Before the battle began, my left hand tightly gripped Van Phong's three smoke bombs, my right hand clenched the carbon dagger. The drizzling rain like heaven's tears made the arena slippery. I stepped out with a cold expression, while Sheng Guang Yi opposite me wore a relaxed demeanor, receiving applause and admiration from the audience despite the rain.
On my side, curses rang out: "You dead dog! How dare you show your face before the king?" "You bastard Wang Meng, stop dreaming like your name suggests!"
From the grandstand, Hao Yan Ling sat there, her eyes wide with worry. She clenched her intertwined hands, her body taut as a bowstring. She knew Sheng Guang Yi—the strongest and most vicious person who had tortured me to the point of dehumanization. Since hearing I had to fight him, fear had relentlessly gripped her.
Confrontation on the Stone Highland: Entering the arena, I felt the dampness underfoot. The rain had lightened to just a few drizzling drops. Sheng Guang Yi and I stood opposite each other. My emotionless black eyes still stared directly at him. This time, Sheng Guang Yi wasn't angry that I refused to submit. He just smiled faintly, a smile carrying contempt as if he understood my purpose.
During the time he bullied and tortured me, he had sent Mutt to investigate and learned my secret: my family—Wang Mo and Ha Vu Nuong. Finally, he understood why I tried so hard. His lips broke into a laugh at my composure.
Provocative Words Before Battle: Sheng Guang Yi said to my face: "Having nothing in your hands yet daring to risk your life to the extreme. Commendable for your courage! But truly pathetic for your foolishness. This world isn't somewhere you can surpass others just by trying hard. You have no talent, no opportunity, no resources, relying only on a bit of willpower—what does that get you? Like an ant crawling on the ground, no matter how hard you try until death, you cannot escape from my palm. Want fairness? Then show me how strong the powerful can be!"
I understood his words clearly. The entire audience admired him, treating him as a strong person who also "cared for" the weak. But what had he actually done to me? Who knew? And those who knew pretended nothing had happened.
The Surprise Attack: In the midst of my thoughts, the starting whistle blew. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared before my eyes. Sheng Guang Yi's hand quickly pressed into my stomach, using Holy Light Force to create a dull light beam piercing through my abdomen. I was caught off guard, feeling excruciating pain in my stomach, blood flowing endlessly. I immediately used Instant Acceleration to teleport elsewhere, my hand pressing on the bleeding wound.
Sheng Guang Yi laughed gleefully: "What's wrong? Already so severely wounded by just one of my low-level techniques?"
I gritted my teeth, tearing my clothes to reveal the small armor shattered where the technique hit. Wrapping cloth around the wound to stem the bleeding, I realized my priority: survive for 15 minutes. "I can't die here! Everything is almost over!"
The Afterimage Vanishes: After wrapping the wound, the afterimage I used for teleportation also dissipated. Sheng Guang Yi immediately teleported before me again. I grimaced in pain, trying to predict where he intended to attack. I placed the dagger at my heart and near vital organs. As predicted, he placed his hand on my heart. The dagger blocked the blow, avoiding having my heart pierced, but the pushing force sent me flying 4 meters away. My body scraped against the ground, armor scratched, face covered in scratches and blood.
Thoughts in Pain: "Damn it! I can't take it anymore! I have to attack!"
I stood up, gripping the dagger tightly, using Instant Acceleration to charge forward creating an afterimage. But Sheng Guang Yi wasn't deceived anymore. Wherever he saw the afterimage, he immediately used super speed to shoot to a distant location. I tried to follow to strike, but he no longer saw the afterimage—only saw me like a slow turtle. He used four fingers (index, middle, ring, and pinky) extended straight and close together like a knife blade, striking my shoulder. An immense force slammed me down to the ground, my body impacting hard enough to create a depression in the earth.
"Sheng Guang Yi's power is too great! Even with Instant Acceleration for attack, I can't succeed. He always maintains distance beyond range. When exceeding range, even if the afterimage confuses his eyes, I'm not fast enough to reach him and cause damage. After the afterimage time ends, I'll receive a counterattack!"
I lay prone, face smashed against the ground, body covered in wounds. The small armor had shattered. Only 3 minutes had passed. The entire audience cheered, acclaiming him like a saint. The teachers praised him endlessly, evaluating his power extremely highly. I was merely a stepping stone to highlight his terrifying strength.
Final Determination: I struggled with all my might to stand up, panting blood. My body was numb, but I couldn't stop. This was the final match; afterward, I would have enough points to graduate from the Academy's intermediate level, have a comfortable life with an office job, helping my parents. With that determination, I stood up, taking out the three smoke bombs Van Phong had prepared from my pocket.
Stealth Tactic: I ran toward Sheng Guang Yi, left hand holding smoke bombs, right hand gripping the dagger. Sheng Guang Yi immediately summoned three to ten light beams to block me. In his hand, a light sword appeared, dozens to hundreds of light beams flying toward me, aiming at my upper body and head. I no longer cared, immediately sliding on the grass grown by the plant system, dodging most of the golden light beams. My feet were scraped raw, skin torn because this grass was too sharp, but still better than the rocky ground.
Sheng Guang Yi was surprised, immediately controlling the light beams to attack lower, straight at me. Though hit by several light beams piercing my left shoulder, I still endured. When the second attack with dense numbers approached, I used momentum from sliding to transition into sprinting. When the light beams struck the middle section, the audience all thought I had died and began chanting Sheng Guang Yi's name. But the body struck by light beams vanished, leaving only fading golden light.
The Surprise Counterattack: Sheng Guang Yi immediately saw me jumping through the air, holding the dagger spinning to strike. He teleported far away, hand extending the light sword slashing toward me. But before shaping the slash direction, a smoke screen from underground covered where I stood. Sheng Guang Yi vaguely slashed wildly into the smoke. I waited second by second for Instant Acceleration to recover. Thanks to infrared glasses, I saw the attack direction and dodged simply. When the skill recovered, I used it from within the smoke. Sheng Guang Yi knew nothing, suddenly having his chest slashed by the dagger. When he realized the wound, I had already finished attacking and sprinted back into the smoke. He shot extremely fast light beams, but I had used Instant Acceleration to escape.
Blood from Sheng Guang Yi's chest scattered onto the grass. His face was furious like a pig being slaughtered, loudly cursing: "You dead dog! You dog are something else! I respected you with a gentle death, now taste the suffering, you dog!"
Crazy Reaction: Then immediately, golden light beams surrounded Sheng Guang Yi. The wounds I caused gradually healed. The light beams healed him until no wounds remained. He gestured with his hands while cursing: "You trash! From the sky, countless light swords pour down on the smoke where you hide!"
With infrared glasses, I saw countless golden light swords carrying incomparable power flying toward me. Outsiders only saw smoke, but inside I saw everything. With tens of thousands of swords thrown down, avoiding and surviving in this small area was extremely difficult. Sheng Guang Yi stood there watching like an ant, not caring because he wanted to see how I would die.
Difficulty in the Smoke: I had extreme difficulty dodging. Sometimes at the smoke's edge, sometimes in its center, dodging the countless swords flying with dense frequency. Still wounded quite a bit because too many swords couldn't all be avoided. Occasionally, additional sword slashes from Sheng Guang Yi made the wounds more serious. But I still resisted.
The Horrifying Climax: After 5 minutes, in the sky, swords half the arena's size seemed assembled by countless light beams converging into a giant's sword flying toward my small smoke area. As if death was about to descend upon my head.
I stood there, amid the thinning smoke, watching the giant sword descend from the sky. Blood on my body mixed with rain, breath rapid. In this moment, I clearly felt the gap between two worlds: between radiant light and powerless darkness. But in my pitch-black eyes, there was no fear—only determination to live to fulfill the final ideal: graduate, live a peaceful life with my parents, even if only as a powerless person.