The first person Simyon had gone up against had already recovered, and judging by the scorn on his face, he wasn't in a particularly happy mood. There were five students, all eyeing him up, ready to pounce on him.
Immediately, Simyon started to retreat backward and placed his back against the wall, raising his fists.
"Oh?" Ricktor said with a raised eyebrow. "My little toy has some brains on him. That's only making him even more attractive in my eyes. He seems to be using the wall to stop those attacking from the back."
"Does that mean you think he has a chance of winning against them?" Lisa asked.
Ricktor shook his head. "Do you think you could beat five of these students in this situation?"
Lisa took a while as she thought about it. They, the main disciples, were students who were far ahead of the others, but they weren't at Ricktor's level. If they had his kind of strength, then the answer would be yes, but given the situation, Lisa gave a different type of answer.
"With the state they are in now, they're not the same as before," Lisa answered. "The red headband students have been affected heavily by the lack of food, while those of us who are able to draw more energy from our cultivation techniques have been able to do well."
"Then don't you think he has more of a chance as well?" Mada added. "Other than us, for some reason, he seems to be one of the least affected by all of this."
One of the students pushed off from his feet and came in with a thrust straight to Simyon's stomach. In this moment, Simyon noticed something; the movements were slower and sloppier compared to what they would be.
He moved to the side, and the sword struck the wall behind him. Although even if he could avoid one of their strikes, there were more of them to come. From the right side, a fist was thrown at his face.
Simyon was able to lift his hands up by the side of his head, blocking the attack; it was heavy, but his feet only shifted a few inches to the side. Then, on the other side, they were ready to attack again, and he had been whacked in the ribs with a wooden sword.
'Even if these guys are sloppy, together all of their hits are adding up. I thought I could do something in this situation,' Simyon thought as he had hunkered down, raising both hands to the side of his head. Each time he was getting hit, his body would sway from side to side.
"So are you planning to just watch?" Lisa asked. "Isn't he one of those who caught your eye? I thought you would be displeased by seeing others treat him this way."
"If he gets broken or taken out by something like this, then he doesn't deserve to be my toy," Ricktor answered.
If Simyon continued to take a beating like this, even with his advanced body, he would eventually fall; he could feel the accumulating amount of qi building up, taking a toll on his body.
As he continued to get hit, a smile was building up on Simyon's face. 'One of the ways to mark a stronger body is refinement, and right now all you're doing is breaking down my body so it can be even stronger in the future. You're not punishing me; you're just doing me a favor!'
Simyon continued to take hits, buying more and more time, but his legs were starting to shake, and it almost felt like the students knew this as well.
"Come on, this guy is going to fall soon. It's embarrassing that the five of us can't even take him down!"
"Hey, screw this; this guy is going to fall anyway. We need to help the others!" one of the men shouted.
"Wait, there are others!" Simyon's eyes lit up as he heard the news. He was already surprised to hear that so many were attacking him, but to know that there were more in on it.
Just how large was this group that had decided to act? Regardless, as he saw the students' feet start to leave and his head turn, he lunged forward, pushing the other students out of the way.
"ARGHH!" Mustering up his strength, he reached out and grabbed the student right by his shoulder with one of his hands and gripped tightly.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing to me?" The student swung his arm, hitting Simyon, trying to whack it off, but it was extremely heavy, and Simyon's grip was strong.
Soon, though, the other students were coming and started to bash him from behind and the top of his head. The only thing he could do was squint as the others continued to attack him one after the other.
"Why won't you let go? Why are you just holding onto me like that?" The student shouted, his voice a little shaken.
That was because he noticed something, an extremely cold feeling right by his shoulder where Simyon was holding on. It was so cold that it started to heat almost, and he couldn't tell if it was cold or hot.
Soon he noticed what it was when looking down; from where Simyon was touching, his clothes were freezing over. It was spreading, and the area was growing larger with each passing moment.
It had covered his whole shoulder now, and the student by his side, who could see this, had stopped attacking.
"Is this a neutral art from one of the northern clans?" The student commented. It was the only thing that could explain what he was seeing right now.
There was a slight chuckle Simyon had done to himself, overhearing the others. 'It's not a technique; this is the power of magic.'
Shaking off his head, the student needed to act. As long as they beat him, then he could stop using his technique. So he charged forward again. Seeing this, Simyon then pointed his other hand with the black-enchanted glove toward the attacker.
'The magic power in these gloves is relatively weak. I have to hold onto my opponent for a long time for it to even do something. But there is a point where it starts to accumulate and grows quicker and quicker against the opponent. The magic power in them isn't strong, but for someone like me, it's perfect.
'As for the other glove, I will deal with the one coming after me.'
Simyon was ready to use the power of the other glove, but before he could, he could see something appear right behind him; it looked like a wooden sword.
It smashed against the back of the student's head, causing him to fall to the ground.
The sword flew back in the air, and as it did, a one-eyed, patched red headband wearer caught the wooden sword. At the same time as he did this, one of his earrings on his ear tingled a bit.
"I guess the juggling arts can be used in this way as well!" Liam claimed.
He too had used the power of the warnings that had been enchanted by Raze. Unlike Simyon's, his was a bit more discreet. It allowed him to attach a repelling and attracting feature, using somewhat the power of the wind on single items.
At the moment, he had connected his earrings to his sword; he had to place the earrings on the item to mark them in a way, giving them
a connection. Then when placing the earrings back on himself, one earring would bring the sword toward him, while the other would push it away.
This was the reason why he had decided to use the juggling arts in the end. The juggling arts focused on sword techniques that needed the sword to leave the hand and catch them mid-air. There were some tricky movements, but Simyon was thinking ahead; not only would the earrings help him with this, but perhaps he could enchant and create new movements for the sword skill himself.
"Hey, we're not out of it yet!" Simyon shouted.
As he did, a tall man had come forward, and in a few single hits, that looked like they all had happened at the same time, the other three students that were coming forward had stopped.
They stood still for a moment before they all fell on the ground, clutching onto their stomachs, spit gushing out of their mouths. Looking at the tall back Simyon knew who it was, especially since he saw a black-haired woman come over moments later.
"Simyon, are you okay? How are you? Look at what they did to your body!" Sacra said as she started to touch him all over, causing small winces of pain, but Simyon didn't care in that moment.
Instead, his eyes immediately started to well up.
"It must have really hurt, right? It must have. I'm so sorry I couldn't come here in time!" Safa said.
Immediately, tears started to come out of Simyon's eyes like waterfalls. For a long time, Simyon had been communicating with Safa daily; he wanted to fully speak with her one day, and he thought that this day would never arrive, yet here they were.
His emotions were so bubbled up that he was unable to even express them the way he wanted, only allowing him to let them out in tears.
"Hey, now's not the time to worry. Haven't you noticed there are quite a few of the students missing in here, and I have a feeling they might have all gone to Raze," Dame explained.
