First Series: Wilderness Rumble (2), Ocean Wrath?

"Not bad, Lily. You improved a lot more than I expected," Rias smiled.

"But you got even more powerful," Lily wryly smiled. "It seems the journey to hunt for Legendary resources wasn't that bad."

Rias chuckled and nodded, "Mhmm, I reached halfway."

The crowd cheered loudly as they witnessed an exciting battle between two Legendary rank powerhouses.

"My turn now," Aleron suddenly said and stood up, attracting the eyes of Club Heads and Rias while the crowd gradually turned silent.

"You want to spar here?" Rias asked in surprise.

"Of course," Aleron jumped and arrived in front of Rias and Lily.

The crowd cheered as everyone shouted that they wanted to see him fight.

"We can also see his combat power this way. I know there's still time, but a little sparring won't hurt, Rias," Leo said with a gentle smile. 

"But he is still Epic-rank, right? It won't be fun if we fight against him," Tharan said while scratching his head.

'Hmm, he is indeed Epic-rank visibly, but I also don't know his true strength,' Rias thought. 

"I can spar with anyone, just send someone or you come," Aleron said with a laugh. "I created some skills, so I want to try them out."

"You want to try out your created skills?" Daniel repeated with a stunned expression.

The other Club Heads also looked a bit weirded out.

Rias internally facepalmed, but not because of Aleron's statement. 

'Everyone thinks Aleron is from a backwater place in the Falran Kingdom, but…'

"Tarok, spar with him," Rias said as she looked at the afro-hairstyle short guy who had peach-pale skin, the Club Head of Onyx Gale Club.

'Did she choose him because Tarok is fast and can react promptly in case anything happens?' Leo thought while contemplating and looking at the battleground. 'I wonder why Rias brought such a weak guy here with no Bloodline or Divine Blessing when there's only nine months left until the Trial?'

Aleron and Tarok arrived at the center of the battleground with 10 meters of distance between them.

"Ale, can you show me your stats from the Adventure card? This way, I can adjust my stats as well and we can spar properly," Tarok said with a smile while taking out two black daggers.

"Alright," Aleron took out his adventure card, infusing Mana in it, and projected it outward as everyone saw his stats.

All of his stats were 1001 except for Mana, which was 5000.

It was clear that he had just broken through to Epic rank recently, but everyone was surprised to see his Mana Pool having 5000 points.

"Did you find a natural treasure that increased your Mana Pool?" Tarok asked in shock.

"Yep," Aleron nodded with a grin. "I found a magical flower inside a small cave I found in the forest behind my village."

Rias jokingly rolled her eyes as she knew Aleron lied.

However, the students watching and even Club Heads were envious of such an encounter.

A natural treasure that can increase stats like that was rare. Even in the Falran Kingdom's treasury, they only had limited resources to increase the stats of Epic-rank powerhouses, which was why Aleron didn't have pills to increase his stats after he broke through.

Even in the Longinus Empire, although Epic-rank resources were circulated, students had to struggle and compete to acquire them.

As for Legendary-rank resources, they were rare even in the Empire. 

Princess Rias went out six months ago to adventure precisely because she wanted Legendary-rank resources and to become more powerful by going through the challenging journey.

Even then, she still needed more Legendary-rank resources to reach the peak of Legendary-rank.

Hence, Aleron's lucky encounter was an enviable point for all students.

'It seems that resources are hard to get for these students,' Aleron thought upon seeing the reaction.

"Well, that's fine. People have their good luck and bad luck," Tarok said as he stood in a slightly bent stance with his right leg stretched behind and holding his daggers in front of his face in a cross-shape form.

"You can make the first move, Aleron," Tarok added as his aura rose, becoming visible for all to see as shadowy and light green energy wrapped his body briefly before vanishing.

"Alright, senior Tarok," Aleron grinned and snapped his finger as he activated the skill rune of Pistol Fire Monkey.

In the next second, everyone saw a red-furred energy monkey conjuring above Aleron while holding two big barreled pistols.

Just as everyone was confused, a bullet burst forth from a pistole and fiercely shot toward Tarok, striking the ground near his leg before he could react.

*Boom!*

*Booom!*

Two blasts occurred within a single second, blasting Tarok as he flew upward with a dumbfounded expression.

While he was in mid-air, the monkey shot the second bullet, blasting Tarok out of the battleground as his magic barrier also broke and he fell injured.

Everyone was shocked.

"Hey, why is senior Tarok injured?"

"His Legendary Barrier broke?! But how?"

Leo and the other Club Heads were dumbfounded.

Legendary Barrier was a passive power that everyone who broke through to Legendary rank would awaken immediately.

Legendary Barrier was stuck to one's skin and would automatically regenerate without consuming energy. It defended one from magical and physical attacks, guarding them from harm until broken.

Ria's eyes glinted. 'Did he perhaps fail to control his power? But this proves that he is indeed much more powerful.'

"Umm…I think he needs some healing," Aleron said with a wry smile as he pointed at Tarok. 'How could he fall so fast? Did I fuck up?.'

"What was that? How could you break his Legendary Barrier despite having way less Magic Potency than Tarok?" Selena asked in confusion while Lily flew towards Tarok to heal him.

"And that skill…its bullet is so fast, we all would have a hard time reacting to it even if we know it's coming," Daniel frowned as he looked at the floating monkey. 

"I don't know. I just created a skill like I wanted," Aleron answered with a wry smile. "As for why I was able to break his Legendary Barrier…I have no idea. Maybe it was already weak beforehand?"

"Did you really create that skill yourself?" Sylphy asked, her eyes still shocked. 

This was indeed a shocking thing for them. Creating this level of skill wasn't easy after all. Even Club Heads required extensive training and practice to create S-rank skill that Aleron created in a jiffy.

But how could they know that Aleron was indeed a genius when it came to Magic?

Meanwhile, Rias internally chuckled at Aleron's attempt to feign ignorance about what just happened. 'Guess I'll give him a hand.'

"It's my fault," Rias said with a smile. "When we were returning, I used my Bloodline's buff ability on Aleron. It was still working, so his Magic Potency is more powerful."

"Oh yeah, it's still on," Aleron exclaimed before he apologetically smiled at Lily and Tarok. "Sorry."

"No wonder his skill was so powerful!"

"Tsk, and here I thought I witnessed something crazy."

"Princess Rias's buff is so powerful. An epic-rank like him broke the legendary barrier and hurt a legendary-rank powerhouse. Damn!"

'Nice save, Rias.' 

Aleron sneakily winked at Rias. 

'Anyway, I need to properly convert Magilore into Mana. This Mana Pool I created still has some potency of Magilore, so the skill got more powerful.'

Aleron swiftly finished this work in his Source Space, arranging a Mana convertor between his Mana Pool and Magilore of Arcane Lapis.

"Since Tarok is injured, I'll spar with you," Leo said with a smile as he jumped into the battleground and stood before Aleron.

But right after that, several beeping sounds rang along with a loud horn that reverberated far and wide.

The beeping sound was from Rias and the seven Club Heads.

"This…" Rias frowned as she looked at the bracelet on her wrist. 

The Club Heads also did the same and frowned.

However, the loud horn sound that rang stopped and a voice echoed.

[Ocean Wrath is occurring. Everyone at Exceptional rank and above, gather at the academy transport platform right away!]

An uproar rang in the stadium, but everyone listened to the announcement and left.

"Ale, follow us! I'll tell you what's happening on the way," Rias said as she flew up and swiftly left. 

Aleron saw her and Club Heads flying away by conjuring their wings.

'I also have a proper flying skill now,' Aleron grinned and conjured a pair of sharp jet-like wings made of a metallic light gray surface and having a formation designed to utilize wind energy and fire energy. The wing's metallic design was akin to a silver eagle with feathered patterns on the surface and two big eyes on the upper part of the wings.

Wilderness Rumble Series: Hawk Blaze Wings!

The wings released a burst of wind as Aleron shot straight up before shooting forward.

Spending a bit of Mana, he activated the burst mode as the wind gale from his wings was suddenly ignited by fire, boosting his speed in a burst as he swiftly caught up to Rias.

"So, what's up with this Ocean Wrath?" Aleron asked while thinking. 'This is day 2, so I also need to gamble twice and acquire Gacha Points. Since Ocean Wrath sounds like trouble, there's a good chance I can gamble big.'