Motion.

---

In the furthest parts of the forbidden mountains, far away from any human soul, in a dark cave, an egg started to crack. A new creature soon exposed its body to the world. The freshly hatched creature started to move, it had a grey-scaled body and sharp teeth.

It was the new heir of a feared and revered bloodline, it's mother had instilled deep fear into the hearts of all humans. It was none other than the terrible creature known as the Dragon Emperor.

It's slow and meager body started to turn. Guided by it's nose it soon managed to lock onto what seemed to be a pile of decomposing human carcasses. It's mother had flown around almost half of the empire in order to pick and harvest these bodies off the front lines around Villburn fortress.

It had learned early on that strong humans were some of the most nutritious food around. When one day, while scouting the empire's east it's accurate senses had picked up the sounds of artillery it decided to investigate.

The curiosity paid off and it managed to harvest a great amount of bodies. Not being able to carry all of the bodies at once, it decided to return to it's den and store the corpses before returning to the abandoned battlefields once again.

The young dragon slowly moved up to the bodies and started eating. Slowly at first, but soon filled with new vigor it hastened in its endeavor. With a full stomach it laid down and slept.

---

Two months of practice passed quickly and all of the children were now fairly accustomed to their new wooden weapons. Most children also practiced at home, honing their already known techniques even more. Edwin was able to learn some stances and even managed to execute an essence-neutral basic combat technique, placing him among the top melee fighters in the class of fifty. (A/N, Essence-neutral means that it requires physical strength only.)

It's name was defensive blade [basic, Long-sword.], and it contained a variety of defensive stances and footwork techniques, that would allow the user to have a much easier time parrying or blocking enemy strikes, while utilizing a Long-sword.

Today was a special Sunday, it was time to start developing their individual combat techniques and prepare to ascend to the ranks of Basic Classes. Almost all people of this world had their own individual essence flows, which meant that it was near impossible to develop techniques for everybody to use. Only general guidelines and instructions existed.

Edwin, Allan and Spencer were excitedly chatting while walking along each other. Their teacher had announced yesterday that today was the day where they would start developing their first basic combat technique.

They managed to meet up with the messaging system of their books, where they had stored the id's of most of their classmates. They had most of their classmates' id's since they were on friendly terms with most of them. Naturally there was some conflict, most however could be blamed on the boys VS girls debate in their class.

The twenty-three girls and almost thirty boys were always at each others throat. In the end, they decided that there would be a tournament, when everybody had finished forming their first combat technique.

Christopher, their teacher quickly accepted, since he always encouraged a healthy amount of competition. He decided to make it an event where the parents could watch and see how much their child had improved. The guards quickly agreed if they were allowed to watch too, and made sure the arena would be empty on the first Saturday in two months. They were eager to see what the talents of their hometown could do.

The trio soon arrived at the training grounds. The lesson hadn't started yet, so they decided to do a short warm-up. They practiced their strikes, stabs and shots before the teacher arrived. Spencer was already confident in shooting a dummy from 30 meters away, and was starting to get consistent with hitting a moving target from 15 meters away.

Edwin and Allan decided to have a little spar.

Edwin brandished his long-sword while Allan was already leaping towards him. Edwin defended against one of the strikes while skillfully dodging the other one, before starting his own counter attack.

The two were opposites on both sides of the extreme, both already being able to reinforce their body with essence on a very basic level, the battle quickly turned faster. Allan was like a swift wind as he attacked with both speed and accuracy.

Edwin on the other side, was like an indestructible rock. Both were fighting on equal footing until Allan found an opportunity.

He swiftly attacked while pinning down Edwin's other hand. However, before he could do his decisive swipe, Edwin's arm shot up holding the short-sword. He twisted his arm so that his two-handed blade pinned down the right rapier, and his left hand quickly shot up to Allan's throat.

The spar ended in a draw, as both held their weapons at the others' throat.

Christopher couldn't help but smile at this scene. The two had clearly displayed efficient and lethal movements. Their swordplay still had long ways to go in comparison the experienced soldiers on the front lines. If one compared them to some lazy and ordinary towns' guards though, things would change. They weren't off that by that much anymore. Clearly both had practiced a lot together, with the approaching competition and their talent for the blade it was only natural for them to progress rather quickly.

Christopher then decided to start his announcement, ''Alright kids, it's time to start forming your techniques.''