The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

The sands of the hourglass finished flowing to the bottom. A large bell on top rang, reverberating through the stadium, into all students, pounding their hearts.

"THE BREAK IS NOW OVER. THE NEXT ROUNDS SHALL BEGIN!"

The announcement ended, and the remaining contestants noticed their tablets shone with a number. Then, the stages had numbers that hovered above. Everyone made their way to the stage that matched the number on their tablet.

Emily jumped on her stage and tapped her staff on the stage, looking valiant with her orange hair in a ponytail and her orange eyes, full of power. She shouted in a mocking tone, "Where are you?"

Her opponent was Samuel Carter, who ambushed her and the others during the Night Raptor mission. She's waited for her chance at revenge, and the Pavilion granted her the best place and time. She continued to tap the staff on the stage intimidatingly as her eyes swept across the crowd, looking for Samuel.

Finally, Samuel leaped on the stage. His yellow hair swayed in the breeze, and his yellow eyes warped in ferocity and anger. Seeing the confident and smug look from Emily made his stomach churn.

"There you are. I was waiting to settle things with you." Emily moved closer to the center of the stage.

"Settle things? We only fought to a draw. You got off unharmed, and my targets were only Oscar and Frederick. What kind of revenge do you want against me?" Samuel spat.

"You're hopeless." Emily scoffed at Samuel's attitude. This person was truly irredeemable. To not realize his wrongdoings and not understand the reason for her anger. It made Emily clench her teeth.

"I thought your time in prison would have taught you to be humble or realize your behavior is childish and despicable. But you haven't changed a single bit. You're still the same small degenerate who somehow survived this long."

The foul words enraged Samuel further, his body trembling from trying to control the rage about to burst out. His face became visibly red from all the blood rushing to his head.

"You don't know the slightest bit about what I went through in that hellhole they call a prison. The entire time I thought of getting my revenge on that piss-stain Austin and those two friends of yours." Samuel roared, recalling the utter hell of a prison. He spent his days starving and was only able to get scraps. The other prisoners were not kind to him and beat him up whenever he stepped out of line.

He was treated like a slave to work in the pits daily, mining endlessly for some teal stones; as a noble, he felt deeply wronged and insulted. There should have been no issues for someone like him. He should have soared and made a name for himself in the Pavilion, but instead, he was treated like garbage.

That commoner Oscar and this lowborn girl in front of him don't pay him any respect for who he is. As a member of the Carter family, he could not let this be.

"I'll kill you." He growled.

"I know what the prison is like. Oscar told me how it was. There's no pity from me. You deserve far worse for your actions." Emily responded coldly. She lifted her Iron Serpent Staff and took up her stance. The staff pointed directly at Samuel as if it would tear a hole through him.

"This looks interesting." A voice came by near the stage. Both contestants glanced to find it was Austin watching from outside.

"AUSTIN!" Samuel boomed with eyes that could kill.

"Hey." Austin dryly said. This response only made Samuel more annoyed.

"I'll get rid of you later."

Samuel's words made Austin sigh.

"You're so blind that you can't see it was your fault."

Even though his lies and disrespect in the courtroom caused his imprisonment, Samuel still blamed Austin's testimony for making it worse.

"Honestly, this is pathetic. You're hopeless." Austin turned away from Samuel to look at Emily. "Just end this farce."

"Of course." Emily tightened her grip on her staff.

"YOU-" Samuel was about to implode until the proctor stepped in.

"Outsiders cannot say anything. They may only observe. I will give you a penalty if you aggravate the contestants." The proctor warned Austin.

"Do not worry. I was leaving." Austin bowed to the proctor and nodded at Emily. He disappeared into the crowd.

"Don't mess with me!" Samuel summoned his tiger anima. Its fierce eyes stared at Emily like prey as it licked its lips. In Samuel's hands was a blood-red sword.

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Both times, from Emily and Austin, he's been called hopeless, a degenerate, and pathetic. His ego and pride could not allow such insults from this girl, Austin, or anyone.

"Are you all ready?" The proctor asked.

"Ready." Emily said.

Samuel did not respond as his mouth was breathing heavily. All his attention was on Emily and how to kill her.

The proctor frowned and was displeased at being ignored, but it was evident these students had a hateful conflict. But it was none of the Pavilion's business. "I'll take the silence as a response. BEGIN!"

In a flash of yellow, Samuel, brandishing his sword, and his tiger, baring its teeth, rushed out at Emily, who did not react or even move.

The strange inaction from Emily was off-putting. As Samuel charged, he looked straight into Emily's orange eyes, full of indifference and chilling to the bone. Feeling a sense of danger, he and his tiger stopped.

These cautious and somewhat sensible actions were not in Emily's predictions, but she soon snorted in contempt.

"What happened to all that bravado earlier? You scampered back so fast. Didn't you say you'd kill me?" Emily taunted.

"Shut up, wench." Samuel retorted with an insult. The flush of anger had subsided with the threat that radiated from Emily's demeanor. Samuel cursed himself a little for falling for such obvious taunts.

The memories of his time in prison flashed in his mind, the countless beatings from the other prisoners. He had a suspicion that the same would happen here. His body shook uncontrollably from remembering the trauma.

"It doesn't matter what you do. Fight or run as you wish. If you can do it." Emily said. Her feet kicked off, and she appeared right in front of Samuel with her staff lifted.

Her staff bent as Emily swung it with tremendous force from the side. Veins started to prop up from her hands that gripped the staff tightly.

'Rock Barrier'

Before Samuel could even try to dodge and create some distance, Emily closed off his back with her stone wall. There were no tricks or strategies in this fight. She sought to overwhelm Samuel with pure strength so he could never make excuses for his loss.

Samuel brought his blood-red sword and struck it against Emily's staff. The impact made the bones of his arms ring. He knew this was bad and that his sword couldn't block her staff.

His yellow tiger anima came to the rescue and swiped its powerful claws, combining its power with Samuel to add more push against Emily. He could not believe it, but Emily was not repelled. Her staff slowly backed off, but it was still holding on.

But Samuel wasn't the only one with an Anima. Emily manifested her staff anima, which lively twirled around in the air and swung itself into the combined defense of Samuel and the tiger.

Now it was Samuel's turn to struggle. He strained himself with a ferocious shout, but Emily was too powerful that Samuel was filled with disbelief. Although the prison was traumatizing, he became much more physically powerful during the three months there.

However, Emily was one step ahead. She was always training her body, but after hearing about Oscar's experience, she knew she had to change it. She avoided learning the 'Reis Awaken' but increased the intensity of her physical training.

Samuel and his tiger were helpless as they were flung to the side, barely able to regain their footing.

"This is impossible!"

"As if I'd let you get one over me." The first thing Emily did after the first spar with Oscar, where he demonstrated his physical power, was run to the Foundry and ask for weighted bands. She wore them the entire time inconspicuously until today.

'Though it's a shame about Reis, I can keep improving my way.' Reis was very tempting, but she had other skills to prioritize, and it was hard to learn those. Oscar would not have learned it if not for Draven's help.

"Is there anything else? Show me everything you got." Emily pointed her staff at the shaky Samuel.

Samuel did not respond but picked himself back up. The tiger growled beside him, feeling Samuel's anger at this humiliation.

Emily shouted, "I don't want any excuses later. Hurry up and be serious!"

'ROARING FANG'

Samuel unleashed his spell, causing fangs of Ein to extend out of his hands. One of the fangs melded with his blood-red sword, dyeing the yellow ein with a red tinge. If only he had enough points for a second sword, then his fangs would have been complete.

The combined attack of Samuel's half-boosted fangs and his tiger's rush did not scare Emily. She calmly grabbed her staff anima in her free hand, dual-wielding her staves.

Emily jumped into the jaws of the beasts with no fear and spun.

Her left hand swung backhanded at the tiger, crushing its head to a pulp and causing Samuel to spew a mouthful of blood. Then her right hand followed immediately after, striking Samuel's fangs.

Samuel felt like it was a mountain forcing itself on him. His fangs instantly broke apart as they could not measure up against Emily's destructive blow.

CRUNCH

The staff made Samuel's body bend against it, breaking the arm that protected his body. Emily watched as Samuel slammed onto the stage floor with a yelp of pain.

The tiger dissipated into nothingness while Samuel was in so much pain that he lost his voice. His eyes were wet as tears flowed endlessly down his face.

Before the proctor could announce the end of the battle, Emily slammed her staff down right by Samuel's head.

He looked shaken by Emily's actions.

"Do you understand? No matter what you do, I will always be ahead. Oscar, Frederick, and even Austin are stronger than you. Lie there on the ground where you belong. Don't ever show yourself in front of me."

Emily lifted her staff and put it away while staring at Samuel's tear-filled eyes. She felt no empathy for him, and even her hostility went away. Samuel became nothing but an ant beneath her.

Samuel appeared to understand Emily's thoughts about him.

"AHHHHHHHHHH"

Was it the screams of a broken man or a baby? It was like the whole world had crashed down around him. Somehow he managed to move and crawled away from Emily before blacking out.

The proctor quickly announced Emily's victory and attended to Samuel.

Emily hopped off the stage without looking back. She did not want to linger here any longer and wanted to support her friends.

"Nice job." Austin was observing by the side and witnessed Emily's ruthlessness.

"I don't need your praise." Emily ignored Austin and continued walking.

Austin shrugged and glanced at Samuel being carried off. He knew Samuel had a fragile ego, so he was loud and overbearing. It was barely held together by the drive for revenge, but Emily had destroyed any notion of that.

With his ego broken, his mind also broke down. Austin knew Samuel would never recover and could even depart the Pavilion.

'All this is because you wanted to fight for your noble pride. What use is pride if you have no strength to back it up.' Austin shook his head and left.

There was only the bumbling madman left on the stage.

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