Chapter 257: Let Me Show You A Miracle
"Humph, I'll be the first to be judged."
A disciple of the dragon clan said in a very arrogant tone before he moved towards the altar with fixed steps. He was a grade ten disciple, someone who was surrounded with hundreds of followers.
"'Of course he has to come first," Deno whispered in deep hatred, "with all of them on his side and they all served to kill monsters, how can't he come at the top?"
Jim only nodded as he watched in silence what that kid did. The moment he reached the altar he ascended the rounded base and reached the central pillar.
Then he placed both of his hands over the pillar and the next moment the pillar shone brightly in silver white light.
"Keep your hands steady until the judge decides the result," the master who previously spoke up said and the kid only nodded.
"So the pillar would enter the rings directly without the need of taking out the cores... interesting," Jim smiled while waiting on the side for five minutes as everyone else did.
Then all of sudden the pillar trembled faintly before a ray of light shot to the sky above. A large window appeared there with a number on its surface.
"Ten thousand and five hundred points," the master said, "you may let go of your hands now."
"It's better to only let the core disciples be judged," the dragon kid arrogantly said in a loud tone, "it's a waste of time to let others be tested."
His words made his team and those on his side laugh while the others had dark faces and angry expressions.
"We can't," the master shrugged, "despite the urge of me to do that but rules must be followed."
"Screw them," the kid returned to his team and stood with a proud face that made Jim feel disgust from looking at.
"I want to go and punch him in the face!" Rick said while the others nodded.
"We will punch them where it hurts," Jim slowly said.
"But we didn't have any cores," Lan said, "we were busy surviving."
"So as I," Jim played with the ring he received from Igory and resisted the urge to check it now. "But who knows, miracles sometimes happen."
Everyone gave him a questioning gaze but he remained calm and collected while playing with his ring. "I hope a miracle will happen today."
"Next," the master shouted.
"Let an inner disciple advance," the dragon kid arrogantly said, "let him go."
He pointed towards a direction and Jim followed it to see Hector standing there.
"You heard the leading disciple," the master smirked, "go and be tested now."
Hector stood there motionless for a few moments before shrugging. "I have no intention to start this soon," he said but he took the first step towards the altar, "however if that will crush that bastard and let him know his real place then fine. Let me be the one to crush all the fool's dreams here."
"Humph, empty words coming from a loser," the dragon kid sneered.
"A loser will carry only the dragon slogan tonight," Hector refused to show any sign of weakness as he advanced towards the altar with confidence.
Everyone glanced at him until he reached the pillar and put his hands on it.
"He seemed quite confident," Ashley whispered.
"I heard you were with his boss," Pat said, "can he do it?"
Jim stood silently for a minute before finally saying, "if anyone here can do it then it will be him."
And his words made the others hold high hopes for Hector. This time Hector took around seven minutes before the ray of light shot to the sky.
"Hahaha, I told you," Hector turned his head to the window that just appeared and laughed in a louder tone, "this is just a slap on your face for your dirty play back in the forest. I grant this victory to all of us who fell back there due to treason."
"Watch your tongue, kid," the master said in an aggressive way, "your lead isn't set in stone yet."
"It's not easy to surpass me," Hector glanced at the twenty thousadn point number on the window, "but I welcome any brave or foolish one to try and challenge that."
"Humph, we'll see," the master had a dark face at the moment while the darkest face only belonged to that dragon kid.
"Hector!"
"Hector!"
"Hector!"
All of a sudden many teams standing around started to cheer for him. The words he just said touched everyone in the heart and that taught Jim something about how to become a leader.
"So I don't only need to become the strongest, but I need to show compassion as well," he slowly whispered to himself while he followed the steps of Hector back to his team.
"Silence you ignorant fools," the master shouted in obvious anger, "this is nothing compared to our elite boys and girls here."
"Humph!" Yet midway Hector turned to him as he paused. "If you have anyone able to crush that number then bring it on. I bet the final victor won't be me, but him."
He pointed all of sudden towards Jim's direction making all the eyes turn towards him.
Jim felt weird about Hector's declaration, and the most shocked people here were his team.
"Is that true?" Kro turned to Jim with doubt in his eyes. He wasn't the only one, but many had the same look while others had veneration.
"I... hope so," Jim slowly said as he suddenly raised his hand in the air and closed his fist. He didn't speak or say anything but this simple move was enough to make Hector laugh.
The latter nodded his head in respect towards him and then returned to his team while Jim's raised fist was imprinted deeply inside the minds of all.
"What was that just now?" Deno asked with a loss.
"Are we now having that as a symbol for our team?" Rick was much smarter than Deno and could jump to this conclusion.
"If we managed to bring back victory to the entire inner campus, then yeah we will adapt this as our signature," Jim said with a big smile, "and it seems we will be doing that."
"You are really mysterious," Kro said before smiling, "but I trust you and I know what you are capable of."contemporary romance
"Next!" the master shouted in anger and the next one to advance belonged to the chimera pantheon.
For the next few hours Hector's record was standing in front of many teams who went to be tested. Some were able to break the number of that arrogant dragon kid and now he wasn't even in the top ten of the tenth grade even.
As for the entire academy score, the numbers kept getting closer to Hector's on an alarming rate.
"I bet they are exchanging cores," Deno was getting restless as he watched the last dragon kid of the seventh grade getting a score of nineteen thousand points.
"Let them do what they can," Jim yawned as if he wasn't even alarmed with that.
"But this is against the rules!" Deno's tone was getting louder but Jim only winked at him.
"Have more trust in our side," he simply said.
"I have only faith in you," Deno said, "but this isn't a fair game anymore."
"It was never meant to be one," Jim said to all of his teammates, "we are fighting against all the odds and believe me when I say it... Fate always stands beside the ones chosen from the beginning by it."
The others only gave him silent glances and didn't speak. They didn't know what Jim went through inside the forest.
The monsters he slain, the ones he fought, and even the life and death situations he experienced changed his perspective over the world.
The old him would be much infuriated by this cheat, but not anymore. His short dealing with Hector and his team opened his eyes.
Whining and feeling bitter about anything wouldn't change the facts. If he wanted to really challenge such injustice then he had to prove his worth by his own hands.
And he kept playing with the ring he got from Igory as he held all his hopes on it.
'If Hector scored such a big number then I might as well do,' that was what he kept telling himself since that moment.
"Next," the master said and his face was now funny. His face turned red and got slightly swollen like a rubber ball out of his frustration.
"It's me who will crush that number of yours," a tenth grade dragon kid advanced and spoke in equal arrogance to the first dragon one.
"Yawn," yet Hector loudly yawned in a theatrical way, "you need ten of tenth grade to kick me out of the entire ranking idiot," he said with a very irritating smile over his face.
"Kicking you off the throne is enough for me," the kid simply said as he went towards the pillar.
"Twenty-five thousand points! Hell yeah!" the kid shouted in triumph while the number appearing on top of the pillar in the sky made the entire place silent.
Then loud cheers of many teams came to salute him and his record.
"Damn!" Deno was already on the verge of exploding, "see this? They cheated to make such a moron score that one."
"Whatever," Jim casually shrugged, "if they did that then the rest of the scores will be only meager and worthless."
"But..."
"We have nothing to worry about," Jim interrupted the anxious Deno, "the throne will be ours to take."
His confidence managed to calm down the restless Deno and silence anyone else. The team glanced at him while other kids kept getting tested.
As he expected, the next hours showed very low numbers from the core disciple teams. Even some scored a big zero, something that wouldn't even happen if they didn't cheat.
"Twenty-one thousand points, you are about to get kicked off the top five soon," yet after three hours another kid belonging to the chimera pantheon of tenth grade core campus scored this number.
His shout was welcomed with a wave of cheering but Hector kept collected. Jim knew he didn't care about the competition from the beginning.
However putting all of them under such pressure seemed a bit amusing for him. And Jim also felt the same way.
"Next!" the master shouted.
"Let that one who is rumored to become the king tonight step forward," yet before any disciple could step forward, the dean suddenly spoke after long hours of silent watching.
And all the eyes fell instantly over Jim who sneered.
"Let me show you a real miracle," he said while stepping forward towards the pillar.
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