Both Terence and Lily suddenly realized how massively disadvantaged they were. Unfortunately, Terence was unable to act much. Suddenly facing two opponents instead of one, he found himself pushed back.
Wham!
Nicholas was able to smack his face before running a series of punches down to his chest, shocking him. Growling in irritation, Terence swatted him away, but Nicholas managed to parry the blow and skidded backward. Spinning around, he made use of his momentum to deliver a kick to the advancing Terence, knocking the guy back a few steps.
Then Elliot swung his axe, the huge blade cleaving through the back of Terence's neck. The huge guy toppled over, unconscious. Normally, that would mean his death, a decapitating blow that would have removed his head for sure, but the boundary field had preserved his life, allowing him to retain his head but knocked him out.
There was only one opponent left.
Elliot, Nicholas and I didn't move in, however, because Dong Fang Yue Chu already had the situation well in hand.
Lily Liam was striking fiercely with her lance, but Dong Fang Yue Chu calmly deflected it away with his bare palms. Perhaps that was inaccurate, for Dong Fang Yue Chu's hands were blazing with his Pure Yang Fire, which almost melted Lily's lance into slag while protecting his palms. Knocking the sharp end of the red-hot spear to the side, Dong Fang Yue Chu whirled inside and slammed his fiery palm toward Lily's well-endowed chest.
However, Lily raised her shield and managed to block the attack, but just barely. Her shield shattered and she staggered back from the impact with a curse. Twirling her spear around, she forced Dong Fang Yue Chu back, and then retreated.
"No choice…" she muttered, her eyes darting toward where Elliot, Nicholas and I stood. As much as we wanted to join in and finish the match off as quickly as possible, we recognized that this was Dong Fang Yue Chu's fight.
It would be impolite for us to intervene. Dong Fang Yue Chu deserved the chance to get into the spotlight for once.
Lily decided to make use of this chance to summon her own soul beast. A flash of light filled the arena, and the next moment she was riding on top of a winged horse. Gripping the reins, she had her horse charge forward.
"!!!"
Dong Fang Yue Chu sensed danger and he quickly dove to the side before Lily's lance could strike him. The heavy weapon gouged a huge trail into the concrete ground, tearing out a slough of the reinforced material and throwing bits into the air.
"Her destructive power has multiplied by several times!" Nicholas murmured, amazed. Elliot nodded, a frown curling over his face.
"Should we intervene?"
"I'm fine. Leave this to me."
We stopped when Dong Fang Yue Chu raised a hand to stop us. Taking a deep breath, he gathered more flames into himself, and surrounded himself in an inferno.
"It's useless. You won't be able to withstand my charge now."
Digging her heels in, Lily directed her summoned horse to charge at Dong Fang Yue Chu again. Right now she recognized that she had a low probability of winning, and she was fighting purely for pride now. As long as she could take out at least one other member of our team, she would have achieved a moral victory.
She was going to fight until the end.
Before her horse and she could reach Dong Fang Yue Chu, however, the fire mage called up a huge curtain of Pure Yang Flames. Lily wasn't able to stop her charge in time and ended up barreling right through the thick screen of flames.
"Ugh!"
Lily cried out in pain as the purifying flames scorched her. Her horse neighed in agony as the Pure Yang Flames seared through its silver-white body, blackening its once pristine fur and melting the armor and metallic ornaments into slag.
The horse then toppled over, throwing Lily off, disappearing into wisps of spiritual energy. Lily hit the ground and rolled to her feet, bringing her lance up for a counterattack. However, Dong Fang Yue Chu did not close in on her at all.
"!!"
Lily retreated a few steps, watching him warily. Dong Fang Yue Chu merely smiled and shrugged, spreading his hands to show that he was unarmed. Obviously it was a deceptive move, given how he didn't need weapons.
"I didn't think you would have mastered the legendary Pure Yang Flames," Lily remarked as she wiped soot and perspiration from her face. She glanced at the space where her summoned horse had been a few seconds ago. "The Pure Yang Flames that is said to be able to destroy any monsters and purify them, as well as damage Divine Devices."
Monsters seemed to have a close relationship with soul beasts, so generally spells and magic that were effective against monsters also tended to be excellent against soul beasts. That was why Lily's horse was vulnerable to the purifying effects of Dong Fang Yue Chu's Pure Yang Flames. Of course, elemental affinity helped too. Dong Fang Yue Chu's Pure Yang Fire wouldn't be a good match against my fire-type Vermillion Phoenix or water-type Black Tortoise, for example.
Otherwise Dong Fang Yue Chu would practically become invincible against all monsters. Additionally, power helped too. If the monster was powerful enough, it didn't matter what kind of elemental disadvantage it was up against. It would survive a blast from Dong Fang Yue Chu's Pure Yang Flames.
Fortunately, Lily seemed to be around the same level as Dong Fang Yue Chu, and the two were evenly matched. Thanks to my Dad's training, Dong Fang Yue Chu was able to hold his own in close combat, using martial arts to fend off Lily's lance strikes and burn her as and when he needed to.
To her credit, Lily was far from defeated, even though her shield and horse were incinerated. She was still a formidable warrior, as evidenced by her skill with the spear. Twirling around, she thrust her spear at Dong Fang Yue Chu, forcing him into the defensive. He whirled around, deflecting her lance, but Lily continued to press her advantage, her glowing spear aimed at his vitals with flawless precision. Just one mistake, and Dong Fang Yue Chu would fall.
Already he was staggering backward, perspiration beading on his face despite his resistance to heat. His breathing was growing heavier too and his movements were slowing. On the other hand, Lily was not slowing down at all. A sudden strike to his right left a graze on his arm, a thin line of blood opening up underneath a torn sleeve. Blood spurted from his left shoulder as her lance pierced through his skin, narrowly missing the bone underneath. The tip of her spear also cut through his side, spinning him, but Dong Fang Yue Chu just barely managed to slap it away before it could penetrate his vitals and bring him down.
It was clear that Lily was winning the close combat battle.
As a specialized combat mage, it was only natural that she would be superior to Dong Fang Yue Chu in terms of melee techniques and close combat skills. Dong Fang Yue Chu did learn some combat magic, but it was only recently that he benefited from my Dad's training. Lily still held the advantage in terms of experience and skills.
"Will Yue Chu really be all right?" Elliot asked anxiously. "He's being hard-pressed at the moment."
"…as expected of the White Valkyrie." Nicholas looked grim. "She really is the strongest member in this Holy Saints team."
That was correct. Currently, Lily Liam was the second-strongest member of Holy Saints, behind only Harrison Reed in terms of strength and skill. She was originally slated to be the next vice-president of Holy Saints, but she wasn't interested in politics and wanted to devote herself completely to honing her skills. Hence she rejected the position and the role instead fell to the more politically manipulative Lin Zhan Long.
Lily was similar to me in that aspect. I also didn't want any position, but I had no choice but to be vice-president because there simply wasn't any other member to take the position. As a second year, I was not allowed to just palm it off to my juniors in the first year. Otherwise I would have done that long ago and focused solely on cultivating my strength, just like Lily.
Well, that was the benefit of being in a great society like Holy Saints, which Lily made full use of.
It wasn't an exaggeration, therefore, to say that she was the strongest member out of the five. And right now Dong Fang Yue Chu was fighting with her on his own. To be honest, it was already impressive that he could fight on par with the third-ranked student in Jing Tian Academy, given that he was near the bottom of the rankings a couple of months ago.
"I'm not going to be a burden anymore," Dong Fang Yue Chu muttered under his breath. "As the president of Ultimate Outcast, I'm going to work hard to prove myself…to be worthy of such a lofty position!"
With a yell, he literally exploded. Pure Yang Flames gushed out of him, washing over the entire area and engulfing a stunned Lily.
"?!"
The White Valkyrie tried to retreat, but Dong Fang Yue Chu directed another torrent of flames over her. She found herself teetering near the edge of the arena, with nowhere else to go. Cursing, she held her lance up and decided to gamble everything on one last attack. Lowering her spear until it was parallel to the ground, she charged.
For a moment, it worked. Her lance pierced through the flames and she was able to cut open a path as she charged toward the stalwart Dong Fang Yue Chu. However, the fire mage merely stood his ground and continued to control his flames. The Pure Yang Flames that had been split apart by Lily's lance suddenly closed around her and surged from behind, swallowing her in an immense inferno.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Lily let out a bloodcurdling shriek as she was engulfed by the purifying flames. In a few moments, she fell to her knees, her eyes rolling up in their sockets. The boundary field had protected her from death, but she seemed like she was burned into a crisp before she toppled over.
Stunned silence filled the coliseum. After a few seconds, Teacher Fielding raised his hand.
"All of Holy Saints Society's members have been eliminated! Winner, Ultimate Outcast Society!"
The spectators continued to watch the arena with disbelieving expressions. There was no way Ultimate Outcast could have won. True, a lot of them were pissed off by Lin Zhan Long's arrogance and condescending attitude, and were celebrate his early elimination. They were gloating when he was the first to fall.
But Holy Saints still had Cody Crosby and Lily Liam, two of the strongest members of Holy Saints and part of their core vanguard, their first team lineup. How could they lose to a bunch of third-stringers from Black Roses and a newly started society made up mostly of first year students?
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
Harvey bellowed out a cheer and jumped to his feet, waving his hands in excitement. Wang Fei joined in a second later and the two first year students began hollering their hearts out in joy.
"WE WON! Ultimate Outcast won! WOOHOO!"
Beside them, Alicia smiled and broke into applause, as did the rest of the Black Roses watching the match. Jin Hao, Aoi, and the rest. They were all cheering not just for Elliot and Nicholas, but also for the rest of Ultimate Outcast.
"Heh…we did it. We actually did it!"
Dong Fang Yue Chu dropped to a sitting position, exhausted from the match, but delighted with the result. Equally pleased with the outcome, I nodded tiredly.
"Yup. We sure did."