Chapter 35 -- Alarm

Back at Abaddon Junior Academy. Mr Brown had just got off the phone with some the parents of Miss Laura's students. After he calmly told them about how safe their 'Camping trip' was, a knock was heard on the door.

"Come in " He said, and the door opened to reveal a woman in her late twenties. She had curly blue hair and wore large round eye glasses.

"Sorry to disturb sir but the yearly tournament is coming up and i need you to sign off on the second year students taking part" she said politely.

Every year, all the schools in the country would send at least 10 students to take part in the Inter Continental Rypin Tournament (ICRT) .

It comprised of a series of fighting matches, athletic games and hunting expeditions aimed at crowning the strongest student on the planet. It was named after Miles Rypin , who was rumored to have helped the hero Wevington during the war against the demon king.

"Who chose these contestants ?" Mr Brown asked while reading the list of students.

"They are the top 10 strongest second year students sir. All of them in the second rank" the woman replied.

"They might be the strongest second year students, but I'm not so sure if they are the strongest students in the school" Mr Brown said to himself but the secretary heard his words anyway.

"Ohh i assure you sir there are no stronger or more experienced second year students than those" she said with confidence.

"What is the status of Laura's class? " Mr Brown suddenly asked.

"Uhh ...her last report was the one 3 days ago." the secretary replied after checking through the thick wad of paper in her hand.

"She hasn't said anything since then ?, that's not like her she loves giving reports" The headmaster said to himself, unaware of how wrong he truly was.

"There have been a change of plans Lisa, this year Abaddon will have it's own little competition to determine who gets to go to the Rypin tournament. The junior academy and the senior academy will both compete." Mr Brown revealed.

"As you wish sir but I really don't think the juniors have even the slimmest of chances to beat the second year students especially in combat." Lisa said.

"We will see about that Lisa we will see" the headmaster said while looking at a picture of Adam.

Back in Rion, Michael was training with Mia, it turned out that because of their mutual element, they had a lot in common and could give each other pointers in their training. Laura had given Michael the task of teaching Mia the basics of team Cursed, and after some time, even if it took all the willpower he had, Michael finally managed to stop staring at Mia's body.

"Ahhh..... it's no use" Mia threw her hands in the air as she sat under a tree. The two had been trying to raise Mia's power enough for her to actually be considered a Cultivator. Even though she had a surplus of 'Force' in her body, she was just too weak to damage other Cultivators and if she could not cut through the soft skin of a Cultivator she could not even dream of fighting earth lions.

Mia had learnt how to control her 'Force' in a way that it doesn't go out of control during her sprints. However her full speed could only put a tiny, barely noticeable scratch on Michael's hand. It didn't help that Michael was now in the second rank.

"Wait... let's try something else. How about instead of accelerating your whole body to gain momentum you coat the parts you would use to attack with your 'Force' instead ?. If your control is good enough, you can even coat the inside of your joints.

So instead of running up to me to punch me, try just throwing a punch from arms length away, without moving anything but your shoulder and elbow." Michael taught.

Mia thought it was worth a shot and stood up to stand in front of her tutor. Lightning 'Force' built up in her right arm starting from her shoulder. She pulled back before punching Adam's outstretched arm with all her power.

Michael's hand jerked back a bit but his body didn't move. "That blow had a bit more power to it..." Suddenly a vibration was heard from Michael's pocket before he could finish his words.

"Practice that same movement on that tree over there, see if you can break it. I will be right back." Michael said as he rushed into the forest.

"I thought I told you not to call me, i will call you!" Mike shouted into the phone as soon as he was about 100 meters deep into the forest.

"I can call you whenever i want." said the person on the other end of the line. Michael was startled as the voice didn't at all sound like the arrogant contact he had in the gang.

"Im so sorry boss I thought i was talking to Jeff" Michael apologized.

"Don't worry about it kid, I'll let it slide as long as you have some good news for me. How is the mission ?"

Michael could not believe his ears, he was making a direct report straight to the boss! . The leader of the almighty Kalel gang was speaking to him directly! he couldn't wait to go back and boast to all the other gang members back home.

"Well boss something weird happened to your target a few days ago. He started shaking and oozing black foam from his mouth and nose, I also specifically heard his bones breaking but I'm not sure about that anymore. The he roared , i know it sounds crazy but he really did."

Michael spoke as fast as he could as he was afraid of disappointing his boss.

"Is that all? " the voice asked.

"N.....no boss i wanted this to be a surprise but I recently broke through. I am now a rank two Cultivator boss!" Michael said nervously. His boss seemed not impressed with his initial report so Mike was worried, the boss was after all a rank three Cultivator and rumor has it that he is about to advance to the forth rank. So it was in Michael's best interest to be on his good side.

"Ohh! really! congratulations Michael. The gang would have a party for you when you return but we are kinda in hiding at the moment ." The boss seemed impressed with Michael's achievement.

Back in Linda's room. Lex had just told her the whole truth except for the part about the system. Lex was now anxiously waiting to see her reaction as Linda had not said a word since the confession.

The door suddenly slammed open to reveal Adam's figure. Lex was about to complain when Adam revealed the reason for his interruption.

"Laura needs the whole team at the hall immediately, some kind of emergency."

Not long after and the team had gathered around an anxious looking Laura, who began to speak as soon as the team arrived

"We have been ordered to return to the school as soon as possible, if we are not back in one week, an extraction team will be deployed to forcefully take us. So we have to complete this mission immediately, we need to find the leader of the earth lions and kill it. Otherwise we leave these people with danger looming around the corner." Laura said with a sense of urgency in her voice.

Suddenly a loud sound like a siren was heard through out the village. "If that is not a false alarm then we won't need to find the beasts, it seems they are already coming to us " Mia said with a grave look on her face.