A swarm of blue crystal shards flew around Jade as she ran along the training field. Stone shapes were raising in random intervals all around her. Some of them were marked with a red triangle others with a blue circle. A stone shape emerged just in front of her. Jade jumped up and front flipped over the obstacle while she was in the air, she pushed out her hand sending the swarm of shards at the shape below her. The crystals shredded the training dummy into rubble. As she landed back on her feet the crystals move on their own accord creating a shield in front of her blocking a rather larger stone projectile. The impact made Jade stumble backwards into the rubble. She had to fight to stay standing. To balance herself, she shaped Duyi into his staff form and pushed him backwards into the ground.

“You are getting better at working with your weapon. But we still need to work on your footwork. That flip was entirely unnecessary, you could have avoided that without destabilize your footing.”

As usual she got scolded by her Master during combat training. “Yeah, I did regret it as soon as I was in the air. But it did look cool, or at least it felt like it would look cool.”

Namoru sighed: “You should get rid of that notion to try and make things look good. Looking cool will not save you from the claws of a beast or the sword of your enemy. There are no rules in a real fight, only survival. We are done for today; we will pick this up tomorrow.”

Saying her farewells and picking up her stuff Jade made for the main campus road. She was just past the cultivation chambers when she spotted a group of other students moving in the same direction as her. Most of them she had never seen before but one of them did stand out.

Ethan looked uncomfortable in the midst of three other girls who where obviously vying for his attention and favor. Just as Jade made the decision to avoid that landmine Ethan spotted her and showed a reaction as if he just seen his savior. Waving and calling her name her started to jog over to her. Resigning herself to making new enemies today she gave a halfhearted smile and wave towards Ethan.

“Jade, long time no see. How are you doing? I didn’t know you joined the academy.”

“Hi Ethan, yes I did get scouted by a sect and they are having me attend. I am also getting extra lesson before the term starts.”

“Huh, me too. It was the only way my dad was going to let me out of the house at all.”

At this moment the three girls managed to catch up to Ethan. Two of them had rather awkward expressions. The 3rd girl, a petite redhead, was looking at Jade with a little bit of scorn in her eyes. She turned towards Ethan giving him an expectant look: “Who is this, Ethan? Is she a friend of yours? Could you introduce us?”

Ethan responded: “Of course. This is Jade. I met her during my awakening, she is the one I told you about. Without her help I would have had a hard time dispatching the demon. Jade, this is Teiyu, Melissa and Loren.”

He pointed at the girls in turn. The redhead who was still giving Jade a judgmental look was Teiyu while the other two girls, an athletic brunette and chubby girl with black hair were mostly hanging back not sure what to say.

‘This is getting worse by the second’, Jade thought. Outwardly she responded with a smile that she hoped did not look too fake. “It is a pleasure to meet you Teiyu, Melissa, Loren. And he is giving me too much credit, he did all of the fighting and also gave the final blow. I barely did anything at all.”

Jade gave Ethan a meaningful look that came down to pretty much: “Shut up you idiot.” Taking the hint Ethan steered the conversation to a different topic.

“Are you done with your training today? If so, we were going into the city to grab a bite to eat before I get dragged back home by my bodyguards. Would you like to join us?”

Jade looked at the Teiyu who gave her an impassive look. She did want to talk to Ethan especially since he might be the only person she would know at the academy. “If you don’t mind. I’d hate to intrude, but it would be nice to get to know my future classmates.”

“Great. Let’s go then.” He looked relived at her joining up with them. So together they made their way off campus. Outside a luxurious car was waiting for them, and a man dressed in a nice uniform opened the doors for them. Jade was a bit hesitant to step into the expensive car but Ethan encouraged her to get in, so she had no choice.

They drove for 15 minutes deeper into the city. The interior of the car looked like it was out of a movie. Smooth brown leather seats, a mini bar and even a small TV all made her painfully aware that she was in the company of rich people.

Surprisingly Teiyu was the one the pickup the conversation by addressing Jade: “Jade was it, right? How do you like our Academy's facilities? Are they helpful in training your Concept?”

“They are excellent and quite a lot better then I was used to. The training fields were useful, they provided enough space for me to try out my Concept. What impressed me more were the teachers that I've met so far. All of them seem very capable.”

“The academy is known for its exceptional quality of teachers and equipment alike. If it is not to forward, could I ask you for your Concept? Mine is Underworld Flower, Melissa’s Concept is Seasons and Loren’s is Mountain.”

“Sure, I don’t mind. My Concept is Growth. Underworld flower sounds like an interesting concept, it certainly sounds unique. Seasons and Mountain sound like they would be useful too. Yours is fire right Ethan?”

“Uh, pretty much.” He answered awkwardly.

“Don’t be modest Ethan. Your Concept is a named Concept of Fire, there is no reason to hide it. You should be proud about it.” She looked disapprovingly at Ethan who just shrugged and replied: “It’s not like that it does anything different to a normal fire concept, maybe I am a little faster with my flames then others.”

Teiyu crossed her arms in front of her and glared some more at him. Ethan sighed: “It sounds so embarrassing when I say it out loud”, he gave a side look at Jade who gave him a 'what are you waiting for' gesture and sighed once more, “It’s called the Righteous Flame”, he mumbled.

“What? That was to quiet, I couldn't hear you.” Jade teased.

“Righteous flame!” Ethan spat out exasperated.

“Oh ho, It seems even the world agrees with your hero complex.” Jade grinned at him. Teiyu gave Jade her first genuine smile. “Yes, it does, doesn’t it? I think it fits him quite well. The heavens gave out their just reward for our dashing hero.”

After breaking the ice this way, the following meal actually went quite well and they started to warm up to each other. It turned out that Teiyu and Ethan knew each other since childhood, Melissa and Loren on the other hand were the daughters of their parents’ subordinates. Teiyu’s mother was the General of Fire’s second in command.

Jade tried several times to involve the other two girls into their conversation but they always seemed to answer politely and as succinct as possible. Almost as if they were too afraid to speak a wrong word in front of these two big shots.

After finishing their dinner, they left the restaurant together only for Ethan to be dragged away by his bodyguards. He gave them a wave of goodbye before he disappeared into another expensive car. Jade turned to Teiyu who was approaching the car they came in when Duyi suddenly gave her a warning.

She jumped forward and pulled Teiyu by the back of her dress, pulling with all the strength her body could muster. They both flew away from the car when a massive Shadow maw suddenly burst out from below the car and swallowed it whole.

They managed to escape just in the nick of time, which could not be said for Loren and Melissa. Loren was swallowed whole by the Shadow but Melissa was only clipped by it. A horrifying tearing sound was heard as her right arm and leg were ripped from her body.

Melissa screamed in pain and horror as two spouts of blood burst from her body. There was another crunching sound as the chewed-out car was ejected from the maw in the ground. With it came splotches of blood and what looked like a clump of wet and tangled hair.

Jade stomach revolted as she realized that it was all that was left of Loren. Unlike her, Duyi reacted and created a swirling shield of shards in front of her. Teiyu on the other hand had drawn a staff from somewhere and started chanting.

“The lonely soul wanders the underworld only to stop and wonder at the flowers that pave the way.” A swirl of red petals was released from her staff that rushed towards the still screaming form of Melissa. As soon as the petals reached Melissa, they created a bed below her and Melissa suddenly became frozen in time. Some of the blood was still in the air not moving.

Jade snapped out of her shock and started to breath just like her master had taught her. Quickly a calm overcame her and she concentrated on the Shadow that was by now emerging out of the ground.

It looked like a giant man with the head of a shark. He was at least 20 feet tall by now. His giant shark head looked grotesque on a human body, almost as if someone just mashed the two together and then increased the size to an absurd level. He was wearing large scraps of clothing tied around his body haphazardly sewn together. The skin was a slick dark blue with blotches of black and grey skin.

“Duyi, I think this is a little bigger then we imagined our first enemy to be.”

“Don’t worry child, this thing seems like it would be quite slow. Just focus on your dodging lessons, while you keep it occupied, we will chip away at its body.”

Jade steeled herself and rushed towards the large monstrosity diving and rolling out of the way of a wide swipe of its massive hands. Jumping back to her feet she ran in between the giant’s legs while willing Duyi to slice at its ankles. The swarm of crystals split into two and formed large blades cutting at the beast. Duyi managed to injure it but the cuts weren’t very deep. Its skin was thick and oily, protecting it from a good part of the damage.

The Shark Giant as Jade started calling it, whirled around to chase her. Its massive tail fin created a massive gust of wind that knocked several cars over. Teiyu just managed to conjure a wall of ghostly flowers before it would have swept both her and the frozen Melissa into the wall.

Jade was lying flat on her stomach to avoid the fin but she was dragged by the winds along the ground giving her severe road rash all along her front side. Biting through the pain she got a up quickly running more circles around it but keeping away from the tail fin.

All the while having the flying blades of Duyi slice the creature up and down. It started to have some effect but Duyi alone had little power behind his strike without significant speed or a large mana investment into his cutting power. Jade was pretty sure that she wouldn’t be able to keep this up for too long, her stamina was already half spent.

“Duyi, I think I need to try and get close enough to touch it and try [Extraction], we haven’t tried it on anything living yet but I don’t think I have a choice.”

“Understood, I will switch to defense.”

Jade dodged another Tail swipe from the monster by closing the distance to her target. She started to weave back and forth still circling but closing the gap more and more. Suddenly the Shark turned even faster than before swiping its tail at Jade yet again. Fortunatley, she had enough time to doge. She infused her mana into Duyi as fast as possible saturating him with the maximum amount of mana she could manage.

Duyi turned into two hands that braced themselves against the incoming tail. There was a boom and a shockwave as Duyi managed to stop the tail and hold it in place. Now was the time to strike. Jade grabbed the tail just as her crystal hands did and willed her concept to extract the Genesis energy out of the creature.

Level 10 Uncommon shadow Demon

Mana 300/635

Genesis Energy 125/200

Suddenly Jade could feel the Demon with her soul, it was a glowing dark ball of energy. And without hesitation she pulled at the energy that was stored within. The Demon reacted immediately with a loud and primal scream. She felt like there should have been a barrier or resistance to what she was doing, but the demon seemed to be missing something that Jade’s skill expected.

Jade could see its muscles rapidly degrade, his skin became dull and cracked. The oil on his skin started to smell rancid and foul. The energy started to stream into Jade as she experience before but it was much more than she ever received before. Once the few points of Energy that she expended during the day were restored the energy could not be stored in her soul anymore. That was when her core acted up and sucked all the Energy into itself.

The Demon thrashed a couple seconds more before it collapsed in on itself at the exact moment when his GE hit zero. Jade slumped down on the ground exhausted and weary. She looked over to Melissa And Teiyu. Teiyu had laid Melissa down next to the car and was feeding her a pill and applying a salve on her torn limbs. Once she had applied everything, she dropped the skill and time resumed around Melissa. The healing took effect immediately closing all the wounds and sending Melissa into a deep healing sleep.

The distant sound of sirens were mixed with the bittersweet sound of the system messages.