Destroyer of Ice and Fire

“Don't tell me Ayrin's real strength...”

Ender heard some hidden meaning from Carter's words and turned his head in surprise, looking at Ayrin. The latter had stayed silent all along, because of his lateness.

“The match might be tomorrow already, but I hope that no information will leak out, no matter what happens next.” Carter smiled faintly. He also turned his head around to look at Ayrin and said, “That goes for you as well, you have to do your all to keep your secrets before appearing on stage.”

Feeling the atmosphere of the tournament grow increasingly thicker, Ayrin had a little trouble preventing his boiling blood from surging. He nodded firmly: “I understand, teacher!”

“Then you two can begin!”

Carter nodded. He flashed away, instantly arriving beside several shabby chairs.

“I don't understand the abilities of elite teachers in Holy Dawn Academy... Am I the one who shouldn't question teacher Carter's level and judgment?”

“Apart from your outstanding momentum, what other things are you hiding on you that makes teacher Carter so confident?”

Ender looked at Ayrin and his face brimming with battle spirit, such thoughts continuously appearing inside his mind.

“Brave warrior Ender! Be careful, I'm coming!”

Ayrin was already itching to stand in the tournament field at this very moment; his desire for war was out of control. His foot stomped on the ground with a “boom” the moment his voice fell.

An explosive sound broke out around him.

“Force sonic burst!”

Ender's face suddenly turned deathly white!

This was a sonic boom caused by the vibration of every muscle in the body, when too great a strength exploded out of them.

In theory, only arcane masters who opened their second arcane gate were able to create such a sonic boom when their strength frantically exploded out.

Just when the word “impossible” appeared subconsciously in his mind, the moment his body faintly froze, a fist appeared in the air filled with explosive rumbles, right in front of him.

“Pa!”

An even fiercer sound rang out.

Ayrin took his fist back after completing his forward-charging motion.

His arms crossed together, Ender retreated over a dozen meters in succession before finally stilling. His arms trembled continuously.

“This physical strength... Even arcane masters with two open arcane gates are at this level at most, how can he progress so fast?”

“Because an outstanding momentum isn't the only thing in his favor.” Carter smiled faintly as he looked at him. “This is the result of his training during this stretch of time. You can still go on and try him, there might be even more pleasant surprises in store for you.”

“What on earth is his bloodline?”

Ender breathed in deeply, looking at Ayrin in shock.

“Gale Flash!”

A great gust of gale suddenly rolled up inside this sealed-off body training gym. His silhouette flashed out and immediately appeared behind Ayrin. It seemed he was going to strike a punch at Ayrin's back, but the next instant, this gust of wind suddenly blew upward and rolled him up along with it. His silhouette instantly arrived in the air on top of Ayrin.

“Blazing Lotus!”

He ruthlessly sent a kick downward at Ayrin, the arcane particles wildly gushing out and shaping into a raging flame, before transforming into a lotus flower burning fiercely.

“Pa!”

The flame dispersed to the four sides; his body snapped backward, a heart-wrenching pain on the bottom of his foot.

Ayrin's retreated three steps backwards in succession.

He immediately leaped the moment he put down his arms protecting his face, suddenly appearing in front of Ender. His fist enlarged at lightning speed in Ender's vision.

“Swish!”

A gust of wind spurted up. Ender's body floated several meters backward, then halted all of a sudden, then accelerated back. Ayrin's fist landed in empty air, and the moment he took it back, Ender already reappeared to Ayrin's side.

“Wind Scythe Kick!”

A layer of blue stream of air suddenly wrapped around his foot, his entirely leg wildly sweeping just like a blue sickle.

“Pa!” His foot landed ferociously on Ayrin's waist.

Ayrin let out a muffled cry, but his movements didn't pause in the least. He punched ruthlessly with his left, and landed it dead center on this leg.

“Ah!”

Ender let out an incredulous cry of pain. His body swayed unsteadily and fell on the ground, then rolled away. For a while, his leg twitched, and he couldn't stand up.

Ayrin flipped his body to the side. He swayed for just an instant, and then strength exploded from all over his body. His fist appeared once again in front of Ender, together with an explosive sound.

Still sitting on the ground, Ender only had time to cross his arms and protect his face.

With an explosive “Pa!,” he only felt pain on his arms, pain so sharp it seemed they were about to crack open. His body glided backward, then crashed with a bang six or seven meters behind on a pile of miscellaneous wooden boxes.

“Crash.” After crashing against several wooden boxes and breaking them, the rest of the wooden boxes all rained down and landed on his body, almost burying him inside.

Ayrin stopped his pursuit when he saw such a scene. He merely rubbed nonstop his waist where Ender's kick previously landed, hissing and gasping cold air, his expression seemingly filled with pain.

Ender was thoroughly unable to get up, piled as he was among wooden boxes. His face was as incredulous as it could get.

Too many incredible things happened in the brief fight right now.

Holy Dawn Academy's training uniform and the outer academy coat were all manufactured with special materials and wouldn't be ignited by fire, but Blazing Lotus' temperature and impact were the real deal. There was no telling how much Ayrin suffered from withstanding the Blazing Lotus head on, but no matter this strike or the following Wind Scythe Kick he swept on Ayrin, neither of them seemed to have disturbed Ayrin's movements all that much.

Could he be devoid of any sensation of pain?

Right now though, he clearly looked like he was hurting something fierce.

Also, he used “Gale Flash” at the beginning and faked his movements, as if he were about to strike Ayrin's back, while in reality launching Blazing Lotus from the air downwards, but his feint didn't seem to have disturbed Ayrin at all. It was as if Ayrin had long been prepared for his move.

All of this put together was the reason why he ended up on the ground, completely unable to stand up after his fight with Ayrin. But how did it turn out like this?

“I know you certainly have many questions.” Carter went forward and casually helped him move away several boxes pressing down on his body. He smiled faintly. “I can tell you, I acted as his training partner every day during this stretch of time. I hit him who knows how many times everyday.”

“So that's why... He can go straight back into battle after taking my hits... His tolerance for pain reached such a level already. It's not that his body suffered no burden, instead it's the result of overcoming pain like this...” Cold air even seemed to emerge in Ender's breathing.

“That's right.” Ayrin said at this time, pain written all over his face, “I got hit and got hit and then got used to it.”

“How many painful blows do you have to suffer before you can keep fighting, even when your body twitches the pain, when your consciousness is about to collapse?” Ender looked at Ayrin's face filled with excitement and fighting spirit. His body trembled from head to toe, and he was at a loss for words.

“A little pain helps with better memory too. I often struck him with some maneuver of mine and made his body twitch from the hurt, but he never repeated the same mistake twice.” Carter looked at Ender and slowly said, “That's why he has experience facing many kinds of arcane skills and tactics.”

“Teacher, I was wrong.”

Ender stood up shakily. A peculiar fire ignited inside his eyes. “I shouldn't have doubted the teacher's abilities, I shouldn't lack confidence in the teacher.”

“Confidence will come with victories. Not only for you, but for every student in Holy Dawn Academy.” Carter said with a faint smile, “The mission of this school team is to rebuilt our Holy Dawn Academy's bravery.”

“Ayrin!”

After Ender walked out of the body training gym with an excited mood difficult to put into words, the expression in his eyes thoroughly different now, Carter called Ayrin, then pointed at an equipment rack. “These are arcane master weights. Your physical strength is higher than even some second year students. You can wear these in ordinary times and train with them, the result will be better, and you won't expose yourself so easily either when your strength's stifled.”

“Arcane master weights?”

Ayrin suddenly remember something and eagerly asked, “Teacher, I've been training all day long these days, I forgot to ask you, why don't you let Rinloran join the school team? I saw him fight, he hangs arcane master weights all over him, and when he removes them, he's so fast that arcane skills just can't hit him. Even now I might not be able to land any hit on him. I think he's very strong, he might even be holding back some of his strength.”

“He has high-level elven blood.” Carter looked at Ayrin and let out a wry smile, saying, “You might not be aware that for someone like him whose outer appearance even has the distinct features of an elf, there's at least one pure-blooded elven bloodline among his parents. In other words, his father or his mother, at least one of them is a pure-blooded elf!

“Apart from genuine dragon bloodlines, elven bloodlines surpass all the other bloodlines when it comes to affinity with arcane power. The most important thing is, in the current era, even those with dragon blood only have a few percent of it. Existences with at least half dragon blood are extremely rare. That means that when Rinloran uses almost every arcane skill, it'll be much more powerful than someone else.” Looking at Ayrin's mouth open gradually wider, Carter added, “Strength isn't the strong suit of elven bloodlines, but they possess stunning innate nimbleness. This nimbleness manifests itself in their extremely fine body coordination, dodging, as well as pure speed! That's why, even in an extremely awkward posture, when others would have lost their balance already, he can still do perfect movements and come out with astonishing speed.

“Rinloran is also a genius student rarely seen in so many years in Holy Dawn Academy, how would we forget about him? It's just that he doesn't want to join the school team and participate in the tournament, for some reason we don't know.”

“Teacher, that means you already went to look for him, and he refused to participate in the school team?” Ayrin hopped up. “Teacher, leave it to me. I'll go look for him, I have a very good relationship with Rinloran, we're very familiar. Just leave it to me, there won't be any problem at all.”

“Is that so?” Carter blinked in surprise.