12 Initial High Origination

Red. That was all Cifer could see. Just moments ago Akemi Sensei had been forced by the lecturer to beg him for his forgiveness. Since he'd thought the brutality already done, and the humiliation she clearly considered it to resist for so long, were already enough for the crime Cifer had easily agreed.

He never thought that Akemi would snap and try to kill him. Among those present he was clearest on that attempt on his life that had been cut off before most of the crowd noticed. Or, maybe that should be before the crowd understood her war cry and movements were threatening Cifer.

But the whole drama had yet to leave the lecturer's control, and with a High Origination Cultivation killing Akemi Sensei had truly been as easy as flipping his palm. One instant Cifer's blood froze in him as Akemi's red hair and face prepared to move in violence. The next her blood covered him as the life left her eyes, painting Cifer's world in red.

A red that made something stir in him.

Elder Naoki moved while everyone else was stunned by the sudden execution. Immeasurable pain, loss, fury and hate driving him, Elder Naoki no longer cared about the Crimson Sect behind the lecturer. This place would be the man's burial grounds!

The lecturer was ready, his own heavy black palm, shrouded in Evil, crashing against Elder Naoki's Lightning Assault, a chaotic storm of frenzied blows that required a domineering and aggressive Essence to coonect with lightening. Cifer was only 10 feet from the fight as the lecturer gave ground, grinning as he nullified the onslaught head on.

Momo grabbed Cifer in the midst of the attack, pulling them both away before they got dragged into a fight on the level of Elders. As she did, Cifer saw evidence that the move saved his life when Elder Naoki missed the lecturer and a boulder as big as his torso was burnt and broken in a dozen pieces.

Let alone him, even Momo wasn't safe in this mess. A glancing blow would easily kill Cifer, and a direct hit would barely leave Momo a corpse. The two fighters made use of the entire length and width of the platform leading up to the lecture hall. The crowd pulled back as Momo and Cifer entered the crowd, but only far enough to be out of the way and watch safely. It was a rare opportunity to watch a fight between two High Origination combatants, and everyone hoped to gain insight from it.

The lecturer was grinning and laughing as he fought with a savagery that further cemented the view that he was some sort of demonic existence in everyone's minds. But something was off. While the Essence of the lecturer was clearly High tier, it fell way short compared to Elder Naoki's Intermediate stage High tier Essence. And Elder Naoki was obviously faster, stronger and certainly tougher.

Momo realized what it was first, though it was both so obvious and so disturbing that everyone realized she was right and felt their blood chill at the same time. "He's only in the Initial stage of High tier." That meant Elder Naoki was 3 entire stage above the lecturer.

Normally that would indicate an invincible advantage, but the lecturer was treating Elder Naoki's efforts to kill him like some kind of sparing match. Until Elder Naoki slipped past his palm strike with his superior speed. The lecturer groaned as he flew back, landing heavily against the statue on the side of the lecture hall's entrance. The crowd calmed.

Cifer, instead, felt a chill. He noticed something the crowd missed. The lecturer wasn't nearly as hurt as he seemed, having minimized the damage by jumping back and riding the Essence as the attack hit him. Dragging out the moment of impact, which imparted the same amount of energy. This meant that instead of crashing into him in an instant to break bones and burst organs, the hit had bled into him slowly to bruise muscle and jostle his inner body. What kind of instantaneous reaction and judgement did it take to realize your "hard" defense had failed and swap to a "soft" catch like this???

When the lecturer got back up, Cifer and Elder Naoki were the only people not surprised. Elder Naoki hadn't felt the reverb of his strike feel right, alerting him that something was wrong. "How did you do that? I've never heard of a Technique to reduce the impact of an opponent's attack like that."

The lecturer laughed. "A special trick I learned way back. Hey kid, Cifer. Watch what I do next very closely. I, Oji Emor, am going to take this old man's head. If you can detail to me why my fighting overwhelmed him than I'll count it as having the Comprehension to enter my Sect."