Chapter 139 The Turning Tide
The Yellow headband student was lying on the floor, unconscious. His consciousness had left his body, and he almost looked as if he had died. A few moments later, his body started to twitch, and it appeared that the student had regained consciousness.
What was clear to everyone, however, was that he had been knocked out. Not only that, but it had been done with a single hit.
"Hey, am I seeing things?" one of the Blue headband students said, sitting right next to Liam, who was now well enough to get back onto one of the seats.
"I knew he was strong, but I honestly had no idea he was this strong," Liam commented. "I don't think even anyone in the Yellow headband group could knock out one of their own in a single hit."
It took a moment for everyone to take it in, until eventually the whole Blue headband group cheered at Raze's victory.
"YEAHHHH!" they cheered together.
"Yes, you white-haired freak, you monster, you ghost of a thing!"
"Ah man, if only I wasn't straight, I would be running up there and giving him the biggest kiss of my life!"
It was unusual for Pagan warriors to act this way, for students to act this way, especially with those who were watching; they would always act in a dignified manner. Yet, the students had been going through a wide range of emotions, emotions that the youngsters found it quite hard to control themselves. So the moment they realized Raze had managed to turn the tide, to accomplish what they wanted, they couldn't help but let out a cheer.
"What a bunch of wild animals," Samantha commented, one of the head leaders of the five clans. "They have one simple win, and you would have thought they had won some type of war."
Gavin started to chuckle, his belly moving up and down. "You have to admit, it certainly was impressive. He had used the two-step maneuver perfectly and shifted his weight at the perfect time. It was textbook! No wonder the other student was unable to react."
Murkel continued to play with his hair, but Amir could see that there was a slight smile on his face as well.
'Now I have an idea why you might be interested in him, but we still haven't seen enough.'
It wasn't just them; Charlotte had almost let out a scream of joy when she saw Raze's victory, but she had quickly been kicked on the shin of her leg, and she let out a scream of pain instead at the time.
Himmy had been watching her carefully.
"Hey, someone won, it's normal to be happy," Charlotte said, rubbing her shin. She was more thankful that Raze didn't use magic, but what it meant was he was improving as a Pagan warrior as well. She was sure, based on the time he had been here, he couldn't have been a Pagan warrior for long, so he was quite the quick learner.
'I guess the world wanted him to be more of a martial artist rather than a magician,' Charlotte thought, considering what Star Mage Raze was.
Back at the Blue headband's area, they could see Raze walking back to the stage. The student on the ground had no clue what was going on; he was still confused until his teachers came to pick him up, and the looks on their faces weren't pleased at all.
Similarly to how Teacher Lee would get praised if his students performed well, the other teachers would be scolded for their performance as well.
For Teacher Lee, his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head, and he was frozen in place.
"He actually won, and convincingly as well," Teacher Lee said. "Why didn't he go in earlier?"
Thinking about this, Teacher Lee thought that Raze's win could have been a boost to the rest of the students' momentum. It greatly affected how one would fight. After all the losses, even he could see how the Blue headband fighters hold back in their strikes.
Thinking about it more, Lee knew the answer.
"You!" Lee snapped at Tod by his side, who took a step back, flinching.
"You said he was the worst-performing student in the class!" Lee shouted but in hushed tones so the others couldn't hear. "You gave him the lowest marking of the lot! How could you be so blind and do such a thing!"
If there was no one looking, Lee would have given him a few beatings right there and then, but it wasn't the time.
"I just handed in the results according to the assessments!" Tod replied. "He tricked us all by pretending he was weak. I'm sure he planned all of this, just so he could surprise everyone like he did now!"
"I didn't trick anyone," Raze overheard their conversation and went to sit back in his seat. "Let me ask you, on the last assessment, how many crystals did I get compared to everyone else?"
"Huh?" Tod raised an eyebrow. "But you stole them from the other students!"
"But he didn't," Liam replied. "Not a single one of us claimed that he did. You just said he did, and at the time, it didn't really feel like we could speak up."
Teacher Lee gave another large stare at Tod, to the point he lifted up the scorebook to avert his eyes.
On the other side, the five disciples had seen it all.
"Did you see that stare he gave us?" Ricktor said. "That was very exciting." He hugged himself tight with both of his arms, and his face was flushing a little red.
"Well, in the end, he chickened out and chose the easy option," Sherry said. "He didn't fight any of us and just beat up a useless Yellow headband. I don't really think that proves much, right?"
The disciples seemed to agree. To them, it wasn't a stain on their performance but more on the Yellow headbands, so it meant nothing.
"You're right," Ossep commented. "The ant has just beaten up the beetle, but both of them are still bugs."
Sitting back down in the seats, Teacher Lee had decided that he wanted to keep up the momentum, so he had chosen Safa to stand up next in the order queue. She too had chosen one of the Yellow headband students and went to the stage.
"Hey, you better not embarrass us," the Yellow headband teacher said to the student, and the two of them got on stage.
Most of the students held practice wooden swords, but Safa was one of the few who held onto a wooden spear.
"A miracle happened before, but it won't happen again!" the student shouted as he rushed forward.
Safa stood her ground with the spear, and then when she was ready, she thrust it forward. The student was able to avoid the strike and tried coming in closer, but several thrusts were made with the spear pushing him back each time.
He tried to strike the spear away, but it was pulled back, and when he went in for another attack, it was thrust forward again.
'Damn it, no matter what I try to do, I can't get in at all!' the student thought. 'What is this?'
The student tried to move faster, but Safa still stayed in her position, thrusting the sword again and again. The match went on for quite a while; ten minutes had passed of this repeating.
What was amazing, though, was Safa's concentration and the fact that she hadn't moved from her position at all. Not only that, but she didn't seem to be tiring while the Yellow headband user was.
Frustrated, the Yellow headband owner tried to charge in, forcing his way in. At that moment, just like Raze, she had used the two-step shift and thrust the spear. It hit him right in the chest, a single Qi-filled strike that was incredibly painful.
His body was lifted in the air, and he fell over backward, holding onto his chest. The pain was great, to the point he felt a bit of blood coming out from his mouth. He didn't get up for a few moments, and by then, Safa was there with the spear pointed right at his neck.
"Yes!" Teacher Lee screamed. "She did it, she really did it. She did everything perfectly, just the way she was meant to!"
The group was somewhat even more stunned than when they had seen Raze win. Because that was now two successive wins in a row for the Blue headbands. A miracle could happen once in a while, but for them to happen one after the other just like that.
For those watching, they would think that it wasn't just the students, but it had to be some involvement from the teachers as well.
"Ah, I recognize the technique that was used. That was from the Pointed Head Clan, was it not?" one of the merchants said. "Ah yes, they are quite skillful, but I thought they had been producing subpar warriors these days. Not enough to protect us from bandits, but that doesn't seem to be the case."
Everything was working out for Teacher Lee; he just needed a little bit more, and everything would be okay.
As Safa returned to her seat, Simyon had lots of praise for her, but he was nervous because he would either be up soon or he would be next. That was when Raze said something to him, though.
The momentum was on their side, and there was an excitement in the air that was coming from those watching. They had just witnessed two great miracles one after the other, and now it was the perfect time to act.
"Don't worry," Raze said to the nervous Simyon. "I'm not going to let those Main Clan disciples get away with this, with everyone watching, the stage has not been set."
Raising his hand, Raze stood up at that moment, and without talking to Teacher Lee, he started to make his way onto the stage.
"I… have a proposal to make."
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