Chapter Nine

Starting from Scratch– Part Two.

“What in the name of the Goddess happened there, Aelius? Explain yourself!” Instructor Williams demanded, his shoulders hunched in anger and outrage.

Opposite him, Aelius stood at the teacher’s office with his hands behind his back, at attention, without even caring to meet the instructor’s eyes. While staring dead ahead, he answered with disinterest, “Just a normal spar, what else?”

“A normal spar? He lost his arm and had half his right lung blown out!”

“I went for his right lung instead of his heart so that I wouldn’t kill him. What’s the problem? It’s not the first time Healing Magic was needed to reattach some limbs after a spar. Or are you upset because I wasn’t supposed to win?” Aelius slammed a fist down on the Instructor’s desk. “What’s your problem?”

The grown man met the teenager’s eyes and felt a shiver run down his spine. Why was this young teenager suddenly giving off so much pressure? Williams could recall only once in his past life when he felt his pressure– from his father, a renowned Swordmaster at the pinnacle of the Eighth Star. How was he giving off the same murderous intent?

“No,” Williams sighed. “It’s not about you suddenly winning. When you asked me to hand you a sword, I never would’ve thought this would be the result. Just how could you do such a thing to a fellow student?”

“I did it rather easily, actually. He was completely defenceless.” Aelius stepped back and crossed his arms, recalling the duel.

Dylan’s stance was full of openings, and as soon as the Instructor whistled to start, he tried to swing a punch. But Aelius could see the line running from his shoulder down the side of his body. He could see all the vitals and weak points. He could see a hundred thousand ways to smother the boy’s fragile life with a single move. Without even needing to use a stance, Aelius simply raised the tip of the blade and lowered it. One arm, gone. Then, he weakly stabbed the blade forward. Right lung, gone.

“For the pinnacle of swordsmanship, a single step is enough. For even further beyond, a single inch is enough,” Aelius whispered to himself.

“What…? Okay, just don’t do something like that again,” Williams groaned.

“I only moved my blade half a waist’s length. Am I supposed to not even move?”

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“How about you fight with magic? Hmm? This is not a Knight’s Academy.”

“Magic,” Aelius scoffed. “We’ll see how Magic works for you when your life is in danger.” He spun around and stomped out the office, slamming the door behind him.

“H-hey. Hey! Get back here, young man,” Williams shouted but the normally obedient student entirely ignored him. “This is gross disobedience and it is not tolerated in this Academy!” Williams stepped out into the corridor to chase him but almost ran into another student.

“Excuse me…” He tried to step past until he noticed it was actually Dylan. The student’s crazed red eyes unable to even perceive Williams, clutching his freshly reattached arm.

“Dylan? What are you doing?” Williams looked down the corridor and saw Aelius walking away.

“Hey nerd!” Dylan shouted and Aelius turned with a raised brow. “You’re gonna pay for that!” He raised his hands over his head, conjuring a ball of energy that grew larger and larger in his palms

“Dylan, what are you doing? Are you mad!?” Williams shouted, attempting to step forward to intervene but then pinned against the wall by the radiating energy from the spell.

“You won’t survive this,” Dylan laughed manically “Fifth Star– Ground Shatter!” He slammed the ball of energy into the ground and it shot toward Aelius at an alarming pace.

“No, Dylan!” Williams shouted as the ball crossed the corridor toward its target. As it travelled, it warped and shook the building and walls around it like a tornado twisting all in its path. “Aelius! Run away!”

But it was too fast to dodge. It was an ambush attack Aelius was unguarded against.

“You cowardly…!” Aelius grit his teeth as he raised his hand into the air. “Little bastard. Fifth Star– Tortoise Breath!” Starting from the centre of his chest, an immense amount of Mana gushed through Aelius’ veins and travelled to his fingertips. The spell rapidly assembled and completed, and Aelius stomped the floor in front of him just as Dylan’s attack reached.

The effect of his spell sent the rocks and stone beneath the ground rising up to form an impenetrable cocoon. Pressed against it, Aelius was safe from the lethal spell fired his way. As he saw the debris go flying past, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest and coughed.

But it didn’t sound like a normal cough– it sounded strangely wet and spluttery. Looking down, Aelius saw a gallon of blood drenching his chest, trailing from his mouth.

Then came the pain– the feeling that every cell in his body was trying to implode on itself.

“Argh…” Aelius clutched his chest, unable to breath. Damn, why does it hurt so bad?

He went collapsing over onto the ground, gasping for air, black dots obscuring his vision. There were only a few times in his past life he had felt this pain; this pain he had long forgotten.

The black dots grew greater and greater in number, until Aelius could see nothing at all, and his mind gave way to the darkness.

It was the pain of someone casting Magic they ought not to have.