CLANG!
Sounds of spear blade clashing with adamantine scales echoed in the vast halls of the Citadel. Most of its sturdy pillars had been crushed— unable to withstand the impact of the intense battle.
Kaiser dropped flat to the floor, narrowly avoiding the tail swipe. In one fluid motion, he flipped backward and landed gently—like a falling leaf.
'What is this creature?'
The beast thought as it deftly lashed out at Kaiser— aiming to chomp down on him.
'Shadow Warp'
Utilizing the shadow-based spatial technique, he easily switched places with the shadow of an object— appearing behind the beast, unnoticed.
BAM!
His fist crashed into the back of its head— causing it to slam into the ground heavily. The sturdy ground split into pieces as an aftermath.
ROAR!!!
Stunned, the beast roared in anger as it shot out flames from its mouth— catching Kaiser off guard.
'I guess I overestimated that creature.'
Flames cackled in the hall where silence now reigned— illuminating its walls with deep and vast shadows that danced around the walls.
"Fire is so annoying..."
A soft voice stunned the beast as it slowly turned to look at Kaiser emerge from the burning flames.
'How?'
Still shocked, it soon realized that Kaiser was perfectly unharmed and untouchable by the flames.
"To be honest, I planned to awaken my bloodline after I became an Awakened. But..." Kaiser said to himself, "... Since you showed me fire, I decided to show you something polar opposite too."
As he continued to walk forward, the flames around him began recoiling. Soon frost was left in his footprints as a cold aura began emanating from him.
"Speak with me."
He said as he dismissed his spear and cold blue aura enveloped his arms.
Coiling around a huge pillar, the beast roared flames at Kaiser in great amount.
"Annoyance!"
Kaiser shot forward and split through the flames with his ice coated fists.
"Do you know what you're going to do next?"
He said as he shot an ice beam at the beast— freezing its tail to the ground. Without giving it time to recover, he rushed up its body and punched at the side of its head with a crushing force. Although his build was small compared to that of the beast, the strength he possessed was nothing to scoff at.
BANG!
The beast crashed into the walls of the hall as its scales split open— blood flowing down the wound.
'He has gotten stronger?!'
Disoriented, the beast shot pillars of flames around without aim— forcing Kaiser to nimbly dodge the stray attacks while maintaining distance from it.
"You're smart. In fact I'm sure you can understand me. After all, I'm speaking the universal language." Kaiser commented as he stood on a wall— seemingly unbothered by the pull of gravity.
"Right now, you must be feeling Frustration and Anger." He smiled as he continued walking along the walls as if he was just an observer. "You are now serious."
The beast growled as its eyes turned red. Flames erupted from its ears and nose as it lunged at him with speed unlike before. Its jaws closed in on him as its entire head slammed into the wall— a cloud of dust rising up as a result.
"Totally uncultured." A chuckle echoed from the dust as it cleared to reveal Kaiser calmly sitting on its snout— a bleeding whisker in his grip.
"This would have been a treasure... if you were an actual dragon. Or even real."
The beast tried to move only to realize that its mouth was frozen to the wall.
'This creature! I'll have to take a risk and blow you up'
Having decided on what to do, it prepared a concentrated amount of flames in its mouth, compressing it into a fireball.
"Having suicidal thoughts eh?" Kaiser tilted his head in curiosity growing bored as the beast no longer gave him the joy he wanted.
Standing on its nose, his smile disappeared as he looked at it coldly.
"You might be intelligent, but I could basically read your whole existence a few minutes into the fight. Honestly, it's disappointing. You don't even qualify to be a guardian."
BOOM!
The beast's maw exploded into a torrent of flesh and blood while Kaiser easily switched into his shadow form and glided down its body.
After reaching the neck, he summoned his spear and forcefully slashed open its back— turning it into a line decorated by blood from the neck to the tail.
BAM!
The body of the gigantic beast fell to the ground with a painful whine that gently echoed through the air.
It was finally dead.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Wyvern Serpent]
[Your art grows stronger]
[You have received 5000 points]
'That was... unexpected.' He thought as he sat on the corpse of the beast— staring at the academy-programmed message.
'5000 points for killing it. I bet they didn't expect a single student to kill it.'
He wiped the blood off his spear and stored it in his soul.
The weapon couldn't be used again since it had been forced to withstand the force of a beast that was a whole rank above it— even slaying it in the end.
'Now, let's leave here before the green boy arrives. I think this should be enough to encourage him to train harder right? Two birds with one stone. Haha!'
He thought to himself as he stepped into the shadows— all traces of his presence gone from the Citadel.
....
A few minutes later, Kuramoto appeared in the hall quietly— his presence almost unnoticeable.
Looking at the aftermath of the battle and then the corpse of the beast, his expression grew solemn.
'Could it be him? I'm not sure. Whoever did this must be insanely strong. To kill a beast of this caliber within that short amount of time. That's insane. Seems I really have to be serious about getting stronger.'
....
In the academy, a group of staffs watched a screen highlighting the number of students and beasts alive in the VR.
The top 10 students with the highest number of kills were listed by the corner with Apollo's name topping the list.
Suddenly, they noticed that the glowing red dot signifying the Wyvern Serpent disappeared.
"Huh? What the hell happened?"
A member asked in confusion since he didn't register any student entering the Citadel.
"Someone escaped our radar." Another staff said solemnly as he stared at the screen intensely. It was an old man with bald head and long beard.
"What? How is that possible? Although it is an artifact created with the support of the Mothercore, we still have monitoring rights over it. So, logically it shouldn't be possible." The former staff countered. "Also, to be able to take down the final boss so quickly..."
The old man softly rubbed his beard before sighing.
"That could only mean one thing. It's someone we'll classify as a wildcard."