First Heaven

The ten figures that he saw flew by then stopped a few meters away from the beast. Six of them arranged themselves into a hexagon, their hands made different hand signs and then their individual energy essence connected with one another forming a large ball of energy in their center.

The energy was fired from as blasted through the monster's chest creating a gaping hole.

Boom!

After the explosion that blasted a hole in it's chest, the monster stumbled back before falling. The shock wave from its fall reverberated throughout the whole forest.

"It's over." The leader of these experts, Vanis, sighed.

"Uncle Vanis!" Then a voice caught Vanis' attention. He looked down and saw the Princess waving at him with a smile.

Slowly, he flew down. "You little trouble maker, why didn't escape? Don't you know how much your father was worried?" He said, ruffling her hair with a smile.

Lina grew up with her father being mostly busy everyday, so as she grew up she came to view her 'Uncle Vanis' near the level of her father. The princess laughed, pushing away Vanis' hands. Feigning annoyance she said "So what? He should worry about me from time to time."

"Ha-ha, as always you like making trouble. But seriously, you have to leave now Princess." Slowly the smile disappeared from his face and he became serious.

"Alright, alright. Now that you're here, uncle, things should easily be settled." After saying this the Princess turned to Samael and the others. "Let's go guys. It's time for us to leave."

"Okay."

"Mm."

"...." The other two answered but Samael didn't answer but he still followed Lina and the four of them left the area.

"Finally, those little runts have left. We can finally investigate where this monstrosity came from." Vanis sighed.

Soon, he and his men circled the monster's corpse. They didn't want to get near it yet. As he wasn't really suited for in-depth investigation, Vanis sat down a log and allowed the other members of his group to continue with the investigation.

While sitting, he thought "this monster is definitely unlike anything i have ever encountered. How did the Hundred River Empire manufactured such a thing? Wait...did they really sent this? There's no proof yet, best not jump into conclusion. But if they did...then how many more do they have?"

"Captain!" Before Vanis could continue with his train of thought his companions suddenly interrupted.

Meanwhile, back at Samael and the others. They left so that they could find a safe place to activate the academy talisman. After all, not all of the enemy creature were killed yet. There might be some lurking in the forest and if they want to get out of here they must use the talisman where they can't be interrupted.

They didn't stay at Vanis' side because their investigation would definitely be confidential and only trusted members could be in the vicinity. Though three of them had noble backgrounds, they still wouldn't want to take the risk of information leakage.

"Samael?" While they walked, Silvia noticed that Samael hadn't said a single word after they saw the monster being brought down.

Although she hadn't known Samael for a long time based on how she have seen him act, he was quite talkative.

"Yeah?" Samael seemed to have been awoken from a stupor and he looked at her with a smile.

Silvia was still feeling shy so she hesitated first before asking "What's wrong? You've been very quiet for a while now."

"Yeah, i have never seen you this silent for so long, aside from cultivation." Lina chimed in.

Samael stopped, then said with a serious face "Well...don't you all think this is too...easy?"

"Too easy? what do you mean?" Julian was intrigued as well. But judging from how Samael looked, he reckon the next part wouldn't be good.

"Think, whoever sent these creatures must have a reason for doing so. They wanted for deaths to occur in this trial or to be specific in this special space of the academy. They have already achieved it by just those regular monsters, why did they have to send that 'special' one? I think something else is going on here."

The three of them were left speechless, though what he just said were all hypotheses some of he just said had some merit.

"So mean, they might have a different reason for that special one?" Lina said.

"Yes." Samael nodded.

They all thought about it for a while then Silvia spoke "Clearly these normal ones have the purpose of being disposable warriors. Weapons for them to fight a war if we regard these regular as the soldiers in an army. Then wouldn't that 'special' one be a general in that sense?"

"That's a good idea, so it might be that that monster has something else on its sleeves?" Julian said with a smile. He was smiling because he was excited to fight with a stronger opponent.

"Roar!" Suddenly they heard a roar from where they left Vanis and the others. Then, they saw the towering figure of that monster.

Even with a distance of a few hundred meters, Samael could clearly see the wound the monster received when he used "Terminus Frozen Wrath" which was visibly healing at an alarming rate.

"High-Speed regeneration!" Samael exclaimed.

The other three looked at him, astonished as he could see something like that even from far away. Without much delay, they rushed back.

...

Right around the same moment that Samael stopped was when Vanis was called by his subordinates.

Quickly, Vanis got up and turned to his subordinates. He saw them slowly inching away from the body but then he saw the body of the monster, he twitched.

"Get back!" He shouted without hesitation.

"ROAR!!" The monster suddenly released a deafening roar. Loud enough that Vanis and his subordinates had to cover their ears, despite being at the pinnacle of the Spiritual root realm.

The monster slowly stood up, casting a large shadow. Then they saw something strange, under the skin on its shoulder something seem to be squirming like it was scratching and clawing to get out.

"What is that?"

Splurt

The skin on its shoulder busted open along with some flesh and blood, and from it a small enemy monster jumped down.

Its appearance was very human-like as the other monsters did but this one was a bit different. It had an enlarged head and it had long beast-like fangs for teeth and it moved in a very savage way.

Seeing the appearance of this new creature, Vanis and his men weren't that wary. Because this creature only had the strength of a Peak Qi-Gathering realm. But soon, they shivered, and slowly, they backed away. Because of the huge body of that beast, more and more little ones started squirming and bursting out of its body.

A couple of Peak Qi-Gathering realm little monsters weren't much of a problem but a hundred, plus that giant monster...

Even if they wanted to deal with the giant one, with its regenerative capability it'd be hard to put it down without knowing where its actual weak point is. Also, with the little ones distracting them, fighting the big ones will be problematic.

"Ina, Leo! Confine the little monsters here." Vanis shouted before continuing.

"The rest of you, with me!" With that, two-person from their team split off to deal with the little ones.

But before they could get far they heard.

"Let us deal with the little ones, you handle the big guy."

Vanis and his team turned and saw the group of the Princess with Samael, Silvia, and Julian.

At first, he wanted to scold them to get out of here but with the current situation, their help was indeed needed.

"Alright, just be careful, Princess." Vanis nodded.

With the team of Vanis taking on the giant monster, Samael and the others were left to handle the little ones.

Having decided what to do ahead of time, the four separated, leaving only Samael within the inner parts of the Battlefield.

Once again, his energy essence rose to its limits and with his recent breakthrough, his essence became more dense and much purer. Smirking, Samael concentrated his Energy essence on his palms and slammed them to the ground.

Terminus Frozen Wrath!

The ground was quickly covered in a layer of ice and ice pillars quickly rose from the ground. Unlike the first time he used "Terminus Frozen Wrath," his goal was to contain the little monsters, so instead of a straight path, he controlled his ice from a circle of ice around the battlefield.

Quickly, the others followed up. Both Lina and Julian jumped unleashing explosive sword arts and other widespread techniques to weaken the enemy below. Silvia immediately jumped in after the explosion, her sword flashed continuously, and whenever it did she would either stab an enemy to death or straight up decapitate them. Soon after, Lina and Julian joined in and killed multiple opponents.

The sudden Ice barrier surprised the experts but it was only for a moment, instead, they were astonished by Samael's power and their capability to make decisions on the fly. Soon, shock waves came roaring toward them one after another. As the experts of the Crimson Sky academy unleashed their techniques unto the beast. Some used Sword techniques, Spear techniques, and other combat techniques. They continuously damaged the beast

After recovering most of his energy Samael leaped in, his arms and feet were already covered in Icy armor. In a domineering fashion, he kept moving forward while simultaneously killing enemies by punching them to death or by beheading them. He moved towards Silvia once again to pair up with her because even for him it'd be too much to handle opponents this many.

"So...what's your kill count?" Samael playfully asked after he arrived behind Silvia.

Hearing his teasing, arrogant voice behind her she could already see his teasing face even with their backs facing each other. Annoyed, she shrugged her shoulder, saying "Oh, I don't know...20 or 30? Definitely higher than yours."

Hearing this blatant boasting Samael was rather surprised with this attitude of hers, it was new for him so he wouldn't pass on the occasion to tease her. So he said.

"Really?" his mocking tone traveled to her ears again.

"You don't believe me? Then let's have a bet." She faced him and her cute, but the annoyed face was clearly seen.

"Whoever gets the most kills wins? Loser to treat the other, Dinner? Sure why not." Samael shrugged his shoulder, appearing very confident.

"Don't regret it." Not spending much time dwelling on the additional condition. Silvia's voice echoed as she had already jumped away and killed two little monsters. She didn't believe she would lose to someone with a lower cultivation base than her, even if she somehow did lose she can afford it.

"Heh, that girl..." Samael shook his head, he already knew he would win because he has something that guarantees his win.

From afar, Vanis clearly heard Samael and Silvia's conversation. Shaking his head he muttered, "The young ones are certainly energetic." Before shouting "Alright, lads! Let us not embarrass ourselves in front of the kids. Kill this fucking beast!"

"Yes captain!" His teammates shouted.

The adults handle the big ones and the kids handle the little ones. Explosions going off in both battles, swords flashing and cleaving. On Samael and others' side Silvia was already racking up her kill count and Samael was clearly taking it easy.

"Hey, quit fooling around you little brat. If you don't take it seriously, then you have to treat the three of us to dinner." While fighting, Samael heard Julian's taunting voice. Hearing this he was instinctively irritated.

"Who said you're included in the bet, you bastard?!"

Hearing this, Julian stopped and smirked at Samael saying "Why? Don't tell me you have other plans for the Frost family girl."

Then he continued "Wait...don't tell me you like her. Hahahaha...whatever the case is, your losing. prepare yourself because I'm going to enjoy the food you're gonna treat me with." And with that Julian jumped away laughing.

Samael was left, he closed his eyes, the side of his head twitching. Suddenly he opened his eyes and his crimson eyes seemed to have been lit on fire. Now he was even more determined to win!

His hair slowly fluttered upward as did his closed. The energy essence on his body quickly rose once again and slowly more and more black lightning coiled around him, flashing around his body. Samael spread out his right palm to the skies, controlling all of his energy to its center. It quickly formed a ball of black lightning.

"This will be the first time I've ever used this, haven't really controlled it yet...so try your best to avoid the lightning." He muttered.

Finally, the lightning around his body became larger and fiercer as it flashed around him. The ball of black lightning at his right palm suddenly became a condensed lightning bolt. You could still see numerous little bolts crackle on it.

Samael looked at the sky then he arched his body, pulling his right arm backward. Then with all his strength, he threw the condensed bolt of lightning into the sky.

Bzzt...

It traveled to the sky, leaving a streak of black light. Once it went passed the clouds, it exploded into countless black lightning. When it did, the clouds gradually became darker, blotting out the light in the sky. Then black bolts of lightning snaked through the skies before unceasingly striking down.

Everyone in the battlefield saw the dark clouds forming above before a dangerous feeling made their hair stand.

The black lightning bolts struck the ground, killing the little monsters one by one. The giant monster was even stunned when hit by the numerous lightning bolts. It roared in pain as it continued being struck.

Seeing this Samael smiled, the lightning bolts didn't strike in his general direction. Silvia jumped around, with her speed it was very easy to avoid the black lightning but she was stunned at this powerful technique the Samael used.

Samael smiled seeing the result and said.

"Lightning Emperor: First Heaven..."