I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 63

Class 2 looked at Arata. They didn’t understand what had happened, but they could see by the fear and shock in the faces of the teachers, that Arata had severely injured Maona. The looked at him with rage. Arata pointed at one of the students.

“You. Come up.”

Arata seemed calm on the outside, by there was a cold rage that was emanating off of him that could be felt by all the students and teachers in the Arena. The teacher that was judging looked to Vice Principal Zhang. He nodded, giving his approval to let Arata do as he wishes. The student Arata was pointing at was equally enraged like the rest of his class. He came up on stage. Class 2 were clearly angered. As were Class 7.

The students of Class 7 were all standing and staring viciously at Class 2. They had a scary vibe previously when they were cultivating, now they had a concentrated, deathly vibe pointed towards Class 2. Although they were also angry, it would be a lie to say that they weren’t affected by Class 7’s glare. The teacher was hesitant to start the match, but he had to. When it began, the Class 2 student sent a strong wave of wind towards Arata. Arata absorbed it as he walked forward.

His eyes were fixed on the student as he walked forward, the wind attacks weren’t even slightly bothering him. The student was beginning to panic as Arata came close. Arata pushed aside the students punches and grabbed his shoulder. The student froze in place, unable to move. Arata placed his hand on the students chest. The teachers and students in the Arena felt a powerful surge of Energy.

Blood shot out of the mouth of the student in front of Arata. He wasn’t phased by the blood as he stared angrily at the student spitting out blood. Arata continued to pour Energy into the student before a teacher came and made him stop. The student collapsed on to the floor. He was clearly in a lot of pain. Arata didn’t seem to care as he looked at Class 2 and pointed at another student.

“You. Come up.”

The teachers and students now understood and saw that Arata was extremely pissed off. But he was also extremely powerful and ruthless. Someone this deadly was angry at an entire class. They began to feel a large swell of pity for Class 2. The students from Class 2 looked at each other. They didn’t expect Arata to be this strong and to get this angry. They were hoping that injuring their classmate would make them lose their cool, causing them to attack in a sloppy manner.

Instead, they had angered someone that not only defeated them easily, but made sure they suffered. His technique, power and speed were on another level. No one from Class 2 knew how Arata had won, nor did they have any methods to stop him. They stared at Arata in fear and shock. Arata gave off a scary and oppressive aura that made the Class 2 students unable to breath.

“Don’t make me repeat myself. You. Come up. Now!”

The student that Arata was pointing at disliked being looked down on, so he pushed his fear aside and walked on stage. The teacher signalled for the battle to begin, and Arata rushed forward again. His opponent also rushed forward, pulling out a short, curved blade. He dashed quickly, zigzagging in and out to confuse Arata, before slashing from Arata’s side. Arata instantly reached out his hand and the student froze.

He had caught the blade.

Arata slowly turned to face him. The student became terrified as he saw the look in Arata’s eyes. Arata activated his Shadow Awareness as he stared into the student’s eyes. They stood there in silence, no one understood what was going on. Arata finally let go of the blade and the student dropped on the floor like a rock. He had a look of terror and was twitching slightly. The teacher in charge could clearly see that he was unable to continue as he announced another win for Arata.

The teachers and students weren’t able to figure out what Arata had done. From their perspectives, he simply stared at him, scaring him to submission. Was that even possible? Arata looked over to Class 2 once again, pointing at another student.

“You. Come up.”

This was too domineering! He was actually planning to take on the entire class by himself. And it was clear that he also had the power and ability to do so. Jolie and Aasim looked at Eamon in awe.

“You really got someone powerful to join you.”

Eamon grinned. Arata was a lot more powerful than he thought. He was also extremely loyal to his comrades and that was a quality that Eamon respected immensely. Arata watched as the next student walked up on stage. He had the same look on his face that the student that had attacked Antioch had. As the teacher was about to start the match, the student had already sent his Energy into the ground. This wasn’t missed by Arata.

When the match started, powerful tree roots burst from the ground and swallowed Arata. The student laughed evilly.

“Those tactics don’t work on me.”

The student was shocked to see the roots slowly open up, revealing an unharmed Arata who walked out. The student tried to summon up his Energy, but realized that he couldn’t connect to his Elemental Reservoir. There was something blocking him from his Energy. He looked at Arata and saw that his eyes were completely black. He felt like he was staring into a black hole that was trying to consume him. He stepped back in fear.

He was helpless. Defenseless. He couldn’t use his abilities and couldn’t fight back. He was about to scream out in surrender, but Arata appeared in front of him, his hand on the student’s mouth, preventing him from forfeiting. Arata then activated Gluttonous Cloud, absorbing his Energy. The student dropped onto the floor, completely drained.

The Arena had gone silent. Everyone was in disbelief and awe at the strength and pressure of Arata. He had no mercy for those that were against him. Class 7 were all grinning. It was so satisfying to see Arata destroy the Class 2 students one by one. It was a great release for what had happened to Antioch. Although they knew how powerful Arata was, it was still stunning to see how powerful and dominating he was.

Arata once again looked over to Class 2. He pointed at another student.

“You. Come up.”

The following battles ended with Arata completely dominating. The Class 2 students were unable to stop Arata from not only beating them, but in some cases, breaking them. He instilled a powerful fear into the hearts of all the students in the Arena. Even some teachers were affected by his demeanor. Arata showed no mercy and was seen as a vicious, vengeful beast that tore through his opponents.

There were now 3 students left of the 12 Class 2 students. The rest of Class 2 had been taken to the infirmary to be healed and treated for their wounds. The entire time, throughout all the battles, Arata’s face hadn’t changed. He still had a look of cold anger. He stared at the remaining 3 students. These were the 3 students that Arata had planned to take on himself as they were the strongest. They were the students that copied Class 7 and stood in the middle of the stage during their Pools.

Before Arata said anything, one of the students walked on to the stage. He had won his battle with his fists. He created powerful shockwaves through pure force of his punches. His Energy strengthened him immensely making him physically powerful and intimidating. His name was Boetius and had made a name for himself within the First year students. He had a lot of skill in hand to hand combat and boasted that he was the best at it in the Institute. He had even challenged and defeated some of the older students in hand to hand combat. Arata decided to take him head on.

The battle began and Arata rushed forward. Boetius punched in front of him, sending out powerful shockwaves at Arata. Arata, to everyone’s surprise, dodged the shockwaves. He gracefully moved past the attacks and approached the student. He smirked as he took up a stance and sent another punch at Arata. Arata parried it and replied with a punch of his own. The two exchanged blows, but were able to parry and block each attack.

As they threw punch after punch, Arata spoke softly.

“You have pride in your strength and fighting ability. I will now show you how weak your pride is.”

Arata sped up his movements. His punches and kicks began to come from angles that caught Boetius off balance. But Boetius wasn’t a regular student, and immediately replied by changing his style as well. The two young boys displayed an incredible amount of skill as they refused to let the other person take the upper hand.

Those that were watching had known about Boetius and his abilities. Many had surmised that if Arata wanted to, he could have ended this battle instantly. Yet he chose to fight Boetius in the way that he was known for. He was attempting to add insult to injury by defeating Boetius in his area of expertise.

Boetius parried a punch and threw a kick, aimed at Arata’s face. As his leg flew towards Arata’s head, he felt that something was wrong. His trained instincts screamed at him. He had fallen for a trap. Arata moved swiftly as he ducked under the leg and moved to Boetius’ side. He threw a punch at Beotius, who raised his arm to block. Arata opened his fist and grabbed Boetius’ arm, holding it up so his ribs were exposed. Arata punched Boetius’ ribs. There was an audible snapping sound.

But Arata didn’t stop there.

He circled around Boetius, sending punch after punch at different parts of his body. Boetius tried to block, but Arata had injured and caused him to be unable to properly lift his arms. He continued to get beaten like a sandbag by Arata. Arata stopped circling as he came to a stop in front of Boetius. He sent a final punch into Boetius’ chest. Throughout all the battles, through Gluttonous Cloud, Arata had absorbed a lot of Energy. He now released a large portion of the Energy that he had collected into this one punch.

Boetius’ eyes went wide as he coughed up blood. He wasn’t sent flying, like everyone expected to happen. Instead, he seemed to have experienced a powerful internal attack. Boetius fell to the floor. He was unable to move due to his injuries, but it was clear that he was in a lot of pain. The teachers rushed on stage to take him to the infirmary. This was one of the most brutal matches so far.

The remaining two Class 2 students had looks of rage on their faces. They whispered quietly before nodding. One of them walked on stage with a look of pure anger on his face. He glared at Arata. Arata glared right back. The teacher could tell that this was going to be a dangerous match. Especially considering who the Class 2 student was. He was known as Boomer, and as his name suggests, he created explosions.

He was able to create runes on things or people that he touches, and then he can activate the symbol and set off a powerful explosion. He had partially destroyed the stage during his battle. Arata rushed forward once the battle began. Boomer ran forward as well. He channelled his Energy into his hands. Arata went wide eyed as they neared as he realized that something was wrong. Boomer grinned as they reached the center of the stage.

Boomer slammed his hands together and there was a large and powerful explosion, consuming both Boomer and Arata, along with a large part of the stage. The students and teachers stood up in shock. Class 7 went wide eyed and shouted loudly in fear. Vice Principal Zhang stood up and rushed on to the stage. The teacher in charge ran forward as well. The explosion left a large cloud of smoke that filled the Arena, causing everyone to be unable to see what was happening.

Vice Principal Zhang appeared on the stage, coughing as he tried to see through the smoke. That was a powerful explosion. Boomer had essentially self destructed to take Arata with him. He searched around, trying to see through the smoke. He was angry at the reckless student, but also angry at himself for being this close and not being able to stop it. He then saw a body on the ground.

He ran over and saw that it was Boomer. He was severely burnt but still breathing.

“He’s still alive. Don’t worry.”

Vice Principal Zhang turned around to see where the voice came from. Arata was standing there. Besides his uniform being slightly burnt, he seemed perfectly fine. A powerful gust of wind was felt as a teacher used his abilities to gather the smoke and send it up and out of the Arena. The sight on stage was then revealed to everyone. There was a large crater in the center of the stage with Boomer unconscious in the middle. Vice Principal Zhang was kneeling next to him, but the most shocking part was that Arata was perfectly fine.

He walked out of the tiny crater to the edge of the stage. And looked at the remaining Class 2 student. He was the one who arrogantly taunted Class 7 after winning his match. It was also clear that he was the leader of the class and had made everyone fight in such despicable ways. Arata stared at him with a look of pure disgust. He pointed at him and spoke with a cold rage.

“You. Come up.”