Day 6 – The West Courtyard
The sound of wood cracking against bone echoed through the training grounds.
"Ouch! Watch it!"
Huang Yuan rubbed his shin, hopping on one leg. "That's the third time, Jiang Zhu! Whose side are you on?"
Jiang Zhu stood in the center of the sparring ring, clutching her heavy ironwood Healing Staff. She looked horrified, but also strangely exhilarated.
"I... I didn't mean to!" she stammered. "You stepped into my sphere!"
"Exactly," Arthev's voice cut through the noise. He was sitting on the sidelines, whittling a piece of wood with a small knife, looking utterly relaxed.
"Student Huang, you treated the Healer as empty space. You assumed you could walk past her to engage the target. You failed to account for the five kilograms of spinning wood."
Arthev stood up and walked over. He gestured for Jiang Zhu to resume her stance.
"Again," Arthev ordered. "The Millstone Defense is not about aiming. It is about denying area. Jiang Zhu, do not look at Huang Yuan. Look at your staff. Keep the momentum constant. Create a zone of no entry."
Jiang Zhu took a breath. She wasn't a warrior. She was a timid girl from a minor noble family. But for the last three days, she had been swinging this staff until her palms blistered.
She began to spin.
It was a basic movement,a figure-eight pattern around her body. The heavy head of the staff whooshed through the air, creating a humming barrier.
"Student Jing Ling," Arthev called out.
"Attack her."
Jing Ling, the skeletal Agility Master, hesitated. "She's a support, Arthev. If I use my speed, I'll hurt her."
"If you hesitate, you will be the one hurting," Arthev said simply.
"Go."
Jing Ling sighed. He activated his spirit essence, his body becoming lighter, his movements blurry. He darted forward, aiming to tag Jiang Zhu's shoulder, a simple elimination move.
Usually, Jiang Zhu would freeze. But Arthev had drilled the geometry into her head: Do not stop spinning. Physics does not care about fear.
Jing Ling saw the staff coming. He thought he could duck under it.
He miscalculated the reach.
THWACK.
The butt of the staff caught Jing Ling in the ribs. The momentum of the heavy wood combined with his own forward velocity sent the Agility Master tumbling sideways into the dirt.
Silence.
Jiang Zhu stopped spinning, panting heavily. She looked at Jing Ling, who was groaning and holding his side.
"I... I hit him," she whispered. "I hit an Agility Master."
"I think you broke my rib," Jing Ling wheezed, sitting up. "What kind of Village Wisdom was that? That felt like being kicked by a horse!"
"That was the utilization of kinetic energy and centrifugal force," Arthev corrected gently. "He ran into a wall. That is his fault, not yours."
"Centri-fugal?" Jing Ling blinked, wincing. "Is that the name of a hidden clan? Are you from the Centrifugal Clan?"
Arthev paused. He looked at the students, who were all nodding as if this made perfect sense.
'They are hopeless,' Matatabi giggled in her mind. 'But at least they are hitting things.'
"Yes," Arthev lied with a straight face. "The Centrifugal Clan. They are famous for spinning."
He looked at the team. They were dirty, bruised, and tired. But the fear that had paralyzed them a week ago was gone, replaced by a gritty, confusing reality where a healer could bruise a speedster.
"This is the foundation," Arthev announced.
"Individual survival. But to last ten minutes against the Royal Team, you cannot fight as individuals. You must become a fluid annoyance."
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Day 8 – The "Roach" Formation
"We need a better name," Huang Yuan complained during the lunch break.
They were eating in a circle on the grass. Arthev had just finished explaining the new tactical formation.
"The 'Scattering Roach' strategy is descriptive," Arthev argued, taking a bite of his rice.
"Roaches are evolutionary marvels. They are hard to kill, they move unpredictably, and when you turn on the lights, they vanish."
"We are nobles," Sun Lian, the bird spirit user, sighed. "We can't call our formation 'The Roach'."
"Then call it 'The Fluid Shadow'," Arthev compromised. "The principle remains."
He used his chopsticks to draw in the dirt.
"Yu Tian-Heng will lead with thunder. He expects resistance. If he punches, and you block, you lose. His lightning destroys defenses."
Arthev looked at Huang Yuan.
"So, when he punches, you do not block. You collapse."
"Collapse?" Huang Yuan frowned.
"You fall back," Arthev explained. "You let his momentum carry him forward into empty space. And as he overextends..."
Arthev pointed his chopstick at Jing Ling.
"...Jing Ling trips him."
"Tripping the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon," Jing Ling muttered. "That sounds like a good way to get electrocuted."
"He cannot electrocute you if he is busy trying not to face-plant," Arthev said.
"Disruption. We do not need to damage them. We need to annoy them. We need to break their rhythm. Every second they spend regaining their balance is a second we survive."
He looked at Sun Lian and Li.
"Your job is to create dust. Dugu Yan's poison mist is heavy. It sinks. If you keep the air turbulent, the mist disperses."
'Tactical disruption,' Matatabi noted in Arthev's mind. 'You are teaching them guerrilla warfare. It is highly unconventional for this era's dueling etiquette.'
'Etiquette gets you killed,' Arthev thought back. 'Survival gets you to the next round.'
--‐---
Day 9 –
The sun was high. Arthev was running the team through a blind panic drill, essentially, he would throw random objects at them while they tried to maintain a complex formation.
From the balcony of the main academic building overlooking the West Courtyard, a pair of sharp green eyes watched intently.
Dugu Yan leaned against the marble railing, her chin resting on her hand. Beside her stood Yu Tian-Heng.
"They look ridiculous," Yu Tian-Heng commented, watching Huang Yuan dive face-first into a bush to avoid a training dummy Arthev had kicked at him.
"They have no honor. They are rolling around in the dirt."
"Look closer, Captain," Dugu Yan said, her voice laced with suspicion.
"Closer?"
"Watch the healer," Dugu Yan pointed.
Down in the courtyard, Jiang Zhu was spinning her staff. A stray rock thrown by Arthev flew toward her. She didn't flinch. She angled the staff, deflecting the rock with a sharp clack so that it flew toward the dummy attacking Jing Ling.
"She deflected a projectile," Yu Tian-Heng noted, raising an eyebrow. "Lucky."
"And look at the Wolf," Dugu Yan continued.
"He fell into the bush, yes. But look at how he stood up. He rolled. He didn't lose stance. He used the fall to reposition himself behind the imaginary target."
Dugu Yan narrowed her eyes.
"They aren't sparring. They are practicing evasion patterns. They are rewriting their muscle memory to run away efficiently."
"Running won't save them from my lightning," Yu Tian-Heng scoffed confidently. "Or your poison."
"Perhaps," Dugu Yan murmured.
She looked at the figure in black standing in the center of the chaos, Arthev. He wasn't moving much. He was just standing there, directing the flow like a conductor, occasionally flicking a wrist to send a projectile flying with impossible accuracy.
"Conserve the velocity!" Arthev shouted below.
"Velocity?" Dugu Yan frowned. "Is that a type of food?"
"Sounds like a Soul Beast," Yu Tian-Heng guessed. "Maybe a fast bird."
"That boy..." Dugu Yan whispered.
"He isn't training them to be warriors. He is training them to be pests. And pests are harder to squash than soldiers."
"Are you worried?" Yu Tian-Heng laughed.
Dugu Yan stood up straight, smoothing her skirt. "No. But I am annoyed. And when I am annoyed, I use more venom."
She turned to leave. "We should increase our output for the match. If they want to play games, let's make sure the game is lethal."
------
Night of Day 9 – Dormitory C
Arthev sat on the roof of the dormitory under the moonlight. The cool night air felt good against his skin.
He wasn't meditating. He was listening.
His enhanced ears picked up the breathing of the students sleeping below. He heard the guards patrolling the perimeter three hundred meters away. He heard the distinct hiss of a snake in the grass, a real snake, not a spirit.
'Four days left,' Arthev thought. 'The team is ready. They don't understand why the techniques work, but their bodies understand how to do them.'
'Muscle memory is faster than brain memory anyway,' Isobu whispered. 'Brains are slow. Muscles are honest.'
He pulled out the golden token the Prince had given him. He turned it over in his hand. The metal was cold.
The mission was to infiltrate. To gain trust. To access the Library.
Beating the Royal Team wasn't just about the Prince's test. It was about establishing a legend. If Arthev became the genius tactician who could make trash defeat gold, no one would question why he was spending hours in the archives. They would assume he was researching strategy.
His Village Wisdom and Science cover stories were holding up. They were strange enough to be memorable, but vague enough to be unverifiable.
"Hey."
Arthev didn't startle. He had heard the footsteps on the roof tiles two minutes ago.
He turned his head. Huang Yuan was standing near the chimney, looking awkward.
"The roof is restricted," Arthev said politely.
"Yeah, well, rules are for people who don't roll in the mud," Huang Yuan grunted, sitting down a few feet away. He looked out at the campus.
"I just... wanted to ask," Huang Yuan started, staring at his hands.
"Do you really think we can do it? Survive ten minutes?Or are you just using all those big words like 'Kinetic' and 'Inertia' to make us feel confident?"
Arthev looked at the burly student. Ten days ago, Huang Yuan was an arrogant bully. Now, he was a tired, humble, hardworking student seeking validation.
"The words are just words, Student Huang. They describe how the world works."
Arthev pointed at the moon.
"The moon stays in the sky because of a balance of forces. It is falling, but it is moving sideways so fast that it misses the planet. That is an orbit."
Huang Yuan stared at the moon, his eyes wide. "The moon is falling? We're all gonna die!"
Arthev blinked. "No. That was... never mind. The metaphor failed."
He turned to face his teammate.
Arthev said softly. "The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon is one of the strongest Beast Spirit. That is a fact. But dragons are arrogant. They look at the sky. They do not look at their feet."
Arthev pointed at Huang Yuan's boots.
"You have spent ten days learning to bite ankles. If you keep your head down, and trust the geometry... yes. You will survive."
Huang Yuan let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for a week. He nodded, a fierce grin slowly spreading across his face.
"Ankles. Got it."
He stood up. "Thanks, Arthev. Alpha."
"I am not the Alpha," Arthev corrected automatically.
"Whatever you say, boss."
Huang Yuan climbed back down the trellis.
Arthev turned back to the moon, shaking his head slightly.
'Humans are strange,' Shukaku muttered. 'They attach themselves to strength so easily.'
'He trusts you,' Matatabi noted. 'Do not break him too badly when you leave, Arthev.'
Arthev remained silent. He didn't plan on breaking anyone. But in the any world, not only the world of Soul Masters, attachments were just another form of weakness.
He pocketed the token.
The game was set. Now, he just had to play it.
To be continued...