Chapter 6

In the compounds of seeker's academy, at the academy grounds of 1st grade students where the existing and new students were casually walking by, Derek and Aizen continued their face off.

Their small confrontation and bet did not have much of an effect on anyone else, except for some who were looking for entertainment, and this also created a lack of spectators for their now set game of tag.

"Great!" Aizen said, as he clapped his hands and his smirk changed to a genuine happy smile, a show of course. He continued, "Let's decide on the rules now, shall we?"

Derek merely nodded his head, clearly being led in the conversation.

"Since we're both new students here and probably don't know about anything, to keep ourselves out of any and all trouble, I'll list the rules and you can tell me if there's something you want to add or change, alright?" Aizen asked, to which Derek once again just nodded his head.

After thinking for a while, Aizen started listing out the rules he had thought of, "First, since it's a bet between just us, we cannot take any outside help.

Second, I noticed how there was a groove carved in the ground there and how the academy insignias worn by the students at the inside of that groove are of a different color, probably because of them being higher grade students, so let's keep away from that place. I think it will be plenty to keep our game limited to just the grounds of academy that are accessible to new students like us.

Third, the game end exactly five minutes after it has started. Oh, you've been taught to calculate time from your shadow, right?"

"Of course. I doubt there was anyone in our camp who did not know that skill."

In the camp, the time when the food will be distributed, what chores you have to complete and the like predetermined, and so, you had to learn many day – to – day skills to stay out of trouble. Not being too hard on kids, their captors had made it mandatory for kids to learn these skills, but the rule was, you'll only be taught once. Aizen knew of it as he had learned the same skill on the battlefield, and was also fairly accurate with it.

One thing Derek had failed to notice in his statement was that Aizen's power was influencing his mind, making him much more friendly towards the latter the longer he stayed near him. By now, he had lost the aggression in his voice that had come due to Aizen's actions.

"That's good. If you didn't, I would've really doubted if you weren't the illegal child of the boss there. Anyway, fourth is that you cannot directly attack your opponent to obstruct him. Meaning, throwing stones, taking swings at me when I'm close enough or any other forms of aggressions directed towards me, are a big no – no.

And the last, the paper you bought from that guy over there, you'll show it to me if I win. You have any problem?"

Now Derek understood why Aizen was going on about their brotherhood and the help he will provide in making him stronger. It was all because of the information he got from that student. However, he still decided to accept the wager, as Aizen had only said that he'll have to show that paper, not give it away. Just in case Aizen asks for its ownership, he could use his words to deny him.

After listening to Aizen list out the rules, Derek stayed silent for a while, going over each rule and thinking of how he could best make use of them. After a while, he nodded his head, signifying to Aizen his acceptance of the rules.

At his gesture, Aizen once again subjected Derek to his smug face and said, "Gotta say Derek, despite being at the top, you clearly haven't seen all of the world". Derek's face now had a scowl adorning it, as those words implied that there was something in the rules that he failed to see through. However, he wasn't given much time to contemplate the meaning of said words by Aizen.

"Alright, look at the time," Aizen said as he looked at the length of his shadow, and then at the sun, "the game will begin right at the moment I begin to run, and will end five minutes later."

Derek once again nodded his head, and Aizen immediately took off to his right side.

Derek's reaction was immediate. Although he had not been completely ready for Aizen to start running, he had more than enough awareness of his surroundings to react to a change immediately based on his instinct and not freeze over. Beside, with his height and strength advantage over Aizen, and from what he knew about Aizen's skills, he was fairly confident that he could best Aizen before even two minutes were over.

As Derek was thinking about what made Aizen so confident over winning the wager, he saw the latter moving around on the field, turning his head to look at his surrounding and sometimes looking back from the corner of his eyes, to see Derek catching up with him. As Derek was thinking whether he should put his full strength into running to end this game in its infancy, he almost ran into a student who was walking ahead.

It was then that Derek realized that ending the game quickly by running full strength was a risk that he couldn't take, as Aizen was constantly zig – zagging through the hordes of students, both new and old, to keep a lead on him. Moreover, he would maneuver in such a way that his path remained unobstructed, but the student's movement towards their destination would obstruct Derek's path.

Time kept ticking, and Aizen's actions of running around the field and from near unwary students became less effective, as the students walking around had now started paying attention to them, and would stop moving whenever he came close. Moreover, Derek was adapting to the playstyle employed by him.

Seeing Derek slowly gain ground, Aizen decided to move onto the second phase of his plan.

Seeker's academy was big, and catered to a great number of students. Clearly, not all of them were like Derek and Aizen, who had had an encounter with fighting and survival. In fact, most of these students were from families of non practitioner commoners who hoped for their children to step onto the path of practitioner.

While passing by one such student, Aizen extended his hand to grab the pouch hung at his waist.

"Hey!" the student cried after he felt someone tug at his waist, and was baffled when he saw someone steal his possession in academy grounds. He was about to chase after that culprit, but before he could, he saw the culprit turn his head and look at him from the edge of his vision.

"Catch!" said Aizen as he threw the pouch which probably contained some money to the boy in a backwards throw.

The boy, having just gotten ready to follow after Aizen, was baffled by his action of throwing away the money that he had just stole. Still, he reacted instinctively by extending his left hand to the side to catch the falling pouch, just that as he had gotten ready to run after the thief, his posture was a bit unstable.

However, before he could make sense of the situation, he felt his extended hand impact into something, making him stumble along with the pouch fall to the ground. Looking to his left, he saw that it was a young man, who after being hit in the face, just briefly glanced at him in anger and then continued to run after the thief.

The boy continued to stare dumbly in the direction those two had run off before he thought of his pouch which had fallen not far from his position. He quickly picked it up and heaved a sigh of relief, but became worried after a thought of his pouch having been interchanged with another appeared in his mind. After all, why else would a thief return back something he stole? Opening it, he saw that it was his and all his belongings were safe. He heaved another sigh of relief, taking note that he should keep his belongings at as safe a place as possible.

When Aizen had snatched the pouch, he had sent a pulse of mana in the boy and used his Hypnosis ability. This made the boy instinctively react to Aizen's words, making him immediately extend his arm as soon as Aizen threw the pouch and said catch. With Derek coming from behind while running, it made it difficult for him to dodge the hand of the boy, resulting in their accidental collision.

In the short moment that Derek had looked away from Aizen to glare at the boy, Aizen had ran behind a building, making Derek lose sight of him.

Derek, seeing Aizen run behind the building, took a moment to think of the implications of such a move. He immediately ran behind him, but what he feared, happened. Aizen was out of his sight, and he could have run anywhere, from up the stairs, to rounding another corner of the building or into the ground once more.

The time was running out for their bet, and at this moment, Derek knew that he had lost it.