The sound of Leo’s ear-shattering roar echoed right throughout War God’s mountain, shaking the audience out of their daze.

As they looked at Leo standing proud in the ring, they realised they had underestimated him. From the looks of it, he was just as much of a monster as his partner.

Many of the officials from the other superpowers, especially the saints, felt extremely tempted to snatch Ace and Leo now. After all, the talent that they exhibited was simply out of this world.

Once they had finished maturing, whether it was Ace or Leo, they would undoubtedly stand at the peak of this world.

Still, those greed fuelled thoughts disappeared just as quickly as they came.

The majority of the saints present that were here on behalf of another nation or organisation were at the early or middle stages.

Forget the fact that one of the strongest beings on the continent was only a few miles away; Fain’s presence alone was enough to deter them from doing anything stupid. Plus, although they didn’t appear to be as strong as Fain, there were two saints here guarding Ace and Leo, one of which was a magical beast at the peak of the saint rank.

The only person who stood even the smallest of chances at accomplishing such a feat was Desri. Fortunately, Desri, who had once been a high-ranking member of the Radiant Church, had long since left and was no longer affiliated with any power, so he had no interest in even attempting anything like that.

Carter, who was still hovering above the mountain peak, could see the looks of awe and amazement from the various saints as they witnessed his son’s prowess and was filled with pride.

When he first saw exactly how much Leo had improved after returning from his trip with Ace and Killian to the Rohault Empire, his expression wasn’t much different to theirs. Even if he were a Divine Beast, his current achievement shouldn’t be possible.

All he could do was count his lucky stars that things had happened the way they had. Leo’s running into Ace had been the best thing that could’ve happened, not only for Leo but for him as well.

Joining the side of the pavilion had originally been a bitter pill to swallow – growing up as a magical beast meant that humans had been his enemy for as long as he could remember, but even he had to admit that the benefits became apparent almost immediately.

Since affiliating himself to the pavilion, he had been allowed to utilise its library for saints, and since then, his comprehension had come a long way. Even though he had only recently broken through to the peak of the saint realm, in terms of comprehension, he wasn’t much inferior to Haydson.

Still, he was under no delusions; the reason for the achievements of both he and his son came from the dark-haired youth standing calmly beside the ring.

Ace had no idea what Carter was thinking; the moment he heard Leo’s roar, the corners of his lips crept up, forming a smirk as he looked towards the students of the College. “Leo wants to know who’s up next.”

It took a lot of willpower from each of the students not to rush up and wipe that annoying smirk off Ace’s face, but before any of them could say or do anything foolish, Castro, whose expression got decidedly colder, spoke. “Vena, you go next!”

A cold and indifferent woman slowly walked forward, gracefully unsheathing her sword from her hip as her body was covered by a cyan aura.

Vena was an incredibly beautiful Amazonian-like woman standing at a height of six foot, with long dark hair tied in a ponytail.

She was also ranked second among the students of the College, being at the late stages of the ninth rank, so when she was called forward, those who knew understood that Castro meant business.

Vena was one of only two remaining in the college from Olivier’s generation. With most having already graduated, she remained, hoping that she would one day be accepted as a direct disciple of the War God.

When she arrived on the ring, she didn’t say a word; she simply waited for the fight to begin.

Seeing that, Ace couldn’t help but nod his head in approval of her calm and unwavering temperament.

Leo and Vena calmly eyed each other, neither making so much as a noise, the tension seeming to grow with each second.

As soon as the rising tension reached its peak, both fighters moved at once.

Leo’s speed was far superior to anything a rank six beast or human should be capable of as he skilfully utilised Ace’s improvised Soru.

Whilst Leo’s movement was explosive, Vena’s was the picture of grace as she elegantly glided along the floor as though it were an ice rink with speed that didn’t lose out to her four-legged opponent in the slightest.

For most, the movement of the two would be nothing but flashing blue and red lights, but almost everyone watching was an expert, so they were able to clearly see the intricacies of the battle, but that was what left them even more shocked than they were at the end of the previous fight.

“Is that lion using ‘Impose’?” Desri asked as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

It wasn’t just him; aside from Ace and his group, everyone else was wondering the same thing.

It was common knowledge that the only cultivation path that required the comprehension of ‘Impose’ to become a saint was that of a warrior, and due to the effort it took to comprehend, unless they reached a bottleneck and decided to focus on cultivating as warriors, most mages didn’t bother with Impose.

Still, as they were humans, they knew it was possible, but because of the innate differences between them, everyone automatically dismissed the thought of a beast even being able to comprehend it, but now, Leo showed them just how wrong they were.

Still, even though his being a Divine Beast gave him many innate advantages, his soul wasn’t one of them.

Due to the mutation that occurred when his and Ace’s connection evolved, his soul was now stronger than it should be; still, it was only equal to a rank seven magical beast - significantly weaker than his opponents, but because his comprehension of the laws was well into the saint realms, the power of his Impose was around the same as Vena’s.

Add that to his innate physical superiority as a Divine Beast and his ‘battle-qi’ – the power Leo showed was barely inferior to Vena’s, but what was even more surprising was his battle IQ.

Having gone from growing up on his own in the mountain range of magical beasts where he had to fend for himself to survive to being able to train with Ace, whose own battle IQ was nothing short of enchanting, and constantly test himself against stronger opponents, it was no surprise that Leo’s fighting style was so impressive.

Still, most people had no idea about all of that; all they saw was the results. Many were even beginning to wonder who was actually the stronger of the two, Ace or Leonel.

Seeing Leo’s prowess made many believe that Ace had Leonel take his place in battle so that he could pretend to be this invincible youth.

It was something that Ace knew would happen; it was just that he didn’t care to explain himself.

The longer the fight went on, the more obvious the gap became.

If this was a few months ago, before the demonic trio returned to the pavilion, Vena would’ve been able to calmly suppress Leo. But like Ace and the other students, Leo had also focused on his training.

And although he hadn’t made any distinctive breakthroughs, whether it was his comprehension of the profound mysteries of fire, his control of ‘Impose’, or his fighting style, each had made significant improvements allowing him to slowly gain the upper hand against a truly impressive opponent.

Vena tried her hardest to find her way out of her declining situation, but no matter what she did, Leo was always two steps ahead.

As the wounds started to pile up, Vena herself began to slow, allowing Leo to put an end to the fight once and for all, but unlike his last opponent, other than a few cuts and burns, Vena had no lasting injuries.

“I’m convinced of my loss,” Vena stated directly as she re-sheathed her sword, paying no attention to the mixed reactions of the crowd.

“Leo told me to tell you that it was a good fight,” Ace smiled as Vena passed him. “Even if you are from the O’Brien Empire.”

Vena stopped to give Ace a serious look. Like the others, after her fight, she too believed that Leo was the stronger of the two and he was just using him to make himself seem more impressive than he really was, but the more she looked at him, the less sure she was. All she could see was an unwavering confidence.

Still, even if he was really stronger than his beast companion, she didn’t understand where his confidence came from. He had to know that no matter what happened, he would never be allowed to leave so easily. But that was none of her concern.

“I’m from the Great Plains of the far east,” Vena replied, correcting Ace’s assumption.

“Ooh,” Ace nodded. “That makes a lot more sense.”

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Book 10: Part 3 – Ace Vs. Joleon