Mada couldn't explain why his brother was here. Sure, he was part of the academy and worked for them, so he would have an idea of which student was heading off to which portal.
Even then though, that didn't explain why his brother, who had always ignored him and said nothing to him, would go out of his way to protect him.
"That person, they were from the Lethal Bite Clan you know!" Mada claimed.
"I know, I was watching for a while," Gunther replied. "Strange things have been happening in this academy for a while. Which is why I thought it would be best to keep an eye on you. I didn't want to intrude on your fight, so I waited until it looked like you couldn't handle it anymore."
Hearing these words, Mada's whole body was shaking, he was unable to even control his heartbeat.
"Because I'm not as good as you right?" Mada replied. "That's why you intervened, and followed me, because you thought I wouldn't be strong enough to defeat the beasts inside. Because I'm so weak that I'm someone that you need to protect!"
Mada hated it, hated that he had been saved by Gunther. The person who was always ahead of him, always praised. Mada had been trying to carve his own path, his own way, which was why he even stuck to the Flowing Force Clan's foot techniques instead of sword techniques like his brother did.
"You brat, what are you even going on about?" Gunther replied, confused, and placed both of his weapons away. "You think I did this, just to make you look bad? The reason I saved you was simple. I don't want to bury you, not see any of our family cry."
This response, Mada didn't know how to feel. He was a little annoyed still, at the fact that only Mada was the one that saw this as a competition between the two of them. That he was always compared to the other, but the response was a simple one… did his brother really care for him?
"The life I have, is not one that you want," Gunther stated. "Carry on your own path, and don't worry about the clan heads too much, let me deal with that stuff, you just do what you want."
Safa was locked in combat. She was walking on a large stone-like bridge that was covered in clouds along the way. Most of the land was hard to see, or where one could stand or not due to the large clouds.
However, because of her god eyes skill, when using light magic on her eyes, she was able to sense things and she knew her attacker was waiting for her in plain sight. The students, before going off on their assessments, were given real blades instead of wooden ones to give them a chance to fight against the real beasts.
With the spear in her hand, she had thrust it into the smoke, to hear it clang against a large object that pushed her away.
"I thought I was going to deal with this whole thing relatively quickly and easily. I never expected that I would have to put up somewhat of a fight."
The attacker leaped out from the smoke with a curved sword in their hand. Their whole body was sparkling. In order to stop this, Safa placed her feet firmly on the ground and thrust her spear forward.
It had perfectly hit, but the Qi and force of the attacker was a little strong, pushing Safa back. She braced herself as she could see the attacker swinging the sword through the air.
She lifted her spear, blocking the strike from above with the pole, and then moving it to the side as she shifted her feet, blocking the attacks again, but right as she blocked one hit, a fist came, hitting her to the side.
It was a powerful hit, and she could feel the side of her ribs breaking.
Her whole body flung, hitting part of the stone bridge, the side of the wall. Her body felt like it was on the edge of falling down into the cloud of smoke, not knowing what was really there or what was beneath.
'I need to get up, and I need to be careful, this area, it's so dangerous!' Safa thought.
She could see her attacker coming towards her, running across the grounds, and before he had reached her, right out from one of the clouds was a winged beast with claws at the tip.
It looked like a grainy bat, it had crashed right into her attacker, sending him to the ground. The two of them looked to be having a scuffle as the giant bat creature tried to bite the attacker.
He was pushing back with his sword, and eventually managed to reposition so he could stab the sword right through its neck. As he kicked the body off, he was looking for his target and soon laid his eyes on Safa again.
'That beast… might have saved my life. It allowed me to reposition myself and get up off the ground.' Not only that, but Safa had also used her magic to heal the broken bones in her side.
Noticing how strongly Safa was standing, the attacker tilted his head to the side.
"I was sure I felt something break, but never mind that. You seem to be quite lucky, but with your poor Pagna warrior skills, you won't be able to live for much longer."
Safa focused as she pointed out her spear, the iris of her eyes started to light up a faint white light.
"It's a good thing that I don't just know how to use Pagna skills!" Safa shouted. 'It's time I use the skills that I've learned!'
It was time for Safa to show the power of Light magic.
In another dimension, a land that was filled with mysterious plants that had large shaped balls at the end of them, and giant trees with similar large shaped balls. Liam had run into a particular person.
An old-looking man, with a short black-haired ponytail, and stubble covering his face. He didn't seem to be the type of person that cared about his appearance, but there was one thing that was questioning Liam.
"Why did he recognize this person so much?'
"Wait, are there meant to be other people in the assessment?" Liam asked. "Only students and teachers are meant to be in this place, does that mean, you're one of the teachers, is that why I recognize you?"
The man had jumped off from the large tree, and lifted his straw hat. His hand was holding onto the hilt of his blade.
"I'm no teacher, but it's no surprise that you recognize me," the man said.
That was when it had hit Liam. He could see the sharp eyes, the straw hat, and his relaxed demeanor. This was a person that many from the Dark Faction would know, because it was a member of one of the main five clans, and not just any member, but a Vice Clan Head.
"You're Royo Kien, from the Lethal Bite Clan, the Vice Head of the Clan, the second in command!" Liam said, struck with awe. His words were said in excitement. "You're one of the strongest in the Dark Faction, and would be just under Lisa in strength!"
"Hey hey, don't shout too loud, and don't act like that, otherwise you're just going to make my job a little harder," Royo commented. "And besides, you have something wrong. Not always, the one who is the strongest is the head of the clan.
"There are sometimes those that don't wish to lead, or the only strength they have is fighting, and I would put myself in that category. I'm sorry about this, I hate to have to kill a fan, but hopefully it's a good warrior's death for you."
"Kill a fan?" Liam repeated those words, his lips quivering, he was sure he hadn't misheard it, and it would explain the tingling sensation he could feel, the moment he had met this person.
"Hey, hey! Kill me?" Liam shouted out. "That's pointless, I'm a nobody, I'm from a small clan, and I'm in the initial stage, you're a middle-stage warrior! Isn't it like against one's code to kill those weaker than you."
"It is for some," Royo answered. "But it's not really a problem if no one finds out about it, and right now, I don't see any witnesses."
Liam knew he couldn't run, but could he beat a middle-stage warrior, that seemed impossible. At that point, he drew out his sword, and threw it in the air ready to use his juggling arts.
When looking at his sword in the air, he could see splatters of blood, and two arms detached from a body.
Royo was by his side, his sword already having sliced down.
'Those arms, they're f*cking my arms!' Liam thought.
"I will make this as painless as possible," Royo said, lifting his sword up, and thrusting it forward, the tip of it piercing right into Liam's eyepatch, blood soaking through the wound.
