Chapter 9: Preparation to depart
The next morning, Kaiser went to recount his experience in the quest while omitting some unnecessary details. When he was done, the Elder was surprised.
"You... you killed five Awakened?"
Kaiser shrugged. "More or less, yeah."
Speechless, the Elder didn’t even notice when Kaiser left his office. The young man walked around the courtyard for a while, then headed towards the training arena.
As he had expected, over twenty newly Awakened juniors were sparring against each other, and testing their respective abilities.
’Let’s say hi...’
As soon as he entered, all eyes turned to him. They all paused whatever they were doing and watched as he entered calmly. He was already used to this reaction. While they were all mortals, Kaiser had learnt all the clan’s techniques and personally defeated every single one of them—earning the title Unparalleled Perfect Prodigy. It wasn’t that they were weak, no. He was simply better and used more efficient methods than they did.
Still, because he had defeated them all didn’t mean they hated him. They just disliked, respected, and feared him. A few of them even liked him.
"Brother!"
Kaiser turned to the source, and saw someone rushing at him. Just like everyone else, he had blue eyes, accompanied by a deceptively innocent expression on his face.
Just when the others thought he was going to hug Kaiser, he produced a small dagger and stabbed at his brother’s heart.
Pa!
Of course, Kaiser caught his wrist effortlessly. Even then, the boy’s smile didn’t diminish.
"As expected, you’re still as strong as before."
Before he could finish his words, Kaiser tilted to the side, dodging another stab from behind. From the peripheral of his vision, he realized the attacker was still the same person.
"Cloning?"
Izael, the boy, nodded. He was a few months younger than Kaiser and always saw him as an elder brother. Even then, he was someone who had made it his life goal to defeat Kaiser one day.
"Oh? That’s interesting..."
Kaiser raised a brow, mildly surprised. This was one of the things that made an Awakened dangerous. As long as your enemy’s abilities remained unknown, there was a chance of dying.
Putting on a stern face, he scolded Izael. "You shouldn’t expose your ability to anyone."
The boy grinned mischievously, "Of course, no one except my prey."
Seeing Izael’s expression, Kaiser shivered, remembering the Voidborne. Those two looked a bit similar, though, Izael was a normal human.
"Kaiser..."
Another junior approached them with a serious expression. Chad Solace, the second strongest junior in the clan.
"Chad. A spar?"
Kaiser could already guess his intentions from the obvious battle-lust in his eyes. Just like Miel, Chad was a man of few words and rarely spoke.
Chad nodded with a serious expression. At this point, the others had made some space for them, even pausing their own spars just to spectate. Everyone was curious about Kaiser’s awakened ability.
Izael stepped back respectfully, leaving them both in the center.
"Weapons or hand-to-hand?"
Chad replied by producing a pair of daggers and summoning his armor. Kaiser nodded, then summoned the Nameless Fang. Although he hadn’t even checked the relic’s abilities, he was sure it was good enough.
Chad dashed forward with surprising speed, his daggers pointed at Kaiser’s torso. Nimbly, the blue-haired boy dodged the attack, then retaliated with a whip-kick towards Chad’s back. The Awakened boy raised his arms and blocked the attack.
Bang!
The force from the hit sent him staggering a few steps, but he quickly stabilized himself and attacked again. Kaiser efficiently parried his attacks with the Nameless Fang, sending sparks through the air whenever their weapons met. Their strength was equally matched, however, it was obvious that Kaiser was more experienced.
He would always spot flaws in Chad’s movements, then exploit it, forcing the young man into a defensive stance.
Suddenly, Chad distanced himself from Kaiser, then faded.
Staring at the empty space before him, Kaiser tilted his head. An invisible current swept past him, an inch from his neck. If he hadn’t tilted his head, he would have been nicked.
’Hmm, not bad.’
He thought with a faint smile. Chad’s ability was simple; Invisibility. After a few seconds, Kaiser had deduced this, and was prepared to react. He immediately activated the [Eyes of Sequence], his only Soul Trait. A white eight-spoked wheel appeared in his eyes, then rotated.
The world became clearer, alongside the movement of spirit essence. Quickly, he noticed a collection of spirit essence in the shape of a human, standing by his left. Chad had suppressed his breathing and only moved slowly, so as to avoid being detected easily.
If he rushed, Kaiser would sense the change in air current and pinpoint his location. Of course, he didn’t know that he had already been spotted.
Kaiser immediately attacked the invisible figure, forcing Chad to realize that he had been discovered. Although he was surprised, he wasn’t shocked. Kaiser was just an anomaly no one could predict.
"You win."
He deactivated his ability, then said to Kaiser. Unconsciously, a smile appeared on his face. He was glad that Kaiser hadn’t become weaker than him.
Kaiser was about to nod when his pupils dilated. He spun back almost instantaneously, then raised his dagger.
Clang! Bang!
A larger dagger met his, and he was sent flying by the attack. Everyone turned towards the attacker, then fell silent.
Kaiser dusted his trembling arms, then stood up. He wasn’t really offended since it was an assassin’s code to always keep up their guard.
"Gomez..."
He pursed his lips, a bit indignant. Why had someone of the Evolved Realm tried to attack him? What if he couldn’t react? Of course, he knew Gomez could have stopped at the last moment, but still felt indignant.
Gomez didn’t immediately reply Kaiser as he was busy sizing him up. Just now, that attack held exactly twenty percent of his strength and fifty percent of his speed. Yet, Kaiser had reacted to the attack and even blocked. This was an astonishing feat because Gomez was already an Evolved, far stronger than an Awakened.
’His instincts have gotten sharper... good.’
Gomez finally spoke, his voice light.
"You should get ready, your flight is in a few hours."
Kaiser became confused. "Flight? For what?"
Gomez threw him a flight ticket and other cards, then turned away. "For school."
"Ah?!"
For the first time in his life, Kaiser was startled.