Captain Battle

The force sent Hiiragi Seihaku sliding several meters backward. The hem of his hunting robes snapped violently in the gale, and when he raised his head, all trace of composure had vanished from his face.

“You’ve successfully pissed me off.”

Hiiragi Seihaku stared at the big oaf before him. He folded away his fan, bit down on his right thumb, and quickly drew a complex, bizarre blood-red sigil across the pure-white surface with his own blood.

“By my blood, Hiiragi Seihaku, as the medium... by the name of a hundred demons, as the sacrifice...”

“Open!”

He drove the bloodstained fan forcefully into the ground before him.

The light across the entire arena seemed to be sucked away in an instant. The ground beneath his feet transformed into an inky-black swamp with no visible bottom, and a massive torii gate slowly rose from its depths.

“What is that?” Shan Heng adjusted his glasses, shock filling his eyes behind the lenses.

Chen Guan said nothing. He leaned forward slightly, watching with keen interest.

He knew it. Hiiragi Seihaku’s trump card, the one he had held back until now, was finally coming out.

Creak.

Amid a harsh grinding noise, the enormous torii gate slowly opened a narrow gap.

A huge hand covered in black scales and tipped with razor-sharp claws reached through the opening and gripped the gatepost.

A gigantic demon god more than ten meters tall squeezed out from behind the gate. It had a blue-green face, protruding fangs, a pair of wings on its back, and a spiked club in its hands.

Black lightning coiled around its body. Every step it took left a molten footprint on the alloy floor.

An onmyoji shikigami: the Wind-Thunder Demon King.

Standing beneath the demon king’s enormous body, Hiiragi Seihaku raised a hand and pointed at Marcus from afar.

“Come, beast. Let me see whether your strength can satisfy this lord.”

Marcus said nothing. He transformed into a streak of golden light and charged straight at the demon king radiating an aura of destruction.

Fist and spiked club collided head-on.

The resulting boom became a shockwave powerful enough to nearly tear the roof off the arena. The floor at the center of the battlefield was completely blasted apart by the terrifying clash. Countless shattered alloy plates shot into the air, only to be shredded into powder by the surging currents of force.

The Wind-Thunder Demon King’s massive body was actually knocked staggering one step backward by that punch.

Marcus, meanwhile, was sent flying by the tremendous recoil. He gouged a deep trench into the floor before finally coming to a stop. The skin on his right arm, which had collided with the spiked club, split apart inch by inch, and golden blood seeped continuously from the wounds.

“Again!”

Marcus charged forward once more, looking utterly berserk. Abandoning all defense, he pushed the power of the Nine Dragons to its absolute limit, transforming into a pure golden storm that hammered every part of the Wind-Thunder Demon King’s body with relentless fury.

For a time, the entire arena contained nothing but golden and black afterimages colliding wildly. Every impact erupted with energy capable of destroying heaven and earth.

The students in the stands had long since stopped breathing. This battle had completely exceeded their understanding of what a student fight could be.

“He’s risking everything. He wants to shatter that shikigami before the drug wears off,” An Changqing said gravely.

Chen Guan’s gaze fell on Hiiragi Seihaku.

The onmyoji did not look well either. Cold sweat covered his forehead, and his lips had turned pale. Maintaining such a powerful shikigami consumed an enormous amount of his own strength.

The battle had become a war of attrition between their wills.

At last, after the most violent clash yet, Marcus found an opening.

He took a sweeping kick from the Wind-Thunder Demon King head-on. The bones on half his body screamed as they shattered, but he used the force of the blow to circle behind the demon king, gathering the last of his strength into both fists.

“Break!”

The golden radiance shone like the sun itself.

The Wind-Thunder Demon King’s enormous body suddenly stiffened. A massive hole had been blasted through its back by Marcus’s fists. Black lightning raced wildly across its surface before finally fading into silence.

That seemingly invincible demon god slowly transformed into countless black specks and dissipated into the air.

“I... won...”

Marcus was covered in blood, kneeling on one knee. The golden dragon markings on his body dimmed as he raised his head and forced out a savage, triumphant grin.

Then his smile froze.

An open folding fan had somehow appeared against his forehead.

Hiiragi Seihaku stood before him, his body swaying as though he might collapse at any moment. His face was as pale as paper, but his eyes remained arrogant and proud.

“I told you. If power cannot be controlled, it has no value.”

Holding the fan, he gave it a gentle push forward.

The light in Marcus’s eyes rapidly faded. The violent aura around him receded like a retreating tide, and his entire body toppled backward, losing consciousness completely.

“The winner is Hiiragi Seihaku of Kanya Academy.”

The referee’s voice rang out right on time.

Hiiragi Seihaku staggered. He braced himself against the ground with his fan and managed to keep from collapsing, breathing heavily as his chest rose and fell.

He raised his head. His gaze crossed half the arena, passed through all the noise and commotion, and locked directly onto the rest area of Huaqing Academy.

It settled on Chen Guan.

Wait for me. Sooner or later, I’ll face you.

Hiiragi Seihaku conveyed his hostility with nothing but his eyes.

Chen Guan, as expressionless as ever, simply looked back at him.

Long ago, he had already said it.

Anyone who lost to him would never again be considered his opponent. Even if he gave them time to catch up, they could never overtake him again.

It had been true then, and it remained true now.

Supported by his teammates, Hiiragi Seihaku left the arena. Sweat dampened the hair at his temples on that pale face.

Only the eyes he cast toward Huaqing Academy’s rest area continued to burn with a fire that refused to die.

Meeting his gaze, Chen Guan calmly looked away.

After a brief silence, the holographic screen at the center of the arena began scrolling once more.

Countless contestants’ portraits flashed by like shooting stars. At last, the light converged, and two portraits slowly came to a stop.

“Match ten: Qin Wu of Huaqing Academy versus Bai Huanran of North City Academy.”

As the referee’s voice fell, the atmosphere in the venue instantly surged to a new peak.

The captains’ match.

This was the only direct showdown between two team captains in the first round of the Four-Academy League’s individual competition.

“Bai Huanran versus Qin Wu? Now that’s going to be interesting.”

“Hard to say. Every one of those people from Huaqing is more bizarre than the last, but their captain barely did anything during the team competition.”

“That’s only because his teammates were too dazzling. If you were standing beside Chen Guan and An Changqing, you wouldn’t have much of a chance to shine either. But don’t forget, Qin Wu is Huaqing’s captain. Do you really think he could hold that position if he were weak?”

Discussion erupted from all sides, and countless mocking and curious gazes fell upon the silent man walking toward the arena.

The rest area of North City Academy was completely quiet.

Every team member watched their captain’s back, their eyes filled with one last trace of hope.

Bai Huanran was their final shred of dignity. If even he lost, North City Academy would truly become a complete laughingstock this time.

Bai Huanran understood that better than anyone.

He could feel the scorching gazes burning into his back. He could even picture Yan Feiyan’s dazed, devastated expression when she had returned to the rest area.

Now, he had to personally reclaim something that belonged to him from Huaqing’s captain.