Life Hunter

"Well, obviously" Moria walked to a closet in the dojo and took out a something before quickly throwing it at Arimane. The latter reacted quickly and caught it swiftly. That simple action got the attention of the entire squad, that kind of reaction speed wasn"t something you could get easily.

Arimane looked at what was in his hand, confused. It was just a dummy knife. He looked up at Moria with a look full of questions.

"First, you"ll spar a bit with your seniors, then we"ll give you a little test. If you do well in those two, you can join the squad with no problem" Moria explained to him what he was going to do.

Arimane hummed a bit, he wasn"t that surprised since it was a military facility. He looked at the other people for a moment then sighed "(Am I really supposed to spar with them? But, if I rely a bit on my body, maybe I can win)" He thought.

He wasn"t being conceited, he just was aware that there really was a difference in physical ability. Although he was only ten, he could muster the strength of a fully trained grown man who has no Nanomachines.

While pondering, Arimane started playing with the knife, making it spin and revolve around his hand, then change his grip on it in less than a second. He did all of that in one go, without fail.

The squad and Moria looked at him with a strange expression. It wasn"t an impossible thing to do things like that with their knives. But a lot of familiarity and practice with your weapon was needed.

"High reaction speed and high dexterity, huh?" Moria muttered and smiled "This kid is suited to be an a.s.sa.s.sin" He commented without letting the person in question hear it.

When Arimane was ready, he went to the middle of the dojo and a 16 years old guy went with him. The latter took a regular stance with the knife pointed at his opponent.

Arimane looked at him awkwardly, he tried to imitate the stance at first but discarded the idea when he felt that it was really uncomfortable for him. He looked at his knife and changed the grip to a reverse one. The squad looked at him with a mocking smile when he did this but what happened after closed their mouths.

Arima brought the knife higher and pointed the edge of the blade toward his opponent. His left hand was placed just in front of his chest and his felt foot placed a bit behind.

Moria raised an eyebrow when he saw this "(Did he take that stance on instinct alone?)" Arimane"s stance seemed to be fancy at first. But the blade in his right hand protected his throat, his left hand was ready to counter or protect and his balance was almost perfect, of course, there were some places to arrange. But for a first try, it was very impressive.

"I"m Kile Walker, enchanted" The member of the squad presented himself.

Arimane nodded "I"m Arimane, it"s an honor"

Moria looked at the two and snapped his fingers, that sound was enough to announce the start. Kile moved first, he was swift and his footwork steady. Arimane was shocked, he didn"t even think people could move like that.

But, when Kile"s blade was not that far from him, Arimane instinctively acted and brought his blade to counter the opposite side"s. In the laps of a second, the two opponents were blocked with their knives entangled.

Kile was a taken off guard by the precision Arimane showed in that clash. He tried to step back at the same time to take a bit of distance. He determined that Arimane wasn"t experienced in fights, and if he was to make the attacking motion, he would have a lot of openings.

But when he thought that, a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. His eyes narrowed and his mind was a bit panicked. Arimane had grabbed him to pull him back and he also managed to take back his knife before pressing his blade on Kile"s throat.

The latter"s movements froze, he couldn"t believe it, his opponent"s strength was also a lot higher than he thought. The other members were also very surprised. Moria snickered "It"s over, Arimane won" He declared.

Arimane sighed. On the outside, he seemed to be calm, but in his head, he was so stressed that he thought he was going to collapse on the ground.

"You"re a natural it seems" Moria praised and Arimane smiled wryly "But we can"t let you become conceited because of that" He added and glanced at Erin, he pointed Arima with his chin. Erin nodded and walked toward the center of the dojo after taking a knife.

He arrived in front of Arimane and nodded "I"m Erin Walker" He said. Most of the orphans here had the name "Walker" since it was the family name of the founder. There were only cases like Arimane, where they would refuse to take the name.

Arimane nodded and repeated his name, by politesse. After that, Erin took his own stance. He was facing his opponent sideways, he positioned his hand holding the knife just in front of his chest and covered his throat with his other arm.

At that moment, Arimane felt extremely pressured, not only he couldn"t find any sort of obvious openings. The glare he was receiving and the absolute focus he felt made him feel extremely small. At the end, when Moria was about to declare the start of the fight.

"I concede defeat" When Arimane said that and turned to no stance, Erin"s eyes widened in surprise and Moria grinned "I"m not prideful enough to try fighting someone stronger than me"

Moria laughed and Erin smiled wryly before shrugging. He put his knife down and headed toward Arima when he was just in front of him, he extended his hand. Arimane blinked with a blank expression and looked at the hand that seemed to be asking for a handshake.

"I recognize your abilities and talent, you"re welcome" Erin said with a smile.

"Huh? Wasn"t there the last test?" Arimane t.i.tled his head and asked.

"The second fight was the test. An idiot blinded by arrogance and pride wouldn"t be able to make the right choice before an opponent stronger than him. You pa.s.sed the second test. Well, it"s not like you needed to concede for that, but let"s say you got a full mark" Moria answered.

Arimane looked at the latter with widened eyes and the smiled wryly and shook hands with Erin "I"m in your care from now on"

"Welcome to the squad" Erin"s att.i.tude became a lot friendlier.

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Back to the present. When Arima teleported his cla.s.s to a plain, he pointed at Night "You take twenty of them and supervise them" He then turned toward "Karma…" He paused "Oh well, you take care of another twenty. I"ll train the students I picked, along with Lanya" He said and transferred away with his students, without letting Night and Karma say anything.

The former"s expression was kind of distorted and his mouth kept twitching. Karma looked at him and smiled "Hey, all of you, make groups based on your affinities, if you specialize in non-elemental, say it to us" She said loudly to the cla.s.s.

Night stared at her in surprise "(She is surprisingly good, no, shockingly good)" He thought.

"Okay, I want you to try your magic on that guy over here" Karma suddenly instructed "Then he will rate it based on what he sensed. Understood?" She inquired and the students nodded in understanding.

"Ah?" Night exclaimed.

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"Okay" Arima said when they arrived into a desert. He looked around at the students who were also observing the surroundings "This training session will be simple" He declared and everyone looked at him.

Arima closed his eyes and his aura exploded for a second before disappearing. Arima breathed out "While I"m restrained at the tenth level, I want you all to attack me at once" He said and the listeners exclaimed in shock.

"At the same time, I"ll point out your errors" Arima added and took a katana made with magic in his hand. That sword looked very real, the blade even shined with a metallic l.u.s.ter.

Arima cracked his neck and pointed his students with the blade "Come at me, with all your might. I will end when one of you manages to injure me, even if it"s a simple scratch"

Lanya and Arister laughed at those words, the latter was already suppressed at the tenth level. He took out Ares"s spear and rushed first, followed by Lanya. The students were still a bit dazed and didn"t move, only Ofia and Lena moved.

Arima deflected Arister"s spear with two moves "You still messed your range cognition" He said to him while receiving Lanya"s blows. Arister snickered and swung his spear one more time.

Arima entangled his katana with Lanya"s rapier thanks to the guard then made a step backward while avoiding an light beam aiming at him. At the same time, the wind blew, trying to unbalance him. That combo was made by the princess-duo, they tried to help Lanya and Arister.

Arima jumped and "rode" the wind, Lanya and Arister took the chance. They nodded at each other and Lanya pointed her rapier at Arima "[Illuminance]" She chanted and her sword glowed. A white sphere appeared in front of Arima and the latter narrowed his eyes before waving his hand and making a dark wall just in front of the sphere before it exploded with a blinding light.

A second before that, Arister spun his spear and planted it on the ground "[Sub finibus tuis positi] (Under your territory)" He started chanting at a high speed.

"[Quod interitus cadunt] (Destruction will fall)"

"[Crescere pulchra flores sanguinis] (Grow beautiful flowers of blood)"

"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti]" He finished chanting in just two seconds, at the moment Arima protected himself from the light.

A black sphere instantly trapped him. Red flowers started to appear on its entire sphere and it became surrounded by a red hue.

After a few seconds, the sphere dispersed in black fragments. And Arimane came back before them, crossing his arms, with a blue light surrounding him, unharmed "Ares, your magic wasn"t that bad, but your timing could have been little quicker. Lanya, as always, you slash too much and forget to stab more, also, the light magic you used should have covered a bigger area, preferably, all around me" He commented "Lena, Ofia, your actions were well-timed, and your support coordinated and swift, continue like that"

Arister shook his head and wryly smiled. He took his spear back before jumping and flying toward Arima. Lanya deployed her wings and left the firm ground too.

Lena flew away and prepared to give support, while Ofia deployed her c.o.c.katrice"s wings and joined the aerial fight. Of course, at that moment already, the sand had already been dug out everywhere, creating a giant sand screen.

The other students started to emerge from that screen to join the fight. It finally became a one vs twenty-three.

Arima smirked "It will be fun" He commented and thunder roared. The sky darkened and purple lightning shrouded Arima"s figure, sometimes attacking, sometimes defending and destroying magic projectiles.

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In a very dark and cold castle. In a certain room, Karaskan was sitting at a desk, looking at some sort of projected data.

He suddenly raised his head and closed one eye "Someone is actually opening a gate to h.e.l.l?" He muttered in surprise "Is it the Life Hunter?" He wondered "No, even him wouldn"t do something like that all of sudden. Is it a human who wants to go to h.e.l.l?"

The more he kept thinking, the more annoyed he became "Wait" Then he suddenly exclaimed "There was an incident about a h.e.l.l"s inhabitant, what was his name again?" He frowned then shook his head before continuing to look at the data.