Arlon was taking short breaths while staring fixedly at his opponent, he was against someone with similar build and age they both were tall for a 12 year old and had a skinny build, their only difference was Arlon had taller hair while mika was bald shaved.
The two starred at each other for a while waiting for the signal.
"Get ready. Go!" Said Loyd in the corner while eating a stone.
As soon as Arlon heard he dashed straight to mika, but mika jumped backwards while pointing his palm forward, a green web made of vine shot toward Arlong but Arlong dodged to the left and tried to dash forward again. Seeing this Mika stood with his legs apart and made a chopping motion with his hands as a green vine came from them. Arlong didn't flench at the sudden attack, his body started glowing with a red hue then he dashed in a greater speed then before only stopping a feet away from mika and punched at his face with great force.
Seeing this Loyd stopped the match. "Arlon wins" he said while grabbing another stone to eat.
Mika slumped on the ground exhausted while Arlon walked to his bag in the corner to reach for a potion.
"You've gotten better at controlling primordial energy." Said Mika in a shakey voice. Arlon gulped a potion and threw another at Mika who caught it with slight trouble, then he layed on the ground and said "it's nothing compared to your control of your beast ability" his tone had a hint of envy and bitterness.
Loyd said plainly "take a shower and go to sleep Mika. There is training for beast warriors in the early morning tomorrow. As for you Arlon you should get going the chief hates waiting"
Seeing that the time was later than usual Arlon said his goodbyes and left hurriedly but not before taking 20 credits from mika as he won.
-
"Sorry for coming late the spar with Mika took longer than I thought." Arlon said nervously. He lived with Jim for six months and hadn't felt this nervous at all. the reasons for today's heavy atmosphere was non other then the man sitting to the center of the dinner table. He was introduced by Jim as the elder of this district will. Despite his short stature and smiling face Arlon could tell that this man is the strongest in this district. He could feel himself under immense pressure just from his gaze. Trying to ignore the pressure he grabbed the drink brought by will and took a sip. "Good good." Will stopped smiling and stared right at Arlon's eyes giving him shivers.
Will stood up and left saying "I've seen enough. See you tomorrow Arlon" in a cheerful tone.
Arlon wanted to speak but his vision turned hazy and a burning sensation creeped from an unknown place in his body, before he passed out.
When he woke up he was in a bed in his room and Jim was standing next to him with a serious expression. "There is something I need to tell you" said Jim solemnly. "All living beings absorb primordial essence and process it in their bodies, then they use this energy in different ways making diffrent outcomes, vine webs, metal shards, healing leaves... These are different ways to use energy In diffrent attributes." He stopped briefly before saying "One of these attributes is demonic it's an attribute developed solely for benefiting oneself by others pain." He took a deep breath before saying "your dad was a user of this attribute and he wanted to use you as an ingredient."
Arlong made pained expression and started tearing up but deep down he was relieved. "Val had already told me about this before he disappeared. He even taught me some demonic arts"
Looking at this sight Jim felt his heart ache but he resolved himself and said "you can feel your core but not use it because it's polluted with demonic energy. But you don't have to fear anything Elder will said he will help you. Tomorrow he will take you somewhere helpful to you".
Jim left the room after hugging Arlon. Arlon felt warmth for this man that treated him as his son despite having contact with demonic energy, in some places he would've been killed immediately. But one thing bugged him "what did he mean by can't use my core, Val said that this body was been treated as a powerbank. His dad was used demonic arts but he wasn't a bad guy the only reason why he used his son as a battery was because he ate a special fruit that caused his primordial essence to reach a sky high amount. In the end it was his son's great energy that caused that monster to attack them, the dad died protecting his son and his son tried to heal the dad but died from using too much energy. Even now I can easry use my core. I'm sure they only mean good. Even earlier that will guy gave me an elixer that condenses mana I only passed out as a side effect. Anyway i'lle just practice my energy control and then sleep"
Arlon sent his consciousness into his core, his core was still first stage since he didn't have any beast spirits it was like other first stage cores but larger in capacity normal one were as big as a room but his was the size of two rooms, as all cores it was spherical and had primordial essence in the shape of fog. Other than fog there was nothing, usually after awakening the core the warrior would absorb a beast spirit and use it to condense the fog till he reaches the 2nd stage and continue doing this until the 5th stage, everytime you reach a new stage the fog becomes denser. Arlon couldn't condens his fog since he didn't have spirit beasts but he could practice his energy control.