In a packed dirt pit a young boy with gloves on his hands and holding onto a pair of Tonfa blades that run parallel to his arms stands across from a man who looks like he couldn’t be more delighted at the thought of fighting and brutalizing if not killing a child.
“You two know the rules. If the champ wins then the fighters contract gets extended ten years and if the fighter wins then they walk out those doors a free man with a magic contract backed guarantee they won’t get killed or attacked as long as they leave the city within three days. Afterall I don’t need some lucky upstart to start a fighter rebellion or anything.” grins the pitmaster as he looks down at the pit.
“You ready brat? I knew you’d be challenging me sooner or later, could tell from that look in your eyes.” Glaston taunts with a savage grin across his face as he circles around the ring.
“Yea I’m ready Glaston. Ready to leave this place after your corpse hits the ground.” answers back Seren as he circles across from the champion of the pit.
Knowing his new ability to use Aura will only work once before Glaston is on guard against it and the fact he’s only had the practice with using Presence prior to this he taunts Glaston into an easy charge so he can quickly counterattack. Glaston with a grunt and a fierce stomp takes the bait and charges directly at the young boy who with naught but a moment to spare immediately shocks him by releasing all his aura directly at him to stun him for a moment, rolls through his legs and with his blade he gathers all his body strength, wraps his blade with telekinetic force he learned in secret from the owl-bear and slashes across the back of the champs neck who with his arrogance didn't bother to put up any kind of energy shield since he was fighting a child and has long since giving up on conditioning his body any further than it already was and was content on fighting children with all that leading to a child who even being at the peak of the 3rd hand in power should have had no way of injuring let alone killing a properly prepared 5th hand fighter. Luckily he wasn’t fighting one who prepared properly and therefore with a proud smile he turned back to stare up at the pit master to see his reaction, but before he can even finish turning he hears massive cheering and screaming from up top and he looks only to see.
“Big brother did it!” a child yells in excitement. “YEAAAAAA!” a bunch of teenagers scream. Even the most reclusive pit-whelps are here to cheer on the first person to fight they’re way out of the pit in years.
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The pit master while glaring at the child as if he had just taken his own arm away tells him “Well get the hell out of here, you’ve got three days brat, I suggest you be gone because I’ll make sure of it if you’re not by then.”
Finally the same beast that was down in the training area rumbles up to the pit and comes to stand before Seren before he leaves. “As you said I consider which one of you kids as my very own so since you decide to take on my form within your Aura then I”ll help you out” and with that he pierces his own chest with his claw and taking a drop of blood directly from his heart he places it on Serens forehead where it absorbs into his body. “You can use that blood I just gave to strengthen your body and aura. I also imbued it with a certain amount of my spirit so that you can strengthen the aura and eventually possibly use it to form an aural beast but that's a long way from now.”
Seren looks at this beast who has been the only real parent and leaps his arms around it’s neck while sobbing.”I’ll miss you, I won’t know what to do without you Senior.”
“Quiet now boy, it’s gonna be okay. Go into the city and attach yourself to a caravan, here's some money from me and the whelps to get you to the nearest big city with an academy that can cater to your specific talents. You haven't had to deal with it here in the pit because I was here but you don't use the same energy as most other people. You’re gonna want to get on a caravan heading for a city called Alternate Haven, when you get there you’re gonna want to talk the entrance exam for an academy of the same kind, when they ask you what kind of energy you’re coming to study tell them you’re there for Mortal Energy.”
“But senior I don’t even know what that is. I thought I was using Qi or Mana like everyone else.” Seren exclaims while making a confused face.
“I know you don’t know what it is. I would have taught you about it sooner but you decided to take two years to form Aura and to get into any decent elite academy you need a certain amount of talent before 10. I wanted to guarantee your chance by having you form the energy before the test but as is you don’t have the time to learn it from me anymore so you’ll have to do it there. Don’t worry though, this could be a blessing in disguise, I’m sure the academy has even better methods for unification than I do. Afterall I was just going to use the method I instinctively have as one of the few beast species who inherently use Mortal Energy.” the beast responds to Seren.
“Okay senior, you’re right I have to get going, but I won’t ever forget this place, I’ll always be a pit whelp.” Seren says while water holds at his eyes
“Go Seren, go and show them everything you can do and when you’re ready then come back and tear this place apret.” says the beast while Seren walks out the pit.