“Make sure you use your entire body for every attack,” Arden said. “You need power to hit hard, and power comes from your feet and moves throughout your body as you move.”

  “Yes!” Kepler said, swinging her hardened streamer stag antler.

  “Following through is the most important thing for every attack. This is where most newbies fail. I was the same way.”

  Arden and Kepler stood away from the campsite as he and Kepler trained, and they were attracting a small group of onlookers who had recently woken up. They still had a little more than an hour before the expedition would continue, so they were happy to see some entertainment.

  At first, Kepler was almost unable to move as the group of onlookers stared at her and Arden. She could feel their interest and scorn in equal measure. They were interested in the fact that training was happening during the assessment, and scornful of Kepler who had none of the skills as the rest, yet still dared to come along on the assessment anyway.

  “T-they’re staring at me…”

  “Let them.”

  “They think that we look stupid.”

  Arden chuckled, and his voice rose in volume so that the onlookers would be able to hear.

  “If they think we look stupid, then they would hate to know what I think of them.”

  There was the sound of footsteps as one of the people Arden just insulted approached him from behind. Arden smiled.

  “Want to say that again, asshole?” The man asked.

  Arden sized him up. The man was a little taller and a little more muscular than him, with eyes that told Arden how little he and Kepler were worth to him. With his bulk and brown buzzcut, he looked like the kind of guy who spent more time picking fights in bars than actually picking up chicks.

  ‘Perfect,’ Arden thought.

  “Sure, I don't mind,” Arden cleared his throat. Before he continued, he noticed that Kepler had stopped swinging her bone rod. “Keep swinging that, Kepler.”

  “O-okay!” She said, only half-focused on her training now.

  Arden spoke again, infusing his aura into his words, allowing them to be heard by the majority of the people in the camp.

  “I said, if you think Kepler and I look stupid, then you would hate to hear what I think about you.”

  “I ought to rip your jaw off,” the man said.

  “And you shouldn't be here if you think that training, or indeed anyone who requires training, is beneath you,” Arden said, still speaking with his aura.

  “Is your aura supposed to scare me?” The man scoffed. “A sewer rat has a more threatening presence than you. Everyone here can put more aura into their words than you.”

  His eyes left Arden and moved to Kepler, who flinched under his arrogant stare.

  “Well, almost everyone. Be a good girl and put your stick down.”

  Kepler started trembling and a few tears leaked from the corner of her eyes.

  “Hey,” Arden said, sternly. “Your beef is with me, not her. Do not interrupt her training.”

  “Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?”

  “You must really be full of yourself,” Arden said. “You're looking down on everyone here now.”

  “I’m looking down on you.”

  “Then why are you disparaging those who are trying to improve themselves?” Arden gestured to the group of onlookers which had grown to nearly everyone participating in the assessment. “Everyone here worked hard to get here. It takes a special type of Starborn to willingly become a warrior. For you to deny Kepler’s efforts to stand alongside them is to deny everyone's efforts as well.”

  The crowd began muttering to themselves. The man finally turned back to look at them and saw that everyone was staring at him with disgust in their eyes. Even Instructor Lodi. She stood between Volis’ team and the remainder of Arden’s team. None of them looked upset at Arden, but rather the man who started the altercation.

  “You bastard…you set me up!”

  “Don't know what you're talking about,” Arden said.

  “I'll pay you back for this humiliation, you silver tongued serpent!”

  “I didn’t lie about anything. I just put your actions into sharper relief. You humiliated yourself.”

  With that, Arden turned away from the fuming man and went back to trying to help Kepelr improve. He helped her correct her posture, utterly indifferent to the stares that were shot in his direction. A book with an hourglass on the cover appeared in his hands and he flipped through it, apparently reading it Kepler.

  “W-what if we get in trouble?” Kepler asked, still too nervous to look at either the group of people or the angry man who was just humiliated.

  “You won’t get in trouble,” Arden said. “You were just training.”

  “What about you?”

  “50-50,” he shrugged. “At the very least, I didn’t start the fight. That should be enough.”

  Vera glanced at Lodi, who was still looking at Arden, Kepler, and the man who hadn’t moved. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Lodi wasn’t displaying any emotion on her face. It looked like she was still waiting for the conclusion before she could draw one herself. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

  “Will Arden be receiving any punishment?” Vera asked, getting no answer from the instructor.

  “I hope not,” Volis said. “Everything Arden said was correct. He was a bit arrogant about it, but the majority of everyone here agrees with what he said. Plus, even if he was arrogant, he’s not anywhere as arrogant as Schrell.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Is Schrell the guy’s name?”

  “Yes. He was one of the last people to get a team because no one wanted to be with him, for obvious reasons.”

  “I’m sure his team must love him right about now.”

  Volis spared a glance at the unfortunate remnants of Schrell’s team. They looked like they wanted to stick their heads in the sand. While everyone else held a strong antipathy for Schrell, his team members were the only ones who looked embarrassed.

  Schrell looked around at everyone, looking for some support. Everyone looked like they hated him, except for Arden who treated him like he was nothing. Schrell’s eyes landed on the one person who most certainly disliked Arden more than anyone.

  Kralis met Schrell’s pleading stare, and scoffed, turning away.

  “Idiot,” he muttered.

  Kralis was an arrogant guild scion. He had a predisposed opinion of those of a similar class that they were better than the riff raff below. But even then, he was someone who trained like hell to maintain his position. If someone was determined and diligent enough to put in the effort to get stronger, or had the willingness to do so, then Kralis would respect the effort, even if he hated the person. Even if they were lower class.

  He recognized that Arden was trying to play with public opinion, but he also knew that what he said wasn’t complete sophistry. Anyone who looked down on those who wanted to learn and improve were deluded.

  When Schrell saw that even his last hope abandoned him, he felt that he needed to do something to regain his pride. His reputation was already gone. His target had gone from arguing with him to pulling out a book and teaching someone how to fight, ignoring his existence. He needed to do something that would make everyone praise him.

  He just had to rely on the one thing that hadn’t ever failed him before: strength.

  Lodi’s eyes narrowed.

  It was hard to notice at a distance for everyone else with their red-tier senses, but Lodi was able to see Schrell’s arms stiffen and crack, like they were chiseled from stone. She prepared to move and intercept the attack before it hit the unaware Arden if Schrell finished the attack.

  Which he did.

  His fist flew forward. However, unlike what Lodi thought he was doing, he didn’t aim at Arden. He aimed at Kepler. Lodi moved to redirect the blow as she launched forward with her inherent speed of an orange-tier. It was going to be close, but she would be able to prevent the attack from hitting the anxious girl. Kepler’s eyes went wide as the stone fist approached, but before it hit her, Arden moved in front of her, shielding her from any damage.

  He was not so lucky, however. The attack that Schrell threw was closer to a stab than a punch thanks to the formation of his fingers and the jagged, rocky material that his skin transformed into. Schrell's hand plunged into Arden’s chest. He felt bliss as Arden coughed up blood. He wanted to get Kepler, but he was fine with Arden. All in all, he couldn't be upset. Not until Arden smiled at him with hungry eyes, and he no longer felt his hand, instead only feeling white hot pain as everything below his elbow was severed by the instructor. Schrell fell to the ground screaming in pain as blood flowed from his wound. Lodi's face was cold as the invisible wires that wrapped around his arm disappeared with a faint glow. Everyone watching was frozen. None of them expected rogue precautions to take place. None of them moved to help, and none of them tried to leave.

  “Arden!” Kepler cried with tears streaming down her face as Arden coughed up some more blood but still remained standing.

  “I'm fine,” he said, with a gaping hole in his chest that looked anything but.

  “That was a foolish thing to do,” Lodi said, staring down at Schrell. “I don't normally pass or fail anyone before the end of the assessment, but I'll make an exception for you.”

  Schrell clutched his wound and glared at the instructor. Pain was flooding his mind, but he was aware enough to try to defend himself.

  “You're taking his side!? He started it!”

  “He was training someone. You took it upon yourself to get involved.”

  “He instigated!”

  “So you attacked the person he was training.”

  Vera and Sya joined Arden and Kepler after seeing the attack. If they were worried, they were masterclass actors. Kepler was still inconsolable, though. She went as though Arden was dying right in front of her, something that wasn't helped by the constant bleeding.

  “I won't let you die!” Kepler cried. “You're going to make it through this!”

  “I’m aware of that,” Arden replied calmly as more of his insides spilled out.

  “It's going to be okay!”

  “I know I am. Calm down. Read this,” he said, passing his book to Kepler.

  Vera and Sya tried to calm Kepler down, to no avail. Eventually, Arden just started healing himself like he had done so many times before. Inside his wound, strands of red reached across and overlaid each other creating a honeycomb of biomass.

  Once he was done, he stood up and faced the surprised Kepler, Schrell, and the other other participants who were unaware of his powerset. With Arden mostly healed, she turned her eyes to the book she was given. As she read, she realized that more words were being written as she went.

  “Banked lifesteal,” he said, explaining how he was able to heal with a shrug. He turned his attention to the armless man on the ground with rage carved into his very soul by the looks of it. “Why did you do it? What did Kepler ever do to you? Why did you go for her and not me?”

  Schrell only spat at him.

  “Go to hell!”

  “Been there. Not really my kind of scene. Why did you go for her?” Arden asked again.

  “You be quiet,” Lodi advised.

  “I’m sorry, Instructor, but I won’t. One of my team members was just targeted unfairly. I don’t care what you do with him, but I and the rest of my party deserve to know why.”

  Lodi gave Arden a cold stare, the same one that she had on her face when she stopped Schrell. Arden challenged her gaze. With a sigh, Lodi broke away first. Arden took it as a sign of consent, so he pressed for answers.

  “Answer honestly, and I’ll ask the Instructor to go light on your sentencing.”

  Arden didn’t believe that he would be able to convince Lodi to do something like that, but he wasn’t about to tell Schrell that. That was going to be something that he learned himself, right around the same time that he learned that actions had consequences.

  “...I knew you would jump in front of her.”

  “Bullshit,” Arden said, dismissing his claim immediately.

  “It’s the truth!”

  Arden pointed to Kepler.

  “Kepler, what does the book say?”

  It took her a few seconds to realize Arden was talking to her. She was engrossed in the book that apparently was able to tell the future. When she responded, she did so while stumbling over her words.

  “I-it says that t-the a-aggressor speaks lies.”

  “Anything else?” Arden asked.

  Kepler trembled as she spoke the next part as the words appeared in the Codex Momenti Proximi.

  “I-it says that h-his b-bloodl-lust is directed at me.”

  “Lies!” Schrel roared.

  Arden extended a hand to Kepler, who realized what he wanted her to do. With the Codex Momenti Proximi back in his hands, Arden approached Schrell who was still restrained by the wires that dug into his skin. He crouched next to Schrell and revealed the words written on the page.

  The aggressor is at a loss as to what to do next.

  In a fit of rage, he knocks the codex to the ground.

  As soon as he saw the words, Schrell knocked the book out of Arden’s hands, causing the wires to cut deeper into him. As blood continued to seep from his wounds, Arden picked the book up and passed it to the instructor, and spoke quietly so that none of the onlookers could hear them.

  “Instructor, this is a Satellite that I came upon a while back. It can tell the immediate future.”

  Lodi skimmed through the book, not buying any of it.

  “Is this another one of your jo-”

  Until she read the words that were already written by the time she opened the book

  The Instructor is dismissive of the Codex Momenti Proximi’s ability.

  Until she read the words that were already written by the time she opened the book.

  She slammed the book shut and passed it back to Arden in a hurry. Sweat trickled down her face as she realized the totality of the Satellite's power.

  “I’ll take it from here,” she said. “Comfort your team member for now. We will continue in an hour.”