Chapter 162: Hello, Mr. Devil (4)
"How should I address you? Mr. Mysterious who won't stop talking?"
"You've only thought of asking now after all this time? You can call me, um...Mentor."
"Alright, Mr. Devil."
"If I were a devil, you should at least offer me a quarter of your soul now."
"If needed, then take it."
"Didn't you just have your bones crushed without any resistance?"
"Doesn't Mr. Devil have any friends?"
"I do."
"Then you should understand."
"I don't quite get it. Aren't friends meant to be taken advantage of?"
"For me, it's not...Chao Lu is a very important friend to me."
"The person standing before you is also your friend, isn't she?"
"Yes, but precisely because of that, I cannot forgive her."
"So, what I said was not wrong."
"What?"
"Because it's a friend, the harm is deeper...being deceived by a friend is only a matter of time."
"What should I do?"
"Relax your mind and let me take over."
"Can I really win against Alena?"
"What a silly question, it made me laugh my ass off."
"So, can we win?"
"It's not 'we,' it's you. You can win."
"Michelle, you chose to challenge her, not me. It was your own decision. When you declared war, you should have cast away all your internal reasoning and only focus on how to win."
"I didn't force you to make a choice, it was your voluntary request for my help, so I responded. Before this, I was just a spectator. I don't have the ability to step onto the stage. Even if I do, I'll just be standing by your side, playing a supporting role. You are still the main character on stage."
"You've had enough of this endurance and all the troubles. You envy others' talents but resent yourself for not having any. You don't understand why others can be geniuses but you can't."
"All I want to do is correct your mistaken perception and shatter all your unnecessary feelings of inferiority, crushing them into garbage and incinerating them in the irreversible furnace."
"And then, with the most magnificent victory, imprint a simple and clear fact into your soul, engraving it in your mind..."
"You are not inferior to anyone."
"You are much stronger than them."
……
Michelle pushed Alena's hand away.
Alena looked at her in surprise, "Have you gone crazy?"
Michelle remained calm, "Scared?"
Alena frowned, "The difference in power between us is vast. You're just asking for trouble."
Michelle took off her glasses, "Afraid?"
Alena's anger flared up, "I'm giving you a chance. Don't force me to take action. The Capesh Clan fears no provocation."
Michelle smirked, "Getting anxious?"
Alena reluctantly agreed, "You asked for it!"
Michelle made her way to the center of the training ground, "Right here..." She looked around and asked, "Can someone lend me a sword?"
A student who enjoyed watching the excitement immediately took off his sword and threw it over. It was a one-handed sword. Michelle unsheathed the blunt sword and tested its weight.
Alena tied up her hair and tore off the inconvenient hem of her skirt, exposing her fair thighs, attracting many onlookers' attention.
She clasped her fingers, and a crimson magical symbol appeared on the palm of her hand. The blood solidified into a bright red sharp sword, no weaker than steel in strength.
As a high-level blood descendant, Alena excelled in manipulating blood. Her blood had developed numerous techniques, using her own blood as a medium to strengthen and empower her spells. Blood combat techniques, blood swordsmanship, blood freezing techniques, and more... all belonged to the complex and diverse blood descendant sects. Other races lacked the powerful hematopoietic function and the longevity of blood descendants. Even if they learned it, they couldn't unleash it without any concerns.
The population of the blood descendants had increased from a few hundred to just over two thousand in five hundred years. Among them, there were only seventy high-level blood descendants, of which nine were elders, seven of whom were in constant hibernation. As the core of the blood descendants, high-level blood descendants were not only powerful sorcerers but also top-notch warriors.
Unfortunately, they were destined never to learn true Qi, as it would conflict with blood and potentially cause explosions or cataclysmic destruction.
Ludemira Style - this was the swordsmanship style mastered by Alena, one of her favorite among the twenty-nine styles. With a swing of her sword, she could instantly create terrifying low temperatures using constructed magical symbols in her blood, earning it the name of the Ice Blood Sword Style.
She merely swung her sword, and the ground instantly froze, spreading a layer of frost. The frost directly reached Michelle's feet, freezing half of her leg. The frost traces extended along her right leg, turning her into an ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.
"Your movement is now restricted. In fifteen minutes, your leg will be completely frozen and necrotic."
Michelle regained her composure and calmly said, "Surrender."
Onlookers were neither surprised nor unexpected. This was the true strength of the top ten students of the Tulip Academy.
Alena was only twenty-one years old, but she began learning swordsmanship and magic at the age of seven, making a huge difference from ordinary people. Coupled with her blood lineage advantage, she only needed three battles to completely suppress most of the students in the Tulip Academy.
"Is this the end?" Michelle asked calmly, "Rarely, I let you make the first move."
Alena chuckled in frustration. At this point, she couldn't believe Alena was still being stubborn.
But the next moment, she heard a crisp cracking sound.
Crack, crack, crack... The cracks spread continuously along the ice layer. The seemingly strong frost track retreated to her feet, the cracks spread and shattered, and the frost marks and frozen traces on the ground were instantly erased.
Sphinx silently observed this duel, and upon seeing this scene, her eyes brightened. "This is..."
Michelle breathed out a sigh of relief. Blood flowed through her veins beneath her skin. Her heartbeat pounded loudly in her ears. Her blue eyes gradually took on a hint of gold.
Dragonblood Combat Qi, First Order Blood Rage.
A light red combat aura surrounded her body, releasing the inherent power of a Dragonborn. Even the thin Dragonblood lineage awakened at this moment, releasing the dormant power accumulated over many years.
"Your frost can't hurt me. Now, let's fight with swords!" Michelle declared.
Alena didn't understand why Michelle had changed so drastically, but she also realized that Michelle was different now. She was no longer a tame lamb but a fierce beast.
"Alright!" She raised her sword to meet her.
The blood-red sword clashed with the blunt sword, and with each strike, the sound of iron hitting iron echoed incessantly, resounding through the area.
The crowd marveled at Alena's elegant and precise swordsmanship, and they were equally amazed at how skilled Michelle's sword technique was.
In Michelle's hands, the one-handed sword was as agile as her finger, and every sword technique had its basic movements: slash, cut, stab. But her swordsmanship was not limited to forms; it was dazzling. When Alena jumped high, Michelle infused her power, attempting to crush her with brute force. However, the blood sword was easily resisted, and Michelle shifted earlier, trapping Alena's wrist with her left hand, diverting most of the force from her attack.
She immediately spun her body, swinging her sword to break free from the ice blood cage and create distance.
In that split second, she sincerely felt the inevitable defeat if Alena came within close range.
Looking at Michelle's indifferent eyes once again, she felt a pressure she had never experienced before. After only a few rounds of sparring, her flaws in swordsmanship were already exposed, specifically in her attack range. Once within three steps, her sword's attack range would become narrow, a disadvantage for blood descendants who feared close combat the most, as their hearts were their greatest weakness, and their physical bodies were not much stronger than humans.
Michelle had found her weakness, and Alena still knew nothing about her swordsmanship. It didn't resemble any known style, as if there were no specific schools or forms. Yet, under the influence of her explosive power, it was fast and accurate.
Alena knew she couldn't rely on wearing down her opponent. She demanded herself to win in a spectacular and beautiful way... She had never considered the possibility of losing to Michelle, even if she had hidden her true abilities for so long, the winner would still be her.
"I'm going all out now!" she warned.
Stepping heavily on the ground, blood had already been scattered during the battle. The magical symbols attached to the blood blossomed instantly. In an instant, dozens of ice lotuses bloomed, bursting open. The root and stem parts rapidly extended like vines, forming a cage that imprisoned the target.
Transforming the empowered magic, she turned her one-handed sword into a bow and arrow. Drawing the bow and shooting the arrow, a chilling cold invaded the space, dropping the temperature below freezing.
The arrow hit the figure trapped in the blood ice cage. She held her fingertips and more ice lotuses bloomed, this time several times larger. This power depleted the blood magic dormant in her body, but its strength was overwhelming. She didn't believe Michelle could withstand it.
But the next moment, the blunt sword suddenly broke free from the ice blood cage. Michelle broke free from her confinement, her tightly clenched palm opened, and intense fire erupted, melting away all the ice.
Dragonfire Breath!