The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

"What are Frederick's chances?" Serena leaned close to Oscar with a solemn look. The deadly battle with George and the bowman had shaken her, and she felt the pressure mounting. Oscar's presence provided comfort and security to wash away her worries.

"He's gotten stronger since entering Ashen Grove," Emily answered from the side. She fixated on Frederick's figure on the screen, and the battle was already underway. Frederick's winds blew fiercely against the opponent's darkness.

"His opponent is a competent darkness Exalt. Unlike Austin, her style relies on bombardment and encroachment, slowly taking over the area." Oscar saw the Undying Flame Sect student wielding a strange lantern anima that burnt with a dark flame. The darkness spewed from the lantern, and her left hand carried a small ceremonial knife that cut and shaped the darkness to attack Frederick.

Cyclones of wind threw the area in disarray while the darkness sought to return it to its former calm by choking out the winds. Frederick's hawk anima rode the paths of Guststream and sprang ahead. The defenses of the darkness wielder proved too much as her lantern's dark flames maintained a small defensive field.

A fog of darkness flowed as a waterfall from where the hawk anima tried to stab through as if it had pierced into a translucent skin, and dark blood spewed. With no way further, the hawk anima retreated with corroding darkness that cracked its beak. The resulting damage was reflected in Frederick, who spat out some blood.

"That defense is very tough, and it provides a boon to her darkness spells," Oscar grew interested in that lantern anima. Conventional Animas, such as weapons and beasts, were easily figured out, but strange ones like this lantern came with unique quirks. The dark flames that lit it up increased the potency of the user's spells, evident from how the blades and tides of darkness easily corroded Frederick's winds.

Frederick began to sweat, but he held a fearless smile. His winds carried him under his feet, and he began accelerating around the battle platform. With his two trusty blades swinging wildly, numerous cyclones and Guststreams covered the field.

The winds did not die down but grew larger and more turbulent from Frederick's constant use, forcing the darkness back, and the woman could only focus on her lantern's defense.

"Isn't that a waste of his Ein? He's also injured." Rachel frowned, unable to understand Frederick's motives. All the while, she provided George with a lap pillow as he slept to recover. "He'll only run himself tired at this rate."

Emily turned to look at Rachel with a bored expression. Rachel's frown deepened, and her veins popped over her forehead. "If you have an alternative opinion, then by all means, say it. Don't sit there and stare so rudely at others."

"Enough, no arguing right now. We're supposed to be a team." Oscar rubbed the temple of his head. He pointed at Frederick's struggling figure on the screen. His friend was sweating bullets with his pale face from the exertion of his stamina and Ein, but the light of a decisive move gleamed in his eyes. "Frederick is doing all this to force an opening."

"Will it show itself? That defense is strong." Serena asked.

As Serena's words left her mouth, Frederick charged straight ahead. Seeing this, Oscar let out a chuckle.

"He's going for it."

Frederick's figure parted the chaotic winds of his own making and focused all of it onto his blades, using Cyclone and Gustblade simultaneously. The twin blades in his hands looked like mini-tornadoes with an odd sharp angle on one side. Not letting up on the attack, his hawk anima joined the fray, and a similar display of wind focused on its wings.

Rather than two swords, it was more accurate to say Frederick wielded four. The swords and wings united and swung fiercely toward a single point in the dark user's defense. In his heart, Frederick thanked Oscar for inspiring this attack.

When he first saw Treble Lance during the battle in the Grand Gathering, he felt inspired to conduct the same feat. But the same risks applied to such heavy use of spells and anima. The weight and ferocity of the winds bore down on his body, and his legs began trembling.

With a grunt of exertion, Frederick demolished the darkness user's defense, shattering and tearing apart the dark fogs with his winds. The darkness user felt the encroachment of death and quickly shouted, "I give up!"

Suddenly, the battle stage fell silent. Frederick could not move, and his winds disappeared. The darkness user had given up, but her body was already quite wounded by the sharp winds like endless swords, and her uniform was in tatters. Then they were teleported back to their teams.

"How was it?!" Frederick laughed and staggered on his feet until he plopped right onto Emily, leaning his head on her shoulder.

Emily smiled brightly and stroked his head. "Fred, that was too scary, but I believed in you. That was amazing."

"Well done, Fred. I see you imitated my Treble Lance. When the hell did you work that out? I didn't see you training in that before." Oscar was surprised and glad for Frederick's growth and victory.

"Wanted to find a way to surprise you, but this battle was a good time to reveal it." Frederick hung from Emily's side like a pendulent swaying. Emily chuckled and placed him down on the floor to rest.

Although it was a victory, it was clearly hard-fought. Frederick's wounds were deep, and he bled a lot already. His Ein was also near exhausted from the large reckless use of his spells. After a healing potion, Frederick rested.

Another basket of ten figs appeared as their reward, and the timer started again. This time, it was their turn to choose first.

"I'll fight way later. I might be the only one to take on Maia." Oscar left the next match to the others. He said he would take on Maia but was also concerned about the snake-eyed man who was the enemies' leader. Oscar glanced at the man, and he stared back with a playful smile.

Seeing the smile on the enemy's face even after losing the first two battles, Oscar grew wary, but he soon smiled back. He would never shrink before the enemy and meet them with a confident smile. That was the Draven way of doing things.

"I'll go," Hillman said. He cracked his neck and went through the portal. However, Oscar and the others stared pale-faced at the results.

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Hillman fought desperately and bravely the entire time, evenly matched against the enemy. But through careful planning, Hillman was trapped and killed before he could even say a word to surrender. Hillman's body was teleported back to Oscar and the others, and they couldn't muster a word at the broken body.

The smell of death and blood wafted in their noses, and their faces fell solemn and quiet.

Oscar clicked his tongue and took Hillman's body into a space pocket. He was sorry for Hillman and his unfortunate death. Hillman had thought lesser of Oscar for a short time together, but there was no hatred, only a misunderstanding.

'Maybe we could have been friends if we had more time together. It's a shame, Hillman.' Oscar closed his eyes and snapped them open. He spoke solemnly to the others, "Fight to avenge Hillman by winning this battle. If we lose out on the figs and number of bodies, then he'll be crying in the next life."

Immediately, the others nodded and rallied themselves to fight harder. In the next bout, Dale went in with a red face and gnashed his teeth, huffing and puffing hot air. Hillman was his friend, and now he had lost three of his group in the past three days.

His anger and thirst for vengeance did not come easy. The battle was long, and blood flowed like a river. Ultimately, Dale returned triumphant from the battle with the reward of thirty Golddew Figs and grievous wounds.

"Sorry, I couldn't kill the bastard." Dale was short of breath and struggled to drink the healing elixir in his space pocket. "But I nabbed us some figs. Now we're back on top."

The current count was 45 figs to the enemy's 20.

"Emily or Rachel, either of you goes first," Oscar suggested.

"What about me?" Serena crossed her arms. "I haven't fought at all."

Seeing her stern gaze, Oscar offered no reason and shook his head. He didn't want Serena to go because of his plan, which he hoped would come to fruition. The first of his direction was to let the bold and unreasonable Emily and Rachel go before Serena.

Emily was suspicious of Oscar's motives and glared at him momentarily. But Oscar's straight smile and poker face trained by observing Celestina for a while revealed nothing. Unable to see through Oscar, she chuckled and went toward the portal. "I'll go. I trust in your judgment."

The Undying Flame Sect chose their next member. Emily arrived on the battlefield and slammed her staff with a loud thud on the platform. Her orange Ein transformed into her staff anima, and she dual-wielded them with both hands.

"Strange, wasn't Emily's usual style to use both together as a single staff?" Oscar recalled Emily was training to connect deeply with her anima and achieve the Meld Stage, forgoing her original dual-wielding style.

"Oh yea, Os, you were sleeping the entire time, and Emily never mentioned it to you. When she went into the final part of the Test of the Elements to fight herself, she said she discovered a new way of fighting to overwhelm her clone." Frederick was still weak, but he recovered enough to sit up.

"Really?" Oscar did not dare blink his eyes not to miss any moment.

Within the screen and on the battle stage, Emily held her staff armament and staff anima and slammed them together, tip to tip. The place where they met started to burn with her orange Ein, and when she pulled them away, an orange line connected them like a string.

She twirled around her newly fashioned weapon, looking like a long pair of nunchucks. Its whipping and snapping could be heard clearly, even from a distance. Her opponent began to frown, and Oscar and the others were stunned.

"She's gotten even more terrifying…." Frederick groaned and hung his head low.

"I didn't think she'd use her weapons in such a way. This display is almost like a Meld Stage, but who would have thought this was possible?" Oscar couldn't believe it. The concentration and flexible control of Ein required to connect the weapon and anima in this manner rivaled what an Ein Awaken could provide two-fold. The exertion was clear on Emily, who began sweating and her arms trembling while holding her new nunchucks.

But the battle was short-lived. The nunchucks provided increased range and complemented the 'Weight Boost' spell so well as it whipped around and smashed into the enemy with her 'Kinetic Core' spinning around its shafts. Even Oscar hissed as he heard the cracking of bones.

Before she could bash the enemy's head, he saved himself by surrendering. She returned in triumph but fell to her knees, unable to get up. Her lips were blue, and her shoulders heaved up and down.

"Now that's how you get a victory," Emily was caught by Frederick, who offered her a towel and wiped her sweaty brow. She smiled and fell asleep as a new basket of figs came, bearing fifty figs.

Next to go was Rachel. She fought well and hard, but her enemy was stronger than her with a Grade Seven Exolsia. Her face contorted as tears fell from her eyes, but remembering George, she chose to surrender and returned with a dark expression.

No one came up to comfort her except for George. He went over and embraced her as they sat on the floor. Out of everyone here, only he had the means to calm her and comfort her.

"Next is me, right?" Serena turned and smiled at Oscar.

Oscar nodded, but he had an apologetic look and bowed his head. "Sorry, Serena, but if you have to surrender. I am truly sorry for asking this from you."

"What?!" Serena was taken aback and bit her lip. "Is it because you don't trust me?"

"No, no! I do trust you, but your remaining two opponents are too strong. Maia has become too big of a threat, and the other man is unfathomable. I want you to think about preserving your life first. I care for your safety." Oscar kept apologizing.

Serena's face formed a frown and showed signs of struggle, but her shoulders dropped, and she could not help but sigh with a smile. Oscar had said he cared about her, and that was enough for now. "Fine, but I want compensation from you later for this."

"I'm saving your life here; what's there to compensate?" Oscar grumbled but decided to agree, not wanting to risk any chances.

Serena winked at Oscar and entered the portal. In a shocking move, her opponent was Maia Claude. The beautiful women faced off against each other as the barrier dissipated.

"I give up!" Serena shouted before Maia could even use a spell.

Maia dug her nails into her hand at this turn of events, dripping blood onto the stage. She had been turned away from her opportunity to fight Oscar and get payback for her sect. When she returned, she stared at Oscar with bloodshot eyes, knowing he was the reason for the surrender.

"The count is now 95 figs to their 195." Oscar frowned at the score and waited for the snake-eyed man to enter through the portal. No matter what, he had to win the last match.

Finally, he set foot on the battle stage. Across from him was the snake-eyed man; however, when the barrier dissipated, they did not immediately fight.

"I heard from Ms. Claude that you use a strange power called Reis. She described everything she knew about it and how you fought. It's nice to meet you. I am Regis Hyrin."

"Hyrin?" Oscar recalled reading about this name. "Isn't that the family of swordsmen who are said to be the counterparts to the Raevens?"

"Ah, our bitter rivalry. I regret not being born in the same year as Phillip Raeven, who I hear is a genius of my level. However, you might be a great whetstone before I try against him."

Oscar laughed. "Am I that easy of a target?"

"Most of your victories against us can be put as ambushes or inexperienced fighters. With the knowledge of your techniques and mastery of the sword, what do I have to fear?" Regis sounded confident and took out his curved blade, dual-wielding with his anima of the same type.

"I would like to say this," Oscar summoned his deer anima. "Your knowledge is far too outdated."

He thought of Demon Oscar and smiled. 'I'll be using you, but….'

His body began to shake, and his hair lifted. The spheres of Eirin, the fusion of Reis and Ein, flowed out of his body, floating upward like bubbles until they grew smaller and smaller, fading away like mist. Oscar's eyes snapped wide open, gleaming with a blue glow like a blue moon surrounded by the darkness of night.

'I'll be going beyond.'

Instead of a shroud of Ein, it was a shroud of Eirin, the infinite spheres of Eirin flowing upward from his body, and shockingly, the Eirin formed two strange protrusions from his forehead. They were not horns but solid blue antlers made of condensed spheres of Eirin.

The air became deathly silent, and everyone stared in awe and shock. Regis, most of all, felt his heart sink and his mind wavering in front of Oscar, who resembled a demon with antlers and emanated a dangerous aura. Each pulse of Oscar's power and each step he took made Regis clench his swords harder and gulp his dry throat.

"Demon Deer Eirin Mantle."

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