A single downward swing and a switch to a horizontal cut, repositioning myself and an upward slash, completing the form with a thrust, Nichole thought as she swung the sword down.
She brings the sword on her chest level, swinging it horizontally, before placing her feet to he sides and performing an upward slash and ending with a thrust.
"Huff," she wiped the sweat off her brows and she put down the wooden sword. She sits down and remembers what she heard on the hallways, about the selection for the Ascension tournament team for the first years.
It's been a week since class had started, and the rumors about selection had already begun. She looked down at her hand, thinking of how inadequate she was for the position, yet the words of her professor rang in her mind.
"Practice over?" A boy with long black hair, with a few blue strands came into light.
"Ah, Yes," Nichole smiles back at him, "your name was Finn, right?"
"Glad you remember me, Nichole," Finn waves at her.
"Oh, what happened to your hand?" she points at the bandages wraps around it.
"I had an outing with my Professor, and we had some trouble, but yeah, I'm alright. Where is your Professor?"
"He didn't tell me where he was going," Nichole looked at Finn nervously before asking, "those threads, from the first day, how did you do that?"
"It's a pretty easy technique, focusing and creating a thread is easy, but a constant supply of qi is required to keep it from snapping," a thin line of thread extending from his finger.
"Oh, it's amazing. Did you make it on your own?"
"Actually, your professor taught it to me," Finn smirked.
"Really?" Nichole's tone changed, surprised at the fact. "You knew him before joining?"
"Yes, he did a lot of things for me, I'd have struggled a lot more had I not met him. I also have something to ask you?" Finn's tone shifted to a more serious one.
Nichole looked, noticing the shift, "Oh, what is it?"
"You know what happened yesterday? That large sound?"
"Um, so that..."
...
"Professor... shit, that's why he got angry at the mention of his name," Finn sat on the floor with Nichole.
"Want to do something interesting?" Finn asked.
Nichole tilted her head, curious, "What is it?"
_________________________
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Mam. It was her, there were also mutant beasts at the border of the forest. I went in to investigate, and it seems a bit serious," Victor stood before Shia, reporting the earlier encounter.
"And your student? Is he alright?" Templeton who was standing beside Shia asked.
"Yes, he was able to take down a mutant Niwolf and the rest of the pack, he did get injured."
"Hm, anything else?" Shia asked.
"Due to an increase in mutants in the forest, the sacred girat's infiltrated the academy grounds. We're now facing an increased girat issue, a mission has been put up."
"Alright, I'll take care of the rest," Shia nodded.
Victor slightly bowed as he turned to leave the room after reporting.
"Wait..."
He stops, half expecting a scolding due to the event from the day before. He had caused an issue with a professor, something not taken lightly.
"I understand why you did it, but..." Shia paused, her voice was gentle, 'please refrain yourself from ever hurting him, he's already been through a lot."
"Yes, Mam," Victor's expression hardens as he replies and leaves without turning back.
The door creaked as he left.
"What do you think? With the recent events, and what happened at Kanor, it's them," Templeton spoke.
"Yes," Shia rubbed her temples, "I just came back after the negotiations with the border clan, now I have more work."
"The Sealix, don't you want to open it, you have an architect here?"
"Oh, I forgot about that, I'll bring it back from the treasury."
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"This is your idea of fun?" Nichole stared at the board in front of her, a large display with multiple digital posters containing missions.
"Yep, the white ones are the easy missions, then green, yellow, blue, purple, red and black, although missions above red rarely make it here," Finn explained.
"Look here," she points at one of the white posters, "it's gathering some sort of herb, and the reward is one ryū."
"No, let's do this one, this gives more," Finn touched a yellow yellow, which beeps once, the frame around the poster turning black.
"Wait, you accepted it?" Nichole looks at the mission. "Hunt the girats wandering around at night, huh, isn't this too much for us?"
"It's not, besides twenty ryū should be motivation enough," Finn said with a cool expression.
"I guess I'll see you later, where should we meet?"
"The fourth bench from the entrance," Finn waved as he walked off, Nichole walking off as well. "See you later."
"You too."
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"That damn professor," Daniela grumbled as she loosened her tie, "what's his problem, he made me cast different types of source codes."
"That means he's interested in you," Houdin popped in.
"I don't want that, I don't need that kind of attention," she lets out a sigh.
"Hey, got any plans for the day?"
"I was thinking of sleeping, want to join me?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, goodbye. I'll see you tomorrow," Daniela walked away.
"Strange..."
...
Uhh, I feel so tired, what is it now? Daniela swung while she walked, her hand on the wall for support as she reached her room.
"It's the elixir taking effect, the mana seeped into your body, but the effect takes some moments to get to you," the demon whispered.
"Oh, shit," she pushes open the door, swinging it as the door smashes close, before falling into bed. "I feel..."
"Rest child, you need it," the cloud appears near her.
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"What do we do know?" Nichole whispered into Finn's ears.
"Nothing, we wait," Finn looks back, the two perched atop a tree branch, looking at the clearing beneath them.
"We wait? Do you even know what to do?" Nichole raised a brow.
"Yup, these guys like to wander around at night, if we stay here, we might see a few go through here."
"Fine, it seems you know some stuff, but I can't cast any long range spells, so don't expect too much from me," Nichole stared ahead.
"Oh, don't worry, I have a gun," Finn grins at her words.
"Pfft, that was a nice joke, anyways how do we handle these things, are they big?"
Finn shakes his head, "They're just big rats, nothing much, but be careful, there might be mutants."
"Mut—"
"Shh!" Finn looks a few feet away, noticing a small rustle in the leaves.
A large rat walks out of the bush, blood dripping along its missing limb as it crawls into the open. The creature cried in small gasps as it continued crawling almost as if running away from something.
"Is that a girat?" Nichole whispers, her breath barely audible.
"Yes," Finn whispers back, "but it seems there is a mutant here."
The grass behind it rustles as another of the same creature jumps atop it, and grabs hold of its head pulling it back.
This one was much larger than the other one. A small faint glow flows from the bleeding girat into the large one on top of it.
"What is it doing?" Nichole asked.
"It's absorbing the other one's life essence. That is a mutant, they thrive on another's life and are much stronger than the normal creatures."
GROWL
The rat at the bottom continued struggling as the first one sunk its claws into it, blood spurting as the faint glow continued flowing into it.
'Huh, what was that?' Finn's senses warn him of something else, his focus shifting from the rat to his surroundings. He looks around trying to see what it was.
"So how do we kill it?" Nichole looks at Finn, her face grimacing at the nasty sight of a creature killing its own kind.
"It has a thicker skin than normal girat's, but a concentrated strike should kill it," Finn looked around, trying to see if there were other rats.
"I have something, but it's not exactly a spell, but I can try t—" Nichole stops abruptly, her hands falling on Finn's shoulder, trembling, "what is that?"
Finn's eyes widen at a monstrous creature, watching the first girat devour the other one. "Shit, what the hell is that?"
The girat finally finished feasting on its kind, looking up at the sky to enjoy the night—
CRUNCH
The girat's cold half body fell to the floor as the giant wolf got out of the shadow and bit of its head in an instance.
SPRAY
Blood spurt everywhere, even in the giant beast's body. It lays down on the floor and begins digging into the girat's body, occasionally licking the blood and growling. The low growl was unpleasant, like a shrill of a choked wolf.
Nichole and Finn held on, trying to digest the sight. Nichole trembled, her brow covered in sweat, while Finn observed the beast, even though he was shook, he maintained his cool.
"Shh, don't worry it hasn't... seen us?" Finn stuttered as the wolf twitched slightly, before completely turning its head at them, staring straight at the duo.
"Fuck, no Finn it hasn't seen us yet, right?" Nichole tried to calm down, but the two blood red eyes stared at them, like a predator looking at its prey.
"Hey, you told me you have some sort of spell, right?" Finn looked at her, his face serious.
"I'll try," her breath uneven as she opens her palm, a white source code appearing above her palm. The code slightly, glows orange. The wolf notices it and continues staring at them.
Finn began chanting his own mantra, "Under the sun I grow, under the moon, I am everywhere," the atmosphere around him getting colder.
"Finn, it's ready, should I just release it?" Nichole asked, her voice trembling in fear.
"Do it..." Finn stopped, his silence was loud, "Now!"
The code glows bright orange, launching a large fireball towards the wolf. The ball crashes into the creature, the flames spark scattering around as the wolf gets up, unaffected by the flames. The wind around it goes cold, the flame extinguishing at the chill.
The large beast jumps onto the tree, biting off the tree head, only to find the branch empty.
"Huff, huff," Nichole and Finn took deep breaths, as they watched the wolf tear apart the tree from another tree top.
"We're inside the academy walls, how did that thing get in?" Nichole asked Finn who was struggling to breathe, "are you alright?"
"It's nothing," Finn pushes out the words but suddenly vomits a puddle of blood.
"Fuck, your still injured, aren't you, shit!"
"It's alright, we're still inside the academy," Finn wanted to cough, but he holds it back, "the entrance to the Blood Moon forest isn't nearby, which means it got in some other way."
"Someone allowed it to come in?" Nichole looked at the creature calmly lounging around the ripped apart tree. "But we still can't outrun it, and it can find us."
"Don't worry, I don't think it'll fin—" Finn sees Nichole's horrified expression, her eyes bulging out as she bit her lips, "it's looking at us, isn't it?"
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