Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 45

Standing alone on the makeshift stage, I watched the guest’s reactions. Some of them totally got enraged, their expression turning livid, while others had a variety of expressions, but mostly, they weren’t that mad.

‘As expected of experienced magic users they won’t fall for cheap and obvious provocations.’

But it wasn’t like my taunt didn’t work.

Yes, the nobles were cool and calm, maybe a bit enraged, but still sane enough to not do anything impulsive.

‘But they weren’t my target in the first place.’

“Is my generation only filled with cowards!!?”

I said, after a period of silence, and this time the response was instantaneous.

“I accept!!”

A boy probably a year or two older than me shouted, as he stepped forward.

‘You can stay collected as much as you want, but what about your kids?’

A youth with cat ears, whisker marks on cheeks and a long tail.

He had fair skin, cat like eyes, black with golden pupils, and wild black hair with orange undertones.

‘Cernel Tygra, the first heir of Tygra Family.’

My first opponent.

From the tiger bloodline.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t that interested in him, rather his little brother was much more interesting.

Clive Tygra, the inheritor of the White Tiger.

An important character and a potential ally, a very strong potential ally.

Long grey hair, white ears, and double golden pupils, the boy who was my age was standing beside his father tightly holding his hand, looking very uncomfortable.

‘Guess, his powers haven’t awoken yet?’

The boy was a typical example of late bloomer, because the power of white tiger was so immense, it didn’t surface till his body, and his spirit, was able to handle it.

Unfortunately for the boy, not being able to use his bloodline powers was a huge hit on his self-confidence, making his personality a rather meek one.

‘I will do something about that later, but for now…’

-Let’s crush this big brother first.

And crush him so bad, that no one will even dream about my position.

-Step

-Step

With heavy steps the older boy stood in front of me.

Two years older, meaning he has been attending the Imperial Academy for an year.

Maybe he even knows an advanced spell.

But even then, I stood upright, paying him no mind.

Years older and still E+ rank?

He wasn’t someone to worry about.

“Come at me, Cernel.”

I beckoned him with my finger.

And that enraged the hot-headed youth.

Taking his stance a red aura engulfed his body, spiking his hair, as his mana stimulated his bloodline.

And then, his bloodline erupted.

[Bloodline Skill]

[King of the Jungle – First Stage]

[Partial Transformation]

With that his hands, as well as his legs, changed. Reddish orange fur covered them, as they swelled to almost twice their size original size, bulging with muscles. Sharp claws akin to small daggers, ears and tail that got noticeably bigger and thicker, along with piercing yellow eyes completed his transformation.

-ROAARRRRR!!

“You maybe powerful, but you are too arrogant. It’s time someone got you off your high horse!”

He said in a low voice before rushing at me.

He was fast, he was strong, his movements even created some small whirlwinds.

-Whoosh

“Oh yeah?”

A strong punch covered in a pulsing red aura.

Splitting the wind, it was in front of me in a split second.

-Thump

“Are you that capable?”

And with a single hand, I blocked it.

A slightly stronger punch, that was all it was.

Did he seriously think that was all it took?

Okay, my physical stats broken I admit, but not even a spell?

Was he joking?

Truly confused, I asked.

“Was that all…?”

“DAMN YOU!!!”

He said instead, as he retracted his punch and unleashed a frenzy of them, at least this time, they were stronger and covered in fire.

Strong enough that I would have to seriously block his punches.

That is, if I didn’t have my Armor on.

With the physical boost I got from my armor, I could still block his punches with a single hand.

And that was what I did.

Without taking a single step, without moving my other hand that was leisurely resting on my scabbard, I blocked his high-speed, high-power punches, that left small shockwaves in the surroundings with a single palm, covered in ice.

My palm blurred, so did his fists, as both of us got into a high intensity exchange where, he punched and I blocked.

During our exchange Cernel understood that his tactic wasn’t working, and finally started casting spells.

Flames materialized around him, forming arrows and spears as they launched themselves at me.

But halfway before reaching me they dissipated.

Was it my doing?

Of course, it was my doing!

With how focused he was on his punches, there was little focus he could spare for his spells, making them simple, and fragile in structure.

And disrupting such simple spells was a walk in the park for my mental avatar.

Hell, if I really tried, I could even throwback these spells at him.

But I would have to try hard for that given the number of spells he was casting, and that wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t be able to continue this for long anyways.

…

And I was correct, in a minute he finally created a fireball spell that I couldn’t deconstruct quickly, and threw it at me. Taking the moment I created an ice and earth shield to block the fireball, he jumped back.

Why a minute?

Well, after throwing 1680 punches in a minute, our big brother was bound to be exhausted.

(A/N: No shit, world record of fastest punches in a minute is 805 punches, so I just doubled it.)

Twenty-eight punches in a second…

Quite good…

Quite fast…

But even then, I hadn’t moved a single bit.

Seeing the frustrated expression on his face, I asked again,

-Smirk

“Was that all?”

This time quite meaningfully, with a smirk.

Honestly, this was not big brother’s fault, he was just a perfect opponent for me.

After my fight with the demon, other than perfecting a few spells, the thing I did the most was physical training.

Training under ten times gravity, with the highest time dilation 1:10, for a week straight.

Naturally, without any limits on my body and top-class resources, my strength, agility, stamina, endurance, and dexterity soared unprecedentedly.

Especially my strength and agility, both increasing by one rank.

So, even if Cernel’s partial transformation multiplied his strength, he couldn’t beat me, not when I had my armor on.

Looking at him right now, as he prepared a powerful spell, I knew it was time to finish this, or rather than looking like I gave him a chance to show his moves, it would look like I couldn’t beat him quickly.

So, even as he came at me, his fist wrapped in purple energy as thick as an arm, I was relaxed.

“You Fucker!!!!”

Or so he said.

But then again, I remained relaxed.

And with that same mood, I made my move.

Leaning forward, “You are weak.” I said, before taking a single step and disappearing.

Appearing just behind Cernel, as I grabbed his thick waving appendage, his tail.

After grabbing it, I didn’t stop, rather before he could even struggle, I casted another acceleration, and disappeared again, carrying a passenger with me, whom I was going to treat very nicely.

Grabbing my passenger’s tail with both hands I powerfully swung it downwards, slamming him hard on the enchanted floor.

-SLAAMMM!!

There wasn’t a scratch on the enchanted floor, but same couldn’t be said for Cernel.

Unfortunately for him this was just the start.

-SLAAMMM!!

-SLAAMMM!!

-SLAAMMM!!

-SLAAMMM!!

I slammed him down on the floor, again and again and again.

Leaving his tail alone, only after he was half dead, his purple spell had long since dissipated.

Feeling a bit refreshed, I took out my sword, placed it on his neck and though I knew it was useless, I still asked.

“Is that all you got?”

-Ugrh

Well, other than an unintelligible groan, I got nothing as reply.

Maybe the groan counts as reply?

Anyways, lifting my fallen opponent with psychokinesis I placed him near his father before turning my eyes back towards the hall.

Still carrying the aura of confidence, I asked another question.

“Who’s next?”

A question that temporarily halted the chattering in the hall.

For the next few seconds, the hall was abnormally quiet…

***

Author’s Note:

Hey guys, thanks for reading.

I am adding this here cause in the last two chapters I added two fight scenes, and both were short, contradicting my usual style.

So basically, I am asking for your feedback.

How were the fights, good or bad, too short, or okay?

Please tell me about it in comments.