Chapter 996 - Own Talent In his hand, Shiro was holding onto both of the duel blades tightly. His hands were slightly shaking, showing his nerves. He would have still been nervous if he was just to fight against Zhen again, but there was the one from the Graylash family as well, and everyone was watching him and counting on him to win. ’If what I think is happening, is happening, Then as soon as this door opens, both of them will come charging in at me.’ Shiro thought. ’Can I do it?’ "You are stronger than you think," Quinn said. His final words as the countdown had ended and the glass door opened. Rather than rushing in, Shiro decided he would observe the situation from outside. As he decided what to do, it would be his thinking time, but then what he saw next came as a complete surprise. At first, the student from the Graylash group came running forward, and Zhen too seemed to be walking, trailing behind. There was a concerned look on the Grayish student’s face as he noticed Zhen not doing anything. Still, as they continued to run forward, they were suddenly stopped in place, feeling something tug against their leg. Looking down, they could see a root had wrapped around their ankle, making it hard for them to move, and when they lifted their head, a blade was already pointed at their throat. "Forfeit this match, now," Zhen said. Gulping, the student did as asked and gave up. It was a victory that was even quicker than Erlen’s. "You didn’t think I would let anything ruin our little reunion, did you?" Zhen asked. "You must have known that this would happen if you decided to participate again. I wonder what your teacher was thinking, sending in someone like you. Maybe he has a screw loose in his head as well." Zhen continued to taunt. Shiro didn’t let it get to him. Maybe in the past, it would have, but he was too focused on his breathing right now. Taking in a deep breath at the right time, he charged forward, cutting the distance between the two of them far quicker than Zhen had expected. He quickly got in a stance seeing this and soon was parrying the attacks from Shiro away. He hit them one by one, not having time to recover or get a solid footing to strike back. ’What’s going on? His attacks weren’t this strong before? And he wasn’t this fast. Is he wearing beast armour, or is it something else?’ Zhen thought. Eventually, Zhen had found the root that he had grown from earlier that had been used on the Graylash student. He was able to quickly cause this to rise and grow in front of them, blocking the path between the two of them. Shiro cut down a few branches, but the tree was growing at a fast-rate, creating more different components that would wrap around. Still, he continued to attack them one by one, hitting all of the branches and not losing his breath until the entire root was destroyed. Once again, Shiro charged in, and this time he delivered a powerful blow hitting the sword, making Zhen’s arm feel numb. A hit was made towards the side of his c.h.e.s.t, but a clanging sound was heard as metal struck against metal. At this point in one’s school journey life, it was rare for a student to have beast armour unless they had a strong family backing, and it looked to be the case here. Still, even with the armour on, the damage could be felt. It even chucked Zhen’s body off to the side. Quickly wasting no time, he built up giant tree trunks, wishing to get more distance between the two of them. "What is going on? Is Zhen running away?" The students wondered. "But isn’t the other person just using a beast weapon? I haven’t even seen him use an ability." "Wait, that’s that kid called Shiro, right? I don’t think he even has an ability!" Word was getting around about Shiro, and now they were wondering if the reason for his vast improvement was due to the beast weapons itself. ’I don’t understand. You didn’t teach the boy Qi did you? So how did he get so strong?’ Vincent thought. He had watched him, so he was sure he had never taught the kid Qi. ’Your right, I didn’t teach him Qi, but I helped his body figure it out for himself.’ Quinn replied. ’This is all because of Shiro’s own talent. When talking to the others, it seemed like Shiro had managed to activate the power of the beast weapon before anyone else. I started to realise that those that could, had a stronger sense of Qi within their body, and it was true for Shiro as well. ’I remember Sil explaining his family’s strange bodies. They too seemed to be infused with Qi, but when I asked him about it, he never knew what it was. Qi is life force, according to Leo, so everyone has it, but maybe through the struggles that Shiro had been through, just like the life and death situations the Blades’ go through, he was able to summon some of it. "What I just did was show him what he had. Show him the energy around his body. The rest was down to Shiro himself." Right now, Shiro’s body was infused with Qi without him even knowing about it. He would simply think it was the breathing technique Quinn taught or due to the beast weapons he was using. The reason why Quinn wasn’t afraid others would find out was due to the small amount of Qi and he also knew that the others would think it was due to the weapons as well. The match continued, and Zhen’s panicking caused him to use far more MC than he realised. Shiro was like a beast, having locked onto his prey chasing after Zhen, and whatever would be used to try to slow him down, he would cut them down. Eventually, the inevitable had happened, and Zhen had run out of Mc points, no longer being able to use his ability. He gripped his sword. "I am Zhen. Who are you!" He shouted, attempting to strike back with all his force holding his short sword with two hands. The blow was blocked with a single hand from Shiro, and then another kick was made to Zhen’s c.h.e.s.t. Shiro continually attacked at the armour on Zhen’s body. It would bounce off each time, and it was hard for Shiro to know if it was doing any damage or not. However, he thought they would eventually stop the fight and Fay, who was by the side, was wondering why that still didn’t happen yet. ’Although students are allowed to wear armour, we are still meant to judge the fight as if they haven’t got any on. So why hasn’t the referee from the Earthborn group stepped in and stopped the fight yet? Clearly, the boy has lost.’ Fay took a slight step forward but then saw a faint smile coming from the teacher Aden. ’Is this their plan? Do they want me to come in and stop the fight? Maybe then they will say I have stopped the fight too early, and it will give the other student time to rest.’ If this was the plan, it was a crafty one. Because anyone could tell by the way Shiro was striking, he couldn’t keep it up forever, and even he could tell. However, the others didn’t know he had one more trick up his sleeve. He knew he couldn’t fight on like this. Placing both of his duel blades together. Shiro struck at the sword in Zhen’s hand once again. By now, the damage had been building up over time, and as it hit, he had let go of the blade, causing it to fall to the floor, but Shiro had done the same, dropping his blades. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 The next step he took, he slammed his foot on the ground and pulled his left fist back. "Wait, isn’t this one of your moves?" Fex asked. The others knew this strike well, as Shiro threw his other fist out, hitting the centre of Zhen’s c.h.e.s.t piece like a hammer. It was the hammer strike. Blood sped out from Zhen’s mouth as the attack went entirely through the armour. ’Are they still not going to stop this fight? I need to go in now!’ Fay thought. Putting on a brave face, Zhen made it look like he wasn’t hurt at all. The rest of the blood in his mouth he attempted to swallow. He stood up fine as if the attack didn’t hurt him. ’The attack had to hurt him, I can tell, one more hit, and he’ll fall over!’ Shiro thought as he went to perform a second hammer strike again but in the middle of its moments. The blood from Zhen’s mouth had finally given in, pouring over Shiro’s face. He stopped the attack midway and lost concentration, and in that second, Zhen had picked up his blade again and struck it towards Shiro’s heart. In the last few seconds, it was stopped by the Earthborn referee, and Fay wasn’t too far behind, having already pulled Shiro out of the way as well. "I guess this is a win for the Earthborn group then?" The referee smiled at Fay. "The winner is the Earthborn group!" Oscar announced. The cheers continued as the students were taken back to their groups, but there was controversy about who the real winner was. Shiro was walking back fine on his two feet, not having been damaged, while Zhen had to be carried back. "I lost," Shiro said as he walked through the glass doors. "Hey, are you crazy? Of course you won that. They should have stopped that fight long ago." Venus said, trying to encourage him. For the first time, Venus and Swim weren’t the only ones talking to him, as everyone started to rally behind Shiro. They stated that he had clearly won the fight bringing a smile to his face. The real question, was now that there was a draw between two groups, what would happen next. "Everyone, as you know, there are two points awarded to the Cursed house and two Points to the Earthborn House. I have just been given a suggestion from the Earthborn leaders that maybe we should make the tiebreaker a little more interesting. "But I want everyone’s opinion here about it. How about for the final point, we have the two teachers of each class face off in a duel!" Oscar asked. Hearing this, the students got excited thinking about seeing two experienced supposed fighters going toe to toe. The crowd roared in response. ’Wait, does this mean they want me to fight?’ Quinn thought. ****** Get access to the MVS webtoon on P.a.t.r.e.o.n it’s only $3 dollar a month And read My werewolf system Exclusively. If you want to support you can on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga For MVS artwork and updates follow on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga