THE LAST KEEPER-Chapter 205. THINGS ESCALATE II

By the time Sagiri was breaking through the Galka War Academy’s vicinity, it was already morning. Just two hours or less before daybreak. Sagiri had ripped out his sigil at some point during his chase. He had also slowed down a bit. He pushed the archive out on the left side of the wall, a few hundred feet from the gate. He teleported inside the wall and immediately retracted it. The civilians in the arena should have been waking up now. It was a week of no sleep in Tagayia till the exams ended. They slept in sleeping bags in the arena and ate courtesy of the mandra and the great chief of the north. It is considered a festival.

The simple act had finally exhausted him. Even so, sagiri broke into a run at top speed. He needed to find the shortest distance possible to the outsiders’ eating encampments. He broke through the woods just as the queue was starting to get fat. The day would start in a few.

The servers gave him strange looks because he was still wearing the Galka Academy combat suit, but they did not question him. Sagiri chose a deserted place and munched on the food without tasting it. It had been a full twenty-four hours since he last ate, and it was all clear by how fast the mountain of food went by.

After drinking a ton of water, Sagiri slipped into the arena and took a seat at the very back. All he had to do now was fall into conscious slumber and wait. He crasped his oru- seals to his ears to shut out the hundreds of conversations happening. He rested his back on the raised platform behind him and let his hands rest on his thighs with his head slightly bowed. The poison had not reacted yet, but he knew something ought to give soon. To make him stand out less, he had ripped out a coat from one of the arena seats and lay it on his shoulders.

One hour tickled by and then another.

Then he heard the awaited commotion. Today was no doubt the second test. The first test always changed over the years, but the second test is always the same. The second test was no doubt the tournaments. All the thousand five hundred cadets will face off against each other and finally get a combat rank. The crowd cared only about the top ten, but even making it into the top hundred was prestigious. sagiri could feel the tension from the tunnels as the cadets marched forward. In the past hour, he had managed to feel a bit rested, but it was barely enough. He could rest after he got what he wanted.

Stillness.

Sagiri remained still even as the gate opened and the cadets poured through. The excitement of the crowd was suffocating. After a few more minutes, he snapped his eyes open. He could taste his own killing intent and somehow, even without knowing why, those close to him felt uneasy around him. Most of the seating platforms surrounding him were left untouched. His right eye looked at the images displayed on the watcher’s eye. The images kept changing from one student to another. Right now, it was Kaka, and Wokira was going on and on about something which could only be praises about Kaka. The images changed and changed, and wokira went on and on.

By now, the dignitaries’ side of the arena was almost full. The tournament was only minutes away from commencing. Suddenly, the image on the screen changed from one of the Kafika girls, and another face came to the screen. It seemed they were displaying the top images of the top five students of every school in combat and weaponry.

Her!

Her image came into display, and the killing intent coming from Sagiri multiplied tenfold. The archive flowed violently in his veins, answering to his intentions, and even Nokai stirred in the archive pocket. It was time.

Sagiri flew from his place at the back of the arena. With the archive powering him and his killing intent burning like the very sun, he had never felt lighter than a feather. It all happened so fast as the cadets were turning to leave the arena to take their seats so that the first two could begin the tournament. A back blur tore through the air, and even the watchers’ eyes missed. Sagiri’s eyes were only set on one thing. his target. He found her, and even she did not see him coming.

Sagiri’s hand wrapped around her throat and slammed her to the ground, shaking the very arena. Her eyes widened for a bit, trying to fight, but she might have been a match for Sagiri last time when he had not accessed more than half the archives’ power, but at the moment, it was like an ant trying to fight an elephant. Something was wrong with her, however. Her strength seemed to increase, too, at that moment.

Sagiri did not give her a chance before he tossed her into the air and followed her to the air. He caught her mid-air again and tossed her to the ground. A small depression formed where she landed, and dust rose. Both attacks had happened in a split second, and no one had ever witnessed such agile violence and strength. There was a pause as even Wokira had his jaw wide open.

The moment soon passed, but sagiri was already holding the girl by the throat to the ground. She must have realised that he had gone berserk at the moment. Even so, Sagiri could not sense fear or killing intent from her. It was as if she were like Kiana, yet she wasn’t. That fact irritated him more, and he lifted her by the throat and threw her in the air once again. This time, he didn’t follow her and let her fall on her own. Something else had entered his periphery.

The cadets on the field were now running, and the instructors had recovered from their shock, and they drew their weapons. Nokai responded violently, responding to Sagiri’s hostility. It tore through the pocket, and the handle landed on Sagiri’s hand. Right as the warrior charged, Sagiri smirked. Anyone who stood in his way was going to be reduced to ashes.

"Nokai!" he called, and the blades snapped out. The cadets and the warriors present all saw it, but they did not stop. Sagiri twisted his body through the air, spinning Nokai violently as he went. The blade did not need to make contact with the warriors because his killing intent and the archives’ merging were a deadly combination. The force of their intent hit the hundred warriors and cadets who were close and sent them flying. Some hit into the parricade of the arena. The watcher’s circle’s eyes caught the action, and the crowd was frozen. They did not know whether to cheer or be scared.

Sagiri landed in a crouch with his right knee to the ground. The sash must have loosened through a couple of series of movements, and it fell loose around his neck. His eyes snapped open, and the red was glowing a deadly red. Gasps tore through the arena as the watcher’s eye caught it. He was, after all, the central image being displayed by it.

"Stay down if you don’t want to die. If anyone attacks again, I will show no mercy," Sagiri snarled the warning before standing to his feet slowly. He did not want to kill any bystanders, but if they did not stand down, he was to turn them to ashes.