Shades of the New World

Chapter 140: Domineering

Arza couldn't help but think disappointedly. He had hyped himself up greatly, but his opponent was still acting like a coward. Inevitably, his hands started itching for a spar with Evin again. They hadn't fought at all for the past two months, since both were busy with their own things.

Arza learned a lot in the academy classes, but the level of information that he learned was simply too low level to matter. On the other hand, Evin was progressing at a rapid pace. Arza didn't know what the other was studying exactly, but it surely wasn't the same as listening to an old instructor drone on endlessly about random runes and their effects.

As Arza was thinking of such idle things, the pillars of ice finally came surrounded him tightly from all sides. 

"Finally," Arza murmured.

"You brought this upon yourself! Frozen Prison!" Ellar screamed and the Expansion runes on the pillars lighted up. The twenty pillars of ice began to rapidly enlarge and in no time, Arza was encased on all sides by cold ice. After it finished expanding, the containment runes began to light up one after another and Arza felt the pressure on him becoming stronger by the second. In the eyes of the crowd, the huge frozen prison had become almost twice as big compared to before. An eerie silence filled the arena.

Inside the Prison, Arza was reminded of the time he fought Bella and how he lost because he was trapped in ice. Compared to that small ice box, this multipart spell that caught him was a few dozen times stronger. 

'But so what?' Arza thought without care. He got his mind and body excited and his muscles began pulsating and bulging, Life energy flooding through his bones and flesh. A hint of fire flashed through his skin as well, but after melting a miniscule amount of the ice, it would die out due to the Anti-heat properties of the Frozen Prison. But having that tiny piece of the ice melted was enough for Arza to struggle out of the prison! 

"So what of this is ten times stronger than that spell? Compared to that time, I'm twenty times stronger!" 

A fervent roar exploded loudly from inside the case, followed by a shattering sound. Then, a huge rumble came from inside the ice and the sound of two giant pieces of ice rubbing on each other grated the ears of the crowd. But the fuss inside the prison hadn't died out yet, as sounds of banging, accompanied by the excited laugh of a child came from inside the prison of ice. 

Bang! 

The grating of ice became louder and louder before it finally exploded into countless tiny specks of ice under everyone's astonished expressions.

A glowing pink figure darted out from the mist and ice dust and appeared in front of Ellar in the blink of an eye.

A loud thud resounded in the arena, which was then followed by a crash. 

Arza stood where Ellar stood a moment ago, panting and satisfied. Then, he roared happily under the concerned cheers of the crowd. 

He then eyed Ellar whose body wouldn't fall from the arena barrier, like he was plastered onto it. All the emotion and pride vanished from Arza's heart when he saw the unmoving figure of the black-haired boy in front of him. For some reason, an image of Ellar melting into the barrier appeared in Arza's mind.

'Shit, what did I do?' Arza panicked and ran to check up on the boy. He worriedly looked at the boy's body, expecting the worst.

But thankfully, Ellar seemed fine, since there was a sorbothium chest-plate protecting the boy's chest and back. The bottom edge of the armor piece got caught in the flexible barrier somehow, which was the reason he was stuck on it.

Arza pulled him out of the thing, started applying first aid like he was taught by the teachers, and asked for someone call a Healer. Surprisingly, Koya came from the crowd and helped Ellar get conscious. Rantz was behind her sister's back, curiously looking over her shoulders.

"That's a surprising display of strength," the usually silent black-clothed girl commented. 

"Yeah, I don't know why, but Evin and you always seem to overdo it," Rantz said with an awkward smile. Arza was surprised she would joke about that topic, but he didn't think he should comment on it.

"I got heated up for some reason in the fight. Also, I've realized that I have trouble holding back, since I've sparred with Evin for practically two years," Arza explained and sat the muddled Ellar up into a more comfortable position. He then glanced through his body to see if there was something either broken or damaged.

"Speaking of that guy, hasn't he been staying in that mansion for half a month at least? He isn't even coming out to take on missions. There are suddenly so many half-cores in the Tribe Grounds who suddenly came for the Horn Ceremony. Even if they're all weaklings like this guy here, he wouldn't be able to buy that Dark Spell if he keeps this up," Koya said as she channeled Life energy through Ellar's body and nodded faintly. 

"Who knows what he's doing there He's either really focused on something, or he's playing around with Rith," Arza said and thought about the two.

"Rith is the Cosmic, right? I'm so jealous of him for having a Cosmic companion. I asked my father about them and he told me that there were only about a thousand people in the entire world who received a private tutor from the Cosmics," Rantz chimed in and silently walked closer to keep the swaying Ellar in place.

"I'm pretty sure they'd rather die than be separated... even without the whole tutelage thing," Arza scoffed.

[That's true,] Karan commented.

[Oh, Karan, I'm really sorry for ignoring you back then,] Arza apologized. 

[Don't worry about it. I do think that I nag a bit too much, so it's inevitable that you would ignore me sometimes,] the skinshifter said.

'If you know it, then don't be like that!' Arza complained in his head.

The three chatted randomly as they waited for a nurse to come and take Ellar to the infirmary. 

But as they were talking, Bardom came running to the arena with Evin in tow. Evin looked around the arena and was semingly surprised by the amount of ice that was scattered around. His eyes fell on Arza and the barely conscious Ellar. He then looked around and his eyes seemed to notice something as an amused smirk appeared on his mouth. As Arza was about to look at where Evin's eyes fell, the black-haired boy suddenly joked.

"I thought I reminded you to not punch someone who disagreed with you"

"Why did you come here?" Arza asked.