Descendants of Gibbous-Chapter 73: Battlefield

Two weeks later and Alicia’s victory against Rohan was still big news everywhere around Gibforge. Rumor had it that the caretaker had to take a one-week break to completely heal from the attacks she had served him.

"That’s the difference between a person who has experience in the real battlefield versus someone who’s never been to a battlefield before. That’s why we make sure your training is just as grueling and realistic so that when you go to fight against Rogues be it here in Gibbous or the human world, you can handle them," Professor Kofi Owusu told them during their spell evading/body manipulation classes. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It was one of the subjects Damien had become quite popular in thanks to his durable stamina. He was finally able to keep his flow state in action for an entire lesson like the rest of his vampire classmates which helped him in evading the attacks Kofi sent in his direction during their training. Professor Kofi was one of the few Gibbits with two tribal traits in him, the other being Wizardry prowess—which made him perfect for their class.

Despite the professor’s gloomy and dark personality, Damien had grown quite fond of the subject. Thanks to watching Alicia’s victory, he and some of the students were pumped up for training the following week, and a few of them got into fights that led to yet another battle that weekend.

To say the least, five first-year students had already been sent home after losing the battles.

Damien swore to himself that he’d avoid challenging anyone until he was sure he had grasped most of their physical and magical lessons. At best, he was in the top ten high-scoring students for their physical lessons. There were martial arts—taekwondo, kung fu, parkour(which was done in the school’s moving corridors), and aikido; there were gymnastics, dancing, capoeira, trampolining, tumbling, yoga—Damien was good at all of them.

The only problem was the magical lessons—the ones that needed a lot of thinking. It was a huge problem simply because he was dumb. It wasn’t because he played too much, no. He really tried to listen when they were being taught where to cut if they wanted such and such amount of blood flow for their manipulation attacks, or when they were being taught how to control the blood with aura so it could change its states.

Then there were the joint aura manipulation classes which every student despite their tribe had to attend. Damien had almost died in one of them after trying to channel his aura in one area using a skill their teacher called the Trance state. It was only thanks to his four teammates and the teachers that he was able to visit the nurse’s office, and even then, they told him Principal Twiller and Professor Mei had to come and take a look at him for the boy to finally wake up.

Unbeknownst to them, he had gone back to his dark empty conscious world.

Just like his shadow had warned him, Damien was alone that time, and he had to let out his aura just like the shadow had taught him—which took almost an entire day in there before he was finally able to get out—but the others told him it had only been an hour since ehe had passed out.

Ever since then, Damien had to be trained by Dion on how to use his aura at old man Twiller’s command, which made total sense since he knew how Damien got his power and was there the night he used the gem. Twiller had told Dion everything he needed to know about Damien’s aura, including how the boy had told them about the shadows and fiery frames.

That’s how Damien ended up being scheduled to have private aura manipulation lessons every Tuesday morning period when the rest of the first-year students got theirs together in the training rooms.

"Is your Flow state ready?" Dion asked in his usual bored voice.

Two weeks of being near the man and Damien had yet to see him show some life in those dull eyes of his.

"Yes, Professor."

"Please, call me Dion," the man spewed the words out as if groaning.

"Yes, Dion," Damien corrected himself, finding it relaxing to call his teacher by his name too.

"Good, now on to the next stage, overdrive."

Now this was where the problem began. Damien was part of the seven first years that’d used overdrive state during the selection process, but he was the only one who couldn’t repeat it. Twiller believed it had something to do with how the boy got his aura, and so did Dion and Mei-ling. However, none of them could prove their claims—not that they ever discussed these matters with Damien.

They only told them their conclusion, never how they reached it.

Damien groaned, trying to let his aura loose around his body. Like he’d been told, overdrive state was merely a way of letting one’s aura coat their bodies. Whatever they decided to do with it once it was out, be it intimidation or protection from enemy aura, that was up to the Gibbit using the state.

The part that annoyed Damien more than anyone was how overdrive state was viewed as the basic power every Gibbit had to possess—it was even said that normal schools trained their students to use the state.

"You do know that failure to be able to attain the overdrive stare in four months of being here leads to expulsion right?" Dion warned, sipping his coffee as he sat at his desk to watch over the struggling Damien.

Damien bitterly nodded.

It was true. There were so many things that made young students who wanted to be heroes lose that dream at Gibforge, and the main reason was weakness. Damien, Eden, and his silent roommate Troy—the three weakest students so far—had gotten the worst end of it.

Eden managed to push through somehow, but Troy and Damien were worse. The boy would always come from his wizard classes mumbling to himself behind Ambrose’s back after both of them sustained a few wounds somehow—but none of them would speak when the seniors asked what was going on with them.

BAM!

The door violently swung open and Damien flinched but soon returned to working on his aura. It was their usual guest—a large ginger cat that sashayed into the empty classroom like royalty, sitting on Dion’s lap the next moment.

’Look at him smiling,’ Damien thought to himself just when the bell to signal the start of his lunch break rang.

Today, however, they weren’t supposed to head over to their rooms just yet for their battle simulation teachers had a very important event set for the first years.

"Remember Damien, out of the two hundred first years who got selected this year, only a hundred can make it to becoming second years. Train yourself even at night if you have to, because unless you want to go home, this school is a battlefield as well."

"I’ll keep that in mind, Dion," he nodded, grabbing his books from the man’s table all whilst the ginger cat glared at him.

"I’ll see you tomorrow after school then," Damien added, referring to the extra lessons he’d asked for the previous day and Dion nodded before the boy rushed out of the room in Bracadia’s cardinal direction for the gut wrenching news he’d been dreading ever since they were assigned teams during their joint classes.

The announcement of the students that he and his teammates were supposed to fight in the next four-against-four battle simulation classes.