The jagged bolt of pure blue lightning violently dropped from the heavens, cutting through the high-altitude air with a deafening, window-shattering roar.It slammed directly into Julian’s position, threatening to vaporize the entire center of the Arena.
But Julian didn’t get consumed by the light. He threw his hands forward, channeling a massive, dense surge of mana through his upper pathways to manifest a high-tier defensive shielding technique. It was the exact same senior-tier circulation pattern that Thomas had copied from the leather-bound manual before. However, coming from a Grade S prodigy, the execution was seamless. A thick, crystalline dome of high-density blue mana exploded to life around Julian’s frame, the barrier so concentrated that it looked completely solid.
BOOM!
The lightning bolt slammed against the barrier with absolute, devastating kinetic force. A massive shockwave of compressed air blew the black sand back in a perfect circle, the intense electrical pressure leaving the blue dome covered in dozens of deep, glowing white cracks. Yet, despite the fracture lines webs running across its surface, the shield held. Julian stood perfectly anchored behind the cracked glass of his defense, completely uninjured.
Karen smirked, his silver eyes flashing with an intense, competitive arrogance. He slowly floated into the air, his boots hovering a foot off the black sand as the ambient wind from the storm lifted his clothes. He looked down at the cracked shield with supreme confidence.
"Impressive density, Julian," Karen taunted, his voice carrying clearly over the shriek of the gale. "But your shield is already fractured. Can you stop another one?!"
Julian slowly raised his left hand, reached up, and calmly removed his silver-rimmed glasses, tucking them into his uniform pocket. The moment his hands left his face, his posture straightened, and his raw mana output violently tripled. A terrifying, heavy pressure exploded outward from his body, the absolute density of his Grade S presence causing the loose stones along the arena floor to tremble.
Under everyone’s surprised gazes, the fractured senior shielding technique began to rapidly reconstruct itself. The glowing white cracks vanished in a heartbeat, the blue mana walls visibly strengthening, thickening, and expanding until the dome looked entirely unbreakable, radiating a blinding light that completely stunned the front rows.
"Quit while I am still feeling merciful, Karen," Julian said, his cold, elegant voice carrying a terrifying calm that echoed across the quiet stadium. "You are wasting your breath."
Karen grew visibly angry, his face twisting into a furious scowl as his pride was violently stung by the threat. The bruised purple clouds above the Arena violently convulsed, the thunder rumbling from the sky with a far more intense, catastrophic fury. Small, erratic lightning bolts began to break out from the air, dancing and crackling violently around Julian’s protective dome as the storm threatened to completely tear the arena block apart.
That was exactly when the elite task force pulled up.
Five massive, glowing runic anchors violently dropped from the sky, slamming into the perimeter of the spectator rows with a resounding, heavy thud. Instantly, Cecilia, the Midnight Valkyrie her face entirely hidden behind her smooth, faceless runic helm and polished ebony visor appeared at the front of the elevated platform alongside the other four legendary Horsemen of Calamity.
Without wasting a single second, the Horsemen immediately cast a high-tier rune barrier. A colossal, translucent dome of interlocking crimson runes erupted from the anchors, weaving together with flawless precision. The barrier completely covered the audience tiers to protect the spectators from the bleeding static, but it left the sky wide open above the arena floor, allowing the storm to rage in its full glory.
Karen didn’t care about the barrier. He screamed, channeling every ounce of his power, and unleashed a devastating bolt of lightning directly down from the roiling vortex.
The resulting explosion was catastrophic. A blinding flash of white and violet light completely consumed Arena, the sheer, thunderous detonation leaving everyone in the thousands of stadium benches momentarily stunned, their vision completely whitered out by the glare.
Up in the very back row, Ryan’s mouth almost dropped straight to the floor. He sat frozen against his wooden desk, his hands trembling violently as he clutched his bandaged chest, his pale face reflecting the fading embers of the plasma blast. He slowly turned his head, looking over at his roommate with wide, terrified hazel eyes.
"Tom..." Ryan whispered, his voice cracking with absolute panic. "Do you... do you still intend to fight those High-blood prodigies? Those monsters are on an entirely different planet."
Thomas sat perfectly rigid on the bench, his tattered uniform tightly wrapped by his linen sheets.
He didn’t answer immediately. For the very first time since entering Blackspear Academy, Thomas was also visibly shaken. His dark eyes were wide open, his chest tightening at the sheer, terrifying amount of raw power unleashed by the Grade S talent. It wasn’t just a martial trade anymore; it was a level of destructive output that his current, unrefined vessel simply wasn’t fast enough to dodge or block.
The thunderous echoes finally died out, the heavy, suffocating grey smoke and granite dust slowly clearing across the black sand floor as everyone waited to see if Julian had been defeated.
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