357 Winner

“Why is he taking all these attacks?” The students in the crowd were confused.

Although the earlier wounds were shallow, Kevin had taken a lot of attacks, and his blood was dropping on the stage.

But despite that, Kevin was not stopping his attack and falling back.

Those who didn’t have the eyes to see it couldn’t comprehend Kevin’s decision, but others were excited to see such a level of mastery from these two youngsters.

Not a lot of First Year, even most Second Year, could deduce the danger Kevin was in currently, so Kevin being able to do so showed his talent.

But the bigger shock was the one who created this situation.

Although it seemed like the Spear and Sword were clashing with each other and Kevin was attacking, Kevin was just reacting to Asher’s sword.

To create a scenario where Kevin had no way to initiate his attack and trap him like this.

“Has he reached Advance Mastery already?” Xarax muttered, and everyone else was thinking the same.

Even Farnus was slightly surprised while watching Asher’s fight as he evaluated him and Kevin.

Even the Third Year and Fourth Year Rankers were surprised by the level of this duel, but instead of being impressed, they were comparing themselves with Asher.

But nobody came close to him.

Right now, it was true that they were more powerful than Asher, but in a few years, it was obvious how the situation would be.

‘If I step back, I can’t defend the next attack,’ Kevin thought as he initiated the next attack.

All this time, he minimized his wounds by staying in the current range.

Even though the spear gave him range, it was still not enough for him to stay away from Asher’s counterattacks.

It was not a simple difference in physical power but how Asher hit the spear.

Node Art was not just about killing living beings and sensing their weakness. Asher could even see the nodes on the Rank B Spear Artifact that Kevin possessed.

The only reason it was not breaking was because of the difference in rank between the two weapons.

Asher’s sword was Rank D. It wasn’t enough to destroy a Rank B artifact, but each attack was deflected with Asher moving his sword to hit the nodes.

Even if Kevin changed the direction of his attacks or shifted his weight to change how he attacked, it was all useless.

CLANG!

Kevin lunged the spears as he pushed them toward Asher.

‘I will push you back if I can’t go back,’ Kevin said to himself.

Small sparks around Kevin turned bigger as his eyes started glowing, and his body was getting lighter.

The more the lightning merged with his body, the faster he got, but there was a limit till which he could do so.

His mana core was at the peak of D Rank, and so was his aura, but still, he couldn’t push back Asher no matter what.

“He is stabilizing his body, not bad,” Dexter commented as he the way Asher was standing.

All the impact was wasted as Asher would always adjust himself so the impact would go towards the ground.

There were a lot of ways to do so, but depending on your sword art, it was different for each person.

“I haven’t seen anyone this young pull it off,” Dexter said out loud, and nobody denied his views.

Nobody said it out loud, but the result of this match was pretty obvious.

“Kevin…” Eva muttered as she looked a bit worried.

She knew Kevin wouldn’t have liked her plan, but she still went ahead and suggested it. Seeing Asher’s reaction, Eva realized he had understood their plan.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have interfered,” Eva said, regretting her decision.

But Eva still believed that the Successor Candidate Tournament was more important than this match for Kevin.

Right now, Whiteheart Family’s standing was a bit shaken, but Kamden Whiteheart had managed to make it stable, but Whiteheart wasn’t that powerful.

And that’s why Eva suggested this plan to Kevin and also why Kevin agreed to it.

Kevin, who was in the middle of the duel, looked at the edge of his hand, where a strange bracelet was present.

This bracelet looked normal During the whole duel, but right now, it started glowing as an orange pattern appeared on it.

‘Time to use it,’ Kevin thought as he finally stepped back.

As soon as he did, Asher shifted his body as his sword traveled incredibly high, aiming at Kevin.

He was in the middle of the motion to step backward, even if he could block it; it would been bad for him as his feet were barely touching the ground.

“Hmmm,” Asher said as he felt his sword was blocked.

As he saw, a fire shield emerged around the right side of Kevin, blocking Asher’s attack.

“An artifact, huh,” Asher muttered as his aura became stronger.

“Works fine,” Kevin glanced at his hand as he looked at the still-glowing bracelet.

‘Can’t believe I am using it,’ Kevin said to himself.

This Rank B defensive artifact was given to him, Leonard and the deal was to make his match with Asher look as close as possible.

Something similar to what Eva wanted, but Leonard didn’t care how many injuries Kevin needed to take for it to happen.

And now Kevin was using it. He had only one choice, which was to go with his promise.

Instead of waiting for Kevin to attack this time, Asher dashed towards him as he struck with his sword.

With the power of a C Rank Hunter, a shield of fire appeared again, blocking his attack.

Bam!

Bam!

At that moment, Asher attacked two more from two different directions, and Kevin was fine.

But before he could see the third one, Kevin turned and spun his spear around, summoning lightning all around them.

“Wall of Shadow,” Asher muttered as he used shadow manipulation to discard the lightning falling on him.

While doing so, Asher saw Kevin, who had regained his confidence and began attacking him.

As if he didn’t care about his defense, he increased the strength of his lightning aura by pushing himself to increase his speed.

But something unexpected happened as Kevin saw Asher disappear in front of him, and once again, he was behind him.

“One,” Asher said as he attacked, and the fire shield appeared.

But this time, Kevin was pushed to the other side of the stage, but Asher used Mir Steps to appear in front. 𝑂𝑣𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t

“Two,” Asher did the same horizontal slash with the power of a C Rank Hunter.

It made Kevin go to the other edge.

But before Kevin could make sense, the same thing repeated itself.

“Three,”

“Four,”

“Five,”

“Six,”

“Seven,”

Asher kept counting as he did the same, and the crowd cheering for Kevin stopped.

Kevin’s mouth was full of blood, and even though the shield was blocking Asher’s sword, the impact of force still made its way toward Kevin’s body.

Even if the defensive artifact could block the aura or mana behind the attack, the impact was hard to avoid, especially when Asher repeated the same thing multiple times.

“Eight,”

“Nine,”

“Ten,”

“Eleven,”

On the eleventh strike, Asher stopped Kevin in the center of the stage as he saw the orange bracelet shatter as its energy was completely used.

It was a defensive artifact with limited use, but Asher broke it completely in just 15 attacks,

It was a Rank B artifact that should take a Rank C Hunter at least 20-25 powerful strikes before it broke, but Asher did it in 15.

Kevin roared out as the energy of lightning element seeped out of his body. He did this to ensure that Asher didn’t get too close to him while still recovering from the damage he had received until now.

Lightning around Kevin intensified as it struck everything around him, making marks and holes in the ground.

Instead, he had a black sword coming towards him, as he felt a big cut that went through his armor.

“Do you think your little spark can stop me?” Asher asked as he kept attacking Kevin, who was instinctively dodging most of Asher’s attacks.

He was in pain, but the Lightning aura numbed it and allowed him to move and react for others. It was shocking to see that Kevin could still fight in this state.

“You need to stop,” Eva said as the match was going on for too long.

Kevin would need a lot more time to recover if it went like this, but Asher wasn’t allowing him to leave the stage.

Clang!

When Kevin used his spear to block, his hand didn’t have enough strength to grip it, and he saw the Spear flung into the air.

And in that moment, Kevin saw the moment Asher’s hand was going back.

He could predict that the next attack would not be a slash, but that black sword would make a big wound, big enough to make him unable to compete.

“I surrender,” Kevin muttered as he saw Asher’s sword coming his way.

Ting!

Elsa appeared instantly as she stopped Asher’s sword with her finger and pushed back Kevin a bit, who was barely standing up with slumped shoulders and blood dropping on the ground.

But despite that, his eyes hinted at rage and hate as he looked at Asher.

“The Winner is Asher Greville, the Strongest First Year!!” Gazil announced.

Half the crowd cheered, while half were silent from the match they witnessed.