85 Brutal.

While Valerian and the rest of the people were going to the Arena. Fragrantia was sitting behind her table and gazing at some documents. Libra sat beside her with a poker face, however, the aura exuded by him was very heavy. As if this man had transformed into a mountain.

Unlike his wife, he was gazing at the figure kneeling in front of him. He asked, “How sure is your news?”

The figure said, “I can bet my life on it, Sire.”

Despite saying such words the figure did not reveal any emotions. Fragrantia said, “Camilla if I ask you to take down the three people you mentioned, would you be able to do it?”

As soon as these words fell, the figure in front of them took a deep breath and shook her head. She was not sure about going head to head with the three people spearheading the alliance between Stella and Valkyria empires. She was not strong enough to face a Grand Master Warrior and an Arch-mage let alone the imperial teachers of both the empires, who may not be very versatile but brutal.

Fragrantia nodded and said, “Allow for them to be delayed as much as you can then. We will make some arrangements.”

The figure nodded and after greeting the two people, she vanished into a dark corner of the room. Libra shook his head and said, “War seems to be imminent, I will command General Stanis to prepare the military.”

General Stanis was the head of the military, also known as the minister of war. Fragrantia nodded and said, “I will not interfere in this matter but I will try to do what I can to ease the situation from the side.”

The Emperor nodded and summoned the minister of war.

.....

...

Valerian and the others came to the arena. The arena was located near the battle mage tower, in the center of the academy. At this moment, a lot of students from the two courses seemed to be looking at an erected platform.

This platform was surrounded by a water ditch, with just one narrow staircase leading to up. At this moment, two people were fighting each other and one side was particularly stronger than the other side. Valerian looked at the duel with great interest while listening to the people talking about the situation.

“Barak has been using this trick to lure the people from water mage class and treat them brutally. Why can’t he go and challenge Azula?”

“You surely are ignorant, don’t you know that Stella and Valkyria are camping against Lumen Empire? Their scions are playing with the princess of their enemy nation. That is all.”

Valerian heard many such things and he was very curious, what will these people think if he defeated the two people right now, what will they think? A battle-mage could face an opponent twice stronger than him with both magic and warrior skills used together.

Soon, the warrior on the stage had broken the limbs of the mage in front of him and threw him into the water surrounding the platform. This signified his victory and glory. The boy dressed in beast pelts seemed to have spotted Azula and the rest, so he cast a provocation gaze at her. Azula was about to step forward and answer his challenge when she heard a calm voice, “Your Highness, allow me.”

Azula asked, “How sure are you to take him down?”

Valerian replied, “You cannot stop walking from the fear of stumbles, and this guy is walking all over our image because we are from the Lumen Royal family. That is also the reason why we should fight him and beat him.”

His voice was indifferent and the pace was slow, and Azula said with much hesitation, “Go ahead.”

Valerian gave her a smile and walked ahead, mixing in the crowd around the platform, his size was small and most of the people ignored him as some kid who wanted to watch the action over the platform.

However, they did not expect this child to directly go up the stairs. An elder at the side, said, “Child, who are you, and this platform is not a place to be stepped on casually.”

The elder was kind and patient. Valerian replied, “I want to learn from this senior brother.”

The crowd immediately became silent. They did not expect this child to say such a thing, and then they burst up into loud laughter. The elder shook his head with a frown and said, “Child do not joke around.”

Valerian replied, “Elder, you can rest assured, it is only a sparring and senior brother will be careful with me as well.”

He turned his gaze to look at Barak standing a few meters away from him, but his eyes were mocking the person as if saying, are you sure you want to refuse to me and say that you do not have the guts to fight me?

That scornful smile on Valerian’s face had simply enraged him, this insolent child wanted to beat him in fighting skills. His ego lit up, turning his gaze to the presiding elder he said, “I have never pulled my punches, and I never will. But this young boy is also looking forward to being like me, I will teach him properly.”

He emphasized on a few terms like, ‘Never pulled punches, young boy, teach him properly.’

This made the crowd startled and they thought this kid will be beaten to death by Barak, however, when someone opened their mouth to warn Valerian, they were gazed at by Barak and made to keep quiet.

The presiding elder also ignored the silent prays, the rules of the platform were the same for everyone, once you step up, you stand till the battle has ended and walk away with glory, or lay down to learn the taste of defeat. He had already warned the kid, so now that happened was Valerian’s will.

After telling Valerian a few rules, it was time for battle. The two people stood facing each other and they both exuded agreement in their eyes. While Barak wanted to break the silver-haired boy and show up in Azula’s footsteps after breaking her precious attendant.

Valerian just wanted to beat this guy and ease the pressure on Azula a bit. This was his motive. The elder presiding over them said, “Begin.”

Barak was waiting for this and he vanished from his spot in a blink. He reappeared in front of Valerian, who said, “Micare.”

Then with an intense burst of light, Barak was unable to see anything around him. However, it was not easy for Valerian to move forward and take charge to beat the shit out of this person. He was looking at Barak’s actions and found that this guy was using his other senses to locate him.

Thinking of this Valerian almost chuckled, “Globus Ferreus.”

A ball of iron appeared in his hands, and Valerian threw it at Barak, while the latter dodged based on his instincts. The silver-haired child was also not a rookie, he had appeared in front of Barak without making a sound as he used his physical prowess.

He said in a hushed tone, “Petra Chirothecam.”, which lingered in the void as he moved.

He did this when he was moving to hit the target, and the impact left Barak with a pale face, which was slowly turning purple. Barak could not understand what happened, this child was not at all weak, his battle sense was really strong and overwhelmingly sharp.

Valerian had attacked his vulnerable vitals from the first exchange and they all could and would affect his fighting capabilities in the long run. Just when Barak was thinking about how he can counter the situation by dodging the attacks, he found that his feet were stuck.

This happened just in time when his vision recovered a bit. He was looking down when a punch connected with his chin. His head was flung back and he fell to the ground. Then he was zoned out for a bit and when he woke up, Valerian sat on his chest, and his enforced fists rained down on Barak’s face.

His rugged dashing face was the only part without scars, but now, it was reduced to a mangled mashed meaty ball. Broken nose, swollen and cut lips with other wounds on the bones of the face.

Barak was not an easy opponent to deal with and he tried to resist the attacks, but Valerian did not give him any chances, the shoulders had been dislocated and his ribs were also inflicted. Every breath taken him was making him understand what it felt like to be burned from the inside out.

Suddenly, a shout woke up everyone, “Bastard!!! How dare you harm him.”

Azula and everyone looked at the source of the voice. It was Tyrant, he got the news that Valerian had beaten Barak. He roared in anger because at this moment Barak was really important to his plans.

Valerian raised his head, looked up at Tyrant, and stomped on the legs of the prince of Valkyrie, breaking them from the joints. Barak wailed, even if the joints were healed with magic, they will not return to their natural. After this was done, Valerian undid the binding spell and dragged Barak to the edge of the platform before letting him take a dip.

His actions were nothing but brutal.