Teacher?

Seth heard no more screams or shouts, it was as if time had reversed. The only things that hadn't changed were his body's will and his own thoughts. His body's will was still in hibernation and he still remembered what happened. Maybe something had gone wrong. Seth suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, if he felt like he was the prey of a predator from his mother's gaze, this was the gaze of an apex predator.

Seth froze, his eyes widened as he was teleported into a massive dark area. He saw buff men with batons marching towards him, reminding him of his past life. Seth shivered, feeling the pain from before. He curled into a ball on the floor, hands covering his head, in the fetal position. He felt back to just days ago, back to when he was beaten daily, just for other's entertainment. Seth felt the sadness from before, the unending torment he had been put through, he screamed out.

"Stop it! Don't come any closer you mother fuckers!" Seth suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, he was knocked off the floor. He looked up, the marching men were gone, there was just an old man sitting before him. He had a sharp gaze, with the eyes of a hawk. The old man just stared into Seth's eyes for a few moments before speaking.

"Hmm. It seems that you are worse than I thought." He sounded slightly disappointed as if Seth had somehow failed him.

"What do you mean?"

"Hmmm..." The man didn't answer Seth, seemingly lost in thought. He stroked his beard and stuck out his arm. A small, steaming cup of tea appeared in his hand. He sipped the tea before looking back to Seth, with a softer expression. Seth was wary of the man, seeing as he didn't respond, he just lay and waited. Just from the pressure that was leaking out of the old man, he could tell they were in completely different leagues. This man was much stronger than Soren, there were no doubts. Seth didn't dare move a muscle before this man, for fear that he might strike him down.

Seeing that Seth didn't move, the man nodded and looked back to his tea. He just continued to sip his tea in peace, a satisfied smile forming on his face. Seth didn't try to use Inspect on the man, he already knew it wouldn't show anything. It might even alert the old man and make him suspicious of him if he wasn't already. The old man finished the last of his tea before setting the cup beside him and sighing contentedly. He looked back at Seth

"Why did you try to blow up the castle?"

"I was angry sir." Seth didn't try to lie to the old man, he had a feeling that if he did, bad things would happen to him.

"I see."

Seth felt the leaking pressure from the man ease off into nothingness, completely disappearing.

"You may get up, young man." The old man's voice was still calm. Seth got up from the ground but stayed low, almost crouching.

"You're obedient and you aren't arrogant, I like that. You have a good drive, but if you ever do that again..." The old man's face hardened, warning Seth. Seth knew he had made a huge mistake by blowing up the wooden cube, because of his temper. He kneeled to the old man, hoping to gain favor.

"Ho ho ho! It's been quite a while since a young man like yourself kneeled to me." The old man reminisced for a few seconds. Seth felt anger in his heart towards the old man, but he didn't show it. He would get revenge for even the shortest length of torment or sadness. The old man waved his hand and the darkness changed. The castle appeared once more, but Seth was now outside.

"Beat these three tests and I might just allow you to be my student." The old man stood up and stroked his beard, disappearing.

"What the hell, old man!?" Seth looked around for the old man, he didn't know who the old man was or why he wanted him to be his student. Seth knew something though, the old man was strong, and being the student of someone strong was good. He would kill the old man eventually, but not for now. He would first leech all of the treasures and resources from the man before finishing him off.

Five shadowy figures stepped toward Seth, looking as if the wind would blow them away. A sword appeared in Seth's hand just as the shadows lunged at him. It seemed the first test would be his combat capabilities. Seth's face stretched into a grotesque smile, he was grinning from ear to ear. His blood was boiling, he felt as if he could kill anything in the world. Seth jumped at the shadows with his sword in hand, he hit the closest one in the face with the side of his sword. He didn't even bother trying to cut the shadow, treating the sword as an oddly shaped club.

The shadow flew away, it hit the ground over fifty feet from Seth. The other shadows didn't react at all, as if they hadn't seen what had just transpired. Seth didn't care though, he just continued to charge madly at the shadows, swinging his sword madly. His sword would hit a shadow and it would fly back, then get up again and continue running at him. If the shadows were normal humans, Seth's grinning visage would be etched into their memories forever, as an inhuman beast, a demon. Luckily for them, they weren't, they were mindless shadows.

The old man saw what Seth was doing and just sighed, someone who lost their mind in a battle would just be a dead weight. If Seth was like this in every fight, there would be no point in teaching him. Seth had been doing the same thing for almost an hour, whacking the shadows when they reached him. When the old man was just about to stop the test, Seth did something odd. He stopped swinging his sword and, with the creepy grin still etched into his face, infused it with water and fire elements. Somehow, Seth was even able to stabilize the elements with his magic and swung his sword in a huge arc. A blade of water and fire flew from the sword, slicing through all of the shadows and causing them to dissipate.

The old man was so surprised that he forgot to stop the test, although it had already been stopped by Seth as he had beaten it. Seth's grin disappeared from his face and he collapsed on the ground. Seth had a huge headache and he was having flashbacks to something that had never happened. He lay on the ground, his eyes unfocused. He could see himself fighting angelic beings with a golden sword. No, it wasn't himself, it was someone else's body. He was just watching the battle play out as if he was watching a movie.

His body was infusing the golden sword with a multitude of elements, many of which he had never seen before. He was using more magic in a single second than Seth's maximum magic. His body was even throwing hundreds of spells a second, each one taking the life of one of the millions of angels, each one using more than Seth's maximum magic. Seth watched the battle go on for a few more minutes, he was excited. It seemed that this body was also a battle maniac. Seth was cutting down angels left and right, they were being completely obliterated. Suddenly, Seth saw a flash of light, and he felt an intense pressure overcome him. The pressure was too much for Seth, it wasn't just many times that of the old man, they were incomparable. Seth couldn't hold on any longer and he blacked out, lying on the ground.

When the old man saw Seth go unconscious, he knew that Seth had even more secrets than he had thought. The old man didn't bother trying to wake Seth up, it would be better to just let him sleep. While he was waiting for Seth to get up, the old man disappeared from the castle and appeared in a dark room. Seth appeared in the room with him, he was sleeping on the ground in the dark room as well, the old man stepped over his body and walked over to the corner of the room. In the corner of the room, there was a glass case filled with glowing chunks of metal and bottles of glowing liquids. If Seth had seen the sight he would have been amazed. These were all treasures!

Of course, Seth could not see the treasures as he was still lying on the floor, unconscious. The old man opened the glass case and reached inside, he pulled out three bottles and closed the case again. The old man walked back to Seth and set the bottles next to him before walking to a wall on the other side of the room. This wall was lined with sharp swords, knives, and spears, most of them looked very plain, but a few were just as flashy as the treasures were. The old man pulled the plainest-looking dagger from the wall and walked back to Seth. He set the dagger next to Seth and he and Seth disappeared from the room, leaving the weapon and the treasures behind.

When Seth woke up, nothing had changed around him. He was still in front of the castle and the old man still hadn't come back.

"Good job Seth. Are you ready to begin the next test?" Seth heard the old man's voice reverberate around the area as he stood up. Seth stretched, he was feeling refreshed even though he had blacked out and fell on the hard ground. Seth nodded and readied himself for another fight, his blood already starting to boil again. With his body's will already weak and unable to affect him, it was now known to Seth that his reaction to fighting was really him. Seth was fine with that, it didn't matter what part of him was in control as long as he was the one in control.

"Alright, the test will start now." The old man's voice rang out once more, and the environment changed. Seth was in front of a long broken wood bridge, it was swaying in the wind. There was nobody around, no attackers to fight, only a long bridge above a deep canyon. Seth looked around him, there was nothing, only a flat plane in all directions. The only thing in Seth's sight was the canyon and bridge. The bridge was actually very big, the wooden planks used to make it were well over twenty feet long and about four feet wide. There were two planks in rows for the entire bridge that was eight feet wide and an indecipherable length.

"Cross the bridge to finish the test." Seth heard the old man's voice after he had stood, without moving, for almost five minutes. Seth finally moved, he slowly stepped onto the bridge, making sure to be as careful as possible. Seth was just overreacting, he was just a few-pound baby, he couldn't break the bridge with his weight if the wind hadn't already. The most Seth would have to worry about would be the wind, he was just scared from his past life, he had never been much of a fan of heights. Seeing as the bridge was sturdy enough to hold his weight, Seth ran over the bridge as fast as he could. He raced to the other side of the canyon, but when he was halfway over the bridge, he heard a loud growl from beneath him. In less than a second, the light from the sun was gone. Seth was falling, everything was dark. Something had blocked the sun and broken the bridge, something huge. Seth fell for what seemed like hours, never once feeling a thing save for the wind.