The Lone Dragon

All three hundred students assembled together with their respective academies after finishing up the activity monitor screening.

There were about a hundred and seventy-five students from the violet peak academy. These students had either blue or green affinity towards mana.

The hundred students from the Ashenville academy had either yellow or orange affinity and the twenty-five students from the Bood academy had the highest red affinity.

Blood academy chief instructor Lingtian slowly walked towards the center and announced the details of this year-end's combat training tournament.

"Students will be divided into five groups within each academy and the five students with maximum wins from each academy will participate in the final tournament."

"The twenty-five students participating in the final tournament will each receive hundred magic crystals to aid in their mana core cultivation."

"The final twenty-five students will be sparring with each other and exchanging pointers."

"Though this is a tournament, the main purpose is to exchange pointers and improve each other's combat training."

"The royal empire's healers are waiting outside the arena and will be able to heal all the wounds from the previous combat."

"Students are encouraged to display their full potential and obtain the maximum possible wins. The first five students from the final tournament will be receiving xenon bracelets and will personally be escorted for a live field training."

"Good luck to all the participants and the tournament will commence now!"

After instructor Lingtian finished his announcement, there was complete silence in the whole assembly.

Jian Tan, "Shi Meng! Did I hear this wrong or are they actually taking us out in the field with all sorts of monsters for live field training!? This is insane."

Shi Meng "..."

"I am throwing my matches dude. I don't want to be eaten alive by those stupid crocodiles. We haven't even learned the basic shield spell! You better not rat me out."

Shi Meng just ignored him and went to meditate and focus his mind on the upcoming matches.

All the other students were also equally surprised. The winners of the previous tournaments did not get this opportunity to attend field training with powerful combat experts.

This would be greatly beneficial to build their experience and would definitely improve their fighting skills by leaps and bounds.

All the students were seated next to the big arena and the instructors and royal healers were assembled near the front.

The tournament fights are usually held one by one so that all the students could learn and benefit from it. And the whole tournament usually extends anywhere between five days and two weeks.

"Hey Max, do you think any of the Violet peak or Ashenville students will be in the final five this year? Hello? Max?", Lingtian was trying to ask the main accompanying instructor of the Ashenville academy.

Though he didn't teach the students until much later, he was one of the chief instructors of the Ashenville academy and would definitely know all the student reports.

"Max would you just stop staring at Arisa and talk to me! You never change! What is the total number of rejections now?"

Max just laughed gently, "Please don't ask me about it. That Arisa is lately so brutal with the rejections too. But what to do. My heart belongs to that beauty!" and he continued whistling a tune and ogling at her.

Lingtian was smiling, this rogue was a total cold-hearted guy at all times but when it comes to Arisa, he acts like a small child.

"In all seriousness Max, what do you think about the students this year? I don't want the fights to end up completely one-sided to the blood academy students. This is also why I spoke to the emperor and added the field training activity. They need to better understand the dangers lurking outside and not be overconfident."

"Ho ho! That is a very good idea indeed. Though I do think we might be in for a surprise this year. We have a very good egg from Ashenville. Well, let us see what happens."

Max and Lingtian focused their attention back to the arena.

The Violet peak academy students started their fights first. They were allowed to select weapons of their choice and proficiency, from the blood academy common training supplies.

The first few fights of the violet peak academy went uneventfully. Students who had been more rigorous with their training and had higher mastery of the weapon won easily.

The most notable student was a girl, Claudia, who used a single-handed long sword. Her sword movements were extremely sharp and pristine.

She also managed to skilfully dodge all the blows from her opponents and obtained all her victories without letting any attack land on her.

Jian Tan nudged Shi Meng "Look at that girl. She has such killer moves. She will definitely be one of the top five violet peak students. I have decided. I am throwing my match against her. Hehehe. She might even later thank me privately for it."

Reina sitting near these two was slightly annoyed and retorted, "What is so impressive about her? She has mastered sword skills a bit. But in the end she can still be defeated by any of us without even much effort."

"Jian Tan you should not joke around about throwing games. You do realize that high lord Lingtian is watching the matches! Don't cry later when your training schedule comes back completely insane."

Shi Meng added more insult to his injury "You seem to care a lot about girls for a seventeen-year-old. Such a weirdo!".

Jian Tan sulked "I am just too wise for my age idiots". All the other blood academy students started laughing.

As expected, Claudia had won all her remaining matches for the day.

After eight hours of sparring matches, the instructors closed the arena for the day and the students retired to their individual dormitories.