“…Unyealidng Pride sect… never… gives up… How do you like it… with no mana…?”

Lionel muttered reaching his hand out and grabbing Metavicero’s ankle, clearly intending the fight to continue.𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗰𝒐𝐌

“METAVICERO! NO!”

Devios roared in horror and rushed to the arena before anyone could stop him as the young woman swayed and was about to fall on her back.

“…serves your… huh…?”

*THUMP*

Lionell grinned in a triumphant smile but that expression soo changed into shock when Metavicero merely stepped back instead of falling and sharply raised her leg with enough strength fling her opponent back up.

“Wha…?”

*WHAM* x 42

Before Devios was halfway, Metavicero started punching the opponent, landing hit after hit so fast that Lionel’s body didn’t have the chance to fall back to the ground.

“METAVICERO! METAVI! STOP!”

Before Devios – who was the first one to react, mind you – managed to reach, grab, and pull Metavicero back, the white-as-snow girl was sprinkled with the crimson-red blood of her victim.

*thump*

The fleshy sack of broken bones and blood that used to be Lionel fell heavily onto the arena, splashing even more blood around while Metavicero was doing her best to break free from Devios’s hold to continue the onslaught, even though her white skin had completely peeled off of her knuckles at that point.

“What are you all waiting for? Go and start healing the kid while he still breathes!”

The one-armed principal, Bevan, stood up in silence and roared at the motionless marital artist around him.

“You!”

“…!”

He also pointed his index finger at the teacher in charge of the duels, causing the man to flinch and look at him in shock.

“Are fired. Get the ** out of my Academy, you incompetent imbecile. Law of Sagittarius. Now”

Bevan declared without holding back his fury and activated the star power that created a flaming bow right in front of him, with the arrow already aimed at the marital artist who not only didn’t stop the duel when it rightfully ended but straight up stood there and watched a student get beaten up to a pulp.

“L-law of Capricorn!”

At the sight of the flaming bow, the failure of a teacher cried out in panic and escaped with all of his might, getting away from the arena and the Heavenly Star Academy complex as fast as he could.

“…needless to say, miss Metavicero wins…”

Bevan announced, lowering his hand while the flaming bow disappeared into the thin air.

“Dear guests from the land of mana. Please accept my apologies for the failure of upholding the rules we’ve set ourselves.”

“…”

The principal breathed out and lowered his head to Devios and Metavicero who still tried to break free in her frenzy, but that only caused the blue-haired man to glare right at him in fury.

“I will make sure to inform my nephew about it as soon as we meet.”

“…?”

Devios declared, and Bevan didn’t quite understand the threat, but the moment he saw the murky-black eye of the enraged magician, his wounded right side flared up with pain.

—–

“This was an eventful day and hopefully all of us will be able to learn from the experience…”

Soon after Lionel was taken out of the arena and began receiving treatment from the very same marital artist he mocked as perverts, Bevan once again spoke to the unsettled audience.

“Principal, I don’t think that ending the event here is necessary, there are still two duels supposed to take place. Leaving it here would be unfair to the previous contestants.”

Although the one-armed man was fully intending to stop then and there, another marital artist stood up and called out to him.

The person talking was a serious-looking reddish-brown-haired man in his late thirties.

“…Vice principal Marcus… you can’t be serious right now.”

Bevan furrowed his brows and stepped back to talk with the other man on the side.

“This event has been nothing but an embarrassment to the Heavenly Star nation as a whole, and it was all planned by you, learn to cut your losses.”

The one-armed man spat through his teeth glaring the other man down.

“There are still two chances for us to redeem ourselves, no? Also, the embarrassment you speak of will fall on the sects of the marital artists who failed in the simple task of defeating the mana users. A member of the Heavenly Archer sect and the representative of the Star Pagoda are yet to set a foot on the arena.”

Marcus shook his head and declared stubbornly without budging under the pressure from the former Heavenly Guardian.

“Is that the will of the Heavenly Emperor?”

Bevan asked, raising his brow and trying to call out Marcus’s bluff.

“It is the will of the new leader of the Heavenly Archer sect and the guardian of the Star Pagoda.”

The vice-principal responded, still holding his own ground.

“Tsk. Trying to restore some face after losing the precious sect leader to the ambush from the dark sect member? Pathetic.”

“It is not my place to respond to that, but it is well within my power to keep the event going.”

Bevan clicked his tongue and shook his head at the other man, who merely shrugged his shoulders and declared with an indifferent expression as if nothing that was said did affect him.

“I’m going to see the law of Virgo users. Do what you want.”

The one-armed man scoffed, gripping his wounded right side and leaving the podium without informing the confused audience about what have occurred.

“The principal Bevan has to leave due to health issues, but the remaining two duels will take place after a short break while a new teacher is selected to watch over it.”

The vice-principal stepped up to the podium and announce, confusing a great deal of the students’ body.

“…if this is not just an open declaration of hostility towards our nation, then those idiots are the worst diplomats in the world…”

Listening to it from the area for the participants, Devios scoffed in disbelief at the announcement.

The blue-haired man was sitting on the bench, and Metaviero was sitting in his lap while hugging him so tight that it must have been hard for him to breathe, and hiding her face between his neck and shoulder.