348 Forced Reliance
Beneath the blazing sun at eleven o'clock, thousands of soldiers stood on the obstacle course, anticipation and anxiety coursing through their veins. Next to them were the Immortals, who were without family, and the mingling of these two groups created a palpable tension that seemed impossible to dispel. For the past hour, they had merely stared at each other, any interaction limited and awkward. The atmosphere was volatile.
However, the emperor's announcement sliced through the tension like a hot blade.
"Today, you will learn the principle of battle aura," Kaze smiled.
"It's a high-level sub-technique that will soon become common knowledge. Yet, you shall be the first to learn and master it, as I will personally conduct a master class."
A collective gasp and murmur spread through the crowd. Although it was a mere whisper, the thousands of voices made it feel as thunderous as it reverberated through the area.
"Let's discuss what it is," Kaze explained, picking up a stone. "With battle aura, you can transform any object—" He hurled the stone at the T-wall that separated the battlefield during their mock battle.
Silence. Dead silence.
Everyone was puzzled, expecting a massive explosion or some insane event. However, there was—
BOOM!
A distant explosion startled everyone, leaving them bewildered. Was it a spatial technique?
Kaze smirked at their perplexed faces, "Instead of asking needless questions, why don't you examine the wall yourselves?"
The crowd approached the wall in a daze, curious about what had transpired. Upon reaching the wall, the individual who discovered the phenomenon stared silently, questioning whether they were seeing things correctly.
At the center of the heavily reinforced T-wall was a perfect, jagged hole in the exact shape of the stone Kaze had thrown. It appeared as though a cookie cutter had sliced through the wall, leaving an even hole without any variation. The wall was simply... gone.
Kaze stepped through a spatial rift onto the top of the wall, looking down at the soldiers and jolting them back to reality. ''Battle aura is a form of armor that envelops objects, making them durable," he explained. "It is extremely sharp, filled with microscopic blades of Qi that turn every area into a shredding force, like a hairbrush made of razor blades."
The soldiers, unable to ignore the unbelievable sight, pushed through the crowd to see the hole in the wall.
"The sub-technique is called evocation," Emperor Lexicon continued. He formed a wall of Qi in the shape of a shield, which compacted until it was solid white. "Just as tightly packed water molecules create ice, tightly packed elemental Qi becomes almost indestructible with refinement and quantity. With it, you can craft armor, shields, and weapons when fighting."
Excited whispers greeted his words, everyone eager to learn the concept.
"The most significant advantage of higher-level techniques is that they only require your external Qiites, not your internal Qi," Kaze explained, pulling a baseball bat from a spatial rift. "So once you're running low, you can reinforce weak objects and transform them into weapons."
Ding! Ding! Ding!
He struck the metal baseball bat against the T-wall to prove its authenticity, then lifted it, enveloping it in a strange platinum aura before leaping off the wall and swinging it downward, back facing the soldiers.
SHiiiiilINK!
To everyone's amazement, the bat sliced through the wall like butter, causing the ground to groan as the wall split in two. It was the most surreal sight they had ever witnessed.
"Once you learn this technique, you will hunt with it," Kaze explained, a sinister grin on his lips. "However, first—" He raised his hand and created a golden barrier around the group, causing everyone to panic. No one could figure out what had happened, but they felt lightheaded and drained of energy. As their energy depleted, the barrier attracted Qi until the dome became solid white like Kaze's shield, submerging the crowd in darkness.
"That should be enough," Kaze smirked, releasing the barrier.
In a surreal development, the soldiers gazed upward as the white barrier disintegrated, flaking away and vanishing into thin air as if it had never been there After it disappeared, their bodies radiated a strange black aura that felt suffocating.
"There you go," Kaze clapped. "Now, you have boundless Qiites in your body, allowing you to manipulate Qi but limited to the minimum Qi necessary to maintain your body's basic performance.
That means you'll be restricted to conventional weapons during our hunt."
The emperor pulled massive crates from a rift and lowered them to the ground. "You have swords, daggers, and spears," he chuckled.
"None of them will kill a beast where we're going. Therefore, you'll need to apply the technique you learn here in the forest."
Everyone's enthusiasm to learn the technique turned to a feeling of foreboding and dread. Beyond the special forces soldiers, the Immortals relied on guided attacks and area-of-effect techniques that required little precision. Furthermore, they had never wielded a conventional weapon. It was another game entirely.
*****
"Wah!" Denzel swung his sword at a tree on the outskirts of the obstacle course, grinning as he watched it slice effortlessly through the tree in slow motion. Just as it reached the halfway mark—
"Are you a samurai or something?" a female mused.
DENG! The sword lost its sharpness halfway through, jolting Denzel's body and making him slip, falling to the ground amid her giggles.
Denzel looked up to see a beautiful blonde in a tank top and yoga pants. Her dazzling blue eyes and conditioned hair revealed a charming personality he hadn't gotten used to. "No, I don't think I'm a samurai, Layla. Why would you think that?"
"What? The bosu squat and the 'WAH' you put before sword strikes and karate chops don't raise questions?" she teased. "Or raising a Guided Arrow into the air like an archer even though it's guided by eyesight?"
A light blush tinted Denzel's cheeks, eliciting another giggle.
Denzel stood up, a wry smile on his lips. "Those are three different fighting styles," he said. "It's not like I'm copying anyone."
Layla raised an eyebrow, smirking. "So, did you study them?"
Caught off guard, Denzel fumbled for words before conceding. "No, I just think it's cool. This world, this life, this fighting — it's like something from the shows I watched growing up. While it's pretty grim to say, my younger self would have thought this was a dream come true."
Layla's giggles faded as she studied Denzel's face, her expression showcasing her curiosity and captivation. "What about this, then?"
she asked, walking up. ''Do you think that our—"
"Enough flirting and get back to training," Caleb interrupted, a sneer on his face. "I'm not here to cause trouble, but you're on our hunting team. If you don't practice, we could all die. So quit messing around."
Chen shot a menacing glare at Caleb from his practice tree but quickly looked away, restraining himself.
"It goes both ways, Caleb," Denzel reasoned. "I've been training seriously, and my experience is stronger. If I don't perform well, bring it up then."
Caleb gritted his teeth while Madaline growled in the background.
"You call that serious? You're making sound effects when—"
ShiiiilINK! CRaaackkk! BOOM!
With a swift and powerful motion, Layla's sword sliced through a large tree, sending it crashing to the ground. "Denzel can cut through most of a tree. How are you two doing?"
"I told you to stay out of this," Caleb snarled. "This doesn't—"
"These people are my friends," Layla interjected. "If they die because you complained instead of training, that's your fault. You've halted everyone's training by complaining about Denzel's strength and capabilities. So, let's see it, Caleb. Prove you're stronger."
Caleb averted his gaze. "I won't justify common sense to prove I'm not prejudiced. Emperor Lexicon put us in their group for a dangerous mission, despite our mutual disdain. I don't want to die, so I'm asking him to take training seriously. So stop treating me like a villain."
"This isn't a about prejudice," she asserted. "You're complaining about training; I'm telling you to prove your training is better or leave, as you're holding up everyone's training."
Caleb glared at the fallen tree, mumbled a few words about not performing a petty demonstration to justify his reasonable actions, and stormed off.
"Sorry, Denzel," Layla whispered. "If you want me to leave, I will.
Until then, I won't stand idly by and let this happen."
"That's fine by me," Denzel sighed. "Since you're already overpowered, can you help me? I'd rather they resent me for being strong than be hated for not being strong enough." The others grimaced, hearing his words.
"Sure," she smiled, gripping her sword. "Here's a trick — heed the Emperor's lessons, but don't anticipate it to look indentical." The sword shimmered, resembling a faint Guided Arrow. "This doesn't look like his demonstration, but—"
With a swift, powerful motion, her sword cleaved through the tree, sending it crashing down. "It works," Layla smirked. "Emperor Lexicon's on a different level. I'm sure he could slice through a bank vault with a stick. So don't compare yourselves with him. Just focus on the training."
The group stared at the tree dumbstruck, unbelieving their eyes and ears.
esksk Once the training session ended, the soldiers headed to Twin Rocks Wildlife Reserve, ready to hunt soul beasts for the first time.
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