Awakening

Antaura, unaware of Aether's thoughts, started moving to the battle arena. She already knew her blood would cause that reaction. Since she is a princess, her talents had already been assessed in the palace. She wouldn't take the tests again if it wasn't for the academy's insistence.

"I give you an S as well for blood cultivation talent." The teacher said, while Aether softly nodded on the side.

Her blood cultivation talent really is high. Well, not as high as a certain someone, but probably the highest someone has ever had in this small kingdom.

'But she has to figure out what that second element is, or it'll become impossible to advance her blood cultivation after the mortal foundation realms. No scrap that, she'll experience problems with her blood cultivation long before that.' Aether couldn't help but think to himself.

Meanwhile, Antaura had reached the battle arena and called out to the teacher to let him know she was ready.

The teacher waved his right hand, which seemed to signal some people to activate a battle array.

In front of Antaura appeared a middle aged man with a sword attached to his left hip, indicating he is right handed. Or at least that he uses his right hand to swing his sword.

Antaura used her right hand to draw her rapier and took a fencing stance with her right foot in front. The point of her rapier was pointed at the middle aged man in front of her. She seemed ready to put some holes in his chest.

The teacher nodded and gave the start signal, upon which Antaura's opponent drew his sword and rushed at her. Aether realized that the opponent, just like Antaura, has no cultivation and thus represents an ordinary mortal.

The man soon reached Antaura and swung his sword down diagonally from the left to the right. Antaura parried the sword, making it pass her on her left. Immediately after, she took a step back to gain more space and retook the same stance as in the beginning.

Aether, who was watching from the side, frowned a bit when he saw this. But he just kept watching as he had no intention to interfere.

On the battle arena, the man readied himself again and rushed at Antaura once again. This time, he made an horizontal slash from the left to the right. Antaura jumped back in order to dodge and took the same stance once more.

Aether's frown deepened when he saw this. Since Antaura is a princess, she should have had battle training from someone, right? So, which idiot thought her to fight like this.

It's not like Aether didn't realize what she was doing. Antaura was obviously going full defensive in order to tire out her opponent, since rushing in and attacking like that consumed much more stamina than just parrying and dodging does.

The problem, however, is that Antaura could have ended the fight after the first parry. Not only that, with her agile body build and light weapon, she could press the attack on her opponent and easily overwhelm him.

There is no need for her to drag out this fight at all.

The next strike that came Antaura's way was one from overhead, which she once again gracefully parried.

Aether had nothing to say about her parries, they truly are immaculate. His problem lay in the fact that she had no follow up at all.

Each parry caused the other party to leave an opening she could easily take advantage of and end the fight instantly. But she never did. It looked like she never learned how to attack after a successful parry.

After watching for another five minutes, and having realized that the only footwork she seemed to know is how to take a step back, Aether had had enough.

The man started his next attack, and Aether quickly calculated the trajectory of his sword.

"Attack is coming from your top right and will cut diagonally to your left. After you parry his attack, turn your rapier to the front and just stab with everything you have."

Antaura, who was completely focused on the fight, became a little distracted because of Aether. Out of panic, she instinctively listened to his words and did exactly what Aether told her to do.

And as a result pierced her rapier straight through the man's heart.

Antaura looked a bit dumbfounded to Aether while the projection of the man vanished.

'How come I listened to his words without even thinking?'

She couldn't understand. All her life, other people, with the exception of her father, had only listened to her. They had never dared to give her as much as a suggestion, let alone command her to do anything.

And yet, that is exactly what Aether did. But the craziest part is that she didn't even argue and complied.

"That… was unexpected haha."

All she could manage was to say something awkward and laugh a bit.

Aether wanted to approach her to give her some insight into her battle, but when he looked at Antaura he decided against it and started thinking.

'That killing strike was almost perfect. She must have practiced it a couple thousand times already for it to reach such precision.'

Aether was confused. From that last strike it was clear she was perfectly capable of ending the fight on the first parry, as it was exactly the same scenario as the final attack.

Then why was she dragging out the fight. Was it for practice? No, she didn't seem to be learning anything from that.

Also, while it looked like she was very focused, the truth was that that was just a front. She was just as bored defending like that, as Aether was looking at her fight.

So Aether came to the only other possible explanation.

'She doesn't want to show what she is capable of in battle. But I may not be the only person who realizes this when you do it in such a poor way.'

'Maybe she doesn't care and uses it more like a statement, hoping a certain person, or multiple people see it?'

It appeared Antaura used her battle prowess test as a middle finger to certain people. Aether felt like this was most likely.

He decided not to say anything about it to Antaura and simple nodded to her to indicate he understood what she did. As a response, Antaura send a simple but somewhat sad smile Aether's way.

"I give you grade B minus for the battle prowess test. You are too hesitant to finish off your opponent, which will hinder you in every battle if you don't find a solution to it. Take this as a warning for the future."

The teacher's face became red when he said this. It seemed he himself also realized what kind of crap he was spouting. He naturally knew what Antaura had done, but he didn't call her out on it.

Aether smiled, it seemed the teacher wasn't going to make it difficult on her.

"If you knew how I could finish off my opponent, why don't you give it a try, Aether?"

Antaura couldn't help but comment with a mischievous smile. Aether answered with a roll with his eye.

"Yes young Aether, I haven't processed your scores yet, so you can still give it a try." The teacher added with a bright smile.

Aether wanted to curse. He didn't lie when he said he hadn't received any battle training. But he also didn't expect this battle prowess test to be so easy. You could pass this test as long as you didn't have any mental problems. Or wanted to do badly on purpose like Antaura did.

It was structured to test the examinees on how they would react the first time they had to fight. And if they had already fought or sparred, like Antaura probably had, this test actually has no meaning.

Aether just shook his head and entered the arena.

"Aren't you going to select a weapon?" The teacher couldn't help but ask.

Yes, Aether had gone up onto the arena without taking a weapon.

"I already said I didn't have any combat training. Even if I take a weapon, I have no idea how to use it."

He couldn't help but think back to a memory about advise Old Herb had told him a couple years ago.

Old Herb had said, "If you don't have the time to learn, stick to what you know."

Since Aether didn't know how to use any weapon, he wouldn't.

Even if it is crippled and full of injuries, both visible and hidden, he knew his body the best. And while Old Herb indeed didn't train him for battle, he did teach him a few moves to defend himself.

The teacher shrugged his shoulders at Aether's answer and signaled for the battle array to be activated again.

The middle aged man appeared once again, with the same sword attached to the same hip. The teacher gave the start signal, and the man drew his sword and started rushing at Aether. Everything was going the exact same way as when Antaura started her battle prowess test.

Aether looked at the man and saw that he was going for a horizontal swing, beginning from the man's left.

When the man was one meter away from Aether, he stopped and swung his sword with all his power. If the sword traveled unimpeded like this, Aether would be cut around the halfway point of the sword.

However, Aether had no intention to let that happen.

Right when the man started his swing, Aether took a step to the left front side, turned his body to the right and extended his right hand as fast as he could. Aether's right hand and the man's right lower arm, at the location right behind the wrist, met each other halfway through the swing.

The sudden stop of momentum snapped the man's wrist and caused him to lose his hold on the sword, which flew a couple meters to the side.

The man took a hold of his own wrist and bended over in pain. It seemed like the projection was made to be rather lifelike.

Aether walked to the sword, picked it up and wanted to walk to the man to finish him of but suddenly stopped. The sword lighted up a little and Aether had a dazed look on his face, which lasted for a couple of seconds before he returned to normal.

Acting as if nothing was wrong, Aether walked to the man kneeling on the ground and cut of his head. Both the man's projection as well as the sword disappeared afterwards.

But Aether was looking at his hand when the sword started to disappear, and kept looking at it for a long time.

...….

'Unbelievable. Where did such a kid come from.' The headmistress couldn't help but think.

She had seen many talented people in her short life, but this was completely ridiculous.

That bloodline, or rather the two bloodlines that boy has, are the most powerful she had ever seen.

But that was not even the worst reason for her chock. The truly preposterous event was when he picked up that sword.

'There is no way he has that already, right? He himself said he hadn't ever touched a weapon before. Or maybe he is lying?'

But she felt this to be unlikely. Not only had Aether reacted just as shocked as she had, he had also looked dazed, even if it was only for a moment. This was something the headmistress recognized to be a symptom of getting information forcibly added to your soul.

'But the way his sword softly glowed, there is no other way. Him not having any cultivation makes it even more impossible for it to be something else.'

"No one in this room is allowed to say anything about what just happened. Am I making myself clear?"

The headmistress quickly spoke a suppressing order.

""Yes Headmistress!""

'This won't silence certain people for long, but it is all I can do for now.'

'But still, how does a sixteen year old kid awaken Sword Intent?!'