Chapter 210: Edict
Trevor was also surprised. "I might have underestimated you. But it won’t change the result!"
When the roots came, Trevor simply grabbed them. In an instant, they were covered in ice.
After that, Trevor pointed his palms toward Auric. Multiple ice shards flew toward him like an arrow. They first spread and curved, creating a parabolic movement from all directions to seal Auric’s movements.
Auric wasn’t scared of this power.
He simply stood up and formed a shield on the right as he ran to the right. This way, he could focus on the freezing arrows coming from one direction.
"Heh. Do you think you can escape?" Trevor laughed.
The ice arrows would explode upon impact, so the shield made of the plant element wouldn’t be enough to stop those arrows.
However, when the arrows were about to hit the shield, they suddenly scattered as though something had pushed them.
"!!!"
"There it is!" K2 shouted excitedly. "Auric’s wind element! He has just deflected the ice arrows and escaped from the execution zone."
Auric glanced back, ensuring that all the arrows had missed him and hit the ground.
Trevor gritted his teeth. He grabbed one of the frozen roots and slid down as if he were skiing.
Auric placed his hand on the ground. The frozen root suddenly expanded, forming a thorn that pierced through the ice.
Trevor managed to react at the last moment. He stepped on the thorn and took a couple of steps before leaping off.
"Freezing Rain!" Trevor raised both arms.
Countless icicles appeared and fell the moment he waved both arms down.
Auric took a deep breath and formed a barrier with his wind element. After that, lightning sparked on his feet as he began to move.
His eyes continued to look up, as though he were following the flow of the energy.
The icicles didn’t fall at the same time. They rained down, making them harder to avoid.
Auric blocked some of them with the wind barrier, but this kind of barrier would be destroyed if it took the full brunt of Trevor’s technique.
That was why Auric used the Lightning Step to speed up, skillfully positioning himself in a place where there weren’t many icicles. As a result, he managed to avoid half of the icicles while his barrier managed to withstand all of the ones he failed to avoid.
"This is surprising. This is the first time I’ve seen someone able to avoid so many attacks at once. Can he actually see them coming? All of them?" K2 shouted.
However, this was the end of his trick. The icicles were a distraction. It was intended [to make Auric use his power so Trevor could reach the ground and smash him with his fist.
Trevor grinned. His entire arm expanded as it was covered in ice. This time, the punch would be many times stronger than the previous punch.
Auric had no choice but to confront him, considering that he was moving in Trevor’s direction because of the icicles.
Auric put his shield in front of him.
"It’s useless!" Trevor’s eyes turned bloodshot as he sent his fist forward.
To everyone’s surprise, Auric suddenly tossed the shield he had been holding all this time. Yes, the wooden shield that everyone thought useless had finally been discarded.
Trevor didn’t stop. After all, the shield broke so easily from his punch.
This was why Trevor was known as a master of long and short range attacks. He was able to combine both of them to create an opportunity for him to strike.
If it were a normal student, this fist would definitely hit them. Unfortunately, normal was the last word to describe Auric.
The moment he broke the shield, Trevor saw that Auric’s fingertip had actually shone.
"Edict." Auric waved his finger.
"!!!" Trevor widened his eyes as he felt a fluctuation of energy coming from the shield.
He shifted his gaze slightly to the left and saw three lines shining on the broken shield.
Auric was actually hiding his power behind this broken shield.
Suddenly, ferocious lightning burst from the shield.
"Aaahhhh!" Trevor screamed in pain, electrocuted by Auric’s lightning.
"!!!" The students dropped their jaws. They thought Trevor would actually have an overwhelming victory, yet he was actually the one who took the first hit.
The ice that covered his fist broke apart, but Auric didn’t stop there. He continued forward and covered his fist with his earth element. Of course, he combined all the earth elements he had, such as steel, diamond, and adamantine, in order to create a much better element.
His fist turned bluish black. As if he were looking forward to it, Auric punched Trevor’s face with all his strength, blowing Trevor away.
Auric could feel that his punch broke Trevor’s nose, but if one were to look, a tooth had actually fallen out.
Still, Auric didn’t end the battle at that time. After all, he planned to fulfill his principle, the equivalent exchange.
Trevor once said that he planned to beat him until his mother could no longer recognize him. That was why Auric intended to follow the rule by not dealing any fatal strikes. This way, the battle could continue for as long as possible.
Auric didn’t plan to check Trevor’s condition. He simply placed his hand on the ground and activated Forest Manifestation.
However, this wasn’t just a normal Forest Manifestation. Auric had used elemental fusion and combined the Forest Manifestation with his earth element, turning it into a metal forest.
"What? Hold up. Plant, wind, lightning... Am I seeing correctly? Auric has actually used an earth element! He is actually wielding four elements, not three?!" K2 clutched her head in shock.
Even other students couldn’t believe it.
How much had Auric been hiding all this time? Was he truly a freshman? This kind of power was already equal to the top of the second grade. For those who knew him, it was more ridiculous because Auric was originally an evolution master, not a fighter.
"Cut this bullshit!" Trevor roared. He placed his hand on the floor and spread his ice toward the forest, freezing it and stopping the growth of the forest.
As expected of someone ranked seventh, he was able to manifest that amount of power so quickly.
However, Auric had a bigger advantage over him. He possessed several elements, which he could use alternately, allowing him to release his abilities without any delay.
In addition, the amount of energy in his body was many times that of a human of the same level because he possessed more than one element.
These two advantages alone were more than enough for Auric to fight on equal footing.
But Auric still had his elemental fusion and, of course, Lindwurm.
Lindwurm said, "He’s not making any move right now. You can do it!"
That was right. All this time, Lindwurm had been broadcasting every move Trevor made. In addition to his eyes that could see the trace of energy, Auric had a pseudo God Mode in this battle.
Auric snapped his fingers, activating the thorn element but reinforcing it with his earth element.
Many thorns pierced through the ice, continuing toward Trevor.
Trevor avoided all of them skillfully and looped around the frozen forest to reach Auric.
But the moment Auric came into sight, Trevor saw Auric writing down two words. "Lightning Wind."
Auric used his ’Edict’ and combined the two elements.
This time, he also combined two battle techniques. The first one was Night Arrow, which had been adjusted to match the wind element. The second one was Piercing Thunder.
Auric had gotten all this time by using his plant and earth elements, so this technique that required a few seconds to activate could easily be utilized.
Auric flicked the words, causing them to combine and form a single sphere. This sphere then launched a powerful and quick elemental bolt.
"!!!" Katarina couldn’t help but widen her eyes. "He is actually using it in battle? But the way he uses it... I’m afraid that he’s the only one who can use it this way."
Katarina might have underestimated Auric. The power Auric had shown in the past had been held back by at least 30%. In addition, it wasn’t a serious match, so she had never seen Auric’s battle sense.
Of course, she didn’t know about Lindwurm, as Auric rarely asked Lindwurm’s help.
Combining all of those, the gap between Auric’s current power and the one in her memory was simply too big.
"!!!" Trevor realized he had been tricked. Just like how he used Icicles to bring Auric to a position where he had no choice but to clash with him, Auric used the Forest Manifestation to bring him to a position where he wanted Trevor to go.
Trevor gritted his teeth and put both arms in front. "Haaaaa!"
Trevor shouted as he released all the power he had left.
His ice was trying to freeze the powerful lightning-wind bolt. However, the lightning utilized its high penetrating power to crack the ice while the wind shattered it.
Still, Trevor had evolved for quite some time. Even Auric could see that Trevor had filled up 73% of his energy. It would probably take him another one or two months before his avatar evolved into its adult form.
That was why Trevor managed to overwhelm Auric’s power with everything he had left.
As a result, the lightning-wind bolt froze and shattered into pieces.
But this was actually what Auric wanted. After all, the moment the lightning-wind bolt shattered, Auric took this opportunity to close the distance between them.
"Kh..." Trevor gritted his teeth, blocking the punch with both arms.
Bam!
Auric’s punch pushed him back, but it didn’t give as much power as the previous punch. After all, Auric didn’t coat his fist with his earth element this time.
"You bastard." Trevor was outraged.
He charged toward Auric. "How dare you, a mere country bumpkin!"
Auric surprisingly raised both hands this time. He suddenly caught Trevor’s fist instead of using his power to somehow overwhelm Trevor. That should have been possible.
As a result, Auric was launched away by such a powerful punch.
After that, Trevor pointed his palm toward Auric. "Ice Lance."
A beam of ice energy was released. Auric used the Earth Wall, combining both the earth element and the plant element to form it.
All this time, Auric had been combining the elements in a way that they could take advantage of the rank 2 elements.
Currently, Auric had only two rank 2 elements—his lightning and plant elements. That was why he combined the lightning with the wind element mostly, allowing the plant element to help the earth element gain enough power against his ice element.
But this attack was much more powerful than anything Trevor had used. Even with the combination of earth and plant elements, it couldn’t stop Trevor’s attack.
The "Ice Lance" pierced through the wall and continued toward Auric.
Auric was forced to use the wind and lightning elements to strike Trevor’s Ice Lance. Fortunately, the wall from earlier had absorbed a lot of energy from this Ice Lance, or he would have been injured.
As if expecting this outcome, Trevor actually took advantage of his powerful Ice Lance to close the distance between him and Auric.
Then, he launched a rapid succession of punches at Auric.
Auric was forced to remain in his position. He blocked with his arm, caught another attack with his palm, or slapped a punch aside with the back of his hand.
Still, this was probably the first time Auric looked so passive.
"Hahahaha. I finally understand your power now. You were originally not good at close combat!" Trevor grinned.
Of course, Trevor had suffered a lot of damage. His punches were not as strong anymore.
In fact, Auric managed to move faster than Trevor and land a couple of hits. However, this was the reason Trevor realized Auric wasn’t good at close combat.
Auric’s hits actually didn’t hurt for someone like him. In other words, Auric couldn’t gather enough power to push him back.
And all of a sudden, a loud bang echoed in the arena.
Trevor punched Auric so hard that it launched Auric into the frozen forest that had yet to disappear.
Bam!
Everyone could see that Auric was finally on the defensive this time, and it looked like Trevor was going to turn the situation around.
Trevor grinned and leaped toward Auric, not planning to let Auric regain the advantage.
Seeing the incoming Trevor, Auric simply smiled.
"Edict."
