Chapter 28: Combat Class (II)

  Damon stood in the middle of the training ground, opposite a masculine girl with long, greasy black hair. Her tanned skin and bright, white teeth made her look even more imposing.

  What am I even doing here? I should have just helped Dylan get better and then remained quiet for the rest of the class. I let my anger get the best of me. Now I’m going to have to use my arcane power even though my node is not completely healed. All for a little kid I met a couple of hours ago… Damon was annoyed at himself for acting out without consideration, but he was also gratified that he did so. As he continued to grow and experience more of the cultivation world, he wanted to be like Igor… Or maybe Tidus. Possibly Master Silas. They were all figures he could look up to.

  “What are you doing, zoning out when we’re about to duel? Are you making fun of me now? You think I’m such an easy opponent that you don’t need to focus?” The large girl yelled at Damon, spittle flying out of her mouth.

  Damon snapped out of his reverie with a grimace at the disgusting sight. He decided not to reply, staring at the girl with the same revulsion.

  “You’re ignoring me? Don’t look at me like I’m a bug! I’m getting seriously angry now. I’ll make you regret it!” The girl’s face reddened from the exertion of yelling. However, unlike her arrogant and ignorant exterior, her inward thoughts were completely different. She did not judge Damon highly due to his sitting out of the first combat class, but she would always keep up her guard. The cultivation world was not so peaceful and lenient that an ignorant and overconfident person could survive for long.

  “Forget it and let’s start the battle… Whatever your name is.” Damon replied nonchalantly.

  Veins bulging on her forehead, the girl gritted her teeth in frustration. She was beginning to truly feel anger bubbling up from deep inside her, not just as a show.

  “My name is Samantha Tan. Though I usually go by Sam,” Samantha spat.

  “Sam… Tan… A fitting name…”

  “YOU! Okay, fine. Let’s begin right away! That’s okay, right, Senior Alan?” Samantha’s bulging body was quivering with her pent-up emotions. If she did not teach this guy a lesson, she would die from vexation.

  “Go ahead,” Alan said casually.

  Without another word, Samantha raised both her bulky arms, pointing all 10 of her thick fingers at Damon. Dazzling yellow lights began to glow from each of her fingertips, steadily growing larger.

  Damon narrowed his eyes at the sight. This girl is very arrogant, but she does seem to have some skills. I wanted to put in minimal effort to not strain my Arcane Node, but… I might have to take this seriously.

  Damon raised both his hands and waved them in front of him. He created two thin and unsteady red barriers.

  “Hahahaha! Is that it? I thought you were something when you stood up to me, to think this is all you can do!” Samantha laughed at the sight. A few other students watching from the side also snickered in amusement.

  Damon frowned slightly before waving his hands several times in a row in front of him. Each movement created a barrier, getting thicker and steadier with each new one. The last two he formed glowed a magnificent ruby colour and swirled as though made of fire.

  The 10 balls of light gathering at Samantha’s fingers reached the size of a walnut before being launched as beams of dazzling yellow light, traveling rapidly in a direct path to Damon. Damon glanced at the trajectory of the missiles and channeled his mental power. When he did so, the barriers that had been randomly placed at different angles in front of him moved at once and stacked in line with the incoming projectiles.

  Psst. Psst. Psst. The missiles pushed the barriers back slightly upon impact, as though they had a hefty weight behind them. However, they sizzled from the contact with the fiery barriers and quickly disappeared.

  Everyone in the class looked on with incredulity at the sight. How? How had he done that? He had difficulty forming the barriers at the start, so how did he gain the proficiency required to move the conjured barriers at will, and so swiftly at that? Even Alan had his eyes wide open, which made his beady eyes look a normal size. Nobody had expected this outcome.

  While everyone, including the distant Samantha, was staring in stunned silence, Damon acted. He also raised his arms and pointed all his fingers at his opponent. Bright scarlet light swirled at his fingertips, briskly forming balls a similar size to the earlier attack’s.

  Startled at the sight, Samantha hurriedly began creating small yellow barriers between the two combatants. Before she even managed to form six barriers, Damon’s attack was launched. Ten balls of fiery red light flew forward speedily, looking similar to tiny fireballs trailing flames as they flew through the air. They reached Samantha as she was still struggling to generate her seventh and eighth barriers. She grit her teeth, expecting to see a big impact, along with her barriers breaking, but an even more incredulous sight bloomed before her eyes.

  The fiery missiles all changed trajectory at the last second, evading the barriers as they flew perpendicular to them. As they passed the barriers’ edges, they changed directions yet again, heading straight for Samantha.

  At this moment, 10 more missiles flew in from the side, these with a shimmering azure colour. They arrived just in time to save Samantha, and homed in on Damon’s missiles, creating a burst of steam upon impact. Unfortunately for Samantha, one of Damon’s missiles evaded the incoming blue projectile by a hair’s breadth and landed directly in the middle of her toned stomach. This immediately winded her and caused her to vomit up everything she had eaten for breakfast.

  As the girl was spewing up the contents of her stomach in between hacking coughs and gasps for breath, Damon lowered his hands and glanced over at Alan. Alan was also looking at Damon with a hint of intrigue.

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  Damon slowly wiped the sweat dripping from his forehead with a cloth. He had overexerted his arcane power, which had caused his condition to worsen once again. Swallowing back the metallic taste of blood climbing his throat, he said, “Senior Apprentice Alan, what is the meaning of this? You didn’t stop her attack from hitting Dylan, yet you intervened in our battle. Would you care to explain?”

  Damon had no reason to fear Alan. He was standing in the safety of the Academy, and he had even personally slain a Disciple previously, albeit with immense difficulty and luck. However, the other students’ jaws dropped upon hearing his accusatory words. This Initiate… Spoke up against a Disciple? How did he develop such courage?

  Alan continued to gaze at Damon, his jet black pupils the only thing visible through the lips of his eyelids. Finally, after a minute, he replied in a dry tone.

  “I allowed Samantha to hit Dylan as it was going to cause minimal damage. Sometimes, cultivators need to experience harshness to grow stronger. However, I deemed your attack to be excessive. If they all landed on Samantha, she would have had fractured bones or internal organ damage, depending on the locations they hit. Do you still believe I was causing trouble?”

  Damon’s breath hitched in his chest for a few seconds upon hearing this statement. Thinking back, it really did appear to be as Alan had just said. He had most definitely misjudged the man. When he met eyes with Alan, he saw honesty within them, even though they also twinkled with a crafty and amused light. His eyes dropped down slightly, landing on the same negligible smile he had seen earlier. This caused Damon’s pupils to shake. He realized that the slight smirk he had seen appear on Alan’s face was just a habit. Perhaps his way of showing interest or amusement.

  Lowering his gaze to the floor, Damon said with a self-deprecatory tone, “I apologize, Senior Apprentice Alan. I misjudged you and brought embarrassment onto myself. Please give me a punishment.”

  Alan stared at Damon for a while longer before waving his hand. “Your disrespect is forgiven. There is no point in punishing the ignorant.” After saying this to Damon, he turned around and faced the rest of the class.

  “With this, I deem the class to be concluded. Meet here in this training ground in exactly 14 days. One of you… No. Some of you, help this girl get to an infirmary. The missile that slipped through may have caused some internal damage that might require an elixir or healing spell to heal quickly. Or if she can’t afford it, tell her to get it checked and report to me whether she will be missing any future classes. That is all.”

  After dismissing the class, Alan immediately cast a flight spell and flew off into the distance. When he was no longer visible, the class suddenly erupted into muted cheers. They were being somewhat subdued because of the girl remaining keeled over in the dirt. The other girls went over to Samantha and struggled to help her stand before dragging her towards the infirmary with tremendous difficulty.

  Several of the boys crowded around Damon, each one excitedly trying to make conversation with him in an attempt to befriend him.

  Damon gave a light smile in response to everyone’s energy, before looking at Dylan standing outside the circle of older boys, unable to push his small body through.

  Ahem. Ahem. Damon cleared his throat twice to gather everyone’s attention.

  “Look, everyone, I appreciate all the compliments you have given me. However, I am feeling quite drained after excessive use of my arcane power and would like to rest. How about we organize a gathering some other time in the future? Just let me know, and I will be there.”

  The boys all happily agreed and gradually dispersed, leaving only Damon and Dylan.

  Dylan approached Damon and gave him a 90-degree bow.

  “Thank you, Older Brother Damon, for protecting me and getting justice for me! I promise not to forget this debt!” Dylan shouted in a youthful voice, trembling with powerful emotions.

  “Dylan, there’s no need to be so formal. Let’s stick together from now on, you and I. If anyone else tries to bully you, let this older brother know, and I will punish them for you! Though if you anger an Adept, I will pretend I have never seen you before. You got it?” Damon gave an amused chuckle and joked as he tousled Dylan’s hair once more.

  However, Damon’s expression became dark yet again. His Arcane Node’s condition has worsened, diminishing the effects of the medicine by more than half. Will I still be able to completely heal my Arcane Node with the remaining vials? If not… I’ll need to either buy my own from the Trade Hall, or scam that elder once more… Let’s figure out if there’s a way to scam him first…

  Damon contemplated as he walked back toward his dorm, not noticing he now had a tail in the form of Dylan following close behind him.

  In a small room filled with endless stacks of scrolls and sheets of parchment, two figures were conversing. Their conversation was slowly turning into an argument.

  “That Runeology prodigy you asked me to test is quite the talent in combat as well. I wonder from which rathole someone like him emerged from.”

  A deep voice spoke out. It was Alan. He had immediately sought someone out after his combat class had ended. The man he came to was none other than James.

  “What? A talent in combat as well? Bullshit. I refuse to believe a mere peasant like him is so multi-talented. I’ve already checked his entry records, and he just came from some backwater called Pinefist Village or something. Are you sure you tested the right boy?” James glanced at Alan with a skeptical look in his eyes.

  “Enough nonsense, James. Why are you so obsessed with the boy that you even broke the rules by checking his records? Who did you even pay to be able to do so? You know what? Nevermind. It’s none of my business. I did you a favour in return for the enchantment you placed on my inner armor a few years ago. Now my debt has been cleared, and I no longer owe you anything,” said Alan coldly before standing up from his chair. He began walking towards the exit.

  “What? You no longer owe me? You haven’t done anything! All you did was have the boy face a mere late stage Initiate in a mock duel. Our initial agreement was for you to keep watch on the boy and continue feeding me his details!” James furiously yelled out while grabbing Alan’s shoulder.

  At this moment, the atmosphere in the room changed. A thick and heavy pressure forced James to stumble back a few steps, causing him to let go of Alan.

  Alan didn’t turn around to look at James, but the frostiness in his voice made it obvious that he was at the limit of his patience.

  “James. I’ll say this just once. Don’t you ever touch me again. An amateur Runemaster like you thinks you can take ME on? The top Disciple of the Combat Department? Don’t even try to joke about that. Like I said earlier, my debt to you is paid from today. I no longer owe you anything, and I will not be involved between you and the boy. But heed my final advice. That boy has something special. He questioned my decisions today without a single hint of trepidation in his eyes. He is either so conceited and foolish that he does not know the differences between an early stage Initiate and a Disciple, or he has that much confidence in his abilities that he isn’t afraid, regardless of whether I am a Disciple or not. I personally believe it is the latter. For your own good, you should forget about your petty jealousy and leave that boy alone.”

  After saying what he wanted to say, Alan walked out of the room, closing the door behind him with a loud thud.

  James stood there, still glowering at the door Alan had just exited through. He ground his teeth due to the anger welling up inside him. What had started as jealousy and suspicion of Damon had now grown into full-blown hatred. He couldn’t aim his animosity towards Alan, as he was no match for him, so all the hostility he was currently feeling funneled into one thought.

  Damon must be dealt with, before he becomes too powerful or overtakes me in the art of Runeology. Once I manage to seize all his secrets, Damon must die.

  Boxing Day to the Australians.

  Happy Birthday to my lovely wife!