61 Class 2

The Arena was once again packed with students. Because of the commotion that happened yesterday and the fact that it was the battle rounds today, there were more Seniors in attendance, on the look out for potential Juniors to recruit. Specifically from Class 7. It was obvious that Arata was the reason that Class 7 had grown so rapidly, but that didn't mean that the rest of Class 7 were less valuable. The Seniors would definitely fight it out over this class.

Eamon and Eva were, once again, sitting with Aasim and Jolie. Their Juniors had surrounded them again to prevent people from coming close. Aasim chuckled.

"You really gave us a surprise there, Eamon. When you said you wanted Young Arata, I didn't expect you to get him so quickly."

Jolie nodded.

"That was some strength you displayed after the tournament. In an instant, all the other Seniors were blown away. I'm glad that I had already given up on Arata."

Aasim nodded in agreement. Eamon chuckled.

"Don't make me sound like some sort of monster rampaging through the school. It was just a chance of luck that Arata and I found a mutual understanding. He is a good kid."

Aasim and Jolie nodded. They had surmised that Eamon had some ability to see within a person and came to the conclusion that they should take his assessments of people to heart. The three felt a strong aura and they looked at each other with grins.

"The main characters have arrived."

Once again, Class 7 walked out with military precision and intent. They marched to their designated area before stopping. Arata nodded and they all sat down, crossed legs, and began cultivating while listening to Arata speak.

"First up is the individual battles. There are 16 pools of students. The 16 groups will have an all on all, last man standing battle. The winners of these 16 pools move on to the next segment, one on one elimination. The other classes will definitely try to make use of the constant battles to tire out our class. Naturally, they will send in more people from their class. We will not use those tactics. We will beat them with brute force. We will only have 4 students participate and take the top four spots. Antioch, Ryouma, Cephas and I will participate while the rest of you cultivate. Understood?"

The students all nodded and continued cultivating. Antioch, Ryouma and Cephas stood up and walked over to Arata.

"I have already arranged things with Tallis. We are already placed in different pools."

He then detailed the plan as he turned to the three boys one by one.

"Ryouma, use your Fire Bow for the all on all and keep your distance. Fight from afar and take everyone out slowly. Then you can fight properly in the one on ones. But try not to show any of the Sato Clan techniques. Cephas, test out the Sentinel Shield you learnt. The all on all will be perfect seeing its capabilities. And Antioch. I want you to go slow. I want you to keep yourself below 30% of your speed. You can raise it accordingly during the one on one battles."

The three boys nodded firmly as Arata turned to walk to the stage. They followed behind him and got sorted into their assigned pools. Arata saw that they would need to wait a while as he was in group 8, Cephas was in group 5, Antioch in group 12 and Ryouma in group 16. He wanted to see who else would be in the top 16 so he stood by the stage to watch with the three boys.

Group 1 moved onto the stage. It was no longer split like the day before, and was now a single, large stage for battle. There were around 30 students on stage yet they all had a decent amount of room to move. They eyed each other out competitively. A young boy was wearing a hood over his head. Arata looked at him. He had a very different aura and vibe compared to the other students. The teacher in charge sent a burst of fire into the sky. The signal to begin.

Immediately, the students on stage circulated their Energy and charged forward. Different Elements and abilities were released as the students went all out in their attacks. Arata kept his eyes on the hooded student who seemed to weave around the other students. He hadn't summoned any abilities yet, instead, he just moved through the students. He would draw the attention of students and lead them to attack him. At the last moment, he would dodge the attack and the attack would hit another student.

In this way, he remained unharmed while causing damage to everyone else. He also kept everyone else's attention on each other. But Arata had his eyes locked on him. He clearly had a lot of skill and technique. As the 30 students whittled away to 10, the hooded student finally channelled his Energy. He began to glow with an orange light as he burst into flames. He charged into the remaining students, one by one, exploding in flames and forcing them away.

The flames slowly died down as he stood there, surrounded by students on the ground in pain. The teach came forward.

"Winner of Pool 1: Brinley from Class 2."

Arata nodded. This Brinley wasn't bad. The next Pool, there was another hooded student. This one was much larger than the previous hooded student. He drew a large sword that was on his back. He went on to slash barbarically at the other students. His strength and speed was overwhelming that there was no way to block it as he swept the students to the side. He put the giant sword back into its sheath as the teacher came forward.

"Winner of Pool 2: Goliath from Class 2."

Arata frowned.

"Another from Class 2? Interesting."

The next pool went similarly to the first two. A student wearing a hood came out again, this time a girl, and turned herr hand into a blade of ice and quickly disposed of the opposing students.

"Winner of Pool 3: Tahki of Class 2."

The next pool, the hooded student was a short little boy. However, once the battle started, he grew in size as he seemed to adapt the characteristics of a bear, with the claws and fur. He slashed with a fierce savagery and tore through his opponents before returning to his normal state.

"Winner of Pool 4: Barrett from Class 2."

Four matches and Class 2 had won all four of them. Arata was grinning now.

"Maybe this competition won't be so boring after all."

He turned to Cephas.

"You're up. If you are up against another student from Class 2, see if you can push him to reveal his true strength."

Cephas nodded with a smirk as he walked on stage. Unlike the rest of the students who preferred to start from the edges of the stage, to have time to charge forward and not have people behind you. But Cephas didn't seem to care as he stood directly in the centre. He looked around and noticed that there were no hooded students. He grinned.

The teacher signalled for the battle to start. The students rushed towards him. Not only had he made himself a target by standing in the middle, he was also a part of Class 7. Every other class had an immense fear of Class 7 after yesterday, so they believed that they should charge him now, deal with him together first. Cephas grinned.

He stomped his foot on the ground and it seemed to join with the ground. His body became solid, turning into rock. He moved slower until he finally came to a stop. At this point, the other students reached him and sent their attacks at him. One by one their attacks slammed into the statue that was Cephas.

They continued to attack the statue, but nothing happened as Cephas the statue remained unharmed. The students stopped as the breathed heavily, unable to make a single mark on Cephas. The students instantly felt a surge of Energy come from Cephas. A student saw Cephas smirk before the stone statue moved, slamming his hands into the ground.

The stage began to shake violently. The teachers in charge realized what was happening as they instantly rushed on stage and pulled all the students off, just as hundreds of spikes shot up from the ground, covering the entire stage. Cephas stood up slowly in the centre of the spikes. The students that were rescued didn't understand what had happened and where they were until they looked at the stage.

They saw all the giant spikes and realized that if they were still standing there, they would have all been severely injured. Or maybe even worse. They shuddered at the thought as they looked at Cephas in fear. Arata grinned. During their training, Arata gave Cephas a cultivation technique from one of his Father's Shadowguards. It allowed Cephas to cultivate and become more in tuned with the ground beneath him.

Not only was he perfectly suited for this cultivation method, he surprised Arata by learning a new ability after only a week. He had learnt the move called Sentinel Shield. It would turn the caster into a stone, connecting them with the ground. They would then take all the Energy and force inflicted upon them and send that Energy into the ground. When activated, the built up Energy will explode out of the ground.

Cephas looked around stunned. Although he knew what the ability was, he had never had the time or the chance to test it out until now. He was both shocked and excited to see the strength of this move. Although he had to give up his mobility temporarily, the resulting power and strength was definitely worth it.

Teachers came forward to fix and readjust the stage, turning it back to normal before the competition continued. The next Pool had another hooded student in it. As did the following round. Both of the battles going to Class 2. The 8th pool began with Arata walking on stage. He saw that there was again no hooded students. He looked over to where Class 2 were sitting.

"So you're avoiding us. Interesting."

Just like Cephas, Arata walked to the centre of the stage and assumed the Vitality Bestowal stance. Although the stance itself looked gentle, the aura that Arata gave off was not. The other students had all heard of Arata so there was a natural fear within them. Some had even seen Arata use the very stance he had taken up. When the teacher gave the signal, the students did their best to cast aside their fears and rushed at Arata.

One by one, Arata redirected their attacks and sent the students flying. By the end, the students had all been thrown off the stage, while Arata was in the same position he had started in. The students watching understood that this was what true power was. He was too strong. After Arata's battle, Class 2 again returned to win the following Pools. Class 2 also glared at Class 7, after each battle they would taunt and smirk smugly towards Class 7. Besides the 2 Pool's that Cephas and Arata had won, Class 2 won the rest. And they were making it known. Arata understood that they needed to reply. It was now the 12th Pool where Antioch was participating. Arata stopped Antioch.

"I take back what I said before. Send Class 2 a message."

Antioch was stunned by his words for a split second before understanding. He grinned as he walked on stage. He walked to the centre of the stage, just like Cephas and Arata. As the students charged towards him, he stood still with his eyes closed and counted out loud.

"1."

The students reached him as the sent their attacks flying towards Antioch.

"2."

Before anyone knew what had happened, the students that were charging at and about to attack Antioch had suddenly changed the directions of their attacks as they hit each other. In an instant, all the students had clashed with each other and knocked each other out with their attacks. As the students fell, Antioch opened his eyes and looked around. He then looked at the Class 2 students.

"2 seconds."

Class 2 were clearly angered by this provocation as they whispered amongst themselves. They quickly replied. In the next 3 rounds, their hooded students came and stood in the middle of the stage and winning. These three, Arata noticed, were clearly much stronger than the others. The last to fight looked towards Arata and pointed at the stage.

"This is our stage now."

Arata smirked.

'Your stage? OK then.'

He turned to Ryouma who was the last to go up and he whispered in his ear. Ryouma went wide eyed.

"Are you sure?"

Arata nodded.

"I know you are worried about controlling it. But you don't need to. Just let it run wild."

Ryouma hesitated for a moment before resolving himself and nodding firmly. He handed over his Fire Bow and walked to the centre of the stage. He closed his eyes and placed his hand on the hilt of the Kurou no Tatsu on his back. As the teacher gave the signal, Ryouma opened his eyes. The students on stage froze as they were overwhelmed by an oppressive force. There was a powerful suppression that was causing some of the students to have trouble breathing or standing.

Some of the students noticed that Ryouma's eyes had turned completely black. The oppressive power was even affecting the teachers and some of the students in the audience. There was darkness within everyone, even if it is tiny. The oppressive force was feeding on that darkness and bringing it to submission. The students were unable to do anything as the darkness bred fear which bred more darkness.

Ryouma spoke softly.

"Leave my stage."

The students fearfully backed away, leaving the stage of their own volition. Those watching were stunned at this domineering behaviour and power. He had won by making everyone else give up. Too strong! Class 7 was too strong!

Ryouma looked over to Class 2, who were also in shock.

"Whose stage did you say this was?"