Destroyer of Ice and Fire (Web Novel)
chapter-213

“In the end, the world of arcane masters is a youngster’s world.” — The first line of the first page of A Warlock’s Memoir.

“Don’t waste any time, child. Become a Lord before you are thirty, or it is very likely you will never accomplish anything.” – Volume One, Road to Lordship.

For some reason he couldn’t comprehend, these two phrases emerged in Liszt’s mind as he watched Ayrin’ back.

……

“It’s already four to three?”

Charlotte, Ivan, and the rest were concentrating on watching the match atop the arena when Ayrin’s voice suddenly rang from behind them.

“What did Liszt call you over for?”

“Deepwood Motte Academy is quite strong this year. The first two participants that Dragon Breath Academy sent up, Angeles and Audrey, were both unable to continue and forced to withdraw after winning their fights due to injury and exhaustion of arcane particles.”

“Right now, Dragon Breath Academy’s Gaskin is fighting against Deepwood Motte Academy’s ‘Mountain Splitting Lord’ Stanford. However, Gaskin has already fought a battle and expended a lot of arcane particles.

“Teacher Liszt brought me to watch him spar with Leonardo.” Ayrin was already concentrating on watching the match atop the area as he excitedly said, “Heavy-Fisted King Gaskin is fighting against Deepwood Motte Academy’s captain, Mountain Splitting Lord Stanford?”

“What? Liszt and Leonardo fought? Charlotte, Ivan, and the rest were shocked. “What was the result?”

“Teacher Liszt called it a draw, and Leonardo agreed. But I think Teacher Liszt should still be a little stronger,” Ayrin honestly replied.

“To think not even Cocktail Grandmaster Leonardo could defeat Liszt. Liszt must truly be an existence who surpasses the vast majority of Office of Special Affairs arcane team captains.” As Charlotte, Ivan, Ferguillo, and the others all exchanged looks, they could see that the others were all thinking the same thing as them – Liszt had to be very strong.

“So this is Mountain Splitting Lord Stanford, who has already been inducted into the House Stark? The one considered to be the strongest Deepwood Motte Academy student in the last ten years?”

Ayrin had met and talked before with Morgan, Gaskin, and the others of Dragon Breath Academy, so at this moment, his attention naturally gravitated towards Stanford, Deepwood Motte’s most famous celebrity fighter.

Stanford was a lanky male representative of the north. His attire differed greatly from the standard attire worn by males in the southern and midwestern regions of the Kingdom of Eiche.

His long brown hair was tied into many small braids. The stiffness of his hair, however, caused it to become a frizzy mess atop his head.

Stanford currently wielded a black sabre about the same size as him in his left hand and wore a spiky bronze colored glove on his right hand.

Both the black sabre and the bronze glove were clearly weapons condensed through permanent materialization. They were heavier and harder than the majority of ordinary metal weapons, yet Stanford seemed to wield the two weapons with relative ease.

“What great strength. Considering how depleted Gaskin’s arcane particles are, he shouldn’t be able to win right?”

Ayrin couldn’t help but blurt out his opinion the moment his eyes swept across Gaskin.

Gaskin’s previous match had clearly been incredibly intense as the sleeves covering his right arm were already in tatters. There were still arcane particle fluctuations emanating from his body, but they were disorderly and clearly weakened.

“Gaskin is not one of those arcane masters who can no longer fight after exhausting too many arcane particles,” Ferguillo responded beside Ayrin. He quickly shook his head and calmly continued, “It is still too early to decide on a victor.”

“It’s still anyone’s game?” Ayrin said in surprise as he looked at the abnormally brawny Gaskin.

“You are hoping to reserve enough strength to deal with our next competitor, so you are trying to conserve your arcane particles as much as possible. But are you confident in defeating me with just your permanent manifestations?”

The silent standstill was broken by Gaskin as he glared at Stanford.

“Activate: Fist of the War God!”

A strange tremor suddenly passed under the surface of Gaskin’s skin as if his body was decomposing into countless energetic particles.

“What kind of arcane skill is this?!”

Ayrin was immediately stunned. Even though he was quite far away, he could still feel Gaskin’s strength suddenly skyrocket – and it was by an extent even greater than when he activated Holy Body Ignition.

Bang!

Before anyone could even react, Gaskin had already charged forward, leaving a deep pit in the ground where he had been standing. His right fist viciously slammed into side of Stanford’s giant black sabre.

The two seemed to have suddenly become deadlocked.

Stanford immediately realized that he couldn’t deal with Gaskin’s powerful punch with just one arm so he turned his sabre horizontally and then pressed his glove wearing right hand on the inner face of the blade for more support.

“What! His Materializations can contain arcane skills?!”

Ayrin watched as green flames suddenly began to continuously surge out from both of Standford’s hands like a tidal wave and attack Gaskin.

“What!”

But in the next moment, cries of surprise erupted across the entire stands like a volcano.

Gaskin’s fist was still moving forward! Stanford’s giant black sabre and the waves of raging green flames had both been smashed apart by Gaskin’s single punch!

Stanford’s entire body was sent flying backwards like an arrow.

“This strength… how can it surpass the combined strength of his opponent’s Materialization and arcane skill?!” Ayrin couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“This is because of the relation between his bloodline and talents.” Charlotte took a deep breath, then quickly explained into Ayrin’s ear, “Gaskin’s blood consists of both Yellow Dragon and barbarian blood. Thus, he is an existence whose physical strength surpasses the strength of arcane particles and arcane skills. During the Era of the War with Dragons, peak experts amongst the Yellow Dragons and barbarians were unable to sense any arcane energy or use arcane skills, yet they were still able to defeat peak arcane masters of other races with just their physical strength alone.”

“Surpassing arcane skills with pure strength?” Ayrin couldn’t help but repeat.

“Your school’s Teacher Minlur is also this kind of existence.” Ferguillo nodded, “But I’m afraid that the Gaskin’s body is even stronger than Minlur’s body. If Gaskin manages to reach Minlur’s current age, he will probably have a strength which surpasses Minlur’s current strength.”

“Activate: Fist of the War God!”

Another one of Gaskin’s thunderous punches headed towards Stanford’s body.

As his fist travelled, it compressed the surrounding air, resulting in the formation of a shield-like ring of bright blue flames around his fist. His fist once again smashed into Stanford’s body, which was still reeling backwards.

“This arcane skill… it is stimulating each and every particle within his body so that they are all activated for use!

Ayrin thought to himself.

For some inexplicable reason, he felt like Gaskin’s arcane skill was mimicking the effect of a magus stimulant from the Magus Era. By using a small number of arcane particles, he was greatly stimulating every single particle to suddenly explode with a terrifying strength.

It was clear that this arcane skill would result in a state of extreme weakness after the battle.

But in a real battle, no one cared about after-effects. As long as it allowed you to explode with power and defeat the opponent, nothing else mattered!

“Perhaps I can learn it!”

A lightbulb flashed in Ayrin’s mind. Afterwards, he held his breath and began to observe and perceive Gaskin’s actions even more closely and attentive than before.

“Pillar of Execution!”

Ayrin watched as Stanford, who was suspended in midair by compressed particles and unable to move, suddenly raised his right hand. A terrifying fluctuation of arcane energy was released.

A giant black pillar suddenly appeared behind him. Seven huge chains condensed from arcane energy shot out from the pillar and immediately wound around Gaskin’s body, binding him to the pillar.

“This is Deepwood Motte Academy’s taboo skill! It is known as the Five Meter Cage because as long as one is within five meters of the caster, they will become sealed by this skill!”

“To think Stanford was able to comprehend this taboo skill in the last year!”

The spectators who recognized this skill all began to shout from the stands.

“Dragon’s Blood, Awaken! Second Rank Transformation!”

Gaskin seemed to be unable to deal with the taboo skill with his current strength. But right as he was being chained up, another explosion came from within his body.

“This an innate ability of his dragon blood?!”

Ayrin could almost instantly sense every single particle within Gaskin’s body suddenly undergo a transformation.

Every drop of blood and every single fibre of muscle in Gaskin’s body suddenly transformed into completely different substances, becoming even more powerful than before.

A tint of yellow spread across the surface of Gaskin’s body as a draconic aura billowed outwards from his muscles.

Stanford’s body violently trembled as an expression of great shock emerged on his face.

“Activate: Fist of the War God!”

Gaskin roared once more.

“So strong!”

Ayrin immediately felt Gaskin’s transformed body become stimulated and reactivated.

Bang!

The giant black pillar was shattered.

Boom!

Seven black curtains of light consecutively emerged in front of Stanford, but they were instantly broken through by Gaskin’s single punch!

Crack!

The sound of bones breaking rang out from Stanford’s crossed arms as Gaskin’s punch slammed into them, sending Stanford soaring backwards through the sky and directly off of the stage.

“Dragon Breath Academy wins!”

With his ribcage completely shattered, every single spectator was certain that Stanford was absolutely unable to continue fighting.

……

Several minutes later, before the crowd had even fully recovered from Gaskin’s memorable heavy punch, Ayrin and Charlotte had already moved to a stone training room.

“Holy Body Ignition? What are you trying to do?”

Charlotte abruptly realized that Ayrin was breathing extremely violently like someone about to pass out.

But in the next moment, while she was still confused, she suddenly felt a change rush through Ayrin’s body as every particle within his body seemed to have become completely activated.

“This is…?”

Charlotte’s eyes widened.

“Crown of Ice and Snow!”

Ayrin suddenly cried out at this moment as a giant sphere of white ice appeared before him.

Bang!

Ayrin’s right hand curled into a fist and firmly struck the giant sphere of ice.

Charlotte felt her entire body become numb from the vibrations in the air as an alarm went off in her head.

She silently watched as Ayrin completely and thoroughly shattered the sphere of ice before him.

Boom!

The wall before the two of them suddenly froze over and then shattered.

The remaining fragments of ice and snow continued forward, forming a sword-like streak of ice and snow around twenty meters long before them.

Crack crack crack…

The path of ice and snow remained for several seconds before abruptly shattering and covering the ground in shards and flakes of ice and snow.

“Activate: Fist of the War God! You’ve managed to teach yourself Gaskin’s body stimulation method!”

“Just what kind of perception and talent does he have to be able to learn this kind of arcane skill which can only be learned by sensing the flow of arcane particles within the body?”

“Activate: Fist of the War God along with Holy Body Ignition… this is a combination skill that he created himself… this strength, I wouldn’t be able to defend against it!”

“For him to be able to learn just from watching… this improvement speed is simply like throwing things in an empty box to fill it up!”

Although she was extremely familiar with Ayrin at this point, Charlotte could still feel her body trembling and tingling after witnessing what had just happened.