Potential

Entering the room was a blonde-haired man who looked quite excited to see one of his friends today. Without even asking for permission to take a seat, he went right ahead and did just that. Much to the Gary's annoyance, but he chose not to speak about it as he got straight to the point and asked why he had come to pay him a visit.

The smile on his face remained. He knew how his friend could be whenever he was stressed. Not wanting to spend time talking about random stuff and just wanted to get down to the root of things. Looking at the expression on his face, he decided to ask what was going on.

"It's none of your concern. Just tell me why you're here so we can get it over with!" Gary almost yelled, realizing what he was about to do, he quickly apologized for his rash temper.

"No need to apologise. It's clear that there's something that's seriously bugging you," Julius replied, gesturing with his hands.

"So, why did you come here today? I'm sure it wasn't to comfort me or anything?" Gary replied, folding his arms.

Julius laughed before giving a response.

"The reason why I'm here is nothing like that. I'm here because of that deal we made. Remember, the one we made with that society?" Julius said, pointing at him. "They want us to gather all the others for an important meeting. I don't know what it's about, but it seems to be something quite serious."

"Then why didn't they just send out a message to each and everyone of us? Why would they go through the stress of making us gather all the others for this meeting?" Gary asked.

Julius just shrugged his shoulders as he shifted his gaze towards the window.

"Beats me. We might as well just do as they say," he got up from the chair and walked towards the window. With his hands in his pockets, he looked down at the city below. A smile appeared on his face at the thought of how small they all looked from how high up he was.

"You know, there's this kid I kinda have a liking to," he started off. "You may not know him, but he attends the same military academy as your son. I remember him from one of the underground fighting clubs in some mid-tier city in Blood Ashes."

"You tend to have a liking for a whole lot of people. Is there anything special about this kid?" Gary asked, interested in where this conversation was heading to.

Julius turned around to face Gary before giving his response.

"Weren't you listening during the orientation? He is one of the people that the leaders told us to put an eye on," he said, walking towards the door. "They say he has the potential to chance the current status quo of things. I'm not sure how true this is, but if I were you, I would put a watchful eye on him at all times."

And with that, he pulled the doors open, stepping out and closing the door behind him, leaving Gary alone in the large room once again.

"Those leaders can go to hell for All care. After everything they've been making me do for the past months. God, I need a break from those damned people!" He lamented, slumping his legs on top of the table as he leaned back on his chair.

"This kid, I wonder if what they said about him will come true or not. And if it does, I might as well do something about it before the leaders come and blame me for insubordination," he said, before making another call to his secretary.

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The portal Shawn had created using his ability was brimming with power. Just looking at it, Kayden felt drawn to it, but fighting against the feeling in his body, he managed to remain a good distance away to the constantly moving ball of light surrounding Kayla.

He was still low on Mana at the moment. Although he tried using the total concentration breathing technique, there was one thing he lacked to utilize it properly, and that, of course, was concentration.

He couldn't afford to concentrate while what was going on right in front of him was taking away almost most of his attention. The bright gkiw of the portal was almost blinding to his eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to look away.

Standing in the centre of it all, Kayla was starting to feel her body moving through the light. It was as though she was being transported someplace else. She tried to move her body, but after a few attempts, the realization that she was stuck behan to Dawn on her.

But not just that, but there was a strange feeling going all over her body that she didn't quite like. It was like the power of the portal was eating her body whole. She could feel her senses gradually dulling as her body moved deeper into the portal, and in a matter of minutes, only her head could be seen popping out of the light.

"Is he… is he actually going to beat her?" This was the thought that filled his mind as her head slowly went into the portal. After his fight with her, that was all he wished to happen as her body eventually went completely into the portal.

Although Kayla had vanished, Shawn hadn't stopped teleporting in circles. It was almost like he had entered some sort of trance as he kept teleporting endlessly. And now, the gravitational pull of the portal was pulling any and everything in the arena into it.

Before he could get sucked into the portal, Kayden quick went to hide behind the stands intbe spectators' area, hoping that it would be enough where he can hide and wait out until Shawn eventually runs out of Mana.

But, considering who this was, Kayden had a feeling that the portal wouldn't vanish anytime soon.

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Meanwhile, somewhere else in the academy, Blake and Carter were busy chatting to each other as they walked through the hallway. They planned on having their usual sparring matches in the arena today. However, not keeping track of time, they had realized that it was getting late but decided to head over there anyway.

On their way there, they would talk about how they wanted to start fighting other students that claim rank.

One of the main reasons for this was because of a group of students who had beaten them both and claimed their ranks. After a while at the academy, there were starting to consider changing their ways and wanted to start challenging higher-rannked students for their positions.

It wasn't until Blake's hand was hanging over the handles to the entrance, that Carter had shouted out to him.

"Wait! I'm getting a bad feeling from you opening that door. Maybe we should just head back to our dorms and train tomorrow instead?" Carter asked, shaking his head. It wasn't until he stood right in front of the entrance that this overwhelming sense of dread had overcome him.

He felt like something was wrong and didn't want Blake time open the door.

Shaking his head, Blake just thought that Carter was being delusional. Perhaps it was from their recent days of training, during which Blake had stopped holding back against him. He was glad that Carter was showing significant improvements, after just hoped that he would one day become strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Kayden himself.

Opening the door, Carter's suspecions were true, as a strong gust of wind pushed them from behind, forcing their bodies to move closer towards the glowing portal in the centre of the room.

Although he was moving faster than they could see, somehow, Shawn was still able to see the both of them coming closer towards him. Seeing that two students, who had nothing to do with the current situation, were about to be dragged into the matter, he started doing whatever it took to stop himself before one of them gets dragged into the portal he created.

"Grab my hand!" Blake yelled, his hand stretched out, while his other hand grasped the door handle tightly, unwilling to let go despite the strong force pushing against him. "Grab my hand, Carter!"

On the other end, Carter had managed to grab hold of Blake's hand just in time. But now, they were both at the mercy of this strong wind. Abd Blake didn't know for how much longer he could manage to hold onto the door handle before hsis strength gives out.

He channelled his Mana into that have, giving it more strength to grasp tightly. Still,it seemed like that wouldn't be enough to stay against the force dragging their bodies towards the portal.

"STOP!!!" Shawn suddenly yelled, and right after that, a loud bang was heard, and the entire room was consumed by the glowing white light.

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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

This is the second chapter I have posted today.

See you all in the next chapter