The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System Chapter 63

“Lykos of House Death, son of Remus.”

The next match came before anyone could finish whispering about the last one.

“Gaia of House Gift, daughter of Theodore.”

Lykos strutted forward like he was born to win, spinning his staff with one hand.

Across from him, Gaia walked in small, hesitant steps, both hands clutching her surprisingly bladed staff tightly to her chest. If the blade were ignored for a moment, she would look more like someone who came to tend a garden than to fight.

When they reached their marks, Lykos rested his staff over his shoulder.

“Try not to cry when you lose, alright?”

Gaia blinked, startled, and then muttered:

“I-I wasn’t planning to…”

He scoffed, crossing his arms.

“Tch. Don’t act like you’re confident now.”

That was when John lowered his hand.

“Begin.”

Lykos went first, of course, and jabbed his staff into the ground with a yell, because apparently, shouting your spell helped:

“FREEZE!”

The floor cracked, and a sudden blast of frost surged outward.

Spikes of ice had formed, shooting fast across the arena.

The power on display was real…

But damn, his aim was awful.

Gaia yelped, tripping backward as the first spike narrowly missed her skirt.

She swung her staff in pure panic, and the ground in front of her burst upward, throwing a wave of dirt and stone towards the wolf-boy.

“Wha—how dare you throw dirt at a Great House?!”

He shouted again, slipping on his own ice while trying to dodge.

“Y-You attacked first!”

She squeaked back, hiding behind the wall she’d accidentally made.

The crowd was already laughing, and Ignotus was their loudest, enjoying this way too much.

“This is gold! Ahahahaha!”

Beside him, Ulv slowly shook his head.

“It’s a good thing we’re naturally resistant to our Elements, he’d have frozen himself before she even tried to attack him… I really need to train him better.”

Lykos regained his footing and slammed his staff down again, shooting ice arrows in rapid fire.

Gaia peeked from behind her wall and gasped as they hit, frost spreading across the surface.

She hesitated, her fingers trembling, and then whispered under her breath:

“Come on… please work…”

The ground beneath Lykos suddenly split apart, sending sharp pillars of stone bursting upward at him.

“Ah!”

He jumped aside at the last second, using an ice spike to boost himself midair.

The movement looked amazing… until he overshot his landing and face-planted into the frozen ground.

“Ugh—I meant to do that!”

Lykos picked himself up quickly, his cheeks flushed.

Meanwhile, Gaia peeked again, worried, and almost… amused.

“S-Sorry!”

This was far from the girl who wanted to kill a man minutes earlier.

“I wasn’t talking to you!”

Lykos snapped, pointing his staff at her.

“Now take this!”

His words unleashed a wave of frost towards her.

Gaia squeaked again, stomping her foot as rocky spikes shot from the ground, blocking the attack.

The resultant clash of frost and earth filled the air with something like steam.

For a brief second, neither of them moved. Before all of a sudden, Lykos charged, attempting to mimic his guard’s movement, riding forth on his ice spikes with surprising speed.

Gaia panicked again, waving her staff at him and cracking the floor.

Boulders flew up, forcing Lykos to maneuver his spikes away.

He grinned through it, his pride kicking in.

“Not bad for a meek girl!”

Gaia frowned, puffing her cheeks.

“I’m… I’m not meek!”

She absolutely was.

Or perhaps it’d be more accurate to call her… demure and timid.

She swung her staff again, and stone spears formed in the air, flying straight at him.

Lykos answered with ice arrows, meeting her attack head-on, each arrow for each spear.

Both their aims were wack, meaning most projectiles went far off the arena, not even close to their target. Yet those that somehow got close were intercepted, and that, again, was not because they were accurate, but because they simply fired way too many.

The entire arena trembled as their spells collided, shards of stone and frost scattering everywhere, creating chaos and nothing but chaos for these quick seconds.

Gaia remained behind her wall, murmuring to herself each time she cast.

Lykos yelled and cursed every time he nearly tripped or dodged a pillar.

“Stop hiding!”

“Stop aiming for my head!”

“It’s a duel!”

“I-I know!”

Their argument was louder than their spells.

It was an absolute mess, yet the audience couldn’t stop watching.

“They’re both… disasters.”

And Ulv seemed to agree.

“Yeah…”

As did Ignotus.

“But very talented ones.”

Lykos, wanting to get out of this stalemate, tried to leap through Gaia’s defenses with something of an ice ramp, only for it to instantly break under his weight.

He tumbled through the air, crashing directly before Gaia’s stone wall.

She peeked over the other side, genuinely concerned.

“A-Are you okay?”

He quickly popped up, his gray hair a complete mess.

“I’m fine! It didn’t even hurt! And I, uh, totally planned that!”

She smiled shyly.

“O-Oh. Okay.”

The way she said it made him blush.

“Tch… don’t look at me like that; I’m not a kid!”

And with that, their fight dragged on until both were drenched in sweat and gasping for air.

Gaia’s hair stuck to her cheeks, her green dress smudged with dirt, while Lykos’s tunic and pants were half-frozen and cracked, frost clinging to his entire body.

They stood directly across from each other, both ready to drop.

Gaia raised her staff weakly, trying to summon one last wall.

Lykos aimed his, a half-formed shard glowing faintly at its tip.

Neither spell came out.

Their Divinity was all but gone.

“…”

“…”

“…”

A long silence followed.

Gaia lowered her staff first.

“T-Tie?”

Lykos clicked his tongue.

“…fine. But I’ll win next time.”

John stepped forward and surveyed the cracked, frozen, and half-collapsed arena.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

He adjusted his glasses.

“But the raw potential is… undeniable.”

Gaia immediately bowed her head.

“T-Thank you, sir.”

Lykos smirked, flicking ice from his shoulder.

“Of course it is. I’m talented.”

John gave him a look that could kill a man.

“Don’t get comfortable, Death. I’m not one to abuse your name with.”

Lykos’s confidence faltered for half a second.

“Y-Yeah, yeah… I wasn’t.”

From the stands, Ignotus let out a short laugh.

’Man… I’m really lucky~.’

He had to make these four his own!