Free Web NovelChapter 122: Chapter 121: Let Go. Let Go of Me!
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"Pity that Elise Hargrove and Cassian Reeves wiped each other out. We never got to see Luke fight either of them. Though I’d bet anything that if they’d faced Luke and that angel, they’d have been one-shot all the same."
"That’s not even a question. The Polaris Whale’s body was that enormous and it still got locked down completely by the angel’s skill. The Abyssal Nether Tiger and the Lethe Spider Lily would’ve fared no better. That skill is too broken."
The Stormvale candidates’ faces had gone distinctly ugly under the barrage of mockery from the Capital candidates, but they had no way to argue back.
Blame Iris Dawnford? The Polaris Whale’s performance was right there for everyone to see. Its Seven-Star combat power could have swept every candidate in the exam aside from Elise Hargrove and Cassian Reeves. It wasn’t that Iris and the Polaris Whale had been weak. It was that Luke and his angelic card spirit were simply absurd.
The Mistvale candidates, who had started out as detached spectators enjoying the show, suddenly found themselves caught in the crossfire and exchanged uncomfortable glances. But the Capital candidates’ point held. Mistvale’s strongest, Cassian Reeves, would have fared no better against Luke than Iris had. And worse: even the Polaris Whale, which had no elemental disadvantage, had gone down to the angel. Cassian’s Dark-element Abyssal Nether Tiger, facing an angel-type card spirit that hard-countered Dark alignment, would have been a meat bun thrown to a dog. Gone, with nothing to show for it.
Did the Capital eat something strange this year? Producing a freak like that. The thought ran, with varying degrees of bitterness, through the minds of every Stormvale and Mistvale candidate, an echo of what the Card Master Association’s novices had felt facing Luke as an adversary back at the Youth Training Competition.
The ordinary candidates traded mockery and jabs. The stronger candidates, the Elise Hargrove and Cassian Reeves caliber, stayed silent.
"I thought freezing the attacks in place was already broken enough. I didn’t realize the skill could absorb all of them and convert them into its own offense. That has to be against the rules."
Elise Hargrove pressed a hand over her face. The satisfaction of having successfully crafted the Lethe Spider Lily during the exam had evaporated entirely.
That cylinder card of Luke’s, the one she’d been a test subject for, could absorb and redirect attacks too. But comparing it to the angel’s freezing-field skill was almost unfair. The cylinder card only reflected the original attack, and against an opponent who wasn’t being caught off-guard for the first time, the redirected attack could still be dodged or defended with enough raw skill.
The angel’s skill was a different category of broken. It absorbed the attacks of both sides, doubling or even multiplying the total energy pool, and produced a correspondingly horrifying output. More importantly, it carried an imprisonment effect. The target was pinned in place, unable to advance or retreat, unable to even mount a defense. They simply had to take the hit raw. There was no counterplay at all.
"If not for that skill, Iris’s Polaris Whale wouldn’t have been one-shot," Lyra Sinclair said, picking up the thread, her expression complicated.
Luke’s performance had broken her understanding of what was possible all over again. First the dragon-knight fusion at the Youth Training Competition. Now this seemingly endlessly-evolving new card spirit. Any one of the card spirits Luke could field would be able to hang her up and beat her at leisure.
Even Serena Frost’s face had fallen slightly. She still had confidence in herself, but the pressure had grown considerably. Catching up to Luke was going to be far harder than she’d imagined.
"I lost."
Iris Dawnford watched the Polaris Whale dissolve and return to card form inside her storage, her eyes full of shock, and then, finally, a deep disappointment. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
The Polaris Whale’s construction had been the culmination of everything Iris had. She’d intended to use the whale to claim the Eastern Region’s first-place finish, to try to replicate the path her aunt Selene Dawnford had walked, the path that led to becoming Lilith Crescent’s personal student. A student of the Night Empress. The odds had always been slim, but the dream had been worth holding onto.
She hadn’t expected to fall here, to Luke. She still had other cards, but their tiers and strength didn’t compare to the Polaris Whale. Summoning them would only delay her defeat without changing it, a meaningless gesture. Better to lose with some grace.
More to the point, Iris’s mana was already running dry. She didn’t have Luke’s mana-crystal sustainment to fall back on.
"Congratulations, Luke." Iris gathered up her disappointment and offered the blessing sincerely. The angel’s strength was plain for everyone to see; she wasn’t so small as to be unable to accept a loss. "But I will absolutely catch up to you. And surpass you."
She said it with total conviction. The angel was strong, but she was confident she could craft a card stronger still. She was a proud daughter of the Dawnford family.
Luke just nodded. He’d heard the line enough times by now. She would improve, certainly. But he would improve too, and catching up to him was not going to be the easy task his rivals kept assuming it would be.
"Then, goodbye." Iris waved, and her figure vanished from the exam space. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Not long after, Luke was teleported out as well.
The eliminated candidates in the spectator plaza had already been teleported out a step ahead of the two finalists, returning to their respective schools. The exam space sealed itself shut, dormant until the following year’s new cohort.
Ashenvale. Ashenvale Third High School.
The instant Luke materialized in the plaza, a tide of people swallowed him whole, a wall of overlapping voices crashing against his ears.
"Luke! Congratulations on first place in the exam!"
"Luke, watching your matches, you basically one-shot every single round. It was unbelievable!"
"Skip the chatter. Luke, give me an autograph, right now. You’ve genuinely made it."
"Hahaha! Third High produced an Eastern Region exam champion! We finally have something to hold over those First High and Second High brats. Let’s see them act superior in front of us now."
Third High had beaten First High and Second High in the Standardized Examination first. Then they’d thoroughly crushed Mooncrest City’s team in the inter-city exchange match. And now, with a dominant, overwhelming run, one of their own had claimed first place in the entire Eastern Region’s entrance exam. Every student of Third High had descended into fervent adoration of Luke.
The Eastern Region’s overall exam champion. The title had never once landed in Ashenvale before, and more importantly, it had landed in Third High specifically. That was bragging material that would last for years.
"I know you’re all excited," Luke said, slightly helpless against the wall of noise, "but could you let go of me first so we can actually talk?"
Then his expression sharpened. Who’s pulling at my pants? He hastily slapped away a hand that had reached over to make mischief. There was, he reflected, real wisdom in the saying that a young man out in the world had to know how to protect himself.
These people are out of control. Where’s Mark? Why hasn’t he surfaced yet?
A distance away, Mark Whitman watched the scene and turned to ask for instructions, his own face flushed with excitement. Luke was, after all, a student from his class.
"Vice Principal, should we call Luke over now?"
"Not for the moment." Rose Bellamy shook her head, her own cheeks colored with the same excitement. "Third High hasn’t had something this worth celebrating in a very long time. After today, everyone goes their separate ways. Let them be wild for a little while longer."
