Spiravit's POV:
Golden rays of sunlight burned their way into my eyeballs as I stared directly at the sun with my head so numbed that I couldn't notice how much it hurt.
Boom!
A loud boom came from somewhere nearby, taking me out of my woken slumber. I rubbed my head, trying to make it cool down while I brainstormed, 'What's happening?... That's right, there was some sort of explosion... I was able to barely use my Wooden Stealth Fruit in time to maximize my distance... but I think it still hit me?... No, it must've, that's the only thing that would explain this headache.'
Boom!
This time, after hearing a thunderous boom, instead of waking me up, it caught my attention causing me to turn my head to the direction it came from. I turned, and what I saw only brought me a bigger headache. At first, I mistook it for a dragon, but something that rare wouldn't be near our sect. So then what was it? It didn't have wings, so wyvern was taken out... Lava is spewing out of its mouth... 'Oh, I see now. It must be a Salamander... and I'm guessing Quis is fighting it... Should I enter the fray?'
I took a second to examine the giant figure towering over the top of the jungle and then continued my train of thought, 'Why shouldn't I? It would allow me to show my skills off to Quis. I had the chance to show that I'm... better... No, that isn't right. What would I stand to gain from taking such a risk? Self-indulgence? Why do I even think that I can hurt that beast in the first place? I should know my limits. I still have to spend more time growing before I can take up battles like that.'
... I stared at the beast roaring in the sky with lava flying out of its mouth as its swords danced. I felt my heart longing, my legs wanting to move forward, my want to show off and prove that I was better than everyone else was pressing. To be at the tip of everyone's tongue... But, I had to change.
Change wasn't something that couldn't be done in only one moment. Change was the constant pressure of pushing that change, whether that push was visible or not, until, over time, it finally did change. Yes, that near-death experience exposed my flaws, but it's what I do after that exposure that is the change, not the exposure itself. It's easy to recognize a flaw of yours and then never address the problem out of lack of drive. At least that's what I've seen from those around me.
Iusus is self-centered so badly that she ends up causing fissures between almost everyone she knows, yet she lets her pride push her into not critically thinking about it. Capcis was so focused on helping others not feel pain from her eventual death that she only ended up hurting them; she was unable to change because she constantly painted her flaws in a good light. And the prime example of this would have to be me.
I constantly compared myself to others: "Oh, I'm much better than him." or, "She'll never catch up to me." It was all such useless thoughts that only served to push me further down the hole of insecurity. Deep within myself, I knew this, but I was unable to accept it. I instead drowned those logical ideas in the bitterness of comparison. But when Quis showed up, he slowly began to change my thoughts of insecurity from being superior to being weaker. This scared me. If I didn't have the ability to say that I was better than anyone, then what did I have?
So I tried to put him down while putting myself higher. This went on until these stashed away thoughts of mine broke free in a moment of life-or-death, saving me from an unwanted fate. Why was I trying so hard to prove to Quis that I was better than him? It was mostly because of pride, but I also believe that it came from a place of reverence. It was like a child wanting to prove to their parents that they're strong or smart... Such an illogical way of thinking.
What was there to gain to show off to a person such as Quis? Maybe if they were someone more manipulatable then it would be worthwhile, but Quis was quite the opposite, he was probably even more resistant than me right now, and maybe he would always be. But why did I have to measure my own self-worth based on the qualities of others? Shouldn't I be happy with my own progress?
Yes, comparison is important to keep yourself in check, but too much makes it toxic. I should look at Quis and think, "That is the type of person I strive to be, so what should I do to get to that point?" not, "That is who I want to be, but I'll never be good enough to get to that point." I have to compare myself positively or it will only affect me negatively. And all I did for the longest time was negatively compare myself to others. All it did was breed fake confidence and pride that proved to bite me in the ass later on.
I can understand that the insecurity gained from the comparison isn't logical to even entertain. But I'm human. Humans have emotions, and these emotions can be unbearable at times. Not only is that true, but this insecurity is something that I've been feeding for so long that suddenly getting rid of it wasn't something realistic. I had to temper this new ideology of mine until it flowed as naturally as water. Eventually, I would change, but for now, I would work myself toward that change.
So I stomped out the desire in my heart to give into my pleasures and turned around walking away from the battle that Quis was fighting. I took a couple of steps forward before asking myself, 'What now?'
I already knew that the Salamander Quis was fighting had to be worth, at the very least 500 points, but more likely than not, it would be a 5,000-point prize. So what could I do against that? How could I get more points than him and then take the top spot?... The simple answer is that I shouldn't. There was no reason to work myself to the bone fighting Wild Beasts when there was no way of getting more than 5,000 points. It was more cost-efficient to just get to the top three and claim the benefits gained from being an inner disciple. I'll work on the skills matching my level and move up from there. Plus, it wasn't like I didn't have ways to claim even more benefits after this whole thing was over-
Suddenly I felt the hair on my neck stand up and my shoulders tighten. Even before I changed my opinion on the way I acted and thought, I had trained myself to, at the first hint of extreme danger, use my Wooden Stealth Fruit. So as soon as this feeling overwhelmed my entire body, the Fruit was activated and within half a second, I seemed to be physically split among the few trees in the area before being completely hidden.
Then, just where I was standing a moment ago, a swirl of darkness appeared and then suddenly, it expanded into a ball of protruding spikes. The spikes were so large that they almost reached where I was hiding, giving me a momentary panic. But the pure darkness soon neatly transformed into shards that fell into the ground, returning to the darkness that they once came from. Yet even with the attack over with, I didn't leave my stealth mode. If there was such a strong attack directed at me, then it was either a high-level Wild Beast or a human.
I tried thinking of anyone in our class who used the Dark Branch and even the Elders who were supposed to be watching over us, but there was no one I could think of. The Jungle Region had a few primary Branches that it supported: Wood Branch, Fire Branch, Light Branch, Dark Branch, Sword Branch, and finally Lightning Branch. But there were still some unwritten lines of where a main Branch was most popular within the Jungle Region. The Dark Branch was much more popular in the Northern West of the Jungle Region. Our sect was located in the Eastern Center of the Jungle Region, so we didn't have a rich Dark Branch culture. This is what eventually led me to believe that it was some sort of high-level Wild Beast.
Boom!
Suddenly a blur of something came from the sky, hit the ground, and knocked up a cloud of loose dirt, and as the dirt fell back down, I realized how wrong I was. Standing in the fading cloud of dirt was a slightly muscular figure locked within a tight suit. His eyes were home to a dark and dull crimson as they moved around, searching the area. He didn't speak a word, but I already had an idea of what he was. He had to be a Devil.
My first thought was, 'What the hell is a Devil doing here?' But I quickly swiped this thought away. There was no point in asking why until I survived this encounter. Devils could easily hide their identifiable traits, so the fact that this guy didn't hide his told me that this was an attack. He was planning on killing me, which meant my only goal was the get out of this alive.
Without any sort of build-up, the Devil snapped his neck to stare right at me, and gave a small smirk while saying through a clean voice, "Ah, there you are."
After he said this, his lower body turned into a shadow and then he disappeared. Before I could even attempt to find where he was, he popped into existence right in front of me. He then pointed an open palm at me, and it was at this point that my brain, being left on auto-pilot, used the second part of this new Fruit of mine. I left the stealth of the tree, ending up a decent distance from where I started, and leaving in my wake a spear of pure void.
He clicked his tongue before disappearing again. This time I already had an idea of what he planned to do, and I wouldn't be able to activate a Fruit in time to dodge his attack, so I had to rely on something else: my Magic Art. A tall dark tree matching the environment suddenly sprouted from out of the ground. I controlled the tree so that it shed its leaves of its body and surrounded me with them, creating a sphere of leaves.
A dark spear was sent through these leaves, leaving a hole in the defense I made, but it slowed it down enough so that I could dodge it. This happened a few more times until the meager amount of leaves that I had left was futile. I couldn't control any part of the tree fast enough to stop this man's attacks, and I couldn't activate any other Fruit fast enough. Was this it? Was this how I died? I didn't want to die, I know that... but it didn't feel like I had much of a choice as the spear shot out of his hand. I just closed my eyes and accepted my fate. I'd rather die peacefully than in a state of shock, so I did just that.
Bang!
Instead of hearing the sound of me gurgling on my own blood, as I thought I soon would experience, I heard the sound of collision. I opened my eyes, and in front of me was a familiar-looking man. I couldn't see his face, but by the way his left cheek was slightly bending, it was obvious he was smiling wildly as he exclaimed, "You think you can just run away like that?! Come now, let us finish what we started!"
After saying that, he smashed his fist down on what I could only assume was the spear, and the sound of glass shattering flourished. His entire body then turned a shade of brown with the texture of wood. Once this transformation took place, he took his remaining right fist, and punched forward, smashing the Devil's cheek in. At this point, I had gathered a good enough distance to see what was happening clearly, which enabled me to see the few teeth that flew out of the Devil's mouth. I was also able to confirm the identity of my savior. It was the old man from the school.
I then returned my focus to the Devil who was supposed to be on the ground, but once my focus returned to him, I noticed he had disappeared. The old man clicked his tongue, "Damn, what a slippery rat." He turned to me as bark fell off of his body and walked toward me while explaining what just happened to me, "Alright, listen up kid, the practical exams are under attack by Devils. We tried keeping them away from you guys, but some slipped through the cracks. I've been ordered to evacuate you, but instead of sending you on your way or letting others get hurt while I personally escort you, how about you follow that Devil with me? It may not seem like it, but the safest place for you right now is with me."
This was a lot of information to register at once, but I was able to accept it quickly. It wasn't often, as our world was in a state of peacefulness for the most part, but it still happened every now and then. A group of Devils would gang up and plunder a sect, massacre them, sell them as slaves, maybe they go for rape; they did whatever would satisfy their desires really... But then wouldn't they be attacking the wide-open sect instead of where all of the strong people were currently located? I didn't really get it, but I just nodded my head, agreeing with the old man's assessment.
He nodded his head and said, "Good, now I presume you can run, right?"
I nodded my head once again, and like that, we were off to hunt a Devil.