Destroyer of Ice and Fire

Chapter 98: Fist against fist

Translated by: Reiji

In the stands, everyone from Iron Forest Academy felt very depressed.

No matter how they looked at it, there was no reason for Silva to lose to Ayrin, yet they still lost this fight for some strange and inexplicable reason.

This defeat even seemed very logical.

So what kind of logic was it now?

In the stands, several girls living in the same dorm as Charlotte said, full of schadenfreude, “Charlotte, it looks like you have many love rivals. The number is increasing by the minute.”

“...” Charlotte couldn't answer. She was already at a loss how to defend herself.

“That said, I actually understand now more and more clearly why so many people like Ayrin.” One of the girls who lived in the same corridor as her suddenly said, “Because Ayrin doesn't only have a lot of vitality, a lot of courage, not only can he always get back on his feet no matter what kind of blow he takes. The important thing is, he always finds a way to defeat his opponents while at an intrinsically weaker level than them.”

Charlotte blinked. Thinking back on it, Ayrin indeed never occupied any superiority in any of his fights, and his skills weren't many either, yet he always managed to knock out his opponents in the end.

...

“What on earth happened with Silva!”

“How did he end up losing!”

Several members of team Iron Forest couldn't understand Silva's defeat no matter how they tried. Their hearts and minds were in chaos.

“It's fine, just focus on properly doing your own thing.” Teacher Lee in charge of the team hadn't spoken so far. Now he said in a soft, unperturbed voice, “In fact, you can disregard any tidbits or process happening in this fight. Those are all smokescreens to fool your eyes. Push these things aside, and you'll see the gist of it. In the end, the gist of it still comes down to a contest of hardiness between Silva and him. This is an issue of constitution. Someone else would have been knocked flat already after two rounds of heavy assault and would still have ended up being the loser no matter how many mistakes Silva made before that. But the most important thing lies therein. He could endure Silva's blows, but Silva couldn't endure his blows.”

“Indeed.” Ferguillo said in a faint voice, “You still can't look down on him though. He's one of those people born for battles. That's why he can think of every kind of way to consume Silva's arcane particles, forcing Silva into a final showdown of strength and endurance with him.”

“That's why you can't fall into his tempo. You absolute have to seize the tempo yourself, then you'll be fine.” Lee smiled faintly and said, “Apart from his ability to take a beating, his physical strength might also occupy the upper hand against some other team. But it's really too bad that our Iron Forest Academy is widely known to focus particularly on physical strength. He won't have the upper hand in strength against any of you. Also, you should probably have noticed his weakness.”

“Speed and dodging!” Wilde and the others said, light flashing across their eyes.

“That's why there's no need to pay any attention to what he's doing. With an advantage in strength, the one holding the initiative in the match should be you guys, and not him. I think that you can probably beat him even without using arcane particles, just with your physical strength.” Lee smiled faintly while watching Lambert, the third member of the team to take out to the field, get ready.

“I'm going to finish him!” This muscleman had his head shaved bare and many cross-shaped scars on his body. He nodded, then directly walked toward the center of the field.

“Holy Dawn Academy's Ayrin, against Iron Forest Academy's Lambert!” the judge said at this time, his voice loud and resounding.

“It seems Iron Forest Academy actually went for a progressive fighting order just like last year.” Such voices came from many nooks and crannies in the stands.

“The people coming on stage will be stronger and stronger?”

“Indeed, it's exactly what Iron Forest Academy did last year against Agate Lake Academy. This is the manifestation of their absolute trust in their captain Ferguillo. They way they see it, no matter how the first fights turn out, Ferguillo will always be there at the very end to oversee and settle the entire match. Ferguillo is truly their spiritual leader.”

“Lambert is also a ruthless person. Do you see all those scars on him! They're the result of his training with Iron Forest Academy's “Iron Cross.” That's a secret skill that raises physical strength by a substantial margin through a special surgery method that cuts and remolds the internal groups of muscles. Iron Forest Academy calls it an arcane skill for true men, it's simply hard to imagine how much pain you have to suffer during the process.”

“There are actually such cruel arcane skills!”

...

“It's actually this violent man who's coming now. I probably won't be able to stand even a single punch from this guy... But since it's him, it seems it's the right time to use this move.”

Seeing that Lambert was the one coming inside the field, Ayrin's breathing became heavier all of a sudden.

He rested his palms on his knees, his entire body shaking nonstop.

“Bring it on, brave warrior!”

He shouted loudly at Lambert, his voice blood-boiling just like before, but his breath was rough and heavy. Even people in the stands could hear it.

“He must definitely be hurting badly.” Sympathetic thoughts popped in the minds of many people in the stands. After all, in their opinion, though Ayrin did resist his pain and defeat Silva, Silva still landed many blows on him. This feeling was certainly very unpleasant.

“He's going to use that move of Minlur's so early... It's really a reckless guy.” Moss and Carter were the only ones who suddenly perceived something. An undetectable light flashed in the depths of their eyes.

However, the two of them subconsciously felt the next moment that this might well be the best and most efficient method to deal with Lambert.

“No one in the stands are going to see through him again, he's going to send the Iron Forest people in a chaos.” That was why such a thought immediately flashed in Carter's mind.

“Teacher Minlur, if you are here, then carefully watch my performance.”

“Come! Brave warrior, stimulate your nerves! Surpass your limits!

“Come, shout together with me! Let us pursue the road to ultimate strength!”

Minlur's loud shouts during his painstaking training seemed to ring against his ears at this moment.

The moment he indicated to the referee that he was ready, he started falling back at a rapid pace, started to run at full speed!

With this “Holy Body Ignition” skill, you were clearly fiercely breathing fresh air in, yet your consciousness told you you were choking. At the same time, the body's violent motions would not only make the subconscious mind feel even more of a lack of oxygen, reaching the boundary of “Near Death” all the faster. The muscles could even breathe in a greater amount of air when operating at high intensity!

“I don't need to pay any attention to what you're doing, I am the one with the initiative in this fight.”

The trace of pride curled at the corner of Lambert's mouth. His feet stomped heavily on the ground.

“Steel Leap!”

“Savage Iron Punch!”

The ground under his feet suddenly caved in. He shot forward like a block of steel, seemingly breaking away from gravity. The moment he heavily landed back on the ground, he once again bounced up as if he weren't impeded at all. He merely left an even deeper crater in the ground.

His body already blocked the way in front of Ayrin after a mere three leaps without the slightest pause between them. With an explosive “boom,” his fist blew up a waft of white air waves and pounded in Ayrin's direction as if by teleportation.

In the stands, almost everyone felt their hearts twitch. In their opinion, it was hard to imagine how many bones this punch would break in Ayrin's body if it landed on him. Then he would definitely be out for the count.

“Just about time, it's right now!”

“What!” What none of them expected was, Ayrin suddenly let out an earthshaking roar just at the same instant; there was no telling how much air suddenly blew out from Ayrin's mouth and nose, actually forming a wild gust of wind!

“Come!”

Ayrin also roared madly in his mind. In the world in front of his eyes, there was only the one fist approaching him.

When his spirit focused to a degree that surpassed his usual limits, this fist even seemed very clear and distinct.

“Boom!”

His entire body vibrated fiercely. The air around him seemed to boil, and his body even seemed to ignite under the intense vibration and friction.

With the loftiness of an erupting volcano, he punched!

Fist against fist!

At the edge of the field were team Iron Forest was, Lee and Ferguillo narrowed their eyes all of a sudden!

“Hum!”

The moment the two fists struck each other, there was even a humming cry spreading in the air, like the wind blowing through a very long tunnel.

Many spiraling tornadoes suddenly blossomed in the surroundings of these two fists.

“Pa!”

The rugged sound of flesh pounding against flesh only came the next instant.

Everyone's heart leaped fiercely.

Ayrin and Lambert stayed deadlocked in the air for a split second. After that, everyone saw Ayrin's fist continue to stretch forward, still exerting strength.

While Lambert's arm shook tremendously and shrank back. A weird distortion appeared around his shoulder.

“Come again!” Ayrin shouted madly once more.

Then he fired out his left fist without the slightest pause, once again creating a terrifying sonic boom.

“Hiss...”

Only with Ayrin's savage roar did many people in the stands recover their ability to breathe. And only then, their scalps going numb, did many among them realize that Ayrin's punch had actually dislocated Lamber's right shoulder with its impact, to the point even his bones might be broken!

How was that possible!

How could Ayrin have the explosive strength to thoroughly overwhelm Lambert!

There was a great blank in Lambert's mind at this moment!

This punch already disrupted the his entire tempo. Compared to that, his pain and loss of balance were secondary instead.

At this moment, only the intuition born from countless painstaking training sessions made him push out his left hand to block Ayrin's left fist.

But he was already a little late.

Ayrin's left fist grazed past the edge of his palm and fiercely sank deeper, landing straight on his chest.

With a tremendous muffled “bang,” Lambert flew out more than twenty meters in succession, then landed on the ground, bounced up again, bounced several meters away, then fell again heavily on the ground, no longer moving.

From the arena's stands suddenly gone quiet, an incomparably bold and unrestrained voice suddenly rose: “Well done, Ayrin!”

“Teacher Minlur!” Ayrin straightened up, and vigorously gestured victory with his hands at that forthright figure. “I did it!”

“Holy Body Ignition!”

Ferguillo and Lee both took a deep breath in at the same time, slowly spitting out these three words.