one of the Fire Phoenix's sisters?? But I didn't feel any of their aura? It should be just a coincidence.' thought Jayna.

As both gates opened, two girls of almost the same height and build but with different clothes colors came out. Jayna wears red-colored armor while Blue Phoenix wears blue-colored armor.

After some introduction, both of the girls went into the center of the arena. Both of them use swords as their weapon.

Looking at the two girls ready, "Without wasting any moment, let the fight begin!!" said the announcer.

Then, the two girls begin to clash swords. During their first clash, they realized both of them had roughly the same physical strength. In the next moment, they start to exchange dozens of attacks. 

From the outside, both of them look equal, but any sword expert could see that Blue Phoenix is losing in terms of sword skill with Jayna. 

From the Blue Phoenix's fighting pattern, they could see that the Blue Phoenix is not too proficient at sword mastery and rely more on mana-based skill. This often happened to the newcomer as inside the Battle Arena they couldn't use mana at all.

Without mana, the fighter will be forced to fight with only their weapon skill and physical strength. Unless it is an absurd person like Anna or Angus who have incredible physical strength, the fight usually will heavily rely on weapon skill.

After completely grasping Blue Phoenix's fighting pattern using [Analyze], Jayna didn't go easy anymore and decided to end the match. Using her sword, she hit Blue Phoenix's sword and threw it outside the arena. *Clang* Then, she pointed her sword at Blue Phoenix.

"Surrender." said Jayna coldly.

Seeing she lose quickly toward Jayna, Blue Phoenix gave a long sigh before replying, "Alright, I surrender."

As soon as Blue Phoenix surrendered, "As expected from our Sword Princess, her sword skill seems to be improved again. Everyone please give applause to both of the contestants." said the announcer.

Then, both of the girls got out of the arena. On the way, a black-haired girl came towards them.

Looking at the girl, "Millie?!!"