Beatitudes

Battle in the arena.

The commotion that the first few people caused attracted the attention of many others as heads swiveled to look over at the entrance to the west hall, a group of five were moving across the hall from the entrance, despite the attention given to them, they didn't seem to be flustered or nervous, instead they calmed moved as they made no note of it, at the front if the group was a young guy, looking to be in his late teens he had a very ordinary appearance that one wouldn't easily take note of if they didn't see him, yet the fact that he at the front of the group with the other four crowding around him wasn't even the thing that made him stand out, what did was the pressure he was emanating, his aura.

Jaden had heard a saying that the more you grow, the stronger you'll become and then the more you'll be able to manifest control over your surroundings with your presence by releasing your Aura. Judging from that it was obvious this guy walking with steady steps was a strong one.

"Ah?, isn't that Maximus, what is he doing here, this is unexpected. "

" Well not exactly though, cause I knew he would be coming. "

Jaden and friends could hear two people behind them talking to each other, they didn't restrain their voices so it was easy to pick up what they were saying.

" Oh?, and how did you that Mr. Omniscient. "

" I wouldn't call myself that but I really did know he was coming, he's here to do battle and it's a serious battle, the battle was registered as a public battle with no restraints on viewing, they're basically leaving no room for face any longer, whoever gets beaten would be broadcasted across the academy as a big loser. "

" ....How do you know so much? "

" Like I said, I have my sources but I'm not telling. "

"... Suit yourself, I will just watch the battle since I'm here, it's been a while since we've had these sort of people fighting. "

" It's gonna be a good fight alright. "

Listening closely they could make out what they were saying, but half of what they said was as confusing to the three as it could be. But they could guess one thing and that was the fact that this guy who had all eyes on him was pretty well known in the academy. They were also staring at him like they wanted to dig out his secrets when they heard their personal ' guide ' faintly mumble.

" They're actually going to have that duel uhn?, looks like my time was wasted, their grudge is a deep one this time. "

Hearing what he said, it was Bloat who spoke up with a curious expression on his fleshy face.

" Bro Guide, you mind shedding some light on the matter, we newbies have no idea what's going on and being lost doesn't feel too good. "

The guy stared at Bloat who spoke for a second before he spoke to the three.

" Okay, firstly Guide is not the name I'm known to bear, if you need know my name, you can call me Derek... Since you asked I'll tell you what's going on.. " he paused as he gave them a stare and continued," you three are pretty lucky to meet so many sixth year students at this time-"

" Those five are sixth year students?"

The astonishment was clear in their voices as Bloat cut Derek's words short. Frowning a bit at the intrusion, he continued, " Yes they're sixth year students, don't get too worked up, you look like you're coming in contact with a famous celebrity. "

To Jaden and the rest, the sixth year students were basically somewhat of a celebrity to them, they were the ones who had spent a whole six years in the academy and would leave pretty soon, but as they were leaving, they would leave as strong experts groomed by the finest academy. Once you left the academy, your lowest level would be at least the sixth level of the mortal unlocking phase. What Jaden had heard about the levels of cultivation which Astral hadn't told him much of yet was that the first two phases of practitioners were the mortal unlocking phase and the saintly transformation phase, they had ten and five levels respectively, those in the saintly transformation phase were extremely and utterly hard to come by, it was said that there were other rumoured phases for practitioners but since Earth was just exposed to the new world, no one from Earth had broken through the saintly transformation phase to another phase. Hence those of the saintly transformation phase who were also known as saints were revered and admired and those who had reached a high level in the mortal unlocking phase were highly sought after, so it was easy to imagine what young people in the sixth stage of the mortal phase would signify, it was only the academy that could manage such a thing. This led to the academy almost being deified and highly respected, and those that came out of it were also highly respected. All this showed that those in the sixth year would be those respected by all in the future, how could Jaden and the other two not treat them as celebrities.

But Derek didn't know that as he continued, "This guy is here to fight, it all started from an incident three weeks ago that spread through the sixth year students, although the reason wasn't explicitly said, the two officially became enemies and if not for someone interfering on the spot, they would have fought that same day, but since they were itching to tear the other person's face apart they agreed to have a battle at the arena, they scheduled it for three weeks which was coincidentally today... Although the reason for it being three weeks later was so as to avoid unnecessary crowd, but it looks like they underestimated the students of the academy, most of them probably heard about it from the deliberately spread news. it's no wonder there are so many students at the start of the new semester here and no one fighting on a battleground or training in the virtual. "

Bloat was about to nod his head in agreement when something passed through his mind and he spoke up, " Wait a minute, you said three weeks ago when the academy had only been open again just about two days ago, you're mistaken right? ", he said as he looked at Derek with an queer gaze.

" No I'm not mistaken, the incident occurred among those from the sixth year, the fifth and sixth year students are granted special privileges, some of them even own apartments and they are all permitted to stay back in the academy regardless of the time of the year, you're not there yet so you don't need to bother about those things. "

'Ohh.. '

" What's even more surprising is the rate at which the news spread to the other students, someone must have really slipped his tongue, it explains why they're so many students here despite it being the third day of the academy reopening... Anyways the battle is about to start pretty soon, the other guy is here now. Good thing they came, it's hard to find quality entertainment these days. "

As he said the last few words under his breath, the three youngsters followed his gaze as they saw another group coming in through the entrance.

Like the first group, it was obvious that they were sixth year students based on the same amount of attention that the crowd of people in the arena gave to them, and like Maximus there was also someone who had the same presence and aura walking at the front, although he ignited the hearts of the crowd in a different way, he had blue eyes and glossy black hair, matching that with his fair skin he was a lot more better at gaining attention with his good looks, it was obvious from the positive expressions that some of the females in the crowd were giving to him as he walked with steady steps and a faint smile on his face.

One thing that seemed odd though was that just like Maximus, although the two weren't inclined to looking at the stares and glances that others gave them and walked straight ahead, they both seemed to turn their heads to look towards Jaden and the others direction but they weren't looking at Jaden or Ayo or Bloat, instead they would look at Derek who had a face that said ' I'm expecting a good battle ', and when they see him their faces froze and after thawing they would give a little nod in Derek's direction, same for the other sixth year students when they saw Derek, some couldn't even control their expressions and would open their mouths wide gasping a little bit before they closed it and sent a nod Derek's way all the while with Derek not returning a single one,if it wasn't for the fact that everyone was focused on watching the two main characters for today someone would have noticed, but even Jaden and his friends failed to notice the shocked stares.

Walking straight ahead they had gotten to a ten feet distance between each other before they stopped walking, and then silence was born between them.

" I see you finally decided to make an appearance today Max. "

" I see you still enjoy unnecessary talk George. "

The guy named George still had a faint smile on his face as he brushed the sting in the words, and then someone from the group with Maximus spoke up

" Let's head in through the transfer platforms already. "

And then with a nod, they all moved onto the platform and stood for two seconds, immediately after a white light shone from the platform covering the entire group as they flashed and disappeared from the platform.

As soon as they disappeared, the whole crowd, who had their eyes on them, moved immediately to the place in the hall that held the display screens, previously they had been showing battle scenes that seemed like highlights but the A. I in control of the place should have noticed the interest of the crowd and switched scenes on all the screens with a view of a battleground that had two people facing each other on it, a sparsely populated audience section had few people sitting around it.

" Your lucks just keep holding on, those two are going to have a fight, you should try watching and see if you can get a thing or two from it aside from the splendour and awesomeness you'll see. "

Hearing what Derek turned to say to them, Bloat said with a smile, " There's no way we would miss it in the first place. "

Moving closer till the scene was barely clear to see for them, the three of them were forced to stay at the back, looking to their sides they saw Derek beside them, Puzzled Jaden spoke up,

" I thought you were pretty interested in the battle "

Shrugging his shoulders Derek replied, " I am interested, but it doesn't matter where I stay I can see the screen very clearly "

" Ohh..Alright"

The two facing each other inside were releasing all their aura at full strength at the moment, if they did this when they were still down in the hall, then a good amount of those watching them now would probably have collapsed on to their knees and would find it hard to breathe. They waited until a flash of light later when a person dressed like a trainer came into view,

" Whose that? ", Jaden asked

" That's a referee ",and got a reply from as he continued talking, " try not to ask too many questions when the battle is going on "

The referee moved to the center of the two as he wasted no time asking ready to both sides before he declared the start of the battle and left the two opponents to feast on each others blood,

Still with the faint smile, George raised a hand to Max in a gesture, " you can make the first move "

Not doing anything other than stretching out his hand, a short sword appeared in his hand as he raised it to his front vertically, " You might want to bring out your weapon now or you won't have another chance "

Smiling George replied, " I guess I'll have to heed your words then ", and after the last word with both arms outstretched a pair of small twin hammers appeared in each of his hands

Seeing this Derek sneered as he said to himself, " I expected a bit more posing "

After calling out his hammers it seemed he took the guy across him with a dull expression seriously as circles of white light began to appear behind him as they arranged themselves in a circular manner, it was eight circles in total.

" Eight circle talent..." Jaden mumbled as he saw the circles appear, Elemental circles as Astral told him were not only for cultivation purposes, it was also used to battle, things like Elemental techniques which were methods used in manipulating the elements which you had an affinity for needs the Elemental circles to be in full harmony and flow with the technique, without the circles you cannot use elemental techniques. So another reason for the elemental being the value for talent was that with more circles you could use more powerful elemental techniques which usually required the cooperation between more elemental circles.

After George brought out his circles, Max also brought his out as the same eight circles came out and formed another circle. And as if with an agreement they both dashed out to each other at the same time, with a horizontal sweep from Max and a downwards swing of both hammers from George, what was even more people peculiar was the fact that as they both ran to each other and swung their weapons, the sword in Max's hand suddenly elongated from its half meter length to one and half meters long with some parts of it turning red hot and the hammers in George's hand suddenly grew in size as the handle grew a bit longer and the heads almost became triple it's previous size with yellow arcs of light coiling around it.

Maximus has an affinity with fire and George has an affinity with lightening, as that conclusion passed through Jaden's mind, an excited light passed through Jaden's eyes.

And finally a collision occurred as the two of them tested the waters and a flash of red and yellow light covered both opponents for a moment, when the light died out and they were locked in a weapon struggle, the smile on George's face became a bit brighter as he chuckled, "I have opened more keys than you, you know you can't beat me in a head-on fight, bring out your best and let me see it ", saying that he added more pressure on his hammers and pushed forward successfully shrugging off his opponent,

Breathing at a steady rate, a queer light glinted in Max's eyes as he exhaled, suddenly a blue light could be seen creeping down his sword from the hilt in his hands, it curved around it looking like crystal fog.

' Ice element! ", Jaden said as he saw the blue color growing bigger and brighter

"A talent.." he turned his head as he heard Bloat mumbling and saw him staring at the screens with glued eyes.

"Hahh...the winner has been decided", he heard another voice say as he saw Derek shaking his head with a disappointed expression in his face.

Confused, Jaden had to keep on watching to see who he thought was the winner.

George eyes twitched imperceptibly as he saw the sight on his opponent's sword but immediately after he rushed forward as six of circles behind his back began to move and change positions in a strange and odd manner and then a name slipped out of his mouth,

*Frenzied lightening*

Then as if like magic, the white circles flashed yellow for a second and yellow arcs of lightening began to appear around him and the ones on his hammer grew bigger and brighter looking like Divine hammers of lightening, at this point the muscles on George's body bulged as his speed increased and a loud sizzling sound could be heard. In two seconds the long distance between the two was shortened and the two hammers rose and fell, facing the beserk attack, Maximus didn't so much as flinch as the red and blue on his sword grew bigger and brighter until it looked like he was holding a big raging beam of red light with blue streaks rotating fiercely about it, the heat and cold coming from it made George feel uncomfortable but shrugging it off he continued with the attack that Max raised his sword that had disappeared beneath the two elements against, and them another collision occurred with a bigger resounding

!BOOM!

A clash of red and blue against a bright yellow was the only thing that could be seen at this point, as the light died out, George could be seen staggering back five steps as Maximus stood his ground with a c***k on the floor beneath him being the only evidence of the force he recieved, With shock in his eyes George blurted out " You've achieved perfect fusion " as he looked at the sword his opponent was holding

It was then others were drawn back to the sword in Maximus's hand, at this point the former picture of fire and ice on his sword had disappeared and was replaced with a perfect blend of red and blue light that made the sword look blue at one moment and red at the next.

" Per.. fect fusion "

As a voice echoed those words in the hall, an outburst occurred with confused faces being the majority of expressions being shown on the faces of people,

" What's that?.."

"Fusion?... Did he fuse his fire and ice elements... Amazing.. "

" Hmm, not bad, not bad at all. "

Where Jaden and the other two were looking at each other with confusion in their eyes, Derek spoke with a faint smile on his face which quickly turned into a sad look, " It's over now, He's going to lose now "

On the battleground, Maximus still had no expression on his face as he said, " it's over now, you lose. "

And then all the circles behind his back moved around each other and connected forming a symbol that was flashing partly blue and partly red, he raised his sword and swung out eighteen times to actually form the exact same symbol behind him

*Mark of Blazing ice*

Watching him swinging his swords, the shock in George's eyes receded as he gnashed his teeth, "Like hell it is"

The circles behind him changed patterns as they began to flash yellow and formed the shape of a lightening bolt, he raised his hammers up high as he chanted

*Lightening insurgence*

And as the words left his lips, lightening exploded to existence around as they grew frenzied, he waved his hammers around and like magnets the lightening moved to attach themselves on it, at this point the attack that Maximus had been swinging to existence got completed,

he paused his sword movement as he looked at George and spoke, this time with a cold smile curving up slightly

" I said this is over "

And he swung his sword for the last time and the mark rushed forward with a very quick speed and kept George on a lock that he couldn't escape, bringing a wave of hot and cold wind that brushed against his body and caused him great pain, alarms ringing in his hearts he waved his hammers the last time as he brought them together along with the waves of lightening to his front right at the time when the symbol was three steps away.

*Zzsh*

The glow of the lightening burst dimmed immediately as only the glow of fire and ice could be seen engulfing his figure, one second later the symbol exploded as a yell if pain erupted and a figure was thrown out from the point of explosion that faded the next second.

Looking at the figure you could see George lying on the ground, smile on his face gone as he had fainted with hideous burn scars that showed bone and his cloth stained with gushing blood.

" Ahhh..."

A sigh escaped Derek's lip as he shook his head. The three beside him still looking at the screen with dumbfounded expressions, a glint passed through Bloat's eyes as he spoke word for word trembling with amazement

" So.... So.... Cool "