Horác didn’t think that she could reach this far. Usually, after a month it was good if they could stop their sink at the height of their waist. After that, it was extremely hard to hold up their weight.

„Can you show me how far you reached with the water puppet control?”

Belinda nodded and sat next to the lake. She put her hand on the water and closed her eyes. She imagined a cat. How it ran, how it sat, how it playing around, and slowly the picture became clearer in her head.

The cat emerged from the water and walked up to Horác. It rubbed to his leg.

Horác was shocked. He took the cat in his arms and watched it carefully. It wasn’t a water puppet, but a water servant. Its appearance was almost perfect and he saw a little life in its eyes. He stroked it and the cat happily lay in his arms.

Belinda watched it a little nervously. She knew her limit and that time already passed, she didn’t know when it would disappear. If it wet Horác clothes… she didn’t want to know how he would punish her.

After some minutes the cat jumped out from Horác’s arms and walked back to Belinda. It looked at her, then suddenly turned back to water.

Horác saw a little soul fragment fly into Belinda’s body. He didn’t mistake it, it really started to form a soul.

„Why are you surprised?” Horác felt it was funny to see Belinda’s lost expression.

„It’s the first time it lasted for so long.”

„… What did you differently than usual?”

„Uhh, I practice to walk on the water here, and I try to control the water when I sit in the bathtub.”

„Stupid! The tub has a warming array on it. Do you forget that you have a yin body? It’s cold energy! Of course, you need cold water! The colder the better!” Horác flicked Belinda’s forehead. „And I tried to find out why you improved so fast! Controlling that hot water in the tub just how hard it is.” he thought about it a little, then smiled. „Just continue this way. It helps you improve faster. Oh, and I won’t give you points, I’ll buy you something else.”

The soul fragment would disappear after a while. It needed to be placed in a special stone that could protect it, but the stone was rare and expensive. Every month in the auction there was only 1 or 2, but for Horác it was really easy to get it. He just needed to offer a drop of his blood and immortals would stand in line in front of his door for exchange.

Creating a perfect soul was extremely rare, but just a fragment could already help its master. Usually, they used them to get information or help during fights, but a fragment didn’t last more than half an hour, so most people gave up on them.

Those stones weren’t sold in the Academy, so Horác needed to visit the city. He thought about taking Belinda with him, but that would mean she skip some training, so he threw away the idea.

„Why did you create the cat that way?” he couldn’t understand how she ended up creating a soul fragment.

„… Didn’t you said that I need to imagine it?” Belinda was confused. She just followed his teaching.

„Uh…” he really did say that, but only needed to imagine its appearance… And why did she think that it’s controlling when the cat moved itself? He didn’t understand. He realized his lack of actual combat teaching.

„Okay. Later I’ll give you some books, read them. Now let’s go to the Arena.”

Horác let her continue to practice this way, so the soul fragment couldn’t disappear but made it stronger. He wanted to see how far she could reach.

The arena was full with students. Starting from the 3rd year, every students’ month end exam was to have a match. This event lasted for 4 days.

Horác walked in as a king, but Belinda felt the pressure was too big.

  Shit! Those gossips just stopped! And this time so many people can see my face!!

She slowed down and tried to erase her presence. She walked slowly as if they weren’t together, but Horác didn’t let her hide. He stopped and turned back.

„Come on! We’ll be late!” he smiled and walked away.

Belinda felt desperate but followed him. She heard the others whispered.

  Aah, from tomorrow onwards it will be another hard time!

She cried a river in her heart.

They went to the viewing platform and sat down. It was bigger than Belinda imagined. Under them, there were 20 stages, and boards on their side showed whose match was on and who the next would be.

„How is it?” Horác asked happily. He really enjoyed the atmosphere.

„Uh…” Belinda felt the cold sweat run down on her face. „I can’t see anything… they are too fast!” she felt her head hurts.

„Ups…” Horác realized, he did a big mistake! Belinda’s cultivation was too low. He looked around and saw other first year students. They had talismans taped to their forehead and watched the matches with excitement.

„Stay here, I’ll be back right away!”

Belinda looked after him, helplessly. She shook her head and read the participants’ list. She really found Bertold’s name on it! And his opponent was that womanizer Zotmund. If it was not Gregori who mentioned him sometimes, she was sure, she already forgot his existence…

There were some matches before theirs. She wanted to see it, but she was afraid, their fight would be faster than the ones now happening…

She lazily lay back in the chair and waited patiently. She couldn’t do anything else anyway.

After some minutes Horác found the talismans’ seller. Because the student was too frightened of him, he gave it to him for free. Horác was satisfied. He didn’t care for money, but who didn’t like to get things for free?

„Thanks. If you ever need any kind of poison, come to me, I’ll give you a discount!” he laughed happily and the kid shook violently.