Volume 3, 6 : Seal

Volume 3, Chapter 6 : Seal

Liola quietly sat on the unicorn, and he did not speak a word. Instead, Lancelot, who was sitting in the front, curiously opened his mouth first:

“Aren’t you going to ask me what’s going on?”

It wasn’t until then that Liola spoke.

“Did Blood Wolf ask you to come?”

“Yes, and no. Blood Wolf did indeed ask me to come. But even if he hadn’t say anything, I was planning on having a talk with you anyway. Why don’t you go to the Dragon Empire? I heard Miluo had already caused you some trouble, why not seek protection from the Dragon Empire?”

Lancelot asked a multiple questions in one go.

Liola was quiet for a while, and then said.

“I don’t want to go.”

Hearing Liola’s reply, but didn’t considered it to be a real answer, Lancelot smiled:

“You are just like how Blood Wolf described: a lost and indifferent boy, not to mention very stubborn.”

Liola didn’t care for this comment, but instead he stared blankly at the passing earth below. Before long, Lancelot guided the unicorn to land on an uninhabited plain.

After jumping off the unicorn, he observed his surroundings, then nodded in satisfaction. He turned and said to Liola, who was standing next to the unicorn:

“Take off your mask. As your master, I still don’t even know what my apprentice looks like.”

Liola obeyed and took off the silver mask, which showed his elegant face. Lancelot looked at the mask and said after a moment of silence:

“Where did you get this mask? It actually changed your eye color.”

“Mizerui gave it to me.”

“Mizerui… His things were always a bit strange.” Lancelot seemed a bit skeptical, but he wasn’t going to comment on the Dragon Emperor’s friend, Mizerui.

The straightforward Lancelot then continued to get to the main reason why he came: “Blood Wolf said, you wanted to learn healing magic?”

Hearing about healing magic, Liola’s interest was finally aroused. He nodded and asked,

“You can teach me healing magic?”

“The most famous attribute of being a Holy Knight is healing magic.” Lancelot said as a matter-of-fact.

But then he continued solemnly: “If it’s healing magic, I can teach you, because Blood Wolf had specifically asked me to do so. As for other abilities, I would never teach them to an Assassin. Even though you’ve promised Princess Anise you won’t kill again, I don’t trust you.”

Seeing Lancelot doubt his promise to Anise, Liola’s mind was started to be a bit discontented, and his attitude towards Lancelot got colder. No one noticed the subtle change, at least Lancelot didn’t. Lancelot then proceeded to fulfil his promise to Blood Wolf.

“Blood Wolf told me that your main problem is not being able to feel magic element; is that right?” Lancelot didn’t beat around the bush.

Liola nodded.

Lancelot told him to watch, then he took out his snow white sword, and lightly cut the palm of his hand. Bright red blood instantly poured out, but Lancelot closed his eyes to concentrate and chanted a few lines of a spell.

LIola’s wounded palm started to emit white light, and the blood seemed to have slowed down, until finally there was no blood at all. Lancelot took out a handkerchief and wiped away the blood stains, and there wasn’t even a scar left on his palm.

Liola slightly frowned. When Lancelot was healing, he did indeed feel some sort of energy concentrating in Lancelot’s hand. Could that be the supposed magic element? Liola had a blurred idea about this element, but it wasn’t clear enough to him to control such special energy.

Liola took Broken Silver out of his boots. After turning the stick into a dagger, Liola took Broken Silver and cut a long wound on his arm, then lifted for Lancelot to heal.

At first, Lancelot looked at Liola’s unique weapon curiously, Broken Silver. When Liola lifted his arm, Lancelot placed his hand over Liola’s wound. A warm white light emitted from Lancelot’s palm, and Liola felt at the energy on his wound. The energy slowly sank into his skin, and it repaired his tissue slowly, until the wound was nowhere to be found.

Liola knitted his eyebrows, trying to remember the feeling and attempted to control that feeling.

Lancelot was also trying to help: “Put out your palm, look at it, and try to remember that feeling”, he reminded.

Liola did so, and his silver eyes concentrated on his palm. For a moment, he even seemed to forget an Assassin’s awareness to the surrounding. The only thing in Liola’s eyes and mind was his own palm.

Slowly, Liola felt a familiar energy, and there was a warmth in his palm that extended to his heart. Liola felt excited and a sense of achievement, and even his face began to smile.

Lancelot suddenly put his hand on Liola’s forehead. Liola curiously raised his eyes to look at Lancelot, but Lancelot yelled: “Concentrate!”

Liola obeyed, and focused all his attention back to his palm. The warmth in his hand felt more and more intense, until it finally began to emit a faint white glow.

Liola immediately bit a finger on his other hand, and then touched the wounded finger against the light. Liola immediately saw his wound was slowly recovering.

He really did learn healing magic!

“Congratulations on learning healing magic. Now let’s experience another unique skill of the Holy Knight.”

Lancelot’s hand remained on Liola’s forehead. A pair of blue eyes looked absolutely selfless, even brutally altruistic.

Though Liola had started worrying about Lancelot’s gaze, but there was no way that the Paladin Lancelot would hurt him, right?

With that thought, Liola didn’t do anything, just quietly sustained the heavy pressure on his forehead. But even with Liola’s endurance, his expression was still reflective of how much pain he felt.

Finally, Liola could no longer hold it, his hands held Lancelot’s arm, trying to push away this source of pain.

But Liola suddenly noticed, not only did Lancelot not let go, his fingers held on even tighter to Liola’s head, and the pressure was getting strong.

Liola almost yelled out in pain, but he held back, instead he could only squeeze these words out between his teeth: “Lancelot?”

“Seal is magic unique to Holy Knights. We don’t like to kill, and sealing can make even the most dangerous enemies powerless to harm others.” Lancelot said calmly and justly,

“You’re too dangerous, Liola. Since you don’t want to join the Dragon Emperor’s side, he agreed to use this method to stop you from causing any more harm to this world.”

“I didn’t cause any harm!” Unfortunately Lancelot didn’t stop.

Liola could only helplessly watch as hundreds of white, transparent chains came out of Lancelot’s hands, and the chains wrapped themselves around Liola’s body. Wherever the chains touched, Liola could feel his powers being drained away, and even his mind began to drift off to unconsciousness.

Before Liola lost consciousness, he faintly hear Lancelot say: “I did not seal your magic, so you can still follow your wish on becoming a healer. Your wishes are good, both for you and this world.”

The chains slowly sank into Liola’s body, and the intense pain finally took away Liola’s consciousness and he fell the the ground. When the last chain appeared on his body, a few strange golden pattern slowly surfaced on Liola’s skin, and they looked like ropes wrapping Liola.

Lancelot quietly looked at the unconscious Liola on the ground, and calmly said:

“I’m very sorry, but I can’t let strong Assassin, such as yourself, roam in this world.”

Lancelot dragged Liola back onto the unicorn. He also took the silver mask hanging from Liola’s waist. He frowned when he felt that it had some form of magical energy, but he had no way of ascertaining what magic Mizerui put on it. Lancelot clenched his hand, and the mask in his hand broke into several pieces. He threw away the pieces, then rode the unicorn back towards the arena.

* * *

“OMG!” Kaiser paced back and forth in the resting room, and eventually pulled his hair and yelled towards the sky,

“I don’t want to go! Without Liola, I will never participate in the match! Don’t kid me, they have five people and we have three. These kinds of disadvantageous matches, it’s as if you’re asking me to commit suicide!”

Meinan kindly reminded: “Though Jetter is still in the infirmary, but he should be able to join us for the match. So we have four people.”

“No!” Kaiser pointed his finger and solemnly explained,

“You think Jetter counts as a person? It would be nice if he doesn’t hold us back and turn the strength of us three into two and a half, and you even expect him to count as a fourth?”

The current situation made even Daylight knit his brow. A Knight and two Sorcerer facing teams with numerous Knights and Mechas would be quite difficult.

“And Baolilong!” Baolilong, who had turned back into a child’s form, sat naked on the side, chewed beef jerky, and protested.

Three of them looked at Baolilong, whose mouth was full of meat. Kaiser snapped,

“We’re talking about the number of ‘people’. If someday you reincarnate to a human, talk to me then! And, turn back into a Dragon. You’re useless as a five year old child.”

Baolilong angrily growled at Kaiser, and then slowly turned into a White Dragon. As it tried to use its claw to try to tear the beef jerky, Baolilong complained: “Claw claw is hard to eat beef jerky with.”

“I hope Silver Mask comes back in time.” Daylight sighed. He felt pressured: if the Aklan Academy loses its first place title in his hands, then he wouldn’t know where to hide his shame.

Even when everyone had their eyebrows knitted, they still couldn’t come up with a plan. Just then, the PA system rang:

“The Academy Ranking Matches will now begin. All academies, please get into your positions.”

Though Daylight seemed down, he still stood up. Even if the chance of winning was miniscule, he will do his best.

Meinan hurriedly took his brush and mirror to fix up his appearance, fearing some strands of his hair would be out of place during the match.

Kaiser desperately tried to crawl under the sofa, and didn’t want to get out. Meanwhile, Baolilong swallowed the bag of jerky, then it bit Kaiser’s pants, dragging him out of the sofa.

“Principal Barbalis will come watch this match. If he doesn’t see you in the match, then Mizerui…” Once more Meinan tried to kindly advise Kaiser to get out.

Hearing Mizerui’s name, Kaiser’s face sank.

He thought, ‘Academy student vs. Mizerui… It was a no brainer.’

Even if tens of students were to combine their power, it can’t possibly be higher than the rank-X criminal.

Kaiser helplessly and reluctantly crawled out of the sofa, then followed Daylight and Meinan towards the match. He walked slower and slower, falling further behind with every other step he takes. Finally, Meinan couldn’t take it any more, so he forcefully dragged Kaiser.

* * *

The three finally arrived at the arena. The circular arena was surrounded by rows of seats for the audiences, and in the center was a field used for the matches. Only a cylindrical, transparent shield separated the two.

Another academy had already been waiting in the center, and in their team, there were two Knights and three Mechas. The Knights were a Blue Holy Knight, and the other was a Red Dragon Knight. The three Mechas consisted of two D rank ones and a rank C.

“Ah~~ My stomach hurts. I can’t hold it any more. I have to go to the infirmary.”

Kaiser suddenly crouched, held his stomach, and yelled in pain. He then walked towards the infirmary. He was walking with so much force that he was dragging Baolilong along, who was holding onto his pants. Unfortunately…

“Mizerui!” Meinan, and even Daylight, said in unison.

With a long face, Kaiser turned around, then looked left and right to see if Barbalis was really there. Unfortunately, he really was.

With two lines of tears running down his face, Kaiser saw that in the VIP section Barbalis was waving a flag with Aklan Academy’s pentacle symbol.

He also saw Lanski, who looked disappointed because she didn’t see Silver Mask, sitting beside Barbalis.

Jasmine, too, was there and searching for Liola. Of course, twenty-something Sorcerer students also came. Their only instructors were here, what else could they do except follow him?

Purity, however, happily ran towards Feir, and she seemed to have a spoiled demeanor. Though Feir seemed a little embarrassed, but he couldn’t hide his intention to spoil his little sister. He happily stroke Purity’s head.

Since his life was the most important, Kaiser started to think of a way to prevent himself from dying in the arena:

“Daylight, of course you are our main offense. I’ll provide cover for you. Meinan your responsibility is the biggest. You’re responsible for my safety! If something happens to me, I will come back to haunt you!” Kaiser stared at Meinan.

Meinan and Daylight both nodded, and then started walk towards the center.

To Daylight, under the current situation, he would have to fight five people on his own. But since the prestige of Aklan Academy was on his shoulders, Daylight would never give up no matter what!

“What about Baolilong?” Baolilong opened its big pink eyes and asked.

“You? Are you hungry?”

Kaiser’s eyes narrowed as he laughed, as if he was an evil merchant.

Baolilong desperately nodded, since a bag of jerky would never fill a Dragon’s stomach. Kaiser looked at his opponent and said:

“You see those people over there? They are all edible!”

“Really? But papa said I can’t eat people.” Baolilong struggled between wanting to eat them and the fear of being yelled.

“No! You heard it wrong. Your papa meant you can’t kill people.” Kaiser tried to trick a little kid:

“So you could tear off a few pieces of meat to eat. This way, you won’t breach what your dad said, and you can win the match, not to mention saving the money for your next meal. Three birds with one stone! Your papa would be so happy.”

Baolilong happily nodded, and looked at the mouth-watering group of meat meat!

Kaiser was very satisfied. There was another force joining him. When Baolilong is hungry, its destructive powers was quite impressive.

Then the broadcast rang again,

“Because contestant Silver Mask was taken away, and contestant Jetter is in poor health, therefore unable to participate, the council has decided that Aklan Academy may attend this match with less contestants than intended.”

“JETTER?!” Veins appeared on Kaiser’s forehead: “This worthless bastard ran way on the spot?!”

Had it not been Barbalis’ threat of expelling him to face Mizerui, there would probably be only two people left in the arena. Three black lines appeared on Daylight and Meinan’s face when they heard Kaiser’s accusation of how Jetter deserted them and how he has no loyalty.

Kaiser kept cursing at Jetter, but his hands did not remain idle. He took out an arm-length energy gun.

After turning it on, he carefully put his finger on the trigger. Daylight also took out his long pike, and flew into the sky riding his Fire Dragon. He worriedly turned around to ask Kaiser and Meinan:

“Are you sure you will be okay? If it’s too dangerous, just forfeit!” But he himself would never give up.

The opponent probably heard what Daylight said. The opposing blue Knight coldly interrupted:

“Don’t worry, we’re not interested in bullying the weak. As long as we beat you, this match will be over.”

Daylight’s face sank. Even though he’s the strongest among the students of Aklan Academy, it’s still not possible for him to defeat two Knights and three Mechas by himself.

Daylight took a deep breath: even if he had no chance of winning, he still had to try his best. His Fire Dragon slowly ascended into the air. The opposing Holy Knight also called forth a large vulture, and rode it into the sky. The Red Knight, too, called forth a Green Dragon and followed.

What was worse was, even the three Mechas were aerial. In the air, Daylight was completely surrounded. His opponents looked anxious to tear him into pieces as soon as the sound of the whistle signaling the start of the match.

Feir walked into a protective shield to watch the match from a close range. With his command, the match finally began.

The two Knights and three Mechas all rushed towards Daylight like tigers pouncing on a prey.

Under the circumstances, Daylight had no choice but to fly around, trying to shake them off while dodging the cannon fire from the Mechas.

The opponents weren’t idiots. While three Mechas were chasing Daylight, one of the Knights flew high into the air while the other flew low, which restricted Daylight’s movement to the area between the two Knights, so he could only fly in circles with the three Mechas.

The limited space finally forced Daylight to stop running when a Mecha flew in the opposite direction and stopped in front of him, which blocked his way.

Seeing the dire situation, Baolilong planned to turn into a big Dragon to eat… No, to help its friends. But strangely enough, Kaiser stopped it by putting his hand on Baolilong’s head.

Baolilong looked at Kaiser with its curious pink eyes, but Kaiser let out a sinister laugh: “Don’t move. I have a plan.”

“Flames, Fireball.”

Daylight hurriedly commanded Flames to use Fireball to blow away the obstacle ahead.

Flames spitted out two fiery fireballs aimed towards the Mecha. Of course, the two cannons on the shoulder of that human-shaped Mecha aren’t for decoration. With two boom sounds, two shots of laser cannon accurately intercepted the two Fireballs.

Daylight had already flown in front of the Mecha. With no other options, Daylight weiled his long pike forward, which collided with the lightsabre in the Mecha’s hand, and the collision gengerated many sparks.

Under the tremendous force of the Mecha, Daylight’s body began to glow with a blue aura, with its edge dotted with silver lights.

Daylight forcefully swung his pike and pushed away the lightsabre. As he continued to attack, the Mechas behind him were also catching up. Feeling the danger behind him, Daylight stopped attacking and made Flames dodge to the side to avoid the eagle-shaped and angel-shaped Mechas.

However, the human-shaped Mecha swung its lightsabre at Daylight again.

Daylight hurriedly used his pike to block the lightsabre, and the fire Dragon Flames also screeched while using its claws to deflect the eagle-shaped Mecha’s giant wings.

The angel-shaped Mecha circled around Flames back and used its hands to hold Flames’ wings. Flames howled in pain, but could not attack the enemy behind it with its claws.

Daylight heard his buddy’s howl, and his fighting spirit rose. His long pike broke the human-shaped Mecha’s lightsabre, and at the same time punctured a hole in the Mecha’s shoulder.

When Daylight turned around to deal with the angel-shaped Mecha behind him, two swords already swung down on him. Daylight turned his body on the side, and one sword torn the clothes on his chest while the other left a trail of blood on his back.

Daylight spun his long pike around, and deflected the two swords. But Daylight was already closely surrounded by his five opponents. So he fought on with the weapon in his hand. Though he could block the major attacks, but he couldn’t avoid being wounded left and right by smaller attacks.

“Daylight! Come take a breather in the protective shield.” Kaiser yelled beneath him.

Daylight looked down and saw Meinan’s hands glowing with magical lights. Daylight had heard rumors of how strong Meinan’s shields were. He thought about his situation: if he continued like this, he would either run out of strength, or fall to the ground due to wounds.

Daylight rammed towards the eagle-shaped Mecha, which had the lowest defense of the five, and rushed out of the circle. He flew directly towards Kaiser and Meinan, and magic and missiles flew by him as the Knights and Mechas followed him.

“Kaiser, if I have to make a shield large enough for Flames, then the strength would be greatly reduced.” Meinan said with difficulty.

“Drop the shields now, and put it up when I say so. And just put up enough strength to block a few pieces of sheet metal.”

Kaiser, who always wielded one-handed pistols, held a bazooka with both hands, and aimed it at the approaching Daylight. Kaiser started chanting some magical incantation, but even Meinan couldn’t understand what that spell was. The bazooka’s barrel started to emit a blinding white light.

Daylight quickly flew towards Kaiser while sustaining many attacks on his back. When he was about ten meters from Kaiser, the bazooka exploded with a white light.

The light blinded Daylight and Flames, and all Daylight could feel was a wave of heat passing from the side of his face, followed by a series of explosions behind him.

With Flames losing its sight, it didn’t have a chance to stop, and it rammed directly into the ground. Meinan hurriedly jumped a few steps to the side, and therefore didn’t become a meat pancake.

Kaiser immediately yelled, “Meinan, shields now!”

Meinan had already prepped the magic in his hands. As soon as he raised his hands, a firm protective shield appeared on top of the three of them.

It wasn’t until then that Meinan realized the danger heading towards him: the three Mechas and a Green Dragon were falling directly on top of them, not to mention it was accompanied by various explosions!

Meinan immediately put more magical power into the shields and instantly increasing the shield’s strength, so Kaiser’s supposed metal sheet won’t breach the shield.

With a few loud explosions, the ground shook.

Meinan used all his magic, to the point where veins popped out of his forehead, and was finally able to maintain the giant shield.

Daylight’s sight returned and he curiously looked around the arena to examine the situation.

The three Mechas who rammed into the shield and had been broken down into pieces of junk. The three Mecha Fighter students had to use their emergency escape pods to save their lives, laid on the ground with pale faces.

The Red Knight’s situation was far worse: the Green Dragon’s wings looked like they were broken. If one looked closely, they’d notice a giant, burnt hole on the Dragon’s head, oozing with blood.

As a judge, Feir had seen the whole thing and he murmured quietly: “Asking his own teammate to fly towards him, and therefore making his five opponents fly in a straight line. Then he used an impressive piercing magic, in which fell one swoop and went through four opponents. My god, this is unbelievable.”

Aklan Academy’s only opponent left was a blue Holy Knight, who was flying in the sky with a pale face. Had he not been coincidentally too far away from Kaiser’s missile trajectory, he probably wouldn’t have been much better off than the Red Knight in his team.

Feir hurriedly called a time-out, and asked the medics to take away the heavily injured Green Dragon and its master to the infirmary.

Feir walked up to the three Mecha Fighter students, who were still trapped within their escape pods, and asked:

“You three are also injured. Are you going to the infirmary, or do you want to continue the battle?”

The three Mecha Fighters looked at each other awkwardly. Without even half a Mecha, their strength on the battlefield was miniscule. To stay in the match would be like a prey walking into a slaughter house.

The three lowered their heads and said, “We surrender.”

The tables had suddenly turned. The match turned from a 5v3 to a 1v3. The Blue Holy Knight could only stare at his three opponents, and he feared for his life when he saw Kaiser’s eyes.

Kaiser purposely blew the barrel of his gun, then turned to Daylight and said in disdain:

“I’ve already taken care of four of them for ya’. Now the last one is your responsibility. Hmph, if you can’t even take care of him, then you should really just go back to being a Green rank, and be a green head instead.”

Daylight’s body was full of scratches and wounds, and his Fire Dragon was also bleeding. Despite this, Flames let out a mighty Dragon roar.

Daylight smiled and hopped onto Flames. Before he left, he threw a line towards Kaiser:

“No problem! If I really lose, then I’m willing to de-rank myself to Green.”