When Leo arrived at the training grounds, the sun was up high and the whole place was bustling with activity. The highlight, of course, were the several arenas that somewhat reminded Leo of the floating island in the Golden city that housed the local Combat division.
It didn’t take long for him to locate Kevin and Harold, but there was no sight of the two girls and Claude. Kevin just finished a spar with a tall and athletic student, that looked few years older and, judging by the opponent’s sour expression, Kevin won. It seemed there was also a prize and the looser had to pay the winner few immortal spirit stones.
What confused Leo greatly was that the not so numerous female students didn’t pay any heed to the great genius from the Golden city and no one payed a special attention to them as well. In the Sacred Order the guys were running after boobies and round butts like madmen, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths, but here … it was like genders didn’t even exist.
Currently in one of the arenas a half naked muscular guy had turned a rather pretty girl into a punching bag and within moments there was nothing left from her good looks – instead of a face there was a swollen and bloodied piece of flesh.
In the arena next to them the spar went the opposite direction and a young lady of a short stature energetically kicked her male opponent in the nuts several times in succession and, if he didn’t have the regenerative abilities of a cultivator at the Core formation stage, there was no way he could ever have children in the future. The guy passed out from pain in an instant, but the audience didn’t have any reaction at all – apparently underhanded methods were a norm around here.
“Ok, you country bumpkin! Let’s go for the second round!” Harold’s voice returned Leo to the reality.
Turns out the two friends from the Golden city also noticed him – apparently it was not that hard to spot a guy with the Cleaver in the crowd. Of course, Harold’s taunt was just a joke, but Leo gladly agreed to his challenge. He was itching to see how his progress has been in comparison to a real genius.
Since it was the first real study day for the new students in the academy, senior students felt obliged to show them their place. On the other hand the new ones were fired up to prove themselves thus the line to compete in the few arenas was rather long. While waiting, the trio couldn’t freely speak about the ‘important’ stuff, thus Kevin caught Leo up with the latest.
“… apparently elder Mist already knew of Claude and Alice. She forbade them to take part in an actual combat for now since technically they are alchemists. The same with Fan Yun. From the first look it might seem that the life in the academy is rather chaotic, but actually it’s not even close. The elders are watching over everything closely and guiding their students according to their needs.” He explained, “How about you? Your teacher is actually a legendary figure, you know …”
Leo noticed Kevin didn’t call elder Li by name, probably to not call for unnecessary attention from the bystanders.
“He’s alright.” He shrugged off the question, “Elder didn’t have much free time so I guess I’ll listen to the lectures from the other elders for now.”
“Where are you staying?” Harold asked.
“Well … I’ve a house … it’s a bit far though.” Leo said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, “But running over here is a good practice, you know …”
“Alright! Let’s see how you have practiced during the past years!” Harold grinned.
Turns out most fights were very short and it was already their turn.
“It might get broken.” Leo pointed at Harold’s sword when they already stood in the arena.
“Mhm.” Harold seriously nodded and put the sword away, “But I’m not gonna hold back – the Cleaver will slow you down.”
“Thanks! Good idea!” Leo nodded and put his weapon away as well.
Their words slightly confused the audience, but it didn’t matter since the fight began right after. The two youths went at each other without holding back and within moments it was clear which was the stronger one.
Harold’s techniques were pristine and polished close to perfection, but Leo’s advantage lie in incredible bursts of speed. While from the onlooker’s perspective the fight seemed one sided, only Harold knew how tricky Leo’s attacks were. While he managed to land quite a few blows, Leo glazed his shoulder only once, but even then it took all the willpower Harold had to lift up his arm, fighting trough the pain.
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Even blocking Leo’s blows felt painful and after a couple of exchanges Harold never took another attack head on, only dodged. Contrary to him, Leo didn’t shy off and took on all the attacks. He wasn’t happy about that since it reminded him of their duel back in the Golden city, but once again it showed the difference in skill between him and a true genius.
What made Leo delighted was that his footwork and the actual movement speed was superior to Harold’s and it finally gave him the sense of belonging. Yes, he didn’t know any fancy techniques and had no clue how to properly wield a weapon, but he was better at least in something.
The fight ended as expected with Harold knocking Leo down in the end, but for some strange reason the looser passed out with a smile on his face while the winner picked him up and carried away with a complicated expression. Since another pair of challengers arrived right after, the spectators soon forgot about the last duel that somewhat resembled a brawl and focused on the other people who will fight with and along side of them for years to come.
“Fast, huh?” Kevin asked Harold with a smile when they sat down in the grass, further away from the crowd.
“Mhm.” Harold nodded, throwing a complicated glance to the side where Leo lie, “Of course, he would be an easy picking in an armed fight, but for someone from a mortal realm to grow this much in such short period of time … are you sure he has no talent?”
“Both my father and master Zaraki said so.” Kevin carelessly shrugged, “But I wouldn’t be so certain about you winning with a weapon. He’s too honest to think of complicated schemes and I believe he had the ability to break your sword if he said so.”
“Maybe.” Harold was not so convinced, “We’ll have few years to verify that.”
“That is if they allow him to stay here.” Kevin added.
They chatter for a while until Leo woke up and then went to the canteen to have a lunch where they met up with Hubert siblings and Fan Yun. Since the first day of studies was kind of ‘introductory’, there was nothing much going on and the youths could hang around for the rest of the day, and used the time to explore the War Academy.
The next day Leo left the shack even earlier and ran faster, allowing him to actually listen to some lectures. The problem was – even though the elders used familiar words, he didn’t have the slightest clue what they spoke about. Clearly all the subjects were too advanced for the guy form a mortal realm and he lacked the fundamentals in basically every area. As the result his mood was severely dampened and when finally the rest realized what his long face was about, they simply advised him to go to the library to read up on the subjects he didn’t know and to not shy off from asking questions, no matter how silly they seemed.
During the next few days Leo followed the advice and threw the shame aside, asking every elder all the questions that arose despite other students making fun of him. Listening to Kevin’s suggestion, he challenged the ones who jeered the most to fights, the only issue was that he lost most of the time.
That resulted in the next problem – he rather quickly ran out of the few spirit stones he had since every duel required a wager and in a couple of days he once again was as poor as a pauper. And, of course, now people had another reason to laugh him. His friends form the Golden city did try to offer him a financial support, but Leo, as a true man from the Renaud family, still had his pride and refused to accept a single spirit stone.
When Leo thought things couldn’t go worse, his so called ‘master’ showed up one evening at his house and forbade him to listen to any lectures. There was no explanation – just another rule, next to the rule number one – don’t step in the grassy plains.
Leo loved rules, especially his own, but elder Li’s rules and, particularly the second one, was killing him. He was in the most famous academy in all realms and was not allowed to learn. He could, of course, go to the library, but as it turned out one needed some kind of contribution points only to enter, to not speak of reading books!
Technically it was possible to earn contribution points around the academy by picking up some menial tasks, like doing dishes or sweeping walkways, but almost as he could read Leo’s mind, the moment the youth though of it, elder Li showed up and set another rule forbidding it.
Thus few days after his arrival to the academy, Leo had been beaten up multiple times while loosing the last spirit stones, had made a fool of himself in front of his friends, elders and other students by asking silly questions and in the end cut off any chance of educating himself. It was a complete disaster!
When Leo first came to this conclusion, his first impulse was to go and get some Firewater and then drink himself to death from shame. The problem was – he had no means to purchase anything, but it would take a suicidal person to try to steal in the War Academy that was full of hidden and not so hidden experts.
The only thing he could do was to have his meals in canteen, but every time he stepped in there, he felt the judging and jeering looks from the rest. The romantic life he hoped for in the immortal realm turned out to not be as incredible after all.
It was only a couple days after Leo stopped going to the training grounds he realized that despite the elder setting few rules for him, there was no rule he can’t leave! That was it! He was just a puny talentless nobody from a mortal realm that no one needed here! But since the Immortal Alliance didn’t kill off people just because they didn’t like them, he had to figure out he was not welcomed here on his own!
‘Of course!’ Leo felt like smacking himself, ‘What made me think I have right to put myself on the same level as Kevin Shaw?! What an idiot! It was a boon the guys allowed me to hang out with them despite us being from different worlds and I’ll never forget that. Unfortunately there is no way for me to ever repay them since they already have everything in the world.’
Leo considered whether he should go and say goodbyes, but in the end decided against it. When he closed the door behind him and left the small shack on the Thirteenth peak, it felt though like there was something stuck in his chest, something heavy that didn’t allow him to freely breathe.
‘That’s how one feels when their illusions shatter!’ Leo laughed to himself, but the corners of his eyes got slightly wet.
This was the world he longed to be a part of, but it was not ‘his’ place. Then he took the cleaver off his back and leaned it at the shack’s wall – if Kevin came looking for him, he’ll understand the message. Afterwards, without looking back, he charged down the mountain’s northern slope, directly in the forest.