Because of the nature of our world fighting is often considered to be the best if not only way to measure a cultivator’s worth by many people and you will often find yourself in a situation where fighting is inevitable. Whether your opponent is a fellow cultivator or a Mana Beast you should treat every fight you are in like you could die at any moment. This is still the case if you are exchanging pointers, unless you are certain that you can trust the person you are sparring with its always best to assume that things can go wrong, this is a ruthless world that we live in and its not unheard of for people to be killed in sparring matches whether by accident or on purpose.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on the life of a cultivator.

Telram watched with a bemused expression on is face as chaos broke out around him. All the other young cultivators had attacked each-other as soon as Irian had finished speaking but the area around him was completely clear of the thrashing bodies that covered the rest of the arena.

This was due to both the impression he had made in the waiting area and a technique that he was using. This technique was one of his own creation and used a similar principle to the attack that he had used to kill the overgrown toad on the forest all those years ago. The Dissonance technique, as he had decided to call it created a cloud of chaotically vibrating Mana around him that caused anyone nearby to feel increasingly uncomfortable as they got closer to Telram. It could be used for other things, but its main purpose was to suppress the strength of any attackers. At first the symptoms of the technique were fairly minor simply causing headaches and nausea but as they got closer these would worsen and if they weren’t strong enough, they could lose control of their cultivation base entirely which at worst could damage their Mana Cores. Luckily, its power was severely limited by Telram’s cultivation level which meant that there would be very few cultivators taking part in the evaluation who it would affect too adversely.

According to Gerry the technique was similar to a type of technique known as a territory which used Elemental Mana to suppress Martial Techniques that weren’t of the specific element used to create the territory.

Looking around Telram noticed that he was attracting quite a lot of attention from the crowd because of both the area around him and his outlandish appearance but that was part of why he was creating such a scene, he needed to make sure that Irian noticed him.

Just then Telram felt a sudden change in the Mana cloud that made up his Dissonance technique allowing him to simply duck under what should have been a surprise attack. Though he hadn’t intended Dissonance to have this use when he had first come up with the idea when he had figured it out, he had been excited by the new options it opened up for him though it had taken him a while to learn to use this new function correctly. Grabbing the unfortunate boy’s leg as he passed overhead Telram spun throwing him into the low wall outside the arena with a dull thud.

The previously shouting crowd fell silent at this sudden turnaround. They had thought that Telram had completely let his guard down but the person who had attacked him was the one who had ended up being easily defeated. This was particularly surprising as the cultivator in question specialised in a movement technique called Shimmer Steps. Like Graceful Mist Steps it was a mid-Level Human Ranked Martial Skill, but as with everything it was hard to create a system that can manage to accurately categorise things like Martial Skills and Telram had long since worked out that Graceful Mist Steps was one of the best Middle Ranked Skills for a Human Realm cultivator and while Shimmer Steps was considered to be ranked the same Telram knew that it was in reality inferior to the technique that his father had taught him.

Ignoring the stares from the crowd Telram decided to take a closer look at what was happening around him. The young cultivators had broken up into about three separate groups, there was the group that was basically a big brawl with everyone simply hitting out at anyone who got close, Telram rolled his eyes as he saw this show of foolishness, it might have been different if any of them were extremely powerful or had techniques that could deal damage over a wide area but it was little pathetic to watch them just going at it like a group of primary schoolers.

The second group seemed to have paired off and were now fighting each-other in fairly civilised duels, Telram slightly preferred this to the brawling as it at least controlled the amount of damage that could be done at a time which would make things easier for the cultivators who had to protect the audience from any attacks that missed their target but even then he thought that it was an extremely unrealistic way of fighting in any other situation. He did however note a number of fairly skilled individuals among their ranks.

The last group caused Telram’s face to twist into a scowl, unlike the other two this group was split into two sides and if he had to name their fighting style then he would grudgingly call it a ‘team battle,’ the two sides were ignoring the members of their own group and fighting the other, or more accurately one group was one-sidedly attacking the other which was almost entirely made up of young women. Telram knew that these girls were at least as strong as the boys attacking them, in fact he was almost certain that most of them were stronger simply because it was harder for a female cultivator to be taken seriously so female cultivators often put more effort into their training in an attempt to make up for this. To his surprise there were two cultivators in the Ascendant Realm, one in each group but the girl was stuck on the defensive as the other Ascendant Realm cultivator hammered at a floating shield of rock that was already beginning to crumble with fireballs as large as Telram’s head.

Gritting his teeth Telram ran through his options, his gut reaction was to go and help the girls who were looking in worse shape with every passing second but if he did that there was a chance that they would attack him from behind when he was fighting the Ascendant Realm cultivator whom Telram was certain he could defeat if he used one of his trump cards. His other options weren’t much better, he had no desire to take part in the mess that was the first group and the duels were just a waste of his time, of course he could just wait it out and see what happens but in the mean time who knew what could happen to the girls.

“God dammit,” he snarled seeing a fireball make it through a gap in the rock protecting the girls sending two of them flying. He had known from the get-go that there was only one option that he could’ve lived with but even he was surprised by the suddenness of his next action.

Telram exploded into motion covering the thirty metres between him and the group of young men in about a second as he pushed his Graceful Mist Steps to the absolute limit before slamming into a particularly unfortunate young man who was sent flying into several of his friends before slamming into the wall with enough force to break bone.

The other boys froze at the sight of one of their number crumpling to the floor outside the arena as they wondered who had attacked them Telram moved again, he had slightly overdone it with that first attack, he had only meant to send him flying out of the arena not badly injure him but he had had to change target at the last second as the person he had originally wanted to hit had moved out of the way and the person he had ended up hitting was a bit weaker. His hands turned into blurs striking out at several nearby cultivators who grunted as they felt a strange sensation rush through their bodies before their Mana suddenly went out of control and they collapsed, one of them was unlucky enough to be readying a technique of his own and the Mana that he had gathered for that purpose blew up in his face knocking over another of his friends who stared at the intruder in their midst in horror before being sent flying by a knee to the chin after which Telram turned around at grinned condescendingly at the shocked group of young men who suddenly found their number decreased by half realising that the tall individual in front of them was responsible for the strange sensation they had been experiencing for the past few seconds.

“Now, now boys,” Telram snarled as he drew the Mana cloud that made up his Dissonance technique in closer to his body, the last thing he needed was for the girls behind him to attack him because his skill accidentally started to affect them as well. “Is this any way to treat ladies?”

Even he cringed inwardly at the cheesy line as soon as it left his mouth. He had chosen to help the girls in part because of the way society treated female cultivators like these girls and his own mother. Like many less advanced cultures women were treated considerably worse than men and this wasn’t any different for female cultivators who were all considered to be weaker than male cultivators of the same rank despite working just as hard to get to that rank as the men. The other reason was that the group of male cultivators attacking these girls was considerably larger than the group that they were attacking which had led to Telram deciding to help them out. For all he knew his actions could be a mistake, there was nothing stopping the girls from attacking him while his back was turned but if they did then all he would do was defend himself. Just because he sympathised with their plight didn’t make him foolish.

The Ascendant Realm cultivator’s eyebrow rose. “I think that weaklings should keep their noses out of places they don’t belong.”

The girls behind Telram started muttering as well, they hadn’t expected any of the people here to do anything as pointless as help out what were essentially their rivals, if they had a choice then they wouldn’t have been fighting together either but the boys who were attacking them hadn’t given them much of a choice.

“That’s right,” Telram replied causing the Ascendant Realm cultivator to blink in surprise. “That’s why your little friends are taking a nap right now. They were weak.”

The other cultivators with the Ascendant Realm cultivator snarled and two of them attacked at once hoping to show their leader that they were worthy of standing by his side. Unfortunately for them the person they were facing was Telram and he had known from the movements of Mana throughout their bodies that they would attack before they even knew and he met them with a Soul Energy enhanced shout that knocked one out instantly and drove the other to his knees right in front of Telram who simply flicked him in the forehead to finish him off as he raised his own eyebrow at the Ascendant Realm cultivator who frowned in confusion. The second cultivator that had attacked Telram had been at the 7th layer of the Core Formation Realm Stage same as Telram and yet Telram had barely had to lift a finger to finish him off something even he was uncertain that he could manage.

“What the hell was that?!” the boy snarled trying to figure out what was going on.

“It’s a just a kiai,” Telram replies with a smirk. As one might expect from the name, he had based the technique he had just used on the one that some martial artists had claimed to be able to use back on earth. As far as he knew the technique had never been scientifically proven to be effective, but he had been able to create his own version of the technique which used what he had learned from studying Jai’s ability to use a Soul Energy enhanced roar to stun enemies. Due to the nature of this technique it was not only highly effective against opponents with weak souls, but it was a low cost ranged attack that Telram was certain could be changed to have multiple effects depending what Elemental Mana he had an affinity for.

The Ascendant Realm cultivator just stared at him wondering what the hell he was going on about. He’d never even heard of a kiai before but if it was something as dangerous as the technique that Telram had used then he needed to obtain a copy of the manual containing the instructions to learn the technique. If he did so then he would be able to give the manual to Irian who would hopefully reward him for his efforts and a smirk crossed his face as he eyed Telram, he could tell that Telram’s cultivation level was far lower than his own and was certain that he could either threaten the boy or beat him and steal the manual from him later.

The unconscious cultivators slowly floated away from them towards the outside of the ring propelled by a bed of air summoned by an Ascendant Realm cultivator who was currently panicking. If the unconscious cultivators got caught up in the fight that he was certain was about to break out, then is head would be the one on the block but to his surprise the two young men just stood there staring at each other.

The Ascendant Realm cultivator frowned as he pushed out harder with his Soul Energy at Telram who still had the same amused smirk on his face. Unfortunately for the boy he was only a First Stage Ascendant Realm cultivator, so his Soul Energy was considerably less than Telram’s own which was now almost at the same level as Gerry’s having surpassed his father’s over a year ago.

“You done?” asked Telram condescendingly. He had been waiting patiently for the unconscious cultivators to be moved to safety before making his next move.

“Huh!?” gasped the Ascendant Realm cultivator who now had sweat streaming down his face from the effort of using his Soul Energy in a way he wasn’t used to.

“Ladies, you might want to move now,” Telram said glancing back over his shoulder at the group of female cultivators who were staring at him wondering how the hell someone who was only at the 7th Rank of the Core Formation Stage could still be standing after being hit by the full force of an Ascendant Realm cultivators Soul Energy.

“What are you thinking?” the leader of the female cultivators shouted at him. “There’s no way you can beat him!! Your cultivation level is way too low.”

“Now, now Jenna,” the Ascendant cultivator said to her condescendingly. “If he wants to fight me that’s his mistake to make.”

The cultivator’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Telram maybe he had been a little too overconfident trying to suppress Telram with his Soul Energy but that didn’t mean that he was going to give up on the idea of beating him and stealing his techniques.

“Shut up Connor, I wasn’t talking to you!” the girl snapped in reply.

“You two know each other?” Telram asked looking back and forth between them with a slightly amused expression on his face.

“Connor’s family runs the town next to mine,” Jenna replied glaring at Connor angrily, it seemed that the two had quite a lot of bad blood between them which wasn’t surprising considering how things seemed to work between noble families that weren’t related.

“Shut up Jenna, this prick is mine,” Connor snarled thinking that she was trying to either befriend him to learn his technique or planning to betray him when he let his guard down. All he knew was that he couldn’t let her family learn any of the new techniques that Telram had somehow managed to learn.

“This prick doesn’t belong to anyone,” Telram said loudly. “But I do have a bone to pick with you Connor.”

“I accept your challenge!” Connor laughed triumphantly. Even if Telram was somehow immune to the power of his Soul Energy they were in completely different Realms cultivation-wise which meant that there was no way for Telram to defeat him.

The other nearby cultivators were looking back and forth between the three powerful figures trying to figure out whether they needed to vacate the area or not and these words made them pale and start to back away slowly.

“You fool!” Jenna shouted suddenly appearing next to Telram and grabbing the edges of his robes in frustration before blushing as she caught a glimpse of his surprisingly well-muscled chest in the gap between the two halves of his robe before he brushed her off in irritation.

“Don’t worry about me,” Telram sighed as she looked down in embarrassment. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. Now go!”

Jenna nodded jerkily before following her friends with her face still blushing a deep crimson. Telram watched her go and shook his head sometimes it was easy to forget that these cultivators were still just children, their bodies and mannerisms for the most part were far closer to adults than 14-year olds were back on earth but reactions like that were easy reminders.

“You done flirting?” Connor snarled.

“Don’t know if I’d call it that but sure, whatever.” Telram answered offhandedly while Jenna turned an even darker shade of red to the point that it looked like she was going to pass out.

“Alright then.”

Having decided that the time to talk was over Connor raised his hands above his head and started gathering Mana that burned red in Telram’s sight. Telram continued to watch with a bemused expression on his face as a small ball of fire slowly grew until it was the size of his head over a few seconds. If he had wanted to, he could’ve easily interrupted the process, but it was the first time he had been able to see a fire element technique like this one up close and already he had some ideas on how to improve it, besides the attack was too weak and too slow to do him any real harm.

Telram spread his hands out in front of them as the Mana that he was using for his Dissonance technique gathered in front of him forming a hazy grey barrier of vibrating Mana.

“Exploding Sun Technique!” Connor roared throwing the large fireball at the infuriating young man in front of him.

The fireball slammed into the cloud of Mana in front of Telram and stopped in its tracks. The third and final effect of Telram’s Dissonance technique was a defensive one that only affected attacks made from Mana. The vibrating Mana that made up his Dissonance technique would slowly dissolve the Mana used against it. If Telram was at the same cultivation level as Connor, he wouldn’t have even had to concentrate the technique in front of him to stop the attack but as it was the fireball was slowly eating away at the Mana protecting him.

In the end Dissonance by itself wasn’t enough to stop the attack and a fireball that had been shrunk to the size of Telram’s fist shot towards him as the cloud of Mana dispersed back around him its job done.

With a smirk Telram batted the fireball away, feeling only a momentary heat from what most would consider a reckless manoeuvre due to his Mana enhanced body. Connor was staring at him with his mouth gaping open the Exploding Sun Technique was his favourite move, it took a while to activate but its destructive capabilities were high so seeing it dealt with so easily by a cultivator so much weaker than him was shocking to him.

“You done?” Telram asked. “Then I guess it’s my turn.”