"Control it, Ren," Zhao murmured, observing the black marks with genuine concern. "Please... That doesn’t look healthy. What happened to your mana system?"
But Ren was no longer listening to advice or questions. Energy flowed through him like an overflowing river, amplifying not only his power but also his emotions. Every injustice in life, every mont of powerlessness, every ti he had had to accept that he was "too young" to really help his parents.
"If you want to take us back," he declared, his voice resonating with harmonics that shouldn’t exist in his throat, "you’re going to have to defeat us first."
The black marks extended down his arms, and the mana around him began to condense in quantities that made even Zhao step back half a pace.
The air itself seed to thicken with power.
Ren no longer wanted to feel like a child playing at being an adult.
He would be free to make "adult decisions," and if necessary, he would take in his arms what "didn’t correspond to him". He had found sothing worth fighting for, regardless of the consequences.
The boy who had once hesitated to hurt his teacher was gone, replaced by soone willing to fight the world itself for what he cared about.
Zhao observed the black marks expanding across Ren’s skin faster with resignation. Sothing told him there was no longer a way to resolve this peacefully.
’I’ll have to save him from himself,’ he thought with regret. ’By force.’
The difference in power between him and Lin was considerable. During these years he had brought his Silver 2 raptor very close to the level of his Silver 3 owl, creating a synergy that transcended Lin’s typical fusion of a Silver beast with a Bronze one. Additionally, his owl had been accumulating the thousand days of Ren’s thod as well, bringing it dangerously close to the Gold threshold.
The fusion of his two beasts was also devastatingly synergistic. The raptor provided more speed and agility, while the owl granted supernatural perception and wind and feather attacks that could cut through Gold rank defenses.
And unlike Lin, whose most combats were primarily "friendly" training, Zhao had faced real life-or-death situations for decades.
Yet when he evaluated his opponents, he had to admit the situation was more interesting than he had anticipated.
’If soone had told five years ago that I’d be facing four dual Silver tars of this age...’ He allowed himself a mont of genuine admiration. ’The progress of today’s children is simply unnatural.’
Liu had developed sonic attack control that rivaled specialized masters. His blood absorption and the new intimidation and terror abilities from his Banshee Hyena’s screams were techniques that had appeared recently, and Zhao knew the effects would be unpredictable.
Min had beco impossible to follow without specialized mana eyes. His elental control over water and healing techniques had reached levels that previously would have belonged exclusively to famous tars with decades of experience.
Taro possessed a defense that could resist high Gold rank attacks, and his versatility in transforming that defense into devastating counterattacks was impressive. His earth control and the new spear shield technique he had developed were genuinely dangerous.
And Ren... even exhausted, with those black marks amplifying his power in ways Zhao didn’t completely understand, represented a threat he couldn’t underestimate.
The transformation from academy students to legitimate combatants was jarring to witness.
The first thing Min did was extend his hands toward Ren, channeling pure healing energy. Water in the air condensed into luminous currents that directed toward his friend, beginning to heal accumulated exhaustion and stabilize his overcharged system.
Zhao imdiately realized the threat the healer represented to this group.
’Min must be the first target. If he allows Ren to constantly recover...’
He launched into silent flight, disappearing just like Min, his wings creating air currents that nullified any sound from his movent. It was a perfect technique for eliminating targets before they knew they were being attacked.
He knew perfectly the techniques of all these students. He had helped Lin train them occasionally, observing their strengths and weaknesses. Min had always been slightly slow and clumsy, vulnerable to fast, direct surprise attacks.
But when he approached the defensive formation they had instinctively created, electrical currents began forming arcs around Ren who was at the front.
The boy’s eyes, which had lost most of their supernatural perception after losing his fungus, now glowed with an intensity Zhao hadn’t seen in recent training sessions. Despite the enormous speed of his silent flight, despite the technique that had fooled enemies with decades of experience...
Ren’s eyes followed him as if he could see every movent in slow motion.
’Did he recover his mana perception? To what level had his power returned? Those black lines...’
Perhaps that was the reason Lin had lost.
But Zhao was about to experience sothing worse. The Ren who had brought down Lin hadn’t been fused.
Ren had already partially fused with both beasts simultaneously, small jade scales appeared on his skin while powerful electrical energy began crackling around him. His body catapulted forward with an explosion of combined elental power, moving at a speed that should have been impossible.
Zhao barely managed to interpose his wings to defend himself, but the impact was devastating.
The electrical discharge pierced through his defenses like paper. The shock didn’t just affect his muscles; it interfered with his bestial coordination, montarily breaking the synergy with his abilities. He was launched backward, completely losing control of his silent flight and crashing into the ground with enough force to create a small crater.
anwhile, Mako and Shizu had attempted to capitalize on Zhao’s attack to capture Min and Liu. Rock pillars surged from the ground, forming a cylindrical prison that closed rapidly around the two students.
But Taro extended his hands, and his earth control imdiately competed with the guards’. The pillars wavered, their formation becoming irregular as three different wills fought to dominate the sa elent.
"You can’t work fast enough if you have to fight for control!" Taro shouted, concentrating intensely while his beetle plates glowed.
Liu seized the opportunity. His throat transford, adapting for the most devastating technique in his arsenal. When he opened his mouth, the ominous scream that erged wasn’t a normal sound.
It was pure concentrated sonic force.
The shockwave hit Mako and Shizu like an invisible hamr. Despite both having their ears protected due to their prior knowledge of Liu’s abilities, the attack penetrated their defenses. The sound traveled through their bodies, creating vibrations that damaged internal organs and disoriented their balance systems.
Both guards were launched backward, spitting blood while struggling to maintain consciousness. Their half-created rock prisons crumbled when they lost the concentration necessary for precise elental control.
Zhao rose from the crater, quickly evaluating the situation. His clothes were torn, he had electrical burns on his arms where he had blocked Ren’s attack, and he could feel so of his muscles still contracting involuntarily from the discharge residue.
’Actually,’ he realized with a weird feeling of respect and concern, ’I’ll have to get serious if I don’t want to lose to "so children".’
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