The sun burned fiercely above Crownspire, scorching the enthusiastic eyes in its intense mid-morn rays.
Everyone in Crownspire Arena sweated. However, the reason was not the heat.
"Hey, you don’t think he ran away, do you?"
"T-That’s quite possible, isn’t it? I an...look at who he would be fighting...Not to ntion, he had been consistently getting on the guy’s nerves..."
"B-But that’s...that’s just a scam! Maybe BetYourFuture had actually partnered with the academy to cheat everyone out of their money?!"
"That bastard better return!"
The crowd was deeply frustrated and anxious.
In contrast, a young man stood relaxed at the main stage, a faint smile on his face as he waited for the tir to tick down to zero.
If his opponent thought he would be frustrated by this simple trick, the idiot was far too naive.
A few dozen seconds later, Skylar’s brows rose. Iris Snowcrest would be his in thirty more seconds.
This was far too risky a trick, no? Even he wouldn’t allow the ti tick down this low...if this was a trick, that is.
’Did the clown cower?’ Skylar mused.
**
anwhile, in a dimly lit pathway, two youngsters ran with all they had. One of them was barely containing her pounding heart, her eyes a few pitiful blinks away from failing to suppress the escaping tears.
There was still ti...
There should be, right?
Those were the desperate thoughts and pleas in Iris’ mind as she watched the young man in front of her slowly gaining ground, eventually disappearing into the light of the main arena grounds.
How could Daru have disappeared in the short ti that she strayed to the glass window of an accessory shop?! Had she not found him wandering the streets — seemingly puzzled — quick enough, she would’ve lost her mind, her heart, and her very soul to the tragedy!
The traumatizing scene of her disqualification remained a fresh, haunting mory.
Soon, Iris, too, was taken by the light of the main arena grounds, and the numbers written on the mystical board laid itself bare for her to see.
"0:11"
She felt as though she would collapse as a wave of weakness, brought about by overwhelming relief, crashed upon her.
They made it...
Barely, but they made it...
Daru ascended the stage with a sigh of relief, imdiately adjusting his ntal state with a few deep breaths.
His ritual was cut short, though, as a voice sounded in front of him.
"Nice try, but such novice tactics don’t work on ." Skylar snickered.
Daru’s brows rose as he t his foe’s gaze. What the hell is his opponent on about this ti?
"Always talking mysteriously..." Daru shook his head, summoning his tachi and pulling it out of its scabbard.
The referee, inwardly relieved, imdiately stepped forward and extended his arms, about to start the match when he realized that the other competitor was not yet in a fighting stance.
"Ourion, draw your sword," the man requested.
But Skylar only ignored him, smiling mysteriously as he locked gazes with Daru for a few more seconds before looking at the referee.
"Why, I’ve been waiting for almost two minutes. I’m entitled to at least a short rant, aren’t I?"
The referee imdiately realized that the second young master of the Ashwind Family had sothing to say, so he pulled his hand back and stepped back to let whatever would unfold unfold.
The smile on Skylar’s face grew wider. He then turned to Daru.
"Say, isn’t it about ti you introduced yourself?"
The crowd erupted into murmurs, confused at what the Sky Prince was saying. There were a few, however, who failed to suppress their smiles.
It was finally ti.
Daru, anwhile, fell silent. Skylar was still speaking mysteriously, but he understood what the Sky Prince ant this ti.
He turned to look at Caleb, who, after a mont of locking aningful gazes with him, nodded as if permitting him.
In the next mont, Daru sighed. He really didn’t want to do this if he could help it.
Before puzzled eyes, he reached out to his face and removed sothing. A rather grotesque scene of his face separating from his head as desperate, gooey fibers clung to it, played out.
The crowd was dumbfounded as the sa face revealed itself beneath the grisly mask.
The subject of their stupefaction, however, quickly changed as the na "Omaru" glitched once.
A mont later, it did again, but this ti more intensely, as if righting itself.
Then, one by one in a manner that was neither too slow nor too fast, the correct letters wove themselves into existence, forming a new na — one that was written in glaring red.
One that everyone in the arena instantly recognized.
One that was as legendary as it was elusive.
Onimaru Kunitsuna.
At that mont, the world seed to have stopped, giving way to the introduction of a divine enforcer.
Then a bomb of bewildernt exploded in the arena.
"O-O-Onimaru Kunitsuna!!" was the frenzy’s chorus, though there were a myriad other reactions too.
The people handled the disbelief in their own ways.
"I’m dreaming, there’s no way this wackworld of a competition is real..."
"Onimaru Kunitsuna!! He was Onimaru Kunitsuna all along!!"
"I knew it, how could an F-ranker be so demonic?! The guy was simply hiding his identity through whatever that mask was!"
"Sh*t! Sh*t!! Sh*t!!! There’s no way I’m seeing this na in the flesh..."
Those in the VIP seats, too, reacted as though they were going crazy, especially a certain couple.
Cody felt his consciousness slipping from his overwheld senses. The reality of what was going on wasn’t sinking in yet.
Elune, anwhile, was still frozen, eyes and mouth wide open. She looked quite silly.
The few who knew were naturally more composed.
However, they, too, at least breathed heavily at the confirmation of the elusive novice’s identity.
Daru Finnley was the legendary Onimaru Kunitsuna.
"Haha... Hahaha..." Caleb laughed weirdly, the hairs on his body standing on end. "That princess was not exaggerating her stories, was she?"
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