The two duelist took up their swords and prepared to fight. Samuel wasn't planning on remaining passive against Julius like the other instructor had on the rest of the students. Samuel took the first charge at Julius but to his amazement Julius was charging straight at him. Julius swung his right hand that had the blue tiger at the neck of Samuel.*ding* Samuel had deflected the first strike with ease and used the moment to counterstrike. Samuel's strike seemed to slash at nothing but air as Julius dodged the sword coming at his shoulder. Julius didn't waste time in sending out his next attack to pierce the left armpit of Samuel. Samuel wasn't a master in just name so the strike Julius sent out pierced the air under Samuel.
Samuel put both his hands on the katana and sent a devastating downward slash at Julius. Julius felt the pressure of the attack before it had even hit him so he knew he couldn't block it with on sword. Crossing his swords Julius blocked Samuel's attack but the sheer force sent him flying back a few steps. Seeing Samuel wasn't planning on just assessing for the test but also forcing him to show everything he had Julius took Samuel up on the offer.
Julius decided to skip the first four sequence moves of the Twin star splitter and decided to use the three last deadly moves. the 5th sequences was purely offensive and the Aura flow was the best Julius had mastered so he began executing the moves. Julius dashed at Samuel with blinding speed that none of the student could track other than the most talented ones. Samuel was slightly taken back by Julius speed since he assumed he was a strength type but he was more delighted to have a fun sparing match. Samuel braced for the rain of attacks that Julius had sent out. the 5th sequence consisted of 30 different attacks that get more brazen and stronger the sequence went on. Once Julius delivered the 15th attack Samuel started to feel the complexity and strength of Julius attack ' this kid has been holding back at the start of the fight even tho he was facing me, hmmm' Samuel wasn't slacking off against Julius but the skill gap between the two was to vast for Julius to truly ever close the gap in this fight.
The more moves Julius made the more he forced Samuel to focus on the fight more. Samuel was thoroughly impressed with how Julius performed the past 7 minutes and everything Julius did was beyond his expectations. the crowd on the other hand had been left watching the spectacle in silence as none dared to break the concentration between the two fighters specially Julius. All of the students watching took notes of the fight as it was a worthy experience for them and a few who ridicule Julius earlier on his comments about Kiri started to worry.
'he wouldn't be petty enough to remember how made that comment right?' one student thought.
'how did I mange to offend to tigers in the same breathe' and another student how had been closer to Julius and Kiri when he ridiculed Julius earlier thought.
'he might be the most valuable sparing partner for me' Zhou Ming had already started forming a plan.
the two fighters continued their exchange sending out bloody attacks against each other. Samuel clothes had slights cuts on them but none of Julius attacks had dealt any meaningful damage. On the other hand Julius was riddled with cuts on several places. Julius had maintained his confidence through the bleeding and attacks to the last second the bell rang when the countdown hit 0. the fight was exhilarating for both fighters.
"well done young man you will be one of the most important students at the academy" Samuel had given Julius a blunt compliment and went back to his observing booth with a single leap. Julius bowed toward the direction Samuel took off. Julius listened to the crowds cheers and amazement at his fight then walked to the waiting area where the principal was at. kiri hadn't come back out from the waiting area so he assumed Kiri did well.
Making his way to the waiting area the place was simple and had a cool tempter on the inside. the waiting area had several seats and one was occupied by the big burly principal while Kiri sat on the floor cross legged. Before Julius could say or do anything the principal spoke up " well well well. Isn't that trouble maker that destroyed my crystal testing ball" Mr. Crow slowly studied Julius who was left a without many words." I'm sorry sir, it really wasn't intentional" Julius bowed and answered genuinely. " Hahahah, I'm just pulling a fast on you young man don't worry about such measly little things. now come place your hand on this badge for me" Mr. Crow pushed forward a golden badge with an eagle on it. " all you have to do is inject your aura into this badge and get it shine. if the badge doesn't shine just means you are able to sign a contract right now but it's best to sign it while you are young." Mr. crow added explaining the process to Julius. Julius nodded and took the badge to do as he was instructed.
Mr.Crow immediately took notes of the Julius' purple aura. several possibilities came to his mind as to what the trait it would grow into and every one was exciting as they were mostly pertain to poison. People with the trait of poison were terrifying to face as it took one strike or even inhaling the air in some case to die within several minutes. Julius was already at the silver rank so wouldn't take more than half a year with his talent to reach gold rank and develop his full trait.
" Purple Aura is one of the more rare colors what does anyone in your family have the same color" mr. crow asked. If someone in Julius family at the gold rank had the same Aura color it was more likely for Julius to be of the same kind.
" yes sir, my mother and older sister. They both different kinds of poisons available to them" Julius answered truthfully as he put down the glowing gold badge." what are their traits if you don't mind asking?" Mr.Crow asked while looking down at the badge." seems like you are able to take the trip to the spirit realm but if you don't mind I'd like to have a little conversation with you." Mr.Crow added. " No I don't mind sir" Julius said as he too one of the seats. "what would you like to talk about sir?" Julius had asked.
" you don't have to worry I don't ask students any personal question just simple ones to get know them better." Mr.Crow said as he sat back relaxingly in his seat. " what properties have you noticed about your aura?" Mr. crow proceed to ask. "when it broke through to the silver rank it felt a whole lot heavier than what it felt like breaking through the other ranks sir" Julius answered the question with the only noticeable quality his aura had. " hmmm, your Aura might be different form your sister and mother. it's seems it's more of burdening your enemies. one of the most come applications of those abilities is it increase the weight and speed of those struck." Mr.crow had a slight better understanding now and made a more exact hypothesis." well we can talk more after you come back from the spirit realm. I'll send you through my gate as the safest way and spirits who can bond with you will be attracted towards you. At the rank you are it will be a young spirit and with your talent it'll probably be able to grow into a powerful spirit. now sit cross legged and channel your aura throughout your whole body" Mr.crow simply explained the process and lead Julius next to where kiri sat. once Julius was prepared he asked one last question. " sir, does this pose any danger?" Mr. crow thought for a moment then answered Julius' question " no, you shouldn't attract any dangerous spirits through my gate." Julius getting a satisfying answer began to channel his Aura.
Once Julius felt the principal's hand on the top of his head he had felt a strong pull tugging at his soul. the next moment when he opened his eyes he was surrounded by stars and ether clouds. in the far distances he could see mountains to the west, tall building resided in the north, a forest of changing colors that was endless towards the east, and dark ruins laid in the south. Julius didn't which direction to go but he felt avoiding the ruins. Julius spirit started to float towards the colorful forest as he started to notice different spirits but none of them took interest in approaching him. after minutes of endless floating Julius decided maybe he should approach the spirits but after a while that turned our fruitless. Some of the spirits vanished before he could reach them while others retaliated but couldn't really hurt Julius through Mr.Crow protection veil.
finding the forest unsuccessful he moved towards the tall building in the north. From what Julius could see the building never stopped but this venture was even worse as he didn't spot any spirit. After searching for a while he gave up and started heading towards the mountains. On his way to the mountains Julius hadn't noticed but a dark shadow left the ruins and shot straight towards him. The shadow moved with extreme speed and covered every where it passed with darkness and stars that seemed impossibly far way. the creature raced towards Julius barely giving him a moment to notice what was taking place. Before Julius even knew he was swallowed up by the darkness. Julius started to panic a little as his movement became restrained and Mr. Crow veil losing its effect.
The next moment Julius was looking at two gigantic red and purple eyes looked into his soul. the eyes seemed like stars amongst the cosmos yet Julius could tell they were looking straight at him. Julius didn't have the power to move so he could only look back at the eyes of the beast. "well this is a wonderful occasion. I've waited so long to be freed of this prison and a little chicken came to deliver it's to me." a booming voice rang in Julius ears leaving him dazed. " well I'm not the type to pass up a free ticket" next the creature sent out a beam toward Julius hitting him in the head. Julius went through the information sent to his mind and forcefully had to accept. the beast had sent out a spiritual contract but if Julius hadn't agreed with him the beast had promised to destroy his soul. Julius didn't have much a choice knowing Mr.crow veil was gone so he just accepted the circumstance. Julius lost consciousness for a moment.
All the darkness started collecting towards Julius wrapping around Julius right wrist. the bracelet looked like it was made of snake scales that connected to itself. Julius woke back up and noticed all the darkness was gone and everything was back to how it was before. The only difference was now Julius had a new tattoo. Julius briefly studied the bracelet trying to figure something out from it. After a while of tinkering with the mark Julius started making his way to the gate he had came in from. Julius hadn't know how long he'd been here but he knew it was a decent few hours.
Going through the Gate Julius opened his eyes studying his surrounding. Kiri was still in the room but he was comfortably sitting on one of the available seats. There was Tsuneo and Vjollca sitting crossed legged close to also coming back to reality." well seems like everyone has gotten a contract." Mr. Crow had said as he stood up from his seat. Julius tattoo mark was on his wrist so it wasn't hard to notice but The other two had their marks in covered parts of their bodies but Mr. Crow could sense them through his spirituality. " when you first make a contract and return to the physical realm you must feed your Aura to the spot of the spirit mark to fully start communicating with your spirit beast. The younger the spirit Beast in the beginning you will nurture it with your aura til they grow enough to absorber aura on their own. For some special spirit beast they are able to take on an extra trait of their masters Aura trait so it's wiser to start them young to improve their chances of getting the extra trait." Mr. Crow explained some elementary knowledge about spirit beasts." You all will have one extra class to learn more and get a chance to train with your beast so don't stress too much about raising the spirits." Mr.Crow finished and let the students gather their thoughts for a while.
Mr. Crow reached into his coat and brought out 4 badges and passed it to the students" these are you seats. The exams are coming to an end so hurry up or you might not get your dorm room." Mr.crow sat back down and the four students bowed down then excited the waiting area. " Man that was a weird experience!" Tsuneo said as he exhaled a deep breath. " At least it wasn't a wasted journey, for me at least, I met a powerful spirit that was the ruler of the west mountains and contracted me with one of his younglings. It said our potential matched each other and he was willing to help me contract another spirit whenever I'm ready" Kiri shared some of his exploits. Vjolloca was in a good mood too and spoke up " I couldn't say my contracted creature is as powerful sounding as yours but it comes from the endless tall buildings in the north, it's body is made of a silver liquid and they have high intelligence" she didn't divulge to much information but Julius was impress on how she even got to meet one of the spirits when he couldn't enter the buildings. " I Met a lost feline spirit but since it seemed alone I contracted it without really think about it's strength. that doesn't really matter since my strength means supreme to my life" Tsuneo shared his blunder but didn't seem to bee let down by it.
Julius thought for a moment not really knowing what to share since it seemed like he had contracted an old spirit. "hey I might be an old beast but now I've been reborn now you won't lose put any benefits as long as you feed me some Aura" a voice sound in Julius mind. 'what you can read my mind?' the voice didn't reply immediately but waited a while " we are bonded unless we choice to hide our thoughts we'll always be able to communicate within a certain distance" Julius careful thought and asked" what kind of creature are you?" Julius couldn't hear any laughing but he could sense that the creature was laughing before it gave an answer" what I truly am will take some time to explain but let's just say I'm a dragon of sorts for now." the creature answered Julius question but leaving him with more questions. " what do you mean" Julius still asked ignoring what the dragon already said. " that's for later" the dragon said, Julius asked a couple more question but got no response.
Julius focusing back in the conversation noticed the other looking at him waiting for his turn to answer." I explored the different areas but met with no spirits till and cloud of darkness enveloped me and some dragon forced a contract. Mr.Crows veil wasn't enough to protect me but the beast didn't seem to plan on hurting me." Julius said while walked to his seat
" That's rare dragons are rare creatures and powerful for ones born in the physical realm but when it comes to the spiritual dragons those are on a whole another level. not surprising for the most student in the exams today." Tsuneo added.
" They are powerful but also very high maintenance. You'll probably have your hands full more often than you get to have free time." vjolloca said holding her hand up against her mouth and chuckling slightly.
" I'm sure any other spiritual beast would have trouble competing with you talent but a dragon sure will give you a run for your money. " Kiri said teasing Julius after learning about his exam results since he already begun his joinery in the spirit realm.
the four took their seats and noticed that only the 30 most nobles and 30 talented commoners sat in the area. they spectated the last few students finishing up their exams but they all had average results. Julius paid most attention to Zhou ming, Emily, Ron, and Javi as they were the students that were closest to him in talent and strength. Zhou ming noticing Julius nodded and smiled at him then went back to watching the stage.
Julius figured Zhou ming was just acknowledge his talent and didn't want to cause trouble. once the last student finished up the students got 5 minutes to chat and stretch before the principal cam out with a box then placed it on the floor. Mr.crow lifted up the cover and some token flew out of the box heading towards the students. " Students congratulation on Joining greyhound academy and make sure not to lose your identification badges. These badges will contain your school credits, act as your dorm key, and your voucher for resources." The principal explained the functions of the ID cards. the Students each grabbed a the floating ID in front of and read the information on it. the regular Nobles IDs said Silver hounds A to E and the Commoner IDs said wild hounds A to E.
The 60 talented student had a different kind of ID. The nobles ID said ' Silver hound representative' while The other badge said ' Wild hound representative'. Julius studied his new school ID and noticed his dorm was room 1 M . looking over he noticed Kiri Had room 3 M while Tsuneo was room 4 M. Vjolloca said slightly different ' room 2 F'.
the lights focused on where the representative students sat drawing everyones attention toward them. " These are your representative students, They have shown the most talent in these exams but you all will get a chance to challenge them every 6 months. The representative students will be the students who will get to compete against other school and bring us glory. There several competitions within the school so don't worry you will get your fair chance of competing. will the 4 students who have room 1 stand up please and make your way to the stage ." Mr.crow kept his speech short as usual and asked for the students. Julius and the other four made their way up to the stage standing behind the principal.
Julius stood next to Ron, Emily and one more girl who he didn't know. The most eye catching thing about the girl was her sharp blue eyes and blond hair. Her clothes were in line with the rest of the commoner student, She made the clothes seem way more expensive than they were. Mr. Crow nodded at the students standing behind him and continued to speak " These four students will be the house leaders of the two hounds and they will have more responsibilities at the school which will have a major impact on your daily life here so if you are displeased with them you can challenge them to a fair duel or an unfair one as long as they accept. In this School strength is everything but we nurturer leaders so if you are unqualified and unable to lead, just like in the real world you will be at risk of being removed from your position." Mr. Crow explained his intentions for asking the four students to come up. Julius looked very displeased but looking at the other three students he held his disapproval.
Julius wasn't very excited about have responsibilities as a leader but depending one the kinds of resource the school could provide him he was contempt staying a leader and shouldering the responsibilities. While Mr.Crow Continued giving his speech and explaining the different rules to the students one of the students in the representative seats for the noble hound stood up and raised his hand seeming to want to ask a question. Mr. Crow looked at Zhou Ming the student who was the most problematic in this batch of students. Mr. Crow had expected Zhou Ming to be challenging one of the student leaders but he wasn't against it and something very well expected. He had been thinking nobody was willing to challenge the four right away but Zhou Ming changed his opinion." yes? young man what would you like to ask?" Mr. Crow asked Zhou ming calmly and waited for an answer. Zhou ming didn't answer immediately but seemed to thinking about how he should from his question.
" ummm sir, I was just wondering....is it possible for me to switch to the Wild hounds?" Zhou ming asked the question while he rubbed his hair with a weak smile on his face. Mr. Crow took a while to register the request while the silver hound teachers immediately voiced their displeasure.
"Sir there's indeed no rules against him switching but Greyhound tradition must be up held" Vice principal Rhonda Revis said.
"Sir this students must be very mistaken. Silver hound is the only group students that can help him grow" Mr. Stephon added to Mrs.revis.
Mr. Crow didn't immediately reject Zhou Mings request but wanted to know why Zhou ming had asked to do such a thing. Ever since he took over greyhound Academy he had done his best to get rid of the noble influence but it was marginal due to the school needing their support. Zhou ming slowly looked around the student around him and first pointed to Julius, then he pointed at Javi, next was Kiri, and finally Edric and then spoke" Sir not to be rude but the students of wild hound have different drive than those of noble hound" Zhou ming had used the unofficial name of silver hound but Mr crow let him continue speak. " while many of us in Silver hound have always had resource that can't be said the same for wild hound students. The school will be there best chance at getting resource to grow so they are bound to have a better drive and I would like to compete with such students who have drive. It might seem offensive but I'm willing to help any student I can in wild hound" Zhou ming made is point very blunt and didn't really leave much room for the silver hound teachers to try to change his mind.
Ron wasn't very happy in what Zhou ming had said nor were the other students who were in the noble hound the choice wasn't;t theirs to make so it all came down to Mr. Crow. The principal was very delighted on what the young man had just said. His many years of being a principal he had looked for many kinds of ways to throw a wretch I the school system and finally he was getting his rewards for his effort. Mr. Crow Kept his calm demeanor and studied Zhou mind for a moment " that is a very interesting request young man. Though many teachers and parents might be displeased the school can't always remain stagnant so I will indulge you in your request but you will expected to keep approval of the will hounds leader. You staying in the wild hounds will be tied to not only the leader but the whole wild hound team." Mr. Crow added a stipulation to Zhou Mings request so he could at least argue it wasn't permit and just a temporary arrangement.
Mr. Crow turned to Julius and said" it's up to you on the criteria but I will advise you to be wise and not be to relaxed on Zhou ming." Julius nodded to Mr. Crow putting on a serious act but he didn't really put any mind to it. Mr.Crow turned back around and sent his Aura towards Zhou Mings badge and changed the badge to a wild hound badge that said ' room 2' while everyone else was increased a number and one student changed to Noble hound. " Now that has been handled you may all go find your rooms and get used to the city. Your seniors will be returning in 2 weeks so use that time to explore everything or once it's too late everything will be busy." Mr. Crow finished of his speech and left the colosseum in one leap leaving all the students surprised.
while the students started pouring out of the colosseum Julius went towards Kiri and the others he had become friendly with. While Julius walked down he noticed Zhou Ming was already introducing himself to the group" hello, I'm Zhou ming of the blue blade clan I hope we could be friends and improve together" though Zhou ming was being genuine the cohort didn't seem to trust him but he was stronger than them so they just entertained him and introduced themselves. Julius on the other hand was different he didn't have to be careful of Zhou ming but the other way around. Julius took his spot next to Kiri clearly showing that their alliance run much deeper than the rest of the group and introduced himself " Names Julius, don't expect me to cuddle you cause you are a noble." Julius stretched out his right hand for a shake which Zhou ming shook.
The group talked while they made their way to the dormitories. the dorms were the closest to the schools in the city. the wild Hound dorms where behind the Wild hound school while the noble hounds dorms were behind the silver hound school. through their Conversation they learned that even though Zhou Ming was a direct descendant of the clan many of his exploits lead him to being unfavored in the clan and sent away to greyhound. Julius felt like he was on the same boat but for a different reason so he decided to go easier on Zhou Ming. The things Zhou ming did while he was young and the way he spoke made it easy to be around him. He's strong presence on the stage was completely gone now and he was just a light hearted young man.
The group made their way to the dorms taking in the full environment. The guys made it to their dorm, the building was a mansion not as big as Julius family but still a big mansion. Making their way in they walked into the lobby. In the lobby there were several kinds of seating arrangements, there was massive tv in the center. the group walked up the stairs to the first floor of rooms. Julius room was the closest being the first room on the floor. Julius bide the guys a goodnight and headed into his room.