"Belo!"
Ayrin's voice rose among the tall trees, blending together with the rustling of countless tree leaves blown by the breeze, sounding somewhat strange.
Belo's whereabouts at night were also very strange usually. He was nowhere to be found during training time, and he didn't come back even late at night, when it was time for bed. Ayrin had no idea what he did at night. Now, following the source of the sound through several hundred meters, Ayrin actually saw the same Belo standing in an clearing inside the forest.
Four boys of various height faced him, obviously all senior students.
Belo and those four senior students stood face to face. Something seemed a little wrong with the mood.
"Sneijer?"
There was a blond who felt very familiar to Ayrin among the four, with a sturdy stature, much taller than himself and Belo. He suddenly remembered after a blank stare: this person was the one Belo called a class tyrant, the one Belo knocked down with a surprise attack back then in the canteen number three.
"Great, this kid actually also happens to be here, now it's perfect." Seeing Ayrin charge out from within the forest, this tall and sturdy blond boy immediately grinned evilly, his fists clenched tight.
Ayrin hopped to Belo's side and asked anxiously, "What's the matter?" He saw that apart from Sneijer, he'd never seen the other three before.
One had a little braid standing upright on top of his head, so skinny the blue academy uniform coat seemed overly loose when draped on him.
One had an ordinary stature with a short bowl cut that seemed especially tidy without a single strand out of place, looking a little comical.
There was also one with a handsome face, the collar of his school uniform pulled up straight, covering the bottom half of his face. His hands were stuck inside his pockets. Looking carefully, it looked like often stayed up late at night; a few dark circles were visible under his eyes.
"You can't even tell what's going on?"
Belo pushed his glasses and pointed to the four facing him, as if nothing was out of the ordinary: "Since you also happen to come by, then let me do the introductions. This one's Sneijer, we beat him up in the canteen last time, you probably remember him."
"The other three are helpers he brought to retaliate against me."
"The toothpick with the funny braid is called Kybaver, the bowl-head is called Yurou, the collar guy is called Dyfer. Two of them are second years, one's a third year."
"Last time in the canteen you caught me by surprise. Belo, you stir trouble everywhere, there are already many people who are fed up with you. If no one teaches you a lesson, you'll really end up believing you're the big boss in our Holy Dawn Academy." Sneijer smiled coldly when he heard Belo's words. "We can let you off today, as long as you obediently lick our feet, call us big boss when you see us in the future, and pay a protection fee every month."
"Everyone's a student of the same school, there's no need to go that far right?" Ayrin's voice suddenly sounded.
"..." The extremely proud Sneijer was suddenly at a loss for word.
"Moron! Either you run away right now, or else beat up these guys with me." Belo's glasses flashed with cold light. "Do you think they look like they're going to let us off easy?"
"Acting arrogant even now." Sneijer laughed out loud. "Senior Dyfer and the others are here already, do you think you can run away even if you wanted to?"
"They're all second or third year seniors, they're surely who knows how many times stronger than us." Looking at the three senior students who weren't taking them seriously at all, so proud even their eyes seemed pointed to the sky, Ayrin said, "No way we can beat them."
Belo humphed in disdain and said excitedly, "How can you know we can't beat them if we don't try."
"Even if you think with your toes, you'll still know there's no way we can beat them."
Ayrin advanced two steps, a pitiful expression on his face. "Truth to tell, I'm not very familiar with him. Brave warriors, just let me let me off ok?"
"What the hell?" Sneijer immediately started to sweat a bit.
Ayrin bent his waist down at this moment, as if he were truly afraid of getting beaten up and wanted to obediently lick their feet. Belo's face suddenly turned unsightly. But in a flash, what no one expected was, Ayrin made at roll at a frightening speed, then catapulted himself forward. Before anyone realized what he wanted to do, he shot forward, leaving many afterimages, and with a "pop," struck his fist on Sneijer's chin.
"Ah..."
Before Sneijer's miserable scream even had time to come out, with an explosive bang that numbed the scalp, Ayrin's shoulder crashed ferociously on Sneijer's chest.
Sneijer flew back and toppled down like a broken burlap bag, while Ayrin nimbly borrowed the force of the impact to turn around and retreat a few steps, retreating to Belo's side.
"..."
Belo's was struck speechless.
The three senior students and their eyes that seemed to grow on top of their heads were also unable to adapt to the Ayrin's sudden change. They all stared dumbly in place for an instant.
"Ah..." Countless miserable yells came nonstop from Sneijer after he crashed heavily on the ground. He simply couldn't stand back up.
"Was that actually a sneak attack?"
Belo looked at Ayrin as if he were seeing a stranger, then he suddenly laughed out loud with incomparable excitement the next moment. He stretched a finger and pointed at Sneijer lying on the ground. "Sneijer you dumbass, you didn't learn your lesson after getting caught by surprise last time, today you got caught off-guard again and beaten until you can't even stand up. Were I you, I might as well find a tree in this forest and hang myself."
"You two, you think we don't exist?" The bowl-headed Yurou said with an unsightly expression, coldly lifting his head. The other two stayed silent, still not saying a word. They merely watched Ayrin and Belo with the eyes of cats looking at mice.
"It's about time."
At this moment, Belo actually lifted his head and looked at the night sky. Then he pushed his glasses and mumbled to himself, "You guys are out of luck."
"What did you say? Looks like you really want to die!" Yurou hadn't taken Belo and Ayrin seriously at all previously. He already thought it a great loss of face after Ayrin managed to sneak attack Sneijer right under his nose. Now Belo's arrogant attitude while talking to himself made him thoroughly enraged!
"Who's coming first?" Belo said. He merely threw an arrogant glance at the three of them, as if he didn't hear Yurou's angry shout at all.
"His eyes...what?"
Everyone at the scene suddenly noticed that Belo's eyes had become a red the color of blood, emitting a red light.
Yurou was about to leap forward, but seeing Belo's eyes radiating with red light, he unconsciously jumped a step back out of fear.
"What, weren't you guys senior students who came to oppress your juniors? Useless wastes, are you afraid now?"
Belo charged forward in Yurou's direction before Ayrin even had time to ask him what was happening with him.
"Gale Sting!"
His silhouette appeared in front of Yurou in a flash, only a strip of red light left in his wake.
"Pa!"
Amidst wind waves exploding out, two figures shakily retreated backward.
Yurou retreated three steps back, his left hand clutching his right shoulder, looking in pain.
Belo's figure only halted after six or seven steps backward, his entire right arm sagging down, as if paralyzed by the shock, unable to move.
"So that's all you got!"
Yurou's expression relaxed immediately.
"Shadow Fists Flurry!"
His body shot forward, his bowl-shaped hair floating up. His two hands struck again and again at the air in front of him. Countless shadow fists appeared in the air, just like a wall built with fists, pushing toward Belo.
"Strong!"
Ayrin tightly clenched his fists. He was simply unable to distinguish which pair of hands was the real one.
"Ah!"
Just at this moment, Yurou and the other two seniors narrowed their eyes, each of them shouting in alarm.
Belo stood immobile an evil grin suddenly stretched his face.
His dark-green hair lifted erect strand by strand, as if they were steel needles.
Sounds of crackling bones exploded in close succession from inside his body.
Alarming gusts of hot air radiated from him, like the gasp of a huge monster.
The red light inside his eyes was now so thick it seemed to shape itself into a beam. His muscles inflated at dizzying speed.
His body bent slightly, quickly becoming bigger. The school uniform that still seemed loose beforehand now sounded as if it were soon going to break.
"Beast Blood Shift!"
The so-far silent Kybaver shouted in alarm, "This guy has high-grade beastman blood!"
"Beastman bloodline?"
"No wonder he said 'as well' back then during the match!"
Ayrin stared at Belo's transformation so hard his eyes were soon going to pop.
"Asura's Wrath!"
"Dong!" "Dong!" "Dong!" Belo seemed to have been replaced by someone else now. At this moment, right when Yurou's advancing figure was momentarily frozen, he clasped his hands together and smashed them on the ground three times, like a madman.
Blood-red arcane power struck the ground. Ayrin felt the ground sway violently, while the earth between Belo and Yurou directly split open. Yurou's foot landed on a crack; his body crooked, almost about stumbling down.
Without the slightest pause, Belo leaped like a wild beast, his hands becoming claws, clawing at Yurou!
His speed was twice as fast compared to usual!
"Ah!"
Yurou shrieked in terror.
He simply had no time to dodge Belo's attack anymore. It seemed to him that even Belo's ten fingernails flashed with cold light, that they were going to dig his heart out.
"Double Snake!"
Right at this moment, two red-hot fire snakes appeared in the air, winded past Yurou, and, one from the left and one from the right, crashed on Belo.
With an explosive "Boom," the two fire snakes turned into countless tiny flames. Belo retreated back many steps, again and again, his body slightly bent. Then he steadied himself like a giant wolf standing upright. The blood-red of his eyes stared behind Yurou.
Dyfer stood not even one meter away behind Yurou, his collar pulled upright and hiding half his face. At this moment, his hands glittered with dazzling magenta arcane particles.
"This guy's already an arcane master who can condense arcane particles!" Ayrin looked with shock and envy at the glittering magenta light sparkling in the night.