My first opponent steps forward, she gives me dirty looks, analyzing my whole body from head to toe. She eventually spits on the floor, as a way to insult me, but of course I don't take it to heart, I can already tell her level. Her prowess isn't high enough to defeat me. She doesn't even have a proper mind yet.
Since I awakened my mind, I've been able to sense the trails of Qi. It's cool, calm and light but can cause devastating outcomes when manipulated.
The girl continues glaring at me, she doesn't seem to like the idea of fighting the son of a poor guard who barely has clean clothes on his back. The thought has been bugging me for quite sometime now. From my very first fight with a guard, to my sparring and lessons with Alexander, and now fighting royals that I'm sure have never even experienced pain before. It all seemed to surreal. For a guards son to constantly be in the midst of royals and captains, the thought never stopped crossing my mind. I'll question Alise and Alexander about it later, but for now, I'll take care of these idiots first. The girl then sighs while placing her palm on her forehead. "You're supposed to bow Infront of royalty you peasant ". She says holding her head up high like a well taught princess. They've started receiving courtesy lessons already, I received mine around their age too. But it was never really any fun anyway. I only enjoyed the times we had tea times were I was taught how to eat like royalty. The cakes and rows of different spreads of desert was really appealing. The good perks of royalty, but now it's all gone and I'm staring infront of a girl who is still expecting me to bow Infront of her like I'm her servant. " No thank you, I'd prefer if this fight went a bit faster, you see, I have more important things to do". The girl flinches from her stance, her eyes widen in shock as she sees her companions throwing whispers and gasps at each other, some even giggle and try so hard to not laugh. " I don't think you understand". The girl desperately continues to try to get her pride back. Her voice even stutters in some lines. " Perhaps a wretched fool like you won't know anything about manners", she continues. "When in the presence of royalty, you are supposed to accord respect to them and bow, now do as you're told, I won't be this lenient next time".
She says looking at me, her companions join in her stare and even Alise looks at me deeply, as if begging to me bow. Yet, she already knows my attitude and gives up on trying. A short giggle escapes my mouth. " You're even dumber than I think you are. What don't you understand by word no, don't worry, I'll have you bowing Infront of me when I'm done wrecking you". I say while laughing , the girl is completely disgrace and for the fist time, her head is dropped from it's high position. Her friends dont even mock her, they're all stunned and suprised how a wasted peasant would talk so highly in the presence of royalty. Even Alise is shocked. She didn't expect me to take it this far, but something has been off. I'll found out the reason why someone like me is training with royals or even be allowed to cultivate freely. I expected to steal a bunch of scrolls and techniques, not being handed them freely. Something has been terribly wrong.
" Fine, have it your way. I see words won't get through that rotten head of yours . The girl says as her eyes glow with a dark orange light. Finally, a time to test the limits of my new mental sphere. The ground beneath us cracks, and Pebbles and stones start circling her as she moves her hands in specific patterns. We're in the far end of the courtyard, where there are left over stones and bricks from constructions and other built equipment. This is her turf, and she doesn't hesitate to show me that. The remaining stones start sticking together as they form an armour around the girl. As always, the basic spell for every earth user. She hasn't fully mastered the spell yet, leaving many holes and openings in her armor, but the circling rocks make up for that aspect. She lunges forward, leaping directly towards my position. I close my eyes, activating the power of my mental sphere. The short crystalline pool in my mental world start splashing on the edges, which gives me a slight headache in the process but is totally worth it. I bathe in the feeling of energy flying hazardly all around me. With no direction and nor any similar target. The cool but vigourous feeling of Qi around me, the Qi I can't absorb, not yet at least. I almost forget that there's a huge figure of cement heading my way and I don't even know when I dodge. Her eyes seem to widen at my flexibility and movement. She's stunned I was able to dodge her attack but I don't let that shock last to long. With heavy force, I crash my blades on her stone armour making a large part of it crumble. Blood drips from her lips as I continue to shatter armour moving with spped she can't follow. Eventually, she jumps back and let's her spell crumble to nothing but dust.
She sweats profusely, even that simple spell was enough to drain her of her energy. " Well, I guess I underestimated you.At least the guards would need someone of your capabilities ". She says still not willing to accept the fact that I'm stronger than her. The rocks around her rise again, this time they converge and form sharp needles that rotate around my figure, they look fragile but are extremely sharp. "I'll be ending this now", the girl says with a wide grin on her face.
I close my eyes and in less than a second the attack comes crashing down. The girl seems satisfied but freezes when she realizes there's a shadow above her. " You could really use more training", I say with my foot on her head. I smash her head into the ground, right directly where she spat at the beginning of our training.
She twitches but eventually gives in to defeat and loses consciousness. Her companions are shocked that this peasant single handedly defeated a royal, it hurts their pride and only enrages them the more. Word like that would make the entire sect shake. The other royals seem insulted and another steps forward to try and back up their companion. They won't lose to a mere peasants who have been put through hellish training, but they're ok with the easy life and remaining weak.
The next opponent is a boy. They call him Marcus, he has a water aptitude judging from the crackling water whips dancing around him. He doesn't have full control over the spell, I'm guessing none of them do. He points the spell towards my direction and the whips hazily follows. I've already gotten used to the pressure of the mental sphere, so dodging the whips aren't a problem. It's as if I'm one second ahead, dodging every spell that comes my way.
The whips increase in number, growing from two to ten but it drains Marcus of his Qi. He seems exhausted, they don't even have enough stamina to fight. Such weak techniques are already draining them. It's a pitiful site and it only makes the fights less interesting. The boy having one last attempt to attack me points all the whips toward my direction. They seem to pass through nothing as they slam on the ground and scatter into water drops before reforming the whips again. Like the girl, the boy is shocked to see me directly in front of him but my palm is already on his face, slamming it into the ground as he collapses. The whips scatter across the ground making the hard sand and soil muddy.
The other fights aren't any more surprising. From weak techniques being controlled by lazy slugs to me rubbing their face in the dirt. Alise should already understand my gestures by now but she continues to put on her smiling face as the rest of the battles go on.
The floor is already filled with six unconscious royals but she continues to smile even as the healers rush to her side. The fight is tiring and this weak body doesn't make up for it. I've already drained more than half of my mental energy and my body should be about it's limit since I don't have a dantian to fill it with energy. Atleast it's remaining one final opponent before I end this boring show.
He goes by the name Sebastian Rodolf, he was the annoying brat who had snitched me to his parents because I thwacked him the last time we met. He smiles confidently after analyzing my battle with the other royals. He doesn't even show the slightest tinge of fear as of the last time we met, I just hope our fight will be interesting.
"You seem pretty confident, are you sure you want to fight me after seeing your companions in this state". I respond trying to wipe of that proud smirk of his face. " Nah, I've seen you're fighting style, your pretty good, but relying on your mental sphere alone won't be enough to match my element. Besides, fighting those weaklings doesn't prove anything, they don't even have much techniques or even a fully developed dantian. Don't compare me to them. You're about to face someone from the main family". He says as he body begins to glow. Sparks emanate from his figure as they dance hazardly around it. It doesn't have any pattern just like other techniques, but it seems well manipulated. "You're little lights are pretty, reminds me of someone I once fought". I respond with a cold stare. "I wonder who that would be, but I don't care this is our fight". He snaps while preparing his stance for our battle. He grips his spear, pointing it towards my direction as he concentrates the flow of the Sparks at the tip of the spear.
The last time I fought a lightning user I had died, so facing someone with that altitude again enraged me to the core. I put on an evil smirk as I stare Sebastian in the eye. He flinches a bit but focuses on repeating his stance. " This fight will be a waste of time". I respond. "No matter the technique or aptitude, you're all just a bunch of royal weaklings".