Sat at his desk Malice was intrigued as to how the brawl between his classmates would play out but there was a chance he would be caught with them and punished, which would be better if avoided. A few minutes passed and Teacher Li appeared out of nowhere again, this time Malice caught a glimpse of a blue trail with a green tint to it making Malice instantly aware that this Teacher Li was in the Sky Mythril Realm.
'Teacher Li seems to be in his late 30's and has almost entered the heaven realm, I'm uncertain if that is good for that age but from what I understand Dantallion and Violets father are in the Royal realm and are around the same age im guessing, so either Teacher Li is average or Dantallion and the Venomwind Head are simply exceptional.' Malice was comparing the strengths of his seniors and made him wonder how strong Elder Klaud, the man who brought him to the capital, was. 'I reckon he was in the heaven realm, thinking of the strength of those in the Sky realm is already unfathomable let alone a realm or to higher.' Malice could only be in awe of the power people had around him, utilising it as a motivation is all he could do with this knowledge for now though. Meanwhile Malice was in deep contemplation six students entered the room, Mars was among them with a bloodied nose and some early forming bruises, however Monty was nowhere to be seen making the other kids chat amongst themselves.
"Where have you all been? You’re only slightly late so I will let it go, was Monty with you?" Teacher Li didn’t seem too bothered by their late arrival and just wanted to know where Monty was.
"We were just play fighting outside, Monty was a bit too rough and cut his head, the healer said that he would be fine, we still don’t know how it happened." Charles spoke up and confusion was displayed across his face, he really wasn’t sure how Monty suddenly received a deep cut across his cheek and eye.
"Well as long as he is fine, he can join us later. I must apologise for my absence yesterday but you can rest easy knowing I returned safely. Now I want everyone to get up and stand on each side of the classroom, make sure there is an equal amount of people on each side." Teacher Li coordinated the class to split in half, the class usually has 21 students so with Monty’s absence the class could split into equals.
Each side stood in a row facing someone on the opposite side, Malice was across from a boy who looked only slightly less noble than Malice himself, he guessed the boy was from a prominent family and had a decent background supporting him after all he seemed to be infinitely close to having a foundation spell.
"Alright everyone we are going to play a little game, you will face the person opposite you and project your essence, you will do this until one of you concedes or is too exhausted, that will be the end of one round. You guys on the right side of the class will shift to the right and then proceed to project your essence to the opposite person. Choose your battles wisely as you will only get a minutes rest after each round. Alright then begin!" Teacher Li explained the rules of a game that everyone was to take part in, everyone looked ready to go and showed their desire to show off.
Malice looked at the boy opposite him and didn’t really think at his stage that the boy let alone anyone in the class could rival him, but what this game could test if not his strength, was his endurance as if he were to constantly exert essence he could see how long his strength could last.
Almost everyone witnessed Malice utilise his foundation spell earlier so the boy most likely knew he wouldn’t win but that didn’t mean he wouldn't give it a go. So while Malice was thinking how much power to use the boy sent out his essence, it had an earthly feeling to it as if he was blowing rocks at Malice’s face, naturally Malice wasn’t going to take it so he urged his essence to flow and surround his opponents, he planned to trap his opponents essence for as long as he could endure. Malice understood that if he was to go at his opponent directly the suffocating feeling of an army of swords would definitely petrify him, after all even Malice felt fear from his aura and that was when he was only at Mortal Iron realm.
After a few minutes the boy stopped and conceded, given that Malice’s essence was much stronger, lasting a few minutes was already something to be proud of. Malice felt he could endure another few people before he got tired. This assumption proved to be correct because after the forth round Malice actually needed to utilise the break and take in surrounding essence however whilst he was doing this he felt the essence to be much more pure and almost more denser, from this his recovery was much quicker, even his essence felt like it was being nurtured.
'This has to be Teacher Li's essence he is dispersing it around the class so we recover quicker, it is even helping refine our essence even though it isn't making a huge impact, it is definitely noticeable even for me at the Mortal Copper Realm. So this game was to make our endurance better on top of nurturing and helping refine our essence, if we did this exercise for a few days to a week then it wouldn’t be surprising if everyone here ranked up.' Malice may have looked down on Teacher Li's cultivation level compared to others his age, but he was for sure a good teacher.
After several rounds the students felt stronger like something inside them had fundamentally changed which boosted their attitude to win. Malice obviously had yet to lose and was now up against Mars, who surprisingly, to some not so much, hadn’t lost either. Standing opposite him Malice saw the tenacious nature of Mars, he could sense weakness and fear but also the will to fight which was an odd combination for sure but Malice knew this boy was fuelled by his emotions, a good kid who broke the norms of society. Now Malice wanted to test him for real, a pure essence clash to measure the true strength of this kid.
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With the signal from Teacher Li everyone began, Malice called forth his Serpentine Aura that violently exploded towards Mars, as though it encountered an illusory wall the Serpentine essence halted but still maintained its power like a flame colliding with a steel door, and just like that with enough power Malice’s essence was going to break through. More and more the essence cascaded against what could only be Mars essence, slowly the essence was breaking the shell that Mars created and before long seemed to burst through in small streams, a cracked dam ready to burst through with tremendous power.
Mars panted and seemed weak and almost unconscious all the while Malice thought he could erupt essence for two fold the original time he lasted and whilst he was about to make the final push he sensed a disturbing force coming straight for his eye as though a ghostly arrow was about to strike, forgetting about the game he enveloped himself in as much aura and essence he could muster, the sheer feeling it invoked made those near malice feel like they were being hung by a noose over a pit of blades, the pure terror made those with less essence collapse. The attack met with Malice, the aura around him held steady and yet Malice still felt like his brain was pierced making him collapse to the floor. Thus ended the round, Malice had lost because he stopped his essence flow for less than a second, he was physically fine and only felt a strange headache. Malice sat up and a bloodthirsty look in his eyes was quickly hidden, but not quick enough for Teacher Li to miss it.
'That fucker could’ve killed me, I don’t know the damage I would have received without the aura around me, I could have died for all I know. I aint sure if it was his doing either but Mars I swear if I find out it was you, I'll show you the pain of being pierced through the brain.' Malice may have been overreacting but that was natural for someone who had their life threatened. The reality of the situation was in fact that Mars used his foundation spell, however unbeknownst to Malice, Mars' spell only has the ability to disorientate or cut someone and isn’t anywhere close to being lethal yet.
"Alright everyone that will be the end of the Game, well done to those of you who won, if you lost you should be able to see how you can change yourself to win in the future, development is what we desire here at the institute and even if you progress little by little that is still fine. You may now go for a break, Malice you could please stay behind for a bit." Teacher Li dismissed the class and sat in his chair waiting for Malice.
"I see you are advancing at a much quicker pace than your classmates, but it seems you are ruled by your emotions I could see the anger and contempt in your eyes when you lost to Mars. A Magus must learn to cast aside their emotions and only when they reach an enlightenment of sorts do they ascend at an even faster pace. I was young and full of vigour once and now although I seem eccentric I have put thoughts of rage and arrogance outside my mind and have achieved higher realms much quicker." Teacher Li seemed to be cautioning Malice that his emotions would lead him to his downfall.
"No offence Teacher Li but I know of experts younger than you who are several Realms higher, my emotions are my driving force behind cultivation, if I was completely unfeeling without the rage that pushes me, I would simply live my life as the young master of the Darkblight on my home estate that is completely barren of all life. Because of people with emotions of hate did those lands become barren, My parents died due to hate and suffering so I think I'm entitled to take on those emotions myself and cultivate the way I wish to." Malice’s eyes were bloodshot this was the first time he had let out his grief to this extent, realising what had happened Malice turned and left.
"I said that hoping you would agree, when one cultivates through rage, they become something completely different from a Magus, I hope he finds fault in his ways and changes for his own good." Teacher Li could only sigh at Malice’s response and resumed reading some scripture.
Malice didn't go to find Violet or Bella during his break like he would normally do, instead he headed outside the main building and towards a certain block of buildings, amongst them were several large mansions, clearly reserved for those of exceptional wealth and status.
'I thought my treatment was good, clearly the nobility of Zafaris are treated like kings here in the institute, then again they could just go home it aint that far. Ah well it doesn’t matter I’ve got to attend to this problem Lillian has given me.' Malice studied each mansion which each had unique names given to them, the building Malice was trying to find was called Snowsea Manor.
After walking through the maze of manors and mansions Malice finally set his sights on Snowsea Manor, it wasn’t remarkable and just looked like all the other large buildings, that didn’t matter now what did was whether or not Josha Chevalier was within. Malice was thinking that attacking at night would be the best but the security during the day was much more lax.
'I have to be able to transport him to the Blood Pit without being seen, also I am unsure if he has personal guards. I suppose I can do a little more recon to be sure.' Malice approached the Manor and knocked on the door, what greeted him when the door opened was a young man in a butlers uniform.
"Can I help you sir?" The butler looked like simply saying those words made him angry, Malice could only guess he was a servant that was forced to do this type of job, basically a slave.
"I'm looking for my friend Josha is there any chance he is here right now?" Malice smiled and acted his age for once. The butler looked at Malice carefully and them let him in. He was about to say something but before he could Malice drew a knife to his throat and said "Now listen to me carefully."