"Evil Arts - Lich Series - Life Drainer!" Faus uttered as he circulated his Qi and put his right arm up along with his palm facing toward the attack. Four small green snakes shot out from his palm as they got further out they began to enlarge until they were ten meters long and five meters wide each. Their tails were still attached to Faus's palm so that he could absorb the Qi from the attack and each snake's head bit down on each side of the giant X to suck up the Qi. Christopher noticed that his attack was being absorbed so he dashed to the backside of Faus and sheathed his sword,
"Sword Arts - Elemental Series - Frost Avalanche!" Christopher uttered as he circulated more Qi into the sword and drew it to an upward slash. Giant snowflakes were created from the intense cold emitted from the Sword Qi that was created from Christopher's Sword Art. Faus realized that he was in a pincer attack but he didn't panic at all and just smiled at his old friend's decisive moves.
"Evil Arts - Demon Series - Hobgoblin's brigade!" Faus uttered and a portal with complex circuits appeared releasing multiple Hobgoblins. The Hobgoblins rushed toward the Frost Sword Qi but once they got close all of them began to freeze up on the spot and each ice sculpture began to shatter from the aftershock. Although most of the Hobgoblins were wiped out from the attack the rest of them began to merge because they could sense that the attack was not losing any momentum. Soon only two Hobgoblins were remaining but they were twice the size of a normal Hobgoblin. The two Hobgoblins wielded a giant shield and a mace, soon the Frost Sword Qi made its way toward the two Hobgoblins. They rushed forwards to meet the attack head-on and once they collided it sent shockwaves that made ripples in the air. After a couple of seconds, the attack was completely nullified by the two Hobgoblins, but they didn't come out unscathed either. The two Hobgoblins let out another roar and charged toward Christopher who let out a deep breath before charging forward himself. The trio soon clashed and began fighting in close combat. Christopher was trying his best to not get caught in the middle of the two Hobgoblins but their teamwork was top notch and soon He found himself between the two. For every attack, the Hobgoblins initiated, Christopher returned with two to three sword strikes. Faus was on the outside controlling the two Hobgoblins so he had a clear view of the battle making it easy to counter Christopher. As the battle continued, all of them could sense a powerful being quickly making its way to the battle. Faus turned toward the duo who was still recovering from their battle with Christopher.
"If you guys want to live another day, then I suggest you run," Faus said before smiling toward the incoming figure. Lena and Gerald could feel the immense pressure leaking from the figure that was still meters away from them. Lena quickly merged into the shadows and left hastily leaving Gerald stranded but he didn't take it to heart due to their long history. Gerald quickly performed hand seals,
"Seal arts - Undead Series - Headless horseman's Steed," Gerald uttered after finishing his seal, and a horse made of skeletons with green flames around its hooves, along with its mane, and eyes appeared. Gerald quickly mounted it and took off at fast speeds. Once the duo left the figure finally made landfall and created a tremendous crater that distracted the two Hobgoblins. That small second gave Christopher the chance to counter,
"Sword Arts - Elemental Series - Dragon's Breath!" Christopher uttered as he circulated Ki into his sword. Another giant flame dragon appeared from Christopher's sword and it soon quickly devoured the two Hobgoblins. He then dashed toward the figure that arrived and took a knee with his head down.
"I, Christopher Viscon, greet my queen," Christopher stated, and a slender figure with long black hair tied up in a ponytail and dressed in silver armor walked out of the crater. Her armor was similar to Christopher's minus the helmet and the aura she was leaking was suffocating. Soon two more knights in the same armor with plain silver helmets appeared next to her.
"How wonderful it is to see you again, Laura," Faus said with a bright smile and he quickly circulated his Qi,
"Devil Arts - Undead Series - Skeleton Legion!" Faus uttered and numerous skeleton hands appeared from the ground and then came up the bodies. They formed a wall with Faus in the back,
"Don't let those two escape," Laura ordered the two knights. They gave her a bow before taking off after Lena and Gerald. Laura turned to face the Skeleton army and pulled out her Scimitar blade.
"Sword Arts - Elemental Series - Thunder Blast!" She uttered before raising the sword with both hands on the handle. Then circulating her Qi from her body into the sword it shot a Qi strand into the sky that created storms. Soon a huge cloud hovered above Laura and she swung the sword down toward the skeleton army. There was a quick flash followed by a giant boom just seconds after and there was dust spread everywhere. Once the dust settled down, the skeleton army was nowhere to be found and the only thing left was a pile of bones a few meters away from Laura.
"Kekeke, my lady is still as powerful as she was back then. It's a good thing I didn't underestimate you due to childbirth and royalty life." Faus said while pushing the bones away as he climbed out.
"Who hired you?" Laura asked while slowly walking toward Faus, but he just let out another laugh.
"Now why would I give out my client's name? That would make me a terrible person to hire," Faus replied.
"Lady Laura, please let me take on this scoundrel and you return with the Fourth Prince," Christopher suggested but then a purple Qi wave was sent flying toward him so he quickly dodged it just in the nick of time.
"Christopher! How dare you try and take my precious time with my lady away from me!" Faus shouted before running both hands through his hair to sleek it back.
"It is fine, Christopher. Take my son to another inn and send me your location afterward. I will take care of this quickly and be on my way." Laura ordered and Faus began to laugh hysterically due to having his way. Christopher gritted his teeth in anger but quickly bowed to Laura before walking toward the unconscious Alex and lifting him so they could leave the area. Once Laura sensed that Christopher and Alex were far enough away she turned her attention to her former party member.
"I always knew that one day you would become like this. Even though it was small I had hoped that you wouldn't go down this road, but it seems that it had fallen into the abyss just as you have," Laura said to Faus and he just began walking side to side while tossing his dagger in the air while catching it when it fell back down.
"Well, I didn't have a purpose anymore after the King took you away. Having your most precious thing taken away from you and not having the power to stop it makes people go insane sometimes." Faus replied as he stopped walking and pointed his dagger at Laura.
"I'm glad that you thought of me like that. It did take a bit for you to open up to us, but we were quite happy that you finally came around. I miss those moments that we had on our adventures, but I had to put that all behind me due to my status and duties." Laura said before circulating her Qi to which Faus circulated his Qi as a response.
"I could have stolen you but I was naïve and assumed that you would have come back. Our group could've run away together and lived in peace. We had the power and status of being S-class adventures, even if they took that away from us nobody was going to be stupid enough to chase us knowing that. Despite all of that, it seems that I have another chance to correct my decision from back then." Faus said and Laura just shook her head.
"I would have let you go if this was any other circumstance, but you have done the one thing I cannot forgive anyone even if it was the King. You have harmed my child indirectly or directly and I won't let that go unpunished." Laura stated and rushed toward Faus. Christopher could hear the battle ensuing and just shook his head. He could recall their group finding Faus in an abandoned village when he was just fourteen years old. That village was later found to have been doing illegal human experiments. They were taking inner Qi from people and manually injecting it into people without it to see if they could create artificial Qi users. Their experiments had some success but not without multiple casualties and Faus was one of the survivors. After completing the quest, their group took young Faus in and began to train him while teaching him about the outside world. Even though he was quite close to the group, he began to open up more thanks to their leader Laura and soon he opened up to everyone else. That all changed when Laura was married off to the King and no one could stop it. Christopher knew that Faus took it quite hard and soon disappeared with no trace. But there have been rumors in the past about a long green-haired individual who was making quite the name for himself known as the mad reaper. Anyone unlucky enough to be on his hit list disappeared or worse put into one of his experiments. There have been multiple sightings of deformed monsters lurking around forests and every time one was killed it thanked its killer for releasing it from more agony. Even though the Royal Brigade tried its best to investigate the creatures and their origins not much info has come back. Soon Christopher arrived at another inn and rented a nice room for the fourth prince. He set the fourth prince down on the bed in one of the two rooms and walked out. He then grabbed one of the chairs from the dining room and placed it next to the fourth prince's door so he could sit down to guard.
"I pray that nothing bad comes from this," Christopher said while letting out a deep sigh. After battling for more than forty-five minutes, Faus could feel his Qi reserves depleted and could sense that Laura still had a third of hers.
"I'm sorry that I have to leave our reunion so quickly, but it seems that I have important things I have to attend to," Faus said while taking a bow to Laura, and a portal opened up behind him. Laura hastily circulated her Qi at max capacity,
"Sword Arts - Elemental Series - Gaia's Wrath," Laura uttered and slashed downwards with her sword. The earth within the giant Sword Qi's path shattered and all of the debris merged with it creating a giant earth crest shape.
"I hope this won't be our last meeting, my dear leader," Faus said before dissipating along with the portal. The attack missed its target and continued onwards until it collided with the forest behind the inn. The attack took out about twenty meters of the forest until it dissipated into sand particles. Laura clicked her teeth at Faus's escape but didn't worry about it too much because she was more worried about her son. So she quickly left the area and went to where Christopher had taken Alex. The next soon arrived and Alex woke up but felt extremely sore due to depleting both Chakra and Ki reserves. As he got himself out of the bed he could feel how stiff his body was and every time he moved there was a low cracking sound. Alex wasn't concerned that he was in a new room because before fully passing out he saw that Christopher had arrived. Alex opened the door and was greeted by two armored guards wearing his mother's signature Silver color armor.
"We greet the Fourth Prince!" the two guards said while saluting with their right arm across their chest. Alex saluted them back and they went back to their position.
"Where did Christopher head off to?" Alex asked one of the guards.
"Sir Christopher went back with the madam to report the recent incident to the King and the council." the guard replied. Alex thanked him before leaving the inn to find a local market so he could get something to eat. As he walked around the market, there were many people talking about what happened at the inn, and many people were worried that the same might happen in their area. Alex paid no mind to most of them except for one where his mother showed up and chased away the intruders. Alex was quite surprised that his mother made an appearance, but what was more surprising was that people were after his life. Alex knew that his life before was quite pitiful but he could see why he was targeted due to being incompetent. Alex knew that to become dependent he needed to become stronger and hopefully show the world that he was not an easy target. Alex stopped by a food cart and bought some meat skewers.
"Greetings to the Fourth Prince, I have come to inform you that your weapons have been completed." a carrier said to Alex.
"All of them?" Alex asked,
"The six daggers, the katana, and the heavy spear," the carrier replied. Alex nodded while thanking the carrier and began to walk toward the weapon shop. Once Alex entered the shop the main blacksmith noticed him and quickly made his way to Alex.
"Welcome, dear Fourth Prince, your weapons are right over here." the blacksmith said while leading Alex over to the weapon storage. Once the blacksmith opened the door the weapons were hanging on the back wall. The heavy spear had a crescent blade with a long red cloth that was made from a fire lion's mane. The daggers were exact replicas of Minato's kunai but just a tad bit bigger. The katana's sheath color was dark blue with the royal family's insignia and a golden strap. Alex walked over and grabbed the katana off the wall to examine it. He pulled the blade out of the sheath and a dark blue color was reflected off of the blade.
"Wicked!" Alex said unconsciously and the blacksmith let out a sigh of relief along with a giant smile.
"I'm glad that you appreciate your weapons. If you have anything else you would like created, please don't be afraid to ask us," the blacksmith said before returning to the forge. Alex put the daggers into a pouch, tied the spear onto his back, and attached the katana to his waist. Alex left the weapon shop with a big smile and he quickly made his way to the inn so he could carve the Flying Raijin symbol onto them. Alex walked into the room and noticed that the guards were away so he assumed that they were on their break which was ideal for Alex. He walked into his room and set his weapons on the floor. Alex put the big weapons on the side and focused on the ten daggers,
"I hope it doesn't take too much chakra to engrave these daggers," Alex thought to himself while grabbing the first dagger. Alex generated chakra to the tip of his finger and began engraving the first symbol onto the handle. The speed of the engraving was quite slow but the amount of Chakra that was being expended was quite fast. Alex was using one hundred points of Chakra per five seconds, so the rest time between was a lot more because Alex needed to meditate for recovery. Nearly six hours later, Alex was able to make one dagger but not without being extremely exhausted due to the mental strain and body fatigue. Laying on the ground sprawled out, Alex was breathing heavily but was quite happy due to making his first dagger.
"Holy crap! I can't believe that it took six hours but I have finally made one dagger. I'm sure that this will be one of my trump cards. Hopefully, I can make two or three more before the next test," Alex said to himself as he raised his hand into the air and then grasped his hand. Three days later, after a couple more matches for the remaining seats, the winners were standing in front of the instructors.
"Once again I congratulate everyone that has passed but now this will be a single elimination round to decide your ranking. The losers of each round will fight each other to determine their place and such. I will now announce the matches, first round will be Tyler Smith vs Lily Valentine, the second round - Elaine Goldsmith vs Layla Frost, the third round - Krista Frost vs Leon Firemane, the fourth round Alexander Ruin vs Greyson Hillsman, and the fifth round will be Titus Warmonger vs Yuji Hatake," Instructor Drake announced and made his way back to his seat with a movement art that left an after image of him standing at the same spot. Instructor Drake's movement amazed the crowd and got most of them hyped up for the battles.