567 Chapter 567: Pride comes before a fall

Standing in front of his Crystal Armor Scorpion, Hai Da Pang began laughing.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Ugh…" the guy who was still conscious could barely sit up, and he watched the Crystal Armor Scorpion and its summoner, fear visible on his pale face. He shuddered as he tried to crawl backward, to no avail.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Hai Da Pang continued laughing loudly, throwing his head back and keeping his nose in the air. What the fuck was he, a villain or something? Now I really wished someone would teach him a lesson, to shut him up at the very least.

The fatty was getting really, really annoying.

"Anyone else?" Hai Da Pang sneered arrogantly. He flicked a hand out and beckoned the audience over. "Get up here!"

In the spectator seats, the other students exchanged worried glances, wondering if they stood a chance against such a terrifying foe. For now, none of them dared to recklessly descend to the stage and try their luck. Above them, atop a holographic screen, it featured Hai Da Pang's face and name, and tallied the total score.

So he had defeated five people by himself, and the total defeated by all the summoning students was still five. This was only the beginning.

There were a few murmurs, but obviously there were a few people pissed off by Hai Da Pang's attitude. I wished I could join in and fight against Hai Da Pang myself, but I wasn't allowed to. I glanced at Lilith, knowing that she would step in if the situation got out of hand. She was calmly sitting beside her grandfather and watching the whole scene unfold without any anger or panic.

Hmm…that was indeed curious. She probably knew something that I didn't. At the very least she seemed confident that Hai Da Pang would be eventually defeated. Given that his Crystal Armor Scorpion was blinded, its eyes bleeding, she was probably right.

…hey, wasn't this whole thing incredibly similar to a story I had read somewhere before? Why did it feel like déjà vu? I swear, I read the whole thing somewhere before, or at least watched the anime adaptation of it.

Right. It was Versatile Mage. If this was the case, I could predict what was going to happen. Too bad Bu Fan wasn't here, otherwise…oh, well.

Down below, a group of students had mustered their courage and stepped up to the challenge, determined to bash Hai Da Pang's pride.

"If we can coordinate as a team and work together, then we'll definitely be able to defeat him!" one of them declared passionately to his teammates, who nodded enthusiastically. "Let's go!"

"Yeah!"

I watched as the next five students worked together, scattering to ensure that the Crystal Armor Scorpion was forced to split its strength. They then cast their spells from five different directions, bombarding the poor thing relentless and eliciting a shrill screech.

The Crystal Armor Scorpion thrashed about as fireballs, lightning, icicles and earth spikes slammed into it. Its huge stinger swung about, only to crash into a barrier that one of the five mages conjured, thus making it difficult for the monster to hurt them. Coordinating efficiently, the five mages continued to assault the Crystal Armor Scorpion with their spells.

"Kreee!"

Screeching, the Crystal Armor Scorpion strode out of the inferno, immolated. With a single vicious swipe, its pincer smashed through a barrier and sent one of the mages flying. The barrier mage coughed from the feedback, but managed to conjure a second barrier…only for the Crystal Armor Scorpion to shatter it with its stinger. The poor girl was sent crashing onto the ground with a fatal wound.

If it wasn't for the boundary field, she would have died from that. Scary.

The professor in the white lab coat quickly got her out of there and sent her to the infirmary, where Yi Ya was rushing forward to cast a healing spell on her.

"Damn, this looks bad," she remarked gravely. The guy with the cigarette nodded.

"I know, right? Looks like you're going to be busy today, Yi Ya."

"Urusai!" she snapped. "Do your duty properly and maybe I won't have to work as hard!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll do my best."

With two down, it wasn't long before the other three were eventually taken down. The holographic screen above that Hai Da Pang had taken down ten mages, and our total was ten.

"Huff��huff…"

The fatty was panting almost hysterically. His Crystal Armor Scorpion was swaying, its armor cracked from the flames and other magical projectiles, and he continued to feed it his mana to keep it standing on its feet.

"Damn it! There's no end to these guys!" Hai Da Pang complained. And this guy was thinking he could sweep through a hundred students? Was he kidding?

"Next group!" the professor in the white coat snapped, and the group already waiting below got up onto the stage.

"Yes, sir!"

This time there was six people in this group, but Hai Da Pang didn't falter. He sent his Crystal Armor Scorpion after the group, and despite weathering an onslaught of spells, he managed to take out another five, increasing the total to fifteen. His Crystal Armor Scorpion had seemed to gone berserk, its stinger lashing out and stabbing the students, or seizing one of them with its pincers and crushing them. It was brutal and grotesque, but thanks to the boundary field, none of them died.

I bet if this story ever got a comic or anime adaptation, those grisly scenes would be censored because…you know. But whatever. Anyway, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor victims who were literally pulverized by the damned pincers or gored to near-death by the stinger. The professor who served as the umpire had to use his telekinesis spells to fling them out of the battle cage and toward the infirmary, atop floating stretchers. Yi Ya didn't seem happy, but…

The last girl of the group managed to inflict a tremendous spell on the wavering Crystal Armor Scorpion. Throwing a hand out, she cast a quick spell.

"Inferno Strike!" she shouted, and incinerated the Crystal Armor Scorpion. The great beast swayed unsteadily as it was bathed in flames before it finally toppled over, sizzling.

"Gah!" Hai Da Pang cried out as he fell to a knee, his summoned beast disappearing and dispersing into waves of mana beside him. He wasn't able to stand up straight, panting from the exertion because he had used up all his mana to supply his poor Crystal Armor Scorpion. He cursed under his breath. "Damn it!"

Looking up at the girl who defeated his Crystal Armor Scorpion, he muttered to himself bitterly.

"In the past, I could easily defeat fifty mages in a row. But here, in Vermillion University, I could only defeat fifteen?! What a huge difference! These guys are no joke!"

As much as I abhorred his arrogance, I had to admit that he was pretty impressive himself, having defeated fifteen people by himself. Given that there were seven of us, as long as each of us defeat fifteen, we should be able to reach the one hundred mark pretty soon…with a safety net of five. That was good.

"Are you all right?" the professor in the white coat asked when Hai Da Pang struggled to his feet. "Can you walk on your own?"

"Of course!" Hai Da Pang snapped, but he was wobbling comically, his legs still trembling from the effort. Hah! Where was his arrogance from before?

"You can go first," Wang Chui Niu told Kanon Fodder. The nervous-looking guy was startled when he realized that he was being addressed.

"Huh?! Me?!"

"Yeah, you." Wang Chui Niu gestured for him to go. "You got this, Kanon!"

"N…no, I don't…" Kanon stammered nervously. "I'm pretty terrible at summoning, you know? My summoned beast is super weak. I don't think I'll be able to defeat even one person."

"Don't worry," Wang Chui Niu assured him in a condescending manner. "Even if you can't defeat a single person, I will help make up the difference for you."

"So you're saying you can defeat at least thirty people?" I asked dryly.

"I can defeat all hundred people by myself if necessary," Wang Chui Niu retorted. Whoa, he really loved to brag.

"Um, actually…" Kanon seized on what he saw was his chance. "Richard, would you like to go first?"

"No, I would prefer to go last," I replied and raised a hand apologetically. "I haven't even begun summoning any of my soul beasts yet because of some complications, so it will be a long while before I can do anything. And…as you guys have surmised, they are pretty trash. So I'll be counting on you guys instead!"

"Hmph!" Wang Chui Niu snorted. "Useless fella!"

The guy had no idea that I was trolling them. I didn't want to fight just yet because I wanted to see what my classmates were capable of. If I were to go in this early, I might end up taking out all hundred or so students by myself. I wasn't being arrogant or overconfident. It was just that…well, I had like eighty-eight different Constellation spirits and five Celestial Guardians to summon, so I could probably last a lot longer than all the rest.

That was why I wanted to go last…as insurance.

However, I wasn't going to let them know. I just pretended to play the pig so that I could eat the tiger later.

"I told you to go, so go!" Wang Chui Niu yelled at poor Kanon. "Stop wasting time!"

"O…okay! Sorry!"

The poor guy hurried to the stage, where the professor in the white coat awaited. The guy was still smoking as he glanced about.

"Oh, so you're next? Are you ready?"

"Not really…"

"Quite being a wimp," the professor snapped and kicked him into the cage. "Just go in and fight already."

Poor Kanon crashed into arena in a shower of dust and he stood up, dusting himself off reluctantly. Sighing, he shook his head.

"I guess I have no choice."

He held up a hand and summoned a cute puppy that was about half his size. Covered in white fur, possessing fluffy ears and having adorable eyes, it didn't look like the kind of soul beast that could fight at all.

This was interesting. As I said before, soul beasts were reflections of one's inner desires or deep subconscious, so the kind of soul beast that a summoner could summon was indicative of his past. I surmised that Kanon Fodder had a pet in the past, a dog that looked incredibly similar to the soul beast he had summoned before. Probably something tragic happened, but unable to let go of his precious pet, he ended up being able to summon something that looked similar to it…based off his memories and perception of his past pet, anyway.

"All right…let's go!" he ordered, and the cute puppy charged forward with an excited bark.

"No go," the girl who defeated the Crystal Armor Scorpion said, having been joined by a fresh wave of teammates. "I hate to do this to a cute puppy like yours, but for the prize of taking your resources…Inferno Strike!"

She threw a hand out and blew up both Kanon and his puppy, blasting them out of the cage.

That was…pathetic. Sorry to say.

"Seems like summoning magic isn't so impressive after all," one of the girl's teammates muttered as he shook his head. Another girl nodded in agreement.

"Yeah."