The battle against the instructor was obviously not an all-out spar.
After all, even if it wasn't Rolan or Parkinson, an instructor was an instructor, a genuine adult that had awakened their principle years ago.
Instead, this spar would see Seth and Lyla face off against one another within one of the gravity chambers.
Suppressed by gravity, they'll also be given wooden weapons, and will have to fight with a weapon of Seth's choice.
For example, Seth, who liked the staff, would utilize that, and Lyla, as the instructor, would also utilize that whilst pointing out Seth's flaws in his staff techniques.
The reason it was wooden was to prevent them from using too much strength.
This was a test of technique, canceling out Lyla's inherent advantage too, but more importantly, once they utilized a certain level of strength, the wooden weapon would simply break in their grip.
Even though many things did not go her way because of these rules, she was not worried whatsoever.
Today, she'll make an example out of Seth.
Right now, besides Anon, the rest of students were within the gravity chamber, suffering under the intensity of the higher gravity.
Yet, instead of complaining, Nickyle actively cultivated, as did Andrew who was now a stellar fighter.
Catharina was seemingly dazed with dark circles under her eyes hinting at a possible night of no sleep.
At the same time, Melissa remained silent, she though, suffered the most under this gravity.
Although humanity underwent evolution, and she was incomparable to humans fifty years ago, she still had a mortal spirit, so the gravity room affected her much more than the others.
Standing near them were the two instructors who stared at a male and female standing before each other with wooden rods in their grasps.
"Young boy," Lyla stepped forward, masterfully maneuvering the staff, she said, "Today I must show you why there's a need to respect one's elders."
She was the so-called jack of all trades, hence, it did not matter if Seth had picked up a sword, spear, staff, or axe, even if it was a broom, she would be more skilled than him at using it.
"There's only one problem with those like you," Seth stated, looking down on at Lyla whose wooden staff was a distance away.
His pole embedded into the ground inches away from her head as he grinned broadly, "Jack of all trades yes, master of none…"
…
Class continued that day with Anon appearing after lunch, entering the gravity chamber.
After mastering Man Like Beast, it was up to him to improve on it now, and at the same time, he continued to chip away at the bottleneck that prevented him from completing four tasks.
Time was ever flowing, continuous.
Even when one desired for it to come to a halt, it did not slow down in the slightest.
People lived out their lives and then die, lost in the past, and past was an aspect of time.
Time drowned countless people, ridding their existence from the minds of others.
Time…
Andrew's determination to catch up to Anon, along with Seth, brought with it shocking surprises to the two instructors.
Every day, he honed his techniques and grasped greater mastery over his martial arts.
Not just him, but down to Nickyle had a change so noticeable that even Rolan commended it.
Internally, Nickyle festered great hatred for Seth and Anon, Seth, obviously for the humiliation that he had underwent due to the bastard, whilst for Anon…
'My hate for you is unwarranted, but what can you do about it?' He smiled, 'My pride as a young master makes me desire endless ways to see to it that I destroy you.'
He thought this whilst glancing at Anon amid classes.
Pride was dangerous, and he knew this, but that night when he questioned everything, if not for such pride, such haughtiness, that ego, then he'd be a shell of his former self at this current moment.
Both Nickyle and Andrew underwent a metamorphosis, rushing towards Anon who had found himself stuck in a bottleneck.
Important to note, was Catharina's awakening.
Ever since Anon and Seth sparred, her performances in the classes dropped continuously.
She was scolded by Rolan more times than not, and yet she did not raise her head, only accepting such scolding without care.
She was dazed and went through the motions.
In one sparring session, she faced the swiftly improving Andrew Webb.
Against his shield, her gold snowflakes were stopped in their tracks, and in front of his overwhelming Warhammer, her golden storm was shattered before it could even take form.
Before she realized it, with the help of the gravity rooms, the training dummies, weapons and martial arts, Andrew had already surpassed her.
That same night, she reflected on everything.
Her father's words rang in her head as the arrogance of a great family's young missy could not allow some Andrew Webb commoner to come from behind and surpass her.
'If I can't lead the path for Anon, at the very least, I'll stay within his world, defeating those who desire to harm him, even if it is from the shadows, I'll make sure no one destroys what I find pleasing.'
A few days later, Catharina's golden snowflakes moved unpredictability, traversing the air with superior speeds, circling Andrew's mighty body, and evading his impenetrable shield.
Whilst focusing on her golden snowflakes, she multi-tasked, assaulting him with her snow step sword arts.
Her movements were as graceful as a dancer but as ruthless as a scorpion's stinger.
Without the need for her trump card, she defeated Andrew, once again reestablishing herself as one of the three stellar geniuses from a great family.
At the same time, Andrew's blood heated up as his determination soared.
The more opponents he needed to overcome, the more adversity he needed to undergo, the sweeter the scent of the plum blossoms in the other side would be.
...
The silent Melissa stepped onto an enlightening platform.
"It's the last night of this program, Melissa…" Aren spoke to her with a colder than usual voice.
After the excitement with Andrew's awakening, only this girl remained as the sole unawaken amongst the group of stellar geniuses.
"Tomorrow, when the geniuses from all over the Blackridge district arrive, the rankings will be skewed by challengers eager to compete, all wanting a chance to step onto these enlightening platforms."
There was a limited amount of enlightening platforms, reserved for those higher in the rankings amongst those with dormant principles.
Come the next day, there were hundreds with dormant principles, so the competition which was reliant on strength would become quite difficult for Melissa.
She had neither innate strength nor any martial arts skills beyond what she had learned in the past two weeks.
"I understand."
Melissa's voice was firm, and her eyes showed her determination.
As the mind-buzzing sound of the mechanism running the enlightening platform began to resonate in the surroundings, a sudden gust of wind lashed against her skin.
This wind, it burned.
Another gust was like a whip that stung.
Wind that stung, burned, froze, scratched, and even itched.
Seeping into her flesh, her bloodstream, bone marrow, organs, and even her cells, the pain had become incomprehensible.
But know that there were worst pains in this world.
The camp of ten thousand was tomorrow.
She had not awakened yet…
In this program, those five stellar geniuses had completely devoured her.
And yet, she could not stop.
The path to strength, she needed to step further.
Why?
For her father.
Her dead father.
A father killed by his own lover, Melissa's mother.
When an Otherworldly Knight attains such a title and transcends mortal comprehension, they traverse the universe along with other Knights, behind the six heroes of humanity.
What they experience in the outer void remained uncertain, but often, Knights would see their love for their mortal companion waver.
Some would seemingly go mad and not care about anything else, not viewing women or men as people with souls, but mere objects to satisfy their lust.
Others would simply become ascetic, viewing lust as a part of mortality and detaching themselves entirely from the mortal world.
And then there were those that fell in love with other Knights.
Worse than that were the ones to do this in a less conflicting way.
To make it easier for the public to accept, they see their lover die from 'natural' causes, then 'heal' from that loss and fall in love with the Knight who helped them through their darkest times.
Her father died caught in such a scheme.
She who desired revenge, dared to desire revenge…?
Melissa understood how daring such thoughts were.
'If I dare to seek out my mother, if I dare to confront an Otherworldly Knight, there is no way that I can be devoured by these stellar geniuses!'
The pain from the enlightening platform was completely evaporated by the awakening of an ego.
On the last night of the program to nurture potential stellar geniuses, Melissa opened her mind's eye...!