Hyperion Evergrowing

Chapter 157: Bruises

Leif stared up at the shadowy ceiling of the underground training chamber, feeling as something inside him snapped back into place. He couldn’t feel pain, it wasn’t something his body was physiologically capable of, though he could intellectually understand, and instinctively detect damage to his form. His pride, limited as it was, could be bruised, though losing the fight had been more a relief than anything.

Adriana looked down at him, the second year student brushing away the dark hair that fell down over her eyes. “You weren’t this strong back during the expedition, right?”

“Nope.” Leif groaned, rolling over, focusing healing energy into his hand so he could move his fingers. Rising to a kneeling position he looked down at himself, brushing dust and shards of ice from his damaged clothing.

“Damn, even with all the tears I can’t tell.” Linus said, reaching down to pull Leif up. The scion gratefully accepted the help, and promptly pulled the human down on top of him, the young man letting out a yelp of surprise as he found himself completely incapable of lifting the tree monster. Adriana laughed and Linus cursed, scrambling to his feet.

“Sorry.” Leif said, lightening himself with [Gold Iron Physique], then for the first time ever he targeted someone else with his core skill. [Benevolent Actions], formerly [Grand Action], now had two separate components. One where he could shift the thirty percent of his [Charisma] to any other stat, and one where he could target those around him with a similar effect. Leif focused on [Might], but found that the second effect of the skill could be something else. [Might] was what he wanted to bestow, so he synced the effects.

Linus’ eyes went wide, the second year letting out a sharp exhale of breath as he looked down at his hands in shock. “Woah… what?”

“Try again.” Leif prompted, the human helping pull him to his feet, successfully this time.

“No way… This this- this is a flat attribute buff? How?”

“My core skill.” Leif said. “How does it feel?”

“Amazing! I’m like, twice as strong. How long does this last?”

Leif finished patting himself down, then glanced up at Sieg. The northerner was glaring towards the exit to the chamber, and Leif turned to see Mouric ducking out, then scampering away like the world's largest mouse. “I’m… I’m not sure. Did the Blade just run away?”

Sieg clicked his tongue. “He’s leaving us with the cleanup. Cheeky bastard.”

The room was devastated, unmelted chunks and shards of ice littered the ground and walls. The remnants of both of Leif’s wood bombs now lay dormant on the floor, dozens of stiff and twisted branches criss-crossing one another, several pointed ends embedded into the stone. The true scale of the damage was hidden by the lack of light, though just because you couldn’t see something, didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

Leif experimentally targeted both Sieg and Adriana with [Benevolent Actions], both humans blinking in surprise. He felt a tug on the skill as his usage gradually put it under strain. It was unusual, he hadn’t ever felt the skill strain back when it was [Grand Action]. “To answer your question from before, Linus, A few minutes if it was only you, maybe twenty more seconds with all three of you.”

Linus whistled, punching the air experimentally. “Feels awesome. Most of my free attributes go into [Alacrity], maybe I need to boost [Might] some more.”

“You might want to fix your clothes, Leif.” Adriana said, looking at him nervously. “Do you have spares?”

“Yeah, I have two extra sets. They were expensive though, anywhere I can get this repaired?”

“Hmm, yeah I can show you when we’re on Lutum.”

He slowly turned around, then stepped off to the side, then activated [Sympathy from Experience], creating a golden projection of himself from a few seconds prior. Leif mentally triggered the part of the skill that made the recording visible to others, feeling another tug on his soul, but he wasn’t so exhausted from the fight that it wasn’t possible. The echo spun around in the opposite direction, showing just how badly his outfit had fared during the duel.

Voices came from the doorway, and Leif quickly changed, swapping his ruined clothing with an undamaged set from his spatial ring. The two [Enchanter] students that had directed Leif down into the depths of the arena ran into the room, one of them dropped his satchel of tools. Sieg was already moving towards them, quickly explaining, in brief, what had happened. One of the students stared despondently at the occasional, fitful flickering of the mostly broken lights.

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Leif called the mask Mouric had discarded up off the floor with [Wood Manipulation], quickly fusing the painted section back onto the layer of wood still covering his face. Splitting the mask during the fight had been difficult, as had making sure he only completed the process right at the very end. He still could hardly believe it had worked. More people ran into the chamber, this time an official flanked by two of the black uniformed guards that patrolled the Academy.

By now the golden outlines of the fight between Leif and Mouric were casting the room in a golden radiance, the tiny motes of light flickering around rapidly like grains of sand retelling the story of the recent past. Belatedly Leif started gathering up his wooden constructs, it had taken hours upon hours of intense focus to create the wood bombs, the two he had kept in his spatial ring having taken up well over two thirds of the space due to their mass, even if they were relatively small.

Adriana jogged over to where Sieg was confronting a growing crowd of worried, confused and upset looking officials. She left the range of his attribute empowerment, almost tripping on nothing as her physical strength suddenly dropped. Linus laughed at her expense, then did the exact same thing a few moments later. The two bickered and sniped at one another, passing through a golden projection of ice shards flying back to reform the small glacier Mouric had shattered with his hammer.

Leif shook his head and focused on ripping wood up out of the cracked and cratered stone. Another chunk of the roof fell down nearby. He sighed.

===

Half an hour later the four of them, three humans and one tree, exited the tunnels and passageways of the arena and into the afternoon sun. Fights, individual duels instead of team battles, were now taking place in the wide field of sand, and the stands were far less full than during the fight between the eighth and seventh Blades. Sieg explained the basic structure of the quadriad and the different prizes the students were competing for.

Commendations were the primary thing up for grabs, with himself and a few other students using the event to hopefully gain a spot as future Blade candidates. It was something the northerner was striving for, and with his mentorship under Mouric, he had a decent shot at making it, assuming he performed to a certain, high standard in the tournament. Apparently most of the Blades had at least one, sometimes more students they had taken under their wings.

There were exceptions to this, Hera being one of them, Kastro, the newest Blade, being another. The fourth Blade, a man who went by ‘Crest’, was infamous for refusing any and all opportunities to teach, instead focusing on his own mysterious powers and projects. Leif wasn’t exactly keen on meeting any more Blades, since he was currently fifty fifty on positive interactions with those who held the title.

They made their way to the teleportation hub, the building a bustle of activity now that attention was slowly bleeding away from the quadriad. All three students were from Lutum, and they were more than happy to show Leif around their home island. As before, the stark difference between Pellus and Lutum was jarring. It was like stepping out from the centre of some sort of palace, to finding yourself in a rural, spread out town sprinkled through forests and fields.

The scion preferred Lutum, which didn’t surprise him in the least. Adriana lived in a girls dorm near the beach, with Linus living on the bottom floor of an apartment complex that was far taller than those that surrounded it. They passed a stable, not full of horses, but instead home to large tamed beasts. Sieg had a pensive expression on his face as a fourth year [Tamer] showed them around the spacious and clean building. Leif wasn’t sure what to think of the place. Taming beasts and monsters, though the latter were housed in a different building, was decidedly odd. But the creatures seemed happy, well fed, with several boasting fairly advanced evolutions.

A massive dog with shaggy brown hair bounded up to the tall metal fence and flopped over, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. The very good boy received belly rubs from all four of them for about ten minutes, one of its legs kicking happily into the air. As the sun began to set Adriana excused herself and returned to her dorm. Linus departed a few minutes later, though he was heading for a dining hall. They had made their way around a good section of the island, and with just Leif and Sieg left, the northerner invited him around to his place.

The scion accepted the invitation, and the two of them headed down a gently winding path to a collection of residences that, at least from a good distance away, looked similar to Hera’s. Though, to Leif’s immense disappointment, they didn’t have greenhouses. They walked the quiet path alone, and Leif took the opportunity to fill the man in on a more thorough explanation of what had happened since they had last met.

When his story finally got around to Lucia and Royce, they were approaching the front of the building. The doors were open, with a handful of students milling around the foyer. Unlike Hera’s residence, this building hadn’t been converted from an apartment. They ascended a flight of stairs, then reached a plain but sturdy looking door. Sieg knocked, the man pulsing his aura in a pattern that Leif chose to not pay attention to.

There was the sound of hurried footsteps from behind the door, then a pause that lasted several breaths, followed by more footsteps that got louder and louder. A latch was flipped, the handle was pulled, then the door swung inwards. A frazzled and tired looking Marcus smiled out at them, though his expression faltered upon seeing a masked stranger standing in his doorway. The [Arcanist] had wild, sandy hair, round glasses resting partially askew on his face, and a uniform that hadn’t been buttoned up properly. There were dark bags under his eyes, though they still possessed a familiar, intelligent twinkle.

“Ah.” He said, glancing at Leif, then back to Sieg. He cleared his throat. “Hello, um, welcome. Good to see you, Sieg. The, uh, the place is a bit messy at the moment, I wasn’t expecting guests.”

“You won’t believe who stumbled into us below the arena.” Sieg said with a warm smile.

“A street performer?” Marcus asked, then he winced. “Sorry, that was rude of me. Unless you are a street performer, then I totally called it.”

“Not a street performer.” Leif chuckled. “I’m not a musician. But I do provide healing for the low low price of completely free.”