Chapter 162: Darius Vs Conan
Three days passed in a flash.
The final group of third years (Renelle’s and Aqua’s) had finally returned and although they had been gone for a month, they quickly adapted upon return.
The only strange part was the fact that one group had returned without the third year that was previously leading them, Cassian.
Even stranger was the fact that neither Grand Duke Everhart nor anyone from the East seemed bothered by the report of the Grand Duke’s son being missing.
Besides that, everything else seemed normal.
Well, as normal as suddenly having a form of transportation that wasn’t horse or beast-pulled carriages could be.
These vehicles had truly taken the royal capital and in turn, the entire Avera by storm, especially with the launch of the private vehicles.
Everybody and their mother wanted one, after all, it was more convenient than a carriage, a lot safer too, especially their armored versions.
The inventions of these had caused quite the rage amongst merchants responsible for producing carriages, but what could they do?
As it turns out, the owner of said production wasn’t just someone random that they could bully into stopping or burying.
These magic tools belonged to the Ardent family themselves, the family of the Grand Duke of the North.
So they could only swallow their grievances.
Ironically though, these merchants, in an effort to copy the wonders of such magic tools, ended up being the highest consumers of them.
And in the end, Alvíss had ensured that none would be able to copy his designs no matter how hard they tried.
***
All that was of no concern to Adrian right now, after all, the business part of his plan was slowly unveiling itself.
The hard part was getting the people of Avera to actually revere his lady as the survivors of the dungeon do.
But then again, he decided not to rush things too much, else his plan would end up being too messy.
With the survivors reintegrated into society, that seed had already been planted and all he needed to do was water it for it to bloom.
For that, he actually needed the cult’s cooperation, and since, according to Renelle, the cult Master was now in possession of Excalibur,
He had a feeling that an opportunity for that would arise soon.
So, for now, he just had to wait....and wait he did.
In the meantime, he sat beside Renelle in one of the Academy’s combat rooms, their eyes fixed on the platform...or rather the two on it.
Standing on the platform were two people eager to impress Adrian,
Darius and Conan.
To anyone else, this might seem like an unfair fight, but in the two months Adrian had been gone, the kid hadn’t been idle.
Thanks to Alvíss, who was still fine-tuning him, Conan had managed to reach B-Rank making this fight quite even.
"It seems we meet again," Darius muttered with a smile.
"Yeah," Conan nodded, his eyes glowing quite a bit, "though you seem quite different from the last time we met."
The last time they met, Darius hadn’t contracted Inanis yet and he hadn’t acquired void flames yet.
"Yeah," Darius responded with a grin, "I gained a bit of boost in power."
Conan let out a sigh, it seems his scanner was right,
{Scan successful, displaying target’s parameters.}
{Rank: B+
Mana Type: Fire, ????
Threat Level: Extremely High
Note: Approach with caution.]
"I see," he muttered before adding, "but you’re not the only one who went through a breakthrough."
"Awesome," Darius answered as the temperature around them started rising, "after all, I’ll be disappointed if this ended too quickly."
"Likewise," Conan muttered before turning towards Adrian who finally stood up.
He was supposed to be the acting referee for this match so he stepped towards the arena and the moment he was close enough, he said,
"Begin."
BOOM!
The moment the words left his mouth, both fighters instantly moved, leaving a large crater in their wake.
The flames enveloping Darius took the shape of a dragon as he quickly approached Conan who was wrapped in lightning.
A much larger crater was formed as the two clashed in the center of the platform, causing an explosion of both flames and lightning, enveloping them in an electrically charged smoke.
"Who do you think wins?" Renelle said as she moved to stand by Adrian’s side.
Adrian looked at the smoke cloud and Darius who was suddenly out of it. He had flames on both hands which he launched into the smoke in a wide area.
He planned to flush Conan out since the kid seemed to be using the smoke as cover, but in the process, he failed to notice that his opponent was suddenly behind him.
With his fist coated in lightning, Conan launched it at Darius, sending him into the smoke.
{Lightning Fist}
"Well, thanks to Alvíss’s upgrades, it’ll be hard for Darius to win," Adrian finally answered.
"But do you think he’ll win?" Renelle asked again.
Adrian looked at her and then smiled before saying, "Who knows?"
"He’ll probably surprise us."
Renelle didn’t say anything else; instead, she turned towards the platform again and continued watching the fight.
On the platform, the smoke cleared up to reveal Darius who looked genuinely thrilled.
The attack, unlike what Conan had expected, hadn’t landed. At the last moment, Darius had managed to turn around and cross his hands to block.
"Hahaha!" he laughed while flames exploded around him again, "this is awesome!"
Conan looked at him for a while before his hair suddenly became red and so did his pupils.
To Darius’s surprise, the same flames around him lit up on Conan’s fists as a smile appeared on his face.
Before him, was the holographic panel which showed,
{Mana type successfully copied, a new module has been unlocked.}
{Module: Dragon Flames.}
That’s right, Conan had managed to copy Darius’s dragon flames, a feature that even Alvíss was proud of.
"You’re right," he said as he looked towards Darius, "this is awesome."
