Meeting Gazes, After Many Years (1)

Academy City was the city of learning, a place famous for nurturing hundreds of powerhouses and several powerful demigods.

However, Academy City relied on more than its outstanding teachers and its great foundation of knowledge to achieve that.

During the one hundred years of Academy City's existence, it had always promoted the competitive spirit between the students, offering great rewards and encouraged the students to compete against each other to get better rewards.

At the start, it was through duels and competitions; however, that was not enough to properly evaluate some of the students.

Thus, after many years of experimenting, Academy City finally settled with three ways through which students could be evaluated.

The first one was the combat ranking. It rated students according to their combat power, and the strongest ones received more resources than the weaker ones.

The second one was the mission ranking, through which students could participate in different missions and realize tasks to get points for a better ranking. Many students whose specializations were not combat used this ranking to get more resources.

And the third one was the club ranking.

Different than the other two, the club ranking did not evaluate the students themselves, but instead their clubs and their teamwork and strategy.

Just like with the other rankings, stronger clubs received more resources than weaker clubs. And if a club wanted to get a better ranking, they needed to go through one of the biggest festivals in Academy City.

The War of Clubs.

Once every three months, the clubs would compete fiercely to get a place as one of the top one hundred clubs.

And today was the day when the War of Clubs started.

Bloed and the girls went to the city's stadium in the morning. It was a gigantic building almost three hundred meters long, with a capacity for fifty thousand spectators.

When they arrived, they found that the entire stadium was surrounded by a crowd.

Teachers, students, and inhabitants of Academy City alike were trying to squeeze to enter the arena.

That was normal, though. After all, today was the opening of the War of Clubs.

Unfortunately, most of them could only wait outside the arena, unable to enter.

The capacity of the arena was limited, and the entrance fee to observe the opening of the War of Clubs was rather expensive, so only a part of the students could see it directly.

Fortunately, Bloed did not need to pay to enter. One of the privileges of the top one hundred clubs was free entrance to the stadium for the leader and five members of the club. Other clubs could only bring their leader and another person at most.

Bloed had brought Regina, Liu Ying, Aya, Gina, and Prince Calisto with him. Sara, Toby, and Elwha (Who had registered as a member of the club after receiving her new ID) stayed behind.

Once the group reached the entrance of the Arena, Bloed showed his invitation card and the group was allowed inside.

Bloed's group was one of the latest to arrive. Most of the seats had been taken by this point in time, and practically every club of the city had arrived.

The thousands of people seated in the stands talked with each other excitedly, creating a stimulating scene that made the eyes of the liveliest girl of Bloed's group shine.

"So many people…" Gina gasped in admiration.

It was the first time she saw so many people in the same place.

In fact, it was the first time for Bloed and the others as well, and it was obvious all of them had been surprised as well.

"I had heard about the stadium of Academy City, but it's my first time in it." Liu Ying commented with a sigh. "I heard my father say it's the biggest stadium in the continent."

Bloed nodded. Even he could not hide his admiration for this enormous structure.

He knew the Human Confederation had built bigger buildings, but he had never seen them. It was his first time seeing such a big structure.

Well, his mother's spaceship was bigger, but it was mostly buried under sand and rocks, so the visual impact was much lesser.

Just then, someone appeared in the middle of the arena.

Caramel-colored hair and eyes, a golden jewel-like scale in her forehead, slightly pointed ears, and some scattered scales of her cheek.

She was one of the strongest demigods in the world, and the founder and headmistress of Academy City.

Wave Golden.

As soon as she appeared, every person in the stadium instinctively stopped talking. The aura coming from the beautiful woman made them unable to talk for an instant.

The headmistress opened her mouth at that moment.

"Welcome, students." Wave smiled softly, her soothing voice spreading through the entire arena. "Today, once more, we are here to begin the War of Clubs.

"I don't plan to talk much today. I'll simply wish luck to the many clubs and students that will participate in the War of Clubs. I hope that many of you use this competition to grow, to become stronger, and to take a step more towards your dreams.

"Now, let's welcome the top one hundred clubs of the city.

"Step forward, [Guardian Order]!"

Immediately, cheers erupted from the stand and two people walked out of the stands.

The first was a demon young man with a calm smile followed by a beautiful human girl.

However, the eyes of every student were fixed on the young man.

"Mu Quan…" Bloed heard someone near him mutter.

At that moment–

"Ha!"

With a shout, a powerful aura erupted from Mu Quan, shocking the entire audience.

At the same time, his aspect took shape behind him, turning into a five-meters tall lion of fire!

The powerful aura coming from Mu Quan and the intimidating look of the lion of fire shocked the entire stadium. Students and teachers alike looked at him in admiration.

And then, louder cheers erupted from the stands.

It was the students and inhabitants of Academy city showing their respects to the strongest student!

Once Mu Quan arrived in front of the headmistress, she nodded at him before opening her mouth once more.

"Now, the second strongest club, [Genius Society]!"

Immediately, a beautiful purple-haired girl stood up from the stands.

Then, she waved her hand, commanding the wind around her.

The wind quickly turned into a powerful vortex that surprised the students nearby. Then, it lifted the purple-haired girl, before carrying her towards the headmistress!

When that scene fell on the eyes of the students, the entire stadium fell silent.

Then–

"S-She is flying…!"

"Amazing!"

"She is not even a demigod yet!"

Students after students spoke up in admiration, filling the stadium with cheers and words of astonishment.

In fact, Bloed realized that the cheers were louder than when Mu Quan appeared, probably because Isabella was a beautiful girl.

When Isabella arrived in front of Wave, she landed on the ground and bowed respectfully, earning a smile from Wave who then spoke up again.

"The third strongest club, [Mage Tower]!"

This time, two young men stood up and jumped towards the arena. Behind them, countless magic circles of different colors and designs appeared and disappeared constantly.

The two young men were noticeably older than Mu Quan and Isabella. They seemed around twenty-seven and twenty-eight years old.

Even so, their strength was unquestionable. The peak A-Rank aura coming from their bodies filled the spectators with awe.

The cheers the two young men received were less than Mu Quan and Isabella, however, it was not much worse. Obviously, they were well-known in Academy City as well.

Then, it was the turn of the fourth club, [Martial Arts Club].

A young tigerkin man and a human woman stepped up this time. They walked calmly towards Headmistress Wave, without releasing their aura in the slightest.

But with each step they took, the stadium shook fiercely, as though it was experiencing an earthquake.

Such a display of strength silenced many students.

Next came the fifth club, called [Crystal Beauty].

According to Bloed's knowledge, this club only had A-Rank girls and it was famous for the many beauties in it.

True to its fame, two beautiful ladies stepped out this time. Strangely, the girls' appearance was rather contrasting.

One of them had crimson-red hair and a wild expression, and the other was an elf with lustrous silver hair that resalted her ice-cold gaze.

Astonishingly, when they stepped on the arena, fire and ice appeared behind them, following them as though they were the queens of flame and frost.

They were followed by the sixth-ranked club, [Eternal Dream].

This club was famous for specializing in illusions and mental techniques, and its leader was a male elf, one of the strongest A-Ranks in Academy City.

When he stepped into the arena, countless images appeared around him. Wolves, tigers, lions, rabbits, birds. Each image was a lifelike illusion, showing the young man's mastery in it.

Then, it was the turn of the seventh club.

"Step forward, [Wings of Liberty]!"

With the headmistress's voice, a young man and a young woman jumped towards the stage.

Bloed glanced at them with interest, noticing that the young man was very handsome, around twenty-five years old and with Peak A-Rank strength.

He was definitively a top powerhouse among the students.

But when he saw the young woman, his face stiffened.

Long black hair, beautiful black eyes, and an ice-cold expression that seemed to freeze the world itself.

When Bloed saw that familiar face, he could not help but let out a soft murmur.

"... Eres..."