32 Chapter 32- The King of Dark Horses

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A:N Update was a bit later than I would like but I've been quite busy the past few days. I will try to update 2-3 times weekly, but when school starts it might even go down to 1 depending on how much time I have. Still have a lot planned out so enjoy

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Two people, a beauty with long silky white hair, and a young guy with spiky blond hair faced off alone in a enormous field as millions of people around the world watched.

"It's been a while since we fought" the white haired girl spoke with a small smile at the corner of her mouth

The male chuckled a bit at that "I guess we couldn't have asked for a better stage am I right?" He said cheerfully while looking around

She looked at him mischievously "you know, you look a lot more handsome with brown hair" she teased at him

"Oh? so maybe you like this color better?" A red energy flowed from his hand into his hair swirling around it before moving away revealing his previous hair color

"Chaos element?" She said a bit confused

"Yeah, little trick I picked up. Using the ability to mess with the composition of things. Can even change the color of my hair after a bit of practice"

Right after that he removed his colored contacts. It wasn't really much of a disguise but then again, it would be hard to discover him unless they were quite familiar with him just like Xue'er recognizes him at first glance.

She had a small smirk on her face "Didn't want to attempt that special color changing magic on your eye color?" She said

"Better not mess with something important like that, shall we begin?" He said raising his hand up in a challenging gesture with a calm smile across his lips

Instead of responding to him, novice ice magic appeared in each hand with a blizzard pouring out onto the field with ice forming all over the ground.

"Really takes me back. I believe I responded with something like this?" A blue flame lit his hand before he threw it out onto the field. In a loud explosion, it jumped out onto the field covering Itachi's side completely pushing back the ice a bit before dying out stunning spectators how a both of their simple novice spells poured across the entire field.

Instantly switching, Mu Ning Xue raised her hand into the air as thousands of ice arrows formed radiating a bone chilling cold that could instantly freeze someone solid.

"Finally getting serious eh?"

His eyes flowed silver as an invisible force sprang from his hands. The ice arrows began deaccelerating finally stopping a meter from his hand. Making a flicking motion, all of the arrows did an 180 before shooting back towards the owner who didn't seem panicked.

A green glow appeared surrounding her as a powerful whirlwind shot out smashing into the redirected attack sending arrows in disarray scattering all over the field.

"You know, I have been preparing for this rematch for a while" she said as her summon element once again flashed. A horde of monsters shot out hundreds of warrior ranked beasts even being led by a couple commanders shot out towards Itachi

"tsk tsk what have I always told you? Quality over quantity" he responded for the first time that day using his lightning seriously as electricity crackled around his hands. No warning of a star path came when a thick purple beam shot out landing on one of the commanders with a loud bang the with tens of weaker creatures surrounding it being killed from the shockwave alone.

Immediately after, a purple orb floated up from his hand of highly condensed lightning. He continued to push more energy into it as he compressed it with his space magic with it becoming more and more volatile as it shook trying to break free from his shackles.

"Little trick I learned after breaking through. Who said lightning wasn't good for dealing with large crowds?" like a grenade he threw it in a looping arc towards the crowd of monsters that were still approaching.

Realizing the power behind that, Mu Ning Xue immediately backed up shooting away right as the attack erupted. Instantly the entire barrier surrounding the battlefield shook with waves visible waves rippling at the attack that's strength was solidly into the Super Tier. The wave of monsters was immediately obliterated the shock wave thundering across the entire field while Xue'er defended herself with a simple ice shield.

Immediately after, the air seemed to vibrate at the magic energy being given off as a star palace the telltale sign of Super Magic appeared in the air. It was very well controlled giving an opponent little time to react to disrupt it with the powerful spell being completed in a mere 5 seconds as it radiated down. The space around Itachi seemed to be locked down by a strange force giving off some sort of higher law that would prevent any sort of teleportation.

Right after, ice rushed towards him like a tsunami towering over his field of vision. All energy was sucked out as the ice traveled around the ground, and Itachi could tell that if it hit a normal mage, all their ability to resist would be sucked away before they were helplessly frozen. He threw a few fire attacks, but aside from creating alot of water and steam, they were quickly overwhelmed by the battle prowess Ice Super Tier magic that could rival a much higher level.

Realizing he was taking it too lightly he once again drew on his fire element, but this time it was different. Similar to earlier, he used his space element to compress it even tighter and tighter, but he also did something a bit different.

Drawing on his volatile demon element, instead of merging with it like he normally would, he infused a bit of energy into the ball of condensed energy making it even more volatile as it threatened to overwhelm his control reaching a high level, he threw it out as it barrelled deep into the wall of ice. A loud Kaboom was heard as the entire attack was blown apart with shards of ice, snow, and slush being thrown everywhere while water from the melted ice splashed around.

Meanwhie Xue'er panting a bit at that attack could only sigh seeing Itachi look perfectly fine.

Shaking her head she walked forward meeting Itachi in the middle who still stood there "I knew from the beginning you would be much stronger than me. The sheer number of options you have combined with the attack power would make beating you almost impossible.

I know beating you is pretty much impossible, but I just want to be able to stand with you and not be a burden. That combination attack using space with lightning to make something that destructive was truly something amazing, I still have a long way to go" she said with a rueful smile before her demeanor completely changed as an elegant crystalline Ice bow appeared in her hand radiating a dangerous aura of a primordial weapon. "That's why I must prove my worth" she said determinedly looking at him with a fierce gaze

"I guess it would be rude of me to not respond in kind" before mumbling to himself a bit as he stared into space with a look of concentration"Hmm not too much arena can't take it, this level should be good." Right after that, a beautiful midnight black electric blue bow materialized in his hand giving off a crushing pressure

"Even when I still hadn't awakened, I had this weapon by my side. Now it returns for the finals." he said while his girlfriend's gaze grew even more serious seeing what he had pulled out. When they were both only mid tier mages, it was this that he used to save all their lives against a true monarch that would have annihilated them. Now, years later here it was again in all its glory radiating an invincible aura that seemed to challenge the heavens .

Pulling back the crystalline thread a arrow made of pure fire seemed to appear but the most frightening part was she could sense no power from it. It was completely contained condensed to a frightening level and she could do nothing except prepare her own attack. Similarly, an ice arrow appeared on hers as spectators held their breath at the final spectacle.

People around the world were shocked seeing two monsters at such an unimaginable level appearing out of nowhere. They were both Super tier at such a young age and their abilities were shocking. The supervisors for the match hurriedly ran around doing fortifying the barriers never imagining that a simple match would turn into a duel between paragons.

<Meanwhile in a VIP section inside the arena>

"Are you seeing this" one powerful looking middle aged man turned to a mystery man wearing a black cloak

"It has to be him, everything matches up" he responded with a scratchy voice "He has been missing for a while we almost thought he was dead, but it turns out, he was holed in America."

"Very well, inform the others. He must be taken alive. He is the only survivor of experiment 115 he has the power to threaten everything we have been working for" replied the middle aged man as he looked at the field with a malicious look on his face

"Let's see where you can hide this time"

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When Itachi and Mu Ning Xue both released their attacks time seemed to stop. Looking around, Itachi took in the entire field, the spectators, two foxes messing around in the corner.

The two solitary arrows moved through the air on an destructive path trailing red and blue streak respectively. There was a brief lull before all hell broke loose when a massive explosion occurred in the middle exploding out in all directions. Anchoring himself to the ground through gravity magic, Itachi managed to prevent himself from being blown away while he wrapped his body in a cocoon of a mixture of wind and chaos to deflect the forces.

The solid rock ground beneath meant to withstand the destructive battles between the mages was torn apart as the rock beneath him collapsed breaking apart as he sank down. The barrier held but barely as cracks spider webbed across it giving many people quite a scare. While many other mages had defensive magic already casted in case it erupted into the stands.

Slowly pieces of the formation collapsed as the smoke spread into the arena dispersing at a fast rate.

Following that, there was a deathly silence as no noise was heard. The entire arena was obscured by the smoke covering the field. Seconds ticked by as the smoke slowly revealed two silhouettes standing with one covered by a glow.

It cleared even further revealing both Itachi and Mu Ning Xue who both looked alright however the latter was covered in a golden glow signifying the use of a protective magical treasure which she had used to prevent getting any serious injuries from the explosion otherwise, she might have died since her body was alot weaker than Itachi's.

After a few seconds of pause, the referee recovered from his stupor and immediately shouted out "The last member of the Chinese team has used a magical treasure so she is disqualified. That means the winner is the American team" he said as the arena instantly erupted in a deafening roar.

Meanwhile on the sideline, the members of the American team were jumping up and hugging each other as some even cried in joy. Even if he wasn't being entirely truthful on his identity, they didn't even care anymore since it was all thanks to him that they managed to win. Mr. Adams was dabbing at his eyes with a broad smile on his face "Even if its against 'them', the American magic association will do their best to assist you if we can" he muttered to himself looking down on the field with a complicated look.

After throwing a smile towards Itachi, Mu Ning Xue headed back to her teammates who although a bit saddened at the loss were also quite happy since they still got second and they didn't blame her at all since they would be completely destroyed by Itachi.

Meanwhile, Zhao Manyan was looking carefully at the retreating back of Itachi before he seemed to make a realization "Is that Mo Fan?" he exclaimed since he had personally been familiar with the guy back in university a few years ago.

Mu Ning Xue seeing no reason to hide it proceeded to tell the team members that it indeed was, and how he had been living in America for the past year. She didn't go into too much detail however and kept it very brief.

When asked difficult to answer questions, she simply responded that she didn't know playing it off that she had just learned herself and didn't know too much details. She knew the many had already made the connection, and it was only a matter of time before it was the top story across the globe how the missing student from China made a grand appearance two years later unofficially becoming the strongest of his generation in the world.

On the other side, Itachi slowly walked as he began to feel a headache form seeing the challenging looks he was getting from his team members.

*Sigh 'I just won you the match can't you look a little more happy' he thought rubbing his head 'I guessing they already figured it out. Whatever, let's just get this finished up then I can take a nice relaxing vacation with my girlfriend. That is until a certain group of power hungry idiots try to make my life more difficult.'

Pulling up, there was a brief period of silence as no one spoke. Zeroing in on a certain blond who looked quite angry of them all. he gave a light cough

"You know, frowning makes you look ugly" he said with a small smile as the blond began to fume "That's all you have to say Itachi, or should I say Mo Fan?"

He shrugged "I guess I wasn't being very truthful, but I have my reasons which I'm sure at least one of you knows." he said throwing a look at Mr.Adams standing near the back who had a complicated look on his face. As a leader of one of the proud magic associations atop a continent he should not have to listen to anyone yet this was not the case. Although they appeared to be on an equal level, he knew the Holy Court was not to be trifled with and the presumption of a democracy was mostly false.

The Holy Court could pick and choose what magic they deem as 'evil' just to remove a threat. The different representatives would vote in the court whether the defendant was guilty or not, yet they would always side with the Holy Court. Xin Xia's father Wentai who was a forbidden tier mage was one such case where he was sentenced to death in a conspiracy while he was truly innocent.

If the Holy Court wanted someone dead, the others representatives better comply with their wishes otherwise, the results would not be good. They were truly a hegemony that intimidated all the other organisations worldwide. It was no surprise that Mr. Adams would have some details on the entire situation.

Returning to the present, the others looked a bit confused but Mr. Adams only looked away. "Anyways that's not important, I truly enjoyed my time on this team, and I will be returning back to China after this is all finished I will see you all later" he said preparing to leave before he was stopped by a barrage of questions.

Raising a hand he said "One at a time" as Lucas was the first to speak up "Do you really have six elements?" he said excitedly "Ehh something close to that" he lazily responded technically not lying since 6 is relatively close to 9

"Are you a Super tier mage?" asked Ryan standing to the side. It was hard to tell in the fast paced battle, but his attacks were so strong, he had to be Super Tier

With a small smile he replied "You are correct, I broke through quite recently"

A few gasps went through the team members at that. While they had their suspicions earlier, it was now confirmed he was at that level, making him the youngest Super Tier mage in the world since he was a bit younger than Mu Ning Xue. Let it be known that their ages were around 21 while the next youngest Super Tier mage after them was in their thirties.

Even though all of them were some of the most talented high tier mages in the world, many of them would be unable to breakthrough that barrier in their lifetime let alone at such a young age. It was the dividing gap for true experts in the world and they couldn't help but be a little envious inside since both of their future prospects were unimaginable.

Next to speak was Catherine who seemed to be a little shy "That Chinese girl was your girlfriend right" she said as a few others looked on curiously

"Yes that was my girlfriend, I haven't fought with her in a while so it was quite fun. She is the only one my age who is strong enough to take a few hits from me" he said while Olivia looked at him sassily "I still can't believe you hid your identity like that and won't even tell us why"

He looked at this girl with a small smirk on his face "I don't think I'm the only one Dragon" he said turning away leaving the others confused while she herself had a pale look on her face

"Any last questions?" he said interrupting their thoughts as they immediately became panicked again seeing him about to leave

"The reports say after encountering a Monarch rank beast, you went missing. what really happened that day?" Gabriella said hurriedly

He sighed "I will give you some vague details which includes why I stayed missing. To put it simply I didn't have the ability to protect myself from those who wished me harm therefore I hid until I was strong enough to oppose them. Finally strong enough to protect myself I stand here today coming out into the open" just as they opened their mouths to ask him more details he raised his hand silencing them

"And don't ask me who I am fighting. Knowing would only bring harm to yourselves."

He turned walking out of the arena with a lazy look on his face. No doubt they were already on his tail. He wanted to go with the team to receive their blessing reward, yet he knew it would be for the best if he didn't go with. He already planned to help his sister win the goddess position in the shadows before making other arrangements.

After today, walking around would be bothersome since he knew he had pretty much instantly became the most famous person in the world. All his life details would be revealed, but he was already prepared for that.

With the help of Ling Ling back in China he had helped move his father covertly to England so he wouldn't be bothered at all. While it may be a little cold not meeting him, it is for the best since pulling him into his life would only bring him pain.

His sister was safe in the Parthenon and he didn't have to worry about her yet. Itachi would protect Xue'er himself since he planned to train to strengthen both himself and his girlfriend before his face off with the Holu Court.

While the world may currently seem peaceful, he knew war was very close. While the worlds organisations were cowed under the threat of the Holy Court, he knew they desired true freedom and would band together if given a spark.

He was not yet prepared for that however, and he planned to go awaken more elements along with bringing the rest of them up to Super Tier. Everything was progressing smoothly so far and he had a bit of time before he would put his plans into motion.

Before all of that however, he had to go make a trip to dubai to meet a certain scientist.