'Boy, the path you're walking into is quite intriguing. ' Inside Ed's head, a voice spoke. Then he noticed Leonard was looking at him with a smile. He wasn't dumb; he immediately understood it was him!
"Well then, let's start our lesson first lesson in combat," Leonard said as he stepped forward.
A hand rose when Leonard was finished speaking. It was a girl. She had auburn hair, ocean blue eyes, and she wore a combat uniform. In the academy, there were two types of students: first, combat ones. They focused more on combat lessons as they wished to fight on the frontlines whenever war broke out. On the other hand, some standard students would learn everything, combat wasn't their priority; they are free to choose whether they wanna be a part of it or not. Combat students don't have such a privilege.
"Yes?" Leonard spoke
"Why do you wear a blindfold professor Leonard?" She asked. The thought was obvious, but her demeanor proved that wasn't the case.
"Do you truly believe I'm not just blind or something?" Leonard answered with another question as he took a step forward.
"I'm not wrong, your control over Spirit Energy is on a different level. I have met countless strong soldiers of the BlomIce, but you're different…No, you're far beyond them," She replied with unyielding conviction and confidence. He didn't show any sign of hesitation or nervousness.
"You earned my respect. This class is going to be interesting," Leonard chuckled.
"As for the reason behind my blind-fold is much simpler than you think. You see, I have a peculiar ability that affects the person I look at. In any case, if I mistakenly activate my technique, this may cause a catastrophic disaster," Leonard answered honestly this time.
"What kind of ability is that?" She asked
"I apologize, I cannot answer that,t" Leonard said as his aura intensified,d indirectly warning her to push further.
'I have a bad feeling about Leonard, ' Raelith whispered between Ed and Evans.
'I agree, he's strong, but that's not all. I can't explain,n but something about him feels off,' Evans remarked.
'Feel's off?' Ed pressed.
'Yeah, be careful Evans said.
"Alright, first of all. I want you to spar against each other," Leonard said, and he simply raised his hand.
Without warning strange blueish barrier materialized across the arena. The barrier radiated dense spirit energy.
"As you can see, those barriers are where you would spar. You can choose any weapon you would like," Leonard explained as he unsheathed his sword. It had a curved shape near the edge, while the hilt was of a blueish color.
"You can choose any weapon according to your class." Leonard walked toward the front area where different classes of weapons were organized neatly. Among them there were gauntlets, daggers, swords, axes, bow and so on.
'System,' Ed thought, opening the system interface inside his head, and it appeared.
-Host: Ed Orves
-Class: Swordsman
-Rank: C
-Strength: D
-Agility: D+
-Spirit Energy: SSS+
[system: You've become strong now you're just a fly trying to wage war against Gods lolol]
- - -
'As always, the system evaluations are ridiculous,' Ed said inwardly.
'Swordsman, huh?' Ed browsed through the sword section
[Would you like to turn inspection?]
'Yes'
-Rapier
-Description: A fine rapier forged with the natural ore, it has high durability
-Long-sword
-Description: It has high compatibility with your Soul devouring abilities. It's highly sensitive to souls.
Ed browsed through the list, among them were battle axe that caught Ed's eye, but he abandoned the idea because of its weight, and it would make his agility worse carrying such a weapon. After tweaking for a while, he came across two weapons most suitable for his combat style.
Ed had made his choice.
"I'm ready, " he said as he approached Leonard.
"Stand on the third barrier, your opponent would be Sam."
"Understood," He bowed, and soon enough, he reached the arena.
On the opposite side of the arena, a boy stood. He had dark brown hair, he wore glasses, and he had chosen two curved daggers. He had eyes like dead fish drained of life.
'Is that guy alright? I can go all out, right?" He pondered.
"I know what you must be thinking, but don't worry about it, come at me," Sam stepped forward.
While Sam wielded Draggers, Ed had chosen the long-sword.
"Begin!!!" Leonard's voice tore through.
A silence followed, though.
No one made the first move. The demeanor before the battle around Sam completely changed. He took his hands out of his pockets. His whole arms were bandaged for some reason.
'Hm?bandages'
"Boundless piercing," Sam muttered, and in that instant, green spirit energy enveloped his daggers and slashes unleashed in a vertical arc.
In response, Ed parried his strike and enveloped his blade with Soul energy.
"Realm Severence," Ed said in an instant. Countless blue threat-like slashes were sent toward Sam.
"HAHAHAHA You're better than I thought, state your name!!" Sam laughed like a maniac as he leaped forward.
But the next scene made Ed's mouth agape; instead of blocking or dodging, Sam had taken the strike head-on. Despite him being able to dodge the blow, Sam's behavior was utter madness beyond anyones compehensation. Soon sam revealed a wide smile.
'I can't absorb his strike!!!' Sam said inwardly in that instance, bruises appeared on his body, blood trickling
Ed stayed silent. He had already prepared his next attack.
"What are you? Why can't I absorb your Spirit Energy???" Confusion and rage surfaced on Sam's face as he looked at Ed
Metal struck metal. Green Spirit Energy collided with Blue Soul energy.
BOOM!!
Shockwaves were sent throughout the battlefield. The green energy within Sam's draggers intensified.
Clang!Slash!
Ed and Sam exchanged blows. Now they were on equal footing. No one overwhelmed one another.
Silence fell.
Ed burned Azek's soul, drawing more power.
'Save me!'
'Someone…please'
'Die…'
The instant Ed activated his soul-based power, his voices started to murmur inside his head. He felt like someone was hammering his head with something heavy.
Ed gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
Swoooshhh!
The daggers from Sam's hand flew and landed far away, and Ed's blade was on Sam's Neck.
"I concede," Sam forfeited.
Ed unsheathed his sword.
"The winner is Ed Orves," Leonard announced.
The audience were edge of their seat watching the spar. To them, it felt like a battle to the death, not a spar. They were speechless and couldn't speak due to the magnitude of the scale the spar had taken. Until…
"Ed, how the hell did you become so strong!!!" Evans shouted, exhilarated.
"Its not been a while. If I were to say either you're a C rank or C- not a F-rank." Evans spoke.
"Not long ago, you struggled against that brat Azek; now that I think he suddenly disappeared," Evans said as he took a step forward.
"Who knows, maybe it's because of you he ran away? Weren't you the one who frightened him?" Ed lied, trying to avoid suspicion.
"Haha, could be!" Evans laughed.
[Catarosphetic Danger]
-Raelith has been affected by the Demonic energy. You have 30 days. Either save him or devour his soul. Failing to do so will turn him into a nightmare lord, and disaster would follow.
-Reward: Aspect of soul, first stage
-Failure: destruction of the academy and deaths
Ed heard a terrifying sound as Letters in Dark Violet appeared three times before him. The system rarely showed such things, meaning it was the beginning of his suffering. From this moment everything would take a change.