Will

"Huh!" The two in question exclaimed in surprise as they listened to Noah's words.

Noah remained stoic as he stared at them indifferently. "You two were barely doing anything before I reached a distance of 100 meters, this means your 'training' is merely a poor attempt to convince me to lend a hand at something." Tilting his head to the side, he narrowed his eyes as a silver glow flashed within it. In his vision, a human shaped mist appeared west of him standing where a wall was supposed to be. "Probably something that has to do with the Soaring Star Academy."

Sensing the perception focused on him, Owen didn't bother to hide anymore and walked out of the invincible veil that masked his presence in the room. His face tried and failed to conceal the surprise that he felt. "I'm surprised you could find me, Low grade invincibility arrays don't work on your senses I guess."

"No, it's mostly because you're around my level of strength." Noah's dismissive words caused the siblings' expressions to turn ugly, they wished to refute him but their words were stuck in their throats as they realized he was even younger than the two of them, not to mention their father. "I'll restrict my strength to the Peak of the Novice Stage and I'll wear these weights. The two of you will come at me with your full strength and will only stop when I tell me to." As he spoke, his two Longswords appeared in his hands. The youngster proceeded to point one of the swords at the duo. "Do you agree?"

The two hesitated for a while but, in the end, nodded. They believed that the two of them would be able to at least give Noah a good fight if he restricted his strength and their pride didn't allow them to back out from a challenge.

Noah nodded and gave an apathetic smile. His Essence surged out of his body before abruptly converging back within him. The others watched as the youngster manipulated his Essence to lock up his Essence Bones, leaving around the same amount of Essence as a Peak Novice Stage Battlesoul Master. "Don't hold back. Because I won't."

After doing this, he stretched a little getting a bit used to the handicap he gave himself. His body tilted then forward slightly before breaking into a dash as he rushed at the two, building up speed with the Dragon Step Martial skill. While he didn't release his Battlesoul, the siblings couldn't be as carefree as he was. Both their Battlesouls flashed into existence, providing them a subtle buff.

"Mona, I'll focus on our front. Use your Internal Sight to continuously scout our backs." Damien looked at his sister as they began cautiously approaching their fast moving opponent. She nodded in understanding and stretched her Internal Sight backwards.

Noah nodded in agreement as he watched them try to counter him. "Unfortunately that won't be enough." With a twist, his body tilted to his right swinging his sword as he spun around.

The siblings showed confused expressions as they saw this because he was still quite far from them. But they soon understood when his figure vanished from their sight. "Shit." Damien cursed as he quickly brought up his sword, coating it with as much Essence as he could in that instant. As he expected, a powerful force pushed him backwards several meters, courtesy of Noah who had now appeared behind him. 'Of course, he could just teleport between Mona and I.' The teenager coughed up a bit of blood as he struggled to stay on his feet. Apparently, while the weights reduced Noah's speed, they also increased the strength of his strikes.

"You respond quite quickly. But you weren't the target." With that the youngster turned around aiming his sword at the girl behind him. A spinning layer of Essence appeared above his sword as he faced her, his sword drawn backwards in a piercing stance. "Drill Thrust."

"Wait a-" Mona stuttered as she released her soul skill instinctively, one that summoned a lightning storm. Her Essence raged as she tried to control the lightning bolts around her to protect her but Noah's attack had arrived.

Because of Noah's weakened state and her attempts to protect herself, the Essence projectile dispersed upon meeting her defense, leaving only a burst of wind that blew her backwards. While she tried to balance herself in the air, her opponent wasn't kind enough to give her that time. His aura strengthened as he released his Battlesoul and pointed his sword forward. 'The strongest emotion of humans is fear.' A swirl of Essence surrounded the blade once more as he glanced at the now standing Mona. "I'll be serious now."

"Wait! You're taking this too far!" Damien yelled sensing something wrong as he felt Noah's undisguised killing intent. He executed his Battle Art, Lightning Blitz, trying his best to quickly reach his sister.

"That wasn't going far." Noah's apathetic voice echoed causing an expression of anxiousness to appear on Owen's face while eliciting a slight twitch of the butler's eyebrow. Yet the two chose to hold themselves back temporary.

The youngster disappeared from his position, appearing behind Mona in the next second, Essence coating his arms. "Gale Sword."

Surprisingly the girl reacted quite fast, using her Lightning Storm to launch multiple lightning strikes at Noah the moment he began swinging his sword. Unfortunately, despite the handicap he had given himself, Noah's defense was still quite strong so the lightning did little to him. The same could not be said about Mona though, her body was filled with multiple lacerations that caused her clothes to be soaked in blood. 'It's a strong emotion that could potential control the actions of a person. Only certain with powerful wills can resist that.' He slightly crouched before kicking out at the teenager, sending her flying and knocking her into the fast approaching Damien. "This… is going too far."

"Why you!" Damien growled in anger as he saw the sad state of his sister. "Lightning Beast!" With his shout, a lion shaped lightning bolt appeared above him before fusing with his blade. The skill would be much stronger if he were in the Intermediate Stage with the ability to control Essence beyond his body, allowing him to actually send a long ranged attack.

And because of this, the attack was easily neutralized by the teleporting Noah. His Martial skill, Vertical Cleave swung down with momentum, blocking and breaking through Damien's blade shocking the teen. What shocked him more was that it seemed that Noah's sword had no intention of stopping. 'During times that threaten one's life, the emotion of fear is much stronger and the control it has over them is much tighter.' Damien felt his body freeze down to the temperature of ice as he watched the blade of the sword approach. He wished to dodge but then remembered that his wounded sister was on the floor behind him and would likely die under the blade of Noah's attack. 'Most of the time, in the face of death, the control that their fear over them causes one to gain a fierce will to survive…

…By sacrificing those around them.'