Chapter 19 Masato vs Sandy part 1: The beginning

Syrian understood that Masato's classmates were heading towards his direction, and that was why Ms.Malenia and Mr.Tomas weren't questioning his daring act of trying to solo a sand worm— which may have been in the same rank as him, but the creature had a vitality that matched it's massive size, and both of them were troublesome for a warrior like Masato.

"Uh…why's he even going against that sand worm? I mean, the sand worm may not have it's soul fractal, but its still not a good match for an aspirant warrior like him isn't it?" Syrian asked being cautious to not mention the kid's . He was concerned for the kid, but the other two didn't seem to question the situation; Instead Ms.Malenia was trying, and failing to force Mr.Tomas in betting with her.

"You've got a point, little furball, but common sense doesn't apply to someone the students of the royal class, and Masato may be ranked low in there but it's because of his insistence on using his dad's soul weapon during his talent assessment test. " Malenia said with a smile. "Even then, you don't get to be in the royal just because you're an aspirant;— although it's one of the requirements. So, that's why both Tom and me expect him to win this one; although, Tom won't admit it."

"Heh. I don't expect him to against that worm. It's better that way as he'll get he'll get humbled by this loss, like his other classmates." Tom said with a smirk. "That was one of the reason we've sent the royal class here instead of the training camp that others are in. And don't think that we're doing this for the first time; the royal class are always sent in this dimension when their first semester ends. But this batch of first years are promising and there is a threat from the monster invasion so the council decided to bring it forward."

"Just look at those two playing around with the sand worm."Mr.Tomas continued while pointing towards the screen where Hellen Roseworth and Elicia de grace were fighting the sand worm. Syrian saw that they were really playing around with it, as Elicia was not letting the worm go inside the ground by using some kind of spell in the ground to harden it, while Hellen was flitting around the worm thrusting her rapier covered in a red aura that scorched the sand worm's body and didn't let it regenerate itself.

"Haha, yeah you bet they'll be humbled after getting swallowed whole by sand worm. "Ms.Malenia said with a scoff and added, "But, Masato won't be losing, old man. I'm willing to bet my position as a professor in it. Are you up for it?" 

Syrian was shocked by Malenia's claim. He didn't knew that she was willing to go this far for a bet.

"You can't force me to be with that claim, Malenia. That's against the rule. You should change the stakes." Mr.Tomas said in a serious tone while shaking his head. "I'm not willing to get a beating from old man William for this."

"Well, how about the right the right to take a disciple from the royal class first years? :— I'll lose it if you win, but you have to let me take Masato as a disciple if I win." Malenia said with smirk. 

Syrian was sure that Ms.Malenia was going for this from the start… 'she's so clever…' he thought to himself.

"Haha, you're sure you won't regret it later?" Mr.Tomas said with a laugh not realizing his blunder. "And the furball should use his ability so you won't be able to cheat."

Huh?

'Why…? I was also enjoying the fights…' Syrian groaned internally.

Ms.Malenia looked thoughtfully at Syrian who had stopped eating pop corn, and looked looked like a convict on a death row.

Syrian saw that Ms.Malenia was looking at him thoughtfully, and with a slightly apologetic expression. And said to Mr.Tomas,"Hmm…that's a good idea… But, furball has to agree." 

'Time for a nap…' Syrian thought to himself, resigned to his fate.

"Well, you can watch the fights later, furball." Mr.Tomas said Syrian, "take a nap for now. And you won't be gone for long anyway."

"Alright then… Mr.Tomas." Syrian sighed; then he closed his eyes; and activated his ability and 'marked' Masato's mana signature in his mind, then he instantly fell asleep on the sofa.

                       - - - - - - - 

Malenia saw a blurry figure moving around a even blurry area without being able to distinguish anything; then satisfied with her test her eyes changed from golden to gray.

"So how was it? Were you able to see anything?" Tom asked her expectantly.

Malenia recounted the vision she saw while using [clairvoyance], much to the delight of Tom.

"The furball's ability is quite useful…" She added, "Well, it would have been even better if he didn't need to sleep."

"Well, it would have been better if you could see your own future, and I could move my dimension, isn't it? The flaws are there for a reason; you can't have your cake and eat it too." Tom said with shrug. 

 Malenia didn't bother to reply as she saw that Masato had stopped half a kilometer away from where the sand worm was last seen; his left hand where his communicator was supposed to be outstretched in front of him.

  "Regular scan. Radius set to 500 meters." Malenia heard his mutter.

  |Scan complete. Thermal scanners detect a life form six meters below the surface.| the AI relayed to Masato.

 Masato then flashed three orbs of different color: brown, orange, and blue. 

"Huh… wasn't he a melee fighter? So he uses elemental orbs too? " Tom muttered curiously, "it's interesting to see a warrior like him use those…but don't they have quite a lot of limitations?"

"Yeah, they need a signal to trigger and the range isn't that long for the signal."Malenia said to tom. "But, they are quite useful if someone knows what they are doing."

 Malenia saw that Masato had kept the blue and orange orbs in his right hand, and threw the brown orb with the other hand — towards the location marked by the communicator; then he snapped his fingers right before the orb hit the ground.

 -shing! boooom!

 The orb flashed with a bright light, and multiple spikes a feet in length appeared around it, while some spikes detonated after hitting each other.

 And, many others soon embedded themselves on the sand; and they vibrated as they hadn't come in contact with a hard surface.

 -wooooooooooo!

 The sand worm emerged from the ground while roaring in it's peculiar way. The creature was meters long; with a body that was surprisingly smooth with a single mouth with thousands of razor sharp teeth.

 "Ugh… These things are always so loud." Malenia said with a grimace.

"Well, their roar is like someone firing an old-school gun beside your ear. The kid was lucky he had ear protection. Guess he listened to Furball's advice in his class." Tom said with smirk, "But it's not gonna help him if he's close to the worm when it's roaring."

"Wait. The furball teaches monster biology?" Malenia asked surprised.

"Yeah. He's from tribe of shapeshifters, and you know how they cultivate their powers, right?" Tom replied with a grin. "They spend time among magical beasts, follow their diet, and they sleep inside their hunted preys as a ritual. So they know a lot about the abominations."

"Ugh… Thanks for reminding me, Tom…" Malenia said with a frown, "Remind that furball to always use a perfume."

"Haha, He doesn't smell you know?" Tom laughed.

Malenia was going to retort when she noticed that Masato was just standing frozen clutching his head, while the worm was looming above him, ready to gobble Masato.

"Wait, why is he just standing there? Is he in a daze or what?" Malenia muttered to herself.

"Damn it!" Masato cursed in agitation after he had noticed the worm.

Malenia saw that Masato had bitten his lips to get hold of himself, and hovered away from the sea of teeth while loading a blue bolt, with both [festering wounds] and [ceaseless torment] casted on them before; fired them off at the worm; — without any need for him to aim due to worm's massive body.

The bolt lodged in the monster's flesh appeared like a needle in contrast to the worm's massive size, but it was doing its job as the rot had started to spread around the the worm's body;— the worm constantly fighting the rot by healing itself.

Malenia saw Masato hovering from one place to another; the big worm unable to change it's trajectory in time to catch up to Masato; who was was firing off bolts after bolts while kiting the worm in the hover board with bursts of speed. 

 "Well, he's taking advantage of the size difference like he should, but how long will he able to continue doing this?" Malenia muttered to herself."The spikes are going stop after sometime; then the worm will just enter into the ground."

"Yeah, He's basically on a timer. Guess he'll be the first to tap out from this section." Tom commented.

"But he still has the [limited clairvoyance], and probably a plan to deal with worm."Malenia said with grin.

"[limited clairvoyance]…" Tom said with a groan. "Tch, forgot that he was a cheat like you. But, the skill has a 'limited' for a reason, that kid still has to work for his milk, or whatever the idiom was…"

Malenia just smirked, and watched another display that showed the two girls Hellen and Malenia fighting a Sandworm in a different place.

Masato finally fights sandy

Malenia was already sure of Masato's victory while Tom had a sour look on his face looking at the still sleeping furball; He was even covered by a blanket made up of thick fur; while it was reaching 65 degrees Celsius inside the room. Tom had placed the blanket over the furball who seemed to be shivering in his sleep.

"Do you think that it's that easy to deal with a Sandworm? Don't forget that brat is still at rank E, and his soul weapon is useless for now. And I know it was creative, and even ingenious of him to use the elemental orb to agitate the worm, but it's not gonna last long, and he would have to actually battle the worm while it's underground." Tom said while still watching all the displays. 

"hehe, You'll see soon, tom. He's Amon's son—Your dear disciple's son;the apple don't fall far from the tree " Malenia said with a sly grin.

"But he's not Amon, you know?" Tom argued back, "Amon was better than that kid."

"You should start to accept the facts, old man. And I know that you care about him."Malenia said with a smirk, "Do you think I don't know who brought him to the academy?"

"Heh, you're out of your mind. Now, don't disturb me.There are other students I need to focus on." Tom said that and started ignoring Malenia.

But, Malenia saw that Tom was still focusing on Masato's screen.

 Malenia gave a condescending smile tom, but continued to watch Masato's fight.

"Well, the worm's turned into a porcupine. Although a very ugly one." Malenia grimaced after the seeing the state of the worm.

The worm had really became a porcupine with how many mana it had been pelted with. But Malenia knew that Masato's advantage wouldn't last for long as the earth spikes inside ground would stop vibrating soon.

'He's on a timer.' Malenia thought to herself.

Then Malenia saw that started to load a red bolt from his quiver which were quite less in number compared to the blue bolts. While Masato was doing that Malenia saw that the the sand worm had opened it's mouth wide; — sucking in the mana from the air.

Masato cursed and started moved away from the worm. Alas, he hadn't gone far from the worm when he saw an insane amount of sand coming out of the worm's mouth; which covered the area with sand; with Masato caught up in it.

Malenia only saw Masato through the thermal vision of the camera, but Masato wouldn't have any vision on the worm now due to the sand particle on the air.

The agitated Sandworm took advantage of this situation, and started to fall towards Masato from the air with it's mouth wide open. The only thing that Masato could probably hear was the sound produced by the worm as it passed through the air.

"What do you think he's going do?" Malenia asked Tom who was the expert in dealing with sand worms and had even brought a live sand worm to create a replica of them in his domain.

"Honestly, not many things with the worm over him. Only thing he can depend on is his senses at his level." Tom said with a shrug. "He doesn't have any sight related abilities, you know?

"I think he's gonna pull off something crazy." Malenia said with grin.

And Masato did pull off something crazy. He first look around him, seemed unsure of what to do but, as soon as the worm's maw was inches away from him his hover board stopped levitating, and Masato fell downwards but still in the trajectory of the worm's mouth.

"What's that kid even doing?!" Tom exclaimed in surprise. "Did his hover-board turn off?"

"Probably. The scanners are showing that his mana is quite low." Malenia answered absentmindedly ass he watched Masato jumping off the hover board; away from the worm's mouth, which crashed on the sand.

"Urgh… that hurt a little…" Masato groaned after coming out of the ditch made by his fall, and looked at around him as he now had vision on the worm after the sand had cleared around the area.

"Set vitals scanner to manual mode." Masato said to his armor.

Then he seeming to be looking around, and Malenia noticed the worm creeping underground after the vibrations from the spikes had stopped.

"Damn it!" Masato cursed in indignation. 

'And why wouldn't he?' Malenia thought to herself gloomily.