The fog abruptly dissipated, revealing two striking young men – one with black hair, the other with white hair. They struggled to remain on their feet, one knee already touching the ground.
The room's pressure intensified, forcing many to lose consciousness. In fact, only a handful of students, including the Elites, remained conscious.
Even the Elites didn't escape the pain. Their faces contorted with agony, teeth gritted, some with blood trickling from their noses, and others spitting out small amounts of blood.
Stare at this point was alternating between consciousness and unconsciousness, the pressure was just too much for this unhoned body of his, unlike Y-204, who endured better, though bearing the signs of pain with bloodied lips from biting down hard.
Stare felt like he was literally carrying a building on his back.
He was however aware of what this pressing force was.
It was actually an aura, like the one Y-204 had unleashed when they had gone toe on toe, the only difference was this aura belonged to someone even more powerful and as such was too pressing to those weaker than the owner of the aura.
If Stare wasn't mistaken the only someone in this hall who should be capable of unleashing such aura is Lagertha.
Shit.
'I had been too immersed in the fight that I had forgotten about that crazy woman.'
And just as Stare had guessed standing at the center of the hall was a familiar, tall gorgeous lady with red hair that matched well with the red bodysuit she had on.
Lagertha.
She looked on emotionlessly at the bodies of the numerous students who were either unconscious or wailing in pains from the aura she unleashed.
Her eyes continued to scan the hall until it locked on Stare's and the white haired boy's direction.
At this point they were both lying on the floor from the pain and Stare was barely even conscious.
The oppressive aura suddenly disappeared, freeing everyone from the pressing force.
The few who had managed to remain conscious, slowly got back up to their feet while the rest took some more time to gain consciousness.
Lagertha took steady steps toward Stare and the white haired boy.
Her expression remained stoic, so one could barely read what she was thinking.
Her crimson eyes scanned the incarnation of Y-204 who was still recovering from the assault of her aura and then moved toward Stare.
Stare felt a slight shiver run down his spine from her gaze. He could feel the distaste at which she looked at him.
This was however expected, after all he had proved in the last class from his odd and disgraceful defeat to Xel that he was actually a 'flop', the type her kind of people hated the most.
"So you suddenly have the balls for a fight eh?" She finally asked Stare, not even trying to hide the distaste in her tone as well.
Stare wasn't really sure on the reply to give so he just looked toward the ground trying to avoid eye contact with her.
The Academy has only four rules," Lagertha began speaking again after a while of silence, her words firm and unyielding. "One, obey all instructions from Superiors; Two, students are not permitted to intentionally cause disruptions or disturbances during academic activities or events; Three, students are forbidden from consciously inflicting harm or engaging in threatening activities against fellow students or staff; Four, students must not consciously inflict life-threatening injuries upon themselves or engage in life-threatening activities of their own accord."
Lagertha continued, her gaze fixed upon Stare. "You've violated two of these rules, rules two and four, consciously disrupting a class and engaging in life-threatening activities, You will be punished accordingly and without warning."
Stare found himself utterly bewildered by Lagertha's words, momentarily forgetting his attempt to avoid eye contact.
He had expected her to act biased toward him but wasn't this a little too much.
'Carrying out a life threatening activity…for just fighting another student?'
'She must be joking' Stare concluded. He couldn't think of Lagertha punishing him just for fighting another student and even calling it a life threatening activity.
However her next set of words delivered another blow of shock to Stare.
"The rest of you can go back to training, student Stare you follow me to receive your punishment."
"What." Stare couldn't hold himself from saying out loud.
She was actually going to punish him under the guise of carrying out a life threatening activity and disrupting a class she wasn't even present in and how come only him got to be punished.
If Stare's memories didn't fail him, the white haired dude did even more disruption than him with all that smoke he released from his body.
Stare immediately noticed Lagertha's crimson eyes glow slightly as she stared intensely at him, causing him to immediately follow behind her.
Despite his reservations, he knew better than to voice his disagreements in her presence, especially given their complicated relationship. Lagertha, followed by Stare, moved towards the far end of the hall, away from the other students, where a solitary practice dummy awaited.
Stare eyed the dummy with confusion. It differed significantly from the ones the other students used, resembling a steel sculpture more than a standard training dummy.
Lagertha walked to a nearby wall and retrieved a katana, tossing it to Stare, who instinctively caught it.
"You will slash at this dummy five thousand times... if done correctly, it should take you six hours, which means you will miss your lunch today," she stated, her voice unwavering. "I will be monitoring you closely, and any deviation from slashing the dummy will result in an additional thirty minutes."
Stare gulped involuntarily upon hearing Lagertha's instructions. She expected him to continuously slash at the dummy for over six hours and then go to bed on an empty stomach.
As he looked up at Lagertha, his face paled in horror, but she remained stoic.
'She's insane,' Stare thought, observing her. 'An insane demon.'
How did he even get himself into all of this? The plan initially was just to have a simple talk with that fucker regarding the Oracle's Path but the fucker had to go and escalate everything like he always do.
I thought our first meeting this time would be different, especially after I mentioned the Oracle's path…maybe I was too expectant.
Stare briefly turned his head toward the direction Y-204 had been practicing and noticed the white haired boy also looking back at him
He hadn't resumed practice like the rest and was just standing there looking at him.
Amidst their brief exchange Stare noticed something peculiar that immediately stunned him.
It was a slight smile that appeared on Y-204's face before he looked away.
That small smile immediately brought back memories of different eras and different occasions he had clashed with that fucker, times and times again, all of those scenes had him with similar smile on his face.
It was a habit the fucker picked up in most of their cycles.
He would usually smile that same way whenever Stare accidentally fell for one of his schemes.