(I added a few words in the "author's thought" at the end of the chapter, remember to read it!)
Ivan turned his neck and stared at the referee in the air. He had already won the match, but the result had yet to be announced.
The middle-aged man immediately came back to his senses when he saw Ivan looking at him and landed on the stage; he looked at the unconscious Luke with a swollen face and then at the calm Ivan.
The result was shocking that he had not expected this, Luke was a repeater but was unable to hold out against Ivan at all!
"The winner of this match is trainee number one!" The man said in a loud voice that reached every corner of the arena; his voice managed to wake the stunned spectators, and they immediately went into an uproar.
At the side, Glen was jumping and howling happily like a crazy fan whose football team scored; Ralph only stared on with a smile that said he had expected such.
Sommy had a helpless smile as she watched two people in black uniforms carry Luke away.
"Thankfully, he only trashed him a bit and didn't go extremely to mentally torture him," Sommy said with a sigh.
She had expected that Ivan might want to crush Luke's ego completely by keeping him awake for a long while overwhelming him with his strength; the prideful Luke would never be able to recover from such a blow.
"With his level of strength, I don't dare to imagine what he'll become by the end of the training. He will be able to climb ranks quickly immediately after joining the tower officially" Sommy said with a serious expression. Miko, who was beside her, did not respond; she was glaring fiercely at Ivan with both of her hands clenched.
Over where Elora was watching from, one could see a strange glint in her eyes as her gaze lingered on Ivan's handsome face. An ever-so-rare smile hooked the side of her lips up before disappearing the next moment.
Back on stage, the referee turned to Ivan after Luke had been brought away.
"Would you like to continue with your other matches or take a break?" He asked.
In the arena, one could take a pause to recover used Nexus and let others fight their own matches in the meantime.
Ivan shook his head, he wanted to continue. After reaching the True King rank, his Nexus chamber was now able to store enough Nexus for him to use over twenty cards.
Their fight just now could not even be considered as him using a card since the sword was still with him.
The referee nodded before turning to the side and walking over, he placed his hands on the yellow barrier and began to pour red energy into it.
Ivan showed a look of surprise when he saw the stage being repaired; the many craters that had formed as a result of their fight were soon covered up, and the stage was as good as new.
After repairing the stage, the referee turned around and flew up.
"Trainee number 5 please head to the stage for your battle!" The referee called out in mid-air as a split appeared on the barrier.
It took only five seconds for Damian to appear in front of the split, the repeater who was ranked fifth on the trainees ranking.
Damian was a young man with a huge build and massive muscles that threatened to tear through his trainee uniform. His bald head added a funny innocence to his masculine face, he was like a giant when standing near other people.
Damian walked onto the stage with the split closing behind him, his massive arms crossed in front of his huge chest.
His eyes locked with Ivan's as they stared at each other as if trying to read what the other party was thinking.
Seconds ticked by and Damian finally dropped his crossed arms.
"Let's have a good fight!" Damian voiced out; his tone holding nothing but fighting intent.
Ivan, seeing that his opponent simply wished for a full-out battle, decided not to hold back as he did with Luke; he would go a little more serious against this big guy.
"Hmm," Ivan nodded in response.
Seeing that the two were ready, the referee gave the command for them to begin.
The whole place immediately became quiet as the spectators watched the stage carefully to make sure they did not miss anything.
"Begin!"
Immediately, the voice of the referee faded, and both sides immediately exploded with Nexus energy.
BOOM!! BOOM!!
Mini explosions rang out as the places that they were standing on shattered from the pressure of their fierce energies.
Damian was a weapon user, his talent allowed him to create a weapon fit for his build. After using his talent, two mini shields appeared on both of his wrists and covered up to his elbow.
Both shields had pointed tips that allowed Damian to use them to attack as well.
The shields were pitch black and blood red; they were made out of pure Nexus energy, so one could feel the concentrated amount of Nexus in them.
As for Ivan, he directly took out three cards. The appearance of the cards once again brought questions to people's minds; his sword was still with him, so why did he bring out three more cards?
And besides, some had already speculated that he was a weapon user so why not just take out the weapons directly?
" Does he perhaps have some kind of vault-type talent? Maybe the cards are for taking out random weapons?"
One of the trainees spectating said in deep thought. His words actually made a lot of sense, and a lot of people agreed with him; those words were soon spread amongst the spectators, and they all concluded that Ivan's talent allowed him to take out random weapons from the cards.
Seeing that Ivan had taken out his card, Damian did not wait any longer and charged at Ivan.
BOOM!!!
Swoosh!!
The sound of an explosion rang in the air as Damian vanished from his position and dashed toward Ivan, leaving a huge footprint on the ground.
Similarly, the three cards shattered and changed into three more swords. Including the first one, there were now four swords.
With a thought, Ivan made all four swords fly toward the incoming Damian while he retreated from his position.
Cling!!!
A loud sound of metal clashing was heard as sparks flew in the air above Damian.
One of the swords had hacked down at him but he had been able to knock it away with his shield. He turned to look at where Ivan had moved to and was about to charge when another sword came right up to his face.
Damian had to put both arms in front of himself and allow the sword to clash with his shields.
Ding!!
Damian used the chance to jump back, avoiding the remaining three three swords that would have skewered his guts had he been a second late.
Boom!
A small explosion as Damian landed heavily on the ground a few meters away, all four swords turned to face him after missing their target once; it was almost as if they had a mind of their own.
Damian looked at Ivan, who was looking back at him seriously. He knew that Ivan was the one controlling these swords, and he needed to deal with Ivan if he wanted these swords to stop assaulting him.
But that was not the most pressing issue, Damian took a quick glance at his shields. His eyes trembled slightly when he saw the small crack on the shield which quickly closed up after Nexus energy gathered around it.
'His swords can cut my shields?!' Damian asked inwardly in disbelief. He knew just how tough these shields were, and even the attacks of some officials were unable to do anything to them, but Ivan had managed to leave a crack on them. Wouldn't he be cut clean if any of the swords touched him then?
But this thought didn't make Damian cower in fear, his eyes shone brighter with fighting intent.
He suddenly waved both hands, causing both shields to vanish.
His action puzzled everyone in the arena including Ivan.
Was he going to forfeit?
But they were thinking too much at the next second.
Wooosh!!
Damian vanished like a gust of wind, his footsteps not making a sound.
Ivan's eyes widened, and he quickly bent his neck to the side.
POW!!
The sound of wind exploding sounded beside Ivan's head, a huge hand had suddenly appeared there; had Ivan not moved his head, he would have been punched in the face by Damian.
'He became faster?' Ivan thought as he pulled away.
Of course, Damian wasn't going to let him; he immediately moved after Ivan and sent another punch.
Ivan was more prepared this time, he had already recalled his swords.
Shuuu!!
The swords sliced through the air and hacked at Damian, halting his pursuit.
Ding! Ding! Ding!!!
In the nick of time, Damian summoned his shields and knocked away all four swords before chasing after Ivan again; of course, he made his shields vanish since his speed would increase if he wasn't carrying them.
Wooosh!!
He appeared in front of Ivan again and sent a ferocious kick to Ivan's side, his leg was like an axe cutting through the air.
Clap!!!