Volume 15 - CH 5

Large amounts of fog appeared on the field.

Senior looked at the vast expanse of whiteness. The waves surging toward both sides were all icy cold, and because the water below was still boiling nonstop, they were starting to melt.

“Tsk.” Frowning, after staring at the mist for a while, Senior suddenly turned his silver spear and a few sounds were struck down by the silver spear. They were several sharp pieces of ice that had yet to melt.

In just the half second it took to blink, the entire white fog instantly vanished as if cut by a knife. What appeared after was senior Gasai who seemed to have been unaffected.

…No, if you look closer, he did seem to get hurt. There were a few specks of blood on him.

“Sure enough, it’s not quite possible to dodge them all.” Shrugging, senior Gasai patted off the ice fragments still embedded in his body, then took out a strange colored talisman that I’ve never seen before: [Technique of Wind, Surround and Serve—Spell of Healing.]

Watching senior Gasai gradually recover, I suddenly remembered that Senior had once said he can’t do any healing techniques. If that’s the case, wouldn’t he lose very easily if he gets hurt?

That said, why can’t Senior learn any healing spells?

He’s clearly strong as hell in every aspect. Could it be that he felt it was too troublesome so he didn’t want to learn it!?

You can’t be like this, Senior. Even if you’re extremely strong, what if something does happen by chance.

The healing technique was complete in just a few short seconds. As soon as it finished, senior Gasai immediately brandished his iron whip. Like it had a life of its own, the long whip swung at Senior’s face but didn’t touch him. The silver spear that swiftly blocked in front cut off the attack. The iron whip circled above two or three times, before Senior simply turned his spear so that the iron whip suddenly couldn’t be withdrawn.

“Fiery Cloud Felling Spear, water explosion.” The tip of the spear dragging the iron whip touched the boiling water below, and in an instant, the entire site’s boiling water began to have water columns of different sizes bursting up everywhere with a boom, as if it touched an underwater mine.

Instantly making his iron whip vanish in the air, senior Gasai turned and avoided those hot water columns rushing toward him. He directly flipped toward the other side in a beautiful pose like some athletic player, simultaneously summoning his Illusionary Weapon again and sending a lash toward the person below.

His expression not changing at all, Senior suddenly stretched out his left hand and grabbed the iron whip. Ignoring his bleeding hand, he pulled the iron whip then shot his spear upward with his other hand.

High in the air and too late to dodge it, senior Gasai, who could only lean manage to lean sideways, had a line of blood drawn across his entire stomach. It gradually darkened the color of his red sportswear and looked quite conspicuous.

Are you guys really having a life-and-death fight?

Seeing Senior and senior Gasai fight like this, I suddenly felt that it was scary.

Probably having the same thoughts as me, the people on the sidelines all held their breath as they watched the lightning-speed battle inside.

From before till now, it hasn’t even been a few minutes, and the two already became like this. If they fight for a long time, I feel like it’d be quite intense.

I suddenly thought that the jungle battle was really too easy and we passed with hardly any particular danger.

Both sides had withdrawn their weapons and jumped back a step. Taking advantage of the miss, senior Gasai immediately healed his wound, but the incantation had only run halfway when Senior already rushed in front of him. One palm seizing his shoulder, he kneed him in his abdomen.

Showing a look of pain, senior Gasai didn’t even gasp, his hand instantly grabbing Senior’s arm from behind and pulling down. While he (Senior) lost his balance, he (Gasai) used his other hand to press down on his back toward the boiling water below.

After only pressing halfway, Gasai froze, immediately letting go and jumping back.

Out of nowhere, the tip of the spear dangerously cut the side of his face from bottom to top, leaving a trail of blood that couldn’t be considered shallow. The red liquid continuously flowed out and trickled down to his collar. Since the sportswear was red, a few drops of blood didn’t appear very obvious, but as the stain deepened, it seemed like a flower was being dyed on the red fabric.

Just when both sides still wanted to attack, a large amount of bubbles suddenly appeared in the boiling water below, surging nonstop as if the water was being boiled by someone. There were bursting bubbles and hot smoke everywhere, and the temperature above instantly rose as well.

“Junior, hurry or it’d be hard to get the pearl later!” Standing at the side, Aslaine abruptly shouted at Senior.

Watching the bubbles below increase, Senior, who was probably also aware that the situation wasn’t good, suddenly turned and gave up on fighting again.

However, senior Gasai clearly seemed to be bent on battling it out with him and immediately chased after him. Releasing his tightly clutched left hand, another talisman appeared above and, a second later, became ash. The strong wind curling up from below brought large amounts of boiling water, directly covering Senior’s head as if both sides began flapping wings.

“Tsk.” Ignoring the hot water on both sides, Senior suddenly kicked off in the air and charged forward. Before senior Gasai could finish his move, he abruptly reached out and clasped his neck: “Sorry, but you should go down first.” Saying that, he pushed senior Gasai into the water hard.

I suddenly heard several females screaming.

A second later, senior Gasai disappeared completely under the steam-covered water.

I felt like I was actually watching a life-and-death battle now, a familiar person being killed off by another familiar person.

This type of Senior suddenly made me feel afraid.

On the opposite side, Chifuyu seemed completely frozen, wide eyed and not responding at all.

Just as many people were crying out and screaming with the girls, Aslaine rushed to Senior’s side at lightning-speed to pat his back, then made a healing technique motion. I then noticed that Senior didn’t completely dodge the attack just now. A large portion of his clothes in front was already wet. It was easy to imagine what happened to the inside of his back after directly touching the hot water.

Seems very painful.

“It’s fine, first get the pearl.” His gaze remaining on the only player from the opposing team the entire time, Senior waved his hand, and the silver totem lines all over his right arm were instantly exposed from his sportswear. The hot water encircling him suddenly began to sink, before condensing nonstop into ice walls and creating a path downward.

“Alright, you go get it first. I can’t be at ease without finishing the things from before.” Pulling out his saber, Aslaine revealed a smile and looked at that female senior. The other person also took out her weapon with a look of complete agreement.

Nodding, Senior jumped down the dug-out ice tunnel.

It was a weird scenery, a path dug out of ice in boiling water. The whole thing went against common sense’s existence, and the ice didn’t seem to show any signs of melting at all, strange to the extreme.

The ice tunnel was dug all the way to the center, which was where the abysmal pearl fell.

Maybe because it was cooked in the hot water for too long, the entire abyssal pearl kept emitting smoke, as if you’d get scalded as soon as you touch it.

Walking to the pearl, Senior frowned and looked at it, before bending over to pick it up.

At the same time he bent over, from the screen on our side, we could see a black shadow directly breaking through the frozen ice wall. In an instant, boiling water abruptly poured in from that hole, and a large amount of dangerous steam was released upon contact with the ice.

A pair of hands suddenly reached out from within the white steam, gripping the completely unprepared Senior from behind and pulling him in the direction of the boiling water’s hole.

For some reason, rather than calling it startled, in that instant Senior’s expression seemed…stunned?

In the screen, Senior hadn’t touched the pearl yet when he was pulled back by that pair of hands. However, his expression was only stunned, not startled, for an instant.

Could it be that Senior realized something like this would happen?

Behind the mass of steam appeared senior Gasai’s figure. As a result of being soaked in water, his whole hair was pasted to his face so his expression couldn’t be seen, but unexpectedly, he didn’t suffer any severe injuries or get cooked. His skin was just a bit red, and his red clothes were drenched, the blood stains on it having spread out and blended with the color of the clothes so that you couldn’t tell how they looked before. Nothing else.

A faint, strange silver light radiated from his body.

I guess he probably used some kind of incantation to protect himself.

Wait, that means Senior should have already guessed that senior Gasai would protect himself like this, right?

Grabbing Senior from behind to not give him the chance to escape, senior Gasai dragged him into the boiling water.

Strangely enough, I noticed Senior didn’t seem to have done anything special. In a blink of an eye, he was pulled in front of that hole in the ice wall. The large amounts of hot water rushing out of the hole instantly swept the two of them in.

“Junior!” Seeing how bad the situation below was, Aslaine suddenly sent that female senior flying with a fierce move. Without any hesitation whatsoever, he ran down the ice tunnel that was already beginning to dip into the water.

Because it was rushing into the ice tunnel, it didn’t take long for that boiling water to cool. But because new water was also being heated, it started to melt the ice wall from the inside. With them continuously circulating, that ice wall began to thin gradually.

Before Aslaine could run up to him, a noise sounded from the boiling water, and several explosion sounds burst inside. A second later, someone was flung out, crashing right into the other side’s ice wall.

Looking closer, it was Senior Gasai who was thrown out.

With a loud boom, he hit the ice wall firmly then slid down. It looks like he crashed pretty hard and wouldn’t be able to get up for a while.

Then a hand stretched through that boiling water’s hole and patted the ice wall nearby. Senior, who was pulled in, walked out of there but his condition looked awful. It was obvious that he attacked without putting up a defense immediately. There were speckled scald marks on the several exposed areas of his body.

Arriving just in time, Aslaine grabbed his hand and pulled him to the side: [Storms Arrive.] He waved his saber and air currents quickly coiled above him. The water on the ground began to surge as well: [Healing Wind.]

Saying that, a seemingly-gentle wind encircled the entire interior of the ice passage. I saw the scald marks on Senior subsiding nonstop. After a short time, they all receded.

“It’s fine now.” Instantly drying his whole body and hair, Senior glanced at senior Gasai, who had collapsed at the side, then turned to look at the location of the abysmal pearl before.

Due to the water’s assault, the abyssal pearl had rolled another span of distance away.

“Hurry, this ice tunnel won’t last long.” Raising his arm and looking at the increasingly clear totem marks on it, Senior told Aslaine.

Nodding, after withdrawing his saber, Aslaine jogged over to get the pearl on the ground.

A step or two before he got approached it, he suddenly jumped back. A black object similar to a wind knife sliced through the spot Aslaine was just standing at and cut a deep dent in the ice wall carrying water.

That female senior, who was sent flying, had come back at some point and was standing above: “This is a victory for our red team.” Saying that, she flipped over and came down, coincidentally standing right in front of the abyssal pearl.

“Not necessarily.” Aslaine curved into a smile, then raised his chin at her, gesturing her to look outside the ice wall.

Doubtfully glancing over a little, the female senior’s face changed abruptly.

At the same time, the screen also brought us to see outside the ice wall.

It was a very weird scene. The ice wall that was supposed to only have water currents and nothing was covered in numerous black shadows. All of them were blotted on the ice wall.

“The side effects of hell’s water seem to have begun.” Staring at the countless human shadows outside, Aslaine frowned.

The figures outside the wall seemed to be moving and also seemed to give off the illusion of there being too much, causing one to feel very disgusted.

“Julie, get the pearl and escape quickly!” Senior Gasai, who had supported himself up using the ice wall at some point, shouted at that female senior.

Nodding at once, the female senior, who was about to turn and get the abyssal pearl, froze.

The place where the pearl was placed was surrounded by the black shadows of hands. There were seemingly countless things clinging to the ice from bottom to top.

Slowly, those black shadows crept inward.

To tell the truth, I’ve always thought that the so-called “hell’s water” was just a boiling pot that cooks whoever falls in.

But the strange scene before me now made me start to look at this place in a new light.

The black shadows kept appearing. Besides those above the ice wall, there were even some in the water. Gradually, countless black reflections appeared on the water. As if they were floating and sinking at the same time, the numbers started increasing.

This kind of scene made one really uncomfortable after watching.

However, this did remind me of a similar place. During the previous sports competition, in that martial arts arena with the five-colored rooster head and Ryan, I heard that the bottom was directly connected to hell, and I also personally witnessed what crawled out of the bottom.

At that time, because they seemed to have lost control or something, an unexpected thing ran out.

This field gave me the same feeling.

Wait, it can’t be that something will happen this time too, right?

“Looks like there’s more of this thing than we imagined.” Glancing around to confirm the situation, Senior summoned his Illusionary Weapon.

After performing some simple treatment, senior Gasai jumped over to his teammate, then took the pearl on the ground with no hesitation at all.

Basically, upon seeing this, we should say that the winner has been announced already.

But when the pearl was brought up to a certain height, senior Gasai suddenly stopped moving. Upon closer inspection, when he took the pearl in the opposite direction, those black things underneath were already stuck to the pearl’s butt, preventing it from being pulled up.

At the same time the pearl was taken, the surrounding ice wall shook vigorously too. Apart from boiling violently, the boiling water and black shadows outside also issued a strange sound.

“That’s odd, did the sports competition link the channel to the nest?” Hearing that strange noise, beside me Olivia seemed to be doubtfully asking herself.

Perhaps having the same thought as her, not just our team, even the red team began whispering to each other. It seems that something wrong was with that sound from the water.

Strange, I thought it was the sound of those black shadows.

Standing next to me, Miao Miao frowned, attentively watching the boiling pot, and abruptly ran out: “Miao Miao is going to the medical team and will come back later!”

Saying that, she vanished like a wisp of smoke.

Almost at the same time, the announcer, who was dazed like us just now, finally made a sound. As soon as she spoke, it gave off a very ominous feeling: [The water contest, hell’s water has started to connect to the water passage. Please move back to avoid the range that will be affected.]

Just when Lucia said this, a few people with particularly cheap feet walked forward without showing any fear, craning their heads and watching nearly at the edge of the competition’s water.

Tragedies often happen under these circumstances.

After they stopped there, octopus-leg-like things suddenly sprang out from those black shadows on the water and directly curled around the feet of the nearby people. As soon as the presumably-hot tentacles touched them, those people, who were originally not afraid, howled before the areas they were grabbed began to weirdly smoke.

As soon as I saw this situation, I hurriedly retreated several steps.

You’re joking, that kind of thing will attack indiscriminately! I’ll only have time to escape if I’m farther away.

“It’s fine, I opened a defensive wall.” Standing beside me, Olivia told me, making me suddenly feel that class rep is really great: “But it only protects the two of us. Others…” Shrugging once, she turned her head to watch the water surface.

Others will have to fend for themselves?

I suddenly felt touched that the class has a class rep who takes care of her own people. Thank goodness I’m in the same class as her, otherwise I’d probably have to be added to those who will have to fend for themselves.

The few who were caught struggled nonstop, then several members of the medical team immediately appeared. They first used a weirdly-shaped knife to swiftly cut off the black shadows’ tentacles, then dragged the injured students to a safe place.

The ice walls under the water didn’t fare much better. The black shadows that were originally blotted outside had passed through and started to reveal those strange black tentacles, curling around the four people inside.

Temporarily letting go of the stuck pearl, senior Gasai took out his iron whip and knocked off the left and black shadows. As soon as that thing fell on the floor, it stuck to the ice wall with a “pa” like something sticky, before starting to slowly seep down.

Although there seemed to be a way to deal with them, the number didn’t decrease but continued to grow instead.

“Aslaine, you go up first, I’ll handle this channel’s connection.” Clutching his Illusionary Weapon with a turn of his hand, Senior looked at the tentacle-covered ice tunnel and said.

“Can you?” Glancing at Senior, Aslaine asked.

“No problem.” Senior turned the silver spear, and cold mist began gathering on the tip of the spear. Even I, who was watching from afar, could feel that the temperature inside must be dropping nonstop: “After you go up, head straight out of the field, or you’ll be affected.”

For some reason, Senior saying this gave me a bad feeling.

At the same time, senior Gasai was also turning to look at that female senior: “Julie, you should go up and get out of the field too. There seems to be something wrong with the channel of hell’s water.”

The female senior nodded and jumped out of the ice path without asking more, turning and leaving the scene.

At this time, many of those black legs have actually started to appear on the ice path, covering the top layer by layer with the imposing manner of filling the entire ice path.

Waving his saber to scatter the tentacles above, Aslaine also left.

Once he jumped out of the field, he ran toward us: “All of the white team, retreat and have the audience move back as well, or else there’ll be danger! Hurry!”

Danger?

I froze for a moment and saw on the screen that those weird black tentacles had already begun crawling beyond the water. It didn’t take long for the first black shadow to be imprinted on the track. Like an infectious disease, a second one soon appeared.

Under Aslaine’s command, the white team and the audience behind quickly moved back a large distance, and the red team’s senior Julie clearly did the same. All of a sudden, the area around the track was completely cleared, leaving only those weird black shadows.

“Is the channel of hell’s water connected to the nest?” Watching the black shadows that were beginning to spread out, Olivia asked Aslaine at the side.

“I guess it’s probably because the channel was treated like a nest after it was connected due to the water flow.” Aslaine answered her like this.

Although they seemed to be explaining why it became this way, I couldn’t understand what they were talking about at all, “Uh, excuse me.” I opened my mouth, and the two who were talking immediately turned to look at me: “Um…What’s the nest?” Why does it sound like something not too friendly?

The one who answered me was Aslaine: “It’s an insect shadow that lodges in the water of hell. We also call it a spirit. It has no solid form and is probably like what you see now. Typical spirits nest and live together, then catch nearby things to decompose and absorb for a long time. Sometimes, the connection channel draw out this thing even if it opens for one day. If you’re unlucky, it’ll draw out a large nest like right now.” He shrugged, as if already used to this sort of event: “The solution is to seal off the channel and it will stop.”

“Seal off?”

“Simply put, just use a quick and effective way to clog up the hole. ” Olivia glanced at me and said.

Quick and effective?

I suddenly felt that this set of words applies to Senior’s thinking mode at work. It represents a terrifying degree of danger.

In between our brief conversation, that ice path was already completely covered by the black tentacles.

Because the black tentacles was still persistently grasping at the sky, Lucia had retreated to a safer altitude and stopped broadcasting for the time being, leaving us only the screen above to see the situation.

The entire surface of the water was thickly dotted with black figures and the track outside was also somewhat covered. It looked like countless human shadows were restlessly shifting continuously.

The surroundings fell into absolute silence.

Then breaking this peculiar silence after a few seconds was a strong explosion.

As if several landmines were tied together and exploded, the whole water contest site was fiercely blasted from bottom to top. Water splashed up, then fell like human rain.

Since it was basically boiling water, some scattered outside the field and even hit people, continuously causing the innocent scalded people to wail and leap about.

The force of the water was strong and looked like a rainstorm once it came down.

Thankfully Olivia set a barrier before. I saw the boiling water scattering away one meter above our heads. Not a drop could enter.

Affected by the strong explosion, the surrounding track had turned over too. Like the scene of a large earthquake, the track instantly opened and broke into a dozen pieces, and all the soil and gravel underneath flew everywhere.

I soon realized that after being blasted, those black shadows on the water and track disappeared almost instantly, as if they were wiped out at the same time.

The explosions lasted for dozens of seconds like this, then the rumbling sounds gradually subsided.

After the boom passed, the surroundings were full of smoke and dust, and my foggy vision was unclear. What could be seen slightly was that the strong wind had impacted quite a lot of people. Some had been blown till they were flipped over, climbing up with ashy faces.

Wait a minute, the center of the explosions just now was where Senior and the others were staying, right?