Volume 5, 6 : Storm of Blood

Volume 5, Chapter 6 : Storm of Blood

A giant White Dragon suddenly appeared in the night sky, contrasting the darkness. It stood out, especially since the giant Dragon seemed to fling and turn in the air like a wild horse.

Bystanders would get dizzy and wanted to vomit just from looking at it, not to mention the Knight on it. But strangely, not only did the Knight stay securely on the Dragon, he was even standing. This was only possible for one, and one person only—Silver Mask!

“Kaigleser, so you actually know Flying Magic?” Silver Mask looked at Kaiser, who was flying next to Baolilong.

Kaiser’s face turned pale and snapped.

“Go find a few Sorcerers to ride Baolilong, and I promise you at least 8 out of 10 will perform better than expected, and learn the secrets of flying spells.”

“Is that so?” Silver Mask maintained his smile, but he didn’t pursue his inquiries further.

One day, he thought, Kaiser will be forced to show his true strength, especially since Silver Mask had already planned on tying the knots of many loose ends.

“Baolilong, fly towards the center of the battle.”

Silver Mask used telepathy to give orders to Baolilong, who responded back,

“Okay, papa~”

* * *

Although everyone in Violet Academy knew Silver Mask belonged to Aklan Academy, no one dared to challenge him.

Last time, all the Violet Academy students suspected Silver Mask was an imposter, and not really the Paladin’s apprentice.

However, during the ranking matches, the Paladin appeared and took Silver Mask, so practically everyone in the world knew the Paladin had an apprentice who wore a silver mask and had a Sacred White Dragon.

Silver Knight, Sacred White Dragon, and the Paladin’s apprentice… who would dare challenge Silver Mask?

Silver Mask rode the Sacred White Dragon and was completely unhindered, as if no one was there, and they flew to the center of the aerial battle.

They immediately found Daylight, Jasmine, Lanski, and Meinan, locked in an intense battle with Yiyu and other Violet Academy students.

Meinan was desperately trying to keep up his protective shield, which blocked all the magic attacks from Yiyu’s army of Sorcerers.

“S-Silver Mask?!” Daylight saw Liola heading towards him, and his heart was filled with both shock and worry. He didn’t know Liola had already been unsealed, and he yelled anxiously,

“I-is your body okay? Silver Mask.”

Liola smiled, “It’s fine, I’ve completely recovered.”

Hearing this, Daylight was at first shocked, but then excitement flashed across his face, and he gave Liola a thumb up.

‘Silver Mask…’

Lanski practically forgot she was in a battle. Neither the explosions nor the swords of the opposing Knights caught Lanski’s attention. The only thing she saw with her blue eyes was Silver Mask’s long, slender body.

Suddenly, Silver Mask looked towards Lanski, leaped onto Flames, and grabbed Lanski by her waist.

Before a sword could hit Lanski’s shoulder, Liola quickly whirled and moved her out of harm’s way. Liola then spun around and kicked the Knight who attacked Lanski off his mount.

“Are you alright?” Liola frowned slightly, wondering why Lanski would suddenly be in a trance in the middle of battle.

Lanski had never been this close to the person she liked, and Silver Mask’s hand was still on her waist. Half of her body was in Liola’s arms, and she could felt the warmth from Silver Mask’s chest…

“Damn! We work so hard to block the enemies’ attack, but this guy is actually busy holding girls?”

Kaiser mocked Liola the best he could, but he still continued to shoot at Yiyu and other Sorcerers with his magic gun, in order to help relieve the pressure from Meinan who was maintaining his protective shield.

Daylight and Jasmine both had an ambiguous smile, but it was obvious to see they were both blessing Silver Mask and Lanski.

Suddenly, Silver Mask’s feet left Flames’ back. He looked back, and saw that Baolilong was grabbing him by his collar.

Baolilong said with dissatisfaction via telepathy, “Papa can’t ride anything else except Baolilong!”

Liola smiled, and jumped back onto Baolilong’s back with a flip. After letting Lanski stand still on Baolilong, Liola used his Ki to magnify his voice.

In the crowded battlefield, Liola’s voice sounded like it was being delivered by gales into everyone’s ears,

“Aklan Academy students, listen, we can’t keep being on defensive! Please hear me out. Let the Mecha Fighters keep our academy safe, and Knights follow me to attack Violet Academy!”

The Knights all raised their weapons and yelled “Yes”, but the Mecha Fighters were obviously not satisfied.

At this time, a strange Mecha appeared, and it looked near identical to a real girl. It had a circular disk underneath its feet, and the disk emitted air to propel the Mecha towards the center of the battle, the place where Liola and others were.

When it was attacked on the way, the Mecha used unbelievable agility to either duck or counter the attack. If it weren’t for the fact the Mecha couldn’t possibly be human, people watching would have thought it was a girl with incredible Kung Fu.

When the girl Mecha kicked Violet Academy Mechas one by one, the edge of the disk underneath showed blades on its rim, and it split another Mecha into halves.

The girl Mecha elegantly landed on the disk again, both Academy’s Schools of Mecha Fighters were in shock. The girl Mecha’s agility was unimaginable. If every Mecha had the same level of dexterity, they would have beaten the School of Knights a long time ago.

Not to mention, the person controlling the Mecha was actually controlling two different Mechas, and they were each performing their own attack.

How skilled must the pilot’s be to be able to maneuver a Mecha in such manner? Could the pilot have two heads and four arms?

Both Schools of Mecha Fighters felt respect towards the pilot, but since the control panel was not visible from the outside, no one knew who was controlling it.

However, the following yell immediately answered everyone’s question.

“Understood. Silver Mask, go ahead and don’t worry. Purity and other Mecha Fighters will defend Aklan Academy with our lives!”

The girl Mecha even waved at Liola and others, and it practically looked like what Purity would normally do.

“The safety of the academy is in your hands, School of Mecha Fighters!”

Silver Mask yelled, and Purity responded with “Okay~”.

Aklan Mecha Fighter students stared at each other briefly, but determination surfaced on their faces.

“Hey! This time we will leave the fun to the School of Knights, but the next time it will be our turn!”

Some Mecha Fighter shouted, then quickly headed back to Aklan Academy for defense, and other Mecha Fighter students followed.

The Knights, however, quickly gathered around Silver Mask, preparing their counterattack against Violet Academy.

“School of Knights, if you guys lose then don’t come back!” The Mecha Fighters all yelled in unison.

The Knights didn’t back down and yelled back, “School of Mecha Fighters, if the school is destroyed, then you guys better control your Mechas and be the construction workers!”

Silver Mask’s mood was unexpectedly good. Hearing the threats between the schools, Silver Mask laughed out loud, which made Lanski, who was standing behind him, curiously observe his every action.

“Kaiser,” Liola suddenly called Kaiser.

Flying by Baolilong, Kaiser snapped at Liola with a terrible tone, “What?”

Liola’s finger pointed at the ground below, where a few Sorcerer students stood, waving their arms to try to catch their attention.

When Kaiser saw them, he frowned and said, “Fine, I’ll go down and ask them what they want to do.”

Kaiser flew down slowly. As soon as he arrived, and before he had a chance to say anything, the Sorcery students already began to talk.

“Wow, Kaiser, you knew Fly Magic? We didn’t know…”

“Kaiser, let us go with you. We will definitely be useful, though we don’t know how to fly…”

“What happened last time made us upset, and we learned various attack magics. I promise that we will be useful.”

Drowning in the students’ voices, Kaiser yelled loudly to stop them, “Fine, I know. All in all you guys want to come along. Fine, let me discuss this with Silver Mask.”

Kaiser flew back to Liola’s side, and explained that the School of Sorcery wanted to go along.

Liola found it was strange: the Sorcery students became timid after what the principal had done to them, so they would often hide whenever they see trouble, and they still wouldn’t come out after the trouble was long gone. But this time, they actually took the initiative to say they wanted tag go, so it looked like they had the determination this time.

Liola paused briefly, then asked Baolilong to fly to Daylight. Liola said to Daylight, “The School of Sorcery wants to come along, can you find a few Knights who will carry them along?”

Daylight nodded, “No problem.”

“And Princess Lanski, you should go with Daylight.” Liola said to Lanski behind him.

“W-why?” Lanski asked anxiously. At the same time she thought, could Silver Mask think of her as a burden?

Seeing Lanski anxiousness and disappointed, Liola, who didn’t know how to comfort people, said with a blur, “I still have something else to do in a moment.”

Lanski’s clear big eyes stared at Silver Mask, with her mind set on something. Unlike her usual demeanor, she said willfully,

“Only if you promise me that you will go with me to the dance after the leaders’ meeting.”

‘A dance?’

Though Liola knew something of it, but seeing her familiar face, Liola couldn’t resist. He nodded his head, and agreed.

Lanski sighed in relief after Silver Mask agreed to her wish. With an elegant jump, she went onto Flames’ back. She then said after a moment of hesitation,

“No matter what you’re going to do, p-please be careful. And, where do I go to find you?”

“Just ask Kaiser.” Liola pointed at Kaiser, whom kept murmuring, “I’m a messenger again.”

After everything was taken care of, Daylight was seen yelling at the Knights surrounding him.

Though those Knights looked unwilling, but after Daylight’s persuasion, they agreed. They then flew to the ground and carried the Sorcerers back to their group.

“Hmmph, those Knights actually carried the Sorcerers? Looks to me like they got upset because of Daylight’s lecture on chivalric codes.”

Kaiser waved his hands, because he didn’t want to hear such lectures from Daylight.

“Kaiser, do you think Violet Academy went full out? Or do you think some students would stay in their academy for defense?”

Liola frowned slightly. He was unclear on how strong Violet Academy really was.

“Hey, there were more than two hundred Mechas, and more than a hundred Knights with Mounts. Even for us, the best academy, we barely have three hundred Mechas and two hundred Knights. You really think these schools are easy to get into…? Uh, well, it was easy to get into the School of Sorcery. Anyway, even if these aren’t all of Violet Academy’s forces, it should be near 80-90%. Oh, right, we didn’t see Yizhou, so perhaps he is on defense.”

Kaiser finished with his saliva flying every which way, and then suddenly suspiciously asked the Assassin, “Why are you asking this?”

“I want to stay to prevent the Violet Academy students from going back to help. I think Daylight and others should be enough to conquer Violet Academy.” Liola smiled lightly.

“Oh, hehe, then I will go with Daylight and others to Violet Academy.” Kaiser smiled, and immediately started to run away.

However, Baolilong’s big mouth opened, and it picked Kaiser up. Kaiser struggled and yelled,

“What are you doing, let me go! If you want to be an one man army, don’t drag me into it! I’m just a little Sorcerer, and I can’t really help you.”

“I’m not good at long-ranged attacks, so that’s up to you.”

Liola ignored Kaiser’s yells.

Since he was already tailing behind the Knight forces, he decided to turn around to face the Violet Academy students who were chasing them.

Facing the dozens of enemies, Liola really did feel like a one man army.

“Waaahhh, why do I feel like I’m about to become cannon fodder?”

Kaiser was practically weeping. He was even closer to the enemies than Liola who was on Baolilong’s back…

‘What the hell, Sorcerers should be hiding behind the Knight and provide support, why do I have be in front? Damn Liola must have not learned the art of war.’

Though he was complaining, but for the sake of not seeing his father before his time, Kaiser pulled out his gun to face his enemies.

“Kaiser…” Liola slowly opened his mouth.

“What? It’s a little too late to discuss tactics now.”

Kaiser looked at the opposing Violet Academy students. Though they were scared of Silver Mask because of his identity, but with the pressure of the Knight forces who were on their way to their academy, and their numerical advantage, many students looked like they were about to attack, and the only thing they were missing was a cue.

“How do I emit an aura?”

Liola thought, if he doesn’t use an aura this time around, his identity may be questioned again. So he had to ask Kaiser on the spot.

“Damn you, let’s forget the fact that you treat me like an encyclopedia, but why the hell are you treating me like a Kung Fu manual too?”

Kaiser tried to withhold his desire to roll his eyes. He was a Sorcerer, how would he know how Knights emit an aura?

‘There was actually something that Kaiser didn’t know?’

Liola was in shock, and he had no choice but to figure it out on his own. With his familiarity and talents with Kung Fu, he believed he could learn the way Knights emit their auras from the dozen of Knights who stood before him.

The cue for the start of battle actually came out of Baolilong.

As a Sacred White Dragon, Baolilong saw there were a few Dragons on the other side who dared to oppose it, and its Sacred White Dragon pride was ever so present.

Baolilong opened its mouth. After letting out a Dragon’s roar, in front of its mouth,… and unfortunately, at Kaiser’s back, a ball of lightning appeared.

The sparkles proved to be Kaiser’s worst nightmare: his green hair stood straight up after he got electrocuted, and they looked like weeds growing on his head.

“S-Silver… m-mask, i-if you don’t l-let me… get up, I-I-I will never forgive you!’

Hearing Kaiser’s stuttering after being electrocuted, Liola grabbed Kaiser and placed him on Baolilong’s back. When he turned his head, Baolilong already shot out the lightning ball, and the strong electricity charred some poor Dragon along with its master.

This lightning ball acted as a declaration of war. The Violet Academy roared in anger, and a dozen Mechas fired their cannons at once.

When more than twenty shots headed towards Silver Mask, Kaiser yelled,

“My God, my God! Silver Mask, why didn’t you make Meinan stay too, waahh. Meinan, I was wrong, when you’re not here I finally understand how precious you truly are! I only know how to use the most basic protective shield!”

The shots came towards them from all directions. Though Baolilong dodged as much as it could, and Kaiser opened fire to detonate the shots before it reached them, there were still a few shots landing on Baolilong.

Baolilong’s continuous cries of pain via telepathy made Liola frown.

Usually, if it were just Liola, he wouldn’t care about these shots, because they weren’t able to penetrate through his protective Ki. But Baolilong and Kaiser didn’t have Ki like him, so what should he do now?

Liola blocked the shots with his body whenever he could, but the resulting explosion still injured Baolilong and Kaiser.

Seeing the red and blue blood scattered throughout their bodies, Liola’s fury inside was steadily rising. He decided to charge into the center of Violet Academy’s Knights, so the Mechas wouldn’t be able to fire at will. Unfortunately, though they didn’t dare to fire the more powerful missiles, they then fired some weaker ones.

‘Why are they like this? Do they not fear harming their own?’

As Liola was thinking, a missile missed its target, and headed towards a Knight with a giant eagle.

The Red Knight’s body exploded with a red aura, and when the missile hit the aura, it exploded. The force of the explosion was completely kept outside of the aura, so the Knight and his mount were completely unscathed.

“Liola, before the next battle, I will definitely help you find out about how to emit auras.” Kaiser’s pale face had a few strings of blood oozing from his forehead, and he looked particularly pitiful.

‘Emit aura… emit… emit?’

An idea flashed across Liola’s mind. Liola’s force inside him was called Ki, and the Knights’ force came from aura, so if Ki was equivalent to aura, then wouldn’t emitting aura be the same thing as emitting and expanding his own Ki?

‘All right, let’s try it!’ Liola yelled,

“Kaiser, hold on tight to Baolilong’s back.”

Kaiser immediately lied face down on Baolilong’s back, and held tightly to the spikes on Baolilong’s back. At the same time, he murmured,

“Though Mizerui placed a bit of excitement magic on him, but isn’t this guy a little too excited? I hope my life won’t end like this.”

Liola quickly exerted the Ki in his body, then he tested it by letting his Ki ooze through his palm. When he saw a red aura from his palm, Liola knew he had succeeded, and he felt the joy of success.

But, Liola didn’t realized the surprise and belittlement from the Violet Academy students.

‘Red aura? Isn’t it the same aura from Red Knights?’

The Knight ranks were, from lowest to highest, Green, Red, Blue, Silver, and Gold. Red was the most common rank among the academy students.

Wearing a silver-lined uniform, Silver Mask actually emitted a red aura. This truth put the Violet Academy students in shock, ‘Silver Mask was a Red Knight?’

Kaiser also raised his head to look at the aura in Liola’s palm, but he wasn’t as oblivious as the students around them and mistaken Liola to be a Red Knight.

In fact, being so close to Liola, Kaiser could clearly distinguish the red aura in Liola’s palm from that of an ordinary Red Knight.

The usual Red Knight’s aura was a very bright, fiery-red, but Liola’s aura was a dark red, similar to the color of blood when it’s almost dry.

That blood-like color pressured Kaiser. But Kaiser, who would talk even if he were about to die, said to Liola,

“Hey, your aura’s color is quite strange. Are you sure you’re emitting an aura and not just your own blood?”

Liola thought about it, “It’s probably because my Ki is called Blood Fluttering Ki.”

“Silver Mask! You are a Red Knight, but you’re wearing silver Knight uniform. Cross-rank dressing is absolutely forbidden. Take off your Silver Knight uniform.” Some Knight yelled angrily.

“Someone is rooting for you to put on a strip show. You might as well do it, and it would be beneficial to the females present.” Kaiser laughed with his teeth showing.

Liola raised his brows, and didn’t respond to Kaiser. At the same time, he began to intensely manage his Ki, and planned to let these Knights see the power of his red aura.

Gradually, an aura of Ki surrounded Liola. The dense Ki was true to its name: it looked like blood fluttering around in the air.

The surrounding Knights began to notice something was wrong. The blood-red Ki was far different from the aura of a Red Knight, and they’ve never heard of an aura with such color.

A strange idea floated in the minds of these Knights, could the man before them have his own unique aura like the Paladin and Dark Knight?

Liola toughened his body, and the blood-red Ki exploded.

The immense power enveloped the Violet Academy students. The dozens of auras from the Knights were fractured and pulverized, and even the Mechas’ hulls began to crack.

Under such terrifying power, no one even had the ability to fight back…

Kaiser, who was on the Dragon’s back, also felt the destructive force. He saw something was wrong, and he immediately reached out and grabbed Liola’s ankle, while yelling on the top of his lungs,

“Liola, STOP!”

Hearing Kaiser’s yell, Liola finally shifted his attention from emitting his Ki and noticed the situation of his surroundings.

Most Knights could not stop the power of Blood Fluttering Ki, and fell to the ground, with blood running out of their mouths and noses.

The Mecha Fighters who had to use escape pods to save their lives after their Mechas exploded were in a worse condition. Without the protection of their Mechas, the aura-less Mecha Fighters were almost all severely injured.

‘I must not kill!’ Liola felt his heart skip a beat.

The powerful blood Ki suddenly disappeared, and this sudden release and retraction of Ki also shocked Liola. He spit out a mouthful of blood, and dizziness overcame him. Liola fell on his behind on Baolilong’s back, and couldn’t move for a moment.

“What happened?” Kaiser asked with a bit of surprise.

Liola slowly opened his mouth,

“Looks like I still can’t control this aura well. When my Ki returned to me, it even hurt myself. I’m afraid I won’t be able to move for a while. Sorry, Kaiser, everything is up to you now.”

“Hmm, up to me? Okay, then up to me.” Usually, Kaiser would have thrown a tantrum if he heard anyone depended on him. But now…

“That is, if these guys who are about to pee their pants would even dare to come up again.”

Liola looked left and right, and the situation was horrific.

He saw the ground was covered with bleeding Knights, and debris from Mechas. There were also Mecha Fighters who were sitting in their escape pods and, like what Kaiser said, looked like they were about to pee in their pants. What’s more was, bright red blood soaked the earth around them…

Ignoring his own injuries, Liola forcefully used his other skill, Heart of Consciousness. After scanning through the entire field, Liola finally felt a weight being lifted from his shoulders.

‘Luckily… luckily no one died.’

“Liola, how about we give a name to your new aura?” Kaiser sinisterly laughed and suggested.

“A name?” Liola thought helplessly, he seemed to have already said it’s called Blood Fluttering Ki.

“Yup. Look, your aura’s color is like blood, and after you use it, the ground really is covered in blood. Let’s call it Storm of Blood, how about that? Fitting, isn’t it?”

‘Storm of Blood?’ Liola laughed bitterly. Kaiser’s naming sense seemed to always… hit the mark.

* * *

“What a terrifying Storm of Blood.”

The scene of Liola naming his aura could be seen on a giant television, and Barbalis, who was sitting in front of the television observing the status of the battle, took a long sigh.

But the large office had more than just Barbalis. There also was a gold-haired man with glasses.

Mizerui frowned, which was unlike his normal demeanor. Lastly, there was a man with a warm and gentle smile pouring more tea into their teacups—the Aklan Prime Minister.

“This is nothing. If you guys were in the Dark Arena Pyramid, Liola’s ‘KNEEL!’ was far more entertaining.”

Qiusi smiled, but his eyes seemed even more sunken than Mizerui.

Mizerui frowned, “Ah, though I still hate him for being a Knight, but I’m starting to agree with him.”

“Oh? Why?” Barbalis felt a bit tense, considering he had to waste his own power to release Liola’s seal.

“Liola’s power had always been strong, yes, but he coincidentally bonded with the Sacred White Dragon Prince. He had already learned healing magic, which means he could feel magic elements, and thus he will, sooner or later, learn Dragon magic. Now he learned how to use aura too. Perhaps even I am not a match for his powers anymore.”

It was rare for Mizerui to admit he’s weaker, but he believed that other two people present wouldn’t dare to underestimate Liola.

“Ah, that’s nothing. I’m more worried about the problem with the Dragon Empire succession. Out of the three sons and one daughter the Dragon Emperor has, none of them had become a Sacred White Dragon’s master, but instead they let an outsider become the Sacred White Dragon Prince’s master. You tell me, who should the throne of the Dragon Emperor go to then?”

Qiusi, being a Prime Minister, worried more about politics rather than Liola’s strength.

Barbalis slowly stood up, looked out the window and said,

“Compared to the future, I’m more worried about now. My good friends, I have a feeling the leaders’ meeting may not end on good terms, it may even be the start of turmoil for this world.”

“I hope you didn’t ask us to come here just to say that?” Qiusi slowly sipped tea.

Barbalis didn’t turn around, but his stature seemed to indicate his perseverance in the matter,

“I just want to know, when this turmoil starts, whether you two would choose to support this son of fate, or choose to exterminate him.”