The other third-year students hurriedly pulled on their battle armor, not caring whether it was a complete matching set or not. Whatever pieces they had, they put on first and asked questions later.
"Shhk!"
The golden light surged again, and Arthur's figure carved several afterimages across the stage.
Instant-Light Meteor was pushed to its absolute limit, leaving faint golden trails hanging in the air.
"Screw it!"
Qian Wu gritted his teeth. Right now his condition was at its very peak, and his heart had hardened with resolve.
Behind him, his three purple and two black spirit rings flickered without pause.
The fifth ring flared last of all.
Titan Form!
The illusion of a behemoth rose up behind him.
Qian Wu threw his punch with everything he had.
"Hm?"
Looking at the behemoth's shadow before him, Arthur hesitated for a moment, sheathed the Holy Lance, and threw a punch of his own as well.
He genuinely didn't want Qian Wu to die on the end of his sword.
"BOOM!"
The instant their fists met, crimson-gold spirit power and deep black titan force exploded outward, and the shockwave swept the entire arena like a tsunami.
The stage floor split apart in web-like cracks, sending stone chips flying.
The behemoth's shadow behind Qian Wu roared, its claws unleashing a mountain-toppling force in an attempt to grind Arthur into the ground.
"Impressive, really."
Arthur, shameless as ever, praised his opponent without so much as a flush in his cheeks or a hitch in his breath.
In the next instant, the shadow of a crimson dragon rose into being.
At the same moment, five spirit rings rose behind Arthur.
Three black and two gold!
Five rings, black and gold light intertwining and flowing like a river of stars hanging from the heavens.
Three rings were ink black.
Two rings shimmered with gilded brilliance, tinged with a divine sheen. As the rings turned, they resonated in triple harmony with the pulse of the crimson dragon's core and the holy light of the Holy Lance.
Not far off, the moment the crimson dragon appeared, Gu Yue's head snapped toward it.
Several thoughts flickered through her mind in quick succession.
Was that a dragon?
No, that's not right, that's not a dragon.
Wait, yes it is, that is a dragon.
Hold on, was that really right?
That's not a dragon, is it.
Gu Yue's thoughts spun wildly, her mind racing.
Still no conclusion.
Her legendary intellect had, for once, hit a wall.
Up on the stage, Ya Li's gaze also narrowed slightly.
She had seen the spirit ring configurations of countless gifted spirit masters, but never anything as absurd as two golden rings at once.
A million-year ring?
No, that couldn't be it.
Ya Li and the elders beside her could all sense it.
That gilded sheen carried none of the crushing weight of a million-year spirit beast, but it was well past a hundred thousand years, that much was certain.
"These rings could never have come from an ordinary spirit beast," Ya Li thought to herself. Her gaze settled on the crimson dragon's shadow coiling behind Arthur, and her brow furrowed. "Draconic bloodline? But this energy signature is nothing like any known dragon lineage."
On the stage.
Arthur's spirit power inside him had reached a boiling point!
And next came, powered by the crimson dragon.
The true release of spirit power!
Crimson-gold spirit power erupted from within Arthur like a volcano, forming a storm of energy.
His fist was no longer bound by mere physical contact. It became a pure torrent of spirit power, carrying the crimson dragon's roar, and crashed down toward Qian Wu.
Before this force, Qian Wu's behemoth shadow crumpled like paper, its roar cutting off abruptly.
He could feel with perfect clarity the spirit power boiling within Arthur, pushed to its very limit.
"Class president! You've got this!"
"Hold the line!"
Behind Qian Wu, the third-years still struggling into their armor cheered him on as they dressed.
"Class president! Just a bit longer, almost there!"
"Damn it all!" Qian Wu's furious roar shook the air with a low hum.
He bore the name of third-year class president. He could not fall now, not like this.
The spirit power inside Qian Wu burned wildly, and the spin rate of his three purple and two black rings suddenly surged.
His battle armor, consequences be damned, pushed into overdrive.
The behemoth shadow that had just been scattered reformed, its size swelling several times over.
At the sight, the students who'd been cheering him on abruptly changed their tune. "No, don't, class president!"
"Your armor's going to burn out!"
"It's not worth it, what about the inner court assessment!"
Hold on!
But against the crimson dragon, it was crushed all the same, ground down without mercy.
The behemoth shadow shattered a second time, and as the crushing blow landed, it kicked up a sky full of dust.
Still, the time he'd bought had been enough for all the third-years to get every piece of armor they owned onto their bodies.
The dust slowly settled.
Everyone stared, transfixed.
Qian Wu still hadn't fallen.
He stood hunched over, gasping in great heaving breaths, his armor webbed with hairline cracks.
"Class president..." someone started, voice thick with feeling. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed at you these past three years."
The sentimental words landed like a stone dropped into still water, sending ripples spreading outward at once.
The third-years' eyes reddened one by one, and confessions began pouring out.
Then, as one, they all turned to face Arthur.
"Get him!"
"Avenge the class president!"
"Right! We can't let his sacrifice be for nothing!"
Across from them, Arthur's expression darkened.
What the hell. Since when did he become the villain here?
Everyone knew Arthur was devoted to becoming an agent of justice!
"Tch. No fun at all."
Facing down a mob of several dozen.
In truth, ever since awakening the crimson dragon, Arthur's resistance to spirit power attacks had grown extremely high.
But amplified by their battle armor, their spirit power now hovered near the Soul Emperor rank.
Mo Yu, the one Battle Armor Master among them with a complete matching set, had even brushed against Soul Sage.
And on top of that, they were all already above Soul Ancestor rank to begin with.
No matter how high his resistance, he still couldn't simply ignore it all.
Hundreds of spirit skills buried Arthur beneath them.
Every kind of attack imaginable.
Arthur's figure flickered as he dodged strike after strike, and at the same time, his fourth golden spirit ring blazed to life.
Fourth spirit skill: the Golden Lion Descends!
A three-eyed Golden Lion leapt out from within Arthur.
Its little claws still had a few feathers stuck to them.
Looked like they might be Ruifeng's.
Ah well, didn't matter.
The tiny auspicious beast waved its claws happily. Then, the vertical eye on its forehead snapped open.
In an instant, a seven-colored halo swept across the entire arena.
The hundreds of incoming spirit skills, the moment they touched that halo.
Curses and poison-type negative spirit skills melted away like snow before a blazing sun.
Fire, lightning, and other direct-attack spirit skills were shattered with ease.
The Golden Lion Descends.
When judgment falls, ten thousand methods break before it!
The three-eyed Golden Lion settled onto Arthur's shoulder, its little claws still dusted with a few feathers of unknown origin.
It gazed with open disdain at the students in front of it, still frozen by what they'd just witnessed.
"Holy shit!"
The third-years cried out as one.
"Holy shit!" That one came from the first- and second-years, who'd stopped their own brawling to look over.
"Holy shit!"
Huh, that one came from the row of elders up in the stands.
The three-eyed Golden Lion!
Of course they recognized it!
The final trial of Shrek Academy's entrance exam almost always came down to a choice made before the spirit bone of a fallen three-eyed Golden Lion.
That was a legendary auspicious beast, its spirit bone a treasure that countless spirit masters could only dream of. And it actually existed, for real?
Up in the stands, the elders erupted into an uproar. Zhuo Shi slammed his hand down on the armrest, and his chair shattered instantly. "A three-eyed Golden Lion! How could an auspicious beast like that possibly exist in this day and age?!"
Spirit beasts were all but extinct as it was. Where would the fortune come from to birth an auspicious beast now?
No, wait, that wasn't the point.
The real question was, even if an auspicious beast had been born somewhere, how in the world had Arthur gotten his hands on it?
Ya Li's gaze sharpened, and without drawing attention, she stepped smoothly into position between the elders and Arthur.
"Such a fuss over nothing," Arthur said, tone breezy, not the least bit worried that exposing his auspicious beast might draw out some old monster looking to make a move.
With the spirit skill Destiny bound to him now, even a Limit Douluo couldn't lay a hand on him if they tried.
This had nothing to do with raw power.
Fifth spirit skill: Destiny. It played by a far more exalted set of rules.