Life Hunter

She lowered her sword after the light from the lightning died down. Ferzia sharpened all of her senses to make sure she wouldn"t get attacked from behind one more time. But to her surprise, Yrion hadn"t moved and was perfectly standing in the same place as he was before she cast her magic.

She raised her hands "I surrender" And then said with a clear voice and looked at Raal who was outside of the arena.

Raal nodded and raised his hand "Cla.s.s"s A student admitted defeat. Cla.s.s C wins this fight. Please send the next students" He announced.

As everyone was preparing for the next fight, Yrion"s expression changed out of the blue and he kicked the ground to charge toward Ferzia who had turned her back to him.

The judges were unable to react as Yrion closed the distance separating him from Ferzia. The only people that reacted in time were Cekrad and Arister who both kept an eye on him. But before they could make more than a step, the world around them started flowing in slow motion.

Arister could only see, unable to move, as Arima stood up from his seat and slowly stepped on the arena before walking toward Yrion who was like stopped in time with a grin on his face.

Arima casually went to him and pinched him on the forehead, instantly after that. The world recovered his usual flow and Yrion was sent flying before crashing on the ground. He even coughed blood as he did his best to control his fall.

He felt extremely dizzy and touched his forehead and then looked at his hand full of blood. He crawled out of the small crater he was in and then felt something more horrifying and strong than whatever he could have imagined before.

That despair, it penetrated his skin and made him feel like an insect. A feeling that he never experienced before invaded his mind. The fear of death.

He wasn"t alone in that moment, everyone felt the same in the closed s.p.a.ce. They all froze, without even moving their finger they all just followed the source of that fear with their eyes. The man who was casually walking on the arena, releasing his killing intent that seemed capable of devouring their minds.

Although they were not even the target of that intent, it was so intense that even Cekrad didn"t dare to move. It felt like there were a million blades touching the back of his neck, ready to kill him at any moment. That was the same for everyone, they felt like if they moved, they would die.

The scariest thing was that this killing intent didn"t make you want to flee but just jolted your instincts. The natural reaction your body would have if you had a blade touching the back of your neck would be turning around to see what it was.

It was the same for Arima"s killing intent. They knew it came from him but they couldn"t help want to look behind them. And the fear that they might die once they turn their back to Arima made them stop any kind of movement. It was just a vicious cycle.

When Arima arrived beside him, Yrion could only see his foot as he looked from the corner of his eyes. While he was on the ground, he could only feel Arima"s stare while he himself couldn"t move. He felt like the devil was preying on him.

"I gave you a second chance, but not only you didn"t take it, but you also crossed a critical line" Arima slowly said and it brought even more fear to Yrion.

"So you leave me no choice" Arima muttered and grabbed Yrion by his neck and pulled him up to the eye level "Look at me in the eyes. [Fifth Black Art, Penitentia conspiciunt]" Arima chanted his usual magic and Yrion started screaming in pain.

After the kid died and his eyes turned into stone, Arima sneered "I see. No need to let you live after. [Vita Venari]" A colorless energy left Yrion"s dead body. Arima glanced at Ferzia who was looking at the scene gaping and waved his hand toward her. The life force from Yrion"s body directly went to her and she suddenly felt a surge of strength as she raised to the ninth level almost instantly.

She looked at her hands in shock and Arima nodded like he was satisfied with the result and then snapped his fingers. Yrion"s body who was still in its dragon slowly turned back to normal as the draconic parts turned into a sort of mist. That mist gathered to form a small red marble in Arima"s hand.

The latter looked at the marble and then threw it toward the benches. Night caught it swiftly and glanced at it "Thanks" He said before swallowing the marble.

"Well, I won"t let you live. But dying like that is too easy" Arima said as Yrion suddenly let out a scream and breathed in.

Arima snorted and waved his hand. Yrion became an ama.s.sment of light which slowly shrunk into a second marble, a dark one this time.

"Chulainn, your turn. You can do it right?" Arima said and gave the small sphere to Chulainn who was on his shoulder until now.

The h.e.l.lhound hummed and gobbed the thing before swallowing it "It"s good. I can still send people to h.e.l.l…although I can"t go there myself" Chulainn"s response turned into a complaint in the last part.

Arima snickered and then looked at Olien. The teacher was staring at Arima with a strange look. Arima silently drew Ira and pointed it at Olien.

The latter clicked his tongue before his head exploded. His students shrieked as they witnessed the death of their teacher.

"What are you doing?" Cekrad couldn"t stay silent anymore as he asked. Arima"s slaughter intent had already been retracted so he was finally able to move.

Arima just waved his fingers and a sort of badge flew out from Olien"s clothes and then fell into Cekrad"s hands. The badge depicted the form of cobra holding a knife between its fangs.

"That"s your problem now. I will soon leave this continent anyway. I just know it"s an organization of killers or something" Arima said like he was completely uninterested "That kid and his teacher, they were part of it, that"s all I know. I didn"t want to look into the memories of that creep"

Cekrad listened and gulped. He quietly decided to tell this to the king later "So, what do we do now? Do we continue the tournament or can you just end it now?" Arima followed and Cekrad looked at him.

"No, that would be stupid. Your cla.s.s is definitely the winner. But although these are the circ.u.mstances, that man"s cla.s.s will still be placed as second" Cekrad answered and the last part was addressed to Velvet.

The latter nodded in understating and didn"t try anything else. She had already accepted to be third even before things escalated like that.

When Arima"s students heard that, they all sighed in relief and at the same time, in slight regret on what just happened. But they still smiled and cheered for their victory.

"That"s cool then" Arima smiled and said "Now it"s time for me to say goodbye" He suddenly dropped a bomb and the students stopped cheering at once "I don"t really know if we will meet again but I have to go. As your teacher, I hope you"ll all make me proud" Arima said without letting his students say even one thing

Arima didn"t have time, he directly looked toward Arister who was beside Ferzia and smiled "Will you stay here?"

Arister smiled and shrugged "I think so. I wish you good luck. I"m sure you"ll stop that war easily. But if you ever need my help, you can call me"

Arima chuckled and extended his hand "It was cool to have you with us"

Arister shook his hand in response and laughed "Same here"

Arima nodded and looked at his group "Let"s go" He said and went to the exit along with Night, Karma and Lanya.

"Yeah, hurry" Chulainn was also here, of course, always on Arima"s shoulder.

It was only when Arima was about to leave that the students finally reacted and bid him farewell "Thank you very much, Sir. Blade" Ofia said that first and everyone followed her example.

Arima smirked and left Cross Island in the next minute.

********************************************

"Let"s go" Arima resonated with Night and Karma turned back into a sword while Lanya entered Arima"s spatial storage with Chulainn.

Arima"s eyes lit up with a purple light and his aura started rising exponentially. His hair grew and turned silver. His expression turned even more serene and his scales were surrounded by a silver hue.

Arima flapped his wings and flew away at an unimaginable speed for any human on this planet. He broke through the sound barrier in a second and his speed started approaching a thousand meters per second as he left the atmosphere of the planet.

He sent a message to the Natural G.o.d at the same time and thanked him for the ride. His wings started producing a glittering red mist instead of flapping.

"{How strong is that guy?}" Arima asked Chulainn while he was avoiding the different asteroids on his way and admiring the planets and stars far away. It was quite a particular experience.

"{I don"t know really much about Errastas. You should have asked more to Zesta}" Chulainn answered "{I only know that he is part of ancient giants" race. Well, basically,}" He paused and chuckled "{They really big}"

Arima smiled wryly "{I already know that. I saw it}" He responded and waved his hand, destroying a huge rock on his way.

"{Anyway, it"s still an Earthen G.o.d, don"t underestimate him. Although you may have more power than him, particularly in life force. But an Earthen G.o.d has special abilities and a legend backing him}" Chulainn said and Arima nodded.

"There" After an hour or so, Arima muttered as he spotted at a certain planet. He flapped his wings and boosted his speed one last time.

He soon entered the planet"s atmosphere and was caught in the gravitational field. Arima spun during his fall and flapped his wings just before landing. But even if he decelerated as much as he could, when he reached the ground, his raised several hundreds of miles of earth and stone. More of the latter than the former actually.

The planet seemed to be absolutely desert and looked like the entire surface was just an endless canyon. Arima slowly walked out of the crater and stared at a certain direction with his purple eyes.

"That"s a mountain right?" Lanya asked as she left the storage.

"A big mountain" Chulainn nodded.

"Ye, a huge mountain in the middle of a canyon" Arima added.

"{A mountain is a mountain after all}" Night commented.

"{Arima, can you recall me the definition of a mountain?}" Karma tried to be sarcastic but ended up seriously asking as the ground started trembling and the giant mountain they were looking at moving.

"Well, literally, a mountain is a high area of land with steep sides" Arima started talking as he was looking at the "mountain" moving faster "…It can also describe a huge quant.i.ty of something…like a mountain of…meat?"

When Arima finished, the giant he had seen before thanks to Evergreen"s help was now in front of him. The ten thousand meters" tall abomination was now standing in front of him.

"Okay, even for me, I think it"s a bit scary…" Chulainn also said "Even if that thing is only an Earthen G.o.d. I can"t see myself beating this thing"

"You"re right…even if people say that size doesn"t count. There"s a limit. It"s hard to overcome muscular density, weight, and size of a higher species" Arima said while he was making his sigil revolve crazily.

"I may have to use more than Ragnarok to beat this" He smirked and said. His skin suddenly started changing into a gray color and crumbled.

Half of his face was now skeletal as purple flames in the form on his sigil replaced his eyes "I will help you as much as I can. But I didn"t expect that thing to be like this. I only heard he was a giant d.a.m.nit" Chulainn said as he gradually returned to his original form. His size increased greatly and his three heads were now fully back.

"Neither of us are in the Heavenly Realm. And this guy"s body may not be that far from that" His three heads added when they had grown.

"It should work, don"t worry. It"s not like our size doesn"t const.i.tute an advantage on its own" Arima said and crimson runes immediately formed around him "[One thousand parade]" He chanted a magic for the first time and his bones became bigger. Arima"s size greatly increased too and his clothes followed suit.

The final result was a ten meters" tall draconic skeleton, wielding Karma who had turned herself into a great sword fitting the new stature of her partner.

Errastas" three eyes opened at the same time, and the third one on his forehead looked below at Arima"s group. The blue-skinned giant finally moved.