Chapter 34: Woah

"Who would you pick to fight?"

"No one. I do not hit children, Mr. Instructor."

"What the—What did you say!?"

"Calm down, Mr. Matthew."

Everyone started to whisper after that. They all knew it was happening — after all, they all went through the same thing and also fought each other during their first day. But to think that Lucian would actually refuse the ritual of Cultivator Combat II, that should not happen, ever.

"I can't calm down, Sir!" Matthew did not back down as he pointed at Lucian, "He's disrespecting the tradition of this class! I'll fight him! He's obviously just fucking scared right now!"

"Scared…?" Emilia also stood up from her seat as she looked at Matthew; her eyes, extremely cold that it made the rest of her classmates completely uncomfortable, "I assure you — you will not even be able to land a single hit against Mr. Lucian."

"Wh—why are you even defending the old bitch, Emi!?"

"Do not call me Emi, we are not close," Emilia's eyes turned even colder as she slightly leaned her head back so that she could look down at Matthew even further, "And I am not defending her, I am only stating facts."

"Then let him show it himself," Matthew shrugged her shoulders, "Or are you really scared, you old bitch? You—"

"Mr. Matthew," the instructor suddenly appeared right in front of Matthew before he could finish his words, "I will not tolerate your language inside my class — this will be your only warning. But of course, I do agree with you…

…Mr. Lucian, you need to fight. I have a feeling that you, out of most people, would understand the importance of routine."

"I do, Mr. Instructor," Lucian nodded, "If it is your custom for me to fight, then I will. But as I said, I do not hit children."

Lucian then turned to look at Matthew, who seemed to just be perhaps 2 or 3 years older than Maeve.

"W…why are you looking at me like that!?" Matthew stepped out of his desk, "Sir, he's looking down on me!"

"Stop being a child, Mr. Matthew," the instructor let out a small sigh as he blocked Matthew's path; his voice, just filled with exhaustion, "So that means you will fight if it is not with a child, Mr. Lucian?"

"If that is what is required of me," Lucian nodded.

"Very well," the instructor then took a step to the side, and as he did so, he was suddenly right in front of the class again. Unlike the class with Harriet, the Cultivator Combat's classroom was much larger; with the platform the instructor's standing on wider and clearly more sturdy,

"Then I will fight you, Mr. Lucian."

"W…woah," everyone looked at each other as they heard that. Most of them, now letting out whispers of excitement.

"Okay," Lucian did not even hesitate to agree as he casually walked down the aisle without even any expression on his face.

"Since you are at the Spirit Infant rank, I will also limit my lith to that level," the instructor breathed out as the energy surrounding him started to leak out, causing the students to slightly grab onto their seats; with Matthew just being forced to sit back down due to the sudden pressure. Lucian, however, just continued to walk down,

"Hm…" the instructor breathed out, and very soon, his lith started to calm down; becoming lighter until it almost did not exist at all, finally allowing the students to breathe again, "...That should be alright, then."

The instructor then gestured to Lucian to stand on the other end of the platform.

"Okay," Lucian just once again nodded as he followed the instructor's orders; standing there without even as much as a movement or a stretch of his limb.

"Okay," the instructor also walked to his side of the platform before grabbing a coin from his pocket, "Once this falls to the ground, we will start. You do not have to worry and just fight, this is only to check what you are capable of — this is more on technique rather than brute force and lith capacity."

"Okay."

"Okay."

The students who were watching could not help but notice how similar the two were—no. They have always been used to their instructor's stoicness and monotonous voice, but there was something completely different from Lucian.

It was almost as if…

…he just doesn't care?

And very soon, the instructor flicked the coin into the air, dropping to the ground a second later.

Neither Lucian nor the instructor, however, moved at all. The instructor was just staring at Lucian, while Lucian was staring at the ground.

"Hm…" The instructor breathed out before just rushing toward Lucian with no warning at all; his hand, moving toward his head.

Lucian, however, just tilted his body back while his hand reached for the instructor's wrist — the very same move that Matthew did to Harvey. But of course, unlike Harvey, the instructor was able to redirect the path of his hand and pushed Lucian's hand away.

And while doing so, he slid his feet forward to slam his entire shoulders at Lucian's chest; or so that is what he wanted to do, but as soon as he slid his foot forward, Lucian tried to sweep it and try to trip him.

"Interesting," the instructor then took several steps back while carefully watching Lucian, who did not chase after him at all; just adjusting his clothes and glancing at him for a few seconds before looking away again,

"You are a reactive fighter, as expected of someone with lots of experience."

Experience — Lucian actually had almost zero experience prior to Foreman Yang and Waldo. But of course, Lucian did not really say anything at all and just subtly shrugged.

"I feel like you could have done more — did you stop yourself from doing so?" The instructor's voice started to get a little higher, "Interesting… very interesting."

"Uh oh…" And before the students could even process what was happening in front of them, they all once again looked at each other as they saw the smile very slowly crawling onto their instructor's previously emotionless face, "...the instructor's starting to get excited."

"Wow… that old man's kinda good, no?"

"Psh. What good is that if he's only at the Spirit Infant, disgusting shiet."

"I agree, he should not even be in this class."

"Doesn't change the fact that he's good."

"Doesn't change the fact that he will lose in a real fight. Just watch… the instructor's gonna take him to poundtown."

"...I don't think you think you know what that actually means. That—"

And before the whispers could get any louder, a loud slap resounded in the class hall as the instructor once again rushed toward Lucian; this time, with a wide and almost crazed smile on his face.

"Show me more, Mr. Lucian…" The instructor started to breathe heavily as he opened his palms and curled his fingers as if they were claws, "...Show me what you can actually do!"

The instructor swung his hands both at the same time toward Lucian's face and waist, which Lucian just leaned back to avoid. Lucian was able to avoid it once again…

"Hm…?" Or perhaps not, as Lucian blinked a couple of times before looking at his chest, only to see his shirt ripped; hints of blood slowly filling it up. Before Lucian could even start thinking how that even happened, the instructor swung his hand up — and once again, Lucian was able to avoid it by stepping to the side…

…but once again, even though he was clearly able to avoid it by a wide margin, he found his chin cut.

"..." Lucian could really only hold his chin, patting it to check his wounds.

"Pft… so much for that, Emi!" Matthew quickly pointed at Emilia, "Where's the great fighter you speak of!? Bwahaha!"

Emilia did not respond to the provocation at all and just continued to watch; her eyes, slightly squinting. Was… she actually overestimating Lucian?

"Fight back, Mr. Lucian!" The instructor almost let out a cackle as he continued his barrage of attacks and not letting Lucian rest at all; Lucian's blood, now splattering across the platform, "Fight—"

"I see now."

"Hm!?"

And all of a sudden, the instructor's eyes turned wide as Lucian suddenly stopped avoiding and just let his hand hit him. This time, however, the instructor felt a strong resistance that was suddenly preventing his hand from moving forward.

"You are using your lith and forming it into claws," Lucian tilted his head to the side as he stared at the instructor's fingers; seeing the lith protruding out of the instructor's body… and then seeing his own lith seeping out from his chest trying to stop it from moving forward, 

"That is something I can not really do lavishly."

After all, the lith Lucian had in his body was not actually his — but Waldo's. Unlike Cultivators, Lucian has discovered that his lith was temporary because he is not a Cultivator at all but something else entirely, and once the lith is gone… that is the time he started to get… hungry.

"So, I suppose we need to finish this fast, Mr. Instructor," Lucian then slightly stretched his hand to the side, and as he did so… what little lith he had in his body started to crawl out from his fingertips…

…creating some sort of scalpel.

"That's—!!!" Emilia was the first to react as she stood up from her seat, "That's…

…Sword Aura!?"