First he embarrasses the twin archangels, then he embarrasses the rest of us! This cannot continue. The burly boy, with his House’s symbol proudly embroidered on his uniform in golden thread, fumed as he watched Rai dismantle his spear-bearing senior. He was part of the Justice clan, and everything that Rai did was an affront to their noble pride. It was unforgivable.

A conceited, slithery, voice came from his left, “Hey... Pico... You angry about that brat? He came to our society and now the professors are forcing us to fight him. It’s an embarrassment!” They were sat towards the left end of the top row, which meant that they would be two of the last people to enter the ring.

The burly boy, Pico, held his gaze in Rai’s direction. The more he watched, the angrier he got.

The slithery voice rose among the shouts of the second years, this time it sounded more worried than before, “Pico! Your murderous intent is showing!”

Rai looked directly into Pico’s eyes from the field. Lightning trickled off of Rai’s body, but his eyes were terrifying. His sclera was bright blue, and his irises were pure white. Pico aimed for them. He would destroy those powerful eyes; he would steal that power for himself.

Pico’s thought about the honour of his House. The Daem family. His House was a huge source of pride. They had vast knowledge of the arcana, of black magic. Pico himself begged to be partially altered through his family's magical experimentation. Of course, while he was at the Academy he wouldn’t reveal any of those parts of himself, otherwise he could get his House in trouble.

Pico finally spoke, his deep voice matching his relatively large body, “You’re slippery right, Damien?”

The boy who’d previously spoken with the slithery voice nodded.

Pico grimly smiled, “You can weaken him, then I’ll kill him.”

Damien wanted to get into Pico’s good books. After hearing the rumour that Pico's House often augmented those who held close ties with them, Damien began coveting the Daem family’s treasures. He dared not hide it. “What will I get in return, eldest of the Daem?”

Pico glared at him with disgust. He grunted, “Hmph. I’ll consider mentioning your name to father.”

Damien felt like that was all he could get from this exchange. He smiled in return, his slithery voice seeping out once more, “That's all I needed to hear.” He giggled to himself.

Pico viewed him as a slime. Someone who could only leech off others. But even slimes had their uses.

 

---

 

Rai continued his fights against the adventurer society members. He took the opportunity to learn about how each of the different weapon types worked. Some used swords and shields, some used unconventional weapons such as staves or whips. It was a treasure trove of knowledge. Something of a blessing that the headmaster probably intended for Rai to learn from, he thought.

Still, he felt the killing intent strongly from the big guy in the group. Rai was worried that he might actually have to go beyond using only a fifth of his mana. He’d maintained Stormflow at half of its maximum intensity this entire time. It was more than enough to deal with all of the people he’d faced thus far, but if he had to push it to its limit then he wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.

Eventually, the contestants stopped bothering to mention their family names or Houses, and sought only to fight him. They were done with the frivolities, and were almost entirely serious about the battles now. He noticed their attitudes changed from those of broken prides, to those of thrill and enjoyment at the challenge. They tried to learn from the fights, just as he did.

This was what he enjoyed about fighting, and what he was missing earlier. Before, at Devil’s Secret, he fought against his friends in a spar to show off his abilities. But it felt empty, devoid of any meaning. That feeling of emptiness damn near broke him. But now, the thing that Rai considered a core part of himself, had meaning again.

Rai loved fighting. He loved growing, and improving.

After most of the contestants lost against Rai and sat on the other side of the arena, they discussed their battles amongst each other, acting as students of their own curiosities once more. But there were still a couple of people who remained. These two maintained their levels of animosity towards Rai. One was the huge burly guy whose killing intent was still burning as bright as it was before. The other was a smaller man who moved with a strange swaying movement as he walked down to the arena.

He looked like he was giggling to himself. Rai overheard some muttering coming from his direction.

“Gonna get augments. Haha. I’ll be strong. Stronger than him! Might even get my hair back, hehe.” His voice moved between different tones based on what he was saying. It felt like he was lost in his own delusions. Regardless of how unhinged he sounded, he went to the weapon rack and picked out a weapon.

Rai’s voice came out with a crackling hum. “What’s your name?”

The boy with the receding hairline whipped his head back around to look at Rai, then deigned not to answer his question.

Rai wasn’t used to this type of disrespect, especially in a sparring situation. His voice crackled with more violent energy. The atmosphere became tense enough for the onlookers to pause their conversations and pay attention to the arena. “I said, what’s your name?”

This time, the balding boy looked down at his arm. His hairs were standing up. He whipped around with his whole body to face Rai. “I’m Damien! You’ll regret coming to our society this day!” He looked up at Pico and winked. Pico facepalmed.

Rai eyed him with anticipation. After a moment, Damien walked into the arena brandishing a gauntlet on either hand. They weren’t made to be spiked, but Damien used magic to form ice spikes on the front end of both gauntlets.

Rai readied his sword, then waited for the go ahead from Joey.

Joey cleared his throat, then asked the two if they were ready. They nodded.

“3... 2... 1... Begin!”

Damien punched the ground. Ice spikes rose out of the ground sequentially, until they reached Rai.

Rai sidestepped with ease; Stormflow made it seem like the ice spikes were moving in slow motion.

Damien anxiously started scratching his neck, trying to figure out what to do.

Rai felt the moment of hesitation. In an instant, Rai was beside Damien. He sliced upwards, aiming for Damien’s jaw.

Damien twisted his body to the side. Rai’s eyes widened; Does he not have bones? How does he move like that?

Rai pivoted on his feet. He spun around and forced his blade along a different path, aimed at Damien’s torso.

Damien twisted again, but this time it was almost like he defied the bounds of mortality. He swung his body around to avoid the strike, then aimed his fist out to hit Rai in the shoulder.

Rai was caught off guard, but didn’t allow Damien to hit him. He used wind magic to rotate Damien’s fist as it was about to reach his shoulder.

Damien felt his hand almost rip off its joint. The wind current was so strong that it could’ve completely destroyed his whole arm if he wasn’t careful.

In this fight, Rai wasn’t sure how to win without seriously hurting Damien. Damien’s body twisted and bent like nothing he’d ever seen before. It was impossible to hit him without moving so fast that Rai would rip him to shreds. Rai tried to strategise and come up with a way to win. What if... What if I don’t try to hit him at all.

By this point, the rest of the second years who were in the stands on the same side as Joey were paying full attention to this fight. It felt far more like Rai was being matched by someone competent compared to the previous fights.

Rai released Stormflow.

Rodrick’s interest in this fight peaked. He wasn’t expecting that. Even Joey was watching expectantly. He knew that Stormflow was Rai’s signature technique.

The spectators were just as baffled, but Pico’s attitude didn’t change. He was still blinded by his own rage.

Rai surprised everyone. He snapped his fingers with a red spark, then guided his hand to trace a circle around the two contestants. A ring of fire ignited in the arena, with the two fighters within it. The wild flames grew tall, but their roots didn’t grow outwards. They remained in the confines that Rai set for them.

Rai decided to turn this battle into one of attrition. If he couldn’t hit Damien, then he would force Damien to make a mistake. Rai’s goal wasn’t to end the fight in a single strike, but to hurl an onslaught of spells towards Damien, wearing down his stamina and mana reserves.

And so he did. Rai started with a myriad of fireballs. They manifested around him, then shot off towards Damien.

Damien had no choice but to dodge them all, but if he was to walk into the blistering hot wall of fire then he would burn even moreso. It was tricky, but his uncanny body allowed him to dodge them, just about.

Rai switched up his projectiles between fireballs, ice shards, and wind scythes. After a few minutes of Rai’s onslaught, Damien made a crucial mistake. He misjudged the amount of movement required to dodge a blunt shard of ice, and plunged directly into the flame wall.

The wall looked like it was a normal fire, but the flames themselves were thick, almost viscous, like lava. He stopped his whole body from becoming enveloped in the flames by pushing his hands against them. While this course of action saved the rest of his body, it was unfortunate for Damien that his hands just happened to be the sacrifice. What made it worse was that his gauntlets melted against the wall. Directly onto his skin.

Damien’s hands burned. He, subsequently, screamed in pain. The skin and muscle around his fingers and palm melted away into a mess of fused gore and blood that dripped onto the ground. The molten metal from his gauntlets ate away at his bones.

Joey reached out his hand, forming an orb of water around Damien. His hands were practically gone, with only the bones of his arms remaining. The only reason Joey let this fight go on as long as it did was because he had complete faith in the Academy’s medical system. It wouldn’t be the first time that the medics would need to recreate someone’s body part.

The fight was over. Damien was taken away by the water orb towards the infirmary. Rai released the flame wall, which drained but a fraction of what Stormflow would've drained from him had he maintained it throughout. In the end, his tactical decision paid off, and he won the bout.

This eerie feeling... It’s even stronger than before! Rai looked up at Pico.

Pico was the spitting image of unbridled fury, “YOU WEAKLINGS! HOW CAN YOU LOSE TO THIS FIRST YEAR?!” He yelled out to the rest of the society on the other side of the room.

They looked defeated. None could refute his point. It was a disappointment to them all that they’d lost, but many of them found solace in the fact that they would learn from this. Some even wanted to fight against Rai more often, so they could continue to improve their own skills.

Rai re-entered Stormflow.

Thunder boomed throughout the hall. Rai finally reflected Pico’s killing intent. “All I see up there is a spoiled brat who doesn’t know his limits. If you think you can do better, get the fuck down here and fight me!”

Rodrick watched the events unfold, and elected to do nothing. He was far too fascinated in Rai and his abilities to want to intervene. Joey stared at him with a look on his face that pleaded for Rodrick to intervene and stop the fight before it began. It got his attention, but Rodrick simply shook his head. He wanted to see how this would play out. If he had an ability that allowed him to mentally communicate, then he would scold Joey for forsaking his own morbid curiosity.

However, Rodrick made a mistake by not stopping this fight. For its outcome would result in a catastrophe of untold proportions.

Pico made his way down to the field. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head. “You made your deathbed yet, no-name?”

A humming crackle seeped out of Rai’s mouth before he spoke, “You're too weak to even think about trying to kill me.”

Pico cackled maniacally, “You see how the professors don't act, even now? They think that neither of us will get hurt...” He slammed his foot on the ground, instantly forming a huge rune. They were locked in by a barrier. “LOOKS LIKE THEY'LL HAVE TO THINK AGAIN!”

Worried gasps came from the group of students. They knew that Pico was easy to anger, but none of them expected that he'd do something like this. Some of them froze, not knowing what to do.

Joey took action, regardless of the headmaster’s decision. He fired spell after spell at the purple hued barrier. Nothing. There was no feedback, no reaction, nothing at all.

It was too late.

The students behind him were still scared, but they'd come to respect Rai after their battles with him. Those who weren't frozen in their own fear tried helping Joey by firing their own spells at the barrier. Still, nothing worked.

Joey kissed his teeth. “Tch.” He looked at Rodrick, who was completely engrossed in the display. The headmaster was completely unreliable, and if not for his stubbornness there would be no problem here.

Before Joey could do anything else, Pico’s cackle echoed throughout the room. “Let’s go play somewhere else, lightning boy.” The inside wall of the barrier began sweating black goop, covering the entirety of the field within. Joey's eyes widened, Shit! An epic spell! That damned fool! He whipped his head around to look at the headmaster. Rodrick was silent, unmoving. What the fuck is he doing?! He could stop this if he wanted to!

With an outward wave of necrotic energy, the goop disappeared. The barrier and the huge rune on the floor disappeared alongside it.

Rai and Pico were gone.

Everyone was silent.