Monday September 4th, 2018

  As the class ends and everyone slowly streams out, it only takes a few minutes for the only people to be left in the room to be the two siblings. “You felt it to, right?” Alexia asks Alex.

  “You’re talking about the aura?” Alex hums to himself and slowly nods his head. “Yes, a powerful child and very in tune with his affinity.”

  “He was using it to shield those two girls.” Alexis says.

  “Mhmm. They were the beast-kin girls. The families have a close alliance. There was a lot of drama when Akira and Graham announced their daughters were in the same party and then even more when they had the same Personal Guard. But now I see it was a power play to keep their daughters close to that boy.” Alex cleverly sees through what the two clan leaders are doing, and his sister is nodding along.

  “I didn’t even think of that, but it makes sense. That boy must be truly special. Although he felt injured.” Alexis has always been the most perceptive of the two, even if Alex is the cleverest.

  “Well, there just was an attack on the Kashiwagi clan. He must have been injured then.” Alex using his own tier 3 aura sweeps the building and finds the boy in his senses. As his aura touches the boy, he can feel as his defenses get raised and he starts to look around. He might not be able to glean the boy’s emotions without him noticing, his aura control is too strong. But he was surprised that the boy was able to feel he was being watched.

  “Yes, we will have to keep an eye on this one. He is a lot more than he seems.” Alex and Alexis are on the same page for this. Even if it is for two very different reasons. Alex was the Senechal and very adept at politics. His sister might be teaching etiquette, but most of her etiquette was learned on the battlefield.

  “Is everything okay Helo?” Hinata asks from his side, she always has been very aware of her surroundings. Alli on the other hand is a few feet ahead of them and chatting with Isla.

  “Ah… yeah I just felt someone watching me.” He looks over his shoulder again, “But nobody was there.” It felt less physical and more spiritual, an aura… Must have been a professor, or a very skilled student. There always is the chance that one of the tier 2 students will find their aura. But it is incredibly low. Most tier 2 students will find their aura after school when they have settled into their roles in life. That is when Graham and Micah found theirs.

  Finding an aura requires a powerful will, that is aligned with your body and mind. The only reason Helo has his is because he awakened it when he was young. He was always the most comfortable alone, in the woods. While he was there, he felt the most at peace. Right now, acting as a bodyguard and at school, Helo doesn’t think he would be able to awaken it again.

  Mumbling to himself he starts to wonder. “Why is a professor watching me?” The only one that comes to mind is Alexis. She felt his own aura and acknowledged him for it. If someone were watching him, it would be her.

  Checking the time, he has a little over an hour before his next class. Realm Upkeep is a class that goes for about an hour and thirty minutes. So, it leaves him with an hour and thirty minutes before a language class and another hour before math.

  These last two classes he isn’t excited about, but he understands the necessity. There are a few languages that are considered ‘common’. The beast-kin have a common language, the humans have another, even if there are multiple versions, elves have a language, and so do dwarves. Between all these races they have formed a simplistic language that they call common. But each race has their own variants.

  So, he understands the need to learn this language and all the ways it can vary. It doesn’t mean he is excited for the class. Helo, Alli and Hinata meet up with the rest of the party. Some of them are just getting back from their own classes but most are still sitting in the café near the center of town.

  Gabi, being her normally straightforward self-calls out to them. “How was it? I saw the class name ‘Etiquette’, Ugh. I bet it was booooring.”

  Alli skips forward and plops into a seat, Helo and Hinata are not far behind her. “Actually, it was alright. The class seems like it will be interesting. A lot of it is about strategy and combat.”

  This makes a few of the party perk up. Specifically, Rocco, Carl and Luna. So Alli goes on to describe the class and time goes by quickly. Helo is alone for next class he is going to. Everyone else has been involved in the Awakened community their entire lives and they don’t need a beginner language class. The professor is a quiet and boring man. The class plays out similarly to his first one. Most of the class is wary of him due to his high level and the feeling of power that radiates off him.

  Unfortunately, Helo finds that the next class is similar. It is the same professor as the last one and it is all about math related to the system. For Helo this class is less than helpful. He doesn’t even have mana, and the class only talks about other energies later in the school year. One thing that he does find helpful is that eventually he will learn how to measure precise amounts of mana based on level, tier and affinity.

  The class will ask questions like, ‘How much tier 1 level 40 fire mana do you need to evaporate ‘X’ amount of tier 2 level 57 water mana.’ Now it might not be an interesting subject to learn. But it should help him with his array and enchantment making. One thing he helped Yoeko Yamamoto with was calculating how much energy they needed to precisely direct the lava flows in the mountain.

  Too little and it doesn’t work, too much and it goes bad the opposite way. He wasn’t much help, but he held the paper and wrote the answers for her. So, he might not be excited for the classes, but he is excited to further his craft.

  His math class ends at five and Helo heads directly for the mansion. On his way he makes a detour to go check out the shop that he got himself involved in. He could just ignore their troubles. But Allen seemed like the kind of man to take pleasure in causing pain, plus he seemed like someone that would take extra. If Helo leaves them alone, after getting involved, they will just take it out on the shop owner.

  As he enters the street, he can tell that something is going on. It might not have happened yet, but someone seems to be going on soon. There are very little people in the road and if someone does have to go somewhere they are keeping their heads down.

  Standing at the end of the street Helo looks around and finds himself directly next to ‘The Moon’s Reflection’. It is the clothing store owned by the BrightMoon family. Slipping into the store he hears a soft ‘Ding’ rings out as the door is opened. Gracefully from the back a beautiful woman in an elaborate curve hugging dress steps out.

  She has silver hair like Alli and the same blue eyes. She is much taller though and seems sultrier compared to Alli’s cheerfulness. Helo is stunned for a second at the sight of her. Then he hears a playful “Hehehe. You must be Helo.” Breaking out of his momentary daze, the woman is now directly in front of him and studying him.

  “Ah. Yes. Your related to Alli?” Helo asks her. He didn’t think Alli had any other siblings. The only one he ever saw was Calain and they didn’t talk about him much, mostly due to him being an ass.

  She steps closer and now she is well into Helo’s personal space. He feels odd about this, Hinata and Alli are so often in his personal space that he has gotten used to it, at least for them. But this woman looks so similar to Alli, that he isn’t having the same reaction to her being close that he would for strangers.

  She slides past him and locks the door. As the door latches into place with a “Click” Helo turns around. He can see her turning the sign on the front of the door from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’. She looks back with a sultry smile and a wink. Then she laughs “Hahaha, you should see the confusion on your face.”

  She grabs Helo’s shoulder and shakes him in a very Alli like manner while she continues to laugh. Her change in demeanor is making Helo lower his guard even more. “Yes, I am Alli’s distant cousin.” Then with a hazy blur two cat ears come into view and over her shoulder a silver cat tail is flicking playfully.

  This confuses him more. Alli’s ancestor is wolf beast-kin. “Oh, don’t look so confused.” She lightly smacks his arm and turns him back into the shop. “I’m related to her on her mother’s side. We are distantly related on her father’s side. Intermarrying and all that.” She waves her hand casually like incest is normal. “Don’t give me that look. It was years ago, and they were barely related.”

  “I don’t think you have seen her mother’s clan yet. You have seen Hanwi Valley. It is the clan headquarters. Then you go down the mountain and there is another valley that surrounds all of the clan’s land. If you go north and keep going north. All the way to the valley edge. Then you go up the mountain, you will find the panther-kin community.” She leads Helo through the colorful and expensive dresses, then she sits him down on a couch.

  After that she walks away with a swing of her hips and starts making tea. “The panther-kin community are like the Kashiwagi and the Hayashi clans. Only the panthers like to keep to themselves.”

  That answers some of the questions Helo has had. He knew that there were a ton of different races within BrightMoon territory. Most were a mix of Beast-kin. But he hadn’t seen any other panther-kin. The only other feline beast-kin he saw was Luna. She is some kind of cat, but nothing like a large apex cat.

  “Anyway. So, what did you do to my street. Things were pleasantly busy, now everyone is scared to come here.” She sets down Helo’s tea then looks at him with a stern face. She has her hip cocked to the side and a hand on it.

  Helo squints his eyes at her. “Who said it was me?”

  “Oh I don’t know. Maybe the rumors about the red-eyed teenager, or maybe the complaint I got from my fiancé Jorden about all the extra work you are giving him.” She quirks a brow and watches Helo’s reaction.

  Helo flinches a little bit and sighs. He is about to answer her but then he realizes something. “What even is your name? Wait your engaged to Jorden.”

  The beautiful woman blushes a little, “Oh I totally forgot. I’m Willow. And yes, I’m engaged to Jorden.” Then she fixes her expression back to the quirked eyebrow. “So, what happened.”

  “Hahhhh… Well Alli and Hinata were with me. We saw a guy going into a store and trying to shake the place down. Something about protection fees.” This makes Willow nod her head. “Anyway, I knew the girls wanted to get involved, but it was only me. So, I sent them away and entered the store. The guy, Allen, was being a complete ass. I stepped in and stopped him.” Helo shrugs at the end. What else was he supposed to do.

  Willow gets a bit of a sad look and nods her head. “I understand how you feel. I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but Jorden is excited about what you did. He was going to spend these next two semesters relaxing. But now he gets to go around bashing heads in and taking territory from others.”

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “Why is there even protection fees and a culture that allows it here?” Helo has been curious about this. It doesn’t really make sense.

  “Well. Greed. The bigger families and clans have the money to push people out of their homes. But straight up theft isn’t allowed by the Friggheim clan. So, they started putting pressure on weaker crafters and traders. Eventually it turned into a type of game for the clan heirs.” Willow says with a sad look. “They allow it to happen because in reality, that is what happens.”

  “Mhm… So why is the street so quite?” Helo asks, it is the main reason he is here.

  “HA… ahh, Allen was not happy when he woke up. He has been sending people to attack that shop all day. But Jorden has had a few of his party members watching it.” As she says this, she looks out the window. “Actually, you can see it right now.”

  Getting up from the couch he didn’t even fully realize he was pushed into, Helo looks out the window next to her. Walking down the middle of the street Allen is flanked by two men and a woman. He is walking up directly to Ren’s talisman shop with a furious look.

  As he gets to the three steps in front of the building, he unconsciously rubs the back of his head. Then he marches up the steps and raises his fist to knock on the door. Just as he is about to knock on the door it swings open, and he completely misses. Face flushes with embarrassment, Allen glares at the person opening the door only for his expression to freeze.

  Out of the building Jorden strolls out like he is enjoying a beautiful night out. Arms up and behind his head and smiles at Allen. “Hey there, I hear you’re the helpful ‘Protector’ around this street.” As he says the word protector, he takes his hands from behind his head and makes are quotes. Laughing he pats Allen on the shoulder while walking past. The three people following Allen pale a little and step aside to make room for Jorden.

  Everyone has heard about Jorden. He is one of the strongest people in school. He might not have a combat class. He is a mix of control mage and strategist. But he is known for his intelligence that hides behind his playful smirk. The three people following Allen are all regretting their life decisions. Nothing is better than working for one of the sixteen main clans. That is, until another of the clans decides it wants to join the party.

  And now, it seems like the BrightMoon clan is making a play for Starhaven territory. Up and down the street people are stopping to watch what is happening. Anyone that was close by already retreated into the alleyways and the people in the buildings practically have their faces pressed into the windows.

  Allen is glaring at Jorden and wants to step up to him. He might have the previous year. Jorden is stronger than him, but the Starhaven clan had an heir backing them. It was Dorimer’s first year and he wanted to make an impression, so he started throwing his weight around. But this year the BrightMoon and Kashiwagi heirs are here also. Plus, Jorden is directly related to the BrightMoon’s, while Allen is only a subordinate that was told to take care of gathering the ‘taxes’ from this street.

  Smirking Jorden watches Allen and his crew walk away. As they are walking Jorden is thinking about how he can start taking over the rest of the street. It will be a great gift for Alli when she starts staying at school long term next year. Plus, it will be funny for him to create a massive mess and a ton of responsibilities, then dump it on her head later.

  Helo is a little upset he didn’t get to see a fight. But at the same time Jorden is in the middle of tier 2. Allen was only at the beginning of the same tier, and his followers were still in teir 1. It wouldn’t have been much of a fight.

  “Well, that was boring.” Willow says. “So, I hear Alli is a seamstress also. Do you think she will come to work with me.” Will ask as she unlocks the door and turns the sign to ‘Open’.

  Helo, knowing that everything is fine with the family, he politely excuses himself and then heads back to the mansion. His class ended at five and it is getting closer to six at night. Getting to the house he can see Alli and Hinata in the central living area.

  After getting interrogated for taking so long, then getting questioned about why he didn’t invite Alli to come have tea with Willow as well. The girls lead Helo into the dining room, and the team has dinner. Everyone discusses their first days and their classes.

  After dinner the night goes smoothly, and everyone prepares for their classes tomorrow. One thing that does change is Alli gets a message from Jorden saying that he can’t make it tonight. But they also get an information package that updates the territory maps. The only change is another store gets added. It is the store right next to ‘The Moon’s Reflection”.

  “Huh. So he is busy taking over more shops.” Alli says with a shrug.

  After breakfast the next day the entire team sets out to go to their joint class. This is a multiple hour class that focuses on fighting as a party. The class goes from nine in the morning to two in the afternoon, and they get thirty minutes at noon for lunch. The only thing to happen during breakfast was Alli going through her messages and her getting another three from Jorden. He took over another three stores during the night.

  Following a map to the class, it is being held in the massive arena that is found in the middle of the town. It is near the offices for the guards, traders and craftsmen. Entering into the large circular building it looks like it was designed after the Colosseum in Rome but made with a Norse architect. The building is large with open spaces and plenty of wood.

  Following the two heiresses, they walked into the center of the building and entered the arena seating. Looking down, Helo could see hundreds of people within the massive arena floor. They were all packed into groups of five to seven and each group tended to surround or array themselves behind a single person. So, the party and their leader. Helo thinks to himself as he follows Alli down the steps.

  They reach the arena floor and step onto the sand that covers the ground. Helo’s senses are going ballistic as he can hear and feel everyone around them. Most of the people are in a mix of school uniforms and battle gear. Everyone has some kind of weapon strapped to them or a wand on their hips.

  Helo is a little impressed. Doing a quick scan with his aura there is a larger amount of tier 2 individuals than he expected. But at the same time there are at most two in each party. Helo notices a few people that he has seen before. For some reason he feels surprised that Allen is here with his party. He can also see a mix of different human races like Asian, European and African. But also magical races like dwarves, elves, orcs and beast-kin.

  Following behind Alli the group ends up near the wall that they entered in from, it isn’t long before a tier 3 presence descends onto the arena. All around him people are pushed to their knees. Cries of fear and pain ring out. To Helo’s surprise he even hears some animal cries in the mix. Only the strongest of the tier 2 students, and those that are used to feeling this kind of pressure remain on their feet. This means most of the people with tier 3 parents like clan leaders and right merchants.

  The pressure continues to grow and so does the visual effect. It started with a sense of sharpness and danger. But slowly it turned into a metallic shine that warped the surroundings. Eventually it is only the tier 2 people standing and Helo’s group. Helo is using his own aura to combat the pressure. But spreading it around to cover his entire party of thirteen is pushing his aura thin.

  The people that have fallen are only feeling a portion of the pressure, still enough to feel heavy but not enough to hurt them. It is a demonstration of immense control from whoever is doing this. Those people on the ground can lift their heads. They can see people that they have known for years struggling against the pressure. Tier 2 party leaders or their ace teammates, people who have won tournaments, or some of the best crafters in the school. Around the already fallen the visible aura markers are light, but around those still standing the metallic color continues to grow stronger.

  But then near the wall they can all see a brand-new party of tier 1 students still standing. Surrounding the group is a dark haze that starts on the ground surrounding them in a circle. The dark haze then swirls up and dissipates before it even gets halfway to finish the globe. But everyone can see the spiritual barrier that was erected around the group. It starts with a chain of whispers that sweep across the ground of the arena like a wave. Before people can talk too much, part of the group starts to fall.

  Everyone watching sighs because it wasn’t that impressive. But then half the group is still standing and the globe that surrounded them didn’t dissipate. It only shrunk.

  Helo looks over and gives them an apologetic look. Carl, Gabi, Rurgrim, and Luna were standing further away from the rest of the party. So, as Helo’s strength waned, they were the first to feel the full pressure.

  Using his hands to focus his will Helo holds them out. Alli and Hinata are each standing on one of his sides and his outstretched hands are passed their bodies. The globe of resistance he has erected is slowly but inevitably being pushed in. One after another the rest of his party drops. Aiko, then Arisah. Followed by Cody, Bibbin and Rocco. Until it is only Helo, Alli, Hinata, and Lelai who is sitting on Helo’s shoulders.

  The most powerful of the tier 2 fighters are still standing. Everyone else has dropped. It is only the warriors that have the mental fortitude to suffer through the pressure of the tier 3 aura. In the corner Helo’s own aura has been reduced to a cone that extends to the end of his outstretched hands.

  He has sweat dripping down his face, and his entire body is screaming in pain. Helo has yet to fully recover, and this is really pushing his recovery. He considered backing down but when he did ‘Bloodline Awakening’ activated without his conscious control and his instincts took over. Blazing red eyes are glaring up into the stands near the north of the arena.

  Nobody can see or feel where the assumed professor is. Helo couldn’t even find him with his aura; his aura can’t extend past his hands right now. But when ‘Bloodline Awakening’ activated he got a sixth sense of where the pressure was coming from. Then using his auto activated metal and life sight, he could see the signature of the assumed professor.

  The professor is sitting in the stands and staring at Helo in astonishment. Many of the tier 2 students he has taught before. A lot of the work he does is acclimating them to powerful auras. Nothing is worse than losing a fight because you can’t stay on your feet. Plus, fighting in a party means inevitably fighting monsters stronger than yourself. But he can’t take his eyes off the snarling boy. His aura is potent and powerful. With the amount of effort, he has been putting into suppressing everyone he could drop an entire stadium of your average tier 2 crafters.

  But he is focusing on Helo. The amount of pressure on him would drop a fresh tier 3 fighter. But he can feel the boy starting to faulter. With all his effort put into pushing back the pressure, the professor can read him like a book. The kid is only standing now because of his instincts. Plus, he appears to have already been injured and he just made it a bit worse.

  “Dammit.” Professor John Arkson, sighs from his spot in the stands. He now either must let the kid win, knock him out quick, or let him continue to hurt himself. Not one to back down but not wanting the other students to see him have to put in extra effort. Professor Arkson forms a sword made of his aura and launches it toward Helo.

  He is impressed by the boy’s instincts. Helo visible reacts to the attack. But he is under too much pressure to react.

  His eyes were closed tight, and blood is streaming down his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. His instincts are still growling out a refusal to lose, a refusal to accept defeat and a refusal to allow what is his to be attacked. But before he can hurt himself more, Helo’s eyes flash open and he looks up. As he does, he meets the aura-based attack head on, and his eyes roll into the back of his head.

  As he collapses, so do Alli and Hinata. For just a moment both girls felt the full weight of what Helo was under, in that moment both girls saw their vision quickly darken. Then it was gone. The professor wanted to do Helo a favor, so he let the girls experience what he was suffering for them.

  As Helo hits the ground a loud “YIP” is heard and Lelai jumps free. She twists in the air and lands on her front paws. As her back paws reach the ground, she lifts her head and sends a condensed orb of mist directly at the professor.

  Professor Arkson quirks an eye at the attack. He isn’t upset, if anything he is impressed and amused. She must have read from his gaze where I was. That is one smart fox. He thinks before jumping over the orb. It blows up the stands behind him, but it just adds onto a cool factor.

  With the stand blown apart, pieces rain down all over the arena. They are hitting the downed students. By the end every single student was on the ground. But all their gazes were following the orb, and they say the image of their teacher dodging the attack with his cloak billowing.

  Smiling as he lands, Professor Arkson looks over the group. “Some of you did alright.” He stops and shrugs. “Some did pitifully. And some of you did great.” With that last sentence all eyes turn to the unconscious kid that is now leaning against the edge of the arena.

  The Professor slowly walks over and gazes at Helo, he nods. “He should wake up soon. His mind is a bit taxed, and resources drained.”

  Alli is glaring at him, but Hinata appreciates his words. Taking out a vile from her bag of holding she pours a potion down his throat. This is just a simple relaxer, but it is focused on helping the mind relax versus muscles.

  Then the professor turns back to the class. “So, that is just a little of what you will be going through in my class. It isn’t just about helping you work better together. It is about showing you how to react in a crisis. What if I was a tier 3 beast, and I just flew over your party. You all got hit by its aura. None of you can shield someone else, unlike this kid.” He points behind him with his thumb.

  “So how do you rally together to fight back. How do you fight when all hope seems lost. How do you make sure everyone returns home.” Looking around the arena floor, the professor can see the understanding in many of the students’ eyes.

  A few of the nobles have a look of annoyance, it is the party’s job to sacrifice for them, they think. But the professor just ignores them. Nobles like that he just teaches and sends them away. He doesn’t put in any extra effort. But the party leaders that want to strive and fight with their team, he might offer them some extra help.

  Turning around he reads the kid’s unconscious aura and guesses he will have ten minutes before waking up. “Rest up for fifteen! Then we will come back and start out day.”