The Reprisal Room

Arata stood there stretching, feeling rather good after that battle. He had used yet another one of the Sato Clan's Nine Sempiternal Art's. The Fifth Sempiternal: Gluttonous Cloud. This Sempiternal Art was particularly powerful, but the conditions to use it for lower levelled Masteries was restrictive to say the least, and it was a bother for Arata normally, but became a perfect countermeasure against Galen.

Gluttonous Cloud involved sending an aura and Energy out that would eat away at the opponents strength and Energy. The user of the Cloud would then absorb and "eat" the Energy. The higher one's Mastery was, the more they could "digest" from the Energy they "ate". Digesting was the term Arata's Father used for converting the Energy into strength. Unfortunately, lower level Mastery limited the percentage of how much of the overall Energy would be digested to be used to strengthen the user and how much would be wasted.

Also if the user was hit by an Energy at a level much higher than the user's, the result could possibly lead to being over fed, taking in and absorbing too much Energy and exploding. To originally learn this Sacred Art, Arata was beaten to an inch of his life by his Father before being taught to the stance and pushed to absorb his Father's Energy. Through the pain, he was able to do it and was healed of his injuries. To which his Father replied by sighing thankfully as he was unsure if he would have been able to heal him as he had gone slightly overboard with the beating.

As Arata was chuckling to himself at these memories, the students all stared at Arata in awe. They couldn't understand how he had defeated Galen. Most of the students knew exactly how strong Galen was, and thinking about his strength, his experience as someone older, all the factors should have come together to end with Arata on the ground. And yet, reality was different.

Ryouma stood there with a grin on his face. Akari nodded her head in approval. Even Aidan, who had got himself to sit up on the wall to watch the fight, was in awe and had to admit that he was impressed by Arata. The whole room was silent as they all tried to process the fight they watched. Oishi suddenly broke the silence as he jumped up and cheered loudly.

"Yay! I get my room back!"

At Oishi's comment, Arata looked over and couldn't help but chuckle. Once he did, the crowd began to buzz and chat excitedly.

"Two battles back to back! This is the best day ever!"

"That Arata kid is something else."

"You can't forget Ryouma. I still don't understand how he overpowered Aidan."

"How did Arata beat Galen? Why are these battles so confusing?"

As they continued to talk, Galen slowly sat up. Seeing him, Arata came over and stretched a hand out to him. Galen saw Arata's hand and paused for a second before smiling and taking it. As Arata pulled him up, Galen chuckled.

"I guess it is a given that a simple commoner couldn't beat a noble."

Arata shook his head.

"This battle had nothing to do with status. You have the power of a true warrior. As a fellow warrior, I respect that."

Galen was surprised. Although he said it in a roundabout way, Arata had basically said that he saw him as an equal. He hadn't expected someone with Arata's status and stature to say that he was on the same level as he was. Galen bowed at Arata with respect.

"You won fairly, Son of Azrail. The room is yours."

He nodded before turning around to walk away.

"I'll give you the time to take your things from the room while I grab mine."

He gave Ryouma a look as he walked past him. Ryouma nodded and glanced at Aidan.

"Thank you for the battle. I will give you time as well, like Captain said."

Aidan chuckled as he nodded.

"No sweat. As long as you promise we spar again sometime."

Ryouma grinned.

"Deal."

Ryouma followed after Arata, as did Akari and Oishi. The crowd parted for them to walk past. As they left, the crowd continued to buzz about the battle that took place. Galen walked over and helped Aidan up. Aidan chuckled.

"They really are a bunch of monsters. Seems like we are losing our touch."

Galen nodded.

"Seems we have become complacent. I think it is time to step up our training."

Aidan nodded as they parted and went to their respective rooms to pack their things. Ryouma nodded to the others as he left to go to his old dorm to grab his things, Oishi offered to help him. Akari said her goodbyes as she went back to her dorm. Arata went to his room, or more accurately Oishi's room now, and packed his things, which was easy as he still had his things in his bag. He smirked to himself.

'Told you I wasn't going to be here long.'

Arata gave Galen a bit of time, waiting around in Oishi's room, before heading upstairs. As he reached the room, Galen was waiting outside the door. He saw Arata and smiled. He then threw keys to him, which Arata caught.

"I got some of the student's to take my things already to another room. I just want to say that you shouldn't get too attached to the room. I'll be back for it."

Arata grinned.

"Take it if you can."

They glared at each other for a second. Although there was clear tension, it was based off of mutual respect, which they could both feel and understand. Galen smirked as he turned to walk away.

"See you around, Son of Azrail."

Arata watched Galen walk away before opening the door to his new room. He walked and closed the door before chanting and setting a speel on his door, something he had a habit of doing since he was young. Once he had finished he sighed loudly.

"Why is everything so tense? The past two days have been so full on. I need the holidays to start already."

Arata stretched as he yawned. He then looked around the room. It was much larger than his last room. It had a black and white theme. The black and white on the walls seemed to be pushing against each other yet there was a balance. A synergy. Arata walked around as he stared at the walls.

"Yin and Yang. Harmony and balance. The synergy of opposing forces."

Arata rambled as he walked around the room. There was equipment to the side that intrigued him. There was an apparatus with what looked like a giant spider. It was a large frame that had multiple arms coming out from it. Arata could guess that it was a sparring machine. He had read about the room so it was easy to guess what all the different machines and levers would do.

This room was could the Reprisal Room. As the name suggested, it was a room that specialized in retaliation, counterattack and evasion. This was a Counter Expert's dream room. He found a panel with different buttons and writing next to them. He glanced over the buttons and found one he wanted to try. He pressed the button and the room's aura began to change. The machines all began to glow. They were originally all grey, but now the machines turned a dark red color. He grinned.

"So it can use different Elements to help one practice Countering them all. Interesting."

Arata looked at what looked like circular buttons that covered the walls of one of the corners, they were also on the floor and ceiling of that corner. He walked over and pulled the lever by the corner before stepping in the clear section that these strange buttons had marked out in the corner. There was a low buzzing sound as Arata waited patiently. Suddenly, a ball of fire shot out of one of the buttons, directly at Arata. Arata dodged it and saw that one of the buttons had lit up, he then punched that button.

There was a clicking sound. Two fireballs now were sent at him from two different buttons while another button lit up. He easily dodged the fire balls and hit the button. There was another clicking sound. Arata understood that it was increasing in level. He grinned as he wondered how many levels there were considering how many buttons there were in this corner. Two fireballs now shot out and a button lit up. Again, Arata dodged them and moved towards the lit up button, when another fireball shot out. He barely dodged it before hitting the button.

"Delayed attacks now. OK. Show me what you got next."

Arata continued training for 15 minutes straight. He hadn't been hit once, but he was getting tired and the attacks were now random and extremely hard to predict and dodge, he had to concentrate fully to overcome the waves of fire now. However, he had a grin on his face. This was the kind of training that he wanted. It felt more and more like the training he was used to.

The clicking sound went again. Arata's eyes went serious. A barrage of fireballs came shooting out of the buttons. They weren't just aiming at him now, they were also aiming at the different places he would move to to dodge the other fireballs. He had to bend and twist to dodge all the fire, he manoeuvred his way through the attacks, bouncing around like a ball, ricochet ingredients off the walls and the ground. He suddenly saw the lit up button and did his best to near it, but the flame attacks were purposefully setting up openings that would then cave in with fire. Traps laid out everywhere.

Arata was enjoying himself as he tried to figure out how to get past these fireballs. He finally found a break that he could squeeze through if he was fast enough. He leapt forward, twisting himself through the air. There was a knock on the door. Arata turned and was distracted for only a millisecond. But it was enough as a fireball hit him in the back. As he moved from being hit, he was hit again and again. After 18 hard hits of fire, leaving him slightly searing, smoke permeating off of him, he slammed on the ground hard.

He heard the buzzing of the machine come to a stop. A robotic voice then echoed in the room.

"Level 53."

Arata slowly got up, groaning in pain. Knocking came again from his door. He glared at the door as he slowly made his way over. He quickly removed the spell and opened the door. As he opened it, he was greeted by a smiling Ryouma.

"Captain, I just moved my stuff in. My room is so...."

Ryouma stopped talking as he saw Arata glaring at him, smoke rising from him and his clothes slightly damaged. But Ryouma was completely terrified at the look Arata was giving him. Arata spoke quietly but it sent a chill down Ryouma's spine.

"You broke my concentration. I was in the middle of training."

Ryouma quickly tried to apologize, but Arata grabbed him and pulled him into the room. He shut the door and sealed it again with a spell. He then turned to Ryouma.

"I lost because of you. So you will continue where I left off."

Ryouma was terrified as a evil grin appeared on Arata's face. Ryouma watched as Arata walked over to a panel, as he pressed a button, Ryouma watched as all the red equipment to turned to a light blue. Arata moved quickly and threw Ryouma into the corner where the buttons were. Arata stood by a lever and saw on the gauge above the lever, it was still set on 53.

"Perfect, you can carry on where I left off, show me what you can do, Shadowguard."

Ryouma felt a sense of dread. Later in life, Ryouma came to fear his Captain's anger and wrath, although he was relaxed and quite a chill person, Ryouma learnt on this day that his Captain was a spiteful person that was terrifying when angered. This day was etched into his memory for life. He tried to apologize again at his angry Captain, to no avail. Arata pulled the lever as he gave an evil chuckle while he stared at Ryouma.

"This is what you get for making me lose. Now, dance for me."