Krisha stood frozen on the ground, dazing at the fragmented pieces of her sword scattered on the floor.

Her mind turned blank, unable to believe that her lost came from the result of her sword breaking into many pieces.

She felt quite devastated.

It was her first lost in her first sword fight.

Felix, on the other hand, noticed her reaction and his hysterical expression instantly vanished.

He stared at her with eyes filled with concern.

After a while, he said, "After knowing that you have enveloped your wooden sword with ice energy, I’m confident that by striking the same place multiple times, your sword will break."

Krisha’s consciousness finally returned as she gazed at Felix.

Felix smiled bitterly and raised his wooden sword.

He swung it fiercely and suddenly, splinters formed a web-like structure on his wooden sword.

He said, "You really surprised me, Krisha. I changed my mind. I consider you as my rival now."

He beamed a smile at her as he let go of the wooden sword.

The wooden sword fell to the floor and as soon as it collided with the hard ground, it broke into many pieces.

Instructor Albert then shouted.

"Krisha and Felix have been eliminated!"

The outer disciples both inside and outside of the mists were utterly shocked. They couldn’t believe what they had just heard.

The outer disciples outside of the mists thought that the outer disciples inside managed to eliminate both Krisha and Felix, but it was unlikely.

Ben, the newswriter, doubted, as well.

Suddenly, he realized a very plausible scenarios and he mumbled enough for others to hear, "Did they eliminate each other?"

The outer disciples glanced at him and were about to deny his assumption but held themselves back.

His assumption seemed more closer to the truth than the assumption of having their fellow outer disciples to work together to eliminate Felix and Krisha.

Hell, they were already confident that the four outer disciples weren’t teaming up to defeat Felix—they were just courageous fools, believing they could defeat him by themselves.

They glanced at Instructor Albert, gauging his reactions to determine which assumption was correct.

However, his face remained solemn throughout. Unbeknownst to them, he was absolutely shocked, as well.

If only they could spot his hands trembling at a distance, they would have known his actual reaction.

Two monsters... He thought, shaken.

The wooden sword from the Azure Cleave Dojo was built to handle even the sword energy of the instructors.

The durability might lessen if it was exposed with too much sword energy, but it wouldn’t break in a single fight.

Yet the two monsters broke two wooden swords in just three rounds of exchanging strikes.

He didn’t know how to react.

However, one thing was for sure, he’d definitely report this strange phenomenon to Master Shen.

I wonder what he’ll say about this?

He was trembling. He couldn’t wait to report to Master Shen already. He was even planning to leave after the first round.

Felix and Krisha, meanwhile, stared at each other with an ambiguous expression.

Felix, who was concerned at first, beamed a smile at Krisha.

"1-0, that’s our current match record. What do you think? Do you still want to win against me?"

Krisha grinned. Her eyes sparkled with excitements.

"I’m glad that I finally made you acknowledged me as your rival, Felix. I accept my loss. However, don’t think this will be the end. Once I finally win over you, it won’t just stop in a single win."

Felix smirked. "Bring it on."

Krisha turned around and proceeded to leave the mists, while Felix immediately followed her by walking beside her.

Felix said, "I was really surprised, huh? You stirred my fighting spirit. That was the first battle that exhilarated me."

Krisha giggled. "It’s good to know that you had fun on our battle. Honestly, I was surprised, as well. I really got irritated from the way you treated me before. You were trying to convince me that I couldn’t beat you and that just trying to do so would only harm me. How do you feel now, huh?

A change of mind? That’s actually the reaction that I’m seeking for you."

Felix was surprised. He didn’t think that his acts of concern, especially after discovering that Krisha was comparing herself to him, which negatively affects their friendship, only worsened how Krisha felt.

Nevertheless, everything seemed to be fine now. He finally had someone he considered as rival, someone who was also his closest friend.

He couldn’t be any more happier for this result. He thanked the Immortal World for reaching out to Krisha’s desire.

"Next week, Monday, I’ll start participating in the Beast Sync Arena. For the rest of the week will be purely ramble and cultivating deeper bond with Moon to ready myself.

I hope you’re also be ready, by then.

We’ll have our second match."

Felix said so in an attempt to stop Krisha from participating in the ramble against him for days to come.

It was simply because defeating Krisha was something he could handle, but he doubted if his wooden sword could handle, as well.

He might also be failing to gain more merit points. He was aiming for the number 1 spot in the ranking.

Thankfully, Krisha nodded.

"I understand. You don’t want me to slow your progress in accumulating merit points. But, I must warn you, the inner disciples might be interested in fighting you now since you are becoming a threat earlier than they thought.

Are you ready, by then?"

Felix smirked. "More than ready."

He was already at the peak of Awakener Rank 7. After practicing outside later the whole night, he would finally have a breakthrough.

As they left the mists, they didn’t bother disturbing Instructor Albert, who tried his best to keep his vision focused at the outer disciples, who were still fighting.

Nevertheless, Felix said to Instructor Albert that he would still fight in the last round, only planning to leave now early to get his remaining spare wooden sword.

Krisha would also be accompanying Felix to his room to get his sword as she was planning the same, albeit, she would be fighting in the second to the last round.

As they left the platform, an outer disciple ran towards them with an excited expression.

Felix and Krisha were honestly scared when they finally noticed him...

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