Chapter 16: Settling In

Two weeks have past since Elias and Jessica took up residence in their new house, and over this time they have made an unofficial rule between all of the other outer sect members ‘don’t go towards the biggest house unless you are willing to die’.

This was made when everyone gathered round the house, as they saw three inner sect members loudly pronounce what Elias had done and how he should step outside to have a duel, seeing Elias and Jessica step outside they were all ridiculing Elias’s bad luck as the inner sect member was at the peak of the B rank at only twenty-three years of age. But soon the ridicule turned to fear and reverence as Elias released his Ki and formed a bloody red sword that seemed to form from the last residents corpse and cleanly struck the young man’s head while jumping to make up for the height distance, which chopped the shocked man’s head off, and seeing the young boy walk back into his house while yawning was even more shocking and gained him the nickname ‘young devil’.

Sitting in the centre of the room Elias was training in his rank four skill that Elias appropriately named ‘quick judgement’ at the moment Elias could keep the skill up for half an hour, and with his demi-beast form he had peace of mind over his safety.

While Elias was training his skills, Jessica was still trying to fuse he Ki with her element and was very happy with the speed of her progression, because as soon as she could fuse her element she could spend more time with Elias.

Another week had passed and Elias was now training his skill with the sword, but seeing as he didn’t use it often it wasn't his main priority, as at the moment Elias was experimenting with his rank one skill as he thought about the skill he came to the hypothesis that if he used more Ki into the skill he can manipulate more swords or other weapons and use them as a ranged attack.

Time after time of trying this he finally got results as he could now control over ten sword and use them as projectiles but creating more swords meant that the quality goes down the more you made, and to Elias this was ok as the skill was only the bottom tier and if he got a higher tiered skill he could form more which had a better quality. This in turn sparked his excitement for the upcoming challenge to get into the inner sect as he could then enter the skill house.

The next morning Elias and Jessica went straight to the signing up board for the upcoming challenge, this board had over three thousand names on, while only twenty could join the inner sect, getting some more information off of a terrified sect member apparently the challenge would be announced the day before and rumours are that the prize would be a rank five skill to your choice of element if you come first.

Signing up, Elias’s eyes were filled with fire as he could imagine that skill becoming his.

Over the next few days Elias and Jessica spent their days purely training only getting up to eat from time to time, as there Ki could not yet serve as nutrition for the body.

Finally the day before the challenge was upon the outer sect as everyone who signed up to the challenge gathered in a large clearing which was outside a massive building which was oval in shape and looked like a coliseum, but everyone’s attention was on the three elders that stood above them showing their position as these were the people who would look over the challenge and would give the challenge out.

Suddenly the middle elder spoke “Everyone, today we will give out the challenge on behalf of the leader of the sect, but first I would like to say that once we have explained the challenge, everyone will be guided into the building behind us and will stay there until the challenge has ended anyone caught leaving will be given an appropriate punishment. Understood” his sharp tone made some of the weaker members shudder unconsciously, but everyone present answered the same way “Understood”.

With a small smile the elder continued “Ok the challenge this year will be a king of the hill type game, the rules are as follows: only twenty people are allowed on the top of the hill, everyone will fight to get one of those places, you are allowed to kill, at the end of the time limit which will be twelve hours the remaining twenty people who are at the top of the hill, will have a free for all and the last one standing will get the prize of a rank five skill of your choice of element of course if you can't use skills yet you can store it away but you will then be targeted by others also during the free for all you will not be allowed to kill only incapacitate or until a person gives up as the twenty of you will be automatically allowed into the inner sect. Any questions?”.

A silence rung out for five seconds until the middle elder nodded to himself and led everyone inside the coliseum like building.

Inside you could get the feel for the sheer size of the building as it was three hundred metres long, two hundred metres wide and one hundred metres tall most people gasped at the magnificent building including Elias and Jessica, as not every sect had this type of facility.

Soon everyone started to settle down and start to train or replenish Ki while some of the more confident ones went to sleep to have a good start in the morning.

Elias and Jessica chose to sleep as they knew nothing drastic would happen over night in their cultivation so they made sure to have a fatigue-less start tomorrow as even Elias couldn’t take on thousands of members even if they were low ranks compared to him.

Waking up to sound of Jessica, Elias looked around and saw that the terrain had changed immensely as the once flat ground had risen up to make a fifty metre hill with a flat top for the king of the hill to stand on.

Still shocked about how this happened, but Elias didn't have time to question as he saw a smirking elder and with a deafening shout he said “Now ladies and gentlemen. Begin!!!!”.

All of a sudden thousands of members started to climb this hill while other immediately attacked each other, already starting the slaughter, but both Elias and Jessica had agreed to wait until closer to the time limit as it would be a waste of time now.