The academy awoke to whispers the next morning. Servants sweeping the courtyards found shattered stone, bloodstains on the walls, and faint grooves carved into the ground as though the earth itself had been torn apart by invisible chains. Rumors spread like wildfire: someone had fought a deadly battle in the dead of night.And all trails pointed to one name.Kael.Students whispered behind cupped hands as he walked into the morning assembly. Their gazes were mixtures of awe, fear, and disbelief. Some claimed they saw assassins dragged unconscious from his courtyard before dawn. Others swore that the very air had trembled with suffocating weight.Kael ignored them all. His expression was calm, unreadable, but his aura pulsed faintly beneath the surface like a storm waiting to break. He had no patience for gossip. His mind was fixed on one name—the traitorous elder who had dared to send killers into his quarters.Elder Veylan.The

The Deathwood was unlike any forest Kael had ever seen.Its trees were titans, towering so high their canopies blocked most of the sun. Thick roots coiled along the forest floor like slumbering serpents, some as wide as carriages. The air was heavy, damp with mist that clung to the skin and reeked faintly of decay. Every step stirred the underbrush, but no bird sang, no insect buzzed.It was not the silence of peace. It was the silence of something watching.The students hesitated at the treeline, their bravado thinning into unease. Even the boldest glanced warily into the shadows, their weapons held tighter than before.Kael walked forward without pause. The oppressive air pressed against him, but his aura pushed back instinctively, parting the mist around his figure. He looked as if he carried his own storm into the forest.Selene followed at a measured distance, her steps silent, her eyes sharp. Daren and his lackeys, not to be outdone

The second day in the Deathwood dawned with a sky hidden by heavy clouds. No rays of sunlight pierced the canopy. The forest was darker, thicker, more suffocating than before. The air buzzed faintly—not with insects, but with something heavier, like the vibrating tension before a storm.The students woke to the unease. Many had barely slept, their minds haunted by last night’s assassination attempt. The whispers among them were sharp, accusing, fearful. They knew Kael had fought them off, but fear was a stubborn weed; it only grew thicker in the dark.Kael, as always, was calm. He sat cross-legged, his aura folded in tight, yet every student felt safer just by being near him, though most were too proud to admit it.Selene approached him with a low voice. “The forest feels different today. Something is stirring.”Kael nodded slightly. He had felt it too—an undercurrent rippling through the Deathwood, like thousands of heartbeats synchronized in ant

The Deathwood grew colder as night descended. The mist thickened, curling around the trees like living serpents. Shadows stretched long, and even the bravest of the students drew closer to the dwindling fire, their nerves frayed from the endless trials of the day.The grove had been quiet since the assassins’ retreat, but the silence was too heavy, too unnatural. It wasn’t rest. It was the hush of predators biding their time.Kael sat apart from the others, his back against a jagged stone. His eyes were half closed, but his aura spread outward like a living net, weaving through the forest, brushing against every shift of wind and rustle of leaves.He did not allow himself sleep. Not tonight.Selene crouched nearby, sharpening her sword. The steady shrrk-shrrk of metal on whetstone cut through the silence. Her gaze flicked to Kael. “Your aura is wide open. You’ll burn yourself out before morning.”Kael’s lips barely moved. “Better I exhaus

The gorge trembled under the weight of two clashing auras. Mist shredded apart, forced back by the pressure radiating from Kael and the gray-masked commander.The students staggered under the suffocating weight, some dropping to their knees. Even Selene narrowed her stance, her knuckles white against the hilt of her sword.This is no ordinary assassin, she thought grimly. His presence was unlike the crimson one’s reckless ferocity. This aura was sharp, precise, the kind forged by endless battles and refined into lethal perfection.Kael took a step forward, aura rippling outward in a crushing wave. Stones cracked beneath his boots, the gorge itself groaning as if bowing under his will.But the gray assassin did not move. His aura remained steady, cutting through Kael’s pressure like a blade through water.Finally, the assassin spoke, his tone calm, measured. “Raw power. Boundless. Unrefined. You wield your aura like a hammer against ants.”