Chapter 70 Crowned Jewel

Time seemed to stand still as the blade connected with its target. The serpent writhed in pain, its mighty form trembling under the force of the blow.

A resounding roar echoed through the mountains, a mix of agony and defeat. The serpent weakened and overcome by the collective might of Lyrian and the others, succumbed to its wounds.

Its massive body collapsed to the floor in a loud thud, as Lyrian's enhanced form began to dwindle as well.

Before allowing himself to fully rest, however, he made sure to complete his true goal, which was the Hydro Serpent's crowned red jewel. Using his sword, he carved a jewel that was the size of an apple out of the beast's head.

"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing with that!?" Silong suddenly shouted from the floor as he saw Lyrian taking out the jewel.

Other's also stood beside him, "Woah woah woah, let's not get too hasty here! That jewel does not belong to you! Hand it over," They began to side with Silong.

"Finder's keepers, losers weepers. You should have got to it sooner." Lyrian said as he placed the jewel inside his coat pocket with a smile on his face.

"What did you say!?" Silong suddenly said, releasing his malicious intent, "If you aren't going to give it over, then I'll just have to take it from you."

'He was the first one here, right? I guess he really wanted it then.' Lyrian thought to himself on hearing Silong.

'Well... that's just too bad. I want it more than him.'

"Nope! I'm not going to give it to you. If you want to try and take it by force, you are welcome to." Lyrian said indifferently, releasing some of his own spiritual energy.

Feeling this, a few who stood beside Silong retreated. One's killing intent made others fear them if they were weak-minded, and seeing the boy standing atop the head of the Hydro Serpent whom he had just killed was enough for them to call it quits.

Silong and three others, however, decided that they weren't going to lose the jewel by any means.

As Lyrian jumped down from the body of the serpent and walked toward Silong and the other few, he noticed just how angry Silong was in contrast to everyone else.

He was as red as a tomato, his fists clearly clenched in anger.

'Why did he want this jewel so bad?' Lyrian thought to himself, finding this level of anger to be too much.

As Lyrian reached within 10 feet of him, Silong said, "Get him!", making two out of the three beside him suddenly dash forward, prepared to take the jewel.

'Two first huh? My mana's pretty low, but I don't think I should have too hard of a time if I just use a little bit of Enhance and freeze their feet firs--' As Lyrian thought of a way to defeat the two quickly, multiple arrows suddenly came into his field of view from the side, landing on the neck of one of the two boys.

Instantly, that boy was eliminated from the exam. Looking over, Lyrian saw that Alten was the one who released those arrows.

Alten only smiled back at Lyrian, leaving him confused.

The other one was also quickly eliminated, this time by a white streak of light that quickly almost slashed him to bits.

Leon emerged from the end of the streak, sheathing his sword.

"He's got teammates too. We shouldn't have underestimated him," The final kid beside Silong said, "But I'm not as weak as those two losers who just got eliminated," He unsheathed his dagger, dashing toward's Lyrian with a speed at nearly twice the speed of the other two.

This time, Lyrian also dashed forward, so fast that the kid couldn't even see him coming. Before he realized it, he was suddenly stuck in place.

"Huh!?" He said, looking down to see that his feet were frozen to the ground.

Suddenly, a blurry mirage appeared in front of him, quickly forming into Lyrian's figure as his neck was nearly chopped clean off by his obsidian sword, only to be eliminated slightly beforehand.

'Damn it! How does that fucker even have ice abilities!?' Silong thought to himself on seeing Lyrian, even more so engaged than before.

"You're dead!" He yelled, storming at Lyrian with his fists ready, glowing a golden color.

Seeing this, Lyrian became slightly intrigued, 'His palms are glowing similar to when I use Enhance... is it a different version?' He thought to himself.

"Looking at my skill huh? It's called the Golden Hair Technique! My family's skill handed down to me through many generati--" He was suddenly cut off before he could continue.

"Oh... so it's just some random skill," Lyrian said, quickly dashing over to Silong. He noted that it was the boy's hair being coated with this golden mana and not his skin, but nonetheless, it wasn't enough to interest him. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NovᴇlFɪre .ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Silong was caught off guard by Lyrian suddenly appearing in front of him, but he knew that he wasn't just some weakling in this competition, so he prepared for any incoming attack.

Lyrian noticed this, and quickly dashed behind the boy, only to realize that Silong's eyes followed him.

'Oh? He can still see me even though I am moving this fast? He is stronger than I thought.' Lyrian thought to himself, as Silong suddenly unleashed a punch toward his stomach.

The punch was unexpectedly fast, catching him slightly off guard as he barely dodged it, causing a gust of wind to blow behind him.

"Not bad." He said, throwing his own Enhanced punch.

To his surprise, Silong did not move. Instead, his long hair which was previously in a messy man-bun flowed down in front of his face, glowing a golden color as it stopped Lyrian's punch in its tracks, causing his eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

"Not bad at all." A smile formed on his face, "It looks like this fight will actually be fun."