The Flames of Darkness

The commotion in the arena continued as the students and even Professor Walt were left in awe. The whispers and gasps filled the room, creating an atmosphere of disbelief.

"You got some nerve, calling me a rugged bear, you little brat," Professor Walt said, making it clear that he was going to use me for the practical teachings, mostly because I had referred to him as a rugged bear.

"You can do it, Lucas!" Princess Cecilia cheered for me, while the students were shocked that their idol was taking an interest in the academy's weakest, Lucas Trident, the Zero.

Well, she is the one who wanted this after all, that little witch. She is getting on my nerves but I feel happy to have some one with that kind of boldness challenging my might.

"Ain't no way."

"There is no chance in hell that the Zero will defeat Professor Walt!"

"Yeah, he is a Grand-master rank who can condense mana, and Lucas is just an Intermediate rank!"

"Farewell, sucker!"

The mockery and gossip continued as I looked at Bran's eagerly looking face. I gave him a smile of confidence.

"Hey brat, are you ready?" Professor Walt asked with his body already in a stance.

I could see a vein popping in annoyance from our professor as he looked back at me.

I turned my gaze to the professor, "Then please guide me well," as I summoned my black cube from my shadow space, triggering gasps and mutters of amazement.

"Oh? Some pretty attributes you've got there. But what are you gonna do with a cube?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders helplessly and enveloping his clenched fists with blue flames.

"That's Professor Walt's Flame attribute. It is Silver Grade!" A student explained to his friends.

"Well, I don't care about grades. If I were to bring out my true element, this realm would just split in half, haha!" I thought to myself as I chuckled.

Aiming for my body, Professor Walt made his way towards me, his fists powered up as steel.

He blinked towards me without warning, swinging his fists from down with mana, intending an uppercut.

Well, I must say, that was one heaven of a force, but unfortunately, he missed.

His hands were imbued with a layer of blue fire, the heat radiating from it making it deadly. After parrying his initial surprise attack, I used mana to keep the trail of fire away from me.

I didn't want to give out too many of my attacks, as I had to really think about how to best utilize my assets to overcome an opponent with a perfect technique and a powerful strike. While it would've been easy to use my sword, I wanted to see what a Grand-master ranked warrior with mana-art's perfection could do.

His bombardment continued, the force of each swing and jab getting faster and stronger, as if trying to test the limit I could handle. Every time I didn't do anything but dodge his attack with ease, his next attacks would be kicked up a notch.

I wasn't using my sword now, so, watching him carefully, I just used mana strengthening and purely dodging, which seemed to frustrate our professor even more.

"You brat. Why don't you attack?" He asked with his expression filled with anger.

"Well, I was bored. Make me attack you...if you can, that is," I said arrogantly, making our professor burst into pale blue flames, destroying the barrier safeguarding the students who were watching our fight. The bear-like body of our professor was engulfed with blue flames, condensed into an armor, as well as his fists, covered with his blue flame-condensed gauntlet.

I had already made preparations to keep the students safe with my extra layer of barrier when I left my seat for the arena, so, without worries, "Now that's what I'm talking about, professor!" I said with a sinister smile, forming my black sword from the black cube of mine, engulfing its blades with my dark element's dark flames. I felt my eyes flaring up in enjoyment, and my body was engulfed with power I could control perfectly.

"I thought I should just teach you some manners, but, you arrogant fool. I will make sure you learn your manners! Hyaa!"

The professor said as he ran towards me with unbelievable speed and force to attack me. His flames were boosting his abilities to even higher heights.

"You sure?" I said as I willed my dark attribute's mana around the blade of my sword and my dark flames.

I swung my sword twice, cutting through mid-air, attacking him purely with mana and my physical strength's power to swing the sword, as Professor Walt reached the edge of the arena with each blow forcing him to take a step back, the flames on his body flickering helplessly upon receiving each attack.

"That's impossible!"

"That guy is really an intermediate Rank?"

"He is cutting through condensed mana!"

"How is he doing that?"

The students' mindset about me was turning drastically, and not to mention, Bran's and Princess Cecilia's expressions were in awe-struck.

Smiling at them with confidence, I stopped my slashes.

It was about time to end this.

Professor Walt's mana armor and gauntlet wore off or rather, got completely destroyed by my flames of darkness.

"You little brat..!!" He yelled as he still didn't give up and rushed himself towards me with bare fists.

"Sighs" I sighed as I threw my sword at him, infusing it with my mana, as the sword flew at the same speed the professor charged against me with his mana-condensed armor on. However, when the sword was about to strike his face, he dodged it with a blink.

"You really think that would sto-" when he opened his eyes, he was confused. "Where is he?" He yelled out loud in anger, as I reformed my sword into a dagger, aiming for his neck, "I'm here, sir!" I said with a smile, from behind.

"How did yo- How did you do that?" He asked as I cheerfully threw away my dagger up in the air, as it automatically changed into its dark cubical form and fell into my shadows, leading it to my shadow space.

"How?...how can you?" he was confused.

Well, I can't tell him that I used dark teleportation to travel through shadows now, can I? That would be preposterous.

"Well, I did it with training, of course!" I replied with pride and confidence, as the whole student crowd and our professor exclaimed, "Huh? Training?" into further questions.