The bloodied hand that was holding onto Mada's wrist looked as if it had come out of some type of nightmare. Its forearm was twice as long as a normal arm. Slowly, fear was creeping in.
His heart was racing and it felt like it was going to jump out of his throat and onto the cold floor.
Mada was trying to move his head, to look at who was touching him, or what was touching him. A strong stench had entered his nose, nearly causing him to throw up on the spot.
It felt like he was in a room full of rotting corpses. When he eventually looked at where the large arm was coming from, at the end of it, just a fog of mist was floating in the air.
"This thing, it has to be some type of monster, a beast from another dimension, but one that can speak! I've never heard of such a thing before," thought Mada.
Mada tried to pull away, but as he did, the grip around his wrist had gotten tighter. Him, a stage 2 Pagna warrior, was losing in the battle of strength?
All thoughts of getting rid of his target had escaped from his head at that point. Now he just wanted to do whatever he could to escape. Taking in a deep breath, Mada remembered one of the Flowing Force Clan's techniques.
It was a way to make one's body flexible like that of water, rather than rigid with one's bones. Taking in a breath, he performed the technique, and his arm slipped out. Almost instantly, the bloody hand went for him.
Jumping back, the hand had missed swiping him, and his back had hit the door. Looking, the hand no longer tried to reach him.
Instead, it just waved a long, dangling, grey-skinned finger in the air, like an adult scolding a child. Without turning his back, Mada reached for the door and pulled it open. He left the room without closing the door and just ran.
He ran and ran without looking back, out of the Blue headband courtyard and back to his room. He was pretty sure that night he wouldn't be getting any sleep.
The next day, when students woke up, a few had walked past an open door. Immediately, a strong smell hit their noses, and they had no choice but to cover their mouths as they did so.
"Freaking hell, did someone crap their pants or something?" the students said.
When they turned to look at whose room it was, they could see that it belonged to the white-haired no-name.
"I guess these guys don't clean themselves after they go to the toilet or bathe at all."
Eventually, the commotion had reached the ears of Dame, Simyon, and Safa, who were already up. Dame decided to go check it out. As he ran and entered the room, he covered his mouth as well.
"Raze, get up...get up, you lazy bum!" Dame shouted, as he had to force himself to step into the room.
Slowly, Raze was opening his eyes. As he did, he too was hit with the disgusting smell. Then he could see the state around him. When he pressed on the thin mattress on the floor, his hand was soaked.
The water that had come off wasn't clean either; it had a mucky black tint to it.
"Well, I'll have to say congratulations are in order," Dame said.
"What do you mean?" Raze asked.
"All of this. Don't you remember the first time you became a stage 1 Pagna warrior? Did you throw up some blood?"
The memory hit Raze; he hadn't just thrown up some blood; he had thrown up a lot of it.
"Well, this is the same thing again; your body is getting rid of even more impurities deep within. You've become a second-stage warrior," Dame explained.
Raze was a bit confused, but as he focused, he could feel it was true. His dantian felt stronger, as if there was a second layer coating it now. But how was this possible? Raze had absorbed the 20-year Qi pill, and although it seemed to have an effect, it wasn't enough for him to break through.
Another way was through cultivating energy through the techniques, but Raze had achieved this feat in his sleep, so just what was going on?
"Please just clean yourself before I throw you into a river, and hurry," Dame shouted.
The smell was sickening to Raze himself, so he quickly got up and rushed off to the washing facilities. With that done, Dame was ready to head out of the room until he noticed something on the ground.
"Blood? This isn't Raze's blood, is it? It's too far from his mattress, and the way it's dropped down. Did something happen last night?" Dame thought.
After cleaning himself up, Raze went to join the others outside. Everyone went ahead and gathered the two Qi pills for the day. Some were unsure what to do, though. Were they meant to keep the Qi pills for Ricktor when he asked for them, or were they just to take them?
Liam didn't care and started to cultivate the pills even before they went for breakfast. He wasn't going to give the other person any chance of taking them. Dame had handed his pills to Raze since he didn't need them.
As they headed outside, they were surprised to see that Teacher Lee had returned, and he was standing at the gate with an announcement to make.
"I have a message for you all," Lee shouted. "The pecking order will no longer be decided by you, the individual students. Instead, I will be working closely with our fellow teachers of the Blue headband and run several assessments to see who is the best among you all.
"And who out of all of you has the most chance of taking down a yellow headband owner or even a red headband one," Lee claimed.
Seeing the look in his eyes, Raze noticed that a big change had occurred. He could see that Lee was serious about this matter for some reason.
"Learn your skills, cultivate your power, and follow your teachers' instructions. That is all."
With that said, it was time for the students to head to the dining hall again, but on the way there, Lee had gone straight up to a certain student, a single black-haired girl.
"Safa, I have decided to learn your name. If you accept me, I will be your personal instructor in guiding you on how to use the spear. If you show me the same determination and effort as you did the day before, then I am sure you will be able to join the yellow headbands," Lee claimed. "Do you accept my offer?"
There was no hesitation as Safa nodded repeatedly and gave a small bow. This brought a smile to the man's face.
"Very well, then after you finish, you shall stay with me in the teachers' dorms, and I will personally look over your development. It will be tough taking you away from your friends, but I promise you will be rewarded for it."
Safa looked at Raze for a moment, somewhat regretting her decision because she would be away from him. Seeing this, he knew she wanted him to say something.
"Just go," Raze said. "Live your own life, don't base your decisions around me."
Thinking about it, someone had once done that before in Raze's life, and it didn't end well for them either.
At breakfast, there was something noticeable that had occurred, and that was that the five main disciples of the main clans weren't currently there. No one quite knew what was going on, but a meeting had been called.
Currently, they were in the Vice Principal's room, all of them sitting side by side on their knees close to each other.
"You all know about the assessment taking place, but this time it will be different compared to before," Amir explained. "This time, I will be inviting the heads to watch the assessment from each of the main clans."
The five disciples looked at each other nervously. Why was there even a need to do such a thing? It wasn't the martial arts event but just the first assessment of the month for them.
For many, it would seem like a waste of time.
"I have already asked, and your masters have accepted; the principal has been made aware of this as well," Amir explained. "The reason why I have called you here, though, is to pass on a message from him."
"No matter what, the five main clans must never lose their position. Don't embarrass yourselves."
The words struck each of them strongly as they heard this. Losing would have already been a big embarrassment, but to lose in front of their masters? It was clear; they wanted the five main disciples not just to win but to have an overwhelming victory to show the rest of the Dark Faction why they were the five main clans and why they needed to stay in their place.
"Yes, sir!" the students called out, however, there was one who hadn't answered the call.
"I said, do you understand?" Amir asked again.
"Yes, sir!" they called out again, all but one.
"Mada, is something wrong?" Amir asked.
"Ah, no, sir. I will complete the task. Yes, sir!" Mada called out.
After experiencing what he had gone through trying to get to Raze, maybe there was someone they needed to worry about after all.