"How did you even get so good at using them?" Raven asked. "You Changed yesterday, and only used them for like 30 minutes after that."
"Well, after my dream, I was sent into my Reality, where I met Reverend and Insanity. They helped me understand how to use them, and helped me practice there. From that point on, using them was easy."
"Bro! You just made us rich!" Jason shouted as he draped his hand around my shoulder.
POP!
A Page just appeared in my line of sight.
[The following advancements have been recorded]
[Asura Path: 19%-24%]
[Preta Path: 16%-20%]
[Rune Path: 20%-24%]
It seemed that extensively using The Paths was enough to increase comprehension, which was good since I wasn't much of a sit-down-and-meditate kind of guy.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!"
Vera walked, or rather stomped over to me from where she was sitting. She was a short girl, with light brown hair and teal eyes. She was livid. "HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU THINK YOU JUST TRAUMATISED?! BASTARDS LIKE YOU GAIN A LITTLE BIT OF POWER AND GO INSANE WITH IT!!"
"Not a 'little bit'. And besides, all of them deserved it. Half of them were my tormentors, and even if the other half didn't bully me, they didn't do anything to stop it either," I walked up to her until we were inches apart "And don't let your current wellbeing get to your head. You would have been a victim too if not for the fact that you're Zari's friend."
She backed away as fast as she could, afraid that I would act on that threat "Like you could" she snorted. She nodded at Zari and proceeded to walk away, then she started running.
"Well shit. That didn't go as planned." I said. I only wanted to intimidate her, not scare her.
'What do you think happens when you tell someone that they would have been killed if not for a formality, they would throw a pizza party?' Reverend chided me.
I know, but still.
"Anyway. You have all the qualifications to be on the Asura Squad, so we should probably go to their building and get it all sorted out." Zari said.
The school gave an entire building to the squad, which basically had everything they would need. It was in the Nysa Forests, the massive grove of gigantic trees that was our resident zoo. By that I meant that there were like a thousand species of magical beasts living in it. Students regularly went there for either missions or hunting.
We got to the building, which was just a massive mansion, and walked into the door. It opened up to a massive living room, reminiscent of ours, which went to the kitchen. This was where they hung out when they decided to skip class. Everything not miscellaneous was underground.
Raven sent out a few Mind Elementals to tell the rest of the members currently here that they had something to discuss.
We went to the elevator, and pushed the button to go down. When we got there- to an all black chrome room with a hologram in the middle, and surrounded by beanbags- all the rest of them, including Vera were there. They looked at me like I was something you would find in a sewage treatment center.
"What is he doing here?" Cedric Fallon asked. He was a tall, but lanky boy( taller than me, and I was a giant), with stringy black hair and even blacker eyes. He was the tank of the squad, along with Jason, and was apparently very good at it, seeing as he was even drawing my aggro after a single sentence.
"Raven, no matter what attracts you to him, this space is reserved for squad members." Grayson Kiu asked. He was a thin guy, and of average height. He always wore this mask and hood which had a facepiece(and had a screen that displayed a digital cross eyes and smiley face), meaning that you couldn't tell anything about how he looked or even how his voice sounded. He was the rogue and scout, and was always reserved. Zari was being mentored by him in how to do rogue-ing correctly.
"Stop being a dick, Cedric. But really though, why is he here?" Vin asked. They had no surname, and an androgynous face with long pink hair and amber eyes, which matched their status as genderless. They were the backline fighter, along with Vera, who had the good sense not to say anything. She also didn't try to stop them, still shaken by my presence.
That left Raven as the sole main damage dealer. That changed today since I was here now.
"Why am I here you ask? That's because I am the Asura Squad's newest member." I walked up to Cedric and shoved him. He flew. "And also much stronger than you guys. No like seriously, y'all are so weak-no smoke intended- that I could probably beat you all at once."
Grayson was behind me with a knife to my neck, while Vin was in front of me with an entire thundercloud in his hand, which was pressed against my chest. Cedric got up and stood next to us, wanting a part in the jumping.
"What? You don't believe me? How about we play a little game." I proposed, while sitting down on a beanbag on the other side of the room. They jumped and looked at the sound of my voice, since they didn't even see me move. I had Grayson's knife in one hand, and Vin's thundercloud circling around the other one.
"I fight all of you and win. See, the rules are nice and easy, right? And y'all are not escaping, either" I said pointedly at my family "I will beat all of you and I mean all of you. Besides, it's good way to correctly gauge my power since the 142,136 Fifth Years I just finished violating at once weren't enough in the slightest." I smiled, knowing they would take the bait.
They looked at me like I was insane, then the lust for battle that all powerful people had started shining through. I knew what they were thinking. It was something along the lines of That's just an easy win for us, so why not? Besides, if he puts up a good fight then we just gain a strong squad mate.
"That's just an easy win for us, so why not? Besides, if he puts up a good fight then we just gain a strong squad mate." Cedric said.
Called it.
"Alright newbie. We all fight you at once. Don't die okay?" Vin said, already assured of their win.
I looked at the others. The were looking at the others with pity.
"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you guys." I assured them.
Grayson looked at me with what I assumed was a mocking look. I just smiled back and threw his knife to him, and mouthed I know what you look like. He visibly recoiled and just walked into the training room with the others.
It was just a giant gym complex in one massive room, with the extra magic equipment and a ring.
All of them got on stage, without even bothering to put on their gear, into their battle positions, which was seamless, a testament to how many times they used it and practiced it.
I teleported onto the stage, which shocked some of them. I decided not to use any Path abilities to balance it out. I found out earlier that certain stances of Kyoki No Kakera and patterns of circulation of Ichor produced multiplicative effects. After I Changed, Kyoki No Kakera also allowed me to passively change aspects of the surrounding environment to match whatever aspect of the style I was using. I split it into like a hundred starting forms that branched out from there, but I still felt something was missing.
[New Path Created!]
[War Path( Kyoki No Kakera)
: A path that allows you to completely assimilate and use any way and form of fightng that exists, and switch between them and create combinations seamlessly. It also allows you to mimic other special aspects that allow them to work, like a special anatomy, or a certain aether manipulation technique.]
[Path Comprehension: 22%]
That was it.
The Mind that housed this one was unrestrained and wild. He was perfect for it.
I went into the 1st Stance: Lightning Stance, which was the first one since I always defaulted to fighting by jumping around and delivering powerful attacks. It also used lightning aether as a base.
Lightning, in black, blue, and gold surrounded me. They manifested as if they were cracks in Reality itself, rapidly moving and then disappearing.
I just grinned and got ready.
***
On Kyran's body, cracks started to appear. It was as if his skin was made of stone and it started cracking. They even appeared on his face, they moved, alternating between twisting themselves into intricate patterns and looking like normal cracks.
The cracks started to glow, in gold and blue, matching the glow in his eyes. Through that glow, those eyes and mouths were showing. Sometimes a crack would widen and one of them would come to the surface, blinking and looking around, or smiling and licking their lips, and then recede.
He didn't notice it. But Insanity, all the way in his Reality, toned it down, causing him to look like a normal boy, with glowing cracks on his skin. It was all he could do.
Then the Asura Squad attacked.