Summoner Sovereign

Unlike Thunder Hammer Society, Crimson Spear Society decided to maintain the format of team battle, and we were expected to submit a formal list of our members. With exactly five members in our society, we just wrote the names of our members and submitted that.

"Heh, so they stuck to team battle format after all." Stanley Lee was grinning. "That will be a good haul of prestige points."

"Hey, no underestimating the enemy," I reminded him sternly. "Don"t a.s.sume that we"ll automatically win."

"Is there anyone in this school who can beat you?" Harvey Deng asked seriously. I shrugged.

"I"m sure there"s plenty of people who can. Like those ranked in the top 100. Definitely those ranked in the top 50."

"You give yourself too little credit, Vice-President Richard." Harvey laughed. "You should have more confidence in yourself!"

"I"m grateful for your faith in me, but remember, pride comes before a fall. And underestimating your enemy is the worst thing you can do. Our biggest enemy is complacency, not the opponents we are facing in combat."
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"Wise words, as always, Vice-President!"

I couldn"t tell if Harvey was genuinely hanging onto my every word, or if he was just sucking up. Well, whatever. I will find out eventually.

Whatever the case, we had a match to worry about, and I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

"We"re here!" Dong Fang Yue Chu announced when we reached the room that Crimson Spear Society sent us. He knocked on the door, and it automatically slid open, revealing the ma.s.sive training room within.

"You"re finally here."

My first impression of Crimson Spear Society was that of delinquents. They were all dressed somewhat outrageously, in a manner that flouted school rules. That is, leaving their jackets hanging open, their ties missing, baggy pants, piercings and chains, sungla.s.ses and black boots instead of proper shoes.

All of them already had their spears out, resting casually against their shoulders or leaning on the walls next to them. They leered at us in an intimidating manner that caused Harvey and w.a.n.g Fei to shrink back, but Stan as usual glared back at them defiantly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Dong Fang Yue Chu forced a laugh, his voice trembling a little.

"No, I"m glad you didn"t run at all!" the leader, a guy with black, spiky hair and a piercing in his ear, rose to his feet, his crimson spear still resting on his shoulder. His subordinates snickered behind him. "We thought you weren"t coming."

Dong Fang Yue Chu swallowed, but didn"t back down. "We"re having a team battle today, correct?"

"That"s right." The leader grinned as he slammed a black boot on top of a nearby training stool, leaning forward. "What, did you think your vice-president can team-kill us or something? We"re not p.u.s.s.ies like Thunder Hammer Society."

"Hah! You"ll get what is coming to you…" Stan began, but I glared at him, and he shut up immediately.

"No, I don"t think I can team-kill you guys, and Thunder Hammer Society aren"t p.u.s.s.ies. Their president gave a good fight." I took a deep breath as I sized the leader up. I knew him, of course. Crimson Spear Society was one of the more famous societies in Jing Tian Academy, even if they weren"t among the four great societies. Their president, Craig Carlson, was among the top 50, and his skills with the spear were top notch. As I had been telling my members, it was not prudent to underestimate the foe.

Even so, I knew the fate of my society was hanging on me. None of the other members could stand up to the other members in Crimson Spear Society. Everything depended on me pulling off another team-kill.

So regardless of whether I was confident of wiping out the team from Crimson Spear Society or not, I simply had no choice. Not if I wanted to protect my society and earn the prestige points we needed to survive. Any other alternatives didn"t bear consideration. For now, I decided to focus on one match at a time, and worry about the others when they came.

Otherwise, there was no point thinking about them if I couldn"t even beat the first opponent.

"Oh?" Craig Carlson grinned, and his sinister expression sent a chill up my spine. "At least your vice-president is humble. I like that." he c.o.c.ked his head to study Stan and the other first years. "You should learn from him."

Stan bristled, but said nothing. Good. He was learning to keep his mouth shut.

"All right, let"s get started then." Craig Carlson went straight to the point. He proceeded to the center of the training room, which was a fairly big arena. Hopping over the strings, he jumped into the ring and brandished his crimson spear. "Who"s first?"

I glanced at the others, and they nodded encouragingly. Harvey looked like he believed in me no matter what, while Dong Fang Yue Chu, Stan and w.a.n.g Fei appeared confident that I could handle this. I took a deep breath, and hauled myself over the strings that made the perimeter and landed at the edge of the ring.

The holographic image of Teacher Fielding s.h.i.+mmered to life. As always, he was busy with refereeing a bunch of matches, so he had his digital clone oversee this particular match. There weren"t as many matches today, thankfully, probably fifty or so. That meant Teacher Fielding would have an easier time today.

"All right, the both of you may begin whenever you"re ready."

"I"m ready." Craig grinned at me as he lowered his spear, pointing it at me. "How about you?"

"Yeah."

"Then let"s begin!"

Teacher Fielding glanced from me to Craig, and then nodded. Raising his hand, he swung it down.

"Ready…fight!"

Without waiting for me to summon anything or draw a weapon, Craig Carlson kicked off the ground and surged toward me in a single burst. His crimson spear lanced forward in a deadly manner, almost spearing through my heart.

Clang!

It never reached me. Raising my right hand, I summoned Castor and deflected it. The force blew me away, though, and I was sent stumbling backward. Craig Carlson seized the chance to slash at me with his spear, the sharp blade blurring into a crimson streak, but I parried it with Castor. Despite holding my black sword with both hands, I was thrown back helplessly.

Landing on my feet, I skidded a few meters backward, but I didn"t pause. Lowering my sword, I got ready to fend off an attack.

"Your reflexes are good, at least." Craig leisurely rested his spear on his shoulder. He c.o.c.ked his head to the side, studying me. "You"ve improved. In the past, you would have been taken out immediately by that."

I didn"t say anything, and merely crouched into a defensive stance, waiting for him to launch another attack. Craig merely laughed.

"Relax. I"m not going to finish you off yet. It"d be boring." He narrowed his eyes. "I know you"re a summoner. I"m at least polite enough to wait for you to summon your magical beasts." He snickered. "Of course, I"m not crazy enough to wait for you to summon your big guys, but I heard you"ve some new summoned beasts. Call them out at least."

"Make me," I replied defiantly. The guy clearly intended to show off. He wanted to display to everybody how he could destroy my Constellation spirits, but at the same time he knew it would all be over if he allowed me to summon any one of my Celestial Guardians. Did he really think he could have it one way and not the other? I understood that he was wary of my formidable Celestial Guardians, but…

Even so, it p.i.s.sed me off that I was still being underestimated somewhat, so I showed him the finger with my left hand.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Unoffended, Craig burst out laughing. "Now that"s the kind of att.i.tude I like! Looks like this will be a fun match!"

The both of us continued to watch each other, the tension in the air tightening. The audience spectated with bated breath, not daring to blink, in case they missed something.

They almost did. The both of us vanished from sight, and then reappeared in the middle of the ring with our weapons cras.h.i.+ng against each other.

Craig slashed at me, but I deflected his spear away with Castor, and then countered with a thrust. Twirling his spear, Craig fended off that attack and retaliated with a riposte that I ducked by twisting my body to the side. Whirling about, I slashed at him with my sword, but Craig parried my blade with the thick shaft of his spear. Spinning about, he cut through my defenses and attempted to impale me, but I knocked his deadly blade to the side.

Dust billowed about us as our weapons forcibly collided, sparks scattering from the tremendous impact. We almost seemed to be dancing, our bodies locked in violent combat, matching each other step for step and trading blows. Blade crashed against shaft, and the barbed tip was knocked away by a hair"s breadth. We both whirled about and rammed our weapons against each other again before breaking apart in combat.

Then I kicked off the ground and leaped high up. With a yell, I grabbed Castor with both hands and swung it down. Realizing the danger, Craig brought his spear up with both hands to parry the blow, the metal screaming as they kissed and sparks flying violently as my blade dragged against his shaft. Infusing magical energy into my strike in the same manner that Teacher Fielding taught me during combat magic cla.s.s, I unleashed basic offensive spell called sword blast at pointblank range, the aggressive energies detonating against Craig and sending him flying across the ring to slam into the strings that made up the border.

Boom!

The training room shook from tremors caused by the impact, and the strings actually snapped. The ground itself shattered, with pieces of concrete debris raining all over the poor spearman. However, before anyone could say anything, a particularly colossal chunk of debris was hurled in my direction. I calmly stood my ground as the d.a.m.ned thing missed me entirely, breaking apart as it collided against the ground behind me.

Craig was just showing off. He never intended to hit me with that attack. He would find that extremely boring.

"Heh!"

To my complete lack of surprise, Craig was completely unscathed. He emerged from the cloud of dust and debris without a single scratch, a broad smile spreading across his face. Lowering his spear, he then shot out and thrust his deadly weapon at me at an incredible speed.

My reflexes were barely able to save me. I just about managed to block Craig"s strike, but the tremendous force behind his attack smashed Castor out of my hands and shattered the Constellation sword.

"Idiot. This is what you get for showing off!"

Craig"s lips curled into a sneer and he stabbed me with his spear. With me completely disarmed at the moment, there was nothing I could do except helplessly watch his lethal weapon pierce toward my chest…