3 December Year 2367

"The City Martial Tournament will take place in a month's time. The competition is off-limits to Martial House masters and those above 30 years of age. Timothy and Azur, both of you will be participating under the Thunder Pavilion. No matter what, one of you has to take first place. Why? Because your master here seems to be unable to attract any discples. As a result, the dojo is in a financial crisis. I'm hoping that by winning first place, we would be able to attract more discples. Secondly, the first place winner will advance to the Kingdom Martial Tournament."

Daimon's eyebrows furrowed together as if he was wondering why there was a lack of disciples. Azur sighed and spoke,

"Master, the reason why the Thunder Pavilion lacks disciples is because we are located inside a cliff. No one can see us. Furthermore, master rarely goes out in public and few people know of master's strength and prowess. But rest assured, your discple will solve this problem."

Azur glared at Telfer and gestured for him to say something. Telfer hurriedly spoke.

"Oh... your discple here will... bring glory and fortune upon the Thunder Pavilion."

Daimon looked at his 2 discples in satisfaction and patted their heads.

"Good, good. To prepare for this competiton, I have decided that the 2 of you will be going out to Colossal Grove to train for a week SEPARATELY. You will be covering your own basic living necessities. I believe that the both of you will be fine. Azur, you are at the 5th level. Timothy, with your Immortal Guard and Yama's Strike, your power qualifies as a second level. As long as you don't run into 4th level magical beasts you should be fine. Both of you are to fight as much as possible and hone your techniques."

Daimon stroked his beard and stared at the both of them seriously.

"If there is nothing else, I will leave now. See you in a week's time."

Azur clasped his hands and bowed before exiting the room.

"Master, your disciple here is only 2nd level. What if I run into danger that I can't escape from? You have to help me Master!"

Telfer bowed his head while speaking. "I should stay here and try to get the 2nd level of Poison Body." Telfered snickered inwardly.

"Oh, that is true. Hmmm... I guess you must be thinking about training really hard for my sake. Alright, I will spar with you at 0.1% for the next 4 days to allow you to get more familiar with Immortal Guard. I apologise for putting you through such extreme training. I had to get you to enter an extreme state to get you to learn Immortal Guard. Take this Recovery Pill first."

Daimon rummaged through his spatial ring and fished out a pill.

"Your discple is very grateful for your help."

Telfer studied the pill carefully. It was a white pill with yellow lines travelling across it. He popped it into his mouth and the pill melted immediately to form streams of energy. A wave of energy started to travel to his navel. The energy went around in a circle before consolidating. Telfer felt strength returning to his body. The scars and wounds on his body were rapidly disappearing. It was as if the effects of the past 3 days of rigorous training had vanished. "What is this miraculous pill?" Telfer marveled inwardly.

"Look at your waist."

Daimon pointed at Telfer's waist and smiled. Telfer did as to. To his surprise, there was a blue spiral coming from his belly button. It seemed to pulsate ever so often as if it was living.

"After 3 days, you have reached the 1st level of Poison Body, to change your skin. That is the mark of the Poison Body. and it will grow as you progress in Poison Body. Now if you are ready, let's start."

Daimon walked to the centre of the ring and beckoned Telfer to enter as well. However, the gravity remained as per normal unlike the last 3 sessions. Telfer moved into the ring and smiled. "Normal gravity and no Blink." Telfer thought and smiled. There was no way he was letting his master get a free hit off him this time. Daimon seemed to have read his thoughts and a weird light shone out of his eyes.

"Don't look down on your master so much. You didn't think the Daimon Style was just about Blink did you?"

As Telfer looked on, his master suddenly split into 7 copies. "This is Lightning Clone. Can you find the real me?" The 7 Daimons spoke in unison as they circled Telfer. Telfer whipped his head around. They all looked the same! Suddenly, all 7 copies launched themselves at Telfer. "If you can't fight it, avoid it." Telfer thought and activated Mass Transfer, hopping above one of the clones. "Bad decision." The clone below Telfer grabbed Telfer's leg and Telfer was suddenly flung onto the ground. However, instead of a flurry of punches, an extreme pain came from Telfer's ankle.

"The last 3 days was just me using power to beat you to the ground. How will you respond to techniques?"

Daimon grinned as he cranked Telfer's ankle.

"ARGHHH!"

Telfer screamed and kicked at Daimon with his free leg. Suddenly, an idea went through Telfer's mind. Telfer's ankle started hardening, and the pain lessened as Daimon was unable to twist the ankle.

"Good application. What's next?"

Daimon's six other clones flashed beside Telfer and raised their arms. As their fists approached Telfer, Telfer grinned. The punches were slow. Compared to the past 3 days, these punches looked too slow to even be able to cause any damage. Telfer activated Immortal Guard and 7 more locations. The pain at the ankle increased yet again. Telfer gritted his teeth and ignored it. He had successfully blocked 3 of the punches with Immortal Guard while maintaining the ankle hardened. Blood spurted out of his body.

"Not bad, to be able to use Immortal Guard like this. Although you should have used your body more."

The 7 Daimons shook their head and vanished. Telfer's ankle was released and he stood up quickly. Daimon gestured for Telfer to attack.

"Mass Transfer."

Telfer shot towards Daimon while winding up his arm. Daimon grinned and stretched out an arm to block him. Suddenly, Telfer ducked down and disappeared from Daimon's vision. Telfer swept an enhanced leg towards one of his master's legs.

*BANG*

Daimon raised his leg and pressed Telfer onto the ground.

"Very creative. It would have been a start of a finishing move against anyone at your level. Unfortunately, you used it against me."

Daimon stood still without moving a muscle and smiled at Telfer. Suddenly, the weight above Telfer disappeared and a leg slammed into Telfer's face. Telfer activated Immortal Guard in a hurry but he wasn't fast enough and was sent flying across the room. However, as the hardening fell away, Telfer found that he had not been flung too far.

*Drip drip*

A blue fluid dripped onto the floor from Telfer's face. Telfer looked at it in confusion and touched his face. There was no liquid there. Telfer opened the staus window.

Status Window Name: Telfer Berkley Age: 12 Race: Ghoul Gender: Male Stats Health: 100/130 (60/60) Heath regen.: 11/min (20/min) Energy: 64/75 (100/100) Energy Regen.: 4/min (8/ min) Mana: 40/40 (40/40) Mana Regen.: 2/min Strength: 6.5 (8) Agility: 7 (10) Dexterity: 6.5 (8) Stamina: 8 (10) Intelligence: 8 (5) Wisdom: 8 (4) Skills

Ghoul:

Mass Transfer

Immortal Guard

Magic Spells:

Poison Hand (Poison Magic)

Cloak (Illusion Magic)

Self created skills:

Yama's Strike

"There it is. The annoying reflex self-defense mechanism of Poison Body. In the face of incoming danger, your skin secretes poison. Unfortunately it is too weak and does not affect me."

Daimon flicked his leg and drops of poison splattered across the room. He grinned and pointed his finger at Telfer. Sparks of lightning shot out of the finger and towards Telfer.

"How will you receive my Electric Missiles?"

Telfer dodged to the side as the missiles whirred straight past him. Telfer wiped his forehead as he looked at the wall behind him crumble into pieces. "If I had not dodged, I would have fucking died." Telfer thought. Suddenly, a spark of lightining formed above the rubber and flew straight at Telfer.

"My Electric Missiles are homing. They will chase you down no matter what."

Daimon chuckled as he watched Telfer jump around to avoid the spark of lightning. Suddenly, Telfer leapt towards Daimon while the spark followed him tightly. As Telfer neared his master, the missile seemed to bend away from its path and approach Daimon before being completely absorbed by Daimon. Daimon stroked his beard as shock filled his eyes. The youth in front of him had actually figured out the trick behind his Electric Missiles already. Telfer grinned happily and spoke.

"You must have placed a marker to attract the sparks to me while we were sparring. However, you can't come to close to prevent the sparks from being attracted back to you. Am I right?"

Daimon nodded his head before striking Telfer. "We are here to spar, not talk." Daimon kicked Telfer up into the air and followed up with a chain of attacks. Telfer could only activate Immortal Guard to the best of his abilities. Although he had blocked a quarter of the attacks, Telfer still came out with bruises all over his body. Telfer ignored the pain and approached his master once more. This time, he swung his fist directly at Daimon's face. Daimon frowned and raised his hand to brush Telfer aside. However, the fist disappeared as Telfer brought the arm down to guard against Daimon as he swung Poison Hand with his other hand into his master. Daimon flashed behind Telfer and furrowed his eyebrows. He patted Telfer's shoulders and said with a smile.

"That was a very good application of your skills. I think we can go one step higher to 0.2%."

As Telfer cried bitterly inside, Daimon gnashed his teeth in frustration. Telfer was advancing at such a fast rate. If not for his speed, Telfer would have made a clean strike against him. Even though he was using 0.1% of his strength, it was still unbearable for an 8th level to give up a hit to a 1st level. Daimon decided that he had to put his discple in place.

"Let's start at 0.2% now."

Daimon said grumpily and took his stance. Telfer stared at his master and shook with fear. His master was angry for some reason and the blows would be coming at twice the strength from now on. "There are so many things that can go wrong." Telfer thought. Telfer imagined his master losing his temper and blowing his body out of the entire cliff in a fit of rage.

"Hurry up, if not I'm coming towards you."

Daimon glared at Telfer and some of his bloodlust leaked out, causing Telfer to freeze on the spot. After a few seconds, Daimon stepped towards Telfer and kicked him up into the air. For some reason, the kick hurt a lot less compared to the others. Telfer looked around as he flew in the air and trembled as he picked up on the enormous amount of bloodlust pouring out of his master.

"Crushing Elbow."

Daimon raised his elbow and sparks started jumping out of the elbow. As Telfer neared the ground, Daimon loomed over Telfer and brought the elbow down on Telfer's chest. "I'm actually going to die under the hands of my master." Telfer cried inside and closed his eyes to prepare for his death.

*Thud*

Just as the elbow was about to strike Telfer, Daimon suddenly stopped and Telfer's body fell onto the ground.

"Wake up, sparring is over for today."

Daimon poked Telfer's body and checked his pulse. After a round of inspection, it turned out that Telfer had simply passed out due to fear. Daimon smiled as he had accomplished his objective and hefted Telfer's body onto his shoulder to carry him back to his room.

4 December Year 2367

Telfer awoke to the smell of food beside his bed. He rubbed his head as he tried to remember to what happened. "Am I in heaven or hell?" Telfer pondered aloud as he remembered his master striking him with his elbow. For some reason, he was still in the same room in Thunder Pavilion. Telfer pinched his thigh and a stinging pain emerged. He was definitely alive.Had his master not killed him in a fit of rage? Telfer shook his head and approached the table. A plate of glistening magical beast meat laid on the table. Telfer digged in immediately. The meat vanished almost instantly and Telfer could only lick his fingers despondently. As he was licking his fingers, he spotted a note beside the plate.

"If you're reading this, clean up and come to the same room again. You still have 3 more days."

Telfer dressed himself in a hurry and went to look for his master. Unbeknownst to him, a Ghoul was waiting outside the cliff.

End of Chapter