**3rd POV**
In an unknown room, there sat about ten cadets, each with a distinctive feature, be it their hair, or eye. "To what do we owe this gathering?!" A handsome brown haired guy quipped. It hasn't been an hour since they returned from the beach, and Owen was certainly not happy that he was disturbed by an anonymous message, that said all members of the big seven to gather in some room in the academic block.
"What I'm more concerned about is who's the architect of this gathering?!" Lily inquired with the facade of a smile. "Why of course it is I!", a boy with eerie pale skin and obsidian pair of eyes answered. "And here I thought you guys would be glad. When was the last time we gathered like this?" he tilted his head. "A year I presume. At the Quasar banquet! Where's Aurora though?!" he turned to a purple haired guy. "How would I know?!" Jared shrugged. "Say what you want to say and stop being dramatic, I have things to attend to!" A stunning silver haired girl with blue eyes said.
"Calm your horses Nevaeh, I'm getting there." Quinn addressed the silver haired girl. The reason I gathered everyone here was to.... hear your thoughts on the academy!" The entire room went silent, that was until Owen's voice broke it, "Tsk, lunatic!" he shook his head. "About what?" Damien who had been silent since the begining spoke. "About promising cadets!" Quinn replied. "You must take us for fools if you think we would tell you that!" Victor scoffed.
"See let's not fool ourselves, we all know those that are promising, all I want to hear about are your thoughts on them!" Quinn said causing a change of expressions among the crowd. "Besides if you all are worried about me taking them all in my faction, the one you need to worry about is our dear young master Owen!" Ashley's ears perked up at that, "And what about him?!" she inquired.
"He has that kid from the Hori clan, and let's not forget the kid who could control gravity!" Quinn all but said in glee. Realization dawned on the crowd as they looked at Owen before Lily interrupted. "I don't think that gravity kid is all that much, besides he's just a one starred rank 3!" She said smiling, but everyone who knew her knows that her bubbly personality was but a facade. "You're just annoyed cause he got one over you in the mock trial!" Owen replied smugly which turned the smile on Lily's face strained. "He tricked me, not beat me!" she said. "Still a win in my book!" Owen smirked.
"You wanna take this outside?!" Lily's eyes narrowed as her aura started rising. "Anytime!" Owen replied—his aura equally flaring. "Let's get back to the topic of discussion, I'd rather not have you two fight because of a gathering I had thrown!" Quinn diffused the tension with an eerie smile. "Freak!" Ashley muttered under her breath. Their discussions about which cadet was promising was going into one of Owen's ears, and going out the other. Adam and Tokito were his friends, unlike what the others thought, he wasn't bringing in his faction.
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"Begin!" Aurora said softly. Adam acted first before she could even finish pronouncing the word, left became down as Aurora's body swerved to the side, but alas just before Aurora could hit the walls in the training room, she disappeared. But they were still in Adam's gravity field, so he could sense where she appeared. 'Above!' his head quickly sprang upwards, he barely had the time to cross his arms above his head before her dainty foot landed a devastating kick on my arms.
His arms rattled, his knees buckled, and the concrete ground beneath his feet cracked, all from the strength of that attack. 'Of course!' Adam inwardly shook his head in realization, even if she reduced her rank to the same as his, her physical might would still be more than his. 'Invert!' Up became down, in a split second the gravity acting on Aurora suddenly shifted direction, It was acting on her from above no more, but from below. But just as her body was starting to get yanked upwards, her hand grabbed into Adam's shoulder.
Now they were in a position where they were staring at each other's face, with Adam on the ground and Aurora mid air—her violet hair defying gravity. It was like time had stopped as they stared at each other. That was until Aurora using her hand on Adam's shoulder to pivot flipped him upside down. "Fuck!" Adam grimaced as he lay flat on the ground. "Rule no.1, never get distracted!" Aurora's voice was barely an echo in Adam's ears, he was in a world of pain. 'Oh come on, I've gotten beaten up enough today' he inwardly protested.
"Get up!" voiced Aurora. Adam got off the ground with a groan. "Do you know what you did wrong?" she inquired. "Um, I got distracted?!" Adam raised a brow—unsure. "Your mistake was staying on the ground after I flipped you down. If I were an enemy, I could have killed you many times over, before you stood up" she said. "Rule no. 2, you don't stop moving until your enemy is out." "Noted" Adam nodded. The only reason why he didn't move was because, 'She wouldn't harm me... I guess' he thought. Was this a real fight?, he would be getting up the moment his body touched the ground. He wasn't that stupid.
As they stood apart from each other, "Begin!" Aurora said once again. This time Adam did a completely different thing, "Whirrrr!" Aurora's body was suddenly dragged towards Adam while he readied his fist for a punch. What?! thought he wasn't gonna punch a girl?! well you thought wrong. Said girl had been beating the hell out of him for a while now, and a punch on her exquisite face would soothe some of his pain.
Alas, Aurora didn't teleport away this time, instead she grabbed onto Adam's arm that was poised to strike her—effortlessly. Then landed a kick on his solar plexus—sending him flying. But using his gravity field, Adam's body suddenly stopped mid flight, before shooting back towards Aurora, but he was forgetting something, Aurora could teleport. She simply vanished from his view just as he was a few inches away—making him stumble. He felt her appear behind him and without hesitation sent a powerful repulsive force from his back sending her flying for the first time.
"Not bad! You landed a hit for the first time in weeks. It proves you're improving!" Aurora said. 'Wait, was that a complement?' Adam thought. "Thanks I guess!" he voiced out. "The past week you had asked me what happens if you managed to land a hit" she said to which I nodded. "And what did I reply with?" Aurora asked. Adam gulped, he remembered exactly what she had said. "You'll show me why that was a mistake!"
"Hold on!" Adam stated. "I don't remember landing a hit on you!" She looked at him blankly, but Adam could see the slight unnoticeable quirk in her eyebrows. It was only because he's been seeing her every single day for weeks, that he even noticed it. "It wasn't even a hit per—say, it was just a push!" he reasoned. "You're right, but in combat, it's considered a hit!" she replied.
"She's just looking for an excuse to manhandle me!" Adam muttered under his breath. "Hmmm?!" Aurora hummed. "Nothing!" Adam replied. Just then a ping came from Aurora's smart bracelet. A hologram popped up, before Aurora dismissed it. "I have something to attend to, you can leave or continue training if you want!" Aurora said before disappearing.
Adam did not think for more than a second before deciding, "I'm leaving!" he'd had enough for the day at least, instead of pushing himself further, he'd rather go continue condensing his eighth star. After all it's the only real thing that could push his powers to the next level. Adam had no doubts at all about reaching rank 2 before the second year. He knew he could probably reach it in at most eight months, and that was if the energy he could draw from his bloodline plane didn't increase again.
—Dis...— Adam started before stopping himself. If he suddenly disappeared from the training room, Aurora would know he could teleport. And he didn't want that. Besides he was already low on essence, he only had about twenty percent of his reserves left. So he walked out, like the 'Walker' he was.
Soon he got out of the academic block and into the portal station, then back to the dorms.
Adam went back to his dorm room, and spent the rest of the day condensing his star. The faster he he ranked up, the easier his cultivation would be. The star cultivation method worked like this, the longer one stayed in a rank, the harder it'll be to rank up. And Adam didn't want to make it any harder for himself.
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