Chapter 225: The Lesser Angel’s Challenge (1)
Kai bent forward and pressed the chalk in his hand against the smooth ground.
He moved, dragging the chalk to create a sizeable circle right outside the dormitory’s fence.
Even as he drew the circle, he could already feel the gazes from the students inside their own rooms and the students passing by. All of them were looking at Kai in confusion, not only by what he was doing, but also by why another student was in their territory.
A question also appeared in their minds when they saw Layra was standing on the side.
She was easily distinguished despite her mask due to the cloak she was wearing.
Kai and Dean Lanchester wanted the same thing. Both wanted Layra’s eye to be repaired, and the only way to do that was to change the view of the freshmen. The academy couldn’t simply do that, as many students, including other High Angels, would be dissatisfied.
Thus, it was up to Kai to help the academy do that.
He would need to change the freshmen’s view regarding the Lesser Angel. Regarding him.
Once he finished making the circle, there are already a few students around.
All of them were looking at Kai and the circle with curiosity.
"Hey, why is a foreign student like you here?"
"Yeah, who gave permission for you to draw there? Stop it!"
"Better start explaining yourselves, or it won’t be good for you at all."
Kai ignored the buzz and straightened his back.
He walked to the side, walked over to Layra, and peeled off his reed blazer already mangled beyond saving from his battle with the seniors in the Second Sky. And beneath it, a black shirt clung to his frame, torn in several places.
The toned muscles were laid bare for anyone to see.
Due to the morning exercise and his constant mining and fighting, his muscles had grown. He was not scrawny anymore, but athletically lean with muscles in the right places. He was a lot different than when he was still in the Blood Rite.
And there were scars marring his skin.
Forced to only use healing cream meant the wounds he suffered wouldn’t heal perfectly.
As a Grade-2 Awakened Supernal, he has an enhanced, natural regeneration.
But it would only close wounds faster, not heal scars.
For the body, aesthetics didn’t matter. All that matters is that the wounds are closed shut.
Layra took the blazer from him and hung it on her arm.
She looked at Kai in worry, knowing that this could go wrong. Not because she didn’t believe in him, but because she knew how violent and dirty the freshman students are. But she could tell from Kai’s eyes alone that he was already determined.
No going back now.
Just like that night—when Kai stopped her from doing something she would regret—his eyes were already sharp and focused. His mind already settled on one thing, and no matter what, he would do it.
He turned without saying a word and stood on one side of the arena.
His back was against the wall, facing the students that had already gathered around.
About a dozen of them were now around the arena.
"Listen up!" The grey-masked Angel, the one from earlier, who had been waiting on the side, now addressed the crowd. "This is Kai. Lesser Angel Kai. He heard the words you’ve all been talking about him, and he didn’t take kindly to them. He’s travelled from Eventide Academy for one reason—to challenge you to defeat him."
"Lesser Angel Kai? Is that the one who saved that disgraceful High Angel?"
"She’s here, so it must be him."
"Is he being serious? Does he think we’re pushovers?"
"He’s from the Eventide Academy. He thinks he’s something after winning a little bit against the weaklings there."
As expected, the students took the challenge as offensive.
Some of them even remembered how pathetic Kai looked back in the inauguration—when he was cradling his sister’s corpse. To think that Lesser Angel came to challenge them blatantly— like this was blasphemous.
It was disrespect that none of them took lightly.
"Lesser Angel Kai is forbidden from killing any challenger. His opponents, however, face no such restriction. They may kill him without consequence. The academy guarantees it for those who dare." The grey-masked Angel paused, letting the weight of the offer settle. "In return, anyone who defeats him will gain ten legal mana ores and a full pardon of two weeks’ worth of mana ore quotas."
Hearing this, Layra’s eyes widened completely.
She turned to look at Kai and only found his stone-cold eyes.
Just earlier, he had said it wouldn’t be a problem. That it would be easy. He’d told her he only wanted to change how the freshmen view him. Layra didn’t know how he would achieve that, but she didn’t expect to do it like this.
Layra felt like she was becoming a burden.
’If this is for me, then I don’t want to be on the side taking all the benefits while risking none.’
She clenched her fist and looked at the grey-masked Angel.
"And my life," Layra announced loudly. "If anyone defeated Kai, I’m willing to be executed."
A frown formed on the grey-masked Angel.
His orders from Dean Lanchester had been explicit, and he was all but certain the dean would never sanction Layra’s execution—alongside the Lesser Angel if he lost. Yet under the weight of her stare, he found himself cornered.
Caught between duty and the unspoken demand in her eyes.
Finally, he cleared his throat and announced, "The academy... will consider it."
Almost instantly, the gathered students erupted into an excited buzz as they couldn’t believe the situation they were in. A Lesser Angel had walked right into their hands, delivered himself to die. And the best part? Layra.
If he fell, she fell with him—the leader of that pathetic team would finally meet her end.
For the students, this was nothing short of a grand prize game.
Kai looked down at the palm of his right hand.
He could hear the excited burst from the gathered students—but ignored it. Even when Layra decided to also put her life on the line, he didn’t react. No need to react when there’s no chance that he would lose.
After going against two seniors at the same time, Kai was confident in his power.
Other than the anomalies, he wouldn’t lose to these students.
Layra would not be viewed as an embarrassment if I could prove that I’m really strong. That’s what I said to Dean Lanchester.
Kai initially proposed that Dean Lanchester have someone fix Layra’s impaired eye—once he won the Dragon Ring tournament. Once he became the Red Prince of the Eventide Academy. But he had another idea.
Dean Lanchester said he could help Layra right now.
All he needed to do was beat the freshmen.
Once most of the students lost to him, no one would view or call Layra an embarrassment again. Kai found it to be a great idea, and he accepted without hesitation. But that didn’t mean the other arrangement had vanished—the one where he needed to become the Red Prince remained a part of the deal.
Dean Lanchester said that he would need to win it, or else he would be executed.
Executed for trespassing the academy grounds and beating its students.
It was the cons of going through with this plan, and Kai has no problem with it.
Losing in the Dragon Ring would most likely end him, too—as living as a Lesser Angel is not sustainable. And with the Chancellor against him, there’s no way he would live for long after losing the Dragon Ring tournament.
Kai wouldn’t lose anything by accepting this plan, so he did.
He blinked his eyes and slowly clenched his fist firmly.
He checked his body for any strength.
I still don’t have mana, but my physique is at peak capacity. It shouldn’t be a problem.
"Alright then, Hero. Since you’re doing too much to impress your Leander, then I’ll help you out." A bald student with a muscular build took off his blazer and stepped into the arena. "I’m eager to see what makes you so confident that you can arrange this and not get killed."
He straightened his posture and boasted his massive frame.
Just one look at his stature told everything about his fighting style.
"I’m a Supernal with the divine bloodline of a hero rated 8.8—Heracles. I may not be a High Angel, but my divine bloodline is not something you can underestimate." His lips stretched into a wide grin. "I’m going to snap your body in half, Lesser Angel. I’m going..."
The bald student’s voice reached Kai as if from across a vast and narrowing tunnel.
He was introducing himself—and made his threats in a theatrical manner, spreading his big arms wide like a gladiator before the Colosseum crowd. The words boomed, then thinned, then fizzled into a distant hum.
Each syllable retreated further away, swallowed by the roaring silence inside Kai’s skull.
There was no thought in the chamber of his skull. No calculation. No strategy.
Only the desire to break all challengers that stepped into the arena.
The bald student pounded his chest with the back of his fist. The sound was nothing short of a drumbeat of sheer intimidation, a showman’s promise of violence. His grin spread wide and toothy, and his hands curled and opened, eager to break Kai’s bones.
Eager to show that a Lesser Angel had no business acting this arrogant.
The words meant to scare.
They were meant to make Kai flinch, to seed doubt, to establish dominance before the battle.
But they only made the fire inside Kai’s body hotter.
Kai spared no effort to listen.
He did not need to hear the taunts to understand them. He had heard them all before.
A thousand variations of the same contempt.
Instead, his fist clenched with the strength of his entire body; the knuckles turning white until they looked like polished bone, and then he moved. With blistering speed, Kai collapsed the distance between them in a single, explosive charge.
The bald student’s grin had not yet faded when Kai’s fist arrived.
He swung with the force of a train.
Every muscle in his body coiled and released in perfect, brutal synchrony. The Stone Ending dragged his stance heavier, thickening the weight behind the blow. His fist drove forward and buried itself in the bald student’s stomach.
Into the abs of steel that were meant to be unbreakable.
But steel meant nothing to Kai’s hardened fist.
Kai’s knuckles stabbed deep, bending skin and muscle and organ alike. The impact rippled through the bald student’s torso like a shockwave. His flesh yielded and compressed until a distinct bulge of fist could be seen pressing outward from the back of his body.
For a frozen instant, the world held its breath.
And then, blood burst from the bald student’s mouth in a hot, red spray, painting the air.
A sight that widened every pair of eyes that was watching.
"Kuarghk!!"