Chapter 166: Tenth Trial: Rank Stealing: Felix Vs Ezra Part – Two

Before Raymond fully commenced the fight...At the side where the Elders sat...

"Hmm... a Lowline challenging a Mainline."

Elder Portia leaned slightly forward in her seat while staring at Ezra carefully.

Her old eyes scanned through him slowly.

Unlike the ordinary spectators who only saw a pale boy with white-and-black hair and a dull expression...

The Elders could naturally see more.

"His Cognis control is refined."

She rested her chin lightly against her fingers.

"And he’s already a Full Alchemist within the Binder Rank."

A smile slowly appeared on her wrinkled face.

"Two Lowlines managed to rank this high during the Trial of Steel."

Elder Paul also smiled faintly.

"So perhaps the saying is true after all."

He chuckled lightly.

"Talent truly can be born even amongst the lowest bloodlines."

"But..."

Elder Fredricks suddenly cut into the conversation with a smug smile stretched across his face.

"He made a mistake choosing to fight Felix-boy."

"You think Felix will win easily?"

Elder Yestin calmly glanced toward him.

Fredricks frowned immediately.

"Who else would win?"

His tone carried obvious irritation.

"Felix-boy is direct blood of Ash."

He pointed slightly toward the stage.

"And looking at both of them, Felix clearly possesses more Cognis despite both being Binder Rank Alchemists."

Fredricks spoke proudly.

"We should all know how intelligent Felix-boy is as well."

He scoffed afterward while staring toward Ezra.

"This Lowline already revealed how foolish he is by challenging Felix when he could’ve avoided injury completely."

His expression became even more annoyed.

"Perhaps ranking highly made him overestimate himself."

He sneered.

"Useless."

Then...

"I wonder if his parents are even here."

He glanced toward the maids standing behind him.

The two young maids immediately shook their heads nervously.

They didn’t know.

"Sterling..."

Elder Tabitha suddenly stroked her chin thoughtfully.

"That family name sounds familiar..."

"Lord Elder..." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The elderly maid standing behind her stepped closer respectfully.

"That’s the Baron family where one of the Head’s sons married a maid previously under my authority."

The old maid whispered softly.

"Oh..."

Tabitha slowly remembered.

"That woman."

"We were invited to a ceremony for her newborn child several months ago."

The maid nodded politely.

"The same one you asked me to deliver a gift to as your representative."

"Yes..."

Tabitha leaned back slightly while recalling the memory.

"I remember now."

"Ehh..."

She suddenly glanced toward Ezra again.

"So, you’ve seen the child before?"

Her curiosity deepened.

"Did he show any sign of talent back then?"

The maid stared at Ezra walking calmly toward the stage.

Honestly...

When she first saw him back then...

He looked nothing special, in the slightest.

"Not really..."

She answered truthfully.

"When I saw him, he honestly didn’t look like someone capable of reaching this level."

"That makes things more interesting."

Elder Ivanhoe smiled faintly.

"He managed to grow this much through the trials themselves."

His eyes reflected approval.

"I’m beginning to like the Trial of Steel more and more."

"It was worth the resources spent."

Elder Branthwaite laughed softly as well.

The Elders gradually returned their attention toward the fight itself.

But...

The elderly maid continued staring at Ezra longer, confusion slowly appeared within her eyes.

Didn’t the child back then have fully black hair?

She frowned slightly while thinking.

Back then...

She clearly remembered hearing that one of the twins died and the surviving child should have been this boy.

The old maid eventually dismissed the thought.

Perhaps the stress of the trials caused his hair color to change partially.

After all...Such things occasionally happened amongst Alchemists under intense pressure.

Back on the stage after Raymond commenced the fight...

Felix’s dagger thrust violently toward Ezra’s eye.

Fast and precise.

Filled with killing intent.

But...

Ezra calmly shifted sideways with only a few smooth steps.

The dagger missed completely.

At the same moment...

Felix immediately followed up; his other fist surged forward.

Cognis flowed heavily into his arm to strengthen the force behind the punch.

But...

Slap!

Ezra smoothly redirected the punch away with one hand, then within the same flowing motion...

He backhanded Felix directly across the face.

The sound echoed sharply throughout the hall.

The crowd gasped, but before they could fully react...

Boom!

Ezra drove his knee straight into Felix’s stomach.

Felix’s eyes widened instantly.

The impact forced air out of his lungs violently.

He attempted moving Cognis toward his abdomen to reinforce himself...

But he was too slow.

Ezra’s transition between attacks flowed too naturally.

Too smoothly.

There was barely even a pause between motions.

After the knee strike...

Ezra immediately stepped onto Felix’s foot.

Grounding him and preventing him from retreating, then he began overwhelming Felix completely.

Punch, Punch, Punch.

His fists crashed repeatedly into Felix’s cheeks.

Then his nose, then his chest, then his chin, then directly into his mouth.

Again, and again and again.

The blows came rapidly without giving Felix room to properly breathe or stabilize himself.

The audience could only watch as Felix’s head snapped repeatedly from the impacts.

Even Raymond’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Then...

Boom!

Ezra delivered one final heavy punch directly into Felix’s chest.

The impact sent Felix flying backward across the stage.

He rolled violently along the ground before stopping several meters away.

Silence.

"What just happened?"

Felix coughed heavily while lying on the ground, blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and his breathing turned rough immediately.

The audience on the second floor and most of the candidates below looked completely dumbfounded.

The exchange happened too quickly and too cleanly.

No one expected Felix to get overwhelmed like that the moment the fight started, especially not by the unknown lowline.

Vera calmly crossed one leg over the other while folding her arms beneath her chest.

An amused look rested quietly within her unreadable eyes as she watched Felix getting beaten around so easily.

While at Veda’s side...

His eyes were opened wide in genuine shock.

He expected Ezra to win.

That much was obvious.

But...

Not like this, not to this extent.

The outcome of the first clash happened so suddenly that even Veda struggled to process it immediately.

"Pff..."

A laugh almost escaped his mouth, but he quickly forced himself to hold it back.

Felix slowly stood up and for the first time...

He could truly feel it.

The disappointment, the silence around him.

The heavy pressure of everyone’s expectations collapsing onto his shoulders at once.

Earlier...

His group loudly cheered when he stepped onto the stage, but now...

They were quiet, completely quiet.

Felix could feel Astraea’s disappointed gaze on him.

Vera’s usual plain look of disdain, Veda’s almost-laughing expression and worse than all of them...

Ezra’s calm gaze.

That dull nonchalant expressionless look, like Felix himself wasn’t even worth taking seriously.

This bastard...!

Felix screamed internally while standing sharply.

Several steel bars immediately scattered around the stage.

Boom!

Cognis exploded outward from his body violently.

The pressure shook the air around him hard enough for several nearby candidates to tense instinctively.

"I’m going to kill you!"

Felix clapped both hands together violently.

At that exact moment...

Ezra’s eyes twitched slightly.

The scale of the alchemy circle spreading beneath Felix immediately became obvious.

"Don’t tell me..."

One of the young Mainline nobles stood up abruptly, even the Alchemists seated above narrowed their eyes sharply.

What Felix was just about to perform...Was Mass Alchemy.

The alchemy circle rapidly expanded across a huge section of the stage floor.

Then...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ten AK-47 rifles emerged upright from the glowing circle.

The audience on the second floor instantly erupted into loud reactions.

A Binder Rank Alchemist performing Mass Alchemy?

That level of execution normally belonged to Meister Rank Alchemists and above.

Even several Elders looked impressed despite themselves.

Blood slowly dripped from Felix’s nose.

Still...

He immediately grabbed the nearest AK-47 and opened fire toward Ezra.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even while blinded by rage...

Felix’s shooting remained calm.

Precise and filled with perfect accuracy.

His bullets were accurately timed, every angle carefully calculated.

But...

Ezra cleanly weaved through every shot.

Not a single bullet touched him.

Then...

Felix suddenly rushed forward while continuing to fire relentlessly.

At the same time...

He grabbed another AK-47 from the ground and hurled it toward Ezra.

Cognis reinforced his arm heavily.

The rifle flew through the air like a missile aimed directly toward Ezra’s face, while Felix continued shooting simultaneously.

Ezra calmly caught the incoming rifle during his weaving motion.

He shifted backward slightly while glancing at the weapon.

Ehn...For someone blinded by rage...His strategy is actually decent.

More bullets tore through the air toward him.

Ezra calmly continued dodging while observing the weapon.

This AK he threw is only First Grade.

He glanced toward the rifle currently held by Felix.

Eighth Grade.

Immediately...

Ezra understood Felix’s entire plan.

Felix intended to bait him into using the First-Grade rifle against the stronger Eighth Grade AK-47.

The moment both weapons collided...

The weaker rifle would explode apart instantly.

Either injuring Ezra directly, or creating enough distraction for Felix to finish him off immediately afterward.

Unfortunately for Felix...

The person standing before him was Ezra.

Out of the ten rifles...

Ezra calmly scanned them.

Three First Grade and seven Eighth Grade.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

Meanwhile all these thoughts, Felix had already closed the distance, now wielding two AK-47s simultaneously while firing aggressively.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ezra suddenly swung the First-Grade rifle toward the incoming bullets.

Right before collision...

He released the weapon entirely.

Boom!

The First Grade AK instantly shattered apart.

Metal fragments and smoke exploded outward violently.

A smirk appeared across Felix’s face.

Got him.

Then...

Felix immediately hurled both rifles in his hands forward.

At the same moment...

Clap!

Inside the smoke cloud...

Ezra also clapped both hands together, both performed alchemy simultaneously.

Felix instantly created a Springfield M1903A4 sniper rifle.

As the smoke slowly cleared, Ezra stood calmly holding only a revolver.

"This bastard!"

Felix roared angrily.

His irritation worsened instantly.

A revolver? Against a Springfield? Did this maggot think this was some kind of joke?

Felix immediately aimed and fired.

Bang!

The rifle shot exploded forward faster than sound itself.

But...

Ezra was faster.

Not by some massive difference that could easily be seen with the eyes...

But by roughly five milliseconds.

And that was only because he wasn’t using Cognis enhancement yet.

Every rifle shot Felix fired with careful precision... every calculated angle... every movement prediction, was getting cleanly weaved around by Ezra.

Like he already knew where the bullets would appear before Felix even pulled the trigger.

Step, twist, tilt, move.

Ezra’s body flowed naturally through the barrage of bullets while slowly advancing forward.

Felix, the one holding the larger and more powerful weapon, unconsciously began stepping backward instead.

At first...

He didn’t even realize it, but as seconds passed...

Confusion slowly started eating into his mind.

He was clearly calculating Ezra’s movements correctly.

Felix would predict where Ezra might dodge the first shot...Then immediately fire a second shot toward the next escape route almost simultaneously.

His timing was accurate, his aim was sharp.

Yet...

None of the bullets hit.

Not even close.

Every single movement Ezra made felt slightly ahead of his calculations, like Felix himself was the one lagging behind.

And then...

It clicked.

A familiar memory suddenly resurfaced inside Felix’s mind.

A memory tied to the person he hated most.