Chapter 44: Medal Ceremony

“The blaze of fire will consume all!” a maniacal laughter echoed around the arena as the flames turned the small stage into a living hell.

Leona could feel small beads of sweat running down her face as she desperately tried to avoid the deadly flames. If she did not have such a high cultivation in her body fortification technique, then her flesh would have already been burnt off.

An anguish shriek of pain came from the far corner of the arena as another participant was disqualified. The remaining four included herself, the twins and that damn pyromaniac lighting up the whole arena.

“We need to work together to stop him,” came a soft whisper from behind her back. Leona turned around with a startled yelp as a quiet girl stood silently behind her.

If one had to discuss the twins from the prestigious class… then it would be almost impossible to describe them as neither seemed to have much of a presence.

It was even something of an inside joke that both seen as mysterious members of the prestigious class and perhaps the only thing of note was their identical appearance.

Leona was startled to find one of the twins looking at her with a gentle smile as if the fierce heat were nothing more than a trick of the imagination. No drops of sweat could be found on her face and she looked perfectly fine despite the temperature.

“Which one are you?” Leona growled.

“I’m Su Mei… my sister will aid you in distracting Rambes while I sneak around the side and deal him a fatal blow,” the girl replied.

Leona paused for a moment but her headstrong nature made her unable to make a decision in the short amount of time. She wanted to win the final round using only her strength so it would be against her goal if she teamed up with the twins.

But eventually common sense and reasoning won out over pride, Leona felt it was easier to deal with the twins that to deal with the third genius of their year.

“How…how do I know if I can even trust you?” Leona struggled for a bit before voicing out a concern.

Su Mei just gestured ahead, and Leona turned to see the other twin already engaging in a brutal combat with Rambes. She ducked and weaved through the flame attacks before landing strike after strike with a knife that seemed to be almost alive in her hands.

The knife fluttered around like a butterfly and soon blood began to drip onto the arena floor.

Leona’s doubts vanished and she dashed forward as she intended to aid Su Rou in the fight…if only she had seen the glint of mockery in the twins’ eyes.

She dashed towards her new partner and unleashed beam after beam of deadly moonlight towards Rambes to disrupt his counterattack. With a two versus one situation, the tide began to turn, and injuries began to pile up which slowed down the third genius.

“I’ll burn you all!” a frustrated yell came from Rambes as he unleashed a fearsome attack.

Flame Nova Explosion!

Boom!

A wave of fire surged out of Rambes’ hands as all Leona and Su Rou could do was to hold their arms in front of their faces as the powerful blow sent them flying away.

Leona landed with a dull thud and glanced at her companion who seemed no better off than her. She even still had that small grin on her face and glanced at a figure moving quietly towards Rambes’ blind spot.

Leona also casted her eyes towards the location to see the other twin slicing a painful scar into Rambes’ back with a knife before following up with quick slashes.

Hopefully, this would put down that monster for good…

As for what happened after…. Leona started to discreetly charge a moonbeam in her palm to deal with the girl next to her.

Unfortunately, her thoughts were seen through almost instantly and Su Rou just whispered softly in her ear,

“I was actually saving this secret for the university exam, but the first-place prize was just too good to pass up”

“Let me tell you a little secret…. I was never a twin.”

Mirror Illusion Art!

Leona widened her eyes in shock as the seemingly injured girl next to her, lifted her up and flung her towards the boy standing in a crater.

Su Rou vanished into a thin wisp of smoke as Leona crashed headfirst into her opponent. She gave a yelp of pain as her flesh started to sear from this high body temperature.

Rambles was doing no better as long painful gashes ran down the sides of his back as the real version had sliced him up with a dagger in the confusion. They both fell down to the ground and a shadow loomed over them.

“My mirror images consume a fair amount of qi to maintain so I had to dispel them for this technique,” the girl’s soft voice washed gently over the two but to Leona it seemed more akin to an asura from hell.

“Sleep well my darlings,”

Morpheus Hypnotic Art!

The last thing they both saw was a fair palm covering their eyes before everything became black….

Loud cheers and applause rained from the spectators as no one had expected that the finals of this class evaluation would end so thrillingly.

The principal stood up with an imposing air and spoke, “I declare that the participants Su Rou and Su Mei or as their real name of Su Ling…. are this year’s tournament champions!”

“That girl….,” Aiden frowned for the first time in the competition.

“How large is her qi reserves to maintain a fully functional mirror clone for the whole duration of an entire day….”

He gazed at the teachers to gauge their reactions but could find no looks of surprise on their faces. Clearly, they knew that Su Mei and Su Rou were the same person but did not inform the students.

The scary fact was that students in the qi body realm should be incapable of summoning illusions that dealt physical damage and yet both copies seemed to be able to damage opponents as if they were real.

(Medal Ceremony)

“Huh…wasn’t there two of them?” Sophie asked in confusion.

Despite starting off with ten contestants in the finals…. there was suddenly only nine at the award ceremony.

Sophie was currently standing in the middle of the arena with the other finalists as the principal droned on and on about the true spirit of the nobility or some nonsense like that. She had honestly tuned out most of the speech and was just about ready to return to the dorms.

She had woken up after a quick nap and made it to the award ceremony but did not have time to review the final match, so she had no way of knowing that one contestant had obtained two spots.

It was strange that all the finalists were gazing at the first-place winner with looks of fear and respect…

Sophie tossed the matter to the back of her mind as she intended to review the footage later that night. The speech seemed to have no end in sight, so she checked the messaged on her wristband to pass the time.

The duke had sent a string of messages praising her to the high heavens for obtained a top ten finish and Sophie felt a warmth spread across her chest that her father did not care that she had not received the best results.

There was no more schooling after the class evaluation and the space shuttles taking participants to the university entrance exams were leaving after only a week from today. Of course, her overprotective dad wanted to spend the entire last week with her before she left and promised to take her out to play. Sophie could not wait to see the virtual arcade and the interstellar petting zoo.

Katarina also sent her a congratulations, but she somehow obtained a copy of the fights and said that Sophie clearly needed some extra training after barely scraping by to obtain an entry slot.

Somehow Sophie had a bad feeling about this…