The man fell to the ground, passed out, and barely breathing.

Gwen quite literally suffocated him with her legion of strikes.

She looked at him one more time with ice-cold eyes.

Then threw the sword in her hand at her side.

Without speaking a single word, she turned back and left the platform.

A couple of people immediately climbed onto the platform to bring the man to a clinic.

While some were like us, speechless, mouths wide open, our bodies didn't move an inch, and eyes fixed on the back of Gwen as she walked towards the exit.

Bernard and the others might be in awe at how graceful Gwen was as she beat the man one-sidedly.

I was too, but only for a short moment.

For my awe soon turned to anger,

How come someone capable of using the sword to that degree?

Would handicap herself by using a f*cking gun.

If only she just picked up the sword,

Then maybe we would have a sliver of hope against the damned ending of this novel.

Tsk,

Seeing the commotion was finally over I picked myself up from the bench,

Bernard who was now stiff as a rock, and skin pale as snow was clearly still in shock at the whole ordeal.

I left him behind to let him deal with his own thoughts,

Right now, all I wanted to do was to swing my sword.

I made my way to a training dummy,

And proceeded to move my blade.

*****

With ragged breathing, I sat my body full of sweat on a bench beside.

Some of the skin on my hands were starting to peel, my form was improving but was still lacking.

There were many times I lost my balance while swinging my sword,

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I need to work on that,

I then think back to the pressure that Gwen emitted a while ago,

Aura Domination, it was the next improvement a person could achieve by training their control over aura, first was to successfully let it cover their weapon, next their entire body, and soon, to be able to let out a domineering presence.

Only geniuses among geniuses would be able to reach such control.

I then look around the entire center,

There was an influx of people who were now training their auras on the dummies, probably inspired by the swordplay displayed by Gwen.

I chuckled as I notice one of them was Bernard.

He was training vigorously as he swung his claymore at the metal punching bag.

But for me, that was enough for today,

After checking the time on my bracelet, It was already late.

I soon stored my sword on my wrist and picked myself up from the wooden bench.

After bidding goodbye to Wyatt and Bernard, I left the center.

It was already dusk, so there weren't a lot of people around the academy anymore.

I desperately wanted a good night's sleep after a long day of hard work.

But first, I needed to take care of the dryness of my throat.

I made my way to a nearby vending machine and bought a drink.

As I arrive at the transit stop, I noticed I was the only one there.

I then sat my body on the wooden bench,

The humming sounds of the fluorescent lights above,

The cold wind that brushes past my hair,

It was a familiar feeling, yet I know that it wasn't

My lips then started moving on their own,

It was an old habit of mine.

But now was a reminder and motivator for me.

The music in my world,

They could now only be heard in my memories.

I long for the nights I stayed up reading a novel,

A soda on my desk, jamming to the music in my ears.

It was nice,

As I sang in a low voice, time seemed to pass by.

But soon, a rumbling sound overlapped my singing

That's enough of feeling nostalgic about the past.

I have more work to do in the future.

*****

On a ghost-quiet night, a girl walked through a concrete path of a school that trained protectors.

Barren of any students, she slowly strolled through the countless lamplights along the way.

As she stumbled upon a place her steps were stopped in their tracks.

The building in front of her was vast and colossal,

It was already the dead of dusk but through the glass entrance, she could see a handful of students with sweat running down their faces.

She also wanted to train but realizing she had dinner a while ago with her friends, it would be a bad idea.

So she stopped staring and continued forth,

As she walked, she chuckled.

Her mind flashes back to a person.

He was a little bit childish but she knows that his heart was true.

There was no other man that looked at her without a hint of lust behind their eyes, except for him.

Her heart flutters ever so slightly as she remembers,

But then a sound snapped her out of her thoughts.

It was a low voice, yet because of her pointed ears, she could hear it clearly.

A person was singing and as she got close.

The figure of a man could be seen,

He had a can of soda in his hand, while his brown eyes were set on the lights above his head.

The girl stared from afar, the song the man was singing felt foreign to her.

But the emotion behind the man's voice did not.

The girl then made a frown as a memory flashes back in her head.

She recalls when she was but a child.

Back in her hometown in the kingdom of branches and wood.

The caressing hand of her mother and the playful hugs from her father.

All ingrained in her body,

But it would all go away in a single night.

Her uncle then took over, and then she was no longer treated as a child.

Her eyes gaze back at the man, and a bittersweet smile appeared on her face.

For she realized,

They were both longing for better days.