Published at 23rd of December 2025 8:18 am

Chapter 966: Quick Work 3.

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Afolayan, Sefu, Adeola, Nuri, and Makeda—those were the last five members of the Ashmaw Academy team that were still standing and fighting.

Whenever an Ashmaw member was knocked out and unable to continue fighting, the judge would slip onto the stage and remove them without disrupting the fight.

It was almost like he had a speedster’s ability, he was that fast at clearing them out while avoiding interfering with the battle , and aside from that one blunder of stopping a blunt arrow for Moro that he made , he had only appeared when necessary.

Seeing half his team disqualified, Afolayan swept his spear sideways, unleashing a wild spear-qi that lunged at Lucas, mirroring the arc of his swing.

Lucas twisted his glaive in a repelling motion, as his own qi surged forward to form a whirling vortex that spat little lightning currents, even so, when the spear’s energy hit, it drove him backward.

Afolayan snapped his left hand and a massive demonic lion with ash-grey fur materialized, immediately it was summoned it charged straight for Pale, who was still panting from the strain of using a taxing spell.

Afolayan didn’t care how he was feeling , his orders to his Ash lion was eliminated as much as it can, he just wanted to level the field and give his team back the advantage.

“Roooaarrr!” the lion bellowed as it reached Pale.

“Pale!” Endrick shouted from several meters away, trying to snap him out of his fatigue as the beast’s huge paw scythed down.

Swish.

The descending paw dragged the wind with it, as thin wind blades were curling along its edge, but just before impact, a purple-black portal blossomed in front of it and swallowed the strike.

The lion’s eyes flicked, with curiosity and irritation, as it turned its gaze toward Sophia who is nearby, its cold gaze made her tremble, but she held her ground.

[> Mid-Tier Spell — Spell Reversal <]

Sophia finally casted a spell, thrusting her free hand toward the Ash Lion, as a second portal appeared above the demonic beast’s neck, linked to the first portal that was opened.

The trapped paw burst out of the new aperture and smashed down, as its own strike was turned against it, with the wind blades riding the blow slicing the lion’s neck, drawing a harsh line of blood.

With the attack landing it should have felt satisfying to Sophia, but the Ash Lion didn’t roar or flinch while it was being injured, it just stared at her—cold, fixed, as if she’d been marked.

A heartbeat later, the duration on her shadow portals ended; as both collapsed, and the paw snapped back to its original position.

She began shaping the spell again, as she believed the portals were the only thing that could stall a demonic beast like this, because despite the fact that it was in the low Tier-6 realm like her, it still made every instinct in her body scream danger.

Then something unnerving happened, the lion halted mid-pounce and swung towards Sophia , a smoky claw mark tore through the air toward her, rending space with a hiss, yet the beast itself didn’t move, as if testing her, when the attack closed in, she was already sprinting away.

With a single exchange, the Ash Lion had exposed her weakness: wide-area strikes overwhelmed her shadow ability trait.

The larger the shadow portal she had to open, the heavier the mana cost; and the stronger the attack she contains, the more it drained her also, she had never truly shone with such a good ability because her mana pool made it nerfed, all because her mana pool simply couldn’t bring out the best of her gift.

However, with advice from the spirit system, Alec had purchased rare fruits from the system store to aid her growth, and he’d drilled her through full mana drains sessions by emptying her core, then letting it recover slowly, until her reserves and control improved.

He also pushed her into repeated hand-to-hand spars with saint, which forced her to develop a palm-strike technique.

Little by little, she stopped being a burden and finally became someone who could carry parts of the fight.

But the Ash Lion needed only a moment to prove she hadn’t fully patched her weakness, seeing Sophia retreat like that, it turned back toward Pale who is the weakest, only to find out that Endrick was already planted in front of him, bow drawn.

This wasn’t the normal bow mode but the heavy-body configuration, and the arrow nocked was thicker, denser, and far more lethal, the instant the beast faced them, Endrick let the arrow loose for its head.

Bang!

The shaft streaked forward, and on contact, the Ash lion’s body dissolved into smoke, as if Endrick had been expecting that, Endrick snapped his fingers and the arrow sent forward burst into a cloud of green gas that tangled itself with the Ash lion’s grey vapor.

The grey smoke reformed back into the Ash Lion body, but the released green gas was now inside it.

“Roaaar!” The newly reformed lion, enraged, blitzed toward Endrick and Pale, in a blur it appeared before Endrick, with its jaws snapping, Pale shoved him aside and took the bite in his shoulder as he believed that he should be the one to be eliminated considering his mana pool is empty.

He screamed, but the lion wasn’t after him; and it flung him off the arena and raised its head again looking for Endrick , however this time Endrick was now clear-headed, as he began to launch rapid series of hand signs.

“Hope you like how you feel now, because I’m about to put you in more pain than you can imagine,” Endrick said as he finished the hand signs.

[> Mid-Tier Spell – Blood-Sucking Thorns <]

The moment the spell took hold, the Ash Lion froze, as its hide bulged and dimpled as if something inside were trying to burst out. It wailed, eyes turning bloodshot.

Realizing it might not survive, it used its remaining strength to kick Endrick, smashing him off the stage, then turned toward Sophia, only for Arthur and Brandon to step in front of her.

“Look elsewhere, ugly,” Arthur said, dropping into a stance, mocking the lion’s warped form as whatever was inside it was pushing to break free.

It lunged forward but only took two steps before its body erupted, as an Ash Lion soul ripped free and streaked into the air toward Afolayan, who was battling in the distance against Lucas.

Alec watched and realized that if he wanted he could devour it, but then he judged it not worth devouring as he didn’t even want it; and to him the trouble outweighed the gain.

Blood splattered where the Lion’s body burst with the blood sprayed towards Brandon and Arthur who were closer, Brandon swiftly stepped forward, rotating his sword to swat the blood spray away from them.

When the mist cleared, a bloody, short thorned tree stood where the lion had once been, its many needle tips already withering.

Arthur and Brandon glanced toward Endrick and understood: despite bleeding out, he’d held the spell until it finished its work, and now that it had, he was slipping into unconsciousness, hence the blood-tree’s rapid decay.

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