Spirit's Ascension

It all felt extremely weird to Cole, how was the person he planned to go trail with in the night suddenly coming to where he was?

Cole had no idea why that happened, so he only shoveled that to the back of his mind quickly.

"Would you help me capture him, teacher?" Cole asked while trying to feign cuteness.

"Obviously not, this is your battle; why should I help you?" Eleanor refuted instantly.

Cole didn’t try to press on further since he knew what sort of person Eleanor was, but he was shocked to hear her say something after that.

"But I can help you question him," she said curtly.

Though that wasn’t exactly what Cole wanted, he was more than happy to agree to a deal.

"Now that we are done with all of that, it is time to see how much progress you have made lately."

Cole didn’t know what to say to Eleanor at the moment since he hadn’t made real progress after he was done with the basic stances.

"Ummm, I don’t think I have made any progress," Cole said.

Eleanor, who had been previously approaching him earlier, was forcefully stopped in her steps as she looked at him strangely.

"And that was the reason I came here, to see if you could teach me some things," Cole continued.

The strange expression on Eleanor’s face slowly vanished, but it still lingered while she asked him a question.

"Haven’t you fought any battles since you left school?"

Now it was Cole’s turn to be confused since he had no idea why she would ask such a question, but he decided to respond anyway.

"I have quite a lot, to say the least," Cole said as memories of the past week plus came to his mind.

"Okay, then you must have made some astonishing progress."

"Every battle you partake in adds to your combat mastery and progress," she said, imparting new lessons to Cole.

"Now enough talk and let me see what you have got."

Cole also didn’t attempt to speak any further and instead got into a battle stance.

Seeing everyone ready, Cole tensed his feet muscles and instantly rushed forward to begin the battle with a punch.

From that moment, Cole fought with all he had, hitting and almost cornering Eleanor in certain conditions; at least he thought he was, and this continued until evening slowly arrived.

"Let’s stop now; I have confirmed you have really made some progress."

She thought for a while before saying firmly.

"Come again tomorrow; I have something that might help you."

"Now try cultivating to rejuvenate yourself; the man will be coming soon."

"You are on your own," her voice slowly grew distant as she left Cole standing in his spot.

He also didn’t stop to think too much before he also plopped on the ground and began cultivating peacefully.

About an hour later, Cole forcefully stopped his cultivation and got up to prepare for the man to arrive at the combat hall.

"He will be walking right into my trap," Cole said with a slightly evil smile.

While he was cultivating, Cole had already made some sort of simulation on how the encounter was going to go, so he had calmly prepared everything he needed to.

Cole moved to the corner of the combat hall entrance and slowly blended with the shadow to wait.

The sun moved closer to the horizon with Cole still lying in wait. It was taking all of the willpower he had for him not to leave there and go in search of himself.

"Relax, Cole, you need patience," he said to himself. He hadn’t even finished saying that when he began hearing footsteps.

"He is here,"

The footsteps grew louder until Cole finally saw someone enter into the hall. Disappointment suddenly washed over him as Cole saw the face of the person that just entered the hall.

"It isn’t him," he thought.

He was just about to leave the corner and get out to talk to the man when he suddenly remembered something extremely important.

"Anything is possible in the Spiriter world."

He then decided to wait and observe what exactly was going to happen.

The persons that entered the hall looked all around the hall trying to spot something or someone.

He scanned for quite a while, and when he realized that there was no one here, something began to change.

His face slowly morphed as his skin tossed and turned all around. It didn’t take too long for another face to appear in Cole’s line of sight.

"He really is the one. He seems to have some sort of innate spirit that grants him the ability to change his facial features," Cole thought.

"But why didn’t he use that yesterday?" Cole questioned.

But then his mind suddenly jolted when he remembered an important point.

"Could he have been there but with a different face?"

This new experience showed Cole how unpredictable things could actually get in the Spiriter world.

"There are all sorts of Innate spirits in the world," he said.

He watched the man finish his face change and then move toward a bench on the side to sit and wait.

"Is it time for me to show myself and get out of this hiding spot?" he wondered.

But after what he just experienced not too long, Cole still decided to wait in his spot and observe for a while more.

Disappointment quickly washed over him as more time went by and nothing spectacular happened.

"I guess that’s all he had in his arsenal," he said as he left the corner.

While Cole was approaching the man from the corner as silently as he could, the man still looked completely oblivious.

That made Cole feel a little strange since he wasn’t making any sort of conscious effort to reduce his footsteps.

"Could he be intentionally doing this?" he wondered.

He resumed taking steps closer to the man while paying closer attention to his reaction.

When Cole finally got close enough to do anything, he noticed the man turning to look at him slowly before saying anything.

"I have been waiting for you."