Chapter 344: Mana Sword [3]
The situation was becoming amusing with every passing moment.
I watched Noah as he willed nature’s mana to obey his call and made every effort to increase his rank.
From Gold 1 to Gold 4... Noah had received quite the boost using the mana sword, though it was a temporary one.
His regenerative abilities were as monstrous as they had been in the game after calling out the mana sword.
As for the increase in his ranks, I was curious if there were any variations in that power of his.
In the game, Noah always received a boost in his rank depending upon his current rank and the circumstances around him.
Sometimes the boost was of a few tiers, while at other times it was an entire upliftment in his core’s rank.
Still, would my presence in the timeline upgrade the power of Noah’s abilities or degrade them?
The regeneration had stayed the same as what had been described in the game.
Though I was standing before Noah with complete confidence in myself, the reality was far from it.
Noah wasn’t some ordinary guy.
His physique was inhumane and so was the mana available at his disposal.
Fighting Noah while being of the same rank was an entirely different thing than fighting others who were several tiers above me or were even an entire rank ahead of me.
I could overpower them with my combat expertise and my physique, which was stronger than almost all of them.
But Noah couldn’t be defeated with the same principles.
And if his rank was above mine, then it was a given what type of challenge the protagonist would be for me.
That only went on to prove the necessity of increasing my own rank if I had to stay ahead of Noah or at least fight him on equal grounds.
Even after boosting his core’s rank to Gold 4... Noah didn’t stop, aiming to break the barrier to the Platinum rank.
In normal circumstances, Noah could have achieved the boost in his rank within moments, but as his body was already stressed from the recent evolution, he was having a hard time adapting to his new power.
I knew Noah had the desire to fight me, but the audience didn’t know about it, so I had to make Noah acknowledge his hatred for me while at the same time making the people view me as someone who was worried about a fellow classmate.
And sensing the reactions of all the instructors and students who were standing some distance away... my objective seemed to have been fulfilled.
That reduced the chances of the potential fight between me and Noah damaging my reputation in any way, and also saved me from the potential punishments.
Honestly, I wanted Noah to attack me with his entire might.
I didn’t know whether I would be able to fight him once he would be able to boost his core to the Platinum rank... but I had to take the risk to set the social field in my favour, and then—
Noah would get the fight that he was so enthusiastic to receive.
Still, it wasn’t like Noah could completely defeat me even if he evolved his core to the Platinum rank, at least that was my calculation based on seeing Noah’s combat expertise while fighting against Victoria.
I could be wrong, but that was something which could be known only during our fight.
All assumptions until then would be pointless, and somewhere deep in my soul... maybe I wanted this fight too.
I wanted myself to be challenged to my utmost limits and overcome them to extend my already existing limits.
And Noah was the best dummy that I could afford at the moment.
The protagonist was clearly in pain due to absorbing huge amounts of mana in a short span of time, yet he continued to do so with no signs of stopping in between.
The rate at which Noah was currently speeding his growth... anyone could tell that he would soon break through the barrier of the Platinum core.
And—
"Urgh."
He did it.
Noah’s groan was followed by a new condensed layer of mana forming over his core, proving his temporary evolution to the Platinum core.
Loosening the grip on my sword, I was ready to engage at a moment’s notice.
"You want to fight me, don’t you?"
Raising his head to meet my eyes, Noah asked the question in a rugged voice that was proof enough of how tired his body was at the moment.
"..."
I stayed silent, prompting Noah to take the first step in my direction.
"You have a sword in your hand."
"..."
"Come on... don’t be shy, attack me."
Seeing my silence, Noah tried to provoke me, but no words escaped from my mouth.
His voice was getting louder with every passing moment, and a curious audience was already present to hear each one of his words.
Hm?
I had begun to feel the air around me beginning to vibrate, as an invisible pressure descended in my vicinity.
With Noah’s talent, he should have been able to use mana pressure in the Gold rank itself, but now that he was Platinum 1... the intensity of the mana pressure was enough to overwhelm the majority of the crowd... mostly the students who were currently watching the drama unfold.
I could even sense many of them falling to their knees, with the instructors rushing towards them and using their own mana pressure to neutralise the effect of Noah’s tyranny.
Even the student council president, Leon, was there to help the students, and so were Elsa and Zenur, who had now retreated to the back.
Hm?
Had the headmaster ordered them to do so?
Did he want me to fight Noah?
Sigh.
I didn’t like dancing on someone else’s palm, but at the moment my wishes seemed to have overlapped with the headmaster’s intent.
Looking at Noah, the guy was now messy, with sweat pouring through every inch of his body.
His black hairs with white shades in between were messy, and so were his clothes.
But despite his pathetic state, Noah walked towards me with an air of unprecedented confidence in himself.