Julius' heart almost leapt from his chest as a disgusting sensation assaulted him. He could feel them, the tiny threads wrapping around his bones, tendons, and veins, slowly depriving him of his movements. To make matters worse, Raynard's hateful spell kept singing in his ears, hastening his fall into slumber.
'Will I lose again? Like I did against Smith?'
His thoughts thundered in his mind as a deep wave of unwillingness rose from his trembling heart. Had he not vowed to never be defeated again on the night he lost his mother? So why?
Why, despite all his training, the thousand gold coins his big brother had given him with so much kindness, his legendary blade, and his unique path, nothing changed?
As his feelings swirled around those questions, creating a chaotic mess threatening to devour his harmonious heart, a single emotion suddenly overwhelmed all the others.
Wild tremors shook his body, and his eyes glinted with a blood-curdling red light. His blood boiled, altering its natural course to flow in reverse, and his teeth cracked under his clenched jaws.
His boiling Qi flooded his meridians, rupturing the weaker parts under their owner's hate. Yes. Hate overwhelmed the kind and disciplined boy for the first time.
He hated Smith for beating him, Eleanor for kidnapping his mother, the Ashfords for forcing him to become a fugitive, and the two teachers for their sudden attack. But there was one person he hated more. He scorned and despised this individual with all his heart... Himself. Himself for his weakness.
Fueled by rage, his lips parted as Qi flooded his throat. Despite the silence imposed on the room by Reynard's spell, he roared like a wild beast.
"RAAAAAH! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH TODAY!"
His voice reverberated in dormitory three, deafening the few students present. They scrambled in fear, searching for a teacher to investigate the situation in terror.
Dust rose in a menacing dance around him, the stone slabs cracked under his feet, and the windows exploded into glistening shards. The music echoing vanished alongside Alina's voice, causing Reynard to squint.
An ominous pressure exuded from Julius' body the next instant. The five elements raged inside his own body, sifting through his system like famished hounds to find the intruding threads and devour them with wild abandon.
Assaulted by such might, the tendrils cracked, dissolving into his system. With a command, he transferred Alexander's potent mana to nourish his gladius enchantment, causing dense shadows to dance along its humming edges.
Upon witnessing the unexpected outburst, the two teachers locked eyes, noticing the concern reflected in them. With the loud commotion, Shepard would soon move to investigate. They had to hasten their capture or face the arcanist's wrath.
With a nod, they channelled their mana simultaneously to unleash their spells. However, before they could name them, Julius' figure vanished.
The loud noise of shattering rocks echoed in their ears as a blur flashed in their vision. A short sword glinted briefly before a rain of blood spurted into the air.
Raynard's agonising scream filled the air as a deep, burning laceration travelled from his left collarbone to his abdomen.
Meanwhile, Alexander's eyes trembled as realisation struck him. 'He broke through the third tier... No, he almost reached the fourth in such a short time?' He thought, his brows twitching in disbelief.
Mages scorn body cultivators. But he knew it was a misconception birthed by their incomplete path. Starting from the third tier, no apprentice could win a duel against them without preparations. After all, what good would their spells do if they couldn't even see their adversary move?
And that was the situation they had to face.
His tier and incredible spells were irrelevant since he couldn't aim. Well, except if he wanted to obliterate the boy by destroying the entire area... which would compromise their mission.
"Raynard. Knock him out! Now!" He ordered, racing to his cousin and feeling the pressure of time weight on his shoulders.
Unfortunately, a searing pain assaulted his back as his words lingered. The next moment, blood flowed abundantly from the long gash left by Julius.
Astonished to see his passive defences pierced with such ease, an anxious knot wrapped around his guts as he revised his impression. 'He is a monster!'
In the meantime, Raynard gritted his teeth in fury. When had a mighty adept been wounded by a mere apprentice for the last time? Never! He was the first, the one bearing this indelible mark of shame.
His lips rose in a grimace, and his breathing grew ragged. Then, he roared, clapping his mana-imbued hands with all his strength. "Sonus Obstupefaciens!"
The noise reverberated through the air, shattering the furniture in a rain of splinters as a terrifying shockwave expanded around him at the speed of sound.
Julius faced the spell's full force head-on as he charged at his enemies with bloodshot eyes. His eardrums suddenly exploded, blood filled his ears, and his body shook like a sturdy branch battered by a gale.
He tried to comprehend what had happened, yet his body entered a state of shock. Adrenaline flooded his veins like a torrent. His heart rate slowed down, and his blood pressure dropped to dramatic levels, forcing his brain to shut everything down to avoid further damage.
One last unwilling thought thundered in his mind before his eyes lost their lights, and he plopped to the ground powerlessly, unconscious.
"You carry him! Let's move before that lunatic suffocates us!" Raynard yelled, clenching his teeth. To capture a kid, he used his most potent sonic attack, a humiliation he will never forget.
As Alexander cradled Julius on his back, an explosion rocked the entire academy, followed by a horrifying heatwave. The air became scorching and challenging to breathe, burning their throat.
"Are we too late?" Raynard asked, his eyes trembling in dread as he jumped out of the dormitory to see what had caused the blast.
But the spectacle unfolding before his eyes was far from what he could have imagined.