Chapter 41: Fear and courage

“Have a guess?”

“Haha.” Stingham laughed again, tossing his hair.

“This guy really wants to die!”

Displeasure colored the faces of all the musclemen behind Ferguillo. Stingham's action was a naked provocation and mockery in their eyes, showing contempt for Ferguillo. For almost every student in Iron Forest Academy, insults towards Iron Forest Academy they still might endure, but insults at Ferguillo, the one who led the Iron Forest team all the way to the national tournament for two years straight already, was something they simply couldn't accept.

Ferguillo merely waved his hand at those behind him.

Such a simple movement seemed to actually carry infinite magic power. The Iron Forest students behind him all quieted down at once.

After the wave of his hand, Ferguillo looked at Stingham and said, “Beating our Iron Forest Academy isn't such a simple task.” His tone was still very quiet and faint, but anyone could hear the pride and the will for battle burning therein.

“The boss' angry!”

“This guy's gonna suffer!”

“The big boss looks so cool when he's angry!”

The musclemen behind Ferguillo, still uncontrollably irascible just one second ago, now all had looks of adoration on their faces.

“...”

Stingham wordlessly rolled his eyes. “Don't tell me everyone in your Iron Forest Academy's a manlover.”

No one answered his words.

A waft of dazzling magenta stream of arcane particles formed on Ferguillo's fingers. Countless amount of arcane power rushed frantically in the air, forming a strangely pink whirlpool in front of Ferguillo's fingers, transforming into several dozen physical pink feathers sparkling with gem-like rays of light, floating around Ferguillo.

“Is that also Materialization? Why is it so strange!”

Stingham stared in surprise.

“Green Snake Protector!”

A cobra as tall as his body suddenly stood erect in front of Stingham, shooting beam after beam of fluorescent green toward Ferguillo.

Ferguillo's left eye was colored a strange pink. Now the pink suddenly seemed to shrink inward, forming an especially deep channel.

He stood immobile, his hands hanging at his sides, but the gem-like feathers floating around him started to move.

Every green fluorescent beam that struck at his front was greeted by a feather that split the beam apart.

A formidable shock wave would appear in the air every time the feathers scattered the fluorescent beams. It was easy to tell how mighty the two's arcane skills were, but what made it even harder for people to breathe was, these feathers floating in the air didn't seem affected even one bit by the shock waves. They seemed light and pliable, yet were incomparably heavy.

“You fell into the trap.”

Stingham suddenly burst into a loud excited laughter. There was a black wire that'd appeared under Ferguillo's feet at this point, wrapping itself around Ferguillo's feet.

“Is that so?”

A feather had already appeared in front of the black wire at this moment as if it were aware of this black wire's every movement. It sliced off this black wire with ease.

Stingham couldn't help but stare blankly for an instant.

He had the strange and inexplicable feeling Ferguillo saw through every thought in the depths of his mind, as if his opponent could predict his next action every single time.

“My turn now!”

A faint calm voice rose.

Feathers still floated in the air opposite Stingham, but Ferguillo's body had already vanished from among them.

“Three Sun and Moon Slashes!”

His body was already at Stingham's left, a white blazing cloud of light flashing on his hand like a blinding sun.

“The big boss is indeed the big boss!”

“He looks cold and indifferent, but he still can't control the feverish heat in his inner heart!”

“Sure enough, he still charged up to fight at close range!”

A chorus of surprised shouts of adoration rose once again.

“Come!”

A wild excited roar came from Stingham's mouth at the same time. He didn't try to dodge or evade at all. Dazzling lightning covered his hand in no time. He turned around and fired a punch in Ferguillo's direction.

“Boom!”

Two people clashed together, palm against fist. Brilliant light, lighting, and arcane particles burst out between fingers and palms, once again producing the solid sound of flesh banging against flesh, numbing the spectators' teeth to the point they became a little sour.

Surprisingly, neither of the two retreated a single step from the collision, staying entirely deadlocked where they stood.

In the space of an instant, all the gem-like feathers previously still stopped in the air went into action all of a sudden. They struck towards Stingham's back at a speed close to teleportation!

“This guy's actually this powerful?!”

Stingham's heart thumped in his chest, the expression on his face changing in a flash. A weird arcane skill like this, added to Ferguillo's mighty strength at close range, were simply equivalent to two Ferguillos attacking him at the same time.

“The boss' indeed mighty!”

“It's the end!”

“Big boss won't kill him outright yeah?”

Every reserve and team member of Iron Forest Academy had their eyes open wide, as wide as they could stretch.

It had been a long while since they saw Ferguillo in action. Now their blood reached the boiling point as soon as they saw Ferguillo on the offensive.

What made them even more excited was, the current Ferguillo and last year's Ferguillo were worlds apart when it came to strength!

“Great River Dragon!”

A gigantic water dragon bubbled out from under Stingham's feet just when they all thought the fight was over.

“Clang!” This huge water dragon flushed Stingham up until he crashed against the roof of this gym with an explosive sound. However, he actually dodged all the attacks from the feathers!

The gem-like feathers slowly vanished after their impact against the water dragon's body.

Ferguillo slowly stretched his head back, looking the slightly miserable-looking Stingham up above.

Moss also subconsciously raised his head, his gaze firmly locked on Stingham.

“Strike me dead?”

A Stingham soaked from head to toe shouted loudly in anger, “Also, is your boss as handsome as me? Which one of your eyes sees him more handsome than me!”

“Golden Blink Strike!”

His silhouette suddenly dropped behind Ferguillo in a flash, along with a waft of golden particles.

However, the very instant his silhouette appeared, Ferguillo vanished in front of him, appearing behind him instead.

A palm seeming to hold the bright curved moon pushed its way in the direction of his back.

“Great Water Dragon!”

Stingham crashed on the roof with a boom once more, flushed by the water dragon. Ferguillo's one punch the huge water dragon underneath.

Flying in the air, Stingham looked at Ferguillo with disbelief written all over his face.

“What arcane skill are you using that allows you to foresee every next step of mine?”

He didn't attack again. He merely landed steady on the ground, along with droplets of water collapsing down, standing still more than a dozen feet away from Ferguillo.

Ferguillo watched him indifferently. His eyes shrank a little. “I actually also want to know what method you're using to exceed the speed limit of a normal human. You can escape my attack even in such circumstances.”

Seeing that Ferguillo had no intention at all of exposing his secrets and answering his question, Stingham took out a comb and combed his hair, pondering in the meantime.

“Although it seems I can't beat you for now, you probably can't beat me either.”

“What the hell is filling this guy's brain? Does he really think he's the number one male under the heavens, he has to comb his hair even in a moment like this?” Several Iron Forest team members had faces full of black lines when they saw what he was doing.

“Your words are correct.”

Ferguillo nodded, no more heat to be found in his faint voice anymore. “But my teammates are all stronger than people from your Golden Lion Academy. Other than you, just Wilde alone is too much to handle for anyone else in your academy. That's why, when the match comes, your school will still be the one to lose.”

“What you say makes a little sense.”

Stingham thought a little, then actually laughed out loud. “It's not entirely true either, however. Because my handsome self's strength will keep rising, so when the time comes... It's still better for you guys to forfeit obediently, otherwise you'll definitely be beaten by my wise handsome godly warrior self!”

Other than Ferguillo, all the other people from Iron Forest Academy rolled their eyes.

Ferguillo looked at Stingham and faintly said, “I'll wait for you.”

Stingham immediately waved his hand and mumbled, “I'm done babbling with you guys now. My clothes are all wet, although, it's fortunate there aren't all that many girls in your school.” Then he turned around straight away and walked out of the gym. After shooting a glance at Moss standing in the doorway, he flung his head and left Iron Forest Academy.

The eyes of Ferguillo and the others fell on Moss.

“Did you come with him as well, someone from Golden Lion Academy?” Ferguillo asked in his faint voice.

Moss' body started to tremble, uncontrollably.

The duel between Stingham and Ferguillo earlier had thoroughly exceeded his imagination. That sort of absolute fear was starting to get ahold of him once again. Ferguillo seemed at present like a giant evil monster who could swallow him at any moment, body and soul.

In face of this inexplicable fear, Moss had the urge to say, yes I came together with Stingham, then turn his head around and run away.

But a huge sense of shame drowned his body at the same time, at this instant when his body trembled in fear, unable to utter a word.

This sharp sense of shame caused the trembling of his body to become all the more intense, caused him to sweat even more cold sweat.

“No...” His head lifted up, however. “I am a man of Holy Dawn Academy.”

From the very small voice at the beginning, the sound rose to a yell.

“I am a man of Holy Dawn Academy. In the future... I will certainly represent Holy Dawn Academy and do battle with you, defeat you!”

He drew from the depths of his strength and shouted these words, entire unaware how twisted his face looked, sweat and tears flowing down on it at the same time.

“This guy... Are the Holy Dawn Academy people so arrogant? Although, declare war if you have to declare war, why are you crying.”

Several people from Iron Forest looked at him with the same eyes they'd use to watch a freak.

Ferguillo slightly quirked his eyebrows. He turned away, faintly saying, “Alright, I'll also wait for you.”

…

“Boss, why did you have to acknowledge that guy from Holy Dawn Academy?”

After Moss' figure vanished from their sights, many Iron Forest students asked of a Ferguillo who'd started his training again, unable to understand, “It's the same as accepting his challenge, accepting a challenge from a weird guy like him who isn't all that strong. It's really too inappropriate for someone your status.”

“He was trembling out of fear from head to toe, but he still had the courage to challenge me. Someone like this might perhaps obtain some achievements,” Ferguillo faintly said. Then he unhurriedly said, “As to that Golden Lion Academy one... it should be a green dragon bloodline.”