Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Void Beast Armor

“Those beasts, why they are acting like they are in heat?”

Usually hearing her teacher talking about these things in such a direct way would usually make Lhian blush red, but after witnessing the blood bath that the gladiators suffered, she didn’t bat an eye.

“What?” It didn’t mean she wasn’t curious to what Qiulei meant though.

Not explaining more, for now at least, Qiulei kept her eyes in the arena. A lot of surprises were popping up.

In another part of the coliseum Talho was also witnessing the battle.

“Curious, I received reports of the beasts being in heat. Mafe, do you know exactly what is happening?”

Behind him, a man showed up, as if he was already there since the beginning.

“I believe the combination of chemicals, and the strong heat, plus the previous strength of the beasts caused this reaction. They weren’t too far from the point of advancing, if I remember correctly. Having said so, it is still a rather impressive order of events.” The man offered his explanation, while kneeling with facing the floor.

“Simply putting, they were unlucky to have to face the beasts in those conditions…” Talho seemed to be thinking of something while looking at Mares. “What is the boy that is their favored going to do…”

At the arena, the silver eyed also became aware of the change.

‘They went a rank up.’ Esen explained to Mares, confirming his suspicions. He already felt the change on their auras, they suddenly felt more threatening. It was the white-haired in his mind that made clear what happened.

‘They got stronger mid battle. Things were going too well after all.’ The power up did little to nothing in the aspects of affecting Mares’ battle intent. He put his spear on his back and got his sword out of its scabbard.

Between a rank one and two void beasts the difference was mainly in endurance, strength and speed, but the jump between a second and third one was gigantic. Firstly, their use of astral energy becomes more evident, third ranked void beasts tended to make much more use of attacks dependent on energy than their lower ranking counterparts. But the most significant difference was that, those in the third rank could use their natural armors.

A natural armor was something in the between of a biological characteristic and an innate technique, not even Mares was sure if he could copy that. Scientists through the whole universe still tries to understand the beasts’ armors, but for billions of years it has been for naught.

 The beast that Mares was battling against and the one that Elaso was fighting got side to side and screamed once more. The first ranked beasts were trembling in fear. Noticing their state and fueled by the grief of their fallen comrades, the gladiators grabbed their weapons and brutalized the beasts, craving their bodies, piercing and splitting it. The whole time the beasts didn’t even seem to notice them, their eyes full of terror looking at the third ranked ones. They didn’t notice their own deaths.

The third ranked beasts looked at each other intensely, seeming to ignore the rest.

‘They are not going to!’

Mares thought, staring at them with cold eyes. The two instantly felt threatened, and noticed the only presence in the arena that could make them feel like so, the silver eyed.

‘You know, it’s kinda rude to ruin their good time together.’ Esen said in a joking tone.

‘Didn’t knew you were into voyeurism.’ He thought expressionless, but inside he was giving her a huge grin. Mares could see the projection of Esen’s face becoming red in his mind, improving his mood tremendously. Thanks to them sharing their minds, though at first Esen didn’t knew what he was talking about, she rapidly understood the meaning of the term.

‘Well, if someone interrupted us once you reconstruct my body, how would you react?’ Though still red, she asked with a victorious smile. And just as she imagined, her loved one almost tripped hearing her question.

‘…I would kill…’ He admits defeat and focus once more on the battle, with Esen’s conceited laugh ringing in his ear.

The hot feeling burning them inside was painful for the two void beasts. What they most wanted was to release it as soon as possible, but a humanoid creature currently was standing on their way, making them furious to the point of going borderline insane. The accumulation of such sensations inside them, added with their recent improvement, had one outcome.

Their coal like reptile skin got covered, it looked like rocks went out from their inside, covering their bodies, only leaving space on their joints, mouth and small eyes. The armor looked like some kind of mineral, as some type of dark steel. It seemed as it was a raw, unrefined mineral and some parts of it were tinged in green, but it was mostly covered in black.

HISS

They ignored everyone else, focusing solely on Mares. The tension on the coliseum was as high as it could be, no one would have imagined the first fight of the day would become so intense.

Lhian was on the border of her seat, her fingers pressed on the arm of her chair, paling because of the strength she was using to press the object.

“Is that your husband? Why are you so nervous?” Qiulei asked with a laugh, alleviating some of the tension the students were feeling. It was their first time seeing so many deaths after all. The pressure that was emanating from the battle also did not help.

Everyone on the academy that was as strong or much stronger than those beasts didn’t exert their auras, so almost no student was used to such a presence pressuring them. And that’s because they were simply watching, they couldn’t imagine the actual pressure in battle.

“S-shut up!”  

Finally blushing and embarrassed, she replied to her teacher and kept the eyes locked on Mares. Qiulei laughed off and also put her attention on the battle.

The first attack didn’t come from the beasts, but from Mares. For the majority of the spectators, it seemed like he had simply slashed the air with his sword. Only few noticed something else, those being the teachers of the Battle Crown Academy, Talho and Mafe.

The random slash in the air was an attack using the technique Mares acquired in his first battle on the arena, to create air rings with high cutting capacity. Throwing them was not something the original user could do, but after a little bit of practice and improvement the long haired had no problem doing so. And while he didn’t want Esen to constantly interfere in his battles so that he doesn’t become too dependent on her to win, her training him to improve the control of his astral energy when they are outside of battle is free game for both. His control was at the point that few noticed something, and even those that did assumed he had used his astral energy simply to enhance his physical strength, allowing him to cut through air.

“A learned technique?” Qiulei muttered to herself, she felt like she was frowning much more than usual just by watching that boy fight. “But that also doesn’t seem like it, the signature is closer to an innate technique, but it still seems off…”

She had a hand on her chin. As one of the most renamed teachers of her academy, one with high status even among teachers, her knowledge was vast, and even so, looking at Mares made her feel like she understood nothing. It was a sensation she completely forgot about after years, and having a boy of the age of her students making her feel like that intrigued and interested her. She watched the silver eyed every move with full attention, almost as a stalker.

‘Huh, why I suddenly so proud of Mars again?’ Esen thought to herself and simply shrugged it as something normal for her.

The attack was aimed for the right eye of the beast on the right, but its instincts and senses were better than before. Though it was not sure what the attack sent in its direction was, its first reaction was to close the right eye, making the attack hit the armor instead of the unprotected eyeball, resulting only in a cut on the void beast natural protection armor.

Mares was unfazed and proceeded to attack again, and of course the beasts also didn’t stay still. Both sides moved to confront one another directly.

Mares covered his sword with air rings, none visible by the eye, and the beasts raised their tails, their astral energy moving to the tips. Two spheres of energy of the size of a car were formed and as soon as Mares got into rage, were used to attack him.

The attacks of the two were coordinated with perfection, the two spheres were about to hit Mares at the same time. It was possible to hear the sound of air being ripped apart by the condensed astral energy of the beasts. The winds moved Mares’ cloak, and his hood was taken out, making his long hair seem to float because of the wind.

The beasts’ turned their bodies around as their tails went forward. Mares also went forward with a slash of his sword, his posture showed a lot of practice, he is much more advanced with the sword than with the spear.

The attacks didn’t physically connect since both sides were mostly using powers covered by astral energy, but this didn’t change the strength of the impact. A shockwave of power sent various of the gladiators, that were dozens of meters apart, flying out, and even reached the audience. It was only thanks to the formations around the arena that the spectators didn’t have to sustain damage. Besides that, the ground where Mares and the beasts were standing was now full of cracks.

Ignoring the numb sensation on his arms, the long haired pulled his sword and jumped at the same time he pulled his spear. He got on the back of the beast on the left, getting the monster by surprise. The two didn’t expect that the little being would stay in place after being hit by them.

Going down with the spear in his left hand, the head of the spear, enhanced by the air rings and astral energy, only manage to take off part of the armor. The part that went out seemed like a metallic mineral, one of the sizes of an adult’s head, but it didn’t go further into the armor, not even scratching the flesh of the beast.

‘The ridiculous resistance of their armor is the reason void beasts from rank three and above are usually feared.’ Esen informed. She looked casual, not even slightly worried.

Another attack came from the beast on the right, the same attack of using astral energy on the tip of the tail.

Clicking his tongue, Mares jumped from the back, putting the sword and the spear in a X shape in front of his chest to protect himself from the shockwaves. The beast he was standing on turned its head in his direction and gave a scream enhanced with astral energy. The combination was once more flawless, Mares knew that if it wasn’t for him taking action to defend himself earlier, he would have felt some damage, at least if he kept his current state.

The hit sent him dozens of meters of distance, and once his feet connected with the ground it resulted in even more cracks forming, only stopping when he was on the border of the arena.

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“Fighting against two rank threes alone, and still didn’t lose. He is not bad.” Qiulei commented, wondering what the boy would do next.

‘Like this won’t do, right?’ Esen asked with an ironic tone.

‘Yeah, but now it will.’ Mares answered with an internal grin before once more jumping against the beasts.

To everyone else it seemed like he was insisting in attacking without a second thought. They didn’t think much of it, since after the last moments they thought he could handle that much. Only Qiulei had an intrigued expression, but once more she was unable to point out the reason.

The air rings and Elaso’s technique, were respectively the second and third techniques Mares copied. The first one was actually a physical enhancing ability, that he was making use of now.

In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the beasts once again. Their intelligence was not high, so seeing the small being again, they went with the same attack that worked to send him flying before, it was a simple instinctive reaction.

The right one attacked with the tail and the left one with a scream, in the same moment Mares sword came down on them. In the silver eyed mind, Esen laughed at their attempt to use the same attack to defeat Mares.

For Mares it felt like he had lost shackles, his body felt lighter but at the same time tougher, and his senses were much sharper. The tip of the tail came slowly in his direction, and he could even see the distortions on the air caused by the shock, thanks to the beast’s scream.

For him there was no impact, once his sword connected with their attacks, it went through like he was cutting butter with a knife. The mass of astral energy on the tip of the void beast was surpassed by physical strength and a sword, with just a little bit of energy covering it, and so was the scream, with the energy it was made of also being cut by Mares’ attack. However, a void beast armor should not be underestimated, and even with his enhanced strength, Mares only managed to pierce through the armor and cut a part of the tail, but did not cut it off completely.

His expression didn’t change and his reaction was not slowed down the slightest. He let go of his sword and jumped in the direction of the second void beast, that was confused that the little being was fine after their attack. It was only when its sense of danger skyrocketed that it tried to react, for no avail.

Aiming for the beast’s left eye, Mares throws his spear, and this time the monster doesn’t react in time, having the weapon pierce through its right eye, with almost all the spear penetrating the skull. The magma like blood was spilling from the smashed eye, going through the cheek and chin of the beast, and dripping onto the floor.

A scream of pure pain and agony got out of the beast’s mouth, the gladiators on the arena had to block their ears and back off even more, blood leaking from their cavities. Even the spectators felt a sharp pain hearing that scream, and that’s because they were under the protection of formations.

“Hmmm, put some more energy on the defenses, I don’t want the people to get out complaining.”

Seeing that the battle was starting to affect his customers, Talho gave the order, and the formations got more power to hold them up. This fight truly was a surprise, after all he always raised the barrier according to the level of those fighting, to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Mares appeared in the beast’s face, holding it by the irregular surface of the armor. It seemed like he could fall at any moment, but he didn’t, even with the beast seemingly having gone insane and moving its body with no regular pattern. The pain and the injury in its head, and the impact in either the brain or an important nerve, made the monster go berserk.

It seemed like it had a stroke, it was attacking everything around it, even its partner. Because it was frenetically moving its own body, its tail hit the chest of the other beast, sending it flying for a few meters. There was a dent on the second beast’s armor, but it didn’t break.

Mares didn’t mind how the beast was moving, he stayed firmly in place, using his feet and left hand to hold himself. His right hand was on the body of the spear, with a single thought, layers of air rings formed around the weapon, moving as a saw.

There was the stuffy sound of an explosion followed by pieces of meat and blood falling on the ground. On the beast’s skull there was now a hole on a third of its face, and Mares was still up there, with his whole body dirtied.

While the spectators cheered loudly, almost all of the students on the VIP area were pale, with their stomachs feeling like it had been turned upside down. Some had already thrown up.

Qiulei looked at Lhian with the corner of her eye to see her favorite student biting her lip and pale, but keeping her eyes fixed at the boy fighting. She nodded, satisfied with her first reaction to such bloodshed.

Mares was about to jump to attack the second beast, when he noticed that instead of disappearing, the fluctuations of astral energy in the beast he supposed was dead got more unstable.

‘MARS CAREFUL!’ Esen also took a moment to notice this, so when she warned, even with the long-haired jumping to try to avoid, it was a second too late.

He had underestimated the resistance of a third ranked void beast that was going insane under the effects of heat and drugs. Its already unstable energy got worst, and with its mind damaged, instead of dying like Mares thought it would, it lived just long enough for its energy to get wild to the point of exploding.

The explosion covered a few meters, probably somewhere between fifteen to twenty, only affecting Mares and the other void beast, none of which had time to scape.

“Kid!”

The people from the 7600 room finally woke up from their daze when they thought Mares was killed. Elaso and the others were ready to run there, hoping to find him alive, even if severely injured.

The explosion raised a wall of dust, blinding those outside of what was happening.

‘Rookie mistake…’ Mares thought as the dust settled and others could finally see his condition.

For everyone’s shock he was still standing, though his body was covered in injuries and blood. His cloak was gone, and his pants from knee to below were nonexistent, making him look like he was wearing some shabby shorts. His mask also had some cracks, but was still there. He had cuts and burns all over his body, some parts of his hair, mostly the tips, were scorched. Parts of the beast’s armor didn’t get completely obliterated, some of which pierced Mares, adding to his injuries.

Seeing him in that state and still standing made everyone speechless.

Lhian’s lips were trembling, she was holding the arms of her chair with enough force for them to start to crack. Her teacher words, about how the boy was someone of her age, was ringing in her mind. She imagined herself or her friends on that situation, but she knew she couldn’t really understand it. She could only try to think about how the boy with silver shining eyes must be feeling. Her own eyes were full of pity for him.

Qiulei also was astonished. Her thoughts were not too far off from those of her disciple. Even if she wanted Lhian and her colleagues to be ready for real battles, she knew she hoped these times of peace would go on, so that things, like the one she was seeing now, wouldn’t need to happen to them. She too felt pity for Mares’ fate.

‘Maybe I could…’ She thought of something and decided that she would be talking with Talho later.

‘Mars…’ Esen felt horrible seeing her beloved injured to that extent. An immense hate for the already dead beast formed on her. She blamed herself for not warning him on time.

‘It’s ok Es. It’s a good lesson to learn now, won’t happen again.’

He knew he was only like this because he didn’t take the battle serious enough since the beginning. He could have been much more brutal, dealing much better with the beasts. Instead, he got in his current situation. The only one to blame was himself.

‘I am too lacking…’

The second, and only remaining beast, was better off than him. It was a real statement of how monstrous a void beast armor was, their defense was warrior’s natural nightmare. Something that wrecked Mares whole body simply caused some cracks to appear on the void beast armor. It weakened the beast, but it was obvious who fared off worst.

‘Let me help you! You are not getting a single scratch more!’ Esen said, her tone demanding. She wasn’t willing to watch him lose even a line of hair anymore, much less get in a fight with the remaining beast.

A warm smile formed in Mares lips, one of which no one besides Esen was able to see it because of his mask.

‘Thanks Es, but don’t worry. I will end this fast, there is no need for you to do anything.’

Naturally, since they shared mind and spirit, she soon became aware of his plan.

‘Arg… you own me one!’ She didn’t left space for negotiation.

‘Anything you want.’ He said in a playing manner while raising his spear

The beast seemed confused and out of it. It had just lost its mate, plus all the previous things that happened before. When it smelled that Mares was bathed in its mate blood, it attacked without a second thought. It opened its mouth, it was ready to try to use the scream to stun Mares, without knowing this actually made things easier for the silver eyed.

Mares took a deep breath, he was going to finish this in seconds.