Chapter Seven: "
Blood dripped from their faces, and pain was no longer just a sensation… it had become a fixed reality clinging to them as darkness clings to the night.
Lyona's half-face was hidden beneath a mask of crimson blood, as if her fiery red hair had melted down to cover her features, burning like flame with nothing to consume but her own flesh.
As for Liza… her expression froze at the moment her arrow shattered. It was no ordinary arrow, but one forged from Aelfril—an unbreakable metal that only yields in the worst nightmares. Yet here it lay, splintered fragments in her hands.
She stared in silence at its shards, refusing to utter a cry of pain or even glance at the monstrous beast bearing down on them. All she murmured was:
> "I failed… I failed… I failed."
Lyona trembled, looking from her friend to the beast—a Level Six White Tiger, a creature not meant to appear in a trial such as this. Tears welled in her eyes, not from fear but from helplessness.
> "Where are the instructors…? Why are they late?"
Her trembling voice was not a plea but the echo of an inner collapse.
> "I can't give up… I only want… just to prove myself to my father."
She closed her eyes, but the darkness she saw there was no kinder than reality.
---
In a distant place… within the Round Table
Four kings. Four shadows pulling the strings of this world from behind shattered screens.
Screens? Dead. Broken. As if fate itself refused to show them what was happening there.
One spoke, his hollow voice seeming to come from an abandoned tomb. Only his long hair and beard emerged from the mist.
> "It's the Moon Sect… they attacked the trial."
A heavy silence was followed by a calm, female voice laced with venom:
> "How did they bypass every security system?… Has the Academy become a playground for children?"
She was a queen, shrouded entirely in black fog, her only visible feature long hair drifting as though submerged.
> "The power of that sect is growing… we must send the Black Knights. If we do nothing, the scandal will tarnish the Four Kingdoms forever."
All nodded in silence, as if afraid their words might turn against them.
One king rose. His hair was short, his robes gleaming behind the fog. He spoke briefly:
> "I will give the orders myself… as for the students? Let only the worthy remain."
---
In the silent room after his departure, one question hung unanswered:
When did the blood of children become worthless? Their own offspring out there… bleeding, dying… crushed beneath the feet of a monster beyond their capabilities.
And no one cared.
Perhaps because they no longer saw humans as souls… but as numbers, as pawns in an endless war.
---
Back on the trial grounds…
The earth was soaked with blood, the stillness broken only by ragged breaths.
Suddenly, Aaron's voice rose, slicing through the chaos like a cry for salvation:
> "Stall him… just two minutes! Protect me! I'll prepare a finishing blow!"
His tone carried more desperate hope than command… but amid the ashes, his words ignited a spark in the students' hearts.
Some trembled, tears carving lines down their faces.
> "The instructors… they're late." one whispered, gripping his weapon with renewed resolve.
> "He's our last hope… let's fight."
---
The attacker, eyes wild with madness, stood there like a living nightmare. His laughter was like knives tearing at the nerves of all who heard it.
> "Yes… yes! I want to shatter your hopes with your own hands… come on, show me how you die believing you'll survive!"
---
The students sprang into action.
A noble student: "Fireballs!!"
A commoner: "Blades of Light!"
A noblewoman: "Ice Shards!!"
Another: "I'll cut off your head here, you monster!"
Their strikes landed in unison, as if they poured their final breaths into the assault. Boom! Boom! Boom! The ground shook, dust and smoke rose—and hope bloomed, if only for a moment.
---
Behind them, Aaron stood firm. He knelt, planting his sword in the earth, closing his eyes. Strange whispers slipped from his lips, unintelligible to all. Yet light began to gather around him, slowly… then rapidly, as if answering the call of something immense.
The attacker screamed from within the smoke:
> "Aaaargh!!"
The students cried out, some smiling, some weeping:
> "We did it!! We killed him!!"
---
But the smoke cleared… and the attacker stood unscathed.
> "I'm only kidding…" he sneered, wiping blood from his face that wasn't his own. "Hahaha."
Silence fell.
Then he whispered:
> "Let me show you… real magic."
---
Demonic circles formed behind him, glowing with cold light. Before anyone could react, a swift strike erupted.
Boom!
The last girl in the ranks… her body split in two. She fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut. Her classmates stared, no one uttering a sound.
Then… the slaughter began.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Each blow stole another soul.
He screamed, wept, begged… to no avail. One by one, the students fell, and the beast showed no mercy.
---
The attacker, his body smeared with blood, surveyed the carnage. Only one boy remained.
He offered a twisted smile:
> "Alright… just you left."
The boy lifted his head… it was Aaron. He laughed—not a laugh of victory, but of deception.
> "You fools… thank you for giving me time to escape."
Then he shouted:
> "Teleportation Spell!"
Light surged around him, and in an instant, he vanished.
---
The attacker froze, eyes wide:
> "He planned this… from the start? Sacrificed his friends?"
Before he could finish, an overwhelming pressure bore down on him… as if the heavens themselves crushed his body.
---
Behind him, a man appeared.
His steps were slow, each one shaking the ground.
> "Julius." The Academy's Director.
He spoke not a word. Yet his presence alone signaled death for the deserving.
---
In the bloodstained arena…
Julius stood silently, surveying the fallen bodies as if they were broken dolls. Each student had carried a dream, a future. Now, only blood seeped in silence, and lifeless eyes stared at nothing.
He sighed.
This was more than an attack; it was a message. A message written in blood to humiliate dignity… to crush faith.
---
A distorted laugh pierced the quiet.
> "Hahaha… you?!" the attacker said, eyes glittering with insanity. "Yes, you! The greatest mage… Julius! Finally! I will kill you and turn your body to ash!"
Behind him, hellish magic circles pulsed with infernal glow. Fireballs surged like volcanic eruptions pouring down from the sky. Each sphere carried hatred and malice at its core.
---
Julius did not move.
> "Scum… they know not their place," he murmured without raising his voice.
Suddenly, a silent magical barrier formed before him—soundless, lightless, yet impenetrable.
The fireballs struck the barrier and vanished as though they never existed, as if the world refused to let a foul hand harm this man.
Behind him, the magic circle was complete. Vast, it pulsed with a fire unlike any known to mankind.
> "Burn."
---
Boom.
Flames erupted from behind him—not as a spell but as the wrath of a volcano that had slept for millennia.
They engulfed the attacker, whose only response was a scream that rent the air as he burned alive.
But when the blaze subsided, nothing remained. No bone, no ash, no blood. Only his shadow imprinted on the ground, a testament that he had been here… and that his presence was a curse.
---
Julius looked once more at the bodies, then murmured a brief incantation. One by one, the corpses vanished, taken to be buried with dignity—unlike their deaths.
Then he spoke quietly:
> "Now… it is time to meet the mastermind. Whoever dared this insult… will not escape."
---
The scene shifts.
In a distant corner of the forest, Lyona and Liza were still trapped.
A massive White Tiger, its fangs gleaming like daggers, roared fiercely and lunged at them like an inescapable fate.
Lyona raised her trembling sword, while Liza, clutching her broken bow, could barely draw breath.
Hope was dying.
But suddenly… Boom!
Someone fell from the sky, crashing into the tiger and burying himself in the ground, muffling its roar.
The tiger lifted its head in pain… the man was no ordinary warrior. It was Raiden, one of the greatest swordsmen in this world.
He smiled and said:
> "Am I late, ladies?"
He leapt back, brushing dust from his shoulder.
> "Oh… I seem to have angered him."
He looked at Lyona and gently ruffled her hair:
> "It's okay, Princess… you did your best." "Leave the rest to me. And don't worry… I won't tell your father a thing."
---
He advanced slowly and drew his sword. Its blade shone not with mere metal but as though forged in the heart of dragons.
> "You foolish tiger… You will pay… for wounding my little princess."
The beast roared and charged, but before it could strike…
> "Dragon Claw Technique."
---
In an instant, the tiger's body was sliced into fine ribbons as if cut by a divine scalpel. Flesh scattered into the air, raining down… but it was not water.
It was a shower of blood.
---
Lyona stood in shock, eyes wide, hands trembling. The gap between her strength and this man's was staggering. She realized… she was still far too weak.
Liza stared at her broken bow, disappointment filling her eyes.
Raiden looked at her and sighed:
> "The Queen of the Aelves will punish you… you broke the bow."
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Thank you so much for your continuous support and encouragement!
Being selected among Fresh Stories' recommended reads with "Oath of Vengeance" is a great honor and motivates me to keep delivering my very best.
I hope you enjoy every moment of this story—you are the reason it exists.
Stay tuned for many more adventures and thrills coming soon!
— By Abdulrahman