"So this is martial hall."Kael thought as he walked in. The hall had two floors. The bottom floor was like a huge arena with training equipment. Explosions could be heard going off as people practiced their skills. In a ring at the middle of the training grounds, two people were sparring. A man with long hair that fell below his shoulders was dodging the ferocious attacks of his opponent, another man with a bulky build and a crew cut.
His movements were fluid and elegant, looking like a dance instead of a combat technique. "Are you just going to keep on evading my attacks?" The bulky man yelled as he unleashed a fury of punches. His fists were covered with flames, leaving a loud bang with every throw. "I'm evading out of concern for your safety. I'm afraid if I were to start attacking, you wouldn't last five seconds." The long-haired man answered as he moved graciously across the ring.
"Aaaah, " The bulky man yelled as he began to circulate essence. Five spears made of fire manifested above the ring. They kept growing until each was about five meters tall and the width of a human head. "Let me see you dodge this." The bulky man said with a smirk on his face." One by one, the spears started to descend. For the first time, the long-haired man stopped, and a serious look appeared on his face. The essence around him started to tremble as he activated one of his skills. He jumped up and stepped on air as if it were solid ground. He evaded the first four spears, but the fifth one suddenly changed direction and went straight for his chest.
He didn't even flinch and let it hit him. A huge explosion rang out through the entire vicinity. "Is he alright?" "Somebody go and get the instructor." Shouts sounded as the whole arena looked at the explosion mid-air. " The bulky man stood in the ring with a smug look on his face. "That's what you get for being too cocky, did you think I could only send them in one direction?" He turned back to get out of the ring. When "Sigh, is that all those spears are capable of.Looks like I activated my armor for nothing." Then, five massive wind blades came from inside the cloud of smoke aimed at the bulky man. He was just about to exit the ring when he heard the sigh then saw five massive wind blades heading towards him. Their speed was fast, and they were already before him by the time he reacted.
He quickly dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way, but to his surprise, they all changed their trajectory and followed him. With little time to react, the wind blades hit their mark and with a loud bang, he was sent flying out of the ring, hitting the wall and passing out with a bloody wound on his chest. This all happened within five seconds, from the sigh to this sorry sight.
The other disciples quickly went to check on him. One of them yelled," Couldn't you use less force. What if he's dead?" "I did use less force," the long-haired man said while raising his arms. "And that strike is not enough to kill him. He's probably just tired."He said as he walked out of the ring.
Kael, who had been watching from the sidelines heard that he hadn't used all of his strength and still blasted the bulky man outside the ring, even knocking him out. He looked at the long-haired man again. This easy-going and carefree man was already capable of such feats without using his full strength. What kind of monster is he when he unleashes his full strength?
As Kael was lost in thought, a female disciple approached him. "Did you come to join our martial hall?"The girl asked as she extended his hand to greet him. Kael came back to his senses and reached out for a handshake."I haven't decided yet, I'm just here to look for some skills," He answered as he let go of her hand. "Oh ok, then you should head to the first floor, and then an instructor will take you to look at the skill catalogue."She said while pointing at a staircase. "I'm Savina by the way." "Oh, I'm Kael." "Good luck on picking your skills Kael," she said with a smile as she turned to leave, waving goodbye at him.
"That's right, I came here to look for some suitable skills," Kael said as he headed towards the staircase. The sparring match had taken is attention for a moment. He found the instructor's office and knocked. "Come in," a hoarse voice sounded from inside. He entered without delay. Inside was a man in his thirties. He had a well-defined jawline with sharp eyebrows, pale blue eyes that looked like they peered deep inside your soul. He was going through some documents but stopped once Kael walked in.
"New disciple?" He asked, to which Kael nodded. "I'm Instructor Joel. I assume you're here to choose the skills you want to start with. Follow me." The two walked down the hall and reached a room secluded from the rest. The interior of the room was not big, about the size of his living room. In the middle of the room, there was a crystal ball placed on top of a platform. "Place your hand on the crystal." He did as he was told and placed his hand on it. Various skills and combat techniques appeared in his mind. You can start with three skills and a combat technique, then come back once you have some credit." Instructor Joel said as he leaned on the door.
Kael nodded his head and started to browse the various skills. After browsing for a while, he picked the moonfade stance, which was a movement skill.It removes him from the opponent's sight for five seconds and increases speed by three times. Then he picked Flame Orb, which condenses fire essence into a ball that explodes on impact. His other skill was called Flame Tempest, which summoned a vortex of flames. He looked at the techniques and found a sword technique called heaven cleaving sword Path. It was divided into two parts, each containing two moves.
"Instructor, I'm done now." "Good, I hope you chose wisely." " I hope so too." They walked out of the room. Instructor Joel looked at him for a while before saying," Have you joined any divisions yet?" Instructor Joel asked. "No, not yet." "Would you like to join our martial hall? Before you decide, let me tell you the benefits. We get the first pick when going to explore the secret realms, and anything you find inside will belong to you. If you want to contribute some to the sect, the sect will compensate you with credit equal to the value of the items. If you accept a mission, you can choose a team to go with if you're worried about safety and just like in the secret realms, if you encounter anything apart from the mission's objective, it's yours to keep. So in general, our martial hall is the best for gathering points and accumulating your own resources, not being overly dependent on the sect for everything. But it's also filled with danger since you'll be involved in constant combat and life and death situations. Risk and fortune are often two sides of the same coin. So what do you think?" He asked as he looked at Kael, waiting for him to make a decision.
Kael stood there thinking about what he had heard. His safety wasn't an issue since he was sure that with time stop and shadow step, he could retreat from almost all threats if needed. What he needed right now was credit and this seemed like the fastest way to earn some. After pondering for a while, he finally accepted.
Instructor Joel laughed and shook his hand."Welcome to martial hall, let's go and get your uniform."After getting his uniform, he went back to the training ground and started to practice the skills and techniques he had acquired today. The heaven cleaving sword path first form, sky severance created a massive descending sword that could cleave all under the heavens in half. Once the five forms are comprehended, one can slice mountains in half with only one slash.
He had never practiced sword techniques before, so it was difficult to comprehend the first form, but that didn't dampen his spirits, he added more effort and continued practicing until it was dark outside. He sat on the ground exhausted. He had been practicing for almost five hours and had barely touched upon the first form.
"This will be harder than originally thought."He said between breaths. He looked at his hand, which had already started to form calluses. A bitter smile appeared on his face as he struggled to get up. "I'll come back tomorrow and practice for a while before heading to Mission Hall."He wanted to go and see if there was any easy mission he could take alone.