It was 10:15 in the night, most students were already asleep.
The day was already dark as the milky glow of the white moon brightened the night, illuminating the ring where 2 individuals stood.
The combat arena…
"Last week, in your class, you were taught the art of feinting". Guendouzi looked down at the small boy who stood opposite him, defiantly holding his sword.
"Just that day, you managed to master the basics but in real battle, the basics is not enough to win and kill your enemy".
"You need a mixture of natural talent, instincts, and combat experience to win". Guedouzi waved his umbrella. "You're already blessed with the first 2 criteria. You're naturally talented and your instincts are sharp, but that's not enough".
"To beat me, you need all 3 criteria fulfilled".
"You need combat experience". He grinned.
"Without combat experience, using feints is futile before me".
Ramon only scoffed without saying a word.
Seeing his reaction, Guendouzi laughed. "I'm ready, come at me!"
Ramon did not react immediately, rushing to attack. Instead, his first instinct was to observe instructor Guendouzi's right hand that held his umbrella.
During his younger years training under Guendouzi, despite knowing his teacher for years, he did not know his astral pathway.
It was only when he entered the astral academy that he knew it.
Guendouzi was a powerful Mage Transmutator and the umbrella that he always carried around was his weapon. It was a multipurpose weapon that made this instructor a tricky opponent to spar against in battle.
It was already more than 6 months since their agreement to spar at night every 3 days a week, and Ramon was yet to win one of these duels.
This was despite Guendouzi suppressing his realm to Ramon's level.
Thinking of this, Ramon could not help but grimace.
That look didn't stay in his face for long though, he clenched his fists as he stared at Guendouzi with bright combative eyes. "I can win!"
Guendouzi laughed. "That's the spirit, come on!"
A week ago, after the encounter with the astral travelers in Coca Market, Ramon's motivation to get stronger began to burn with even more zeal.
He no longer wanted to feel helpless when faced with such a situation.
He dreaded being the useless support again, he wanted to grab the situation by the scruff of the neck next time if he had another of such encounter.
This was why for the past week, Ramon put even more effort into training.
He never failed to attend his classes, and at night, he put even more time and effort into cultivating to increase the astral energy in his sea of consciousness.
Also, in exchange for running random errands for instructor Guendouzi, he managed to convince him to increase their weekly training time to 4 times a week.
Today was the 4th training day of the week and Ramon still could not touch or injure him yet, not to talk of beating him.
Ramon's eyes gleamed. 'I need to put even more effort!'
'I can do it!'
'I can get stronger!'
'I can win!'
BOOM!
Arousing his astral energy and converging his golden energy on his legs, Ramon went on a swift dash forward even as he used his quick draw technique.
Guendouzi read his attack like a book as squatting, he opened the umbrella.
Instantly, the umbrella turned into a sturdy shield.
Clank!
As sparks spread amid the reverberation of metal grinding against metal, Guendouzi aroused his orange astral energy as from the tip of the umbrella, an orange spark briefly erupted which was quickly followed by a fire dart.
Ramon reacted, twisting his body to an unnatural angle as he barely managed to dodge the attack which was a first of many.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Guendouzi unleashed more fire darts through the tip of the umbrella, forcing Ramon to jump left and right, dodging rapidly.
In his head, his sword instructors' voice reverberated.
'When combating Mage Transmutators, never give them the luxury of distance'.
'Always try your best to close the distance'.
'That's their weakness and close range is the strength of a swordsman'.
Ramon gritted his teeth. 'I need to get an astral technique to increase my dash speed even faster'.
Despite his thoughts, he still dashed.
This time, he stabbed his sword straight at the smirking Guendouzi who reacted by opening the umbrella's shield state again.
This time though, it was a feint.
"Battojutsu Sword Technique: Slicing Mountain!"
From the initial stabbing state, Ramon switched and sliced with his sword when he was yet to get into optimum range.
'Huh?' Guendouzi was surprised, the slash would not hit his shield.
Ramon knew this also; this was his intention.
As soon as Storm Breaker sliced upward without touching the shield, something happened. To Guendouzi's shock, Ramon rose into the air with his sword. In the air, Ramon grinned.
This time, Ramon did a double feint.
Putting more power than normal into the Slicing Mountain, his sword gathered so much momentum that the force managed to drag him along into the air, almost making it look like he was levitating.
In the air, Ramon canceled Slicing Mountain, completing his 2nd feint as with veins popping out all over his body, Ramon managed to overpower the initial momentum of his upward slash as he slashed back down with his sword.
"Ha!"
Ramon groaned as he slashed with all his power.
"…!" Guendouzi was stunned.
With the shield form of his umbrella facing front even as he squatted, cutting off the option of attacking his legs, he never thought of an attack from the sky. An attack from the sky attacked from his only open point.
Suppressing his realm to the mid-tier Legionnaire Stage Realm, Guendouzi was not fast enough to stop nor dodge this attack. Still, he grinned nonetheless.
"Impressive, but not enough!"
"Flame Technique: Mana Shield- Fire Ring!"
BZZZ!
Flames erupted above Guendouzi, forming a ring-shaped shield that blocked the descending sword, preventing him from losing.
In the air, Ramon could not react, he was vulnerable to a counter-attack.
"No…!" Ramon roared in defeat as his enemy's free left hand grabbed his academy uniform and slammed him against the ring floor.
Guendouzi grinned. "I win".
"Coordination is your weakness".
Hearing the sudden 3rd voice, shocked, both astral warriors looked to a corner of the ring where they finally saw him.
Guendouzi's eyes widened in shock. "HOD".
"No need for formalities". The man waved his hand.
"Fat man!" Ramon called, surprised.
Mr. Patrick grimaced but he ignored it. "The trick to effective feints in combat is perfect coordination".
"Like Mr. Guendouzi said, you have the talent and your combat instincts are impressive, what you lack is the coordination to align your strengths".
"To achieve your goal with an effective feint attack, take the initiative".
"Lead your opponent on".
"Your instincts are keen enough, you notice it when Mr. Guendouzi reacts to your feints, it's just that your astral energy usage is not fast and smooth enough to counter react, this is the lack of coordination that I speak of".
"If you master coordination, you will beat Mr. Guendouzi with his realm suppressed unless he's shameless enough to use his advanced astral techniques".
"I dare not, sir". Guendouzi chuckled awkwardly.
"So," Mr. Patrick looked at the little boy. "Do you want to learn coordination?"
Ramon looked at him suspiciously. "What are you doing here so late?"
Silence.
Mr. Patrick's eyes twitched speechlessly. 'As expected,' he sighed. "I came out to take a pee". He lied.
Ramon felt even more suspicious. "You have a toilet in…!"
"Watch out!"
Mr. Patrick rushed at the boy having suppressed his realm already as he unsheathed his huge broad sword. Ramon reacted instinctively to the attack.
And so, training started, Ramon no longer said a thing as he became fascinated by the different movements of Mr. Patrick compared to Guendouzi.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Sword kept on clashing against sword amid the glow of the moon in the night sky as the HOD of the wildlife department spared with a 10-year-old.
Most people in the academy would not believe what was happening.
"Watch out! I'm coming!"
Mr. Patrick rushed at the student again.
Bonk!
"Ouch…!"
"Bad coordination, again!"
"Come on!" Ramon roared even as he wiped his tears.
Standing at the side, now reduced to a bystander, Guendouzi only watched as a lot of thoughts went through his mind. 'His talent caught even the HOD's attention? I truly underestimated this boy'.
By 11:20, Mr. Patrick finally stopped, a bit of sweat sticking to his face.
"Your coordination has finally passed the preliminary stage, you're ready to duel Guendouzi again, you'll win".
"I'll win?!" Ramon's eyes shone brightly.
'He'll win?' Hearing that, Guendouzi narrowed his eyes.
He now had another motivation to not lose, the f*cking HOD of the wildlife department was watching! Losing would destroy his dignity.
The duel started and this time, it lasted more than 5 minutes.
Guendouzi felt his heart beating against his chest. 'Damn! I've been fighting him since, how on earth did he improve so much in so few minutes?!'
At the 8th minute, Ramon's thrusting river technique nicked Guendouzi's neck.
"Hehe," Ramon grinned.
"If I moved my hand inches closer, you'd lose your neck".
"I win".
Silence.
Guendouzi was too stunned to speak. "You won?" He could not believe it.
Both of them looked to the side but he was nowhere to be seen, the HOD of the wildlife department was already gone.
"I win!"
"I win!" Ramon jumped in excitement.
"Umm…, Ramon, I'll take next week off, let's resume the week after".
Not waiting for the little boy to answer, Guendouzi left.
Excited, Ramon finally decided to return to his hostel room. On his way back, he noticed something unnatural.
Almost all the other hostel rooms that he passed were silent. Silence was natural at night, what baffled him was that he detected no astral energy inside.
'Where did everyone go?'
Baffled but too lazy to check, Ramon continued straight to his room, hyped to start cultivating and improve his sea of consciousness but just before getting to his room, he paused on noticing something.
Or better still, he noticed someone.
Crank! Crank!
Ramon froze as he heard and saw the scratches as despite bleeding, the individual used his nails to scratch the stone wall, expressing his frustration.
"So dirty, so dirty," He muttered in frustration.
"So dirty!" He growled aggressively.
"Where is everyone?"
"Why will they lock the door and not leave the spare key?!"
Crank!
He scratched more.
"So dirty!"
"Hey, you'll injure yourself…!"
Ramon paused as the boy turned to look at him with bloodshot eyes.
"So dirty!" He growled.
Ramon's eyes widened. "Is that…, Elmas?!"