Chapter 203: First Blood and the Demon in Human Skin
Chapter 203: First Blood and the Demon in Human Skin
The moment the time was up, bright, dazzling blue magic circles appeared beneath the feet of all the students in the colossal courtyard. The fabric of space bent, and a jarring pulling sensation drew everyone in.
When Cassian and his team opened their eyes, they found themselves deep within a dim and damp artificial forest where massive trees blocked out the sky.
The sudden spatial distortion caused by the teleportation was an absolute disaster for their mana cores.
The majority of the team members instantly dropped to their knees, experiencing such a large scale teleportation for the first time. Their heads were spinning, and their stomachs were churning violently. The burly ax user boy and the archer had already gone to the bases of the trees and started throwing up.
Only Arthur, the blonde spear user and leader of the team, and the blue-robed lightning mage girl standing at the back of the team were the least affected by this spatial shock. Although their faces had paled slightly, they managed to stay on their feet.
Arthur went over to the archer who was groaning and holding his stomach, patted him on the back, and said, "Hang in there, buddy, it will pass." The moment he raised his head to scan his surroundings, he heard a strange, dull sound in the silence of the forest.
*Thud... Splat...*
It sounded as if a heavy, wet piece of meat had dropped to the ground. Arthur turned around.
His blood ran cold at the sight before him. From the back of the ax user who was throwing up, the tip of a pitch black sword had entered and pierced right through his ribcage, protruding from the front.
"Huh...?" the ax user mumbled. Before he could even understand what happened, blood poured from his mouth like a river. The moment he collapsed to his knees, the bracelet on his arm flashed violently, and the man’s body turned into particles of light, vanishing from the spot. He was eliminated. In the very first minute of the exam.
Before Arthur could even open his mouth to utter a single word, two more terrifying sounds echoed in the forest. Cassian’s silhouette was moving among the shadows of the trees like a ghost at an inconceivable speed.
Within a second, his sword drew an arc, severing the legs of the bow-wielding boy at the knees. Immediately afterward, the other mage received a hard blow to the head and fainted. Before either could even get the chance to scream in pain, they scattered sparks thanks to the protection magic of their bracelets and were eliminated from the exam.
Only seconds had passed. From the team of seven, only Arthur, the tank with the shield, and the lightning mage girl remained.
Cassian slowly swung his black sword to the side, flicking the blood on it onto the ground. With his entirely empty, emotionless blood red eyes, he looked at the rest of the group who were trembling violently in panic and fear of death.
"What... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Arthur screamed. His eyes were wide with terror, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
The weak, silent boy he had planned to trample over had suddenly turned into a killing machine. With anger and fear, Arthur gripped his spear with both hands, channeled all his mana into his legs, and lunged at Cassian. He swung his spear at a deadly speed.
Cassian merely took a half step to the side. The spear missed him by a millimeter and impaled the earth. The moment Arthur pulled the spear from the ground and came at Cassian again with the same speed, this time with a horizontal slash, Cassian nonchalantly raised his black sword and blocked the attack. Sparks flew from the clash of steel.
Cassian parried the spear with a slight flick of his wrist. Right at that moment, an intense flow of mana crackling through the air came from behind him.
The lightning mage girl had pointed her staff at him, unleashing a barrage of blue lightning.
Without even turning his head, Cassian leaned to the side, dodging the lightning barrage as well; the lightning blasted a thick tree trunk right next to him, turning it to charcoal.
"Die, you scum!" roared the heavy armored tank. He had held his massive steel shield in front of him, charging like a bull to ram Cassian from the side. The shield struck Cassian with a loud crash.
The tank expected to send his opponent flying meters away and break his bones. However, what he felt at the moment of impact was like crashing into a mountain.
Even though Cassian took the blow, he did not budge a single millimeter. He stood fixed like a mountain whose feet were rooted in the earth.
The moment the tank’s eyes widened in astonishment, Cassian suddenly grabbed the edge of the shield and pulled the man toward himself with incredible strength. Losing his balance completely from the force of the pull, the tank’s arms spread wide open. Cassian’s sword flashed in the air like a silvery lightning bolt, cleanly severing both of the man’s arms at the elbows.
Before the man could scream in agony, Arthur’s spear attack was about to descend upon Cassian. Cassian grabbed the man whose arms he had severed by the scruff of his neck, lifted him into the air with a single hand, and held him in front as a human shield against the descending spear attack.
*SquELCH!*
Arthur’s spear pierced right through the chest of his own teammate. As the tank’s body vanished, scattering particles of light, Arthur stood frozen in terror at what he had just done.
Taking advantage of this brief pause, Cassian lunged forward and dodged the second lightning barrage the mage girl sent at him. As he glided through the air, he aimed his sword at the mage. Seeing Cassian suddenly target the mage, the two panicked terribly.
The moment Arthur yelled, "No!" and tried to intervene to protect the girl, Cassian focused his gaze back on his true prey, Arthur. He had been the target all along.
With all his might, Cassian delivered a downward sword slash, looking as if he were going to cleave Arthur in two.
Arthur gritted his teeth, channeled all his mana into the shaft of his spear, and raised it to block this deadly blow.
But the sword never touched the spear. It was a feint.
Cassian suddenly halted the sword’s speed, redirected his momentum to his leg, and delivered a ruthless kick to Arthur’s crotch, right to his balls.
*Thump!*
Arthur’s eyes bulged as if they were going to pop out of their sockets from the indescribable pain and astonishment he felt.
His mouth opened in a silent scream, his hands holding the spear involuntarily loosening.
Before Arthur could recover from his astonishment and pain, Cassian’s sword swung twice with deadly speed. A deep, bloody diagonal gash was carved into the man’s chest. Following that, Cassian delivered another heavy kick to Arthur’s chest, sending him flying meters backward.
As Arthur flew backward, Cassian caught the spear that had been released into the air. Without wasting a single second, he tensed his body and hurled the spear at the lightning mage girl, who was preparing her spells.
Tearing through the air, the spear pierced the blue lightning shield the girl had formed around herself like paper and impaled her in the chest.
The girl’s scream echoed through the forest. Immediately afterward, Arthur crashed to the ground. Within seconds, both of their bodies slowly broke apart, scattering sparkles, and they were erased from the exam area.
Silence returned to the forest. Only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the bloodstains beginning to dry on the ground remained.
Cassian shrugged slightly and turned his head upward. Just above the branches of the trees, a bright yellow sphere the size of a walnut, emitting a faint light, was hovering and watching him directly.
These spheres were magical tracking devices broadcasting the exam live simultaneously across the entire empire, and right now, they were broadcasting this massacre in the arena to millions of people.
At the very top of the massive virtual scoreboard in the sky, a brand new name glowed in golden letters:
• 1. Cassian - 18 Points
• First Blood
However, there was neither admiration nor applause nor the slightest respect on the faces of the viewers watching the screens.
Everyone watching this broadcast in parks, restaurants, bars, or homes was filled with disgust and fear.
This white haired boy had attacked his own team the moment the exam started, while they were experiencing teleportation dizziness, at their weakest moment, and had eliminated them dishonorably. This was not a hero’s display of power; this was a treacherous, sickening victory.
He was not painting the profile of a perfect and noble student. What appeared on the screen was like a demon wearing human skin.
His tattered clothes, his pale white skin stained with the blood of his comrades, his pure white hair, and his soul freezing, expressionless red eyes struck nothing but pure fear into the hearts of the onlookers.
_ _ _
The Professors’ Room
In a luxurious room, a dozen professors were gathered around a massive table, holding hot cups of coffee and tea, watching the broadcast of the newly started exam on giant screens.
That text suddenly appeared on the screen:
**First Blood - Cassian - 3 Points**
When the viewing sphere focused and projected the area where Cassian was onto the main screen with the instant notification, all the professors witnessed that scene of brutality, the white haired boy slaughtering his teammates during the defenseless moment when the kids were busy throwing up.
"Hey, hey... Is this boy serious?" asked a rather beautiful, brunette female professor wearing an elegant black silk dress. She had slammed her cup onto the table. "Why would he do something so dishonorable to his own team right from the start? This goes completely against the spirit of the academy!"
At the table, there was someone leaning back comfortably in his chair, casually resting his leather booted legs on the table without a care. With a silver earring dangling from his left ear, messy hair dyed red, and a horizontal scar right across his nose, he looked more like a mercenary than an instructor.
Professor Aemon.
Aemon stretched casually and grinned. "Isn’t it obvious? He is doing what he has to do, collecting points. Everyone in that forest is a rival," he said in an indifferent tone.
An elegant "Hmph," rose from the table. Professor Valerius spoke up. He had pure white, perfectly combed hair, squinting yellow eyes, and wore a stylish white robe with golden embroidery on the shoulders, without a single wrinkle on it.
"Considering betraying one’s own comrades as a success... I suppose such dishonorable things are quite normal for you peasants, Mr. Aemon. You prove at every opportunity just how devoid of the concept called nobility you are."
Without wiping the grin off his face, Aemon stuck his pinky finger in his ear, dug around, and then blew on the tip of his finger. Looking at Valerius from the corner of his eye, he said in a biting tone, "Unlike some, there are people who have to fight to live, who must feed their stomachs before their honor, you pseudo nobleman. That boy is also doing whatever it takes to survive."
"What does it matter?" interjected a velvety, seductive voice. Professor Lylia, reclining on a divan in the corner of the room, with her purple hair cascading over her shoulders, dark red lipstick on her lips, and glowing purple eyes, was gently swirling the goblet in her hand.
"In the end, it was an extremely entertaining and bloody spectacle. The cold bloodedness in the way that boy swung his sword... Just watching it was enough to excite my heart and make my blood rush."
While the other professors continued to fiercely debate this moral dilemma and the boy’s cruelty among themselves, another professor sitting at the very end of the table was simply biting her nails in silence. Her eyes did not leave the white haired boy on the screen for even a moment.
### Meanwhile, in the Academy Corridors...
Iris and Anna were walking cheerfully shoulder to shoulder toward the bakery on campus to shake off their recent disappointment.
However, the moment they turned the corner of the corridor, they found the Student Council President standing before them like a block of ice, with his flawless uniform and a massive pile of paperwork in his hands.
"You two," the president said in a cold, authoritative voice. "The freshmen paperwork has not been sorted yet. You will help me before going to the bakery. Right now."
With slumped shoulders, the duo looked at each other with teary eyes. They were forcibly dragged to the student council room and buried under massive mountains of paperwork.
While Iris stamped the file in her hand in frustration, she buried her head in the desk and mumbled in a despairing voice, "The President is an absolute devil..."
_ _ _
Charles’s Revelation
At the same time, in the luxurious dormitory where the second-year elites resided.
Charles was sitting alone on the balcony of his room. A steaming porcelain teacup rested on the table in front of him, and his eyes were glued to the magical broadcast.
He had watched the betrayal, the bloody scene Cassian committed on the screen from start to finish.
Charles frowned; he could not make any sense of what he was seeing. A strange anger and disappointment had sprouted in his heart.
"Why?" he muttered to himself. "Why would he resort to such cheap, treacherous tricks to defeat them?"
He knew what Cassian had achieved in the North, his boundless divine power. He possessed the power to wipe out those six people in his team in a single second without even breaking a sweat.
"Then why is he acting like such a weak, dishonorable demon?"
Charles squeezed the elegant porcelain cup he was holding so hard that it shattered in his hand with a loud crack.
Fixing his eyes on the dull, red eyes on the screen, he hissed: "My ultimate rival... Why are you acting like this?"
_ _ _
*I will never forget that day.*
*That desperate time when my village was plundered and reduced to ash by bandits, when a rusty chain was slapped around my neck, and I became a slave.*
*That dark night when those bad men, with their bodies smelling foully of sweat and alcohol, locked us in a cage and tried to rape us, laughing at our desperate screams. The night I thought my life was over, the night I lost all hope.*
*And my hero, who appeared right at that moment...*
*I watched him slaughter the bad men one by one without even hesitating. Watching him free us from those chains...*
*He was very different from the paragons of virtue, the heroes in golden armor that my mother used to tell me about in bedtime stories.*
*When I first saw him, I was scared to death by his blood-soaked state; I was even tongue-tied.*
*He looked more like a devil that even monsters feared than a human. Still, despite my trembling legs, I was able to speak to him.*
*His pure white hair and blood red eyes were so beautiful, so mesmerizing that despite the years that have passed, I have not been able to get that face out of my mind for even a moment; I could not forget.*
*The appearance of his blood-stained body under the moonlight... I had never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.*
*If only I could have talked to him more that night. If only I could have learned his name... I wanted to see him again.*
*This was the only hope I clung to in life. I worked so hard for this. More than anyone else, I trained incessantly until I passed out.*
*Despite coming from nothing, I formed a mana core and eventually even joined the academy. I promised myself; if I became someone very strong, incredible one day, if I made a name for myself, maybe he would hear of me too, maybe I could see him again.*
*And right now, I am looking at this magical viewing screen...*
*My hands are trembling. My tears are rolling down my cheeks.*
*I do not know if my eyes are playing tricks on me or if I am hallucinating from exhaustion. But I see him now. His red eyes, his pure white hair... He is standing right there.*
*My hero.*
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