The various Noble Families come in various types with the larger and more powerful families controlling the weaker ones. To be considered a Noble Family they have to control at least one small city and have some Martial Techniques to make sure that they can keep control of that city by training Guards. Naturally any techniques that they have they have to give a copy of to the senior family if that family doesn’t have a copy themselves. The level of a Noble Family is measured by the number and quality of Martial and Cultivation Techniques they have in their collection which means that obtaining new and more powerful Martial Techniques is very important for their development.
-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on Noble Families.
As the cultivators that he had defeated with his Kiai technique were removed from the arena Telram smirked at the remaining cultivators, he knew that once they decided that they had given him enough time to prepare himself most of them would attack him at once. He had made too much of an impression on them for them to simply carry on the way that they had, he was sure that some of them would try to take out a few others along the way while they waited for him to be worn down.
This was exactly the sort of hypocrisy that Telram found irritating, these people were perfectly happy to get angry at other people for attacking him when he wasn’t prepared to fight but they wouldn’t hesitate to attack him all at once. He couldn’t however deny that he would attack a more powerful enemy in a group himself if he had the chance, so he squashed his irritation before taking a new stance.
He hadn’t used his Feral Beast Claws Martial Art because of the difficulty of using it without seriously injuring the weaker cultivators but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t use a new style based off of it. The problem was that he hadn’t been able to begin working on this new Martial Art before the evaluation so he had decided to challenge himself to see how good his fighting instincts were once he set things up so that he would be fighting a large group of cultivators.
His plan was to create a new Martial Art that would mainly combine three things; the Feral Beast Claws Martial Art, his Resonance Palm Martial Art and his Body Cultivation Technique. He would be using the wide swings of the Feral Beast Claws Martial Art without using the clawing attacks it specialised in for now due to their inherently lethal nature while trying to incorporate what he had learned while creating his Resonance Palm Martial Art relying on his strengthened body to either avoid or take the attacks head on. In essence he was going to create a fighting style that was focussed almost entirely on offense that he could use to take down cultivators without killing them unnecessarily. This was something that he had been wanting to try for a while but finding enough opponents who were sufficiently weaker than him so as to avoid getting too badly injured was nearly impossible but what from he could tell there weren’t many cultivators left who were strong enough to break through his defences so this was the best time to try out something new.
Seeing him take yet another unfamiliar stance some of the cultivators decided to wait and see what Telram was going to do this time while most of them just leapt ahead. Seeing this Telram smirked gathering Mana and Soul Energy into his hands like he would when he used his Resonance Palm technique but instead of forming it into a spike like normal, he simply swung his arm directly at one of the charging cultivators and released it.
The resulting wave of energy sent his target and three other cultivators flying backwards but other than seeming shocked they were mostly fine at least they were until Telram barrelled into them like he was using his body as a battering ram sending them flying into the crowd.
Telram continued on his way trampling some cultivators underfoot and using the shockwave attacks he had come up with to knock others away. He did take a few hits in the process, but he knew that his tough body could handle it, so he ignored the blows and continued to strike out at the rest of the cultivators. Due to them being caught in the area of his Dissonance Skill he didn’t even have to hit some of them before they fell. As the fight went on, he could feel his movements improving as he got used to fighting in this manner, no-one would ever call this style graceful, in fact most people would even refuse to call it a Martial Art even if he completed it. But this was still something that he had decided would be necessary in the future, if he was right about what he was going to do then he would earn himself a lot of enemies so having a fighting style developed for the purpose of fighting large groups was something that he would need sooner rather than later.
Seeing him attack the other cultivators without even attempting to block any of their attacks most of the crowd started grumbling again some people even being able to be heard clearly saying something about how arrogant he was being but Telram didn’t care about any of that. As far as he was concerned all he was being was confident in his own abilities which was something that he had earned over the past few years as he learned the techniques that he had been given and developed his own, besides it wasn’t like he was planning on using this fighting style to fight someone in a one on one fight, it was only because things had turned into an all out brawl that it was a viable way of fighting.
As he thought this one of the few cultivators who used a body strengthening techniques themselves struck him across the jaw snapping his head back.
“How dare you treat this like some sort of game,” the body cultivator yelled, he was confident that even if the attacks of the other cultivators who lacked a body strengthening technique didn’t work on Telram then his ones would but, to his surprise he was immediately grabbed in an iron grip and bodily lifted up.
“You people always say what suits you!” Telram shouted as he used the shocked cultivator as an improvised bludgeon slamming him repeatedly into anyone who got too close, he knew that as a body cultivator the other boy could handle being used in such a rough manner while also not being so tough that he injured the cultivators he struck, at least not with the amount of force that Telram was using.
Finally releasing the body cultivator into another grouping of cultivators’ mid-swing after seeing that he had lost conscious Telram looked around the arena seeing that there were only six other people remaining.
“Huh, what do you know,” he muttered as he realised that they were all the people that he had expected to be remaining when he had looked around before the evaluation had begun, well other than Connor who he had removed from the standings personally. If Telram hadn’t been taking part, it was likely that Connor would’ve come out on top and been treated as the most powerful cultivator of their generation in the Palamar City region but with how things had turned out it was likely that he would be treated poorly. Such was the way things were when a cultivator was defeated by someone who was a whole Realm below them.
As the others fought amongst themselves Telram sat down, he was confident of who would win the current fights and even if he was wrong he had the advantage of not currently being under attack so he decided to take the chance now to recover his Mana and watch the remaining contenders just in case he learned something about their fighting style that could help him if he had to fight them or that he could add to his own techniques.
While he did this, he also thought about the things that the body cultivator had said to him before Telram had used him to beat up some of the other cultivators. This whole evaluation was a game, one designed to show the common people that even if they saved up and bought cultivation techniques for their kids it wouldn’t matter in the end because the kids from the noble families would still beat them in the evaluation. Still Telram couldn’t deny the other boy’s words, he had been treating the evaluation like a game, normally he wouldn’t do something like try to come up with a new Martial Art in the middle of a fight, especially not one this important to his plans.
He frowned slightly as he came to the conclusion that the other boy had been right to be upset by Telram’s actions, even now Telram was still acting arrogantly by refusing to take part in the remaining fights, even though once two of the remaining cultivators fell the evaluation would be officially over and the remaining five would be rewarded by Lord Irian. Usually all five remaining cultivators would be from noble families that were loyal to Lord Irian’s family meaning that in essence all Irian was really doing was rewarding the people that were loyal to him. Telram couldn’t actually fault Irian for rewarding the cultivators who won he just believed that there should at lest be something like a consolation prize for those with a lower cultivation who still did well against the more powerful cultivators, but this was once again just about increasing the strength of those in power. Even back on earth this was something that was largely unavoidable but at least people got basic education in most countries which was one of the main obstacles to learning a cultivation technique.
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Just as Telram came to this conclusion one of the other cultivators was taken out by their opponent who looked at Telram in much the same way that someone might look at a cat who ignored a mouse that ran over its own tail.
Telram snorted and climbed to his feet, apparently this cultivator wanted to make sure that Telram knew his place but Telram had already accomplished what he had set out to do so he wasn’t particularly interested in defeating this cultivator.
It wasn’t that he wouldn’t if it came to that but as far as he could tell both of the other fights were reaching their final stages so it wouldn’t make that much difference if he dragged it out or not.
Small stones that were scattered around the arena from the fighting flew towards the other cultivator forming a sort of armour around him and causing Telram’s eyebrows to rise slightly in surprise, this was a rather well known technique that was called Stoneskin, a name that had always reminded Telram of the video games that he had played back on earth but seeing a cultivator actually using it he found it to be a rather impressive skill that would not only increase the cultivators defensive capabilities but also his offensive ones as some of the stone had also formed itself into what looked like stone knuckledusters.
It seemed that despite the cultivator’s aggressive actions he was still wary of Telram’s fighting skills, not that Telram could blame him for that as he had single-handedly taken out not only one of the most powerful cultivators in the competition, but he had also taken out the most cultivators of any of them.
Telram sighed slightly and shifted to the loose boxing stance that he had used to defeat Connor, the style that he had been working on earlier was fine for weaker cultivators in its current form but lacked the stopping power necessary for taking out a more powerful cultivator, technically this style did as well but then all Telram really intended to do was wait for one of the other cultivators to win their fight so whether or not he defeated this cultivator didn’t really matter.
Deflecting a punch to one side with his right arm Telram dodged around a follow up attack and slipped in behind his opponent before delivering a jab to the back of the other cultivator’s head that made the young man stumble as his vision swam before summoning more stones to create a helmet to protect his head from similar assaults.
This dance continued in a similar vein for a while with Telram either deflecting or dodging the cultivator’s attacks and countering with a jab. While this was happening the other cultivator’s, movements were getting more and more erratic as he started to lose his temper, he knew full well that Telram was holding back on him. He was an Ascendant Realm cultivator and he was being played with by this Human Realm commoner who should have run out of Mana ages ago.
Telram’s Dissonance technique was also not helping the cultivator’s mood, as time went on the nausea the turbulent Mana was making him feel wasn’t just making it harder to concentrate on what he was doing but he could also feel it rubbing across his skin like he was being blasted with sand.
With the pressure he was under it wasn’t long before he made a mistake that Telram couldn’t ignore, deflecting the wild blow to one side with his left arm Telram stepped in so that he was chest to chest with the other boy for the first time before bringing his right arm around in a body hook that caused the stone armour that covered his midsection to splinter and crack under the powerful blow driving the cultivator to his knees.
The cultivator gasped in pain sure that the punch had not only broken his armour but at least one of his ribs. He was convinced now that Telram was using a body strengthening technique that was stronger than any he had ever heard of. Usually body strengthening techniques only enhanced one or two things such as power or toughness but Telram’s technique enhanced everything allowing his body to grow in much the same way a Mana Beast’s would strengthening everything at once, this gave him a massive advantage over most cultivators, even those who had a body strengthening technique of their own, although he was weaker in the areas where other cultivators specialised he was more balanced meaning that even if they had one advantage over him he was stronger than them in most other ways provided they weren’t massively more powerful than him. If Connor had a body strengthening technique of his own there would’ve been no way that Telram would’ve won their fight.
Wondering why Telram was taking so long to finish him off the cultivator looked up to see that unlike the attack that he was expecting Telram was holding out his hand in a manner that suggested that he wanted to give his opponent a hand up. These strange actions were quickly explained by the explosive shout that rang out from Lord Irian’s box.
“That’s enough!”
This voice was Lord Irian’s Guard Captain Polis who was overseeing the evaluation as and his word could be considered law. As the next most powerful cultivator in the Palamar territories after Lord Irian himself you would have to be a complete fool to disobey any order from him. This near absolute power was matched only by his ruthlessness, even small crimes could be punished by death if the mood took him.
Thankfully Telram had noticed that one of the other cultivators had defeated their opponent before continuing his assault which meant that he had likely just avoided being punished by Polis. Being seen offering his hand to one of his opponents would also make it less likely for people to suspect that he was up to something even if his opponent didn’t take him up on his offer of assistance.
As he expected his former opponent ignored the helping hand and struggled to his feet by himself before staggering off in the direction of an area just in front of Lord Irian’s box where the others were already waiting, having been fighting in that area in the hopes of catching Lord Irian’s eye.
“Well that’s fair enough,” Telram muttered before smirking slightly and following the other cultivator. He wouldn’t want to receive help from someone who had toyed with him and then broken his ribs with a single punch either.
As he approached the group, he nodded at Jenna who had managed to survive to the end making her face turn crimson. Jenna was still confused by his actions because of how he had later taken out cultivators left and right regardless of whether they were men or women but that didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful to him for saving her and the other girls from Connor. Nor could she blame him for defeating a number of the girls who had been fighting alongside her earlier, the only reason that they would’ve been in a position where he could defeat them was because they were attacking him so if he then defeated them it was their own fault. Glancing once more at his bare chest she wondered why he was so calm when his clothes were in such a bad condition, not that her own or any of the other cultivators’ clothes were in perfect condition either but Telram was showing far more skin than any of them and he wasn’t reacting in any way that suggested embarrassment.
Telram cast an amused glance Jenna’s way once more upon realising that she was still staring at him making her already red face turn crimson as she realised, she had been caught. He didn’t really care about whether people looked at him or not, it wasn’t like he had anything to be ashamed of, he had earned his physique by working hard and was quite proud of how different it was from his original body back on earth.
“Silence!” Polis shouted once more and the crowd which had previously been muttering and cheering at the sight of those who had lasted to the final five gathering up. As Telram had expected the audience didn’t seem particularly happy that he had survived to the end. Well other than his own family that is who were all cheering happily at the sight of him standing in front of Lord Irian’s box.
Telram bit his lip as he looked at his mother, she was the only one who didn’t know what he planned and it broke his heart that he had to treat her in that way, but he needed a reaction that was impossible to mistake for anything but the truth. His father and Gerry both needed to know because they had to make the arrangements for them leaving Palamar and it was impossible to keep a secret from Willa let alone Jai, so his only option had been his mother.
“All stand for Lord Irian!” Polis shouted and the crowd obediently got to its feet as the massive frame of the city lord appeared at the front of the box glaring around at those present.
“Those of you who lasted to the last five in this evaluation are all powerful fighters and it is my honour to offer you not only a choice of Martial Technique from my personal library but the chance to pick what place you believe your talents make you best suited to,” Irian stated smirking slightly at his own words. “Within reason of course.”
The techniques that they would be allowed to take from Irian’s personal library while most likely being stronger than the ones that they already knew would still be weaker than the ones that he kept for his own family or even his closest advisors and guards. Still Telram intended to take advantage of obtaining a high ranked Cultivation Technique. He wasn’t planning on using that technique when he reached the point where he could cross over into the Ascendant Realm but use it as another point of reference for making one of his own. He was fully aware of the dangers of doing so and if it proved impossible to do, he would instead use one of the ones that he already had but he was against the idea of not trying. If he succeeded, he would not only have another advantage over other cultivators who were limited by what Cultivation Techniques they could get their hands on, but he might even learn something about what happened to his mother’s Soul Core when she tried to use the Cultivation Technique that had crippled her.
Lord Irian gestured to one of the nearby scholars who nodded and shortly all those present received a list of the offered techniques.
“You may state your wishes!”