A Rank-Three Battle Armor Master appeared on the stage.
He glanced at the bewildered students on both sides.
He let out a sigh. "Don't worry, the match will proceed as planned."
He had actually been looking forward to this match, hoping his own students could defeat the students from Shrek Academy.
But now, he simply didn't have the heart for it anymore.
Compared to the power Arthur had just displayed, power that would surely reshape the continent's balance of forces in the future, this match looked like nothing more than children playing house.
His gaze swept across the arena and landed on his students' tense faces. His voice dropped a notch. "Just do your best. No need to force a win."
To the ears of the Sun and Moon students, those words felt like a thousand-pound weight lifted off their shoulders. The unease stirred up earlier by the thunderous roars from the sky settled somewhat.
On the other side, Shen Yi strode quickly to the front of the Shrek team. "All of you, snap out of it! Whatever's happening out there has nothing to do with this match, give it everything you've got!"
Gu Yue gave a slight nod, elemental power surging around him.
Na'er's silver-white ponytail swayed lightly, the presence of a great dragon drifting faintly around her, easing the nerves of the teammates beside her.
Seeing both sides ready, the referee no longer hesitated and called out loudly, "Team battle, begin!"
The Shrek first-years had originally wanted a hundred-versus-hundred team battle.
The Sun and Moon Royal Academy naturally refused. They knew their own limits well enough, their overall strength was certainly no match for the other side. Only their top elite students stood any chance.
After some back-and-forth haggling, it was finally settled as a ten-versus-ten team battle.
The instant the match began.
Gu Yue struck first, his bare hand grasping at the empty air. A fierce wind tore across the arena as countless wind blades, invisible to the naked eye, formed in an instant.
Long Chen of the Sun and Moon Academy let out a cold snort and stepped forward.
His Holy Radiant Dragon soul blazed with light.
Four purple soul rings flickered on, one after another.
After fully empowering himself, Long Chen charged straight toward the opposing formation.
He was supremely confident in his soul. He had never once met a real opponent in his entire life.
So he simply barreled forward without hesitation, intent on smashing straight through their formation.
Seeing this, Na'er's interest was piqued. Worried about startling the other side, she let only the faintest flash of a golden dragon's phantom flicker briefly behind her before it vanished.
She charged straight at the oncoming Long Chen, meeting him head-on.
"You're a dragon too?"
Long Chen looked startled for a moment, then a flicker of disdain crossed his eyes as he kept charging forward without slowing. "I am the Holy Radiant Dragon, why would I dodge the likes of you?"
"BOOM!"
The instant the two figures collided.
"Crack!"
Long Chen went flying backward at a speed faster than he'd come, slamming into the protective barrier at the edge of the arena.
He passed out cold.
It all happened so fast that the students of the Sun and Moon Royal Soul Master Academy hadn't even had time to react.
The arena fell into dead silence. Even the referee's jaw dropped open on instinct.
At the point of collision, Na'er had sent him flying with the impact, while she herself only hung briefly in midair from the force of the crash before landing back down.
"Whew." Na'er brushed the dust off the hem of her clothes, her silver-white ponytail swaying gently. "That felt great!"
Her crisp voice broke the deathly silence of the arena. Only then did the Sun and Moon students snap out of their daze, staring at the unconscious Long Chen, faces turning ghostly pale one by one.
They never could have imagined that Long Chen, their academy's proudest talent, wouldn't be able to withstand even a single exchange with the other side.
Still, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and push on.
Long Chen was carried off the field.
Xue Liushuang temporarily took over command, using the Light-Splitting Sword Technique to carve up the battlefield for her teammates.
Ye Xinglan stepped up to fill the gap.
The Star God Sword clashed again and again with the Light-Splitting Sword.
The battle, twenty, no, nineteen fighters now, filled the arena with crisscrossing light and shadow, the booming clash of soul power rising and falling one after another.
The Rank-Three Battle Armor Master hovered above the arena, his gaze sweeping back and forth across the battlefield below, though it stirred nothing in him.
His eyes kept drifting, almost against his will, toward the distant sky, where the clash of energies was growing ever more violent.
Golden sword light seemed almost ready to split open the sky above the capital.
"This match... really has nothing left worth watching." He murmured to himself, his tone heavy with wistfulness. "Compared to what's happening over there, this is nothing but child's play."
By now, Arthur had fought himself into a frenzy against the two Evil Douluo.
The three of them clashed countless times within the span of a single breath.
After sacrificing his demon puppet, the bartender's strength had exploded to the peak of level ninety-four Titled Douluo, incredibly close to Super Douluo.
This was a technique that burned through one's own life.
Once this battle ended, he would die.
But before that.
He was going to take Arthur down with him!
Black mist churned around him, chains clinging to Arthur's limbs like something burrowed deep into the bone, unwilling to let go, each yank tearing away another patch of flesh.
The Bone Dragon's assault was even more ferocious and unmatched, its pale bone wings sweeping across the field, the lethal venom coating its claws so potent that even spatial power couldn't fully block it.
Not a single powerhouse in the capital moved to intervene.
Arthur's future invincibility was already plain for anyone to see, and that was the last thing any of the various factions wanted to witness.
They stood by and watched. Some wanted to see just how far Arthur's limits went, others weren't sure whether they should step in to help.
There were even a few who secretly hoped the Evil Soul Masters would kill Arthur.
In their eyes, perhaps Arthur dying here at the hands of the Evil Soul Masters would be the best possible outcome for every faction involved.
Arthur's Rank-One Battle Armor was already riddled with holes, dark green venom seeping through the cracks into his skin, bringing with it a pain sharp enough to eat into his very bones.
Yet his expression stayed calm, his fighting rhythm completely unaffected, if anything growing more and more refined.
He was still improving, even now.
The final technique of the Instant-Light Meteor: Sky Strike.
Unlike fighting on the ground, battles in the sky were far more complex, adding two more directions to account for: above and below.
Sky Strike had been created precisely for this kind of aerial combat. And Agravaine had woven into it the Dragon Sparrow Sky Strike, a technique born from his own ninth soul skill.
The Holy Sword's light burned as brilliant as ever, each swing exquisitely precise, forcing the bartender and the Bone Dragon to momentarily fall back and avoid its edge.
"Boy, die!" The bartender's eyes were shot through with blood vessels. He knew he didn't have much time left.
The black mist suddenly condensed into a massive skull, dark red soul power spinning wildly within its jaws, coalescing into a black orb that carried within it an aura of pure destruction.
"Nether Annihilation!"
The black orb tore through the air, space itself crumbling apart inch by inch wherever it passed.
The Bone Dragon coordinated its own strongest strike, its pale bone wings folding in as its massive body swelled once more, a beam of dark green energy erupting from its jaws.
Together with the black orb, it formed a pincer attack, sealing off every possible avenue of escape for Arthur.
Killing intent pressed in from every direction, yet there wasn't a trace of fear in Arthur's eyes.
"Instant-Light Meteor: Sky Strike!"
The entire sky above the capital seemed to lose a single frame, plunging into darkness for the briefest instant.
In that instant, all light gathered at the tip of the Holy Sword.
Forming a single point of light, so faint it was almost impossible to perceive.
The point of light drifted gently outward.
And touched both the black orb and the dark green beam.
"BOOOOM!!!"
A deafening roar shook heaven and earth.
The instant the point of light touched the two streams of energy, it shifted from stillness to raw violence.
A terrifying shockwave swept outward like a tsunami.
Blinding light lit up the sky above the capital, and the powerhouses watching from the sidelines rushed to channel their soul power to shield the city below.
At the very center of the collision, the light was so searing that no one could bear to look directly at it.
On the arena at the Sun and Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, the Rank-Three Battle Armor Master, who had been watching intently, furrowed his brow.
That was no ordinary blast!
From the center of the three colliding forces, a meteor shot out, falling straight down toward the middle of the arena.
The protective barrier shielding the arena couldn't hold it back for even a moment. The meteor slammed down hard, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
The match came to an abrupt halt.
Everyone stared, uncertain and alarmed, at the center of the swirling dust.
The Rank-Three Battle Armor Master hovered above the dust cloud, extending his soul power to sweep the haze aside.
Within the settling dust, a slight figure lay flat on his back, the Holy Sword propped against the ground beside him, its golden glow dimmed somewhat.
Arthur's Rank-One Battle Armor hung off him in tatters, the exposed skin beneath covered in dark green lines, traces of the venom spreading through him.
There was even a large hole torn open in his chest.
To anyone looking on, his breath seemed as faint as a candle flickering in the wind.
"Everyone's here, huh... *cough cough*."
"Arthur!"
Na'er, Gu Yue, Xu Xiaoyan, Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Wu Siduo, Ye Xinglan, everyone rushed forward at once.
Na'er's voice cracked with tears as she was the first to throw herself at Arthur's side, unleashing the full presence of the Golden Dragon King without restraint, a soft golden glow wrapping around Arthur to hold back the venom spreading through his body.
"I'm fine, it's just a trivial fatal wound." Cradled in Na'er's arms, Arthur waved a hand.
Any ordinary Soul Master would have died eight hundred times over already.
But for Arthur, it really was nothing more than a minor injury.