Chapter 554: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Two Genius of Two Duke Houses VI

Ravenor’s fist, coated in flames, continued to brighten as more scarlet fire poured into the Alchemy attack.

The Flame Alchemy around his arm burned harder with every moment.

His fist moved toward Vera at close range, and the air in front of it was violently pushed aside by the force of the attack.

The heat reached Vera before the punch did.

The flames around Ravenor’s arm twisted with his movement, gathering around his fist as the attack closed toward her stomach.

But Vera didn’t panic.

A faint smile appeared on her face.

Her body shifted only a few inches.

That was all.

The flame-coated fist passed directly beside her stomach.

The heat brushed across her clothes, and the force of the punch pushed the fabric against her body, but Ravenor’s fist failed to make contact.

Vera had evaded it.

Ravenor’s scarlet eyes remained locked onto her.

He wasn’t particularly surprised, since had already seen how fast Vera could move.

But that wasn’t the important part.

At the exact moment his fist passed Vera...

The Flame Alchemy didn’t stop.

A flame fist shot out from Ravenor’s hand.

The force behind the attack continued forward even after Vera had slipped away from the original punch.

The ground beneath both of them cracked heavily from the launching force of the Flame Punch.

CRACK!

The damaged platform split further beneath their feet.

Small pieces of broken stone jumped from the ground.

Then...

At the exact same time the Flame Punch launched...

BOOM!

A heavy gunshot rang out.

Ravenor’s eyes shifted.

His expanded Cognis senses caught something moving rapidly through the air behind him.

A heavy artillery bullet.

His senses hadn’t immediately caught its movement.

The projectile was moving too fast.

It had already traveled a considerable distance before the edge of his Cognis perception finally picked it up.

Only when it came closer did Ravenor properly notice the incoming threat.

His expression changed.

The projectile was enormous compared to an ordinary firearm bullet.

It was the heavy artillery round of a 5-inch / 127 mm weapon.

The BL 60-pounder.

And it was coming directly toward his back.

Ravenor’s senses caught something else.

Something was coming from above.

A flourish of thin needles.

His scarlet eyes immediately moved toward Vera’s hand.

She was holding a different handgun now.

The weapon looked smaller than the heavy artillery that was approaching from behind him, but Ravenor had already learned that appearances meant very little when dealing with Gun Alchemists in general.

The handgun was...

The Acu-Vector Mk.II.

Ravenor didn’t know what handgun she was holding.

But he immediately understood what Vera had done at that moment.

The real problem was the incoming heavy bullet from the BL 60-pounder.

Vera had placed the artillery beyond the focused range of his Cognis perception.

She had attacked him from a blind spot.

And then she had ignited the state of Overload to an Adept-rank heavy artillery weapon.

That meant she had managed to double the already triple firing speed of an Alchemy-made artillery projectile.

The heavy bullet was moving far faster than a normal projectile of its size should have been able to.

Ravenor’s eyes narrowed.

He already understood why he had failed to sense it immediately.

He had been too focused on using Vera’s Instant Force to increase his own speed.

The technique had allowed him to dash toward Vera’s front, moving beyond her own perception.

He had copied and used her Martial Art technique against her, making him move faster than she should have been able to perceive.

Yet now...

All of the actions that had just happened connected in his mind.

The timing.

The attacks.

The way Vera had evaded his flame fist.

The way she had prepared the heavy artillery.

The way she had fired it at the exact moment his Flame Punch launched.

Ravenor’s expression became more serious.

What was all of this within Vera’s knowledge?

That was what Ravenor realized.

It was the timing of everything.

It was almost as if Vera knew he would stand opposite her.

As if she knew how far his Cognis Perception would spread.

Even the range of his Cognis Perception had changed slightly when he used her Martial Art technique.

And she seemed to know that he wouldn’t be able to fully understand how to land properly after using her Instant Force.

Since his boot was grounded too heavily against the platform once he used the art.

That small detail mattered.

Because after using the Instant Force to increase his speed, his footing had made it difficult for him to change his position quickly enough to evade an attack coming from behind.

Then there was the BL 60-pounder.

It had fired at the exact moment the Flame Punch launched from his hand.

Ravenor’s scarlet eyes sharpened further.

Everything had been timed.

Too precisely.

The attacks hadn’t simply come one after another.

They had been arranged around his movements.

And that thought...

That thought was what brought back the idea he had once brushed aside.

His speed wasn’t something that should have allowed Vera to perform all of these attacks so smoothly.

He had practically moved beyond Vera’s speed perception.

Yet she had already prepared a counter for him.

Not after he moved.

But way before.

Ravenor immediately pressed all of his Cognis into his still active Flame Barrier.

The scarlet flames around his body grew brighter.

The barrier thickened.

He didn’t have enough time to turn around.

He didn’t have enough time to escape the projectile.

The heavy bullet was already there.

Its tip touched the Flame Barrier behind him.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

A massive explosion erupted.

The force of the blast swallowed Ravenor’s position.

Vera was also caught in the explosion and was pushed away from the point of impact.

The shockwave tore through the battlefield.

The smoke that had already covered the fight platform was pushed violently outward, clearing a large section for only a brief moment before a new cloud of smoke formed from the explosion.

Flames spread across the damaged ground.

Broken pieces of the platform were thrown through the air before falling back down.

The force field surrounding the spectators trembled violently from the impact.

The cheering crowd immediately went silent.

Everyone had been watching the fight.

But almost nobody had seen what had actually happened.

To the eyes of the non-Alchemist and Low-ranking Alchemist spectators, the sequence had happened almost instantly.

They hadn’t seen Ravenor appear in front of Vera.

They hadn’t seen Vera move those few inches away from his Flame Punch.

They hadn’t seen the Flame Fist launch from Ravenor’s hand.

They hadn’t seen the BL 60-pounder bullet flying toward his back.

They had only heard the heavy gunshot.

Then the sound of Ravenor’s Flame Punch striking the force field.

Then...

The enormous explosion.

Everything had happened almost immediately.

The whole fight area was now covered by a thick cloud of smoke.

The smoke rose upward like a mushroom before spreading across the air above the arena.

Flames burned violently across the fight platform.

The arena trembled slightly beneath the force of the explosion, but the protective force field held.

It prevented the flames from moving beyond the fight area.

It also controlled the smoke, guiding it upward instead of allowing it to flow into the spectator stands.

For several seconds, nobody in the arena knew what had happened to the two Young Alchemists.

Then, at the First-Year seating section...

Veda suddenly stood up.

His eyes remained fixed on the smoke-covered fight platform.

"That crazy girl."

His voice carried both worry and annoyance.

His hands tightened.

"She knows just how unfriendly using heavy artillery is for a Gun Alchemist, and she still used it against a Flame Alchemist like Ravenor."

His fingers curled tighter.

The worry in his expression became more obvious.

"She’s obviously going to be the one to suffer more from the explosion and the level of heat than a Flame Alchemist would."

He stared at the battlefield.

The smoke was still too thick.

He couldn’t see Vera and with his level of perception, it wasn’t going to be easy to find his twin sister within the thick smoke cloud.

That made his worry worse.

Linda and Tracy felt the same way.

Both of them had worried expressions as they stared toward the fight platform.

Zack and Nina were also on their feet.

Their attention remained fixed on the damaged battlefield.

The cheering from a moment ago had completely disappeared from their area.

The First-Year section had become strangely quiet.

Everyone was waiting.

Everyone wanted to know what had happened inside the smoke.

Nina’s eyes began to tear.

"Lady Vera..."

Her voice trembled.

She couldn’t see her.

That was enough to make her panic.

On another seating column, Sasha and Cyrus continued staring toward the fight platform.

Neither showed an obvious sign of worry.

Their expressions remained controlled as they watched the smoke.

But the other Burnwick First-Years looked completely different.

The few members of the Duke House of Burnwick had also risen from their seats.

Their eyes remained fixed on the battlefield.

The longer the smoke stayed in place, the more tension built within them.

The entire arena seemed to be waiting for an answer.

Two precious children of two Duke Houses had just been swallowed by an explosion.

Nobody knew what condition either of them was in.

The silence felt strange after the constant cheering that had filled the arena only moments earlier.

Even the spectators who had been shouting Vera’s name and those who had been supporting Ravenor were now simply staring.

In the commentator’s section...

Patrick also kept his eyes on the smoke.

He leaned forward slightly.

"Should we call for the medical staff now?"

Patrick asked Professor Kent.

Kent remained relaxed in his seat.

He continued looking through the smoke.

He didn’t answer immediately.

Patrick looked toward him.

The commentator’s hand remained close to the microphone.

The arena was still waiting.

Then...

Kent finally spoke.

"Announce Lady Vera Ashenlocke as the winner."

Patrick froze.

"Huh?"

His eyes widened.

For a moment, he wondered if he had heard Professor Kent correctly.

He turned his head toward Kent.

Because from what Kent had just told him to do...

It meant Vera had actually defeated Ravenor Burnwick.

Patrick’s mouth opened slightly.

Gulp.

He swallowed hard.

Then he pulled the table microphone closer to his mouth.

The microphone shifted against the stand.

A squeaking sound echoed through the arena speakers.

Many of the spectators turned toward the source of the noise.

Patrick took a breath.

"Winner!!!"

His voice echoed through the arena speakers.

There was still uncertainty in his voice.

Then he shouted the name clearly.

"Lady Vera Ashenlocke!!!"

The words spread through the arena.

For one brief moment, nobody reacted.

Then the spectators’ eyes widened in shock.

The result had been announced.

Vera Ashenlocke had won.