5 Shock

The next morning, Grey got up filled with energy as he ran out of his room. He saw Martha in the living room and told her he was going out to train.

Martha noticed how cheerful Grey became since he started cultivating, although he hadn't made a breakthrough yet, it was good he can cultivate now. Martha was surprised Grey was going to train, she remembered that since Grey started cultivating the technique, he had immersed himself fully on it.

"Eat something before you go, also, remember to take some food with you" Martha immediately shouted when she saw Grey was about to leave without eating.

Grey hurried back and ate some food. He took a little along and went on his way. "I will return late today" Grey yelled from outside.

Martha smiled wryly.

Grey came out of their house, and headed straight for the entrance of their little city. On his way to the city entrance, he noticed that even though it had been some time since the test, people still recognized him, not only that, but they mostly look at him like an anomaly, and some could even be seen whispering to little kids while pointing at him.

"Trash!"

Grey saw a young boy his age shouting at him. If it were before, he would have felt bad when he was called a trash. But now, he doesn't give a shit about what they're saying about him.

He ignored them and continued his journey towards to forest.

The youth who was with two others looked at Grey with a small smile, "Oh, looks like he's starting to grow wings, good thing I noticed it early. Guess it's time to teach him another lesson."

The two others chuckled slightly, but didn't plan on joining him when he's teaching Grey a lesson, they only planned to watch, after all, they've heard about Grey's mother's violent nature.

Most of the people in the city knew that Grey usually goes to the woods to train, the city wasn't big anyway, so the occupants are familiar with each other. Some of the people usually mocks him, saying he had gone mad because he was trash. But he stopped paying attention to them when Martha told him those were just people who had sad lives, so they were looking for an outlet to pour out their frustration.

This youth was called Derek, and surprisingly, he was recently kicked out of the Academy. He was a Wind Elementalist, only his elemental grade was the lowest there is, pink. Not just that, but he was bad at cultivating, so when he didn't meet up with the target set by the Academy which admitted him, he was sent back home.

After joining any of the Academies, there are tests carried occasionally to see the growth of the students, if they notice a student isn't making any improvements, the student will be dropped. The pressure and competition at the Academies are really high. Derek and his friends were part of the students dropped. Although he was dropped, he was already in the Seventh stage of the Collection Plane. His age should usually have broken through to the Fusion Plane by now.

The Collection Plane is the first Plane in an Elementalist's journey, this is the Plane where the Elementalists collect the elemental essences from the world into their bodies for the first time, thereby strengthening it.

********

Grey got to where he trained and immediately began with his usual training session. Before he knew it, it had already started to get dark, and he still didn't get as tired as he used to.

"Wow, seems like my physique improved . I can train for longer periods without quickly tiring out now." Grey said with astonishment.

"Could it be because of the technique I'm currently cultivating" He pondered for some time. Since he couldn't figure out what caused it, he decided to forget about it for now.

He prepared his things and headed home.

On the path leading to Red City from the forest, a group of youths could be seen standing by the side of the road. Their leader was a boy around fifteen years old, there were four boys in total gathered by the side talking.

When Grey walked closer to where they were gathered, he paused and looked at them. This was not his first time encountering something like this, since the leader of this group in particular came to the city some months ago, he had been targeting him. But due to the fact he didn't want to make any trouble for himself, he always tried his best to avoid him. 

Although, there had been one time, or two times, or three times, okay, it's been a lot of times that he had been unfortunate to not have been able to avoid him, and they spoke amicably, with him having a black eye at the end of the conversation.

"Here comes the trash, boys." Derek looked at Grey with disdain.

The boys started laughing when they heard this, they've always accompanied Derek whenever he bullied Grey, or any other youth.

Grey looked at them with emotionless eyes, before asking, "Derek, what do you want now?"

He asked while thinking of a plan to get out of his current predicament. He knew what Derek wanted to do to him, and he didn't plan on having a black eye this time, he was a little tired of telling Martha lies although he knew she was aware he was lying.

"I never knew you were this stupid, you obviously offended me this morning. I called you and you snubbed me" Derek replied with a mischievous smile.

Derek's group snickered when they heard this.

Grey's expression changed to one of surprise, "What? When? Derek, isn't this a little too much? I don't recall you called my name, I remember hearing your voice, but you were clearly talking to someone else."

"Moron, I called you but you didn't answer. You embarrassed me in front of my friends." Derek scoffed.

"Did you call my name?" Grey asked to clarify things.

"Yes, I did." Derek affirmed

"Trash," Grey said.

"Yes," Derek responded to what Grey said. After responding, he paused for a moment and realized Grey was calling him trash, and he even answered.

"You see, you said your name is trash. I clearly heard when someone asked you your name, and you replied 'trash'. So I thought you were speaking to someone else" Grey said playfully.

"You!" Derek almost exploded in anger, he didn't think Grey would dare to trick him.

"Apolo... You know what, forget about apologizing, cause even if you did, I wouldn't forgive you." Derek said.

He knew he couldn't beat Grey in a war of words, so he decided to beat him up.

'Crap! I messed up, I shouldn't have toyed with him.' Grey immediately regretted his decision.

Before he could even say another word, he saw a change in Derek's appearance.

'Shit!' He cursed inside and prepared himself.

Derek mobilized the wind elements in his body and charged towards Grey, stretching out his hands to grab hold of Grey's shoulder.

When an Elementalist is still in the Collection Plane, they aren't able to wield the elements outside their bodies, because they've only not collected enough elements, but they've also not fused with their said elements yet. It's only when an Elementalist goes above the Fusion Plane, can they wield it. But while in the Collection and Fusion Plane, they can only use it to improve their strength and speed.

Being a Wind Elementalist, Derek was faster than others in the same stage as himself.

Grey sidestepped quickly, and he unexpectedly managed to dodge Derek's grab.

"Huh!"

Grey, Derek, as well as the youths watching from the side all exclaimed in surprise.

'What just happened?' Grey asked himself.

Although his motive was to dodge Derek's attack, he knew he couldn't, but he still attempted it since there was no harm in trying. Due to his frequent physical training, he could be said to be fast, even amongst some Collection Plane Elementalist, but in front of a Wind Elementalist, it wasn't much. He never expected he would be able to dodge the attack, he also noticed his senses were heightened.

The youths watching were amazed, Derek couldn't even believe Grey dodged it. He only planned on hitting Grey once or twice, but now, he changed his mind and prepared to beat him up properly.

Grey on the other hand was excited when he thought of what just happened.

'Don't get cocky, maybe it was a mistake.' He told himself.

"Hmph! Don't get full of yourself because you were able to dodge my attack," Derek said before attacking once again.

He mobilized the wind element in his body and pounced on Grey, throwing a fist at his face.

Grey panicked a little when he saw this, but he quickly tried shifting his head to the side, and to his surprise, he was faster than Derek once again. This time, he dodged the attack almost effortlessly, had it been before, then there was no way he would have been able to dodge the strike due to its speed.

Derek didn't stop with this attack, after his fist missed, he immediately tried to hit Grey on the stomach with his knee, but just like before, Grey dodged the attack, only, this time, he retreated back.

Derek kept on attacking, and Grey was like an experienced fighter, easily dodging the strikes.

"How can he be so fast" One of the youths exclaimed. They knew just how fast Derek was, yet Grey was still able to dodge his attacks.

"Stop..." Grey wanted to try to convince Derek to stop attacking, but he was interrupted by his roar.

"Ahh!" Derek roared in anger.

He had been attacking for almost one minute now, yet he hadn't been able to touch Grey even once, it was infuriating.

On seeing that Derek didn't plan on stopping, Grey knew he shouldn't stay on the defensive anymore, he finally decided to attack if an opportunity presented itself.

It didn't take long before the said opportunity showed itself, but being someone who was inexperienced in fighting, he was unable to capitalize on it. Luckily, he was faster than Derek, so it didn't come back to haunt him.

Another opportunity presented itself when Derek threw a reckless punch towards him which was enforced with the wind element. Grey dodged the attack by bending down, after dodging it, Derek's body was completely exposed and defenseless due to his stance.

Grey gathered as much energy he could muster and sent a punch towards Derek's chest.

Bam!

His fist connected, and an even more unexpected scene followed right after, Derek's body shot through the air and hit one of the trees that was at the side of the road. He passed out right after.

"Huh!" Grey stood stunned, alternating his gaze between the unconscious Derek, as well as his outstretched fist.

'That shouldn't be possible, right?' He asked himself.

The youths watching were dumbstruck, their mouth opened so wide that an egg could easily fit right into them. They stared at the unconscious Derek and back at the dazed Grey.

After standing for a while, Grey quickly went home. This was his first time he was able to fight back, and he was elated by it. On getting home, he didn't tell his mother of it, not because he wanted to hide it, but since he had refrained from telling her when he was bullied by him, he decided to let the matter go.

He took a warm bath before eating dinner, then the thought struck him to try cultivating.