Chapter 365: Inter-Academy Tournament (XVII)
Swoop!
But in that brief moment of distraction, Katia’s curse finally landed.
The dark purple threads wrapped around Gray’s body before he could fully dispel them.
His movements slowed noticeably as his physical abilities dropped by five times in an instant. His speed, strength, and reaction time were heavily reduced, making him feel as if he was moving through thick mud.
Gray’s eyes narrowed slightly as he felt the curse take effect.
"...I got a little careless," he admitted, furrowing his eyebrows.
The Gloria Academy students saw the opening and pressed their advantage immediately.
Their movements became increasingly faster and more coordinated now that Gray was slowed down.
Adrian’s eyes sharpened as he shouted new orders.
"Change formation! Maelis, keep the gravity on his legs only! Selene, use your aura to force him into the center! Selina, flood the floor to make his footing unstable! Claire, use controlled fire bursts to limit his escape routes! Katia, switch to a weakening curse on his arms! Lira, use wind gusts to push him off balance! Ronan, focus on heavy body blows! Everyone, adapt and cover each other!"
Maelis adjusted her gravity magic, focusing it only on Gray’s lower body to restrict his movement without spreading it too thin.
"I’m locking his legs!" she called out.
"Don’t let him break free!"
Selene moved in with her cyan sword aura, but this time she used shorter, quicker strikes to force Gray to stay in place, trying to bait him into a predictable block.
"You’re slower now," she said through gritted teeth.
"Let’s see how you handle this!"
Selina raised her staff and summoned a thin layer of water across the floor, making the stone slippery and unstable under Gray’s feet.
"I’ll make sure he can’t dodge properly!" she shouted.
Claire followed up with small, controlled fire bursts aimed at the ground around Gray, creating patches of burning stone to limit his movement options.
"I won’t miss this time!" she yelled.
Katia switched her curse focus, targeting Gray’s arms to weaken his blocking power.
"This should make your counters slower," she muttered, her voice calm as she chanted.
Lira used wind gusts from different angles, trying to push Gray off balance and into the other attacks.
"Push him into the fire zone," she said quietly, her long black hair swaying as she struck.
Ronan charged in with the gauntlets, but this time he mixed in feints and low sweeps, trying to knock Gray’s legs out from under him.
"Come on! Let’s see if you can stay standing!" he shouted.
The coordinated attack was smarter this time.
They were covering each other’s weaknesses, forcing Gray to deal with multiple threats at once while his reduced speed made dodging harder.
A wind gust from Lira pushed him into a fire burst from Claire, and Selene’s sword aura cut across his path, forcing him to block with his weakened arms.
Gray took a shallow cut on his side and a burn on his sleeve, but he didn’t stop moving.
He adapted quickly, using the environment to his advantage.
He stepped on a dry patch of floor to regain balance, grabbed Selene’s sword blade with one hand to stop her strike, and used her momentum to throw her into Lira, disrupting their coordination.
"Keep the pressure! Don’t give him space!" Adrian shouted, his voice sharp as he repositioned himself.
He raised his sword and channeled a focused beam of lightning through the blade, aiming it directly at Gray’s legs to restrict his movement even further while the gravity curse was still active.
Maelis clenched her teeth and poured more mana into her gravity field, narrowing it to focus heavily on Gray’s lower body.
"I can’t hold the full field for long, but I’ll keep his legs locked!" she called out, her voice strained but determined.
Selene recovered quickly from being thrown and switched tactics.
Instead of rushing in again, she circled to Gray’s left and used short, rapid slashes to keep him occupied while the others prepared their next moves.
"Don’t let him breathe!" she shouted.
Selina raised her staff and created a thin layer of ice on the floor around Gray’s feet, combining it with her water magic to make the ground even more treacherous.
"I’ll make sure he can’t step anywhere safely!
Claire changed her fire magic approach.
Instead of wide waves, she sent precise, controlled fire pillars that rose from the ground at different angles, trying to box Gray in and limit his escape routes.
Katia kept chanting from the back, her curse book glowing as she layered a second curse on top of the first, this one designed to numb Gray’s sense of touch and make his counters less precise.
"This should make blocking harder for him," she muttered calmly.
Lira moved silently through the shadows and gaps in the formation, her long black hair swaying as she used wind gusts to push Gray off balance from unexpected angles while waiting for the perfect opening to strike with her daggers.
"Target his weak side," she mumbled.
Ronan charged in again with the gauntlets, but this time he mixed in low sweeps and feints, trying to knock Gray off his feet while the others attacked from above and the sides.
"Come on, Gray! You’re not getting away that easily!" he shouted, his voice full of energy.
The coordinated assault was relentless.
Gravity locked Gray’s legs, ice and water made the floor slippery, fire pillars restricted his movement, curses weakened his body, wind gusts pushed him off balance, and physical attacks came from multiple directions at once.
The corridor was filled with flashing lights, roaring mana, and the sound of clashing attacks.
Gray was forced to move constantly, his reduced speed making every dodge and block more difficult.
He took another shallow cut on his arm from Lira’s wind-enhanced dagger and a burn on his leg from one of Claire’s fire pillars.
He was adapting, using the environment and his experience to stay one step ahead, but the combined pressure was clearly affecting him.
Adrian saw an opening and charged in with a powerful multi-elemental thrust, aiming directly at Gray’s chest while the others kept him occupied.
"Now!" he shouted.
Gray raised his hand to block the thrust, but Maelis suddenly increased the gravity on his right arm at the last second, slowing his block just enough for Adrian’s sword to graze his side.
Blood appeared on his clothes for the first time in a while.
Gray’s eyes narrowed.
’...Took them a while to finally wound me.’
Gray’s right hand moved to the hilt of his rapier for the first time in the fight.
His fingers closed around the handle, and with a smooth, deliberate motion, he unsheathed the blade.
Shing...
The rapier came out with a clear, ringing sound, its blade gleaming under the dim light of the ruin.
The moment the weapon was drawn, the atmosphere in the corridor changed. Gray’s presence grew sharper, more dangerous, as he held the rapier in a relaxed but ready stance.
The Gloria students tensed up immediately. They had never seen Gray draw his weapon during this fight, and the sight of it made them even more cautious.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed as he gripped his sword tighter.
"He’s finally getting serious..." he muttered.
Maelis’s expression was complicated as she watched Gray with the rapier in hand.
"Be careful," she said quietly to the others.
Gray didn’t say anything. He simply took a single step forward, the rapier held loosely in his hand as he prepared to end the fight.
Gray raised the rapier, his black eyes calm as he looked at the group.
"Soul Chasing Extremities..."
The air around him changed instantly.
A faint, almost invisible trace of Soul Chasing Qi began to flow through his body and the rapier, making the blade glow with a subtle, ethereal light.
"[Severing Pursuit]"
In the next instant, Gray moved.
He didn’t charge or rush.
He simply took one step forward, and the rapier in his hand became a blur. The technique was fast, precise, and relentless.
The Soul Chasing Qi locked onto the real students, ignoring the mana clones completely.
The rapier left behind faint afterimages as it cut through the air, targeting the vital points of Adrian, Maelis, Selene, Selina, Claire, Katia, Lira, and Ronan with perfect accuracy.
Shing!
Shing!
Shing!
The sound of the rapier cutting through the air was the only thing that could be heard for a brief moment.
Adrian tried to block with his sword, but the rapier slipped past his defense like a ghost, cutting a clean line across his chest.
The wound wasn’t deep, but the Soul Chasing Qi made it feel like it was severing something deeper than flesh.
Maelis tried to use her gravity magic to slow the attack, but the rapier cut through the gravity field as if it wasn’t there, grazing her shoulder and forcing her to stumble back.
Selene raised her sword to block, but the rapier’s afterimage tricked her, and the real blade cut across her side, making her gasp in pain.
Selina’s water chains were cut apart before they could even form properly. Claire’s fire pillars were sliced in half, and the rapier continued its path, forcing her to retreat.
Katia tried to chant a new curse, but the rapier appeared in front of her and lightly tapped her book, sending it flying out of her hands.
Lira tried to disappear into shadows, but the Soul Chasing Qi locked onto her, and the rapier cut through the shadow form, forcing her to reappear with a shallow cut on her arm.
Ronan tried to block with the gauntlets, but the rapier slipped past his defense and tapped his chest, sending him flying backward into the wall.
The entire sequence happened in the blink of an eye. Gray stood in the center of the group, his rapier still raised as the last traces of Soul Chasing Qi faded from the blade.
The Gloria students were left breathing heavily, small cuts and wounds across their bodies, their formation broken and their confidence shattered.
Gray lowered the rapier slightly, his voice calm as ever.
"...This should be enough to prove a point, no?"
Comments