"What did you just do??!" Nina questioned, it wasn't normal for her weapon to just disappear, there was a reason and she had to know what it was.

"You know you look at my feet too much, which is why you missed whatever just happened, I literally kicked the weapon out of your hand, you move well but there's something you're doing wrong, come at me again I'll show you," Night said as he gestured for her to "bring it".

​​

'Mocking me...' Nina suppressed her thoughts and charged Night, she was aware that it was still a competition but in a situation like this what else could be done, instead she could simply take Night's advice and learn.

"So you see here? I can see the thrust coming from a mile away...and if that doesn't work you use your other weapon or your leg, which is why I jumped last time," Night said as she proceeded to do exactly as he said.

"How??"

"Don't drop your guard, you're too careless," Night said as he kicked her in the gut.

"Urgh!" Nina blurted, naturally, considering pain wasn't something people could control all that well.

"Now, then, I understand you're an assassin but you rely on your weapons far too much, this isn't a novel or an anime, you aren't your weapon, your weapon is definitely a part of you but there's a reason it's said to ONLY be a part of you and not you. Focus on your martial arts, your movements are far too sloppy," Night replied as he asked for her to come at him again.

'I did ask Nina to learn from him but nothing like this...I think this is a little too humiliating no? what's going on?' Ken thought as he stood idly looking at Nina attacking Night, right beside him was another member of his clan who was in too much of a daze to do anything.

"NO no no, you're doing it all wrong," Night said as he showed Nina how to attack.

"Hoh? this is weird? Night's actually teaching someone? He isn't finishing her off so I assume he sees something in her, or perhaps her?" Nate muttered as he looked Nina up and down. "Mmmh, Night, we need to finish this quickly..."

"Alright," he replied as he backed away from Nina, "either you simply stand down or die fighting, I'd prefer you do the latter because that way it's fun but you do you,"

"Forget it...we forfeit...." Ken said. While it did surprise Night and Nate, Nina and the other members who were watching understood the reasoning behind that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ain't that something? The kid actually took the time to teach someone, and everything he showed her made sense as well. Now I know you've told me this already but did you actually mean it when you said that he was completely untrained when he first showed up." Jace questioned as he stroked his chin.

"Haah, yes, he was fresh. He had nothing but this look in his eyes. It was weird, to be honest, a kid like him, I would've never expected him to take the fight against a student of mine. Look at him now, he would have no issue taking on his own master, perhaps he could literally do it blindfolded," K chuckled as took a bite of his cold-chicken sandwich with mayo.

"As for the teaching thing, it felt a little weird for me as well, watching a student of mine teaching someone else that is, but it seems that he's not quite used to it ahahha. However, the real question is, why would he choose to do so, there are players who were comparatively more capable than this girl, so I don't understand his reasoning,"

"Perhaps he fancies her?" Jace said and immediately after doing so, he felt slightly uneasy, it was unexplainable in a way, why should he care if Luke fancied someone else.

"There's no way, Luke? hah, no." K laughed while waving his hand in the air. He knew first hand how much his student cared about martial arts, he knew for a fact this had something to do with martial arts and not attraction, besides, as far as he was aware, there wasn't anyone who managed to catch Luke's attention.

"Hmm, you say that with so much confidence, but alright, if you say so," Jace said after a feeling of relief took over his body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Congratulations Night, you really are something else, you had something else hidden and as the leader of a clan, I failed to anticipate that," Ken said as he looked at his feet.

"Call me Luke," he patted Ken's shoulder, "I'm only level 102 and you're probably somewhere around that as well, there's so much left to the game. That also means there's scope to push me off the pedestal, however, just so you know, while you're getting stronger, I'm not whiling away. Chase me down, It'll be fun,"

"...I will" Ken as he faced Luke.

"Not to interrupt the lovely moment but Luke, remember we had an announcement to make?" Nate chimed in as he pointed to Reed who was busy announcing the final winners of the clan wars event.

"Oh right," Luke said as he jogged over to Reed and tapped him on the shoulder, "yeah I'm gonna need that for a bit," he whispered in his ear while pointing to the mic.

"Uh..." Reed looked at Luke before looking in the direction of Kenny who couldn't hold in his laughter after witnessing The Anomaly's bold behavior. "Sure...I guess.."

'Did I just get mugged in front of thousands?'

"Cool thanks," Luke removed his hood and mask, revealing his dark blue hair which very weirdly reminded people of Ken's Calm Before the Storm and a set of nightmarish purple eyes.

'This mother-....he actually took the mic off Dr. Reed...' Nate thought as he clenched his jaw.

"Now, most of you guys know me as Night, so let me introduce myself. I'm Luke, not The Anomaly or whatever, just Luke. I'm sure yall have many questions unfortunately I have no reason to answer the ones I don't wish to. Anyway, the clan that I'm a part of, The Primordials, it's a newly formed guild and currently, it has only two members, one being me and the other, the leader and creator, Nate," he pointed to Nate who was nervously waving his hand around.

"There are no requirements to join the clan, however, it is invitation-based obviously. Let me clear this up, we don't care about your level, gear, or money, only a selected few individuals will be sent an invitation, as a matter of fact, I have someone in mind, I'm not sure if I should make this public but Player Everzone? wherever you're seated just meet me or Nate after this, of course, that is assuming you'd want to join us. It would be appreciated if you don't ask me for my reasoning, that is all, thank you,"

"Honestly, that went better than I expected, I mean, most of the people in the crowd are probably charmed by his looks, I'm sure the second he removed his hood and mask, the fantasizing commenced." Nate whispered to Ken who blankly looked at Luke, "I don't get his fascination with Everzone though, even during the kid's match, he said he saw something?? Oh but you should've seen him during your match against Aurora, he literally stood up in awe..."

"Huh? He did? B-but...why?" Ken asked confused as to why someone of Night's skill would stand up for Ken.

"You ask me that like I have an answer, I've been with the guy for the majority of his adult life and I still have no idea, but if I'd have to guess, I'd say it's your sword...Tachi is it? Yeah, the technique you displayed with your Tachi..."

"My technique...."

'No way...he can't possibly recognize it right? It must be something else, it's a family art so there isn't any way someone outside the family could even recognize it..' Ken panicked internally, naturally, his Tachi technique was something taught by his father, and weirdly enough, when he continued using this art in-game, a notification popped up, urging him to learn the "water style", it made sense he would worry.

"Thank you, here you go," Luke said as he tossed the mic back to Reed.

There was one thing Luke found funny, he noticed that while he was talking, everyone in the crowd reminded him of someone, their expressions specifically, it reminded him of his loyal guardian, Shade.

'But why would they look at me like that? Speaking off which I miss that little chaos creature, I hoped to see master before the tournament but unfortunately, I couldn't reach him, hopefully, he's alright...'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile in Genesis,

"Old Man, I'm back.....it seems there is something I haven't been told yet, hopefully, there's a good reason for that," Noel said as he looked straight into Alaric's eyes sending a shiver down everyone's spine.

"Lets....talk..." Alaric replied as he gulped, looking at his son-in-law's expression he could say it wasn't the time for joking around.