Chapter 10

Sarah, after getting into a duel with Ellis learned a lot from a single fight. So far, she fought huntsman and huntresses which really highlight their finesse and agility more than brute force. In some cases, she also had experiences with some individual with higher physical aspect than her but Ellis’ way of fighting in the duel showed her that sometimes limiting your views to only human limits can be costly. Besides, there is no one who uses such an oversized sword among human hunters. On the other hand, there are a lot of Grimms with huge builds and overwhelming power behind their strikes where one needs to dodge fully and not lean on some sides.

If there will be a second time, she hopes to last longer and utilize her semblance more. She has been blessed with a great semblance which makes her body nearly invisible. Her presence still remains and so all the disturbance she creates while moving can be used to pin-point her location just like Ellis did.

Sarah is also aware of the problem so she developed a way of making more disturbances which can imitate her own presence. Her semblance is actually not invisibility but imitation of things. She makes herself nearly invisible by imitating all of her surroundings to the last bit of grain of color which makes her hard to be seen. With the same ability, she imitates the disturbance she creates and places them to various directions which can act the same way as her but sadly it can’t be used to injure someone since there is no power behind it but just mere disturbance.

The fight with Ellis only ended that way since she was grazed by the sweeping motion of the sword emptying her aura for defense to the last point. At that time, one of her decoys held the sword for a bit but if Ellis wanted to actually pull it, then the disturbance won’t be able to hold for a single second. Sarah wanted to use that situation to ambush Ellis but sadly that oversized sword is just too unfair. It can cover such huge area and can block her strikes easily because of how thick it is. The worst part is Ellis is not even holding it. The sensation, the force needed to hold such sword, the vibrations created with every class of weapons, all of it is not applicable to Ellis. Ellis can wield it as easily as that without any requirements such as strength, grip, and tenacity to keep the sword. In a sense he breaks all the sword arts in the first place since he doesn’t need to consider inertia, momentum and the likes which limit the human body.

He is just one unfair fellow.

Of course, not all things she gained are part of combat but some personal things about Ellis. First of all, she can determine that Ellis is at least rank S in semblance but she can’t determine the aura level without proper measurement. The second thing is he fights with instinct and not pattern. All arts, in a way follow a certain pattern. All motions can be at least leave a clue where the next blow will come from. All those counters and moves can be determined with how one can read well the position of the opponent. It is like how one can’t throw a right hook and perform a 45 degree kick from the left the next second. In this way, Sarah reads those positions and calculates the possible attacks that an opponent can throw. You can say that Sarah is gifted in computations and possibilities.

For the last and the most important part, Ellis is the definition of abiding with gender equality. He treats everyone the same either is a male or female. One thing Sarah finds funny is that some people complain about being treated as inferior compared to males in any circumstance yet in some and most common situations, females asks to be treated as a lady which includes the leniency, the gentleness, and most of all, not harming the face. Even she is aware that she also falls into that kind of person but the matter also touches the morality and respect of a person and that is a more complicated matter to define clearly.

“So… What are your plans after the class?” Sarah asked Ellis which went to his own little world of staring blankly ahead.

Ellis snapped out of his daydream and thought of the question. He has nothing else to do really and nowhere to go. At these times, normally he will be on the walls with guard duty hoping that the day will go on peacefully. Now that he thought about it, he really doesn’t know what else to do. He knows no one aside from his teammates or maybe the problematic twins. Most of all, he doesn’t know places here in Vale aside from Beacon academy.

“I don’t know. I guess infuse more Crystals?” Ellis said casually.

“You are actually talking like they are candies huh?” Sarah said as if she heard a great joke.

In the past, Grimms leave nothing behind when they fall but after many years of their evolution, they started to drop these kinds of crystals which trap Aura energy inside. Studies about these crystals are only at their initial stages since they can’t find appropriate specimen to confirm their theories due to the Grimms leaving nothing behind but crystals. At first, stronger Grimms started to drop pale white crystals and as more time grows, stronger Grimms when slayed dropped deeper colored crystals. Researchers have their own theories about the formation of these crystals but many hunters believe that this is the crystallization of all energy of the victim they slayed in their lifetime.

Because of such idea, hunters also prioritize to eliminate stronger Grimms in hopes of finding deeper colored crystals which they can use to trade or reinforce the quantity of Aura existing on their body. Not every crystal is suitable for practice too. Only violet crystals and above tier can be used for practice as they contain significant Aura inside. Those pale violet colored crystal can be used but it is too unrefined and contains so little Aura inside.

Ellis wanted to confirm his earlier statement but noticed that his common sense once again differs with others so he tactfully shuts his mouth. He has enough crystals to scare a mid-sized company and he has almost violet colored and above crystals which he intends to use until he finish his study in Vale. The rest of the crystal he has is only silver crystals for trading things he will need in case.

“What will you do after class then?” Ellis asked in return trying to investigate what other kids normally do during these times.

“I’m going to the port to help out my family business.” Sarah answered.

“Hmm? What does your family do?”

Sarah frowns a bit but remembers that Ellis is from the outside of Vale. It is natural that he won’t know the major families and the well-known families inside Vale kingdom.

“My family owns a security agency. We provide hunters to those traveling merchants using the sea.” Sarah explained more details to Ellis.

Ellis can’t help but be surprised of how the business works. In a sense, it is like a patrol duty back in Lutton town but with a much more lucrative pay and lesser danger with how thorough the agents sweep through the routes. As long as people stay on course with those routes then it will be not too dangerous with the help of a few dozen hunters accompanying a ship.

Ellis also learned that those hunters mainly deal with pirates along the routes more than the actual Grimms. Ellis can’t help but understand why Sarah’s way of fighting leans more towards combating human instead of Grimms. He can’t help but wonder why people want to raise their own weapons to fellow humans or even if the other party is of the Faunus race. In the end, they were all sentient beings capable of communications and understanding. He was trying to come up the reasons why they are not focusing on eliminating the Grimms instead of fighting among themselves.

“Want to come and observe?” Sarah invites Ellis before finally arriving to the room for the next class.

“Let’s see after the class. I will think through it.”

“Hey that is bad right?” Sarah joked as they sat on the unoccupied seats in the middle.

There are still only few students inside so they occupied four seats for the rest of the team members to arrive. The two of them chatted away the time until Emerald arrived and naturally sat beside Sarah without saying anything. Ellis does not want to say anything and Sarah also felt awkward with Emerald most of the time. With how silent the tree of them, the atmosphere started to turn awkward slowly as more time goes by.

“Say… We are quite an awkward team what should we do about this?” Sarah said trying to change the vibe around them.

“If you can make her talk, we will be having more success on the matter.” A voice intruded and Robert sat beside Ellis. “Obviously that is impossible.”

Emerald glared at Robert but he just grinned in response to her. Sarah felt the sparks floating around and she can’t help but complain because of how difficult to keep this team is. Emeralds is like an ice cube, Robert is like a firecracker making things rowdy every time and Ellis tries to be a piece of stone doing nothing until someone actually picks him up.

“You know if we could actually tone down our tendencies we will be having more success actually.” Sarah said in a depressed voice. “Robert, can we say something nice once in a while?”

“Am I not saying nice?” Robert laughs. “Later I will say something nasty so you can actually know how nice I am normally.”

“You’re hopeless.” It was a rare voice to actually join. Emerald snorted and took her scroll out looking at the time. “It’s really unfortunate to be teamed up with someone so atrocious.”

“Heh… I thought we only have three people in the team?” Robert still smiling said. “Since when did you join the team?”

“Ok let’s stop before we actually smash our team more than this.” Sarah glared at Robert and this time he actually backed off and sat there quietly.

“And Ellis…”Sarah this time glared at Ellis. “At least do something when these kinds of things happen.”

“Eh? Why?” Ellis asked confused.

“You country bumpkin! You’re quite the heartless one too! Why are you leaving me to deal with these two blockheads?” Sarah said indignantly.

“Eh… Ok.” Ellis complied but actually confused on what is happening. He is thinking that it is natural for the city kids to quarrel like that but now he thinks otherwise with how Sarah reacts.

The atmosphere is somewhat weird but at least it is better than the awkward one before Robert arrived. The four of them exchanged conversation here and there or mostly Sarah and Robert going back and forth.

When the bell signals the end of break, students started to quickly fill the classroom. When the seats are nearly occupied by the students, a female teacher arrived and occupied the stage. She looks around to see if there will be more students coming but it seems unlikely so she sat down in the chair in the middle of the stage and attached a small storage device towards a port connected to the hologram.

Out of all expectations, she started calling up names and checking the attendance which only a few actually practice nowadays. In the new system, your skills are all that matter. If you attend or not does not matter as long as you complete the missions that will be handed out by the academy and pass the exams every semester.

After calling out the names and checking who is present and not, the teacher’s brows furrowed in displeasure while looking at the screen.

“They better have a good reason for not being here in my class.” She said as she looked towards the students around her.

“I am Amanda Hans. I will be the one to teach you about things related to Aura.” She pressed something on the screen and the screen changed showing various picture and some simple descriptions.

“For the general idea, Aura is the projection of one’s soul. It shields you from harm and enhances your power temporarily. The greatest tool out there for any huntsmen and huntresses during combat is Aura. Your weapons, your gears, everything all started on Aura and concerns Aura every time. How deep you know about aura may be the thin line of your victory or defeat.”

“Now… Let’s ask some of you what do you see Aura as… You there…” Amanda looks at the tablet she has, to see the name of the female student she is pointing. “Ms. Blank, please share your thoughts about the subject.”

This student is a member of the team including the twins Ellis met back at the forest and the silver-haired kid of the Schnee family. She was a bit caught off guard but she composed herself quite fast and then stood up to answer.

“Aura is the greatest sword I can have. It strengthens my blows and eradicates all that stands my way.”

Her answer amazed all the students including the teacher. Who would have expected that a slender female will answer like that? Coupled with her vibrant red hair and a valiant aura she is exuding, she looks just like a heroic person right now. The only one that disagrees with the opinion is of course that is the only male that actually knows her true self. That is Michael Schnee.

He wanted to evade this crazy girl because he accidentally injured her younger brother during a small duel back then which made the younger brother be hospitalized for a year thus missing the entrance exam of this year. He also did not want to injure her younger brother but he was just too strong for him to keep his hand which resulted in this complicated event. He thought that he will quietly take a relic and pass the exam as fast as he can to ditch the female chasing him every time they meet. Who would expect that he actually will meet this lady again inside the forest and became partners instead.

“What a straight forward answer.” Amanda nodded and asked another student.

“Aura for me the best support I can ask for. It helps me escape in tricky situations and blocks strikes that I am not able to guard in emergency.”

The discussion went on and on and everyone is quite happy to contribute about the discussion. The only ones not raising their hands are Ellis and Emerald which actually garnered some attention from both students and their teacher.

“Miss Rose if you would?” Amanda said trying to let Emerald join the discussion. “What is aura for you?”

Emerald stood properly before answering in a monotone voice.

“Aura helps me crush the weak that can only cling to others for benefit or drag those that actually tries to have a better life.” She said and promptly sat down after saying those words.

The temperature seems to drop down a few Celsius and the aura inside the classroom feels really awkward at this point. The students are frowning and the teacher does not know what to do at this point. She was the one who asked the students’ view about the subject and their opinions are neither right nor wrong.

Amanda has no choice but to move on and nodded towards Ellis this time. “Mr. Moon? What are your thoughts about Aura?”

“Aura lets me survive another day.” It was a short answer and now everybody is flabbergasted.

What’s wrong with these kids? Amanda thought while crying in her head.

It was her first time teaching and she wanted to leave a good impression. As things are now, it is not going well for her part. Many of the kids answered normally aside from several kids. One from Rose clan, one from Brook family, twins from Medric family, one from Blank family and lastly from Moon family gave out weird answers and she don’t know how to manage the situation properly. She is expecting that her students will be normal in thinking with great skills to match up their family prestige but she never thought that the combination of students this year which unluckily fell in her hands is a mix of peanut and ketchup.

In the end, Amanda is forced to remedy the situation every time by either moving forward or changing the topic.

“Now that everyone has given their opinion about Aura, let’s talk about their application. How the application of one’s Aura can defines themselves.” Amanda snapped her fingers and the lights in the room started to dim.

“Most of you know that Aura is the fuel of all of your abilities. Your semblance, your protection to the last motion of your attacks is all fueled by Aura. First of all, let’s talk about the general application of Aura.

The screen showed a figure of a man defending from a Grimm attacking. The figure is desperately blocking a Grimm almost two times his size but still holding his ground.

“First category is the most common. Aura helps us withstand forces greater than our own as shown in this clip is the first and mostly used application of Aura. It does not mean that we are getting stronger but the Aura absorbs the damage instead of our body taking it. As we continue to block and take damage, Aura starts to deplete until it will be just be your own physical prowess taking on those blows and that will not end very well.”

“The second application is for enhancing your attack. In here, everyone uses quite differently. Some use it through weapons and tools but there are some that use together with their bare hands and other parts of the body. In this category, you are not depleting your Aura but releasing it towards outside but those energy will be coming back to you so if don’t use huge moves which your regeneration can’t keep up then you can be using this method as long as you want.”

“Last is the most bizarre and hardest application one can do with their Aura. When one’s quantity of Aura exceeds a certain point, one can influence things around them. It can be used both in attacking and defending and the limit is your own imagination. The only thing that limits this is your capacity of Aura. Just like during the entrance exam ending where the headmistress exuded overwhelming pressure towards those unruly applicants. Some people also use their Aura to make impression. Then can make their presence nearly undetectable, they can also make their presence as bright as the sun or either seems to be normal and blend towards the surrounding. This last category might not have direct impact physically but this last method directly affects the mental strength of the opponent. There were even legends where one only needs to look at a Grimm to petrify them in fear. That is how powerful and mysterious this last method is.”

“In your years ahead, I will be teaching you not the methods on how to use your own Aura but how to wield it more efficiently. I hope that everyone will cooperate and we can have great years ahead of us.”