Chapter 47: DISCIPLES
Zephyr stared at Sirris calmly.
"At least I am not fighting Instructor Aiden this time around," he muttered with a smile.
"The outcome would not be any different," Sirris said, her bow appearing within her grasp.
Zephyr did not bother to reply. He let his katana do the talking.
In a burst of wind, he tore forward, katana arcing downward over Sirris.
Clang.
A metallic chime rang through the air as metal kissed metal.
Zephyr did not stop. He pulled back in the next instant, then thrust towards Sirris’s open chest.
Sirris ducked beneath the attack, letting it slide over her head.
Zephyr looked down at her new position.
His body twisted out of the path of the two vines that shot towards his head from Sirris’s side.
Sirris rose, her body a blur of motion as she leapt backwards to create space between them.
As she landed, her fingers coiled around the string of her bow.
Essence condensed over it, forming an arrow.
Zephyr barely glanced at her before she released the string, letting the arrow fly.
Zephyr did not wait for it to reach him. He moved toward it.
With a clean, masterful slash, his sword, coated in wind essence, sliced through the arrow.
’An opening,’ Sirris thought as she drew her bow again, shooting three arrows of pure essence towards Zephyr’s ribcage.
The air in the area seemed to gain another level of intensity that steered the arrows off course before they could connect.
Zephyr lunged again, his sword slashing towards Sirris’s open neck.
Sirris caught the attack with her bow.
Her left hand flashed forward in the next instant, her dagger gleaming with a silver sheen as it closed in on Zephyr’s chest.
Zephyr, as if he had seen the attack before it even began, ducked beneath it.
A sharp whistle came from below him as countless vines whipped towards his neck.
He backflipped, letting the attack meet air.
"That guy seems to have a foresight skill," Yvonne noted with slow nods.
"Not foresight, but something close," Aiden said.
"You just could not let me have this one, huh?" Yvonne said, rolling her eyes.
"But that girl seems really strong too, she is even holding back."
"Both of them are holding back," Sylvester replied.
Yvonne nodded, turning back to the screen.
Both of them were at a standoff, eyes locked on each other as they sized themselves up.
Zephyr held his katana in a reverse grip as he pushed one leg forward.
Sirris furrowed her brows at the unusual stance but did not dwell on it.
She gripped her dagger tighter and got into position.
She tore forward, her body a streak of blue essence as she moved.
Around her, vines shot in tandem, everything aimed towards Zephyr.
Zephyr did not move.
Even as the vines neared.
In the next instant, sharp lines spread through them, and they fell, split into hundreds of pieces.
Zephyr still did not move.
"He actually trained after I told him to," Aiden commented with a nod.
"But creating a domain, is that not too outrageous?" Yvonne muttered.
"One thing you need to understand about this set of students, you cannot judge them by the same standard as past generations."
Although the others were reluctant to agree, ultimately they nodded.
"In previous years, the only students who could rival them were probably Dante, Sylas, Marvin, and maybe Layla when she gets angry," Aiden said.
"This year’s Nexus Convergence is going to be something to watch."
They all nodded.
Sirris stopped mid motion.
"A domain?" She mused.
A smirk graced her lips as she thought about it.
She burst into motion again, this time pouring everything into closing the distance to Zephyr.
Five meters away from him, her neck separated from her head, blood gushing from the split like a fountain.
"Now we wait for an instructor to patch her up," Zephyr muttered, steadying himself.
"Which fool charges into a domain without a way to counter it?"
Boom.
Before Zephyr could move, the body exploded into flames that raged through the entire space like an inferno.
The temperature spiked until even the earth began to melt.
Red heat waves became visible under the immense heat.
From the heart of the explosion, Sirris rose again.
Zephyr on the other hand was flung backward, his body battered with bruises as he crashed into a pile of rocks.
Blood spluttered from his mouth as the pain crashed into him.
’What happened?’ That was the only thought in his mind as his eyes began to flutter closed.
He had no regeneration skill, no healing skill.
He could only watch as Sirris flashed a smile at him.
"Fool," he said, a smirk spreading on his lips.
At those words, the air inside Sirris’s body drifted out in a sudden burst that made her body convulse.
She was not dead, so her skill did not activate.
But she could not move either.
Aiden’s eyes almost left their sockets as he watched Zephyr control the oxygen.
"This boy is my new disciple, I don’t care what Abaddon has to say," he said.
The other teachers turned to look at Aiden with shock.
Not because he had casually referenced the Patriarch by name.
That was normal given Aiden’s status.
They were shocked because Aiden had decided to take a disciple.
That was close to impossible.
If he had not made the declaration here, in front of witnesses, it would have remained that way.
"Then that one is mine," Ymir said, pointing at Malaric on the screen.
"He was able to stoke enough anger in all of them and then quietly sweep in to take the core for himself."
As she spoke, she gestured at the screen.
"You were all too focused on the fights to notice the threads of wrath essence he had wrapped around each of the students."
She went quiet for a moment before continuing.
"Truly worthy of being the second Primordial Grade purity in this generation."
The other instructors looked at the screen.
"Wait, both Valdren and Malaric have Primordial Grade purity?" Aiden asked.
Ymir nodded slowly.
"As for that Azrael boy, I am not yet certain about his."
"I will take Azrael as my disciple," Sylvester said.
"Hold on, are we just claiming students without telling them?" Yvonne asked with furrowed brows.
"That is pretty much what we are doing," Aiden said with a shrug.
"Then I want Sirris."