Chapter 222 The Best Defense

Richard too wasn't allowed to enter the resting area, so after leaving Daimon and the others he flew towards the skybox of the elite class, not without nodding at him with a strange smirk on his face.

Ignoring whatever was making Richard have such a good humor, Aliya and her students entered the resting area and sat on the couches to wait for the matches to start.

Daimon was about to sit when he noticed Aliya was looking a bit more tired than normal, but he decided to ask Boris about it later, since this wasn't the moment nor the place to talk about such things.

Aliya looked at her students and then remembered the grin she saw in Arthur's face earlier, and couldn't help but remind them.

"I know you all are confident in your battle skills, and to be honest after seeing the previous matches even I don't know where your limits are… be cautious, I recognize someone desperate to win when I see it, so I can assure you today's matches will be wilder".

Daimon nodded totally agreeing with Aliya, yesterday he saw Daniel and Jason who had forcefully advanced using a half assed method which weakened their foundations, but they were mere pawns, the girl with earth affinity and the guy with dark affinity which were from some of the minor families, didn't resort to that.

They were talented enough to be part of the elite class, but for one reason or another, they didn't enroll in the academy, but instead joined the Jolbaris everything with the goal of getting a spot for the exploration.

So, following that logic, today, they will have to fight talented people who probably used something to improve their powers.

Even the normally carefree Calvin took things seriously this time.

"Don't worry miss, I still have a grudge against those guys for how they treated Loren, this young master will teach them some proper manners".

"I bet your aunt thought the same after you tried to sneak in… but this time I agree, we have to teach them to not mess with out classmates", mumbled Michael with a sharp light on his eyes as he played with a dagger.

…

Soon sounds could be heard from outside of the resting area as the stands were hurriedly occupied by those who waited in line, after hoe the girls performed yesterday, everyone was expecting to see a good show, especially because the representatives from the three biggest families will be clashing again.

The Half Emperors arrived at last and took their respective seats, but as Aura was about to give Stella the greenlight, Solomon returned from wherever he was and his eyes fixed on Arthur as he drank a barrel of his usual liqueur.

The distribution of the seats wasn't done in any particular order, but Arthur thought the contrary, Erin didn't bother to sit with them so the ones in the middle were Aura, Parzival and Arthur.

"Jolbaris brat, why aren't you moving aside, leave an old man sit down to watch his grandson crushing some fools".

Without waiting for Arthur to answer, Solomon snapped his fingers and the reinforced ground which was supposed to not be affected, by the current power restricted Half Emperors, was easily manipulated moving Arthur's seat aside as Solomon sat cross legged on the floor.

Arthur knew arguing with Solomon was pointless, so he inwardly snorted remembering the "surprise" he prepared with some help, for his son's enemies.

Solomon suddenly threw a barrel of his liqueur towards the field marshal who effortlessly caught it, and gulped down in one go before nodding at Solomon.

"Hahaha, nice guts brat, even my son can only drink a few sips of this before fainting".

Leaving aside Solomon's late arrival, Aura nodded at the skybox of the vice principals and the screens focused their attention in Stella.

"The Wild Claw academy welcomes all the students and guests to the last day of the tournament, there will be a celebration upheld in the campus later, without further ado, referees you may go ahead".

The referees walked towards the selection box and pushed their respective buttons, a second later two spheres with different numbers appeared.

"Rank number 10, Calvin Ghrish".

"Rank number 14, Edmond Castle".

Calvin craned his neck and then got up from the bench after nodding at Daimon and his other classmates he jumped on the platform, Edmond on the other hand did a salute towards Alexander before getting up the platform.

The screens then changed their target to the new participants, Calvin's tall figure was easy to spot, he shaved for the occasion so the signs of a beard were gone, even his brown hair was somehow less messy than earlier, he was wearing the casual clothes and leather armor, his weapon, a Warhammer which was about two meters large was being held against his shoulder.

Edmond on the other hand was also tall, he had black hair and was fully clad in heavy metal armor, as for his weapon of choice, it was a metal staff with pikes on both ends.

The referees then gave the greenlight and the match started, Calvin's carefree expression disappeared, it seemed as if he had become a different person, his mana exploded covering the whole platform as he slowly walked towards Edmond before letting go of his Warhammer.

"You look like a tough guy, that's good, let me tell you that besides our class rep and a certain monstrous woman, there has never been anyone that could withstand ten of my hits directly".

Edmond snorted, he also tossed his weapon aside and started walking towards Calvin, the deep brown color of his mana made clear for everyone that his element was also earth, but there was a small tinge of silver mixed on it.

Both of them stopped a few centimeters away from the other, their heights were practically the same so they looked at each other in the eyes.

"Booom!", Calvin and Edmond clenched their fists and punched frontwards, their manas and fists clashed creating a huge shockwave and a loud exploding sound that made the weaker students cover their ears.

Both Calvin and Edmond took a few steps back and looked at their hands, there were some signs of dust crumbles on Calvin's knuckles while Edmond's metal gauntlet was dented.

Daimon had refrained from using his infinity eyes on his classmates until the fights, because it would be funnier this way, so now what he could see instead of Calvin was brown, gray and blue figure, which was moving using mana, of course that didn't mean Calvin was a golem or something like that.

"A suit… he wearing a suit made out of earth and other things", he mumbled earning a smile from Aliya.

"That's the dreadnought armor spell of the Ghrish family, it consists in compressing a lot of earth and other specific elements in millimetric layers and then using then as a second skin".

Daimon nodded and then focused his attention on the platform again, Calvin's armor reformed and so did the metal gauntlet of Edmond.

"Heh, so the Jolbaris are so desperate to win that they got you some drops of stalactite milk", said Calvin in a ridiculing voice.

Edmond's pupils narrowed, he unconsciously gazed at the area where the Half Emperors were, before shaking his head.

,m "The Ghrish family is so high and mighty, but their young master is jealous of a minor noble like me, to the point that he can't accept my talent is higher than his".

Calvin smirked, without releasing any mana, the ground started trembling to the point that event the walls started vibrating after a couple of seconds, forcing the referees to cast a barrier to prevent the fight from affecting the stands.

"Well, let's see who's the hardest one, a dreadnought or a castle", said Calcvin as he jumped towards Edmond.

Edmon suddenly felt as if a rock was pressing down on his chest, he blocked with his two arms taking Calvin's punch, and was sent flying back about twenty meters, his feet left a trace on the ground but he managed to parry the attack.

"Ughhh!", or so he thought until blood exploded out of his mouth.

"What the hell!", Edmond was angry, he was using both earth and metal elements but his armor couldn't withstand a single hit, he rushed towards his weapon and after grabbing it, he smashed the spiked end towards Calvin who didn't move.

The staff clashed against Calvin's face, a vicious yet legal move, the air rumbled and pieces of rocks exploded all over the place, both due to the impact and Calvin's armor crumbling apart.

But as Edmond was about to smile, he froze on the spot, there wasn't any blood on the ground, he slowly turned to see impact point and then his hands started shivering.

The layer of rocks which he destroyed with his attack… wasn't the only one Calvin had, below it there was another one and that was perfectly fine even after taking a hit directly on the face.

Calvin smiled, he grabbed spiked staff and easily bent it backwards giving it a half moon shape.

"You know, I'm a firm believer that the best defense is a good offensive", then before Edmond could react, he took Calvin's punch on the shoulder.

"Aghhhh!!!", a lung tearing scream filled the platform, Calvin's hand made a hole through his armor, skin, flesh and bones and appeared on the other side.

"Oh, come on, Loren took about twenty needles with darkness element and didn't let out a sound, don't tell me a tough guy like you can't even resist one punch from me".

Calvin's calm yet cold voice made the other students fell a chill run down their spines.

'How can he be the tenth ranked!', they yelled in their hearts.