.Power of darkness ? (II)

Seui instantly knew something was wrong. He was usually not this kind of person who would blurt out anything that came to his tongue. It was just that he had begun to feel sleepy while waiting for Mr. Declan to finish 'counting' his tea drops and subconsciously remembered what Yew had told him earlier. But now it was too late to regret. He waited patiently to see how the tutor would respond to it.

Mr.Declan's expression slowly turned grave and deadpan. A dangerous glint passed through his stormy eyes which slowly scanned Seui from head to toe. He placed down the teacup in his hand and remained silent for a few seconds. Just when Seui thought that the situation is increasing going downhill, Mr. Declan opened his mouth " Alright, since you're the new student, you two can start practicing now. There are wooden boards in the third cupboard on the left. Today's mission is to break the boards using your powers. I was planning to use them to train your flexibility and shaping, but since there's a new student we'll do a simple lesson today. It shouldn't be hard to break it, right?" he made a gesture as if asking a teen to take a kindergarten exam. He looked at the time "Start now, you've got thirty minutes "

Yew's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. ' is Mr. Declan letting go of them this easily? is he not going to keep their accounts for being late? did the sun rise from the west today?' However, he didn't have the audacity to mention this aloud, what if the tutor suddenly changed his mind?

So he went over to take out the wooden boards, before realizing something was wrong 'wait, wasn't the previous class about controlling the output of the power? how did it suddenly turn into attacking actively? his power was still unstable and he couldn't channel out power whenever he wanted, so how was he going to get his power out within thirty minutes and reform it to contain attack power? it's not like lifting a finger would destroy the board! This is obviously a pit!!'

That is to say, power itself is harmless. Like a metal that is used to make a knife. The metal itself isn't destructive, but it is the raw material used to make a sharp knife. To make a knife you've got to model it and sharpen it. So is power, to attack you've got to model the power to contain energy within it. Otherwise, there won't be any substantial harm, but the power would be drained in vain. This was exactly what Yew was worried about, even if he controlled the power output, an active attack was out of the question! Maybe he would have a better chance chopping the board with taekwondo moves!

Yew carried the boards over with a sulking mood.

Seui was totally clueless about Yew's grief. In his mind, he was recalling fantasy movies he had seen before, where they just closed their eyes and concentrated for a while, before sending their enemies lying on all fours! or maybe he should look at ancient books which usually disintegrate by mere touch and their spells? Seui shook his head mentally 'Ey.. it shouldn't be, otherwise how did the apartment and the furniture get dissembled? Unless he murmured ancient text in dreams, right?'

Thus he fixed his eager gaze on Yew, who was placing a wooden board in front of his desk. He closed on and whispered, " do you know how to activate power?"

Yew's face instantly soured and he whispered back "if I did, why would I still be here?"

Seui narrowed one eye "no..don't tell me you're that legendary blockhead who wouldn't get it even if it was told hundred times... what exactly did you learn till now?"

Yew puffed in anger with his hair standing on ends "..you non-blockhead, why don't you ask the tutor then? you can catch up on the lessons and see if you understand them.. hmph.." Yew marched back to his seat carrying a board.

Seui curled his lips in displeasure 'this guy has no hospitality at all! when did he start having such a hot temper?' but he had to admit that asking the tutor is the most logical approach here, it was just that who knows whether the tutor's brain circuit would follow the logic at all!

Without any choice, Seui tentatively tried Mr. Declan for advice "that.. Mr. Declan..I have a question"

Mr. Declan turned to Seui and showing an attitude of you-can-have-as-many-as-questions-as-you-want-but-I'm-not-gonna-answer-them , he motioned to Seui "go on"

Thickening his skin and pretending he didn't notice the tutor's attitude, Seui adapted a passionate-to-learn voice " Sir, how can I activate the power?"

Mr. Declan raised his eyebrows thoughtfully, simply activating the power wasn't going to help in this case. He felt that this one who couldn't even activate the power at his age didn't have much hope in succeeding. At their age, being able to attack actively was a normal thing and there were rarely any who couldn't. And those are the ones who are called trash. However Yew was an exception to this theory, which was extremely rare. The reason being, that Yew had entered a coma after an accident and his power has gone out of control after waking up. So, he was here helping Yew to stabilize his power as he owed the Zishan family a favor before. But this new guy here couldn't be the same as Yew right? Mr. Declan guessed that he must be here because he wanted to take the opportunity to receive tips from the famous ability user. After all, there were a lot of people who would be willing to sacrifice their entire fortune to be here!

But who would've thought it turned out to be a useless ability!

If you looked at it from Mr. Declan's point, he wasn't trying to be difficult on Seui. Although he might be a bit harsh if considered from Yew's side, he was just trying to evaluate Seui's level. Who would've expected it to be turned out this way! Feeling regretful, Mr. Declan decided that he might as well explain it to this guy. After all, it's not going to be of any great use.

So he briefly summarized the main points " ..to activate the ability, you should first get familiar with your ability. The core of the power is your soul shard, which is a small part of your very soul. It is where your power is basically located and it's the source of your power. So you can feel it, integrate your mind with it and let the energy flow naturally. That is, once you've got a basic understanding, concentrating on your soul shard can activate your ability " he gave a measuring glance toward Seui "so, get to work? only twenty minutes are remaining"

Yew, who was listening on the side complained furiously in his mind 'no.. how come that he never explained it so clearly before? how unfair, this is definitely partial treatment!! oh no... now Seui's gonna think he's a fool even more!!' T-T

However, Seui was busy staring at Mr. Declan speechlessly. Finally, he could bear it no longer and opened his mouth " mm.. what if I don't have a soul shard?"

Mr. Declan's mouth twitched involuntarily " Why? what happened to your soul shard?"

Seui shrugged blankly "just.. it has never been there. I've tried numerous times, but I never felt my soul shard "

Mr. Declan tapped his chin thoughtfully, did this guy lose his soul shard somewhere? is that why he can't properly use his ability? He said helplessly "then there's nothing to do, you can try imagining your soul shard there and concentrating your power"

Seui felt unbelievable 'don't tell him that although he finally has powers, he couldn't use them properly! then what's their use to begin with? to demolish buildings?' He refused to admit this! With determination, he concentrated on his power imagining the black smoke he'd manipulated earlier.

Yew on the side noticed his lost look with pale cheeks and gave the tutor an unhappy look 'this old man, why is he making Seui upset? ' it may not look like it, but he had gradually realized that Seui is probably more sensitive than he looks. Even if he faced numerous difficulties, he would only hold them in his heart without a change of expression, but every time it would cause heavy damage to him, much more than they could probably imagine.

Time passed minute by minute. Feeling that he's running out of time, Yew too started to concentrate on activating his power. He had done this a few times before, but he didn't have much of an idea back then. So now, with understanding and experience he quickly made it. A small seed on his palm sprouted, slowly extending its body and shaking its delicate leaves. It slowly arched toward the wooden board on the desk, gradually winding around it.

The vine thickened bit by bit and firmly tightened around the board, trying to snap it in half. But the board showed no signs of breaking anytime soon. Yew wiped the sweat on his forehead with his other hand, feeling exhausted 'who the h*ll lied to him? why is this f*cking wood harder than steel?'

He turned to Seui only to see a wisp of black smoke slowly coming out of his body and clustering right at his eye level.

Right at this moment, Mr. Declan who had been slacking off at a side felt an ominous premonition and came over to check their progress. He first scanned Yew's board and snickered suddenly "ohh~ are you trying to use a vine to strangle the board? is there a need to be such a busybody? Aren't you a plant ability, all you have to do is channel your power into the wooden board and wish it to break! Don't go announcing that you're my student anywhere.. such a shame "

Yew was dazed "sh*t! It could also be done like that?! then what have I been doing all this time??" While he was doubting his life, Mr. Declan turned to Seui and scanned his intact board before looking up and noticing the cluster of black smoke.

He stepped back involuntarily while hurriedly raising his hands and forming a transparent shield in front of him. "You two quickly get behind me, stay away from the black smoke!" his veins on the forehead popped violently and his voice was almost strained.

Seui was totally dumbfounded and stood rooted in the place " what's wrong? why is there such a strong reaction?" He looked at the air rippling near the shield and the heavy pressure made him move away from the shield.

Seeing that the two didn't react and Seui even moved away from the shield, Mr. Declan almost went crazy " stay away from the smoke, it's dangerous " and he tried to drag Yew, who was near him behind the shield with his other hand.

Seui stared like looking at a fool "Are you worried about the black smoke? It's not dangerous, just smoke. It's my ability. See?" saying so, Seui pushed away the cluster of smoke with his hands. Although it wasn't solid, it could still be pushed away, almost like cotton candy.

Mr. Declan watched with terror as Seui touched it and it turned to be utter disbelief when he saw Seui's intact hands. "That, is that really your power? then can you refine it?" he asked doubtfully while still holding the shield in front of him.

Flabbergasted, Seui answered "refine? did you mean dispersing it? well, it's a bit hard since I'm still not used to it, but I can try. I really don't get why you're making such a fuss over a bit of smoke, do you love the environment that much?"

Seui slowly tried to disperse it like the last time. As he was concentrating hard, he didn't notice that wisps of black smoke slowly started to flow back into his body. However, it did not miss the eyes of Mr. Declan who was gawking at him with rapt attention. Thus, he immediately ordered with his voice shaking so badly that even the shield stopped working for a second "NO, stop! Stop drawing it back to your body! You mustn't absorb the power of darkness into your body at any cost!"

Seui stopped his work and narrowed his eyes "power of darkness?.."