Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 48:Zachary’s Challenge

"Ellen you better have a damn good reason for interrupting me again."

This was the third time this past week already that she had barged in and interrupted Raymond while he was in the midst of his magic research.

You would think that she would actually encourage him to work harder. It was so that she could form her core after all.

Yet several times she had forced him to go out and in her words

’Touch some grass.’

Funny. Until you remember it came from someone who was soon turning 40 mentally.

"Zachary just challenged Troy for his rank."

Now that was interesting.

A students rank and their grade were different things. A grade could be improved by just studying hard and getting a good score on the exams.

A rank was fixed in place, that being the rank you got during the entrance exam. Want to go up a rank? Challenge the person above you and win in a fight.

To even initiate a challenge with someone would cost 100 points, with the challenged being unable to refuse unless they had a valid reason.

Which lead to the academy having two different leaderboards. One for strength and one for academics.

As a side note, Raymond was first place on the grades leaderboard. With his rank being second place.

The rank determined your points and most importantly your class. Whether you were in class D or class A depended on your rank.

Which forced students who were more academic smart and not very good at fighting to essentially suffer at the bottom.

Raymond was about ninety percent sure this was on purpose.

The academy wanted to create heroes after all. If they wanted to become researchers or scientists, they should have gone elsewhere not the Academy for Heroes.

"When is their fight?"

"Today."

He furrowed his brows, "He challenged Troy and they’re fighting already?"

"He challenged him three days ago. You were just locked inside the whole time."

No wonder, Raymond definitely would have remembered something like that happening.

It was nearly two months into the academy anyways so he wasn’t surprised that Zachary was already challenging someone.

By the start of next year, he was supposed to be in the special class anyways.

Since Troy was in class C. Zachary would move up a class while Troy would go down a class.

He set his stuff down, standing up from his desk. "Let’s go watch then."

Ellen however was staring at a certain bucket on the ground. The lid half open with its contents slightly emptied out.

SUPER GLUE (made for industrial usage)

"What’s this glue for?"

"It’s to keep components from moving duh. Why else would I need glue for?"

"..."

She felt speechless. Her mouth opening and closing for a while like a fish.

’This glue...isn’t for me?’

It sounded weird like that, but she knew Raymond quite well.

He had a tendency to remember past grudges. He also had a tendency to act on said past grudges.

Naturally, when they lived in the Grace mansion. Raymond’s attempt at revenge had always been swiftly shutdown by her. Turning the tables back on him each and every time.

She had assumed he would have done something already but he hadn’t.

And the suspense was killing her.

"Uhh.. nothing. Lets just go to the arena."

***

"Place your bets now! Zachary or Troy? Who will win! Place your bets now!"

Seeing Arthur hard at work again made for a bit of a nostalgic sight for Raymond.

In the previous timeline, Raymond himself had often placed bets as well under the name Nutte. Not just on Zachary but for other challenges as well. Whenever it was Zachary’s challenges he always won it big. But the outcome was a bit harder to predict for others which made it fun for him.

Seeing the occasional underdog victory, or just a sad excuse of wanting to bully someone. These challenges had become a staple of the academy. One that Raymond himself enjoyed a lot.

Sure there were lots of entertainment options within the commercial district. But in a world with mana, the best entertainment was always seeing other people fighting.

Perhaps that was his only gripe with Earth. The entertainment options there were just really boring without mana.

Approaching Arthur who was still enthusiastically promoting his betting. He jumped slightly as Raymond walked up to him.

"I’d like to make a bet on Zachary. 500 points."

500 points. That was the amount of points that Noelle made in a month.

Arthur’s slight fear of Raymond quickly vanished. Excitedly grabbing Raymond’s hand, "500 points?!"

Dealing with people like Arthur was always the easiest. Just throw money at them and they would usually cave in to anything you asked. Willing to throw their pride and fear away just for a few extra coins.

...Raymond suddenly fell into a deep state of thought for no particular reason at all.

Finding a good spot to sit, he and Ellen quietly waited for the match to start.

Zachary soon emerged from a tunnel. A small amount of people cheered for him, a sign that his popularity was already slightly starting to grow.

Not too many people though, and Raymond only mainly recognized those from class D were cheering for him. Most were still afraid to for fear of angering Troy—or more precisely, the Depont family.

Troy soon appeared as well, although few also cheered at his appearance.

He was a bully and objectively the villain in this situation. His own popularity was already well known due to his horrible behavior and attitude.

With the two figures on the arena. A barrier rose around the arena, followed by a countdown.

Raymond could see Zachary’s lips moving slightly, sadly he wasn’t very good at lip reading. He pointed his finger at him and wagged it slightly. The meaning was clear.

But whatever he said definitely riled up Troy like crazy. Because the moment the countdown reached zero. He rushed at Zachary straight away, like a bull seeing red.

***

5

"After this fight, I’m going to make sure that you will never see the sun ever again you damn bastard!"

3

Zachary smirked at Troy, pointing a finger at him before wagging it slightly. Like how one would at a dog.

"Come here and just accept your defeat like the good little fat dog you are."

[Skill:Taunting Provocation]

1

A brief window showing his skill had beeen used flashed before him. Zachary quickly sent a mental command to the system to stop such alerts.

0.

The moment the countdown hit zero. Troy immediately rushed at him. He moved significantly faster then one might expect from someone with a physique like that.

His feet thundered as he charged towards Zachary, arms raised as he screamed a battle cry at the top of his lungs.

His movements were open, so shamefully open that Zachary wondered whether it was a trap at first.

A faint green aura surrounded Troy, being concentrated mainly at his fists. It looked as if he were wearing green gloves. His speed slightly increased, each step pushing him further and faster.

The Evergreen Pine Arts. The Arts used by the members of the Depont family. Famed for it’s unchanging and stable nature. A constant that would never back down. Resembling a plant that retained it’s greenery year-round.

Such an Art was mainly used for defense.

Zachary drew his sword, a reward from his system. Reaching nearly 120 centimeters. It had a straight double-edged blade. Long and tapered at the end. With crossguards that squared off at the end, and a angular looking pommel. This was the first time he had ever drawn this sword since obtaining it.

Taking a deep breath, he channeled his own mana through his body and into the sword. Every muscle fiber and tendon becoming stronger, tougher and more durable. A shimmering golden light appeared around him. Covering his sword in what appeared to be solid transparent light, giving off the appearance of a glass cover—his sword became longer, larger, and sharper.

Flexing his muscles, he casually waited a just a bit longer before finally unleashing his attack in a massive overhead swing.

A triangular blade of light flew out of his slash, right into the path of Troy’s relentless charge. The glowing blade cut through the air in a straight-line trajectory, creating faint whistling sounds in the air as it blazed a golden trail behind.

Troy raised his arms, his Arts flaring around his hands as he desperately tried to protect himself from being cut in half. Not that it actually would, the academy had plenty of safety measures. Zachary himself was holding back on that attack as well. The chance of it actually killing him was close to zero.

The glowing blade and Troy soon collided, sending several sparks of mana flying. Troy gritted his teeth, his arms crossed as he pushed against it with all his might. His hair flung backwards from the wind of their collision. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

But it worked, he had blocked it. The glowing blade of light quickly dissipating into nothingness. He looked haggard and drained but he had successfully blocked it. He grinned maniacally, the distance between them was only around 7 meters now. The effective range for the Evergreen pine Arts.

But he was also in Zachary’s range.

His light covering his sword pulsed slightly, with a quick dash. He and Troy exchanged several blows over. The two of them struggling to defend against the others attacks.

Troy’s Arts were specialized in defense. But Zachary’s attacks were simply too strong. Each swing, each thrust and each stab was ruthless. Chest, shoulder, head, no body part was spared from his sword.

As horrible as Troy was, he was still a scion of a wealthy family. Growing up, he had definitely eaten countless valuable elixirs and whatnot that increased his strength. Learning under some of the best teachers and of course—having access to a treasure trove of high grade Arts.

Zachary was different, his current sword Arts—The Willful Sword Path Arts was entirely offensive based. He had never properly learned the sword, only swinging it based on reflex and wild instinct. Defense? Stance? Footwork? He knew none of that. All he knew was that he really wanted to beat up the person in front of him right now.

So he did, each strike and each slash was met with a punch from Troy. Green against Gold clashing like a crocodile and a lion fighting in nature.

Zachary could feel an intense pricking sensation each time they clashed, micro needles poking holes into his body. A signature of the Evergreen Pine Arts, each strike from Troy implanting several pine needles into him. Wrecking havoc throughout his body.

Such a thing would have been dangerous, but Zachary was prepared. He had only challenged Troy because he was fully confident in his victory after all.

Dashing back for a while, he saw a sneer grow on Troy’s face. The green aura surrounding him was definitely much weaker now, but he seemed sure of his own victory. Gloating at Zachary.

"What’s wrong commoner? Starting to regret this challenge? Heh. I’m not. I’m going to enjoy pummeling you in front of everyone here."

Zachary just smiled back at him, exhaling with a deep breath. He clenched the muscles throughout his body, activating another Art he had recently purchased from the system.

[Skill:Body Cleansing Arts][Level1/1]

-Cleanse your body of any negative status effects when activated. Provides a small rejuvenating effect upon use.

A faint wave of mana burst from his body. The lingering prickly feeling disappeared as each and every one of the needles in his body was swiftly destroyed from his Arts.

His body having been rejuvenated, feeling as good as new again. Raising his sword and pointing it at him, he flourished the blade slightly—as he made eye contact with Troy who was shaking in disbelief.

"Just felt a bit uncomfortable that’s all."