NOVEL NEXT Chapter 62: I'm going to sue!
It was 3am.
Damien Bloodbane suddenly opened his eyes.
His breath was steady. His body still. But his mind had already shifted into high alert.
His 2.1 stat points in Sense had allowed him to sense other energy wielders, and he was particularly sensitive to other death energy wielders like him as well as his nemesis, life energy wielders.
Additionally, he possessed a finely tuned sixth sense, and at this hour, it screamed a warning deep into his bones.
There, just outside the dorm, was a towering presence.
Not in mana pressure. Not in killing intent. But something else.
Life energy.
Pure, overwhelming life energy.
It blazed like a miniature sun in his mind's eye, radiant and vast. A presence diametrically opposed to everything he was.
Damien Bloodbane clenched his fist slowly beneath his blanket. Death energy curled in his veins, hissing with caution.
He didn't move. He didn't need to. The moment he detected the presence, he had already understood.
Someone had come for him.
And then, another presence—quieter, colder, more familiar.
Jennifer Aquafrost.
Her icy mana clung to the air like frost creeping across glass. There was no attempt to hide it. She was right there, accompanying the radiant life force. Walking toward his room. Purposeful. Calm. Dangerous.
So she really did it.
A midnight assassin? Or perhaps a holy executioner?
Someone from her clan? Or maybe from a larger organization tied to her bloodline? It didn't matter. The intent was clear. She had decided that Damien Bloodbane had become too much of a thorn. Too much of a risk.
Too unpredictable.
He closed his eyes again. If they intended to kill him, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing him flinch. Let them make the first move. Let them try. And then let them realize just how badly they had miscalculated.
Not that it would matter—they'd already be dead.
However... something strange happened.
The life energy outside the door suddenly faltered.
And then, without warning, it turned the other direction and quickly faded away.
And then the door creaked open.
Jennifer Aquafrost stepped inside.
She was calm. Composed. Not a single lock of her silver hair out of place. Her expression was as impassive as ever.
But she didn't look at Damien Bloodbane.
Not directly.
She walked to her bed. Set down a small satchel. Sat.
And right before the door clicked shut behind her, a whisper slithered through the narrowing gap.
"You made the right choice, Jennifer. Remember. Country above clan."
Then silence.
Jennifer Aquafrost didn't speak. She didn't offer any explanation. And Damien Bloodbane didn't ask.
He didn't need to.
He lay still in his bed, eyes half-lidded, staring at the ceiling.
So someone higher up had intervened.
Someone with real power. Enough to make a life energy juggernaut run away within seconds of contact.
Enough to redirect Jennifer Aquafrost herself.
"Country above clan," Damien Bloodbane murmured to himself, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Then he turned over and closed his eyes again.
Sleep came quickly.
But his mind was already shifting gears.
It seemed this academy… was going to be even more interesting than he thought.
At 4am, his room doors blasted open with the strength of a falling meteor.
BAM!
"GET YOU LAZY ASSES UP YOU GOD DAMN LAZY BASTARDS!" Came Professor Kong Hu's passionate roar.
The roar jolted all four students awake—though Damien Bloodbane was already sitting up with calm eyes, having sensed the man's presence seconds before the eruption.
Within five minutes, the entire first-year cohort had been gathered at the base of an unreasonably steep hill behind the institute, each one wearing a military-issue backpack stuffed to the brim with jagged rocks.
The straps bit into their shoulders, and the weight was cruel and unfamiliar.
Professor Kong Hu stood at the front like a general about to unleash hell.
"Climb to the top of the hill. Do not remove your packs. Do not stop. Do not whine. If you vomit, climb while vomiting. If you bleed, climb while bleeding. UNDERSTOOD?"
"YESSIR!" Came the roar from all of the first years.
They were all excited.
Most of them had expected to be woken up at such an ungodly hour, so they were mentally prepared.
"We got this."
"Hehehe. As expected."
Their satisfied grins seemed to say.
Professor Kong Hu blew his whistle, and the training began.
The first few hundred meters were tolerable. Grueling, but manageable. The air was crisp, the sky still dark, and the path uphill was narrow and dusty.
"This is quite tough." They began to think at the five hundred meter mark.
"Oh my god, this is crazy! We are barely halfway up! My legs are breaking!" They began to complain at the one kilometer mark.
"Ahh! Ahhh!! Let's rest! I can't take it anymore!" The shouts of giving up began to appear at the two kilometer mark.
At that moment, a far away voice sounded.
"Fire!"
And then, all hell broke loose.
Without warning, sharp cracks echoed through the valley.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
High-powered rubber bullets screamed through the morning air and began to rain down on the climbing first years with brutal precision. Hidden second and third-year students in ghillie suits and camo cloaks fired from atop boulders, trees, and distant ridgelines, their rifles trained on the wide-eyed freshmen.
The hits weren't fatal, but the first years didn't know that.
Within seconds, they were in absolute disarray.
Some screamed at the top of their lungs as the rubber bullets zipped past, ducking and flailing as if dodging actual live fire.
A few began sobbing hysterically, dropping to the ground and covering their heads with trembling arms.
One boy was spinning in circles, shouting, "Where's the safe zone?! Where's the safe zone?!" like this was a video game.
Another girl tried to use her mana to summon a shield, but ended up blinding herself with her own light spell.
"We are getting massacred!" someone shrieked from the bushes.
"I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!" howled another, diving headfirst into a thorny shrub.
"I'm going to sue! I swear I'm going to sue!" a boy sobbed, crawling with one leg while dragging his pack behind him like a war casualty.
Meanwhile, a small group tried to surrender by waving their white undershirts in the air—only to be met with more rubber bullets and the angry screams of an instructor:
"THIS ISN'T A NEGOTIATION! THIS IS TRAINING!"