Survive If You Can

'Scarlet Strings Of Destiny.'

Night Fifteen...

'Master Laws... I've found a student that I am not skilled enough to train in under one month. I hope that you would be better at it then me...'

Hero Laws rested in a chair as he read the letter. He let out a small sigh as he stood up. "I guess... Lets see what we're working with..." He hummed as he moved out of the house at the top of the mountain and began to walk down it...

After saving Brave from the Mare he stared at the girl.

Her outfit wasn't made for this winter weather and her skin was turning a light blue as she shook. Despite that though he saw a look in her eyes.

The same look every failure he ever taught had.

"W... Wow..." Brave said with wide eyes as he finished killing the Mare.

"You there." The man said pointing his wand at Brave and making her jump. "Are you here to become one of my students?"

"Y... You're Hero Laws I take it? Y... Yes sir."

"I see... Go home. You failed."

"What!?" Brave felt herself fall back as her eyes went wide. "What do you mean I already failed-"

The man ignored her walking the the house and he got to work digging through the snow and ground as he began to dig a grave for the people that had been in it. Typically it would take about three hours to dig a proper grave for one person in the winter with tools. And yet with his bare hands he easily broke through the snow, ice, and dirt, white aura covering them as it seemed to break away as if it was wet tissue paper. He finished three sets of graves in three minuets, taking on one minuet each.

Brave was left stunned.

Still not saying anything to her he began to place the bodies in each grave covering them over with the dirt.

By the time he was done he turned back to her slowly staring at her with his masked eyes. "What is your name?"

"B... Brave Larison."

"I see. Ms. Larison. If that Mare was going to eat you what would you have done?"

"Well... I'd umm-"

'Slap!'

Mr. Laws hand slapped across her face doing more damage than that Mare had done to her in a single back hand slap. She slammed into the snow a tooth falling out of her mouth as she grabbed at her face with wide eyes a large red hand print now across it.

"Far to slow. If you don't have the resolve to even answer one of my questions then you never stood a chance at being a student at any school." He said turning away from her. "You are an Imp. As it stands you exist to be devoured by Mares. Mares are powerful beasts that will eat more and more evolving to higher forms. When they eat a Imp they eat that Imp when they are still alive. Their mouths can stretch open and they can pull you in. Once they close their jaws around you your body is stripped away and you're reduced to just your soul which is then broken down and melded with the Mares on soul. This gives it access to your aura and can kick start it into evolving into a higher form. Even if you aren't strong enough to make it evolve it eating you will still make it stronger. The answer you should have said when I asked you what you would do, is that you would have slit your own throat before it could devour you. If you aren't strong enough to have the resolve to kill yourself then ask someone to do it for you, otherwise your death at the hands of a Mare will just make our own job harder."

"I... Is that why the tests are so hard..." Brave frowned. "I guess now I see why they want quality rather than quantity. It doesn't matter how many soldiers you'd have if the enemy would just get stronger and stronger by devouring your people... In that case you'd need to be so strong you'd never get devoured..."

"If you don't even know that much then why the hell are you even here."

"I... I need someone to teach me the basics I guess..." Brave said awkwardly realizing she didn't really know why she was here. Honestly she'd rather be back home with her family. "I... I'm trying to get into Heaven."

"Why."

"Well... Um its a little complicated-"

'Slap!'

"Answer faster."

"S... Sorry-"

'Slap!'

"Why do you want to get into Heaven?" He asked again after slapping her for the third time and giving the girl a black eye this time. Braves face was pretty swollen at this point.

It hurt to speak but she really didn't want to get hit again so she managed to sputter out her answer. "I want to go to Heaven only so I can see what its like and learn more about Aura in order to keep my family safe!"

"Hmm... I thought you were a New Blood. You know there is a school that doesn't require these hardships? They teach you how to just use aura in order to hide it. That training would be more than enough to keep your family safe. No need to go to Heaven and get yourself killed."

Brave was silent for a moment as her mind went to Tik, and then went to Darvin and Leena who had been harmed badly after fighting him. "I understand that but... But people I care for deeply who also know Aura were harmed, and if something like that were to ever happen again I want to be able to keep them safe no matter what! Also as a Wake I would get to help a lot of other people out and get to see more of the world!"

'Slap!'

"O... Ow what was that one for?" Brave yelled and or cried, or possibly both.

"Dumbass answer. Didn't like it." Was Laws blunt response as he turned away. "The Decent ones are the ones who die first. Never be decent. Answer was to decent."

"W... Wait." Brave said with wide eyes following after him. He ignored her as he moved through the mountain. The higher they got the colder and harder to breathe it also got. Despite that he didn't seem bothered by it.

"Idiot girl. You will freeze to death or die of exhaustion before we reach the top."

"I... I don't care." Brave said shaking her head.

"Why are you so determined." He asked not really caring for her answer.

"I... I told you. I want to keep my family safe... I could take the easy way and go to some normal Imp school and learn how to keep my aura hidden but-"

"You are lying."

"..."

"I will slap you again if you do not-"

"Okay! The truth is... I... I do care about my family and I do want to keep them safe. There is... Was this powerful Mare... Darvin and Leena were also Imps and I can tell they're light years ahead of me in terms of power and skill and yet both of them couldn't even... So then if I want to keep them safe from that thing then I can't just learn the basics... But... But that wasn't what made me want to become a Wake... Honestly I still don't know if I really want to become a Wake... What I do want to do though is... Find my father and get him to talk to me and tell me why he had to get rid of me."

"Your father?"

"His name is Ace."

"Never heard of him."

"Seriously? Guess he's not famous then... Bummer."

"I see... So your reason for wanting to go to this school are selfish in nature."

"I... I wouldn't say that-"

"Thats better. You're starting to think like an Imp now."

"...I don't think I like Imps then..."

"Good."

"Good?"

"At the end of the day Imps are humans. And if humans are anything its idiots."

Brave felt a frown cross onto her face. "I keep hearing that and I don't like it... Its like some kind of excuse at this point... You keep listing it as an excuse for an Imp to be flawed while leaving out all the good things humans did. Its cowardly if you ask me-" Brave was silenced as Laws slammed his wand forward placing it at her throat and staring her in the eyes making her go quiet.

"If that Mare was going to eat you what would you have done?"

"You already asked this question-"

"Careful. This time I'm not going to slap you. Answer me slowly or in a way I don't like and I'll blow your head off." Brave felt herself freeze up as she gulped. "If that Mare was going to eat you what would you have done?"

"...I... I wouldn't have killed myself." Brave said shaking her head. "But I wouldn't have gotten eaten either."

"So you would foolishly fight and try to kill the Mare knowing that you can't kill it only for you to get eaten-"

"No. I'd have run away."

"Run away? So you'd throw away your pride-"

"Screw my pride." Brave announced proudly. "I'd rather live then die. I have a family who cares about me and I promised them no matter what I'd live. Thats the same reason I would never kill myself. It isn't about beating a Mare or getting eaten. Its all about living. Mare, Imp, Human, Animal, it doesn't matter to me. No matter what I won't die from it."

"So you wouldn't die if I were to blow your head off its body?"

"I'd dodge it."

"...You'd... Dodge it?"

"Yes."

Laws stated at her his eyes breaking through the crack of his masks eye slots by a small amount as him and Brave had a stare down. After a few moments he twirled his wand around as it vanished into the sleeve of his outfit and he folded his arms. "Turn your aura on idiot girl."

"Right! How?"

'Bang!'

He slammed his fist into the top of her head knocking her down once more.

"Figure it out."

Brave huffed rubbing at the bump on her head but managed to close her eyes and focus. She had done it once before right. 'Focus on that light... And draw it out...' She hummed to herself. It took a while. Nearly five minuets. It was faint. Not really all that bright and far smaller then it had been, but rising a few centimeters out of her skin the white aura formed.

"That which surrounds you is our Aura, a form of life force that we can use. With it on you have entered a battle mode. When fighting you should always turn it on. It will be hard but eventually you will be able to turn it on and off at will. With Aura on you are faster, stronger, and more durable. This is why it is important to turn it on. Aura falls into several categories. Those are size, durability, strength, speed, hearing, vision, smell, feeling, time, ease, emotional, as well as heat, and brightness. You are not my student and as such I will not teach you about any of them other then one that you will need to live."

"W... What is that." Brave said through gritted teeth. It was hard to keep the aura on. It was sort of like trying to balance on a ball with one foot while also holding up several weights, after having just run a marathon.

"The heat. You see in these conditions and your clothing you will die. However using your aura you can create heat. It is required at all times to have a chance on this mountain. At the top of this mountain it can reach Temperature as cold as -65 degrees Celsius. This is from a mix of the height as well as my power cooling it off even more then it should be. Focus on your aura and make it hotter. Think of a flame."

Brave tried to do so and was relieved when she felt a small amount of heat and her body began to warm up. The cold actually seemed to vanish and for a moment she began to feel warm enough to think she was in the summer. That however made her even more tired and her aura kept flickering.

"Two more things I will teach you for free are time and ease. Time is the amount of time you can keep your aura on for and how long it takes you to turn it on. You will need to be able to keep your aura on at all times like me."

"B... But your aura isn't on you."

"False. My aura is on at all times. All people of my power level can keep our auras on while we're awake. The reason you do not see my aura is because I am in a state of Cero. Interrupt me again and I slap you. The second thing you will need is ease. I'm sure you can feel the pain and stress of having aura on. You will have to work through that and get to the point of it feeling normal."

"S... So I need to work on Time, which is how long I can keep it on and how long it takes to turn on, ease which is how stressful it feels to have on, and h... Heat which keeps me warm?"

"That is correct. Time, and Ease, are things every Imp should work on no matter what, Heat is only important as you will need it to stay alive up here otherwise you will surely die."

"T... Thanks Teach-"

"No. I am not your teacher. This advice has been free only so you can maybe take my test to become my teacher."

"What?"

"This mountain... Back in the day it was called Mount-Everest and it would take a human around two months to finish it depending on luck and the team size and planning. You have one month to climb this mountain which is now even bigger thanks to my power adding on mountains of ice to this already large mountain. You must arrive at the top in under three weeks at the very least in order to pass. You will have to work on time, ease, and heat, all at once as if you slip up and enter a zone to cold without the proper aura heat on you will freeze instantly and die."

Brave gulped. "Thats... Uh..."

"If you really are more then decent then you will arrive at the top in one week. You will also be able to prove your point to me."

"Prove... My point?"

"If that Mare was going to eat you what would you have done? Your answer was you would run. It is time for you to show me that you being able to outrun a Mare is possible."

Before Brave had time to say anything she was silenced by the quiet growls. She turned around staring with wide eyes when she saw the hundreds of red eyes in the forest making her mouth go dry.

"It will be morning in five hours. weak Mares like these can't exist then. You must keep your aura on, the heat on, and also run from them for five hours. I'll see you at the top of the mountain if you can survive and only then will I teach you. Oh and good luck finding food and water you will have to discover that as well. Good bye."

"Wait-"

A massive explosion of aura blasted out of Laws as he literally blasted himself high into the air vanishing above the clouds making Braves eyes go wide.

She turned back around finding the many red eyes had moved closer to her.

"D... Damn my luck..."