Chapter 131 Close Call
"Woah... is he going to fight seriously here?" A boy from the crowd exclaimed in surprise.
A boy next to him couldn't help but speak, "Didn't you see what that other guy did to him? Of course he would fight seriously after that..."
Everyone started to back up and make some space as Lyrian and Kedward neared the center of the crowd of examinees. As Kedward's aura exuded into the atmosphere, making contact with everyone in the crowd, Lyrian looked down at his hand.
'Perfect... I can test out my new power on this guy after absorbing the Molten Essence.' He thought to himself, looking back up to Kedward.
"Picked a fight with the wrong card? What are you talking about? You were hurting my friend, so I had to stop you."
Everyone stayed silent for the most part as Kedward replied, "What a fool. Barging into a situation like that without any context only to attack without any thought behind that skull of yours."
Lyrian didn't back down, "I could care less about the context. That comes only second." He stated seriously, looking directly into Ked's eyes.
Hearing this, Alten was impressed and surprised that someone with the power of Lyrian considered him to be somewhat important. He saw him in a new light of respect after that.
Kedward on the other hand seemed to have had enough of the mindless talking, "Be quiet, just shut up! You fucking idiot!" He yelled, silencing the crowd once again, "You're nothing but a low status, no name, no backing weakling! Someone like you could never defeat me!" He screamed at the top of his lungs before dashing forward, pushing a hole in the floor where he jumped off.
His hands flew to his sides as he ran, almost as if they were cloth fluttering in the wind. Lyrian, sensing that Kedward was undoubtedly serious, took out his blade and held it to the side.
Just then, a pair of eyes could be seen appearing a few meters away on top of one of the stalls, behind the group lines where no one could see them.
As soon as Ked got mere feet away from Lyrian, he threw his right arm towards Lyrian's abdomen with a precise jab, the force of his attack fueled by it swinging in the wind just moments prior. The attack looked to be a surefire one, seemingly unable to miss. A slight grin came onto Ked's face as he noticed this.
Everyone else also gasped slightly. Ked's attack was so fast and so strong that it had already reached mere inches from Lyrian's abdomen, yet Lyrian hadn't even made a move yet.
'He's too slow! Ked will eliminate him with only this attack...' One of the group members from the White Knights thought to themselves.
'Did I overestimate his speed from before?' Another kid from the Dark Horses couldn't help but question himself.
Without a loud impact, Ked's fist slammed into Lyrian's abdomen, sending a boom through his body as the force from it pushed even the kids to the side back a little bit.
However... Lyrian didn't move even a little bit. His clothes near the impact spot were torn right off, and a slight red bruise that was barely visible was left on the side of his stomach, but that was all.
Noticing this, Ked's eyes widened in shock as he slowly looked up at Lyrian, only to see him staring down back at him with a disappointed gaze.
'Huh... Enhance is much stronger now. Concentrating it into one place makes for a hefty defense.' Lyrian thought to himself, indifferent to the results of the blow.
The face that was on one of the stalls lost the small smirk that it had only a few seconds ago, as Lyrian gripped the hilt of his blade hard before beginning to move it upward toward Ked's body.
Ked looked down in horror as he accidentally shrieked slightly and attempted to move away. The audience held their breath as it seemed Ked was going to avoid the attack by mere millimeters... but suddenly, Lyrian grabbed Ked's long white hair and jerked it back, causing him to trip and fall backward as Lyrian's blade neared his abdomen.
At that precise moment, the eyes from atop the stall disappeared, as a random figure suddenly appeared in the middle of Lyrian and Ked and stopped the blade.
The speed of this movement caused a whiff of air to blow everyone's hair slightly back as Lyrian let go of Ked's hair and he fell onto his back before scurrying away on his legs, his expression horrified.
A wave of surprised sounds mixed with impressed noises washed through the group of onlooking kids as the boy holding Lyrian's blade let go. The boy was smiling once again. He had short black hair and wore a black and white kerchief on his head.
Lyrian noticed the symbol of a queen of spades on top of his eyebrow, along with his dark clothing in contrast to Ked's white garments.
The boy spoke, looking first at Lyrian, "The Deck group apologizes... clearly, you are powerful, but even if you weren't, we don't want to cause unnecessary trouble. From today onwards, our core stealing propaganda will stop." He said, now looking at everyone in the crowd.
"Please! We are well in this together and will need to band together soon! Let us not fight amongst each other!" He looked back at Lyrian, "And please, if you could forgive us, and forgive me for suddenly appearing before you to stop your blade, it must have come as a shock." He said with a confident tone.
Everyone else seemed to know who this kid was, as even the strong groups had slightly worried expressions on their faces, and the group had backed up a bit from before.
Seeing this, Lyrian raised his eyebrow and looked at the boy with an unimpressed expression on his face, "You didn't shock me, I already knew you were on that stall."