Chapter 311 Alten Versus Lyrian
Alten lifted his longbow from his back, made of white steel, and held it in his arm.
He took an arrow from his quiver and placed it on his arrowstring. Everyone looked on in anticipation as Lyrian didn't make a move.
Alten held the bow below him, channeling his mana into it with his own ability.
Soon, the entire bow, along with the arrow, began to glow in a golden hue.
This surprised some of the onlookers.
"Surely... it isn't Weapon Mana, is it?" A few kids behind Drake and Linus began to mutter amongst themselves.
"That isn't Weapon Mana, but almost there. It's clear that this Alten kid inherited that ability from his family. It's a family technique. If he actually had the ability to conjure Weapon Mana already, then he would be able to take Lyrian out in one shot."
Drake said this as a few kids looked at him, surprised at his words. Even though he believed what he said, he still wasn't fully sure.
There was a part of him that kind of wanted to see Alten pull something big like this out of his pocket and actually pass Lyrian's test.
However, even to him, it didn't seem like that was likely to happen.
After it glowed golden, Alten lifted the bow and pointed it toward Lyrian. With a fierce look in his eyes, he pulled the arrow back on the string until his finger lined up with his ear and stared down the back of the arrow.
The veins on his hand all popped out as he let the arrow go. Just as he did, however, he moved his hand slightly—as though in accident.
The arrow moved forward but at the last moment, his aim deterred slightly, sending the arrow into the ground right behind Lyrian to the left.
For a moment, there was a confused hush that fell over the crowd. Then, the entire group broke out into laughter.
"Pahahaha!"
"He actually missed!"
"I thought he was at least good at archery!"
Even Leon was surprised, his eyes widening up, "He made a mistake like that on Lyrian who wasn't even moving? Was it an accident? Did he pull too hard? I find it hard to believe..."
He couldn't believe what he saw.
Lyrian looked at the arrow with a serious expression. 'No... he wouldn't make a mistake like this.' Lyrian looked back up at Alten, whose face hadn't changed.
'Just what is he planning? Missing on purpose like that.'
Just then, Alten quickly loaded up several more arrows, shooting them at Lyrian with haste.
These arrows actually came close, so Lyrian began jumping around to dodge them.
"Finally! He's doing something!"
"That first shot must have been because he was nervous..."
Lyrian noticed that Alten only shot the arrows at a distance of 3 feet away from each other.
As he continued to shoot them, Lyrian jumped 4 feet away from each arrow, making sure he was never hit.
As a red arrow landed to his left, he moved four feet to the right. Just as his foot graced the ground, however, Alten uttered, "Combustion arrow."
*BOOM*
Lyrian's eyes widened for a split second as he got serious, quickly darting across the arena.
A wave of gasps rippled through the crowd as they saw this. A few even cheered for Alten.
"Hm... good try. You almost got me there."
Alten smirked on hearing this. After this, Alten continued shooting arrows and random combustion arrows at Lyrian, but they all were in vain.
After a few minutes, even the crowd began to get bored.
'A little to the left... now to the right...' Alten was musing this in his head for some reason during the entire fight, looking at Lyrian's location.
'I can't blame him if this is his best effort. His strength has definitely grown. I have no doubt that he will be able to assist me in the exam, but he just won't pass this test it seems, which isn't a big deal.'
Lyrian was ready to stop the match by now, as the crowd was done seeing Alten's fruitless attempts, and so was he.
Just then, Lyrian landed in the very middle of the platform.
"Now!" Alten finally shouted, throwing Lyrian off slightly.
"What?"
"Double arrow!" Alten said this but hadn't shot an arrow, so it was confusing to hear.
Just then, the first-ever golden arrow that Alten had shot at the beginning of the match propelled another arrow up in the opposite direction of where it was shot.
It traveled toward Lyrian, who was completely oblivious, at a quick speed.
The crowd was astonished to see what they were seeing.
The arrow got millimeters from Lyrian and touched the very surface of his clothing.
This was enough to alert Lyrian of it, as he felt the vibration on his shirt and instantly dashed to the side to avoid the arrow.
However, his shirt had a slight tear in it that was about the length of a pinky nail.
Lyrian was bewildered at what just happened, as Alten grinned widely and put his bow on his back.
"Hahaha! I did it!"
"Don't tell me... you were planning that all along?" Lyrian was almost at a loss for words.
"Didn't I tell you at the start? You shouldn't have thought that speed was what determined this duel. It was intellect from the start."
Alten proudly remarked, walking back into the surprised crowd with his chest puffed out.
Leon laughed in amusement after a few seconds of speechlessness himself. "Hah---hahaha. Wow... I didn't expect that at all."
Needless to say, the crowd was impressed with the boy. Their words from before sounded quite stupid now that they knew Alten had been planning his missed shot from the start.
Even Drake and Linus were slightly surprised.
'Pretty dang smart of a move. That arrow was fast too... I'm not sure if I would have gotten only a shirt tear if I was Lyrian—in basic form, that is.' Drake mused, impressed.
'Not bad...' Linus thought to himself.
'Lyrian's friend huh? He has some potential.' Rerth was given a good impression as well.
"I guess I'm up next," Leon said, hopping onto the platform.
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