Once passing through the main entrance, the group entered a long corridor made of high-strength concrete re-enforced with spirit essence. There were a number of arches in both floor and ceiling, which looked like ribs, breaking up the long corridor at regular intervals. Looking closely, it was apparent that this was not simply done as an adornment of brutalist architecture, but there mechanisms similar to the one at the main entrance which would allow them to close like doorways, locking down the place with a number of barriers.
Lenny couldn't imagine what kind of creatures would mandate this level of security, and he began to wonder if scavenger and prey beasts were really the limit of what they had in store. The cold halogen lights above saturated the walkway, causing its ribs to cast long shadows, somewhat dulled by the other lights in the area.
No one spoke as they made their way through to final section, which had a thick metal door, which looked like it belonged on a submarine, and was several inches thick and firmly closed.
"So, what now?" asked Lenny.
No one spoke, and a moment later, Master Ackerman opened the door. He was a large black man with ginger hair in dreadlocks with a thick, wiry beard.
"Students," he said. "Today, we're gonna have some visitors observing. Please, behave yourselves. And try to remember, you are representing not just your factions today, but the Western Alliance as a whole. Not the faction, but a third of the world's forces."
"Jeez, no pressure," thought Lenny.
"Come," said Master Ackerman. In turning, a long staff with a dark blade half the length of the weapon could be seen on his back. It was curved, with a black handle to match and was known as a war scythe. There was a strange stone where the blade and the hilt met, which looked almost like a spirit core made of shiny black rock. It looked as if someone had fashioned it from the igneous rock found at the base of a volcano, rather than any metal Lenny had ever known.
Lenny looked at Rose. She was staring in front.
"He's from the Heartland," said Ivy, speaking to Lenny for the first time. "His weapon, it's beautiful, isn't it?"
Lenny nodded.
Not another word was spoken, as they walked through the smaller passageway into a large open area. As they entered, it was as if they were in a completely different space. The narrow corridor had opened up into a beautiful open space with lots of trees, plants and foliage. There was even a small river running through it and the glass dome roof made it feel like they had entered a tropical forest or greenhouse. However, a close observer would have spotted that surrounding this beautiful Hanging Garden of ancient Babylon, there were many glass cells, made of the same material as the moveable walls in the training hall, and inside these cells were all kinds of spirit beasts of various shapes and sizes. On entering, a few of the beasts slammed into the walls of the cell, but they were held firmly.
"For those of you who are new here, do not worry. You are safe. These cells are made of the highest spec Spirit Tech glass. You'll not have anything escaping that wasn't meant to."
At that point, he turned towards Lenny and Rose, then to Ivy. "I see you have two new members in your group."
"Hopefully, one of them will be joining us, bringing our group up to a full cohort."
"For today, I will allow it," said Master Ackerman. "And you," he said, turning to Roman. "Have you rethought your position?"
"Legion fights alone," he said.
"Legion?" Lenny thought. He had never heard of the faction, but if they had produced a violet sash, they must have been quite powerful. There group was strange after all, having one violet sash, one indigo, one blue, they were effectively a group of three powerful ability users, seemingly choosing to unite their strength along faction lines, rather any particular subset of complementary abilities.
"Today, we will be taking on flying beasts. Who will be going first?" asked Master Ackerman.
Everyone looked around, and in that moment, Lenny spotted one of the glass cells in the row above them had people in rather than beasts. These must have been the visitors or honoured guests that had been spoken of.
"We'll go," said the boy with a wide nose and jaw. The four archers surrounding him followed him into the centre of the room, while they waited on the side lines.
"Scavenger? Or prey?" asked Master Ackerman.
"Do you need to ask?" the boy replied. His name was Connor, and he had confident smile that said they had already won this battle.
"Very well." At the moment, Master Ackerman pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button, pointing it at one of the cells. A beep and a click was heard, and the glass door began to open, with a single large beast flapping its wings as it descended from above. It looked somewhat like a moth with wings which had black skulls on them. It seemed to have a green liquid dripping from its mouth as it salivated, looking at its next meal.
*
Mr Yamamoto was wearing a thick black silk montsuki with his family emblem on his left breast. While the Western Alliance had factions, the Eastern Sun had families, which were not families in the traditional sense, but instead a loose connection of historic alliances, or groups of family lines which would embrace a single mode of warfare. He had two sharp blades attached to his waste, one a short wakizashi made for close quarters fighting, the other a much longer two-handed blade, called a tachi.
"The students are from mixed factions?" asked Mr Yamamoto.
"Yes, we train them together," said Headmaster Collins. "Remember, although we have large clans here, there is some movement between those without a born affiliation. This is not the family system."
Mr Yamamoto and his daughter looked at one another.
Below them, Master Ackerman had just pressed a button on a remote and a Black-Skull Moth descended into the jungle arena below.
*
Lenny observed closely as the fight was about to take place. It seemed that the four archers stood behind Connor quickly ran off to the side, getting into two flanks which could rain down a barrage of arrows on their opponents. However, instead of firing, they simply held their position with bows drawn. Lenny found it odd that there were three green sashes and one yellow as support, with no one especially powerful, other than Connor. However, as he had learnt, indigo sashes were a force to be reckoned with.
Connor suddenly charged forward towards the beast.
"What's his ability?" asked Rose.
"Time dilation," said Ivy.
"So, it's like he's a speed user? Or does he just slow down his opponent?"
"Not exactly," said Ivy. "It affects everything close to him. The closer they get, the stronger the effect. But it even affects him, as time in the area is slowed."
"How is that even useful?" asked Lenny.
"You'll see," said Ivy.
"System, scan."
"Name: Connor Ryan. Ability: Time dilation. Strength: unknown. Speed: unknown. Stamina: unknown. Perception: unknown. Spirit: unknown. Health: unknown."
It was just as before, his scan seemed useless on those of a higher level.
Just then, as Connor was approaching the Black-Skull Moth, he appeared to slow down. At first it was gradual, but then it was as if someone had changed a setting on a video recording. The beast was slowed down too, with small beads of perspiration slowly falling off it as its wings flapped at an incredibly slow pace.
"Now," shouted one of the archers.
Suddenly a volley of arrows was fired at the winged creature. However, rather than simply striking it, they appeared to pause in the air. Although pause wasn't quite right, as they were still moving, just incredibly slowly, as if everything was in super slow motion. It was odd though, as the effect seemed to be active, though lessened the further the arrows were from Connor and the beast, giving the slow down a smooth effect.
Just then, another volley of arrows was fired. The arrows themselves appeared to move very quickly, many of the archers having either a telekinesis or a wind element. One even seemed to be dripping poison. This round of arrows was followed by a second, a third, a fourth, and finally, a fifth volley of arrows had stacked up. The air was littered with them side by side, or not quite, as they were still moving, though very slowly. Just then, the effect ended, transitioning back to regular time and the volleys of arrows continued their trajectory.
Suddenly, the beast was peppered with over twenty arrows, one or two having missed or been knocked off course by another. Its wings were so damaged, it couldn't maintain itself in flight and it fell the ground with a crash, seventy kilos of weight suddenly striking the ground. It laid face down, many of the arrows which had been lodged in its body and wings have been ripped out or moved by the force of impacting the ground. It still twitched, not quite dead, but not far off either.
Connor pulled two short spirit daggers from his belt and used them to slice repeatedly at the moth's throat. Four or five slashes later, the Black-Skull Moth had suddenly gone limp and no longer made any movements. He dug into the body with his blades and pulled out a spirit core. It was somewhat dull, roughly the size of a marble and had green energy swirling around its centre.
"Next," cried Master Ackerman.
There were many group battles after that, but that one stood out to Lenny. Perhaps it was the fact it was the first one, an example of the primacy effect in action, or perhaps simply because it had shown him how well some abilities could truly complement each other. The whole was sometimes much greater than sum of its parts. Another good example of this was Tobias's fight. He had used his gravitational ability to pull down a beast into a group of spikes created by a combination of a sand user and fire user, combining their abilities to make glass. It was the quickest of all the fights, and it was clear that, as long as they were fighting flying beasts, Tobias's skill would be a powerful one.
Not everyone chose to fight a prey tier beast. Some of the weaker blue sash groups had decided to play it safe on their first session, either due to a bad pairing with flying creatures, or perhaps simply a lack of confidence. The scavengers went down quickly, usually only requiring one or two good blows from the damage dealer in the team, although many were quick, requiring abilities to trap them, or simply wasting a few strikes that missed.
The next battle would be Roman, and the others from the Legion clan. However, rather than Roman using his transformation ability, as Ivy had expected, simply destroying the beast with brute force, Charlotte stepped forward on her own. This was obviously something pre-agreed within the group and no one complained.
"What's her ability?" asked Rose, looking at the indigo sash that had been thoroughly beaten in her Melee Arms class.
"I actually don't know," said Ivy for the first time, paying close interest.
This time, a sort of dark blue eagle creature descended from above. It had powerful looking talons, which looked as if they could rip through bones like paper. Charlotte suddenly slammed her staff into the ground. And they all saw something they had not expected.
Suddenly, a bee spirit beast, previously decapitated by Finius, the speed user from les Chevaliers, had risen from the ground and flew straight for the eagle. Its stinger lodged in the beast, ripping its own guts out as it was released and injected a huge amount of poison. The Midnight Eagle, not dead, but certainly wounded, vomited whatever it had been fed, which seemed to be a red pool of minced flesh. If the core had not been removed, the bee would have killed it, but instead, it relied on its natural unenhanced toxicity.
Charlotte slammed her staff into the ground one more time. This time, another moth-like creature, though with a different pattern to its wings than the one defeated by Connor, suddenly rose from the dead. It had a hole in its chest where Ivan the Terrible had ripped its heart out. It flew at the beast, and after a back and forth in which the Midnight Eagle probably would have won, Roman simply said: "Enough." At that his teammate ran forward and ran the eagle through with his spear. He had moved quickly, but not as a speed user would, simply as a powerful hunter enhanced by spirit armour.