Destroyer of Ice and Fire

"This is the place." Seeing the short boy from Windsinger Academy tap a tiny depression in the wall, the skinny boy from Abel Academy looked slightly displeased, yet he still nodded. "When the time comes, we only need to break this wall and go through the sewers behind. We'll directly reach the water tower. There are only two guards there usually, and they aren't especially strong either. As long as we act swiftly, this should be a surefire plan."

"I hope so," the boy wearing Sea Gale Academy's uniform coldly said. Inside the darkness, his skin seemed to glimmer with faint fluorescence like some deep-sea fishes. "Right now, it's the time of the year with the greatest concentration of elite masters in Eichemalar. Just the teachers in charge of the teams are strong enough to make you dead afraid."

"As long as these team-leading teachers don't find out in advance and join hands to deal with us, then even if a few of them came by themselves, they still might not be our match." The short Windsinger boy smiled arrogantly. "Be at ease. At the very least, we're not the team that's going to pull their attention. A plan in motion for several decades, and we're the ones who'll ultimately carry it. We should feel proud of ourselves."

…

"It hurts! It hurts!"

In Holy Dawn Academy's residence, Ayrin jumped on his bed, shouting miserably again and again.

A female medical master with long black hair, seeming very quiet and gentle, was sticking thin hollow needles in his arms and dripping some medicinal liquid inside.

Apart from Ayrin and this quiet and gentle woman, Carter was also standing beside Ayrin's bed.

"You, why are you shouting so miserably? You've been screaming ever since she started helping you drain the blood from the bruises, all the way until now," Carter said, half-angry and half-amused as he watched Ayrin wretched shouts. "Also, you keep screaming miserably during a match, you simply don't have the style of a master. You have to know that after the match against team Mountain Kings, you've also become an idol for many people, you've become one of the celebrity figures in the national tournament."

"It's not that, teacher Carter," Ayrin explained with a pitiful look. "It doesn't hurt as much when I shout."

"Carter, I really can't understand. You clearly had victory firmly in your grasp, why did you still make him stay and fight another bout? Others may not know Dark Destruction Dragon's power, but I'm very aware of it." The gentle female master lifted her head and looked at Carter in great confusion. "His constitution is much stronger than ordinary people. It looks like it has a certain relation with his considerable amount of training. But all the bones in his arms are covered by a myriad of tiny cracks. Someone else would have been out of commission long ago.

"Also, what I understand even less is, in the medical teams inside our athlete village, Athan's team is clearly the best at dealing with the type of injuries he's suffering from. So why did you insist on having me instead? Even with their team handling the treatment, he might not have been completely recovered for the next match."

"It's because I'm not familiar with the other teams. But you Mira, you're the one most worthy of trust for me, Liszt, Ciaran, and the others. In fact, you'll understand in a few days. We're merely trying to help Ayrin keep his secrets as much as possible. His regenerative ability is so much stronger than ordinary people. For an arcane master, the more secrets you can conceal, the more assurance you have to be victorious against your enemies," Carter said, looking at her. "If nothing unexpected happens, he shouldn't miss any match whatsoever with the treatment you did."

This arcane master he called Mira was taken aback. "Is his regenerative ability so strong?"

"Secret," Carter said with a small smile.

"I understand now." Mira nodded.

"It's really a rare occurrence for a little monster like this one to come out of our academy, of course I have to be careful. Also, the Evil Dragon followers have been more rampant than usual lately." Carter released a quiet sigh.

Mira seemed to think of something. There was a sudden faint redness to her eyes.

"It's been so long already. Are you still as much of a cry-baby as you used to be?" Carter thought, looking at her.

"In your group, before the match between Harrenhal Academy and Rapier Academy, everyone had their eyes on Harrenhal Academy. But Rapier Academy won instead. Several main members in team Rapier are seriously injured, they'll definitely be absent for their match against you. So you're getting a good deal. If nothing untoward happens, you should be able to grab an easy win over them," the red-eyed Mira said. "So, in the match against Rapier Academy, are you still going to make him go on stage?"

"Does that count as leaking inside information?" Carter cracked a small joke, then he nodded. "Want to know the reason? Ayrin, come here, test your spiritual strength again."

"Test my spiritual strength? Alright." Ayrin saw Carter take out a dwarven benchmark tool. He immediately sat up, stretched out a hand Mira had wrapped tight in bandages.

"How much is my spiritual strength at now?" Ayrin himself was very much looking forward to the result.

After an "Ah" of pain, the scales on the dwarven benchmark tool started to glow with green light.

Already very familiar with this thing, Ayrin counted swiftly. He immediately announced the result himself: "Forty-three?"

"Sure enough, it's gone past forty already." Carter couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"Only forty-three? Why is he only… Then why does he have so many arcane particles?" Mira couldn't hold back a startled exclamation.

"He's truly an arcane master with only one open gate. The reason why he has so many arcane particles, that's also a secret," Carter looked at her and quietly said. "That said, now that you saw this value, you should understand already why I'm hoping for him to go on the field every single match and fight to his limits."

"He can open the second arcane gate when spiritual strength reaches around fifty." Mira took a deep breath. She looked at Ayrin, pushing back her shock. "Are you trying to make him open his second arcane gate as fast as possible?"

"The intensity of his training and his progress is much higher than what you imagine. The amount of training he does in a month is equal to several months worth of training for many people, maybe even half a year or more. And his innate talent is also greater than almost everyone." Carter looked at Ayrin and said in all seriousness, "If all goes according to my plan, it might be possible for him to open his second arcane gate before the match against team Silver Trout Academy."

"Opening his first and second gates so quickly… That's dragon-level talent." Mira looked dazedly at Carter and Ayrin. For some reason, the image of the Holy Dawn Evil Six from back then emerged in her mind.

…

"I can already open my second gate in seven or so!"

"Don't be too happy. Your spiritual strength needs to be around ninety to open the third gate. Also, the higher the spiritual strength, the harder it is to improve it. Even with talent like yours, after opening your second gate, it'll be a very long slow road to the third gate."

"Teacher Carter, what's the relation between this teacher Mira and you?"

"Heh heh, she was Ciaran's rival in love back then. She liked the same person Ciaran liked. For this thing, she even went head to head against Ciaran in the tournament. She lost to Ciaran as a result, and wept a long time in the arena."

"But teacher Carter, no matter how I look at it, your eyes were a bit strange when you looked at her. Do you like her perhaps?"

"That…"

"Haha, no need to hide it. It turns out you had a secret crush on her!"

"Bastard, I forbid you to spread this drivel around!"

"Haha, you guys are really complicated."