A Hint Of What Is To Come [Part 1]

School Assembly.

"So… To ultimately join this Academy, you had to fight a Baby Hollow, one which is extremely weak compared to a true Hollow. Most of you managed to easily kill it. However, what most of the instructors noticed is that you first had a hint of hesitation."

The students looked at Olsen, some avoiding his eyes, while some proudly looking at the Principal of the Celestial Academy, as if they had done something amazing, while Ren just sneered.

"That hesitation is dangerous. You see, Newborns, Hollows lack almost any emotion, they do not hesitate to attack humans, it's what they live for, to become stronger by absorbing your soul. It's their sole objective. A Baby Hollow, while very weak, is still the same. If by any chance, any of you lost the fight, the Baby Hollow would've eaten your soul, and became stronger than you."

Olsen said. His gray hair, which showed his age fluttering due to the wind coming from an open window. His black beard showing his manliness. He might not accept it, but one of the reasons he had a beard is because it made him look manlier. However, his black eyes did not waver at all, only looking at his new students.

"You might not realize it yet, but a Hollow is very powerful. They can shatter a normal wall with a wave of their black hands, that if they don't have a tail or something else. Most of the time, they are taller than any of us, however, we can use some of what they have, and some which we don't have, to our advantage."

He continued, after taking a short breath. He could see a few of the students actually were bothering to listen to him a bit. That at least, made him a bit happier. Usually all of the students ignored him.

"That's why we are here, to stop Hollows from devouring of what is left of Humanity. We are the last wall of Humanity. IF we are somehow breached, it's over. We'll die. Game Over."

He internally smirked. His words were at least affecting a few of the students.

'Spoiled Rich Brats.'

He observed a part of the students before actually continuing, they were what he called 'spoiled rich brats' because that is what they were. Simply, heirs to rich families, here only through connections their families had with the Academy.

He ranked most of them at a subpar Rank F, the most basic rank of all Slayer ranks ever created, most of them were just rankless thought, the rank F was just to console them.

"I expect a lot of great stuff from you, my Newborns. We all do…"

He said before leaving the scene, leaving a lot of confused students behind. Ren stood up, in deep thought and started to walk towards the exit. It was time for his daily training. Just after leaving the large hall of the Academy, he was bumped into, despite his attempt to dodge.

He frowned and said in a rather loud tone,"Look where you are going, you might put yourself in danger if you do this again…" He was slightly annoyed at the person in front of him.

His annoyance did not lower at all, when he realized the person in front of him was a very beautiful woman. Long silky red hair, with a few spikes here and there, and cold violet eyes. It didn't really look like she was enjoying this.

"Look, I don't really have the time to deal with you. Get out of my way, before I decide to hurt you." She said with a cold tone. Ren glared at her for a second, before starting to laugh.

"What are you laughing at? I will really hit you!" The redhead growled, despite the height difference, she really looked intimidating.

"You are really stupid aren't you? You can't hit me, this is the Academy, it's a non-fighting zone. Unless you want to get punished, you can't attack me." Ren said as he stopped laughing slowly, and wiped out a fake tear from his eye.

The redhead looked at him, her eyes getting even colder. She was already pissed before meeting this annoying boy, and now her anger just rose.

Ren was really bored, but he was not bored to the point he'd argue with a person just for bumping into him. But that was not really the point of this. He could feel the negative emotions of the redhead, who wanted to attack him.

He could feel her Exo Source acting up. He was very sure of this. This girl here wanted to kill him, but of course the Academy rules prevented her from doing that. Ren smirked, he was so going to bait this girl into attacking him.

"Well if you had guts, you might've just attacked me… But clearly you don't." Ren added while his eyes revealed a ridiculing gaze at the young girl. He typically didn't have such a personality, but since she started it…

"That's it…" The redhead growled before she shouted at him," I, Alice Ether, Heir of the Ether Family , challenge you to a duel! The loser will apologize to the winner, and ALSO serve the winner for the entirety of the academy years!"

A duel, also called a Slayer Duel, is what Slayers In Training use to challenge other Slayers in Training to a fight, each having a different reason. Here you could use your Exo Source, to your enjoyment.

Unless one of the two surrendered, the fight would continue until one of the two is unconscious, the system also makes sure none of the two dies.

Ren took a breath and said,"Sure, I don't really have any reason to refuse, do I?" The redhead extended her arm, and Ren did the same.

"By The Laws of the Celestial Academy, The Duel Is approved!"

A red light engulfed the two, and they were teleported somewhere else. As their bodies disappeared, the redhead did not notice Ren's grin in the last second.

The two of them were sent to the Slayer Duel Arena, specially made for such occurrences, as it was not really that rare. At least once a day, a Newborn challenged another Newborn. That's why the Academy decided to give a special attention to this building.

If Ren had to describe how it looked, he'd say it looked like an ancient arena, albeit way larger and with much more space, and the surface was not soft, it was a very strong metal, which Ren had no confidence of cutting through merely with physical power.

He shifted his lower body, and touched the ground with his fingers.

"39%. 39% of my power, that is all this arena can endure. Funny, it was even said to endure the power of any Newborn, but that's not even close to the truth." Ren said in a low voice, almost seeming like a whisper.

Alice did not manage to hear the sentences, but she did see him opening his lips. She thought he was mocking her. She took a deep breath and her face turned dark for a second, her red hair shadowing her eyes.

"Answer My Call, Wind Of The Ancients, Owner Of The Sky, Creator Of What we Breathe, Astaroth, Appear before me, Sword Of Wind!"

(By no means connected to the actual devil.)

She extended her arm forward, what followed was an extreme amount of wind circling around her, to the point it became visible, as a gray-white energy. Slowly, it gathered in Alice's extended hand, taking the shape of a medium sized sword. Black handle, with 4 gems in it, and a white blade, which had a sentence in an ancient language inscribed in it.

Ren knitted his eyebrows for a single moment, before exhaling, he was visibly relaxed, unlike before.

'She decided to reveal her Exo Source so easily… Is she dumb, or confident that she will defeat me?'

He grinned, before he flicked his fingers, and without any abnormal thing happening, a sword appeared in his hands, the sword behind his back was no longer in the sheath.

"Let's do this partner, Let's Reap Another Soul (Well not really)"

Soul Reaper, was a rather average sword, there was nothing special or unique about it. However Alice raised an eyebrow. She didn't know why, but her Exo started to freak out slightly when the sword was unsheathed.

That was extremely weird, Exo had no conscience, it did not have emotions, it was merely a power, a power used by Slayers to manifest their gifts. There was only one way for it react so violently.

Only in front of something way more powerful than the owner of the Exo Source. Alice bit her lips before telling herself that was merely a fluke.

"Sovereign Of The Skies, Reveal Your Powers, Cut Everything in front of you, Wind Cutter!"

She yelled out, and slashed her sword several times, while running towards Ren. While he couldn't really see the Wind, he could feel the atmosphere changing.

He closed his eyes and waited... and waited…

"You reap what you sow." He muttered to himself, he shifted his lower body and whispered a few words.

"Feel our difference, Red bi*ch."

He turned his back to Alice, who widened her eyes. It didn't take a lot for her attack to arrive, and there was not much time for her to react to what he was doing, but she could not understand his current actions.

Ren, however didn't care about her reaction. He started to loudly talk.

"You made several mistakes, redhead, or was your name Alice?..."

He dodged the first attack by jumping slightly to the left.

"First, you childishly got absorbed into my talking merely because we bumped into each other, and you were slightly pissed out at something."

He blocked the 2nd attack by extending his sword lazily and the wind dispersed.

"Secondly, If you had apologized to me and continued your road, you might have been left with a bit of pride as a Newborn."

He jumped on top of the 3rd attack, without even looking at the direction the Wind was going, as if he already knew.

"Third, you judged my powers too fast, you acted rashly and made a stupid bet. You observed my Exo Reserves, and judged them to be way smaller than yours, which is one of the reasons you demanded a duel with me, which was not true, as I use special methods to hide my actual Exo."

He kicked away a wind gust with his foot, not receiving the slightest damage to his skin or flesh.

"Fourth, Your personality and mentality didn't allow you to make rational decisions, you wasted over 6% of your Exo with those attacks. You wanted to end this quickly, but did not even bother to see my fighting style or Exo before acting."

He dodged another attack, his hands in his pockets, and his sword now sheathed. He had a bored look on his face. Alice looked at him, less than a meter away from each other. He had no weapon, she could easily defeat him… Is what she thought, but subconsciously, she knew she had no chance of defeating Ren.

Ren started to emit a strange aura, which made her feel a terrifying pressure, as if the devil itself was in front of the girl. She did not like it at all, and soon started to lose any presence of herself to fear.

Said boy walked towards her, now less than an inch away from her. She dropped to her knees. Despair visible in her eyes.

"Your will is weak, you are not suited to be a Slayer at all."

Ren muttered. Alice was not even looking at him anymore, her sight was at his feet.

"That's where you belong. Under me." He brought a foot up, and the next moment, it was on her head,pushing her head onto the cold ground.

"Remember this, if you truly want revenge, then… Become stronger."

He grabbed her by the hair and brought her face to his face, showing his resolute red orbs.

Then he dropped her before walking away.

[Ren Deathbringer Has won the Duel. ]

As he walked away, he stopped and said another sentence, not even bothering to look at her anymore, but if he did, he'd notice her frozen appearance.

"By the way, my first command as your owner is that, you are free, I hereby void by relation to you."