Chapter 150: The End of the New Blade Battle

As the tiny ball of flame approached the storm generated by the ring, the deep-blue wind blades struck against it without causing the slightest ripple. The flame did not even waver as it continued forward, brushing past the edge of the ring before suddenly bursting open.

"Did you fail to control it properly on your first time using Blaze Edge?" Seeing this, Yechen could not help but sigh. After absorbing this attack, Tsukimi Rito completely lost the ability to fight further, but the outcome of the next moment gave Yechen a severe shock.

Perhaps because the ring and the flame were moving too fast, or perhaps because the power of the flame was somewhat weak on its initial use, the explosion of the flame not only failed to shatter the ring but instead accelerated it further. The ring, now reduced to a little more than half its size, stubbornly attempted to continue its mission with the remaining portion of its blade.

However, the direction of its impact had changed. Instead of targeting Yechen, it flew toward Baili and the others. Without pausing to think, Yechen's body reacted instinctively. The burst of power combined with the tornado generated a strong airflow, leaving only Yechen, Baili, and Tachibana Kanade standing steadily on the scene, while everyone else was knocked unsteadily to the ground.

The ring flew at a tremendous speed, about to reach them in the blink of an eye, but Yechen was even faster—so fast that no one even noticed how he had appeared. The Blaze Edge fragments, scorched red by the flames, did not cause Yechen a trace of hesitation as he reached out and grabbed the ring directly. The high-speed rotating ring frictioned against his specially flame-covered hand, scattering tiny sparks.

The pain shooting from his palm was ignored by Yechen; such pain was no big deal to him. Increasing his strength once more, Yechen crushed the hard ring with sheer force, reducing it to points of light that vanished.

The familiar bell chimed right on cue, marking exactly two hours since the start of the Absolute Duo battle. Baili and Tachibana Kanade grasped Yechen's lacerated and bloody palm, looking at him with a mixture of reproach and fondness. The two of them could easily have handled that remaining attack.

"We could both have blocked that attack just now. You clearly didn't need to take it, yet you rushed right over anyway. You're still as big of an idiotic fool as ever!" Looking at Yechen's bloody hand with heartache, both Baili and Tachibana Kanade used their respective abilities to help him stanch the bleeding and heal the wound.

In truth, this kind of healing was entirely redundant. All of them knew that Yechen's newly acquired ability was rapid wound recovery. Yechen did not stop them, merely offering a blank, foolish smile. Before long, the wound had completely healed, and Kokonoe Toru looked on with envy at Yechen's fully recovered body.

"If someone's wounds could heal this quickly during combat, their opponent would definitely be deeply troubled!" He then looked around at the people present; aside from Yechen's team, not a single person was free of injuries, and Torazaki Kunihiro, in particular, seemed to be hurt even more severely.

"Wait, Toru, are you okay?!" Suddenly remembering that his good friend had taken a direct hit earlier and was trying to push himself up from the ground to check on him, Kokonoe Toru planted his arm on the ground to push himself up. Just as he applied pressure, a faint cracking sound echoed, and Kokonoe Toru's miserable scream reverberated across the entire Absolute Duo battle arena.

The rest of the participants who had not yet been eliminated shuddered. Hadn't the Absolute Duo battle already ended? Exactly who was still launching attacks and beating the opponent up this miserably?!

The situation that followed became somewhat troublesome. Two young girls who still looked weak, their school uniforms torn in multiple places, lacked even the strength to stand; Torazaki Kunihiro lay prone on the ground, unconscious; and Kokonoe Toru collapsed to the floor clutching his arm, looking as though he had suffered a fracture and would need quite some time before he could crawl up on his own. The only uninjured people were Yechen, Tachibana Kanade, Shirohime, and Kiriya Kazuko.

It would have been just right if the four of them each supported one person to leave! As if! Anyone could tell from Yechen's expressionless face that he found this deeply troublesome. He pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket and dialed Tsukumo Sakuya's number, instructing her to bring people to take away these wounded individuals lying helplessly on the ground.

As the primary financial backer of Koryo Academy, Yechen still possessed this tiny bit of privilege. Moreover, the academy was naturally supposed to be responsible for the treatment and safety of its students. Therefore, after finishing the call, Yechen said, "I've already called them. Next, we'll leave it to Tsukumo Sakuya and the others to handle. Let's head back first."

"But Yechen, they're all injured. Leaving them here like this isn't right," Tachibana Kanade said, catching Yechen's hand. Kiriya Kazuko, who also harbored a strong sense of justice, chimed in, "That's right, that's right! Besides, we can't guarantee whether Teacher Tsukimi still has other accomplices. What if there are others, or what if Teacher Tsukimi wakes up midway? Wouldn't they be completely doomed in this state?!"

"Accomplices? There are plenty. And they're all heading this way," Baili said with a dismissive smile at Kiriya Kazuko's question, though it still gave people a comforting, spring-breeze-like feeling.

"What? Where?" Hearing this, Kiriya Kazuko immediately unleashed her Blaze Edge, assuming a defensive stance with her dual black and white swords, staring around vigilantly without managing to spot anyone else at all.

Yechen patted her shoulder, looking at her with pity and sighing as if witnessing something profoundly tragic. "If Tsukimi Rito had truly wanted to kill someone, could Tachibana Tachibana and Hotaka雅 have waited until we arrived? Besides, how could the academy possibly have discovered nothing after all this time? There is more than a fifty percent chance that this was orchestrated by the academy itself."

"Don't be fooled into thinking Koryo Academy is just a school; in reality, its defense level is much higher than that of some military bases. Needless to say how difficult it would be to infiltrate it."

Under the explanations of Yechen and the others, Kiriya Kazuko and Tachibana Kanade understood a little better, and they followed Yechen away from the arena to rest.

A few minutes after Yechen and his group departed, Tsukumo Sakuya arrived with a group of people at the battered and scarred arena. Looking at the state of the ground, one could easily imagine the sheer intensity of the battle that had taken place not long before, as well as the individuals lying fallen on the floor. The corners of Tsukumo Sakuya's lips curled upward. Slightly lifting the hem of her black Gothic lolita dress, she walked over to Tsukimi Rito and noticed the parts of her clothing scorched by the flames.

Based on previous observations, Tsukimi Rito had exerted her full strength. Not only had she used her snake-sword, but she had even unleashed the true power of her Blaze Edge, yet she still failed to inflict any real damage on Yechen, who had handled her with ease. Tsukumo Sakuya was certain that Yechen had not even used his full strength yet.

"The Absolute Duo has taken another step closer to me. With achievements like this already, it's totally justifiable to promote them to Rank 2, right?" she muttered softly to the respectful group of people behind her. "Take them all away for treatment."

"Understood!" Several individuals immediately stepped out from the crowd, lifted the fallen figures, and vanished.

"Using her Blaze Edge only at the very end, and yet she pushed Rito to this extent. It seems these abilities passed down from ancient times are not simple either. That British young lady is also arriving soon. Things are getting more and more interesting."