( 3 weeks before final exams )


    *Pant*


    *Pant*


    *Pant*


    Rocky panted heavily as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.


    *Dodge*


    *Block*


    Blocking an attack from Instructor Mae, Rocky reached the two minute milestone in his spar against her for the first time in his career.


    [ Rapid Feet ]


    [ Pressure Bomb ]


    Using thebination of  rapid feet and pressure bomb, he created a magic trap using his feet while also retreating simultaneously, forcing Instructor Mae to chase him using a longer indirect path, so that she did not step over one of his traps.


    This forced the professor to lose a few precious moments in her chase, allowing Rocky to create tangible separation between them.


    Retreating in such a way was something that he had learnt only recently as he was polishing his fighting style every single day.


    *Swoosh*


    *Swoosh*


    *Block*


    Eventually, as the professor caught up to him and began thrusting her sword once again, Rocky dodged two of her moves, while blocking the third as he used the technique [ Earth Vines ] to try to bind her feet with vines.


    Unfortunately, while he did seed in creating some vines that bound her feet, they were too weak to stop someone as strong as the professor…. As they snapped the second she tried to move.


    *POW*


    "It''s over…."


    The second his Earth Vine maneuver failed in holding the professor, Rocky lost the fight as Mae hit him hard on the head, knocking him on the floor below, while pointing a sword to his neck as she said "It''s over".


    Nheless, even she appeared out of breath from the sparring, as for the first time ever Rocky had managed tost a few seconds over two minutes in a spar against her.


    Although she was a professor, Rocky was not fighting back at all and solely focusing on defense, it took her over two minutes to beat him, which just made her realize just how much of a beast Rocky really was.


    She knew that Rocky was different from the very first day when she saw him, however, never in her wildest dreams could she have anticipated that he would someday turn into such a monster that would make her spar with him seriously on a daily basis.


    It was almost like something within him had snapped ever since he fought with Zhi, as since that day, Rocky had been almost driven with his training as he trained frantically as if trying to grow stronger desperately.


    While Mae did not want to indulge him so much while ignoring other students who also needed her…. The seriousness and passion with which Rocky approached his swordsmanship training, moved her heart.


    She couldn''t help but pay him more attention than the rest, as after every spar, Rocky genuinely sat down to reflect on his mistakes and rarely did he ever repeat the same mistake twice.


    He was a kind of student, which made Mae proud and happy to teach, which was why although he was demanding, Mae indulged him as much as she could.


    *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*


    Just as she finished a round of sparring with Rocky however, her teachers rm went off, as Mae''s happy expression immediately turned serious.


    ''Invaders'' she thought, as leaving Rocky on the floor to recover, she rushed towards the university gates at once, to help the patrolling professors take care of the invaders.


    "How many invaders are there? What''s the situation like?" Mae asked over the teachersmunication device as she got the reply that there were too many invaders to count and that the situation was serious.


    "Fuck, I hope we handle this mess before Liam snaps" Mae prayed, as she increased her pace of running and dashed towards the gate as fast as she could.


    *********


    ( An hourter )


    A massive fight broke out between the hired guards, professors, versus the infiltrating Olympian scouts, as while the professors took down over 42 enemy scouts, they lost one of their own faculty members in the scuffle, as Mr.Mori who was the professor of arts and philosophy was killed by the enemy.


    Mr.Mori was not abatant and wasn''t supposed to respond to a distress call, however, purely out of love and concern for Liam, he tried to pitch in for the defense effort and unfortunately got himself killed.


    While the loss of his life was indeed regrettable, what the other professors feared more than his death was the effect that his death would have on Liam, as they were convinced that the old Principal would go mad if he ever found out.


    "Maven, you must force Liam to leave today itself. Banish him to solitude for his own good, because if he finds out about the death of Mori, he will lose it" Professor Mae requested Professor Maven, who agreed with her assessment.


    "Cover the dead bodies, I''ll go handle Liam at once-" Professor Maven said, as he rushed towards Liam''s office, hoping to somehow convince his old friend to leave the university for his own good.


    Throughout the way, the only thought that ran through his mind was how he would argue with Liam to convince him to leave although he had not been a part of any major incident, however, as he reached his office and found the door to be open, Maven felt his heart sink to the bottom of his chest, as the state of his office was not good at all.


    The bookshelves were dishevelled and destroyed, his favorite chair seemed to have forcefully been smashed against the wall, as a small wooden splinter seemed to be still embedded in the wall where the chairs debris was, while there was only a small letter left on his desk.


    As Maven picked up the letter, his eyes widened in disbelief and tears streaked down his eyes.


    The letter was clearly written frantically and with great difficulty, as Maven could almost feel the pain of his old friend as he wrote it.


    "Liam….No…" Maven murmured, as he wiped his tears and frantically began to chase after Liam, hoping to catch him before he dug out the cursed pendant and surrendered to the madness forever.