Chapter 46
Swordflower College, Combat Hall.
Seeing Sonya pointing her sword at Leone, there was only one thought in the minds of all the onlooking crowd:
What is she doing?
Felix, Sylvia, Ingritt and others had the same thought:
What is Sonya doing?
Even Sonya herself was lost in thought:
What am I doing?
Only Leone was momentarily stunned, then couldn't help covering her mouth as she burst into laughter, the sound escaping through her teeth and lips. It was obvious she was trying hard not to laugh out loud.
After a good while, she took a deep breath, traces of the crazy laughter still on her face, and asked as seriously as she could:
"Junior sister Sonya, are you serious? You want to challenge me, Leone Vickt?"
It's fake! I'm not serious! The viewer controlled me just now!
Viewer, you shameless thing controlling a young girl's body!
Sonya was almost screaming and cursing in her heart, but she couldn't give this reason. She also believed the viewer would definitely not appear again - at least not until she finished this combat training.
It was understandable that everyone had this reaction, because the one Sonya challenged was Leone.
At Swordflower College, Leone was probably the most famous student. Whether it was her talent, award history, or various scandals, they were the talk of the town.
On her first day of school, she had beat all the new swordsmanship students;
In second grade she was promoted to Silver Wings Rank 1, and became the disciple of Swordflower's other swordsaint "Rhythm Swordsaint" Nidara;
In third grade she participated in abyssal expeditions, forming a team with geniuses from Trinity College, gaining much loot and adventure in the abyss.
Even Trinity College wanted to poach her. Many considered Leone a future swordsaint, a Saint apprentice!
More importantly, Leone had been frequently adventuring in the abyss half a year ago. Everyone knew she wanted to break through to the next level in combat, and advance to Silver Wings Rank 2!
This meant Leone had fully spread her Silver Wings, she was a one wing mage at full power!
In comparison, Sonya and Felix had just entered the virtual world for a few days. Forget about Silver Wings, they hadn't even condensed a single silver feather. The difference in arcane power between them was greater than between a child and an adult.
Although arcane power was just an energy resource, the actual combat depended on the mage's level. But no one thought Sonya had the slightest chance, not even Sonya herself.
The spirits Leone had must be far more than her, and Leone surely grasped sword miracles. Add Leone's abundant abyss combat experience.
The more she compared, the more desperate Sonya felt - why did the viewer want to harm her like this!
She might as well fight Lorein instead!
Even if she lost to Lorein, people would think Lorein bullied the weak. But losing to Leone would be different, people would think Sonya was arrogant and ignorant.
Not to mention the arrogant words Sonya had just said.
If she lost badly, she wouldn't even have the face to see Professor Trotzam afterwards.
The more she thought the angrier she felt. Last time was the same, the viewer made her challenge Felix for no reason, causing today's troubles. She didn't expect the viewer to repeat the trick, making her provoke Leone!
But the viewer wasn't wrong.
Sonya didn't feel unhappy right now.
Because she only thought about strangling the viewer tonight in the virtual world.
But words were already spoken, Sonya couldn't take them back. She could only grit her teeth and nod: "That's right."
"Good, courageous, as your senior in the swordsmanship department I have no reason to decline a challenge from my junior sister. "
"However," Leone smiled, "As a disciplinary committee member, I can't let such an unbalanced match happen in school. So..."
She went to the side and casually took a wooden training sword from the rack, saying:
"Although I said I'll go easy, anything could happen in combat. So let's just set fair rules for victory and defeat - "
"In this combat training, if my sword touches your body even once, it counts as my loss."
"As long as your sword is disarmed, it counts as my win."
"Of course, if you can disarm my sword, then naturally you win."
Laughter sounded around them - no one believed Sonya could disarm Leone's sword. Leone's words were more like an impossible demand.
Leone looked at Lorein and Felix. "This rule also applies to you two. Lorein, either be confident you can defeat him without harming Felix, or just give up... As a third year student, you can't be lacking even that much confidence right?"
"You can make the rules even stricter," Lorein said coldly, "I don't mind."
Felix calmly said: "With such easy victory conditions, I have no reason to refuse."
When Leone looked at her, Sonya suddenly understood.
Leone didn't just happen to appear, she and Lorein definitely planned this beforehand. West's matter was just a timely catalyst.
Leone was Rhythm Swordsaint's disciple, she and Felix were Hidden Hands Swordsaint's disciples... Was this a clash between Swordflower's two swordsaints? Or was Leone testing their character?
But in any case, Sonya had no reason to back down now. And after Leone proposed such 'generous' rules, she couldn't help feeling some fighting spirit... and humiliation from being looked down on!
Sonya took a deep breath and gripped the wooden sword tightly: "I have no objections either, senior sister Leone."
"Then I announce, battle... start!"
Blood Moon Kingdom, Shattered Lake Prison.
Ashe looked at the empty cafeteria while eating braised Lalafat, wondering if today was some holiday.
Why hadn't he seen any other inmates this morning?
The Deathmatch Society, central hall, reading room, gym, theater... He didn't see anyone anywhere, only some guards playing with light screens, as if everyone had agreed to stay in their cells today.
But they still had to eat. Surely not everyone was spending contribution to get meals delivered to their cells?
The sense of unease grew stronger. Ashe felt like a farmer seeing animals fleeing roots and all, knowing disaster was coming but helpless to do anything but await his doom.
When he was halfway through his meal, Ashe's body suddenly stiffened.
A light screen automatically popped up, cold red words reflecting in Ashe's eyes:
「Dear Mr. Ashe Heath, inmate number 4001623. Shattered Lake Prison hereby notifies you that you are now under surveillance status. Please remain calm and cooperate with the supervisor's instructions.」
He abruptly stood up and went to stand upright at the cafeteria entrance, body straight like a statue without the slightest shift or tremble.
After a while, seven inmates walked stiffly to the cafetria entrance, moving identically as if controlled by a puppeteer, standing side by side with Ashe.
There was a fist's gap between each person, standing in a straight line like troops undergoing drill.
The elven swordsman Valcas Uhl, Ronat Wade the 'gourmand''s boyfriend, were among them!
Everyone had extremely complex expressions, showing fear, resignation, despair, relaxation, but scanning their faces Ashe only saw one message:
Save me!
After another minute, a tall burly guard came to the cafeteria entrance. He gave the inmates a faint smile, baring pale savage fangs.
"Greetings everyone, I'm your supervisor for today, Nago McMillan. Pleased to meet you all. Please introduce yourselves from left to right."
"Archibald Harvey."
"Valcas Uhl."
"Ronat Wade."
"Rudo Enfield."
When it was Ashe's turn, Ashe found he couldn't control his mouth, speaking mechanically: "Ashe Heath."
After they reported their names once, the guard Nago nodded satisfiingly and said:
"Today's schedule is to first finish lunch, then this afternoon I'll take you to watch movies and breathe some sea air on the viewing platform... Oh right, due to recent proposals by human rights organizations, you'll have an hour to contact outside family and friends."
"There's nothing more to say about plans after dinner. If you have any suggestions or questions, you can bring them up now."
Ashe immediately raised his hand. Guard Nago looked at him: "Speak."
Mouth restrictions were lifted. Ashe swallowed and asked the most important question: "I want to ask, what are the plans after dinner..."
Although he already had an expectation, there was still a sliver of hope.
Guard Nago smiled. He had seen many death row inmates like this, clinging to futile hopes, but he didn't dislike personally shattering their hopes.
Giving despair was a supervisor's responsibility, and a supervisor's pleasure.
"Dear Ashe, the plans after dinner, of course it's to take you to watch the Blood Moon Tribunal live."
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