The shining knights real name was Barthold, he was a young weaver that had gotten into the institute around the same time as Enzo.

But instead of Enetering the special program like the rest of them, his talent had seen him send to the ordinary program

If not for Galafray and it's immense large scale conquest by the institute, he might never have gotten the chance to showcase his immense talent.

Shinggg

As both parties collided one of them instantly felt a weakness overcome them as they released the gripp on the weapon in hand and instantly created space.

Barthold had a straightforward ability and it was called simple blunt transfer. This ability allowed him to strike at his opponent in one place and send an inquvelent blunt force of that attack to any part of the body of that opponent at random.

That however that alone wasn't an invincible power.

It needed something to amp it.

"Fuck" Enzo moved back quickly and created space looking at Barthold.

He hadn't been out of rune city's confides for long, as such he hadn't heard of this guy, if not he was have been more cautious.

'I can roughly guess his ability, but to force the flesh to attack an organ, that can't be pure strength'

Enzo said to himself as he thought quickly.

The moment the strike was transferred it went straight to Enzo's chest and his flesh viciously tapped his heart forcing him to spit out blood.

"He's much more dangerous than I thought" Enzo said to himself then rose back up.

However fighting him wasn't without solution, after all, he had to hit his opponent to do this and the strike had to be sufficiently powerful to actually have an effect.

With a serious look Enzo phased into his shadow and disappeared no where to be found. However he didn't leave the stage only existing in the shadows cast upon it.

"Hm? Don't be a coward" Barthold sneered and shook his head.

This was the typical response to his powers most of the time, running away. He used it to hunt beasts not humans so half the time it was overkill.

This response also showed that Enzo had nothing up his sleeve.

"Coward? You take that back" Enzo chuckled suddenly as he appeared behind Barthold effortlessly.

Without a second thought Barthold swung his sword backwards repeatedly hoping to strike Enzo.

But everytime the strike went out Enzo was able to effortlessly dodge, not allowing him to strike even his shadow.

After swinging 30 strikes, Barthold started showing visible signs of fatigue. His breath labored.

He wasn't without a weakness, his ability however wasn't it. It was the amour.

Calming down he thought fast dismissing several other items of the amour.

It reduced the power of each strike but also reduced the burden of the amours powers on his physical body. This was the smart thing to do.

But was it the right thing"

"Hey, look over there…" suddenly a voice drifted through the air into his ear however the moment he lost his eyesight and the feeling in his body.

When he came to he was tied on the ground, his limbed bound.

"What the…"

In the crowd everyone watched a spectacule as they watched Enzo bind his opponent with little to no resistance and lay him on the floor.

Seconds later Barthold started struggling a sign that he was out of himself a moment ago.

"Winner" Lewis didn't waste a moment of time calling the match.

The mistake Barthold committed was one showing his hand way too much to an opponent who wasn't willing to show his.

Enzo was at the beginning very skeptical about his abilities, but as the fight went on, Barthold kept showing them until Enzo understood them well enough to attack him safely.

"Next Titus vs O'Neil "

Quickly packing up the stage the next fight was called between Titus the head of snowfall club and O'Neil a 3rd year of snowfall.

"Snowfall is much more influential than I originally thought" back in the crowd Enzo commented looking at the situation generally.

Master white, black, and Lewis were affiliated with snow fall, the leader of snow fall was the strongest of the third years and O'Neil was also a member of snowfall.

In all respect, most of the powerhouses were snowfall affiliated.

"Is this family the ruling family of the institute? Can't be" enzo shook his head, even now he wasn't interested in the politics of the institute, he just wanted to be strong.

The battle against O'Neil came to a close rather quickly as if it was an internal denomination.

"Jade versus savage wolf" Lewis set forth the next match repeating the elimination method by pitting both members of the same club against each other.

At the end to no surprise jade one also bringing the number of contestants down to three.

"There really isn't any fanfare huh?" Lewis smiled.

Even with so many people coming from outside rune city for this opportunity the people qualifying were people already in the city.

And this was simply because…..

The people in this city at this time were the strongest from the younger generation, maybe the other factions had varying strengths but in the institute, there was a stable hierarchy.

"Good day"

While everyone mused different things, a figure soon joined them in the sky with a saber on his back.

Master Seth,

Immediately everyone bowed showing utmost respect

"How's the competition going? Do we have a winner?" Master Seth asked

"Not yet, we still have two fight to go" Lewis smiled bitterly looking over to Enzo, he didn't know if the kid could win, he was a personal favorite to master Seth but as a member of snowfall he couldn't lie….

He wanted the person to grab this opportunity to be Titus.

Unlike black and white who could compromise, he just couldn't after all Titus was his son.

"Okay, let it begin, Titus you wil face jade" Master Seth flew to the ground and announced in a calm collected manner.

He was here to make sure Lewis didn't cheat any of the children, after all, the snowfalls had a reputation for this.

"Ahh" Titus and the others were a bit taken aback by this arrangement.

Enzo was effectively the weakest of the three, it made sense for him to fight first to get rid of the delays. But it seemed like master Seth had other plans.

"I don't want to two strongest in terms of rank to fight at a weakened state against each other, this is important, plus as an exalted it is paramount you do not bully those under you" master Seth cited his reasoning.

Allowing an exalted of their caliber to fight Enzo outright was asking for elimination, he couldn't have that happening. However the opposite which was the two exalted fighting first had little effect on the overall outcome of the subsequent match.

After all, it would still be an exalted against a star weaver.

"Okay"

No one could really argue with that logic, it was fair not just to them, but also to Enzo.

But still Lewis couldn't help but frown

Enzo wasn't small fry like master Seth insinuated, he didn't know much but had heard the rumors from defi, the kid with the habit of hunting great terrors on his own.

Unfortunately, he couldn't appeal to anyone here as he would look crazy.

So jade and Titus entered the stage simultaneously.

"When was the last time we fought Jade? This feels so nostalgic" Titus said pulling out a gun from his left side and throwing several round balls into its side.

In the institute, there was truly only one rival he had and it was the person who held up the entire ice lake club.

Jade

She was an extreme talent from a particular family in the northern isles, that family didn't participate in a lot of activities in the region.

The only other fact about this family that Titus could confirm was….

Inkous was a member of this very family.

"Nostalgic huh? Maybe you'll use some of your nostalgic shameless skills infront of everyone" Jade laughed bitterly as she pulled out a short Kunai lined with a silver glow.

"Why not? I'm already one foot out of the door, a little show for old times sake won't be so bad" Titus smiled then suddenly his body seemed to crystallize turning to ice as he phased away and appeared somewhere completely different

Bang bang

Following which several shots were fired directly at Jade twisting through the air and pericing at her. However she was able to dodge each with ease while forming Ice shields to defend and attack.

The two had ice bases powers but their usages was clearly different.

"Sealed ice dome" suddenly jade activated a skill causing a strange dome to appear, one that seemed simple but wasn't.

While moving in a straight line in the dome Titus smacked his entire body against a wall that wasn't there previously causing him to fall back breifly

The only problem was that

That wall did not exist.

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