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Sunlight spilled over the windowsill and across the bed where Arthur and Helena lay sprawled out, bare and tangled together. The room around them was a mess: clothes littered the floor, sheets thrown aside and bunched at the foot of the bed, as if the two of them had been too tired, or too busy, to bother with anything as trivial as tidiness.
Helena rested against Arthur, using his arm as a pillow. The bedsheet barely covered their lower halves as they breathed softly in their sleep, wrapped in the warm comfort of each other. A peaceful sight like that of a quiet aftermath from a passionate night between two lovers.
Further down the dormitory hall, however, Damien's room told a different story.
His bed was rather immaculate, as if it wasn't even used last night for such barbaric sex. Damien slept soundly, with a self-satisfied smirk fixed on his face, clearly deep in some pleasant dream. The picture of a man without a care in the world.
And unlike Arthur, who held his woman close in sleep Vespa could be seen laying on the floor. Curled beneath a thin blanket like an afterthought. Not even granted the dignity of the bed they had shared that night.
Arthur held what he deemed worthy close even when he didn't need to. Damien discarded what he'd already used. He'd take a thousand slaves over a hundred loyal followers any day.
A difference Arthur was going to exploit. With the tournament just around the corner, there was much to be done and he didn't intend to leave anything on the table.
And so true to form, Arthur was up and out of bed before anyone else, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Helena's forehead. She smiled in her sleep, blissful, unbothered by the world.
He left her to it and headed back to the Watcher's dorm to change into a fresh uniform before continuing his day.
'Now that Vespa has her foot in the door and Helena is firmly willing, I'll need to move on Amy next. She needs to be ready for what I have planned.'
He walked at an easy pace as he went through his mind placing his thoughts into what he needed done.
'If I remember right, Mars wanted to meet up for training later today. He probably wants to do some tournament prep and while we're at it, it'll give me an opportunity with Amy so I should be able to make that work.'
Arthur gave himself a small nod satisfied with how the day was shaping out to be because who didn't like to have a productive day after dicking down a runway level model who is the fiance of your most hated enemy.
'God I would pay so much money to see his face if he found out.'
Smirking as he walked, Arthur enjoyed his thoughts as he walked into the watcher's dormitory.
Stepping into his dorm room, he changed into clean clothes. Then, almost as an afterthought, he flipped open his notebook to a well-worn page covered edge to edge in tightly jotted notes.
'If I can just crack this formula, I'll finally have a way to take on someone who's in Early Gold. I just need more time.'
He closed the notebook and slid it back into its hiding place.
He then gathered his things and headed out, walking as if he hadn't just had a passionate night with a hot babe and as if his own succubus hadn't slept with his most hated enemy on his behalf. Only the thoughts of how he could use Vespa's closeness against Damien occupied him, along with the other variables he needed to be aware of.
One such variable brought a frown to his face.
Robin.
'She's been watching me more and more lately. I worry she's going to step in since I've been overstepping my boundaries.'
He wasn't sure how much she knew. Robin's bloodline was more attuned to the Taboo side of things she might have picked up on something that others would have missed entirely.
'She's only Peak Gold, and even Father couldn't sense what happened inside the array I used for summoning Lilith. There should be no way for her to know.'
Arthur pondered through the different possibilities of what Robin could know.
'Maybe it's something else. Maybe she's been looking into me more because of what happened with Helena.'
His frown deepened.
'I'll have to deal with that after the tournament or find something I can use against her... she's still seeing Leon, right? Maybe there's something I can work with there or better yet doesn't she roam that garden once a week.'
Pushing the thought aside, Arthur steeled himself and settled into his seat. He pulled out his notebook and set it flat on the desk, filing Robin and everything else behind him.
It could wait. What couldn't wait was class.
'Win the tournament. But first, I gotta pass my classes.'
The rest of the day's classes came and went without issue. Now Arthur stood with his squad, all of them in their training outfits, gathered around and waiting for him to give instruction for today's team exercise.
They'd all learned by now — when it came to training, there was no better leader than Arthur.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, we can begin with today's exercise—"
"Wait, stop." Mars held up a hand. "I agree we should start, but why the hell is she here? And will you please stop touching my arm — I have someone I like already."
Mars wore a sleeveless jacket, red in color, matching his flame-red pants and the flush burning across his face. He pointed over at the new figure attached to his arm — one not typically seen with the group.
"What's wrong, sugar? Not used to having a woman touch you?" Vespa leaned in, pushing her chest against his arm, her tight-fitted white crop top and black leggings leaving little to the imagination. "I'm sure if you spent a night with me, you wouldn't feel so uneasy."
Arthur sighed. "Vespa. Give Mars some breathing room. He already has someone he likes and doesn't fool around."
"Tch." Vespa backed off, crossing her arms beneath her chest — propping them up even more than before. "I was hoping I could spend a night with you, cutie. But I guess you're one of those people who are loyal to a fault."
Mars gulped, eyes fighting not to look. He lost. Looked. Then snapped his gaze away and cleared his throat.
"Can we just train? Please?"
Amy, standing off to the side in her brown training crop top and dark fitted shorts, her forearms wrapped in hand wraps, glanced at Vespa's chest — then down at her own. Her lips pressed together, a quiet deflation settling over her as she crossed her arms over herself.
'It's not fair...'
She shook her head and looked away, cheeks coloring.
Different from Amy Angela was looking cold and untouchable as she had her hands at her sides seemingly not caring for what was happening. With only her gold eyes on Vespa as she studied her as if she was a threat that needed to be watched.
Perhaps Angela already had an inkling that there was more to Vespa than what meets the eyes.
'Why are they so big?'
And Angela's inner thoughts betray her cold persona.
Garrett rolled his shoulders and shifted his eyes as he too tried not to stare at Vespa's chest, which seemed to be sticking out so much they were begging to be touched. To be manhandled. He swallowed and nodded.
'Garrett, snap out of it. You have Mira. You don't need some bimbo like her — you already have the most beautiful girl in the world.'
Shaking his head, he returned to reality.
"Mars has a point. What's the plan today, Arthur?"
Arthur looked across the group Mars, Amy, Garrett, Angela, and Vespa hovering at the edge with that sly grin still playing on her lips. He let the noise settle before he spoke.
"The tournament is in less than a week and for the last month we've been non-stop training working on improving our skills. That way we all do good and don't be an embarrassment for ourselves. But I can tell our progress has slowed down last week and I'm thinking we kick it up a notch."
He let that hang.
"In the tournament, we won't just be fighting people at our level. There will be opponents above us faster, stronger, with more mana and better bloodlines. So what better way to prepare for fighting those with higher cultivation than to do it for real."
Mars crossed his arms. "So what, you want us to fight someone stronger? Where are we going to find someone willing to spar with a bunch of Bronze-ranks?"
"You're looking at her." Arthur's gaze shifted to Vespa.
Every head turned.
Vespa cocked her hip and planted a hand on it, striking a pose like she was deserving of every eye in the yard.
"What? Think I can't take you all on at once?" She licked her lips as she eyed everyone the boys immediately averting their gaze after hearing her words.
"Not that way, Vespa." Arthur shakes his head "Just show your aura."
VROOM!
A wave of mana erupted from Vespa's body golden, thick, and suffocating. It rolled across the training yard like a heat wave off scorched earth, pressing into everyone's chest at once.
Mars stiffened, his shoulders dropping an inch as if an invisible weight had been placed on top of them.
"The hell...?"
Amy felt it next the heaviness wrapping around her body, making every limb feel like it was buried in wet sand. Each movement would require real strain and mana to push through unless she flared her bloodline alongside it. Annoying, but not impossible.
Garrett felt a similar pressure, only for him it was familiar close to his own bloodline in the way it rooted him to the ground. His earth mana flared instinctively, pushing back against the weight until it lifted off him entirely.
Angela shrugged the pressure off with ease. Her eyes narrowed, fingers curling at her sides the only sign she'd felt it at all.
And just as quickly as it came, it vanished.
Vespa stood tall, chin raised like a proud winner accepting an award except she immediately checked her nails, making sure she hadn't broken one during her little show of force. That would have been the real tragedy.
Ignoring her antics, Arthur stepped forward. "That is what you'll be up against. People whose cultivation is leagues above yours. And the only way to overcome it is skill."
He turned and looked across his squad study their faces. "So, are you ready to bridge that gap?"
The valiant grin on Mars's face. The cautious but eager set of Garrett's jaw. The shy, quiet pride in Amy's eyes. The cold indifference of Angela, who arms had hardly move.
A single conclusion was met.
"FUCK YEAH! Let's kick this chocolate milk cow's ass!" Mars screamed, his fist raised high.
VROOM!
Vespa's aura returned only this time triple the pressure, aimed squarely at Mars. It hit him like a truck knocking him clean on his ass.