Eternal Freedom's Ascension

Chapter 188: Class-E Strategy? Ingenious

She didn’t hesitate.

Before Maya could regain her senses and willingly surrender, Kiera forfeited the match.

This sent a ripple of shock through the students, Instructor Natalie, and most especially, Class-E students.

Why? Why would she...?

First came confusion, then there was anger. The anger came from the boys, while the girls merely showed confusion and displeasure.

"Why did she forfeit? She had clearly won."

Kim asked with a frown, watching as Kiera rapidly headed to the treatment center.

Seeing this, Alisa tilted her head. "Could she be injured? After all, we know nothing about that Maya girl’s ability."

The other girls around nodded, gradually accepting the possibility.

However, the Class-E boys weren’t having it.

Jose stood up fiercely, anger evident in his expression.

"What bullshit injury? She’s definitely a coward! She should have fought to the end!"

Even Eric supported him.

"Jose is right. She doesn’t even look injured—just scared. What reason does she have forfeit?"

Although a close friend of Liam, Astron wasn’t pleased too.

"I still don’t understand what is going on with her. Our points are very low right now, and a win would have been nicer."

Meanwhile, Hazel remained silent, her expression dark.

Ariel calmly watched her, then asked. "What do you have to say about this?"

Hazel didn’t turn to him, but he felt anger radiating from her.

"Nothing. We’ll deal with this later."

Still beside her, Kaiser payed little attention to their reactions.

Instead, his conflicted gaze remained on Maya as she was helped to the infirmary.

Once she disappeared from his view, he closed his eyes.

’Hmm... that was a little bit impulsive.’

He hadn’t even realized when he began to glare at Kiera.

Although he shared a bond with that female classmate, it was nothing compared to his bond with Maya.

The pink-haired girl had more value than Kiera.

She was the closest to defining herself and gaining color, meanwhile Kiera was just a random bloodling lucky enough to be able to feed on his blood exclusively.

Still, Kaiser felt something wrong with his reaction.

If it were before, he wouldn’t have interfered. Instead, he’d have seen it as a process or an experiment, waiting to see the result—Maya’s reaction.

However, today, the experiment didn’t interest him. At first, he had been merely indifferent, but the moment Kiera got too violent, he became displeased.

’A first—noted.’

Sighing inwardly, he finally accepted that he was already being protective of Maya despite her lack of color.

’What fuels this... care and protectiveness? My expectations for her?’

He asked himself, curious.

’If she ends up completely colorless, would my protectiveness be gone? Would I treat her as an insignificant, fake article? Hmm...’

His heart was stirred with curiosity, and he felt the urge to know immediately.

’One step at a time.’

He sighed, then opened his eyes.

Unexpectedly, he locked gazes with Apollo who was seated across from him.

There was a vicious glint in the boy’s purple eyes, and a cunning grin on his face.

’He’s planning something. Is he finally going to attack me again after so long? Not bad, I thought he had been scared off.’

Apollo’s declaration to bury him was still in his heart, and he dearly looked forward to it.

He shifted his gaze away, as he didn’t want to unconsciously read into the delinquent’s plan.

That would be too boring.

The next battle had already began, and he watched casually, feeling nothing at all—no excitement, no expectations.

From the moment the two students crossed their blades, he already knew who would win.

The only thing left was to watch the process leading to the inevitable—boring.

.........

Several matches took place, increasing the tension in the Arena. By the time they were given a break, the other classes had begun to notice something.

Class-E no longer had the least points.

It was strange, extremely strange that it confused most students.

However, only a handful of students from the other classes understood this change clearly.

It wasn’t a miraculous comeback.

Class-E weren’t stomping their opponents and winning matches. Neither were they losing any matches either.

Instead, every match involving Class-E students ended in a draw.

It was insane.

The students acted like suicide killers, going as far as willingly taking hits just to knock out their opponents.

It was a completely insane strategy, but one with great results.

’Hoh... I wasn’t expecting this from the meager Class-E.’

Apollo thought, amused but displeased.

He had been fully focused on provoking and opposing Adela’s class during this special evaluation, and he barely had time to pay attention to the other classes.

’Hazel’s plan is suicidal, but with the medical treatment for injuries on standby, they have nothing to fear.’

Realizing it was indeed an ingenious plan, he immediately passed the orders to adopt that plan.

However, there was a condition. Only if the opponent was a Class-B student could they use that strategy.

Also, they could only use that strategy if they realized there was little or no chance of winning.

If his classmates could win and earn him three points, there was no need to settle for a meager one point from a draw.

Rising from his seat, he brushed a strand of hair away from his face, then headed towards the infirmary.

Alexander and Sermin immediately followed after him, while Thyla grumpily stayed behind.

After all, he hadn’t called any of them to follow him.

Reaching the infirmary located in a section of the arena, Apollo saw several students being treated by Awakened healers and even Evolved healers.

He paused, scanning each student until he found Maya laid on a bed in the distance.

She looked fine, without any scar or injury on her.

In fact, she already had her glasses on, and was quietly texting someone on her phone.

Apollo approached her, his steps echoing in the large room.

Maya turned to him, surprise flashing in her eyes.

"Apollo? Sermin? Alexander?"

She was genuinely surprised that they had visited her.

That didn’t seem like sympathy. Apollo rarely sympathized with his classmates.

The purple-haired boy smiled, then said calmly.

"How’re you doing, Maya? I was worried and came to check up on you."

Maya shivered coldly. Something felt wrong with his smile.