Just like Elijah thought the next days class was only one minute long and the teacher just left them alone again.
He went directly to the Training room.
Elijah thought of a new training method, he ordered the Purple Death Cobra to attack him.
It was very quick and swift making it the perfect training partner to train his Ghost Steps Art.
The cobra attacked him and Elijah used his Ghost Steps to dodge.
He failed every time in the beginning, realizing that he had approached the art the wrong way.
He had assumed that it would be similar to Silver Stream, but Ghost Steps concept was entirely different.
The higher a art was graded the more stages it had.
Common Arts had only the Initial Stage, Uncommon Arts two Stages, Elite Arts had three Stages and Secret Arts had four Stages.
Like Silver Stream it had the Initial Stage, Aura Stage, Force Stage and Intent Stage.
Silver Stream focused on the flow and speed of its attacks while the Ghost Steps Art focused more on irritating quick footwork.
Elijah changed his approach how to master it. He thought about the horror movies he had watched in his past life, how the ghost pulled off jump scares and stuff.
He sensed that he was improving much faster than before. He sometimes managed to dodge the attacks from his cobra.
'This is an Uncommon Grade Art, it isn't that difficult to master it if one realizes how to train it. I didn't thought deeply about it but it is important to understand the roots of the different arts, if not one will be stuck forever at the same Stage...'
Elijah's footwork became more irritating and faster with the time, now he even catched the cobra off guard a couple of times, suddenly appearing behind it like a ghost.
The aura around him started to change slowly, he stood at one spot before appearing out of nowhere at another spot. His movements started to confuse the cobra.
It didn't take long until it Elijah was harassing the poor cobra.
'Yes I got the hang of it rather quickly, well it's only a Uncommon Grade Martial Art after all, now it's time to train the Silent Sword Art.
Elijah took out the katana from his space ring.
'It isn't a real katana, but I will still call it like that.' Thought Elijah amused.
He ordered the cobra to rest.
Standing silently in the middle of the training room, calming down.
'Precise, fast, silent. These are the main focus points of the Silent Sword Art...it's the complete opposite to Silver Stream...'
He unleashed a few strikes, they were fast and precise but not silent. He was too used to Silver Stream, that was the reason it was so difficult to master the Silent Sword Art.
Elijah looked at the clock that was hung on the wall of the training room.
'I still have 12 hours until midnight...Let's do this!'
-----------------------------------
Robinson was sitting together with four of his fellow brothers, drinking beer.
"They found Bald Scar and his two goons from the Eleven Finger Gang dead." Said one of the thugs.
"That is a massive hit to the Eleven Finger Gang, any clues who it was?" Asked another thug while chugging down his beer.
Robinson shook his head, "There are rumours that it was the work from an assassin."
All of them paled, they had the same thoughts.
"Blood Pact League?" Asked a thug scared.
"Very unlikely, they don't care about low lifes like us, beside that they were also robbed. Assassins from the Blood Pact League don't do that." Answered Robinson.
The other four nodded, it was common sense.
"It sounds to me like they offended someone they shouldn't have." Shrugged the thug who was enjoying his beer.
"Whatever, isn't this the perfect opportunity for our Darksoul Gang to go against them?" Asked a thug.
Everyone nodded again.
"This is the reason why the boss told us to gather here."
"Yeah it's just strange that we are the only ones here, everyone else is late." Commented another thug.
Robinson frowned.
"You know how those b*tches are, they come everytime too late." Cursed a thug.
Robinson sighed, he drank his beer slowly.
He looked at the closed door, frowning harder, he could swear he heard something.
Robinson stood up, walking over to the door, opening it slowly.
He checked the dark alley, it was then that he saw 6 people walking towards him.
Robinson tensed and gripped his knife, the other 4 thugs noticed it.
They stood up, brandishing their weapons.
The alley was too dark to identify the 6 people, "Put your goddamn knife away Robinson!" Ordered the foremost man harshly.
Robinson relaxed, he knew now who they were.
He stepped away from the door, letting the 6 people enter the room.
The towering middle aged man at the front looked at the 4 thugs and his eyebrows twitched.
"What is the meaning of this? Why are there only 5 of you here?" Asked the towering man.
The thugs looked at each other.
"I have no idea boss, there others hasn't shown up yet." Answered a thug nervously.
"A bunch of trash! We will attack the Eleven Finger Gang this night and they dare to show up too late? Hmph! See how I will punish them later!" Growled the Boss.
Another thug shivered, "At least you six are here boss."
The boss looked at him like he was retarded, "Six? Did you drink too much beer? Can't you count? We are 14 people." Cursed the boss.
A moment of awkward silence descended upon the group.
The thug gulped down, "But boss I only see you six..."
The boss and the other five thugs turned around. They looked confused.
"Hey where are the others!?" Shouted the boss irritated.
"No idea boss, they were behind me a minute ago." Answered the thug who was the last to enter the room.
Robinson stepped out of the room checking the alley again if the missing thugs were there.
He only saw darkness.
Robinson wanted to say something but...no words came out from his mouth. He felt how a warm liquid flowed down from his throat. Robinson's eyes wandered down, his hand touched his throat.
The warm liquid tainted his hand, Robinson lifted his hand to the light that came out of the room and saw blood.
He was confused, 'Blood? How?' He didn't know why there was blood on his hand, he wasn't hurt, there was no pain.
His realized that something strange was going on here, Robinson wanted to shout but he couldn't speak.
Everyone in the room stared at Robinson's strange behavior, "Hey Robinson, what's wrong?" Asked a thug.
Robinson finally turned around, everyone felt their scalps turn cold.
Robinson's face looked pale, there was a blood flowing down from a wound that spread across his throat.
They stared at Robinson who opened his mouth several times but no sound came out.
*Thud*
He collapsed on the ground, not moving anymore.
The boss was the first to snap out of his daze, he brandished his two axes.
The other thugs reacted too, taking out their weapons.
"What the hell is going on!?" Shouted a thug scared.
They all stared intensely at the opened door.
It was then that they saw it, a dark silhouette.
"A ghost!!!" Shouted a thug, in fear, while pointing at the silhouette.