Hyandus zipped through the air, unseen to the eyes of many people as he arrived at different places around his opponent, his wind spear striking the girl from unforeseen positions.
He would strike her from the right shoulder, then stab her on the left side of her waist. The girl tried to use either of her daggers or her fire skills to create an attack that thwarted away Hyandus who loomed around her like an annoying fly that won't go away.
The armor that she wore underneath her clothes were starting to show signs of cracking as the attacks accurately landed on her from all side.
"Dammit!" she cried while her arms covered her head from the attacks. "Go away!"
A large column of fire erupted from around her that she pushed away from her.
Hyandus was forced to stop his attack and move far away from the fire momentarily. However, at the very next second, he came back in with his Wind Essence opening a path for him.
He went straight for the girl's chest and stabbed her with his spear. A clear cracking sound was heard in between all the other noises as pieces of the girl's fire armor fell out of her clothes, instantly turning into the fire as it did so.
The girl herself flew backward from the force she was stabbed at, skidding along the ground a few meters away.
Hyandus was ready to strike again, but he stopped when he saw that the girl's eyes had gone entirely white. She was knocked.
He spun his spear and slammed the butt of it onto the ground before taking a deep breath. He had won.
Once the announcement was made, Hyandus went back into the hall where he was greeted with cheers of surprise and awe.
"How are you so fast, brother?" Tenn asked him. "That was incredible."
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"Was I?" the young man asked with an awkward little smile.
"You were truly incredible," Kaleb nodded.
"We you constantly using wind techniques to aid your movement?" Ning asked him.
Hyandus smiled and explained vaguely as to what he really did. He apparently used a technique that was similar in concept to what Ning's movement technique used, except he used it on everything, including his spear.
"Good work," the prince told him and let him rest finally.
After a few more matches, it was Tenn's turn. Tenn walked into the stage and returned after a quick loss.
"That was humiliating," he said as he returned to his group. "How did I lose so fast?"
"Your opponent was just too strong," Kaleb consoled a fellow loser like him. Finally, he didn't feel so bad about losing at all. He had someone else to share the pain with.
Tenn spoke about the unfairness of having to fight Essence Soul realm fighters for a bit but quickly shut up when he saw Ning and Yorsha who had had to fight similar battles and had won.
"Your battle should be quick, sis," the prince said. "You got lucky, haha!"
The princess looked at the board where the matchups were written. "I get to beat up weaklings, oh how lucky me," she said with an annoyed voice. "I want difficult battles too."
"You'll get one soon," the prince said. "For now, just go out and beat this person."
The princess sighed. The battle was up next and she was going to have to fight one of the only 3 Essence Manifestation realm fighters that had made it through without fighting any Essence Soul realm fighters.
She was truly going to be fighting weaklings.
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She went out when her name was called and pulled out her light sword. During her previous fight, this was all she had needed to win, so she didn't bother using it much.
When the battle started, she threw out a few attacks, while dodging her opponent's attacks.
Her attacks were quick and to the point, slamming onto her opponent with quite a ferocity.
Ning watched her fight and started getting very curious. The princess had Moonlight Essence as her core, he had seen that. And he also knew that Moonlight Essence was the closest essence to Pure Essence.
So, why wasn't she so much stronger than normal people when his pure Essence usually brought him so many benefits?
Did it really matter that it was pure? Or was something else going on?
The princess fought for a few minutes, mostly going back-and-forth attacks against her opponent. In the end, her barrage of light attacks was too much for her opponent to handle and he gave up.
The princess returned to the hall without much happiness in her victory.
"Were you that bored that you had to play around with the poor young man?" the prince asked.
"What else can I do? You all are enjoying yourself quite a bit, while I'm forced to fight weaklings," she said. "I will enjoy my matches however I want."
The prince sighed and looked at the match that was just about to start. Then he looked at the red-haired Yorsha next to him. "Are you ready to fight and win?" he asked.
"Absolutely," Yorsha said without a second thought.
"Are you not nervous?" the prince asked. "You are going up against Low Essence Soul realm fighters, you know?"
"I've already beaten people with Essence Soul before," the girl said without missing a beat. She was confident that she was going to win against her opponent.
"Confidence is good, but I'm worried yours is teetering on the edge of overconfidence, young lady," the prince said. "You won your first match because your opponent wasn't ready for your Burning Sun technique. But this one will know that you're from the Redraven family, and will have made ample preparation."
"If you don't give this match the caution it deserves, you will lose."
Yorsha turned to look at the prince who was serious. She also saw the teacher on the side nodding along with the prince.
She was about to say something but stopped herself. Instead, she nodded and replied, "Thank you for the advice, I'll keep that in mind."
Yorsha used her Burning Sun technique the moment her battle started. Her opponent, aware of her technique, immediately brought out his Essence Soul and started attacking.
The Wind Essence soul sent a gust of wind that blew all the heat away from the man, while Yorsha herself stumbled because the wind started picking up around her.
She raised her hand to the side and sent out a plume of fire in that direction that moved so slowly that any gust of wind moved it away.
Given that they were inside a barrier, Yorsha expected the wind to circulate around and take her fire everywhere. That was what her family had taught her after all.
Ever since she was a child, Yorsha had learned how to fight using her Essence. She was given a Fire staff early on and led to training with her uncles and brothers, giving her a talent for fighting that only came from someone that trained heavily.
As the fire roared inside the stage, Yorsha moved, not letting her opponent push her around with his wind skills. Her Burning Sun remained active as the heat inside the stage continued to increase.
'He's not as flustered as most usually get,' she thought. 'Signs of a good fighter, I suppose.'
She started sweating profusely, not only because the temperature was increasing in the stage, but also because she had to use a lot of Essence. She had already used many essences earlier in the day when she had a fight, and she hadn't had the time to replenish it enough.
If this continued with her opponent sending wind at her all the time, she would most certainly lose.
'No, as long as I have this Ice armor, I should be fine,' she thought. She wanted to gamble on the fact that her opponent would give up from the heat before her Ice armor became unusable due to the constant stress.
Her opponent stayed as far away from her as possible while sending wind attacks at her to keep his distance.
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Yorsha frowned when she realized that was what he was doing. 'If you're not gonna come fight me, I'm going to bring the fight to you.'
She suddenly changed her path, and like a glowing fireball herself, she rushed in her opponent's direction.
The man frowned when he saw her coming his way. He quickly created a strong gust of air to push her around, but something he hadn't expected was happening that was causing quite a problem with his wind skills.
The air that had heated up was moving upward. And since the barriers stopped fresh air from coming in, the only air that could come was from above them, which was continuously spreading the heat all around them even if that wasn't what he wanted.
He couldn't control that wind.
Yorsha burned through the gust of wind, her Ice Armor at constant work to keep her cooled down. She could see her opponent sweating quite a lot, which meant it was working.
Now she just had to keep at it.
A fire sword flashed in her hand when she saw the human-looking Essencec soul's hand fall on her. The sword struck the arm, while her head burned it.
The Essence Soul was made up of Wind Essence, so it didn't take much damage, but her opponent was still quite hurt from being attacked.
"Dammit!" her opponent finally snapped. He realized that staying back and letting her burn herself out, as he had been originally told to do by his teachers, wasn't going to work.
He started preparing his own attack, one that wasn't meant to keep her away, but actually harm her. Blades of wind flew in her direction, each one of which was sharp enough to cut her.
Yorsha saw the blades and couldn't help but smile to herself.
Her opponent had fallen into her trap.
Because the Burning Sun was the Redraven family's signature skill, many other people knew about it and knew the techniques to fight around it.
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People with a Water core used water to cool themselves, people with an Earth core trapped them inside an earthen enclosure, and people with a Wind core pushed the hot air away from themselves.
Having a well-known skill meant that there were countermeasures prepared against them. However, being from a long-standing family that had countermeasures against them also meant that they had prepared countermeasures to the countermeasures.
Yorsha jumped to the side, dodging the wind blades at the last second as her fingers pointed in her opponent's direction.
Suddenly, a small fireball of bluish color flew out from her finger at an almost imperceptible speed and went straight for her opponent.
The man noticed the incoming fireball and tried to stop it with his Essence Soul. He used the wind to try and push it away. However, having stopped using the gust of wind, he had already made a massive mistake.
The moment the blue fireball came anywhere close to the man, Yorsha activated it.
~BOOM~
A large explosion shook the stage as the fireball exploded and expanded into massive red flames at the same time. Having known what was going to happen, Yorsha sent out more fireball in through the explosions, exploding them as well.
The successive explosions were quite strong, and the young man was too caught off-guard to bring himself back on track by the time the fourth explosion died.
By the time the ringing in his ears stopped, Yorsha was already in front of him, her body burning with heat that would evaporate even water in just a few seconds.
Before she could land on her opponent and attack him, a hand appeared from the side that grabbed her opponent and pulled him away.
Yorsha was about to follow through with another attack when she realized that it was the referee that had saved him.
"Oh," she thought when she realized that her opponent hadn't moved on his own. "Wait… so I won?"
The referee checked for immediate wounds on the young man, and after making sure none of the burns on his body was serious, he looked toward Yorsha and nodded.
Yorsha returned to the hall with a massive smile on her face once she was announced the winner of this match.
Once again, as the final match of the Top 64 rolled around late in the afternoon rolled around, the question came forth for everyone to consider.
Was the top 32 going to be taking place today as well?
To everyone's expectation, it was.
The committee responsible for the competition had decided to go on for half of the Top 32 matches, which was 8 matches. And of those 8 matches, Ning's was the first one.
Ning sighed and stood up to leave.
The teacher tapped him on the shoulder from behind and gave a great smile as Ning turned around. "Both you and Yorsha have done a great deal for the academy already. Having 5 members in the top 32 is already more than great. Don't worry about winning, just fight to your heart's content."
Ning smiled back at the teacher. "Thanks teach, but I'm going to do my best to win anyway," he said and walked out. He arrived on the stage with a girl that was his opponent.
"Where did you learn to use Space Essence?" the girl asked as they walked onto the stage.
He looked at the girl with her blue uniform that belonged to the Blue Spark Academy. "My academy," he said. "It has quite the repository of techniques."
"I see," the girl said. "It's not a bad technique to catch people off-guard. You can be happy you made it this far, but I'm afraid your run ends now."
Ning smiled at the girl, saying nothing else. He went on to stand on the other side of the stage with only his sword in his hand.
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He didn't even have a sheathe for his sword anymore, so he had to keep it tucked under his armpits where only he wouldn't be hurt by it.
He let the sword drop down and swung it around a few times as he got ready for the battle. His opponent, the girl looked at him with an Earth sword of her own.
She had been taught by her teachers how to handle Ning in the battle. Due to his fights being unexpected thanks to his Space techniques, she was told how to get rid of that variable.
Make the spatial technique irrelevant.
An armor of rocks appeared around the girl, covering her in a thin layer of protective Earth Essence. At the same time, she got ready to fight.
As the fight began, she did what she was told to do to make the spatial technique irrelevant. She went into close combat.
Ning was taken aback a little, but he had expected his opponent to do something wacky to go against his space technique. That was understandable given how he had won twice against Low Essence Soul opponents due to that very technique.
He dashed forward as well and swung his sword at the girl. The girl dodged and threw out a rock spike from the ground.
Ning cut the rock in half before moving in, but the girl threw more rocks at him, and he had to create an Earth wall to protect himself.
Ning realized only then that even though the girl had come close enough for a sword fight, she had never intended to have one at all. She was instead there to just stop him from catching her off guard with his spatial technique.
Ning smiled when he realized that and continued fighting against her. She continued throwing around her earth attacks but Ning easily defended against them. She needed to do something better if she wanted to defeat him.
She ran around Ning, never lingering in a place long enough for him to use his technique. She threw out attack after attack trying to catch an opening where she could use her main skills.
Ning was also getting tired of the constant fight that resulted in nothing and thought of taking a more daring approach.
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The wind picked up around him as his speed and control suddenly increased by threefold as he zipped around the stage going after the girl.
The girl dodged what attacks she could and used her Earth armor to stop the rest. The armor was deteriorating for the most part, but there was still enough to protect herself.
Ning created spikes around the girl, making her have to dodge or destroy them each time. As he continued doing so, he ended up creating a long corridor-like pathway in the middle of the stage, surrounded by large spikes on all sides.
The girl realized that and frowned, but this would work well for her as well. A human-like Essence soul appeared from behind her that grabbed onto one of the nearby spikes.
Ning used his technique at the same time.
The girl sensed Space Essence being used where Ning was and immediately attacked behind her, hoping to either stop the attacks coming for her or catch Ning himself in the act of sneaking at her.
However, to the girl's surprise, there was no portal behind her. It was simply used by Ning to get rid of the rock spike that was thrown at him.
The girl turned around in time to see Ning with his finger pointed toward her as a tremendous amount of Essence gathered on his fingertip. He smiled at the girl.
"You shouldn't have looked away."
He let the attack out.
Light flashed and thunder rang as a massive lightning bolt left Ning's finger and struck the girl right on her chest. She was thrown away backward where she struck the earth wall and fell to the ground.
A gaping hole was left in her clothes that was singed, while a small dark spot appeared on her skin inside her as well.
The lightning bolt had completely knocked her out in a single attack.
Ning slowly put down his hand and raised his other hand in a victorious pose as he had once again won against another Low Essence soul opponent.
Now that he had won, he was going to move up into the top 16 of the competition.
Once he was announced victorious, Ning walked away from the stage amidst many cheers and applause. He had a bright smile on his face as he walked away and returned back to the hall.
Only then did his face go from a smile to a slight grimace.
His right hand was entirely numb after being shocked by his own lightning. 'That's way too much lightning for my own good,' he thought.
The offensive technique that he had chosen from the school's skill shop had been this very lightning technique that gathered and sent out a very large bolt of lightning in the general direction pointed by his finger.
It was a strong offensive technique, but the downside was that he too was hurt by it to some extent as he could not fully send all the Lightning Essence in the other direction.
"Brother Ning! How did you do that? How did you use that lightning technique?" Tenn asked the moment Ning returned to the room.
"First Space and now Lightning. Is there anything you can't learn?" Kaleb asked, equally curious about it all.
"Hehe!" Ning gave a massive smile. "That's the benefit of having a pure core. You can use whatever skill you want. I learned that technique back in the academy."
The two young men were a little jealous of Ning for being able to learn whatever technique he wanted to learn.
The prince patted him on the shoulder. "Good work, little brother," he said. "You did a lot better than I had even hoped for. That lightning bolt was a work of art I must say. The pure crystal I gave you to absorb yesterday was fully worth it."
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Ning smiled. "Thank you, your highness," he said.
"No, no, call me Brother Allan from now on. Congratulations on entering the Top 16," the prince said. "No other school has managed to have anyone in the Essence Manifestation realm into the Top 32, and yet our school managed to get one into the Top 16. Blackhawk Academy is truly great, isn't it?"
Ning smiled, but he could see that the last part of the words wasn't meant for him. They were rather there to taunt the other people that were focusing on them.
The next couple of matches were a sight to see as well. As there were only 16 different matches in the top 32, each one was going to be worth it to watch.
It was also important to watch especially because this late into the competition, people would start revealing techniques that they had been hiding all this time.
Ning saw his next opponent in the 2nd match, a man with a ponytail that had a water Core in him. He saw the Water Essence soul that he brought out, which looked like an armadillo fused with a human in some instances.
The next 3 matches after that were entertaining as well, but it was only after that that the students got a little tense again.
The prince's match was up.
The prince walked into the stage and saw his opponent, a blue-haired girl walk out as well. "Hello!" he waved to the girl as they walked up to the stage, only to be completely ignored by the girl.
The girl had heard rumors about the prince being a playboy, so she didn't want to talk with him at all unless he sweet-talked her into not fighting as hard.
The prince had no such intention though. At the moment, he wasn't even thinking of the girl as a girl, but as an opponent he needed to defeat.
He pulled out his axe, the one with the redhead and the bluish-white handle. As he grabbed it, cold mist drifted down from where it was held, clearly telling everyone that the handle of the axe was made out of ice.
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The fight began with the prince taking the first turn. He sent out a small fire attack at his opponent and watched her dodge.
He spread the fire this time around and forced her to use Wind Essence, which he could see came from her sword.
The girl had a Fire Core, which he already knew, but he still wasn't sure what other Essence Conduit she had. He could see the sword, but the armor was still missing.
3 ice spikes grew from the ground around him as he sent them flying in the girl's direction.
The girl waved her palm, and a massive arm made out of the fire came out as it completely destroyed the 3 ice spikes. The Fire Essence soul then came out in its entirety as the girl prepared for the upcoming fight against the prince who was a realm stronger than her.
The prince smiled and started sending out a barrage of attacks.
The girl stopped everything she could and even sent out attacks of her own that the prince had to stop. The prince tried to close in on the girl at multiple times, but the fire skill she used was too much for him to get close.
While not on the level of Yorsha's, this girl's fire burned hot as well, melting each attack he made with his ice before it even got to her.
He only had 2 options now, which were to either use a large ice attack that wouldn't melt entirely before it reached her.
Or find a way to get just close enough that he could use the Essence in his sword's handle. He decided to keep it for the next couple of matches and started fighting with just his Ice Essence.
He jumped in close enough as he could get and slammed his feet onto the ground. The ground cracked, and from the crack formed ice that spread all around the stage, but mostly in the girl's direction.
The ice melted before they reached the girl, but it also weakened the heat quite a bit.
The prince continued pouring out ice along the surface until the heat was weak enough, and some of it reached right next to the girl.
At that moment, he suddenly turned into ice, shattering into many crystals, while his real body popped out from the ice that had reached the girl.
The girl panicked as the prince had just teleported right in front of her and was ready to deliver his finishing blow.
The Fire limb of the girl's Essence Soul moved to hit the prince that had just appeared, but at the last second an ice arm came out of the prince as well, stopping the fire arm.
The girl was too slow to stop the actual attack.
The prince swung with his fire axe, but at the last second stopped. Instead, another white arm flew out from his right, passing through the girl entirely, snuffing out any flames around her.
A chilling cold surrounded the girl immediately and before she could even react, the ice swallowed her, completely freezing her over.
Then, the prince delivered the final kick that sealed the deal. The girl was sent flying far away, where she struck the wall of the barrier, losing the battle.
The prince looked at the axe in his hand and wondered if he should have used it. However, not using it felt like the correct answer here, given that he needed to keep the secret going for at least until the next round.
He couldn't let the people strategize against him for the whole time tomorrow.
He walked back to the hall, quite happy with his performance.
With 2 members of the Blackhawk Academy moving into the Top 16, that was already more than the statistical average number of people that could move onto the Top 16 from the 10 academies.
The teachers were already more than happy with the current scenario, and they still had 3 battles to go, of which they hoped that even more would pass along.
The 7th match took place and then the 8th.
The 8th match included the prince's bodyguard, Hyandus, who once again showed incredible ferocity in his battles. The wind whipped around his opponent, while he himself went in and attacked with his spears.
His Essence soul, a Wind soul that had two spear-like arms also attacked his opponent's light Essence Soul. He managed to defeat his opponent after a rather lengthy back and forth, which now send 3 of the Blackhawk Academy's disciples into the Top 16.
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The competition ended for the day, and everyone started leaving the hall. The atmosphere around the students and teacher was quite energetic, as everyone happily walked away.
Even the three that were already knocked out of the competition couldn't help but feel happy seeing how up their school was doing so well.
The headmaster joined them soon and started laughing outside the arena even as the passersby walked away with weird looks in their eyes. His ecstatic laugh made the others feel even better about themselves.
"I can only imagine how much anger those that made a move against us must be feeling right now," the headmaster said, clearly intending for the people that drugged their food to listen to his words.
"To think they helped us find such good students. I should probably go and thank those people."
The other teachers laughed with them as well.
Ning and the rest didn't know how to respond at all, so they just remained quiet and let the teachers laugh for a bit.
"Ning!" a voice called out suddenly. The teachers didn't care, but Ning and a few other students did.
Ning turned around, searching for who was calling him. When he did, his eyes fell on a blue-haired girl that waved at him very enthusiastically.
"Oh!" he was a little surprised to see her here.
"Ooh, a beauty," the prince spoke, but the princess quickly slapped him on the back of the head.
"Stop being a hungry pig whenever you see a girl," she said before looking at Ning. "You know her?"
"Y-yes," Ning said. "She's a friend from back home. I didn't expect her to show up in this place."
"Hehe," Kaleb nudged him on the side with his elbow. "Come on now, don't be shy. Friend, eh? I don't know about that, look at how happy she is at finding you."
"Ning!" the girl shouted again, gesturing him to go to her.
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"Invite her over," Tenn said quickly.
"I don't think she wants to," Ning said, not wanting to call her over.
"Tsk," the prince clicked his tongue in response.
The teachers heard the commotion soon and joined in as well. "What's going on?" one of them asked.
"My friend is here to visit me. Is it alright if I go meet with her for a while?" Ning asked.
"Friend?" the headmaster spoke up and look to the side to see the girl that was waiting for him on the other side of the road. "You can go meet her for a while, but make it short."
"It's been nearly a year since I saw her, headmaster. It will need to be a bit longer," Ning said. "How about you guys go ahead? I'll see you all later."
"It's the final day of the competition tomorrow," the headmaster said. "I don't know if I can—"
"I'm just visiting a friend, headmaster," Ning said. "I don't think there's much you have to worry about."
"It should be fine, headmaster," the teacher Hayan said. "He's worked hard. Let him meet his friend for now."
The headmaster thought for a while and sighed. "Fine! Go meet up with her," he said. "You can take your time, but no more than 2 hours. I want you back by 8 when we have dinner."
"Yes, headmaster," Ning said with a small smile.
"Also, every hour that you are late, I will remove the rewards that I said I will give. Since you got 2, if you're late you won't get any," the headmaster said.
Ning frowned a little hearing that. "Alright," he said. "I'll be back in time."
"Good, you can go now," the headmaster said.
Ning didn't like the headmaster's words, but at least he left him to go. He walked away and crossed the road, arriving in front of the blue-haired girl who excitedly went in and hugged him.
Ning was a little surprised, not knowing what to do.
"Hug me back," the girl whispered.
"Okay," he said and hugged her back. "It's good to see you too, Sophie."
It had been over 7 months since Ning had seen Sophie. The last time he had seen her was in the fort town where he had left the Paradise Hunters temporarily to come to learn in the Blackhawk Academy.
It was a surprise to see her here, and it was even a bigger surprise to see her so excited at meeting her.
She was never this excited before, was she? Hmm, maybe she had a crush on him. Ning sighed. He would have to reject her gently if that was the guess.
"Alright, let go of me. They're gone," Sophie said as she herself let go of Ning.
"Hmm?" Ning saw behind him that his academy mates had moved on. "Oh," he said and let go. Only then did he see Sophie's somewhat serious face.
"Hmm, you aren't happy to see me, are you?" he asked her.
"Huh? Why would I be happy?" Sophie asked. "I was just told to act the part so they would let you talk to me."
"Is… is that so?" he asked with an awkward smile. He felt stupid thinking she might've had a crush on him. He shook his head.
"Anyway, what brings you here? I'm surprised you even left the Crowler Empire in the first place," Ning said.
"I do not know why we had to come here," Sophie said. "Kepli knows the actual mission. I'm really just here to protect him."
"Kepli? He's here?" Ning asked with a surprised look. "Wait, is this a mission from the boss?"
"I believe so," Sophie said. "Kepli doesn't move unless he thinks there is something important or is ordered directly by the boss."
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"Hmm, did he send you here to get me?" Ning asked.
"Yes, you have time to come with me, right?" she asked.
"Well, thankfully I made some time," Ning said. "Where are you staying? If possible, I will need to return quickly."
"We just got here half a day ago. Everyone is still staying in the carriage by one of the houses in the village," she said.
"Alright, let's go," Ning said.
As Ning and Sophie walked away, a thin old man looked in Ning's direction with a narrowed look on his face.
"Isn't that the wonder kid from Blackhawk?" he asked the people beside him. He was the headmaster of the Essence Heart Academy and was speaking to the teachers of his academy.
"That is the young man with Space and Lightning attacks," one of the teachers confirmed.
"What is he doing walking away from the group?" another teacher couldn't help but ask.
"It doesn't matter," the headmaster said as he gritted his teeth. "What matters is that he's now isolated. He's going to be fighting our Grasian in tomorrow's top 16 battles, isn't he? This is the perfect time to take him out."
The short female teacher stepped up. "Do you need me to act again?" she asked.
"Yes, teacher Shina. Your last work was perfect. We only failed because we failed to consider that there would be folks that wouldn't be in the group to eat," the headmaster said. "Now, you can deal with him directly."
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A young man walked out of the arena with an older man, surrounded by multiple people that walked along with them.
The young man was Nalen Foreman, the person Ning had a scuffle with two nights ago. He looked quite nervous and angry at the same time.
They got to a carriage that was set up close by, where they got onto it and left to go back to the city.
"Are you sure the sword is any good?" the older man asked while the carriage started moving. "That young man didn't even use it all that much."
"Father, I promise you, it's incredible. He used it yesterday and created massive rocks easily. That sword is definitely something," Nalen said.
The older man was Saburn Foreman, Nalen's father, and the current head of the Foreman family, the unofficial ruler of the Whiteowl Region.
"You aren't doing this because you got embarrassed by Genn, right?" the man asked.
Nalen stopped himself from speaking. "I'm doing it in part because of that, but I can assure you Father, that is no ordinary weapon. That bastard even used sand yesterday. SAND! Have you ever seen someone use sand using an Earth sword, Father?"
"What makes you think he used the sword?" his father asked. "You saw him use Space Essence and Lightning Essence today. Do you still think he used Sand Essence through the sword? Hell, he could even have been wearing an armor underneath that we didn't know about."
Nalen kept quiet, thinking of some sort of retort, but nothing came to mind. All he knew was that the sword Ning had was the heaviest object he had ever held in his hand and it was not ordinary in any sense.
"You will understand when you sense the sword yourself, Father," Nalen said. "Just find a way to get your hands on it, father. If you still think it's not good, I won't say anything anymore."
Saburn looked at his son and sighed. "Let's… let's not do anything rash for the next 4 years, okay? We are so close to becoming the actual ruler of this land. Please do not do anything that will ruin this for me."
Nalen frowned. "I don't think I can do anything like that," he said, cowering into his seat.
"Trying to enrage the Blackhawk Academy certainly counts as one," the man said. "Let's just take it slow for now. Once the bastard living in the north is found and killed, we can finally be worry-free."
"Until then, do absolutely nothing."
"Have you found him yet?" Nalen asked.
"I'm getting closer. People are revealing more and more information about him," the man said. "As the leader of the so-called Paradise Hunter gang, he will have to come out sooner or later."
"When he does, we'll kill him," the man said with viciousness in his voice. "Then… our journey to ruling this region will be as good as confirmed."
Ning and Sophie walked along the road in the sunset, the same as many other peoples that were returning from the arena did.
He tried to bring up some small talk with Sophie, but she really didn't care much. She simply answered the questions, without asking any of her own in return.
As they walked, she noticed his sword and finally got curious. "Didn't I help you get a sheath for that sword? What happened?" she asked.
"Hmm? It broke long ago, though," Ning said. "I actually made a Wind conduit for it before I joined the academy, but that broke too during the competition. Now I'm sheathless once again."
"Don't you want one? Tell your teachers or someone in the town. They should make it for you," Sophie said.
Ning thought for a moment and shook his head.
"No. I want to make it on my own this time around," he said. "I'll do so once I'm done with the competition. I have some idea of what type of essence I want to use."
"Okay… you do you," Sophie said.
They continued walking for a little longer before Ning saw a carriage that Sophie pointed at. "That's the one we came in," she said. Together, they walked up to the carriage and Sophie knocked on the door.
After waiting for a moment, the door opened and a short man with black hair walked out. He stepped to the side, allowing the two to walk in.
Ning looked at the man, not recognizing him at all. It was someone in the Paradise Hunters gang that he had never seen before.
It wasn't that weird as he had rarely ever met anyone while in that gang. He walked in and met with 3 other people inside, 1 woman and 2 men.
One man was sitting on one side of the carriage, while the remaining man and woman seemed to be a couple who were rather close to each other.
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Ning quickly recognized the single man and greeted him. "Ah, good to meet you again, Kepli. How long has it been?" he asked.
He had only seen Kepli in the Grayfire city where he had met the gang for the first time. After that, when they were moved to the fort city, he hadn't met him again.
Ning got into the carriage and sat next to him before greeting the remaining people. He then turned toward Kepli. "You are a long way from home," he said. "What are you guys doing here?"
"A mission," Kepli said.
"What mission?" Ning asked.
Kepli didn't get angry. He just smiled. "We're here to check on your progress," he said.
"My progress?" Ning was surprised. "Haha, you had nothing to worry about. Sophie says you only came here today, but ask about anyone and they'll say I'm one of the most talented fighters in the competition. Well… if you ignore my age at least."
Kepli smiled. "Is that so?" he asked. He turned toward the couple in front of him and gestured for them to leave.
The couple smiled. "We'll go find someplace to stay for the time being," the man said and walked out. They took Sophie and the other man along with them, leaving Ning alone with Kepli.
"Oh, do you have something secret to talk about?" Ning asked. "Why did you send them out?"
Kepli chuckled a bit. "I told you, I'm here to check on your progress," he said. "Although, that's the lie we told those out there."
Ning frowned for a moment. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Hmm," Kepli thought for a moment. "Let's start with how strong you've gotten for now. I see you're in the Essence Manifestation realm, which is quite surprising. I hadn't believed it when I read it in the letter, but it turns out to be true."
"Yes," Ning said. "And it's a pure core. I can create any type of Essence without worrying about the output being low."
Kepli gave a scornful look when he heard that. "Stop trying to make me jealous. I already am," he said.
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Ning chuckled.
"So? What else did the academy teach you?" he asked. "How good is your Essence sense? Can you search for enemies easily?"
"Huh?" Ning was confused by the random question. What was the point of even asking that?
"It's… okay, I guess?" Ning said. "About as good a Low Essence Soul realm person's essence sense. Why do you ask?"
Kepli leaned in to whisper. "So what you're telling me is even with that, you can't sense her?" he asked.
Ning frowned for a moment before moving back and looking around the small carriage. He tried searching for any sort of essence he could find and scrutinized it a bit.
The only essence he could sense belonged to Kepli and a faint essence from someone close outside, but that was light essence so it couldn't be who he was looking for. He couldn't sense the shadow essence at all.
"Clara?" he called out. "Are you in here?"
He waited for an answer, but there was none.
He frowned, searching around the carriage and outside to see if someone was there. If it was Clara, she would have hidden herself with no one able to find her.
Even when he first met her, there had been 3 Essence Manifestation realm opponents, none of whom could notice her at all. Not only was her body completely invisible thanks to her Shadow Essence, but her Essence itself was also invisible to everyone's senses.
There was no way for Ning to see or sense her as he was right now. "Why are you not answering? Are you not here? Is she not here?" he asked Kepli.
"She is close by and she wants you to find her yourself," Kepli said. "Apparently you mentioned something to her in one of the letters about it."
"Huh?" Ning thought for a moment. His eyes wandered in thought before he realized something. "Oh! My defensive skill."
"Defensive skill?" Kepli was a little confused. "What about it?"
"Hehe! Just watch!"
Then, Ning started using his skill.
Ning used his defensive technique.
His core jumped into action as it started pouring out an insane amount of Essence that gathered all around his body, straining him to stay there.
The leaving essence also put a burden on his core, but Ning was strong enough to handle both of those burdens without faltering to it. After all, he knew they would only fatigue him temporarily as he had tried out the technique multiple times before.
Kepli was stunned at the absolute amount of Essence that was gathered in Ning's body. It was more than what his core held right now. Was this really someone in the same realm as him?
Then, his surprise multiplied when he sensed an Essence he had never sensed before. What was this Essence?
It didn't feel dangerous like Fire, nor solid like Earth. It wasn't calm like water or free like the Wind. It wasn't Light, and it most certainly wasn't Shadow.
And it wasn't any of the naturally occurring Essences that could be found.
It was an Essence that he could feel had no attribute to it. And yet, it wasn't Pure Essence which was truly without attribute.
Pure Essence usually had substance, but this… this Essence felt like it was without any substance. Almost as if it was there, and at the same time, it was not.
In all sense, it was an Essence that was completely empty.
When all the essence turned to this element, it released from Ning's body in a bubble around him that grew as it went outward.
The Essence was invisible and thus it produced no color. At best, one could see a shock wave-like fluctuation move through the air as it moved across the carriage.
It was an empty Essence that turned the other Essences empty themselves. When the bubble grew and crossed Kepli, he felt the lingering Essence around his body suddenly disappear as if it never existed.
"Wha—" he was surprised.
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In the corner of the carriage, furthest away from Ning, a layer of Shadow Essence was removed as Clara's surprised face became visible for the first time.
"You…" she was too speechless to even speak.
"There you are," Ning said with a satisfied smile while breathing quite heavily. Using this technique put a lot of burden on him.
"You…" Clara still continued. "You really learned a technique to use Void Essence."
"Yes, I did," Ning said as he tried to catch his breath again.
"Void Essence?" Kepli looked with a confused look. "What's that? I've never heard of such an Essence before."
"It's…" Clara was about to explain when she sensed something. "Who's there?" she called out in a loud voice.
Ning quickly turned his attention away to see what she was referring to and sensed someone outside with a strong light Essence core.
He had sensed that person before, hadn't he?
The person started running away.
Ning was about to act when Clara disappeared again and arrived outside with Ning sensing anything about her movement. She was crazy fast to the eyes and she appeared next to the person that was running away instantly.
The person, a female, tried to attack back with the Essence Soul. However, she was too weak for Clara. With two punches to the face and guts and a single strike on the neck, she made the person fall unconscious.
Ning and Kepli quickly walked outside and saw the woman.
"Who's she? She was spying on us," Clara said as the two of them arrived next to her and looked at them carefully.
"Hmm? Wait that uniform," Ning recognized. "That's from our rival academy. What is she doing here?"
"Your rival academy?" Clara turned to look at him.
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Ning nodded. "Yes," he said. "She should be a teacher from the Essence Heart Academy."
"So she wasn't after us, but you? What is she doing here following a student like you?" Clara asked.
"Hmm, they must've been scared because of my performance in the competition and wanted to mess with me so I didn't do well tomorrow?" Ning said. "Someone has already poisoned our food to keep us from winning, so I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened."
Just as Ning said that he remembered what the headmaster had hypothesized. Their biggest enemy, the Essence Heart school was most likely behind the poisoning.
Given that this woman was here, Ning frowned slightly at the implication.
"Maybe she is the one who poisoned our school's students 2 days ago," Ning said with a look that was almost certain.
"I see," Clara said. "As long as she's not after us."
She swung her arm and a black, gooey substance flung out from her arm, linking up to the woman's two arms as they pulled together to restrain her.
"I'll ask her questions once she wakes up," Clara said. "For now, I need to speak with you."
Ning nodded and walked back with Clara to the carriage while Kepli was left to deal with the unconscious woman.
Ning got into the carriage with Clara, the entire time wondering why he couldn't sense her even while he had in front of her. Something was quite… confusing about all of this.
Was she somehow still using her Shadow Essence to hide from him? Ning couldn't figure out what else would the reason be.
Clara sat opposite Ning and stared at him for a second. "So… as Kepli mentioned, I'm here to learn about your progress," she asked.
Ning nodded for a moment and a thought came to his head.
"When you say progress, I'm assuming it's not regarding me, is it?" he asked.
Clara shrugged. "It could be anything," she said, trying to be vague. "For instance, how's your memory issue going? Have you remembered anything yet?"
"Memory issue? Ah, amnesia," Ning said, only now somewhat remembering that this was the role he had chosen for the Paradise Hunters, just as he had chosen the role of a young son of a small noble from the Frolane empire for the others in the academy.
"Nope, no memory," he said.
"Hmm, well that's too bad," Clara said. "Then let's talk about the actually important stuff."
Let's talk about the important stuff," Clara said. "What I sent you here to do."
Ning laid back on the seat and looked at her with a curious look on his face. "Can I ask, how old are you exactly?" he inquired.
Clara raised an eyebrow. She thought for a bit and said. "Something like 43 years," she said.
"Did you leave this place when you were 17 then?" Ning asked.
Clara's eyes narrowed in surprise. "So you found something?" she asked.
"You're part of the Grazer family, aren't you?" Ning asked. "The one that used to be the ruler of the Whiteowl region, but was instead wiped out in a fire that appeared out of nowhere and killed everyone?"
Clara glared at Ning for a while before sighing. "Yes, I am from that very same family. The one and only member of the Grazer family that still remains," she said.
"I see," Ning said. "I assumed that after I learned about the family and what had happened in the past."
"Forget the past and talk about what's happening right now," she said. "I've already moved on from my identity as a Grazer."
"Oh," Ning was a little surprised. "Alright, so here's what I found out."
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He told Clara everything he had found out. He told her about the Foremans, about the 30-year agreement they had with the Black Royal family of the Blackhawk Dominion, and how there was a rumor that a son of the Grazer family was still alive.
"I see," Clara said with a thoughtful look after hearing everything. "So they don't want me to make a return and become the ruler of the Whiteowl Region, huh?"
"That's what I heard," Ning said. "Do you think you want to? I hear that they have an agreement with the Black Royal family, so if you were to go back, you could become the ruler."
Clara quickly shook her head. "That's not even a possibility," she said. "The moment I get on the throne, they will kill me. Just like they did my father and my family."
A deep sense of pain and anger flowed in Clara's voice that Ning could very distinctly capture. She was remembering her past and the traumatic memories flooded her mind.
Ning heard what she said and looked at her closely. "So it wasn't an accident?" he asked. "What happened 25 years ago was actually an attack on your family?"
Clara nodded. "Yes, we were attacked in the middle of the night. The people that attacked us were so strong that we couldn't even find the time to fight back."
"Before I knew it, my father had already died, and later my mother died while trying to send me and my twin brother away," she said, tears slowly filling her eyes. "My brother was caught in the fire when the building collapsed on him. I tried to help but… the fire was too strong. With someone's essence amplifying the heat, my brother died burning alive."
"I merged into the shadows and ran away in the middle of the night. Running forever and ever to get away from them," she said. "I didn't want them to find me ever, so I disappeared to the north."
"Did you never think about coming back here for revenge?" Ning asked.
"I did," she said. "But no matter how much I hated my enemies, I always knew one thing. I was never strong enough to defeat them. So, I never tried."
Ning thought for a moment. "I get that you were never strong enough to defeat them, but you could have at least tried to go find help. I don't think the royal family would hold back if you let them know what had happened," he said. "The Foreman would definitely get punished, wouldn't they?"
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Clara scoffed a bit. "The Foreman? Why would they get punished?" she asked.
Ning paused for a moment. "Are… are they not the ones that attacked your family?" he asked.
"Don't you think I would have found allies to come to my cause if that was the case?" Clara asked.
"Then… the enemy is someone so strong that you can't look for help?" Ning asked before slowly dismissing the possibilities until he landed on one.
"The Black Royal family?" he asked. "Are they the ones that attacked your family?"
"Yes," Clara said. "I'm surprised you got it so quickly."
"Wh-why would the Royal family attack you?" Ning asked.
"Two reasons from what I understood over the years," Clara said. "First, the Whiteowl region is the best region other than the Blackhawk region when it comes to natural geographical defenses thanks to the mountain range to the east.
"And second, the Black Family were getting scared that we were getting very strong very fast, and soon enough we would become stronger than them and become the true ruler of the Blackhawk Dominion."
Ning's eyes got serious. "Why would they think that?" he asked. "Were you guys powerful?"
"They were mostly scared because after a terrible earthquake more than half a decade ago, one by one, people with Shadow Essence started showing up in the family," she said. "We started trading with the other continent and bought a lot of shadow skills, which we trained in."
"It was very soon understood that Shadow Essence was quite strong for many things, and that scared the Black family."
"Their fear truly became existential when they realized that we had unearthed an Essence Crystal cave in our family ground where the Essence was over 95% shadow," she said. "The discovery was mostly kept a secret, but someone must have told the Black family sometimes after that."
"3 months after, our family was attacked and everyone was dead, but me," she said. "I alone ran away with this ring full of the Shadow Essence crystal. Ever since then, I've been doing my best to try and survive. I had even forgotten about revenge as it never seemed possible."
"And yet, somehow the past doesn't seem to want me to move on," she said. "Fine, if they want to drag me back, I'll come back, and I'll bring back everything I have tossed away with me."
Clara calmed down a few moments later and breathed out the last whispers of her anger. She turned to look at Ning and nodded to him. "You did well. Go back and rest," she said. "I'll meet you once before you are to go back once the competition ends."
"Alright," Ning said. "Where will you be staying for the night?"
"Right here," she said. "I don't really want to go to the city. I don't think I have the self-control to hold myself back if I do."
Ning nodded. "Alright, I'll leave. Take care," he said and got off the carriage.
"Your Void skill," she shouted. "Don't show it to anyone. It's something that you can easily use to catch someone off guard. You shouldn't reveal its existence in something so simple as this competition."
Ning thought for a bit and nodded.
He saw Kepli waiting there, along with the knocked-out female next to him. Ning looked at her and then at Kepli.
"Can I take her with me?" he asked. "I think she will be a great asset to bring the downfall of our main adversary in this competition."
"Sure, if you want to," Kepli said. "But you'll be in trouble if she wakes up soon. Or if someone finds you carrying her."
"Hmm, I'll take my chances I guess," Ning said and gently carried the woman. "Alright, I'll see you soon."
With the woman on his right shoulder and the sword hidden underneath his left arm, Ning left the area, making his way back to the Light Dance school while the sun still brightened the sky.
His body felt a little tired from having used the Void Essence earlier, but it was still active enough to go back to school in time.
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People gave him weird looks along the way, but no one stopped him, so he continued going. However, when he did get to the school, he was stopped at the front gates.
Obviously, those guards weren't just going to let him go in while carrying an older woman in his arms. They were first worried that she was hurt, and when they realized she was just unconscious, they asked for an explanation.
Ning couldn't explain what he was doing easily, so he instead decided to call the people from his school over quickly.
The guards were confused, but they complied and sent someone to get his teachers and headmasters. Ning waited for a while for them to come, but before they did someone else found him.
"Teacher Shina!" a loud voice shouted at him from nearby. "What happened?"
Ning looked to the side at the young man that had arrived. The young man hadn't looked at him yet, so he didn't recognize him, but Ning recognized him instead.
This was the young man he was to fight in the next round first tomorrow.
"What happened to teacher Shina?" the young man asked with a worried look.
"She's unconscious," Ning said softly.
"How? Did she faint? What happened?" the young man asked.
"She was sneaking around me, so I beat her," Ning said simply.
The young man took a moment to process the information before looking up at him with confusion. "What?" he asked.
"Your teacher came after me, and when I found out she tried to run away. Quite suspicious isn't it?" he asked. "Well, when she did, I attacked her and now I'm bringing her back."
"You… bastard!" the young man shouted. "You…"
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He finally looked at Ning, recognizing him. Doing such, his anger still didn't subside. Instead, it almost increased even further.
"Get your hands off my teacher," he said, going so far as to pull out a sword from nowhere.
Ning frowned a bit, but he didn't do anything. He wasn't sure about the rules regarding fights outside of the arena, so he just sat there, making sure the guard got a full view of what was happening.
At the same time, he also placed the woman toward the man so his attacks would instead fall on her if he even tried to do so.
The man seemed adamant about attacking him and even went as far as to bring out two arms of his Essence soul, each of which surprisingly had long vine-like tendrils made up of water.
The arms were purple in color, marred by the purple sky after the setting sun. Ning got his sword ready, just in case he needed to attack as well.
Suddenly the gates opened wide and a single tongue of fire flew past the young man, missing him by mere inches. The young man stepped back and got ready to fight whoever it was when he saw the teachers from the Blackhawk Academy.
The headmaster appeared right in front of Ning and glared at the young man. "How dare you try to attack our disciple!" he shouted at the young man.
The young man frowned, stepping back as there was no way for him to compete against the headmaster himself. "Your student hurt our teacher. I want a proper explanation, or I will report this behavior to the committee and have your academy expelled from the competition," he said without any fear.
The headmaster had to take this threat seriously. "Young man, explain what is happening," he said.
"This woman has a Light Essence core and can go invisible with her skills. I found her lurking around outside the carriage where I met my friends. When I did, she tried to run away, so I caught her along with my friends' help," he said.
"What?" the teachers turned toward Ning. "She was lurking around you?"
"Yes, following most likely… under someone's order," Ning said.
"I see," the headmaster said. "Then I will require your headmaster to answer what is going on here."
The young man frowned but had to nod in the end. This wasn't a situation he could deal with.
"It's not just that, headmaster," Ning said. "If she followed me without anyone knowing, imagine what else she could've done on her own. Like say… poisoning someone's food."
The headmaster's eyes widened when he heard that. That had caused him a lot of problems and he wasn't going to let it slip away at the slightest chance of its prospect.
"If the possibility is there, then we must drag the truth out of her, one way or another."
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