Lightning rolled through the dark clouds, and a flash of white light streaked across the horizon, illuminating the faces of everyone in the plaza.
"What are you afraid of?! Have you forgotten what their strength is like?!"
Kuse shouted at the companions beside him, who were showing signs of wariness.
After a mere two days, the gap in raw strength could never be bridged by momentum alone.
No matter how bizarre the opponents looked, all they had to do was face them head-on, just like the two times they had thrashed them three days ago.
Hearing this, the fighters of Aloran Royal Academy quickly rallied, exchanging determined glances.
Who was stronger and who was weaker could be seen at a glance!
At that moment, a deafening crash of thunder exploded—a release of the sky's fury that struck straight at the heart.
The roar of thunder blended with the combat, the shouts, and the clashing of metal in the arena.
Battle erupted in an instant!
A member of the Demon King's Special Slaughter Unit charged at the nearest fighter, raising a greatsword and swinging it straight down at his opponent's neck.
"!!"
The fighter reacted swiftly, executing a side roll with his body and evading the fatal strike in a cold sweat.
He immediately launched a counterattack, throwing a lunging punch that kicked up a blast of air.
Yet the opponent's heavy armor seemed to absorb most of the damage.
However...
What was wrong was that even though the opponent had taken the hit, he stood motionless and squinted down at him, as if feeling no pain whatsoever.
Beneath the jet-black heavy armor, that frame appeared even more monstrous. The corners of the mouth below the crimson eyes actually curled into an arc as he raised the greatsword once more, intending to cleave him vertically in two.
Sensing that something was deeply amiss, the Aloran fighter hurriedly executed a backflip to pull back.
"Tsk. Count yourself lucky you kept your life."
The Ikerite fighter rested the greatsword on his shoulder, sneering cold words.
The clashes between the other fighters were much the same. The five from Ikerite showed no reaction to wounds or pain, yet every attack they made was aimed to kill: either beheading, severing at the waist, or simply using a broadsword to smash the opponent's head into meat paste.
It unnerved the Aloran fighters to the point where they grew hesitant to clash head-on, pulling back one after another to engage in hit-and-run skirmishing.
"You bunch of cowards! What is there to be afraid of?!"
Only the sixth-tier Kuse showed no fear at all. Charging forward at the forefront, he cursed at his retreating companions with even fiercer bravado, displaying an aura that dared to take on all five opponents alone.
The remaining Aloran fighters, reminded of the gap in raw strength, gritted their teeth, suppressed the unease in their hearts, and charged forward again.
With their reinforced bodies of iron and steel coupled with regenerative abilities, even taking direct cuts from heavy weapons would not prove fatal. The enemy only looked terrifying!
Every swing of the serrated broadswords and greataxes carried destructive force, ringing out with bone-chilling metallic crashes whenever they found their marks.
The fighters relied on their speed and agility to counterattack, attempting to locate their enemies' weak spots.
Yet whether it was because their blows lacked weight or because the opponents truly possessed no sense of pain, no matter how they struck, they seemed unable to inflict any effective damage on the Ikerite combatants!
Conversely, every time they took an axe blow, the flaying, bone-shearing agony and dizziness made them feel as though they were dancing beside Death itself.
The spectators were utterly shocked by the terrifying spectacle.
Was this really an exhibition combat match?
Why did it feel like one side was genuinely trying to murder the other?
Anyone with discerning eyes could tell that the fighters from the Aloran Kingdom still held an obvious advantage in raw strength.
Yet the battle was entirely one-sided. The Aloran fighters looked like they were being brutally executed by Ikerite's Demon King's Slaughter Unit.
The scene grew exceedingly gory. From the very beginning, they aimed straight for their opponents' throats, hungering to devour them whole.
If one had to describe it, it was like a group of campus elites who had never left school running into regular Demon troops seasoned by countless battlefields.
Except for the strongest sixth-tier fighter, Kuse, who still possessed the power to take on five at once, the other four already bore several horrific wounds, their eyes consumed by dread.
The five from Ikerite should have sustained considerable injuries, yet they acted as if nothing had happened. Their black, rampart-like figures seemed unlikely to sway even once before dying!
"You're truly like babes."
"Why were we ever defeated by swine like you?"
"We thank Headmaster Lanqi for granting us new life. This is the true soul of combat we have always sought..."
Raindrops drifted onto the combatants, vaporized by the heat of their bodies and the intense exertion of the battle. Yet this was not the passion of a duel; it was the frenzied murderous fervor of beings that had returned from hell.
It was hard to imagine what on earth they had endured over these past two days.
Gradually, the slaughter unit on Ikerite's side began to seize the upper hand. With every strike of their greatswords and greataxes, they seemed ready to smash great craters into the ground. Even as Kuse led the fighters in a desperate struggle to fight back, facing such life-trading tactics grew increasingly exhausting.
Only Kuse fought more ferociously the longer the battle dragged on, while the fighters beside him were struck one by one by the greatswords and greataxes, blown several meters away by the impact.
The atmosphere on the combat grounds turned increasingly savage.
Every attack from the Demon King's Special Slaughter Unit seemed driven by the determination to destroy everything, rapidly turning into an encirclement against Kuse alone.
"This..."
Noe stood with his mouth agape, his brain frozen as he stared at the battleground.
Why did he feel that the fighter team Lanqi was coaching was eleven out of ten wrong?!
You call this a friendly academic exchange?!
"The Demon King's Army has seized the advantage once again! Built-in berserk and pain suppression—the performance is truly off the charts!"
Luvishir's impassioned commentary echoed throughout the entire arena from the broadcast booth.
"Ahem, it is the Ikerite Academy team," the other commentator beside her hurriedly corrected.
"Oh, right. Actually, looking at it from another angle, it might also be that Coach Lanqi's tactical plan is very sound. But against these five executioners from the Demon King's Army, how are the opposing fighters supposed to play?"
"It is the Ikerite Academy team."
"Uh."
It seemed Luvishir had grown accustomed to calling them that.
Several times in a row when mentioning the Ikerite side, she stammered for ages before managing to state their formal name.
"The De... De..."
"Ikerite."
"Right, the Ikerite team. As for these few... those who know, know."
In the spectator stands, the students and citizens had initially found the style rather eerie, but now that they saw the combat growing fiery and overflowing with spectacle, they joined in cheering and clamoring enthusiastically.
Amidst the boiling clamor of the crowd,
Talia, whose hand had originally been held by Hyperion, had now reversed their roles and was gripping Hyperion's hand tightly.
She buried her head deeply, terrified that the people around her would notice she knew Lanqi—or notice her resemblance to the Poet of Great Love.
"Hyperion, shouldn't we go home?" Talia proposed in a low whisper.
"Tata, are you feeling unwell?" Hyperion felt that Talia's palms were somewhat cold.
"I..."
Talia had no idea how to explain.
Hyperion still did not know that she was Hyperion's aunt, nor did she know that Talia belonged to the demon race.
Talia could even hear the surrounding students chanting playfully and ironically: "Go, Demon King's Army!"
This bizarre place made every passing minute feel like torture.
She was a law-abiding, well-behaved citizen. She truly was not planning any revival operation for the Demon King's Army, nor had she incited Lanqi to do any of this...
Chapter 224