Chapter 461: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Wild Battle Instincts

The cheers from the crowd slowly began to settle as Lyra and Logan stood facing each other on the fighting platform.

The excitement had not disappeared completely.

It still hung over the Arena in the form of thousands of voices, scattered conversations, and the occasional shout from spectators who were already calling out the name of the fighter they supported.

However, the attention of most of the crowd had now shifted toward the two First-Years standing in the center of the platform.

Lyra rubbed her hands together, her fingers moving against each other as she looked at Logan with an excited smile.

"You look so serious."

She tilted her head slightly.

Logan Drakes looked back at her with visible irritation.

His arms remained relaxed at his sides, but his eyes were already fixed on Lyra, studying her movements and waiting for the countdown to begin.

"Not speaking... Hehehe."

Lyra laughed.

There was something almost strange about how excited she looked.

Most people would have become tense before a Sixth-Round match, especially when standing against someone from one of the mainlines of a Duke House.

Lyra looked like she was about to enjoy herself.

"Well, I guess that’s how excited you are for this fight."

She continued, reading herself as the countdown began.

"Huh?"

Logan finally spoke.

His eyebrows moved slightly as he looked at her.

"THREE!!"

The crowd ignited as the countdown started.

Thousands of voices joined together, making the number echo throughout the Arena.

"Excited to fight you?"

Logan looked at Lyra as if she had just made the biggest joke he had ever heard.

His expression carried a mixture of disbelief and annoyance.

"TWO!!"

The crowd continued.

Lyra pointed toward herself, looking slightly disappointed by his answer.

"You are not excited to fight Lyra?"

She asked.

"Why the hell would I be excited to fight someone as weak as you, trash Ash?"

Logan’s irritation became more obvious.

His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

Although, the insult didn’t seem to affect Lyra in the slightest.

Instead...

"ONE!"

The crowd shouted the final number.

"Ah..."

Lyra smiled.

"So, you are just that confident, huh?"

Her smile became wider.

"I like confident people."

She placed one hand near her mouth.

"It’s always fun when breaking people like them, confidence. Do you know what kind of face they make?"

She asked.

Her fingers rested against her lower teeth as she opened her mouth slightly and made an excited expression.

There was almost a childish curiosity in her eyes.

As though she genuinely wanted to see what Logan’s face would look like after his confidence disappeared.

"BEGIN!!"

The crowd shouted the final word with even greater excitement.

Logan’s expression hardened.

"You’re just a crazy bitch."

He said coldly.

"I will gladly take that as a compliment!!"

Lyra immediately dashed forward.

Her boot struck the ground with force.

Crack!

A small crack spread across the surface beneath her foot as she accelerated.

At the same time, her right hand reached into her Space Bag.

Her fingers closed around the handle of her weapon.

She pulled it out.

A scythe appeared in her hand.

The long weapon swung with her movement as she continued charging toward Logan.

Logan remained where he was.

He didn’t retreat.

He simply watched Lyra approach.

The distance between them disappeared rapidly.

Then Lyra swung her scythe.

The blade moved diagonally downward in a vertical slash, cutting through the air toward Logan’s body.

The curved blade came closer.

Closer.

Until it was only inches away.

Logan’s body shifted.

He leaned slightly to the side.

The scythe passed beside him.

The edge of the blade moved so close that Logan could feel the air being pushed violently across his face.

The weapon missed.

Lyra’s swing continued past him.

Logan immediately turned.

His fist tightened and his arm moved.

The motion was so fast that the punch almost looked like a missile being fired toward Lyra’s body.

BAM!

A metallic sound rang across the fighting platform.

Lyra’s boot scraped against the ground as she was forced backward by the impact.

She twisted her body while retreating, preventing herself from losing her balance completely.

While Logan looked at the hand he had used to punch her.

"She managed to quickly block my punch."

His expression became more irritated.

"Tsk."

He clicked his tongue.

"Just useless struggles."

His hand moved to the side.

His body suddenly lowered slightly as he prepared himself to attack again.

"Let’s end this fight in the most brutal way possible."

He muttered.

Across the platform, Lyra looked down at the body of her scythe, which she used to block Logan’s punch.

She ran her eyes along the weapon before looking back toward Logan, then looking back at her scythe.

"Waa..."

Her eyes brightened.

"He got a strong punch."

She said excitedly.

"My bones could have been in serious pain."

She remembered the sensation from the earlier exchange.

There had been a clear fluctuation of Cognis within Logan’s punch, which wasn’t simply a natural physical strength.

He had reinforced his body with Cognis before striking her, adding to his already natural strength.

The force behind the attack was enough to make Lyra understand that taking a direct punch from him would be a bad idea.

Then...

Clap!

Logan’s hands came together.

The sound echoed across the fighting platform.

Lyra immediately looked up.

Her excitement became even clearer.

She recognized that movement.

An Alchemy Circle was about to form.

Instead of backing away...

Lyra lowered her body.

Her legs bent, and her feet moved into a running stance.

"Exciting..."

She laughed.

"Hahah."

Then she dashed forward again.

Crack!

The ground beneath her boot cracked from the force of her acceleration.

This time, however, her right hand did something different.

She reached into her Space Bag.

The weapon that came out was not the scythe.

Lyra pulled out an already created E-V 26 MK.II.

She held the shotgun with one hand.

Her arm remained steady as she continued running directly toward Logan while taking aim.

Then...

She pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The shotgun shell was fired.

The force of the shot pushed the weapon backward.

Lyra’s hand moved slightly from the recoil.

But the movement didn’t affect her.

Cognis had already been reinforced around her hand and arm, allowing her to control the weapon without being thrown off balance.

"Do you think you can catch me off guard?!"

Lyra shouted.

Logan’s eyes narrowed, as his hand slammed against the ground.

SLAM!

The moment his palm touched the fighting platform...

The Earth Alchemy ignited.

***

There was something every First-Year learned, although many people outside the Nature Alchemy Paths didn’t really understand the importance of it.

It explained why the Duke Families that specialized in Nature Alchemy Paths possessed such a large advantage over ordinary Alchemists who followed the same paths.

Although, almost all Nature Alchemy Paths are commonly used by regular Alchemists.

Earth Alchemy is one of the best examples.

It was one of the first Major Alchemy Paths established in Britannia’s history, and because of that, countless Alchemists had learned to use the earth around them as a material for their Alchemy.

So, what made the great Families stronger and different?

Professor Kent had revealed a small but important detail that had shocked many students from those families when they realized that he knew about it.

Although the important detail isn’t some hidden secret or newly discovered technique...

It is just something extremely difficult to execute.

The reason is simple.

Most Nature Alchemy Path followers don’t enhance the material they use.

They simply take the material around them and use it for their Alchemy.

Earth Alchemy is the clearest example.

An ordinary Earth Alchemist could take the earth around them and ignite an Earth Alchemy Circle through it.

The earth would rise.

It would change shape.

It could become a wall, a spear, a platform, or another structure depending on the Alchemist’s technique.

But the physical properties of that earth remained mostly the same.

The density remained the density of the material they had taken.

The strength remained dependent on the natural quality of the earth.

That was where the Drakes were different.

The Earth Alchemy of the Drakes didn’t simply take the earth and shape it.

The earth itself went through another process.

Deep beneath the ground, where the spectators couldn’t see what was happening, the earth began to grind against itself.

The material broke down into smaller particles.

The particles became finer.

And smaller.

Until the earth was reduced into extremely fine sand-like particles.

Then...

Those particles would compress together.

The pressure would increase

The material would become denser.

And the individual particles would be forced closer together until they formed a much stronger structure.

Only after that process was completed did the Earth Alchemy take the shape the Drakes wanted.

That was why Fatima’s Earth Alchemy had been strong enough to stop Ezra’s Kel-Tec PMR-30 bullets.

The earth itself was no longer ordinary earth.

Its density and other physical properties had been changed.

The Earth Alchemy of a Drake could become several times more solid than the Earth Alchemy of an ordinary Earth Alchemist.

And now...

Logan Drakes was showing that same advantage.

***

The ground beneath Lyra shook violently.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Then, without warning...

BOOM!

Earth spikes began growing rapidly from the ground.

They shot upward.

The pointed structures moved toward the incoming shotgun shell almost at the same time Lyra fired.

The shell travelled through the air.

The earth spikes rose to meet it.

BOOM!

The shell smashed into the Earth Spikes.

The impact caused the projectile to break apart.

The pellets sprayed outward in different directions, scattering across the fighting platform.

Some struck the ground.

Others bounced against the earth structures.

But the Earth Spikes didn’t stop.

They continued growing.

Their pointed ends pushed forward.

Straight toward Lyra.

Lyra immediately understood that the attack wasn’t meant to stop her shotgun.

The shell had simply been intercepted to remove the immediate threat.

The real attack was already coming for her.

Cognis rushed through Lyra’s legs.

Her muscles tightened.

She pushed against the ground.

Then she jumped.

The Earth Spikes passed beneath her.

One of them missed her body by a narrow distance.

Lyra twisted slightly in the air as she watched the spikes continue past her original position.

The earth structures reached the location where she had been standing.

They stopped.

"Stop being a rat!"

Logan shouted.

His face had finally lost some of its calmness.

His eyes followed Lyra, who was still high in the air.

He had expected the attack to end the fight.

Instead, she had escaped again.

Lyra looked down at Logan while airborne.

Then...

She smiled while she was descending.

"My turn."

Her voice carried excitement.

She still held the E-V 26 MK.II in one hand and the other held the scythe.

BANG!

She fired another shot.

But this time...

Lyra didn’t use Cognis to keep the recoil from affecting her.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The shots rang out one after another.

The recoil struck her arm.

Instead of resisting it...

Lyra used it.

Her body moved with the force while descending from the air.

She spun through the air.

The shotgun remained in one hand as the recoil pushed her body backward and around.

Her body rotated.

Her hair followed the movement.

Her clothes shifted from the sudden change in momentum.

The spent shells fell to the ground.

Another shot came.

BANG!

The force pushed her into another rotation.

Lyra used each burst of recoil to control her movement through the air.

Rather than allowing the shotgun to throw her around randomly, she was deliberately turning the recoil into movement.

She spun while descending from the air.

All her gunshots were all perfectly aimed shots in one direction.

Her body moved a bit sideways through the air.

The shotgun remained pointed toward that direction.

Another shell left the barrel.

The sound echoed through the Arena.

BANG!

All the gunshots pellets she fired all moved with intent.

Towards one person.