Destroyer of Ice and Fire

“This time the 'Ximos' is still an 'unknown monster' for you guys, that's why the rules of the Beast Battling Exam are a little different this time. You don't need to knock down this monster, you just need to protect each other and resist for three minutes.”

After lifting the small black flag, teacher Rui started to explain the rules of the exam in the middle of the field. His voice was very unique, just like two pieces of iron grinding together. It was a little harsh on the ears.

Not a single sound could be heard from the stands when his voice rose.

After saying his piece, this curly-haired teacher who, according to Belo, belonged to the mysterious type and was the strongest out of the three elite teachers present left the four students, only silently stopping several dozen meters away from them.

“We only need to resist for three minutes?”

Standing with the other students in the center of the field, that tall boy Hawthorne with a somewhat silvery hair smiled very arrogantly. He turned his head around and told the three others, “This shouldn't be very difficult. You people just stay careful and don't be a drag.”

After clearly hearing Hawthorne's words, Ayrin couldn't resist telling Belo, “This guy looks like he's got a very fierce tongue.”

“This is arrogance, not fierceness. Your brain is indeed different from normal people.” Belo said with a cold snort, “This guy is only playing it cool talking like this at such a time. There's many girls in the stands right now, he merely wants to attract more attention.”

“Wow...”

Sounds of iron ropes dragging on the ground suddenly rose from inside a tunnel facing the stands.

“The Ximos is going to come out!”

Ayrin subconsciously looked down, following the burst of surprised cries. Other than the dragging sounds of iron ropes, deep roars could also be heard from the pitch-black tunnel. These two sounds came increasingly closer; ashen dirt sprayed from the passage in the wake of hot gusts.

A giant head with deep green hair slowly emerged from the shadows of the tunnel.

Teacher Rui coldly spat out some words while holding the small black flag, “Be careful, the exam's begun!”

The spectators' breathing halted, up in the stands.

“So this is the Ximos?”

“Clang!” With the sound of heavy metal dropping on the ground, Ayrin saw, his breathing also stopped despite himself for the space of an instant, a giant monster whose height definitely exceed two meters come out of the tunnel.

The “Ximos” who hadn't yet been officially noted in the academy's records finally made his debut in front of Holy Dawn Academy's students!

A collective gasp came from the stands.

Because this “Ximos” was very different from what everyone had previously imagined!

This “Ximos” actually turned out to be a humanoid monster. It stood erect on his two feet just like a two-meters tall giant, but its belly bulged up high. A short horn grew on his forehead, while his facial traits weren't all that much different from a human. It merely lacked a nose, only had two long narrow nostrils. His eyes were also deep green, an ominous glint overflowing in every direction from its muddy eyes.

Apart from its forehead, dark green scales covered the rest of his body, just like heavy armor covering a warrior.

The most important thing was, it had four arms!

Someone shouted out two words in alarm, “Giant monster!”

According to established standards, things that stood erect or belonged to the category of giant humanoids usually weren't classified as beasts, but belonged to the category of giant monsters. Moreover, this kind of giant monster with four arms looked harder to handle than normal two-armed monsters, no matter how one looked at it.

Rumble, rumble...

This giant monster stepped inside the field in quick strides after discarding all its restrictive iron bindings.

Dust and grasses flew up. The earth shook with every step its thick and powerful legs stamped on the ground.

“Can they beat it?”

Ayrin pulled Belo's sleeve, his face a little pallid, “It seems so strong just looking at it, won't it slap you into a flat round cake and paste you on the walls below as long as its palms connect?”

Belo stared fixedly at the four-armed huge monster, its eyes slowly shrinking into slits, radiating even thicker ominous light. He excitedly answered in a soft voice, “Don't worry, the good part is yet to begin.”

Seeing the “Ximos” coming out of the passage was actually such a monster, the four students in the center of the field subconsciously retreated several steps backward in succession, despite themselves. Even the Hawthorne who previously looked like he had more than one card up his sleeves was so nervous his mouth started to twist.

The Ximos actually didn't pay attention to the four of them at first. It lifted its head instead and issued a raging roar as it looked at teacher Rui standing to one side, holding his little flag.

A white stream of air visible to the naked eye sprayed out from its mouth. Even those in the stands could feel a gust of wind blowing by.

“What a fearsome monster...” Several girls even sounded as if they were soon about to weep.

“Whoosh!”

Teacher Rui suddenly disappeared, vanished from the field.

He retreated into the shadows at the edge of the field before many people could even clearly distinguish his movements.

The Ximos' gaze finally fell on the four students standing in the center.

Its knees faintly bent down all of a sudden.

“Boom!”

A muffled sound abruptly came from the ground. Its heavy body suddenly created a series of afterimages before vanishing.

“Ah!”

Many students in the stands jumped up involuntarily. Hawthorne and the other three students in the field also cried out in alarm at the same time. Countless amount of tiny particles resembling stardust appeared on their hands and feet, glittering bright magenta under the sunlight.

“What's that?”

“How can they be suddenly so fast!”

Ayrin stared. He noticed that the movements of Hawthorne and the other three students had become multiple times faster the moment these bright particles had appeared. Their silhouettes were fast like the wind, dodging to the four sides, so fast he had a little trouble clearly distinguishing them.

“Those are the “primordial arcane particles” they condensed.”

Belo squeezed his own fingers, making cracking sounds. He said, “I told you before there's nothing exceptional about using a little arcane power. You can only be considered strong if you can compact primordial arcane particles.”

Belo added, “But someone who can compact primordial arcane particles is a waste if he only knows how to act cool.”

Ayrin suddenly sensed a dangerous aura, because Belo's first few sentences started calm, but Ayrin could feel that Belo had once again become feverish and excited with his last sentence.

Roar!

A tremendous roar suddenly came from the sprinting Ximos.

Hawthorne and the others were a little faster than it at first, but a strength even mightier and more tyrannical seemed to surge from its body along with this angry roar. Its huge body seemed to smash down beside Hawthorne and the others in a single flash.

“Ah!”

Hawthorne just happened to be the one closest to the Ximos. He screeched in terror, forced his body to turn around in the middle of his retreat, sent a kick at the Ximos' arm that was sweeping over his way.

The magenta arcane particles frantically billowed on his feet. A cloud of arcane power gathered at top speed, shaping into a flaming lotus flower below him, with his feet as the center.

“It's Blazing Lotus!”

“Pa!”

Some people started shouting in the stands, but this flaming lotus much bigger than Hawthorne's body was instantly broken to pieces by a single slap from the Ximos.

Hawthorne screamed miserably, his body sent flying out by the slap. He truly became pasted on the walls surrounding the field.

The whole field was startled!

Teacher Rui was previously calmly standing on the edge of the field, but now his expression suddenly changed. His body immediately vanished, blowing up a gust of raging wind. He then reappeared in the air on top of the Ximos' head within a single breath or two, a whirlwind blowing in his wake.

The two teachers standing at the forefront of the stands also both shouted in disbelief. The female teacher Ciaran wrapped in a red scarf immediately transformed into a flame in the air and dropped beside where Hawthorne had fallen.

The minds of these three elite teachers were all filled with shock and incomprehension.

The Ximos' strength was indeed extremely astonishing, but medical masters had already done all they could to reduce its strength before the start of the Beast Battling Exam. It could pose a sufficient threat for these senior students, but it couldn't have exploded with such an overwhelming strength to directly send Hawthorn flying with a single slap of its palm.

“Haha!”

There was only Belo who roared with excited laughter when he saw Hawthorne slapped on the wall. “So fun! Trash!”

Ayrin couldn't resist refrain from asking in a quiet voice, “What damned thing did you do?”

“Boom!”

Teacher Rui fired out a punch downward at this moment, his body still in the air.

His entire arm was wrapped in glaring magenta arcane particles. Countless blue streams of air actually shaped into a huge whirlwind wheel in front of him the moment he struck his punch down.

With an explosive sound, the four arms of the Ximos that were smashing his way were all struck away. There were even many broken scales splashing away from its arms.

“Tap!”

After beating away the Ximos' four arms with a punch, teacher Rui's left palm pressed down ferociously atop the Ximos's head.

The Ximos seemed to be struck dead by lightning. Pa! Its body directly staggered backward and tumbled away.

“Huh huh huh huh!”

However, the Ximos made a series of roars the moment it landed on the ground. Its body swelled outward like a balloon. The strength in every particle inside its body exploded out at the same time!

Its four still-trembling arms frantically dug the ground. It didn't dare face teacher Rui any longer, charging instead toward the stands with a speed difficult to imagine!

Pa Pa Pa Pa!

Several broken craters appeared on the hard stone walls of the stands. Inside a chorus of horrified cries and shrill screams, this Ximos actually forced its way out of the field, and flipped toward the stands!

The silhouette of teacher Minlur stood still at the forefront of the stands, not moving the slightest bit amidst all the panic and confusion.

This teacher whose face Ayrin hadn't clearly seen yet suddenly erupted with a great shout when the Ximos' huge body appeared in the middle of the air, above his head. Strength flowed out of his body; he pushed on his legs, bounced up from the ground!

The two figures flashed in the air and crashed together with a bang!

Boom!

Ayrin was dumbstruck.

He even started to have thoughts like “Truly a barbarian” or “Truly an idiot” in his head.

Because he noticed this teacher didn't use any “primordial arcane particle” and didn't seem to have used any arcane skill either. He was entirely relying on his own body to collide together with the Ximos, just like a brainless raging bull.