"So whose going to go first?" Lander asked as he stood up at the center of the Swords practice ground.
"Me!"
"No, I'll go first!"
"How about we go by height? The smallest comes first," Lander suggested while swinging his wooden sword around.
When he suggested that, the taller people wailed while the smaller ones were getting pumped.
When the smallest one faced Lander, "Today, you'll know the difference between an outcast and a commoner!"
"Stop blabbering and just come," Lander said as he bowed then positioned himself.
The smallest one dashed forward and made a strike. Lander just evaded then used his side palm to strike the back of his opponent's neck. Without much thrill, his opponent was now lying on the ground, unconscious.
Everyone was astonished, they never expected it to finish so fast. But the most exaggerating thing for them was, an outcast was able to beat a commoner.
"That was no fun! Was that all of you got?" Lander was pissing them off while smirking.
"I'm next, I won't be lenient," His next opponent dashed instantly trying to caught Lander off guard. But he was stupid with that kind of thinking as Lander was not someone who let his guard down. Just like the first battle, the second ended with the same result.
"You guys are boring!" Lander was quite dissatisfied as he shouted, "Next!"
One by one, all the students became Lander's practice dummies. They were defeated with the same move, there were some who lasted eight moves but higher than that, there was no one.
Smirking, spitting, boasting, Lander used any ways to provoke them but no one showed the might of being angered as some of the students lost their hope when they saw how fast each battle ended.
Even when the last battle was finished, Lander wasn't satisfied. He wasn't even exhausted after 200 battles, "Why didn't any of you used magic? Are you guys just talk and no mind?"
Hearing that, everyone of them was embarrassed, "Yeah, why did we forgot about it?"
"That's because he was playing you. He was saying rude stuffs to agitate you and knowing that he was just an outcast with no capability, you guys let your guard down," Professor Dimitri explained clearly disappointed with the outcome. Although, his grandson's life was on the line, he was still a teacher. He still cared for his students and wanted to see their skills and talent.
Crude's lackey was watching and was so pissed at the first years, clearly they have no future. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, "How about you show me your real skill? As we haven't seen it clearly!"
Lander looked up at the sky, "It's gonna rain soon."
"Making excuses! If you're afraid, just tell me so and don't make excuses!" Crude's lackey arrogantly shouted.
Throwing his sword away, Lander prepared himself as he followed the basic stance of one of the martial arts he knew, "Come!"
The thunder roared and beads of rain started to pour down while Crude's lackey shouted, "Let's see how you'll win without your sword!"
Crude's Lackey rushed forward and made a simple stab, retreat, swing, retreat then slash. This exchange lasted for 5 minutes when Crude's Lackey was getting annoyed as he can't think why he can't defeat this outcast. Lander on the other hand was calm as he evaded and strike back with punches, kicks and knee attack.
Realizing it was foolish to defeat Lander by using the sword, he now incorporated his magic on his attack, air magic. It was then that Lander was getting injuries after injuries because he can't clearly see the trajectory of the wind magic because of the rain. Still, Lander was calm as he only needed one chance to defeat his opponent.
Letting himself be hit by the wooden sword, Lander growled in pain as the wind magic made a deep cut on his shoulder but he endured as this was the chance he was waiting for. He grabbed his opponent's arm, kicked him on his knee and with a simple maneuver, they were now both on the ground. Lander used the arm bar to subdue his opponent, he knew that this student came here to cause trouble and he would never pity those who wanted to provoke him.
Despite the heavy rain, a loud scream was heard as Lander dislocated his opponent's arm.
Lander, walked out of the swords ground area and walked silently while his blood was being washed by the heavy rain. Many students saw him, there were even some who just witnessed his last battle. Even the professors were awed by his skills except one - Professor Vlad.
Going towards his hut, Lander saw that his hut was already burnt to ashes. He clenched his teeth and 'They're making it difficult for me!'
"Lander, stop! It's too dangerous to go there," Professor Willow shouted from her hut.
As if he didn't hear anything, he continued walking towards the mountains and his track was getting slower and slower because lots of blood was still losing despite him bandaging it using his clothes.
He has already travelled 3 kilometers when it was already very dark yet Lander was still meandering aimlessly while wiggling as he already lost too much blood.
Stumbling down, Lander was suddenly bitten by a poisonous snake, "So troublesome!"
He was struggling to stand up but unfortunately, he can't. It was this time that he crawled. He was crawling when tiredness, lost blood and the poison from the snake was slowly affecting him until he passed out.
Regaining his consciousness, he felt his wounds being licked by something. He opened his eyes when he saw Grey's back under the moonlight and he could hear his buddy growling like he was preventing something. Then he noticed a small cub on his side licking his wounds happily - a panda and it was a Rank A beast that made Lander asked himself, 'Why is a Rank A beast here?"
Standing up, Lander could feel that his wounds have slowly closed while the poison wasn't affecting him anymore, "Grey, what's wrong?"
"Some people blocked my path when I was going back to the Academy. It was raining so hard so I didn't bother about them but they tried killing me. I escaped when I saw your hut burnt to ashes. Then I followed your scent until I saw you with that cub licking your wounds. And there were beasts around us wanting to devour you but because of that cub's rank, they were afraid to come as they knew that it's parents were just somewhere out here. Furthermore, a lot of people were looking for you!" Grey explained.
Lander nodded his head as he patted the panda cub, "Thank you so much my saviour!"
"It was my delight to help you Master!" The cub replied that astonished Lander as he quickly jumped to the side.
"You..." Lander was pointing at the cub and then he turned his gaze at Grey, "Buddy, this..."
"I was also shocked at first Master but I guess, I have to congratulate you for acquiring a panda pet! Congratulations Master!" Grey communicated.
"Sigh! But you're still a cub. Where's your parents?" Lander asked.
"Parents? They're gone!" The panda cub showed a saddened expression while sitting on the ground like a baby.
"Fine! What shall I name you then?" Lander asked the panda cub. "I'll name you Spot then."
"Thank you Master for giving me a name," Spot answered as he bowed down to Lander.
"Now, let's find a place to settle." Lander said as they meandered for a while arriving at a hill with a small spring beside it, "This place will do. Let's dig this up and make it a cave."