Invitation

On the stage stood a lonely figure surrounded by debris. Lake stood there quietly and expressionless but in his eyes a fire was burning.

He saw all the students around him staring in awe, and he enjoyed the feeling. He finally had the chance to show them up.

These pretentious kids who always believed themselves to be superior just because they had powers, yet here came someone who could overpower them easily.

The whole crowd was wide-eyed as they watched Lake stand there quietly. In the middle of the arena was a single body covered with bits and pieces of the floor. His head was bent to the side and his eyes were blank.

Gregory went unconscious with that last hit. Seeing as how there was nothing left for him to do, Lake descended the arena, grabbing his stuff he left. Ignoring the looks that came his way.

As he was leaving he turned to see a person watching him with interest. Surprisingly it was the Princess of the school. Despite her fame Lake only knew her by her nickname.

Her face held a beauty that outshone any in the world while giving off a graceful charm, yet still holding the immaturity that came with being a child. Her entire body exuded the same cold aura that Lake did, yet it came not from indifference to the world, but rather a sense of loneliness that drew a line across her and everyone else.

It was unknown when she had appeared but the moment someone noticed, the whole crowd went into an uproar.

"What's the Princess doing here?"

"You don't think she came for the fight right? She doesn't look like the type to be interested."

Regardless of her reasons it was a fact that she now stood in front of them all and that her gaze had never left Lake. This caused everyone to be even more surprised than when Lake defeated Gregory.

Yet that wasn't the end, the Princess actually started walking towards him. Everyone took in a gulp as they watched her walk towards Lake while exuding an air of elegance with every step. It was as if the whole world belonged to her.

"Your name is Lake right?" She asked without any change in expression.

Lake nodded simply as we was a man of few words.

"Can you please come with me?"

Gasps were heard throughout the gym. The Princess, famous for her coldness, had actually just asked someone to accompany her.

The many male students within the crowd glared at Lake with eyes filled with jealousy and envy. What any boy wouldn't do to get their goddess to say that to them.

"Sorry, I'm busy." He said to everyone's disbelief.

A trace of surprise flashed across the Princess's face, she never believed there'd be a man who'd reject her so easily like Lake. At a loss of what to do she just stood there and watched him walk away.

He reached the doorway before a quiet voice entered his ears.

"My name is Lyra."

Lake didn't even turn around, simply nodding to acknowledge her before disappearing from sight.

Lyra stood there in a daze before also departing under the admiring gazes of the other students.

***

Later that night there was an anonymous video posted on to the school's website.

It was a sparring match between two students, to everyone's surprise it was between Lake, a known powerless, and Gregory, who everyone knew to be from the Chor family.

Everyone watching believed they knew the outcome of the fight, reality had shown them the truth.

It was Gregory's crushing defeat. Lake hadn't even broken a sweat from what the video showed, so it showed how simple it was for Lake to win.

Everyone was surprised that a powerless could have such might, it was widely accepted that a person's growth is extremely limited without powers. And that though there were all sorts of evo styles for the powerless, in the end they were just supplements to people's abilities.

Yet it was shown in this video that if used right that they could be even more powerful than anyone knew.

It was understood that fighting techniques were truly useless against powers. But the truly powerful knew that fighting techniques had a golden age once upon a time. And now with humanity evolving and possessing bodies and strength thought to be fictional, these techniques could now finally showcase their true might.

The Hunters 2nd Academy was shocked because it was a third-rate school. The students here believed that all they needed to do was develop their abilities and then they'd become powerful, except that is truly wishful thinking.

To Lake, fighting techniques was his only solace since he had no ability to train, there was nothing other than training in these techniques to increase his strength. Given his comprehension abilities it didn't take long before he had mastered some basic fighting techniques.

Lake laid on his bed in deep thought. 'Today I could beat Gregory because he was an idiot, but what'll happen when I meet someone who knows fighting techniques on top of their ability. At that point it would all go to naught.'

'Stronger! I have to quickly reach the 5th stage and unlock my ability, only in that way can I give mom the life she deserves.' Thinking of his mother bitterly working day and night for him, he gave a self deprecating smile and laughed at himself.

'Well there's no point in thinking of this, I just need to focus on training.' Sitting up he went into a cross legged position.

He slowly circulated his energy the way the Swallowing Star technique told him. A vortex began swirling inside his body, drawing the motes of light into his body once more. The rotations of the vortex slowly became faster until it peaked at 50 rotations per minute.

He had discovered earlier that there were 9 stages to the Swallowing Star technique. The first stage required the vortex to be spinning at least 100 rotations per second or 6000 rotations per minute.

The further stages needed even more rotations. All the way to the 9th stage with nearly 1 million rotations per second.