Chapter 7

"That can't be true," I mumbled to myself. "What do you mean, 'he's not strong enough'? You said it yourself, that he could take on the entire country and win!"

Miss Zhang laughed and prodded Yichen with her elbow. "Look how worked up he gets when someone talks badly about you. Isn't he adorable?"

"Everyone considers me legend-class, but technically speaking, I'm not a real legend-class." Yichen coughed. "How much have you learned about aura classes?"

I thought back to the book that Xiaoyue read to me. "Not much, actually."

"There are eight classes in total, six if you discount the priest and pope classes, which are technically considered subclasses." Yichen explained. "At the pawn level, which is where you're around right now, aura can only be manifested internally, which makes the eyes glow with aura. Honestly, a trained soldier could probably reach the same level of strength with a few years of training, even without aura. The difference is, having aura makes your senses sharper."

"But I've coated my hands in aura before. Doesn't that put me above pawn-class?"

"Technically yes, but I would still classify you as pawn-class instead of knight-class because you can't do it on command yet. Aura classes are pretty flexible anyways; it's not as if you progress entire stages at once."

"You're such a stick-in-the-mud, Yichen. Just hand the kid another book and tell him to read." Miss Zhang interjected.

"This is important stuff! Knowing class progression is an important factor in training efficiently!"

"So what comes after knight?" I asked.

Truth be told, it was pretty obvious that the classes were based on chess pieces, but I thought it would be a little suspicious if someone who wasn't conscious until yesterday to know about chess. That, and I had no idea what each class did, only what they were called.

"So, knight-class is basically the in-between stage of pawn and bishop, you become stronger, and you're able to coat a small part of your body in aura for a short period of time, but that's pretty much it. Bishop-class, on the other hand, is when you're able to maintain a full-body coat of aura."

Miss Zhang yawned in an exaggerated fashion. "Yadda yadda, blah blah, could you possibly get any more boring? I'm practically falling asleep here. Look at my poor baby girl!"

She nudged Xiaoyue subtly and whispered something in her ear. The little girl collapsed and exclaimed, "Oh no, Uncle Yichen, I'm going to fall asleep!"

Yichen chuckled. "Alright, fine. I'll take Xuefeng somewhere else where you two won't be bored by my explanation, and we'll meet you guys at the training ground in a few minutes."

"Good riddance!" Miss Zhang joked as Yichen led me out of the library.

"Have fun, Xuefeng!" Xiaoyue cheered.

I looked back at her in surprise. It was the first time she had addressed me without stuttering. Again, a feeling of deja vu ran through my body. I had seen that radiant smile somewhere before. Perhaps it was the similarity she bore to her mother.

"Sorry about that," Yichen said. "Where was I?"

"You were talking about bishop-class aura users."

"Right! Bishops are generally considered powerful enough to be captains within an army, but obviously that comes down to experience. The next level after that is rook-class, which is when aura users become able to fire off aura from their hands or weapons. Of course, their aura is more powerful than a bishop's aura, because they're in a higher class."

"Aren't there aura users that primarily use bows as their weapons?" I asked.

"Ah, yes! There are, but the difference is that they coat arrows in aura. A rook is able to fire off aura without coating anything. Interestingly, General Chen actually uses a sword made of pure aura if an enemy gets too close."

"I have no idea who that is," I noted.

"You'll meet her soon enough, she'll probably officiate our match with General Lu."

"You don't need to be king-class to become a general?"

"There aren't many aura kings in the world anyways. Usually, king-classes will either work as guild leaders or royal guards."

"So are Huotian and Xiaolong's parents king-classes?" I asked.

"Well, they're mages, so they're classed by numbers. And to answer your question, no. King-classes are roughly the same strength as a class nine mage, but Meili and Yunshu are tenth-class, so they would be legend-class aura users."

"What's the difference between a king and a legend?"

Yichen paused for a second. "Well, kings are capable of having their aura take shape. Rumor has it that the aura shape of an aura user reflects their soul. A king becomes a legend when they step into the realm of the deities."

"The realm of the deities?" I echoed.

"For aura users, when they unlock the power of the Aesir, Ichor, they can be considered a legend. For mages, it's a little trickier to tell, since dragons didn't really have their own special ability."

"So when a mage attains power equivalent to a dragon's, they're considered tenth class?"

Yichen stopped in his tracks, before steering me to take a left turn through the halls. "That's a big word for a four year old. Anyways, its hard to tell the difference between a ninth and tenth class mage. Yunshu just bases it off of how many mana rings they have in their core."

I felt a feeling of dread creep up on me. "C-can't they just duel a dragon to find out?"

Yichen stopped in front of the doors leading to the training grounds. "Son, the last dragon died about five hundred years ago."

My heart sank. I had no remaining kin left on Aethergard. How long had it been since my disappearance? I tried to ask, but the words wouldn't come out. Underneath the anguish, I could feel my rage towards that angel bastard brewing.

"Well, here we are! Just gotta wait for Yunshu and Huotian now," Yichen announced.

He sauntered over to the blue haired man and pink haired woman standing on the training ground. Yichen and the man exchanged what I assume was a greeting, but looked to be some strange mating ritual from my perspective. The man shook Yichen's hand, and then the two of them jumped, smashing their chests into each other and yelling, then raised both their hands and yelled again.

The woman caught my gaze and made a disgusted face, pointing at the two of them. In an instant, she was next to me, a wispy pink trail of aura left behind her.

"Do you remember me, Prince Xuefeng?"

"Uh, no."

The woman guffawed loudly. "Of course you don't! Silly me, hoping you would remember the woman who delivered you."

"You... delivered me?" I frowned. "What does that mean?"

Yichen sprinted over to us. "Alright, General Chen, thank you very much, he's still four, he doesn't need to know where babies come from."

Oh. That's what she meant.

"Ah, I see you got here early!" a deep, gravelly voice announced.

I turned in the direction of the voice, and sure enough, it was Yunshu and Huotian. Trailing behind them was Meili, Xiaolong, Miss Zhang, and Xiaoyue.

"Were you that eager to lose?" Huotian taunted me, getting uncomfortably close. I resisted the urge to punch him in the face.

I slunk back behind Yichen, not wanting to engage the little demonspawn in conversation. He shouted expletives at me as I stuck out my tongue and blew him a raspberry. I wasn't entirely sure if the meaning was the same to humans as it was to dragons, but judging by his reaction, it was similar.

"Huotian, I'm sure you already know General Lu and General Chen, so I'm going to introduce them to Xuefeng," Yichen said.

"These two are our newest generals, the youngest in history. General Lu is thirty years old, and General Chen is twenty-eight, and they're class seven and rook-class respectively. I know I told you that you and Huotian were geniuses, but these two are true geniuses, and you both should strive to be like them."

"Oh please, you're too humble," General Lu said. "It takes one to know one."

"Why don't you mention how when you were twenty-seven, you were already king-class?" General Chen teased.

"Or how you're basically a legend-class, even without Ichor," Yunshu interjected.

"He did mention that," I laughed. "Multiple times, in fact."

"Ever so humble, our great king," Yunshu muttered sarcastically.

Yichen reddened. "Alright," he sputtered. "General Chen, General Lu, why don't you explain the rules to us?"

"Alright. I've heard the general level of strength of the young Prince, so I'll set the rules bearing that in mind. Huotian and Yunshu, both of you are banned from using your dragonborn and dragonblessed powers to cast spells. I believe the two of you are both warlocks, so if I see any spells casted without runes, I will disqualify you. However, the two of you are allowed to draw on ambient mana, and you are free to cast spells without encantations. Is that all understood?" General Lu explained.

"As for the two of you," General Chen interrupted, addressing Yichen and I. "You are not permitted to use any weapons. Yichen, you're required to keep your aura levels to a minimum. Knight-level enhancement at the maximum, understood?"

"Same goes for you, Yunshu. Class-four spells are the maximum." General Lu said.

"What?" Yunshu complained. "How is that fair? Huotian can use class five spells if he draws on ambient mana!"

"He has to use encantations for those, and it takes a toll on him, so I think its fair," General Lu retorted. "Actually, I will place one more restriction on him. Huotian, you're banned from using Galeforce after dispelling Fei Lian's Wrath."

"Start the match already!" Miss Zhang hollered from the sidelines.

"Competitors, to your sides!" the generals commanded.

"Split them up," Yichen whispered to me as we walked to our side. "You can handle Huotian if he's forced to cast using runes. I'll keep Yunshu at bay and offer support here and there. We got this, okay?"

"Got it."

"Remember, the sand here is explosive."

"Yeah, I know," I mumbled. There was no way this insolent brat was winning this time.

"Ready," General Chen yelled.

"Set," General Lu hollered.

"Fight!" the two commanded.