When both Safa and Dame had heard the request from Raze, that he had wanted a fight, they thought he was crazy. Sure, he had done some stupid things in the past, but they had seen him in the courtyard just a couple of days ago.
He was only able to perform a few simple moves, so if he wanted to challenge himself, then wouldn't it be better if he was to ask someone like Simyon or Liam, not going straight to the top.
Dame before was the strongest in the group and currently was. The two had never fought at full strength before, and even fighting now, it wouldn't be at full strength.
But all of that changed after the fight had occurred. The trees in the area, they had broken and fallen on top of each other, vines tangled. The ground beneath them, there were several craters from the aftermath of the fight.
Safa herself could only step out now slowly that the fight was complete, and soon after, she started to run over to a fallen Raze. He looked intact on his body, there wasn't a scratch on him.
However, blood had dripped out from his mouth and onto his uniform. He was wheezing even worse than he usually would.
"I don't even care what you say, I'm helping you now!" Safa said.
Raze, even in the state he was in, reached out to grab her hand and shook his head though. Safa didn't understand, so she did what she could. For some reason, he wanted to stay in the same state that he was in before, so she would at least do that, and heal him up back to the point where he could kinda breathe.
Dame, who was standing there, his shoulder of his clothing torn, a deep cut on him. He looked at his own hands and they were shaking, shaking from the adrenaline that had rushed through his body at the fight that had just occurred.
"How is that possible, how were you able to fight this well, even in the condition you were in!" Dame said in disbelief.
Even though he was the victor, the match wasn't as easy as he expected it to be. The progress Raze had managed to make as well, it was unheard of.
'I've been practicing, pushing myself beyond what I could. I'm not the same as I was before either after fighting that statue non-stop. But for Raze. He's been fighting with his throat all messed up, making it hard for him to breathe.'
'Since his breathing is disrupted, his Qi is as well. Right now. It doesn't matter if he's at stage 6. If a glass is the same as one's dantian, at the moment Raze is limited by the amount of Qi he can use due to the size of the straw because of his breathing.'
'He can only take so much Qi at a time, and if he tries to take more than the straw can handle and force it, it will strain the straw itself. He's stayed in this state, straining the straw, allowing him to use more Qi, but not just that.'
'He's also figured out a way to condense the Qi in his dantian before releasing it to where it needs to be. Doing it this way, he can pass more Qi through and still use more moves.'
Dame started to wonder, was it something that he could have done if he was in the same situation as Raze. It wasn't something normal people could do, so why could he? What was driving the Dark Magus so much to keep pushing himself?
Even now, where he can heal and have relief in his life from the pain, he isn't, all for the sake of getting just that bit stronger.
'Right now, Raze is restricted by all of these things. It's like there are chains wrapped around his dantian and body, but when those shackles come off, I don't want to be the one that faces him.'
"If you're done with him, we need to keep up our own training, right?" Dame smiled.
Everyone worked as hard as they could, pushing themselves further than they did before. Unaware, it wasn't just Raze and his group working hard either. Tinson and his two friends pushed themselves.
Even though they had been saved thanks to Raze in the last test, the same couldn't be said for the upcoming one because they had no idea what it would be.
Then there was Ricktor, and Mada. After seeing his brother fighting, Mada had a fire lit up in him again. He had been too focused on Raze in the past, but now he had to worry about himself.
As for Ricktor, he was just one of those types that always worked to his fullest regardless of the situation. It was how he got to where he was now.
Only they knew how much they had improved, how much stronger they had gotten, and finally, the group had been called to meet at the main courtyard.
Before they had been called out, the first-year students had been called. They had gone to the library quite early and returned all of them learning the new skills. Then it was time for the second group of only ten, the 'Second-year' students as they were referred to, even though they had only been here a few months.
Standing out in the courtyard, the principal was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Amir was standing there, but he wasn't alone.
By his side, there were ten adults. All of them dressed in heavy black robes that covered their entire clothing. On their faces, they bore a mask that covered half their face with two large fangs that bent upward.
"They don't look like the normal teachers, I've never seen them before," Simyon stated.
"That's because they're not teachers," Ricktor replied. "They're from the same clan as me, they're from the Erupting Fist Clan, and the same clan as the Principal."
In the usual case, there were only so many personnel that were allowed in the academy from each Clan. The rest would need to be made up of the vast number of Clans in the Dark Faction or wanderers like that of Amir.
Due to the recent events, with the number of deaths that had occurred, it had given the perfect excuse for there to temporarily be more members of the Erupting Fist clan.
'They look quite strong, this isn't so good,' Dame thought.
"Treasured students." Amir started off by raising his hands and a large smile on his face. "We have been faced with great trouble recently, but as suspected our treasured and best students all managed to survive, and it is great to see that."
"The time has come to finally talk about the fourth assessment, and first, I must inform you, None of you will be going to the tower just yet, and you will understand once I explain to you the contents of the assessment."
"The next test is, Dimension exploration." Amir announced.
Raze had heard of this; he had heard that the academy had portals that the students were able to use, and it looked like they could finally use them, but it was a little too late as Raze had entered a number of portals and even made large connections on the outside.
"Each of you will have a month to access the dimension. You may come in and out. What we suggest is everyone to head into a portal, and in doing so, you know what you are dealing with.
"Once you know that, you are to choose your skill and head back in. How long you spend in the other dimension is up to you; the only thing is, the month is the limit. There is one more thing to mention to you all.
"Each of you will be heading to a separate portal on your own. This is something that you must survive through your own power."
Dame glanced at Raze because he had a feeling that while Raze was on his own, a certain person would target him. Maybe it was time he healed up.
