Practice match

Elder Vova shook his head from side to side.

"At any rate, reaching the same level as Twilight Obscurity Demonic Sovereign would be impossible for you all. There have only been a handful of Rank 9 Fae Immortals in the Thirty Three Heavens, much less in comparison to some of the other Races. Twilight Obscurity isn't just humanities ancestor, but also our protector and someone who reached heights never before seen in the human race".

"If I'm being perfectly honest, perhaps only Andrea could reach that level. However, there have existed countless possessors of the Thirty Three Sovereign Boundary Physiques, yet only some have reached Rank 9. What it all comes down do is possibly just a mixture of timing, luck and karma".

"No-one in the Kovacs Clan, living or otherwise knows the process for a Rank 5 Fae Master to become a Rank 6 Fae Immortal. We haven't had a Rank 5 Fae Master since the founder of our Clan was alive, so even if he did know, he definitely didn't pass that information down. So if we can't even reached Rank 5, how could we juniors even think about reaching Rank 6?".

Elder Vova sighed, feeling the burden of old age.

In his youth, he was just as talented as Alina and Ratimir, but he himself was only a liquid topaz origin essence.

Of course, this generation was much more promising as a whole, and the resources at their disposal increase with every generation but....

As he said before, "timing", "luck" and "karma" are all needed in order to cultivate.

If one was lacking in any of these, then perhaps all they would end up reaching is Rank 3. A nobody in the whole scheme of things.

Arthur listened to most of Elder Vova's words before moving his attention back towards the window.

".... of course none of you understand the differences between Rank 5 and Rank 6....", he muttered.

Not even Randolf, who was sitting right next to him, heard Arthur's words.

The only way you could understand Fae Immortals, is if you were a Fae Immortal yourself.

You can understand the process, but still, might not be successful in your ascension.

Elder Vova was right about one thing though.

"Timing", "luck" and "karma" were all necessary in reaching Rank 6. And not in ways that one might normally think.

Elder Vova ended the lesson quickly after that, leaving his students to do as they please for the weekend.

Arthur didn't even need to stand up, before a figure stood on the opposite side of his desk.

He didn't even need to look before to know who that figure belonged to.

"Hey Arthur! Wanna practice using Fae today!?".

Arthur raised an eyebrow before smirking slightly from down in his seat.

"You really want to get beat up again that badly?".

The girl in front of him turned red in the cheeks slightly before she let out a cute "harrumph", before turning her head to the side.

Arthur forced a smile before shaking his head and letting out a sigh.

"Well, I suppose things might be different this time. Perhaps this time you'll end up on top of me?".

Andrea's blush turned even deeper before she shook her head and headed towards the door. For a second there, Arthur thought that he might've gone a little too far, but-.

The Boundless Forest Yearning stopped at the door and turned around, her face still slightly red.

She turned to look at Arthur, ignoring the looks she was getting from some of the other students.

"Are you coming?".

Arthur paused for a moment before smiling politely, standing up.

"Sure. I'll amuse myself with you for a while".

Andrea's blush turned even deeper, obviously due to their being an audience and just rolled her eyes before heading towards one of the practice fields.

Arthur's eyes glanced around the room somewhat before noticing two figures wiggle their eyebrows at him causing him to roll his own eyes before leaving the room.

Ratimir and Borik might be what a normal person could consider a "friend", although the feeling only went one way. Arthur had no need for such things, let alone from a bunch of weaklings like these.

If he was nice to them, they would be useful, but if he was antagonistic to them, then they might feel envious, or have seeds of hatred start to form within their hearts.

Such a thing would only be harmful in the long run, and they might try and oppose Arthur if they weren't on the same side to begin with.

Arthur left the room, noticing Alina and some of her friends follow him, along with Zoya and some of his friends.

Randolf quietly left the room as well, heading towards the practice field.

Arthur smirked, feeling the myriad gazes on his body.

These guys were all wary of Arthur, especially after the new Fae Master Tournament.

His combat abilities exceeded all of their own, and he could even close the gap between talent tiers by utilising Fae in ways that they never even thought of before. Not to mention, with the addition of the Fae he received from the Clan, as well as the Fae he got from Falling Snow Famous River, his repertoire would've increased significantly during that time.

If they could gleam even a sliver of Arthur's true abilities from this fight, then perhaps they could gain the upper hand when they next fought.

Andrea stood on the practice stage, arms crossed and legs spread slightly, lowering her centre of gravity.

In the past few months, Arthur had taught her quite a bit about maximising Fae abilities using martial arts, and what types of martial arts could best compliment her Fae.

Of course, nothing that would actually give her the upper hand in the fight, but enough to improve her combat capabilities be several fold.

Andrea came from a background where only one of her parents was a Fae Master. Her mother was a member of a travelling merchant group, and not someone with a huge combat potential.

She was building herself from the ground up, and not enhancing her own foundations with Arthur's knowledge.

Arthur sighed before walking up to the stage. Most of the classmates had started gathering around the practice stage, talking amongst themselves while sending the occasional glance their way.

Most of the girls were looking towards Arthur, while most of the boys were looking towards Arthur as well.

A bit.... strange, but they wanted to discern everything they could about him so they could use if all against him.

Arthur wasn't going to use the crocodile transformation fae, considering that was his trump card, so instead he thought he would change things up a little and keep everyone on their feet.

Arthur flicked his hand out and activated a fae.

In an instant, a large silver coloured halberd appeared in his hands. The tip was pointed, while the blade itself was curved outwards, giving it a deceptively long reach. The other side of the blade was flat, causing Ratimir and Alina to frown at the design.

Halberd fae could change shape slightly depending on what the Fae Master wanted. It couldn't change the length or the weight of the fae, but the blade could be curved or serrated depending on what Arthur needed.

He could change it even further with higher Ranked halberd Fae, or with complimentary Fae as well.

Seeing Arthur, someone who everyone believed specialised with the sword use a halberd caused most to be put off slightly.

Randolf, who stood at the very back of the crowd muttered,

"Start recording".

Arthur couldn't hear this, but sent Randolf a small smile causing shivers to creep up his spine.

The thousand year old reincarnate turned his focus back towards Andrea, who frowned before activating her own Fae.

'Things would be different', she thought.

Back then, she only had flash fae and woodpecker fae at her disposal.

Now, she had more than half a dozen different Fae that she could use against Arthur, the one who had defeated her last time.

Seeing his face, that smug, handsome annoying smile on his face caused her to blush, but she quickly steadied herself and steeled her gaze.

Arthur smiled.

"Come".