Destroyer of Ice and Fire
Chapter 10: Belo’s starter ambition
Ayrin was completely unaware there were two pairs of eyes secretly peeping on his training.
His world had been too small previously. Now the world seemed too big for him. Strangers were everywhere, fresh things he didn’t understand were everywhere. The things he had to think about and assimilate were truly too many. After he struggled to climb up from the ground, he returned to the dorm and rinsed himself in the washroom. Belo wasn’t back yet, and he was of a mind to wait a little for him, but he passed out immediately as soon as he lay down on bed. He fell asleep.
He suddenly woke up the next morning, awakened by strange sounds.
He sat up on the bed, dizzy and confused. He slowly came to realize it sounded like intake of alarmed breaths and miserable screams. Just when he couldn’t make head or tail of the situation, he saw Belo push the door and come in, his hair damp as if he’d just washed himself. Ayrin jumped off from the bed and wore his clothes, unable to refrain from asking at the same time, "When did you come back yesterday, what’s with these voices outside?"
Belo wiped white steam off his glasses. He merely grumbled a "Mm" and didn’t answer. He merely threw a glance at Ayrin and said, "Your arms and legs aren’t sore? Last night you didn’t complete the foundation exercises that Huston guy arranged for us?"
"Oh right…"
Ayrin thought a little vacantly that before, his body would definitely have felt dead uncomfortable all over for several days if he’d been as exhausted as he was yesterday. But even with so many foundation exercises yesterday, it seemed he actually didn’t feel much discomfort today.
This was definitely because of his fusion with the unknown bloodline, unknown even to himself.
Aryin didn’t answer immediately, so Belo thought he indeed didn’t complete the exercises. First he said, "It’s all the same even if you didn’t complete the foundation exercises. Huston will certainly not let us off easy today anyway." But then he immediately became excited for seemingly no reason. "Since you’ve woken up early today, then come eat breakfast with me right now?"
Ayrin answered very happily, "Ok." He finished washing himself real quick, then followed Belo out of the dorm.
Holy Dawn Academy had a total of five canteens in addition to a commercial street. All of those places served breakfast. The closest ones to the Ivy district was canteen number three.
Canteen number three was located west of the Ivy district. It was one of these buildings that mimicked the dwellings of the giants during the era of the War of the Dragons.
Every part of it was built with huge wooden beams. It had particularly gigantic doors and windows. Seen from outside it even looked like a training field, not at all like a canteen.
The feeling was completely different once you walked inside. Walls surrounded them all around, partitioning store-like booths filled with every kind of food in various styles: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamp chops, sausages, jam pastries,meat pies, fried ring donuts…
In the middle of the canteen sat rows upon rows of dining tables, seats directly carved out from logs, enough to accommodate several hundred people eating at the same time. Crystal lamps of every color hung from the tall ceiling. A tempting aroma flooded the entire space.
There were already quite a few people buying, or already sitting down and eating, by the time he entered inside the canteen behind Belo.
It was the first time Ayrin saw such a canteen, and he drooled with envy as he looked at the many things he’d never tasted before. At this time he heard Belo’s soft voice shout in extreme excitement, "They’re really here. Let’s go, we’ll go beat them up!"
"What?"
Ayrin had absolute no idea what was going on when he saw Belo laugh out loud at three people sitting together. "Sneijer, why aren’t you guys obediently licking my great lordly feet yet!"
The entire canteen quieted at once, everyone’s eyes gathering on Belo and these three people, as well as a clueless Ayrin.
The three people stood up very quickly and walked toward Belo and Aryin, sneering.
Ayrin had simply no idea which one was the Sneijer guy Belo talked about. What he was certain of though, was that the school uniforms on the three of them were a little outmoded, and he didn’t have any impression of these faces either, so these three were certainly not freshmen.
The three of them stopped in front of Belo and Ayrin. The tallest and burliest of them, a yellow-haired boy a full head taller than Ayrin, said to Belo with a grin etched wide on his whole face, "Belo, looks like you really want to die."
"Teacher Huston?" Belo looked with some dismay behind the three people.
The three subconsciously turned their heads around.
"Die! Gale Sting!"
Belo burst out laughing the same moment Ayrin subconsciously lifted his head to have a look as well. With a loud bang, he blasted a fierce punch on that yellow-haired boy.
"Ah!"
That yellow-haired boy shrieked miserably. He stumbled backward, then crashed on the dining table and chairs behind him.
"So fast!"
Ayrin felt this punch of Belo’s had been so fast it seemed his fist had vanished.
"You actually used a shameless sneak attack!"
The other two people thoroughly came back to their senses and subconsciously hopped two steps away, shouting in both alarm and anger.
"He actually fights whenever he wants to. On top of that he’s even a freshman, fighting senior students!"
"Aren’t they afraid of being punished?"
"It seems it’s the Impulsive Freshman Belo. That’s a dangerous man, don’t go provoke him…"
A commotion immediately went through the entire canteen.
Belo didn’t pay any attention at all to the surrounding noises. He said to Ayrin with a face brimming with excitement. "I’ll handle the beating of this big-headed fat melon, you go beat up that no-eyebrow."
"Belo, you’re too arrogant! Flame Slash!"
Out of the remaining two, the one facing Belo right at this moment was a boy relatively short and fat, especially his face looking loaded with excess flesh. His head appeared particularly big, flushed bright red with anger. He immediately leaped up.
His entire right arm seemed like a sickle that slashed at Belo, tearing through the air with a piercing sound.
It ignited with a layer of raging flames the moment it came close to Belo.
Ah!
Some students on the sidelines retreated backward, and some girls even cried out in alarm.
Such a strike was very ferocious. Belo’s wounds wouldn’t be light if he were to be struck.
"Humph!"
A punch suddenly smashed out and intercepted it in mid-air. It likewise sent out a bunch of raging flames, clashing together with that short fatty’s arm.
Flames splashed to all sides in a loud rumble.
The short fatty did a nimble backflip and steadied himself on the ground, far away. Looking at Belo calmly taking his fist back, his eyes brimmed with disbelief.
"What, you think I can’t beat you just because I was injured for a few months and missed a few months of training?" Belo excitedly licked his lips. "I only need this one hand plus the Explosive Blazing Punch I just learned yesterday to beat you."
"…"
Ayrin had entirely no idea what was what. They clearly agreed to come here in order to eat, how’d it turn straight away into a brawl. But hearing Belo inciting him to go beat up that bald brows, he couldn’t help but look at the other guy’s eyebrows.
"What are you looking at!"
This was a tall and slim boy. His eyebrows weren’t entirely bald actually, they were merely very faint, and seemed a little strange when you looked at them. He shouted in anger as soon as he saw Ayrin watch him.
"Gale Sting!"
His entire body suddenly moved. A punch flew in Ayrin’s direction.
His fist was so fast that, with a swish, it seemed to vanish from the air.
Ayrin never experienced a fight like this. He didn’t even want to fight with that tall and slender boy. "So fast! So fierce!" He could clearly feel this time that there was absolutely no way to dodge it even if he tried to. He couldn’t match the speed of this opponent already in motion.
"Let’s just take a chance! I can only try if it works or not this way!"
"Ardent Whirlwinds!"
His two hands suddenly stretched out, as if on their own, as he uttered a low shout.
Swoosh!
Ten spinning wind whips suddenly appeared between the tall slender boy and Ayrin.
The ten wind whips were almost shoved right in the tall boy’s face. He had simply no time to manifest any reaction.
"Pa!"
His entire person flew backward from the blow and stumbled out, fiercely crashing on the dining table behind him. He then glided on it and ended falling on the floor.
"What!"
The face of the short fat boy immediately blanched. This tall slim boy beside him was already ko’d by a single move before he even had time for a second exchange of blow with Belo.
"Hm?"
Belo pushed his glasses and glanced at Ayrin, as if he were seeing Ayrin for the first time.
"Ardent Whirlwinds?"
"This freshman can actually use teacher Huston’s Ardent Whirlwinds?"
"Wasn’t yesterday the first day they officially started their classes?"
"How’s that possible, could he be a student teacher Huston’s already taught for a long time in secret?"
The light of disbelief shone in the eyes of many students in the canteen, especially in the eyes of many senior students.
"Let’s stop fighting now ok?" Ayrin suddenly said at this time.
"…" Many people around them already thought he was very abnormal, now they almost toppled down and passed out dead when they heard him. The vast majority of students had absolute no way of grasping a powerful technique like Ardent Whirlwinds, which was a little stronger than ordinary techniques. Now that his opponent was beaten up so ruggedly, he simply couldn’t even crawl up for the moment. He simply couldn’t fight him even if he wanted to.
"Whatever, if I also beat you up, then there’ll be no one left to carry them out." Belo turned his head around and looked at the pale-faced short fatty. "However, next time you see my great lordly self, remember to pay your protection fee."
"Protection fee?"
Looking at the short fatty clenching his teeth and carrying away two wounded guys that couldn’t even crawl up, Aryin couldn’t help but steal a look at the exhilarated and extremely proud Belo. He asked him, "What the hell was all this about?"
"Nothing much." Belo’s mouth twitched in disdain. "This yellow-haired Sneijer was a class tyrant in a class I used to go to. He’s always pushing the other classmates around just because he has a little strength. My goal is to beat up all the class tyrants like him everywhere, then ask them for a protection fee."
Ayrin’s brow immediately filled with sweat. "Then won’t you become the greatest class tyrant instead?"
"You can say that. There should be some seniors I can’t beat though." Belo patted Ayrin’s shoulder with great satisfaction. "You surprised me very much though, you actually managed to beat that bald eyebrows."
Ayrin thought something was a little wrong. "What, you didn’t think I’d win? But you told me to beat him up?"
"Teacher Liszt brought you." Belo snorted in a low voice and said, "If that guy had beaten you up, maybe teacher Liszt would have taught him a lesson."
"I already said I have absolutely nothing to do with teacher Liszt." Ayrin was thoroughly speechless when he finally understood the treacherous Belo wanted to take advantage of him. There were still some things he didn’t understand about the fight earlier, and the reactions from the people around them, so he couldn’t refrain from asking, "Will you be considered very fierce inside the academy as long as you learn Ardent Whirlwinds?"
"Except if you’re a genius like teacher Liszt, otherwise there’s extremely few people who can compact ‘primordial arcane particles’ and become an arcane master in the genuine sense of the word before second grade."
Belo glanced at Ayrin and said, "Ardent Whirlwinds can be said to be very difficult and very powerful among techniques below the arcane master level. But good techniques also depend on who’s using them. To know a technique and to know how to fight are two entirely different concepts. For example, just now with you and that bald brows. In a real struggle with your lives on the line, if that bald brows had some understanding about you, then he could definitely defeat you just by using hit and run and avoiding a frontal fight. Because they’ve already spent a very long time on foundation training, and their stamina is much higher than yours. Just by delaying they can delay you to death."
"That’s why simply knowing a strong technique doesn’t make you strong. Moreover, for the powerful elite senior students who’ve already learned to compact ‘primordial arcane particles,’ a technique of this level doesn’t amount to much if anything."