"What did you say?" Grandpa Ollie repeated as the look of shock resided on his face, "a tier jump?!" grandpa Ollie asked the man, he gave a slight nod in reply. a 'tier jump' was a phenomenon that was really uncommon amongst both beasts and humans, but although this is said, it almost never happens amongst humans, in fact only twelve people throughout history have experienced a tier jump, the most recent being King Hert IV, but although they weren't as uncommon amongst beasts, it was a very rare occurrence. a tier jump is described as when a beast or human's power suddenly increases resulting in a jump in the current tier of the beast, some causes may include ingestion of powerful artifacts, staying in an area of highly concentrated mana or even recovering from severe illness or injuries, often ones that would result in death on any normal occasion. but the true cause of it remains speculative, these are just all the various circumstances in which humans had received a tier jump,
It was really early in the morning, around 5am or so, and the ever eager Earl was standing outside by the front door to the shop, with a backpack in tow, phoenix was still asleep on top of Earl's head and his grumpy grandfather was standing at the shop's front door smoking his clay pipe. "You know, normally I wouldn't care and would've just stayed in bed, but if your really going to wait for the bus you should at least have breakfast first" said grandpa Ollie, but it seemed like his words fell on deaf ears as Earl sustained his enthusiasm and didn't even turn back to reply. "whatever floats your boat" said grandpa Ollie as he headed back inside, he stopped at the door and turned around before speaking once more, "you coming phoenix?", however the bird was still sleeping and couldn't even reply him, he then decided to head inside and prepare his shop. It took almost 5 hours for the bus to finally arrive and carry Earl, and just like before, they drove in a random route,
"Give me 50 more reps!!!" Annie yelled at Earl who was doing push ups on the floor, "Yes ma'am!!!" Earl yelled back as he increased the pace of his exercise, sweat dripped down the top of his forehead as exhaustion began kicking in. 'You know, I've fought an evolving scorching avian, got sneak attacked by a Saber fang, and fought a lot of beasts, but I never expected this' Earl thought to himself as he kept on doing reps. He hadn't expected what transpired this morning, only he and Annie were left alone in the room, and he didn't think much of it, but it turned out that Annie had given a lot more thought to the exhibition matches than Earl had. the reason may have been because of her inability to participate, or maybe it was just out of pure kindness, but the night before, she had prepared a three days training regimen especially for Earl, and her reason being that he hadn't had enough real life experience fighting against humans. and when he gave it some thou
Tai chi… a soft form of martial arts developed in China, mostly consisting of redirecting attacks and landing swift graceful strikes, body movements, concentration and most importantly skill are all implemented when practicing the art. With the discovery of Alchemy, martial arts in general took on a different form.mixing alchemy and martial arts was a difficult thing to do, and became even more so as other things like Heka were discovered, and masters of each were given the title Deathking, they were many of them which lived throughout the different Eras of the world, from the reign of the Samurai, to the beginning of the hundred year war. they had existed, and had been almost unrivaled, except facing other deathkings, they were given this name due to the sheer number of people were not able to survive in their presence, the very aura that surrounded such individuals was able to take lives, and only a handful of people born, had a suffocating presence enough to cause physical d
Spirits, Deities, Demons, what do all three of these have in common?, they all do not pertain to the human world, in other words, they are supernatural beings whose activity can affect the human world, without they themselves being affected.Mana was thought to have been a gift from the gods, and as such, it is expected that spirits and demons alike will possess this supernatural energy as well. but of course, not all spirits, demons or deity's pertain to the same magical element, nor the same alchemy form, nor affinity and certainly not nature, hence why the spirit arts were divided into three categories. The deity spirit art, commonly practiced in parts of Africa and Asia, this sort of spirit arts primarily deals with drawing power from divine beings, or gods, it involves purification techniques used in purifying one's soul, and prayers, as a 'link', between them and the divine beings. complete mastery of this is difficult as it involves discarding other worldly
The air surrounding both Crystal and Henry changed along with Henry's mood as he stared down at Crystal with a menacing gaze."I said, what happened between you and Ruby?!!!" said Henry once more, Crystal was shocked at first, but quickly retained her cool demeanor."if you wanna know about the lost princess, then why don't you ask her yourself?" asked Crystal.Henry said no words, and just maintained his menacing glare at her."Alright then, how about a deal?" said Henry, "a deal?" asked a curious Crystal.Charlie, who was off to the side, saw the two students chat idly in the middle of the stage and then walked over to them awkwardly."uh... Are you guys gonna fight or?..." "Just a moment," said Crystal, beaming a smile at him."go on.." said Crystal as she turned over and faced Henry, "if I win this match, you'll tell me about Ruby", Crystal raised a brow as she heard his statement."and if I win?" asked Crystal with a curious, enthusiastic smile."you can decide that yourself," sa
'A graveyard?, no definitely not, a battlefield perhaps?', the red sky, the smell of blood, disembodied body parts, half rotting corpses, and a distant shadow, the sight of the bodies instilled fear in Earl, and his stomach was just about pouring out its contents, he hyperventilated as he looked around surrounded by nothing but death. 'what is this place?, where am I?', Earl thought to himself as he stood in front of a field of bodies, "spare me!" said a crawling man, covered in blood and filth. Earl looked backwards looking for the source of the plead, and in front of him sat a man on top a pile of bodies. He had black hair that seemed wet with blood, so it laid straight down his face covering most of his facial features,but just slightly, his cold blue eyes were visible through the massive strands of blood soaked hair, a scar ran down his face, from the top left of his forehead, through his eyes, over his nose, and stopped at the bottom right of his Jaw. h
(note: this chapter will be told in both first and third person perspective, the first part will be told in Ruby's POV, and then the second will be in third person, any who enjoy) Earl looked at me with conviction in his eyes, what he had said was true, I did avoid eye contact subconsciously whenever I lied to someone, I don't really get how he knew this, or how he knew any of the other things about our other friends, but I guess my behaviour was too obvious for anyone not to notice, and it seemed like all my teammates were worried, I mean it was to be expected… I am their leader after all. but since I was more or less cornered in this room, there was no longer a reason for me to keep quiet, after all I hear talking about it with someone really lifts the heart. I mean there was nothing stopping me from just flat out ignoring him and going to bed, but he was my friend, at least it felt like that, they were all my friends. every single last one of them, and they
With the pact made amongst one another, talks about the ORA continued, and eventually everyone started sharing their experiences specifically with them.One-way or the other, it eventually divulged into a topic of backstorues, making all the students share details of their transformations during the search for Sidney and Earl.They all were glad to hear that Williams lost his stutter. Hearing his back story and what happened to him only lit a fire in their hearts concerning the ORA.They'd hated them deeply already, but to think they'd take advantage of abandoned children like that... It reminded them that there was nothing the ORA weren't willing to do for their goal.Giving them all the more reason to train and become strong enough to fight them and take them down.Henry revealed the promise he made with his village elder, and everyone showed their support, especially Crystal and Ruby.Earl, Sidney, Annie, and Ruby never knew anything about this, and how could they? Henry was always
Jake laid down on his back, completely shocked silent. He watched Earl distinguished the attack he would've hit Jake with, before smiling and saying the words, "I win."It took a moment for Jake to realise it, but he'd lost the match. The final match in the mini tournament that they were holding, he'd lost that match. He'd lost to Earl.He was completely shocked by the whole thing. The moment he and Earl's fists collided, he felt the brunt of Earl's attack send him flying backwards, and he saw Earl fly off too.But it seemed Earl either recovered insanely quickly, or Jake was thrown a lot harder by Earl's attack than he would've liked to think he did.Before he knew it, Earl was standing over him with an attack ready to be launched straight at him.For some reason his mind went back to when they were kids, back when he'd bully Earl, call him names, and always boss his around because he was stronger than he was.He then remembered the fight that happened back in the entrance exams, the
"Flaming lotus!" Said Earl. "Vortex!" Said Jake. "Whoa!" Said Sidney, "what the hell are those moves?" He asked. "I don't know... But this is getting fun," said Crystal.Both Crystal and Sidney knew that Earl was going to lose the contest no matter what. It didn't really matter what happened when it came to him, he'd already lost two matches, nothing could make up for that now.However the situation for Jake was different. If he won, he would 'officially' be the strongest soon to be second year student in the entire school.Earl wasn't fighting to win, or at least not to win the current mini tournament they were all having. He was fighting for his pride, he was fighting to win and prove himself.Jake was fighting for the same reason. For the longest time he'd been on top of Earl when it came to power and fighting prowess. Ever since Earl got his alchemy, he'd been growing extremely fast, but he still hadn't been able to beat Jake once.This fight wasn't just for the title of strongest
As the smoke cleared from the battle fought, on the floor was Jake and Sidney, both with satisfied looks on their faces.Earl and Crystal had their mouths held open in complete shock. They had a feeling the match would end quickly, but not in one attack.Both of them had their mouths held open in complete and utter shock and confusion. Crystal slowly turned to look and Earl, and Earl slowly turned to look at Crystal."That was..." Said Earl, "... So cool," said Crystal. Their shocked expressions slowly turned into huge smiles."Those guys are crazy," laughed Crystal. "I know right... They're even crazier than I am," said Earl with a huge smile on his face.Both of them hopped down from the training dummies and made their way over to the middle of the training grounds.Sidney and Jake were both huffing and puffing on the floor, breathing heavily. Blood ran down the side of both their faces."Wh-what... are we gonna... do now?" Said Jake. "What do you mean?" Said Sidney, "I won that fig
The explosion was large and huge, far bigger than what anyone was expecting. Not Jake, not Sidney, not Crystal, not Earl.However as the dust slowly settled, the aftermath came into view. The dome of crystals that Crystal had made to protect herself from Earl's attack was shattered to pieces, with only a few stems of crystals sticking out of the ground.Earl was standing there, with his hand held out, and with dust all over him. He began coughing as he waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the dust.It didn't work very well. Earl opened one eye, looking at the place where Crystal was supposed to be. The dust hadn't cleared up, and as a result, he hadn't seen her to confirm she was down.'On second thought, maybe I used way too much firepower,' thought Earl, 'I hope she's okay,' he thought to himself.As he looked down into where she was once—the shattered dome of crystals, he saw a silhouette, one that closely resembled Crystal. It wasn't moving, and it was laid d
Sidney was there, holding himself up using nothing but one of his hands, and with a crystal spike not too far away from his throat, he accepted whole heartedly that he lost the fight."I can win her in close quarters combat," said Crystal. "That's probably what you were thinking right?" She smiled. Sidney couldn't help but see the irony of the whole situation.He'd known that the Lloyd's were stronger than normal, but he'd put his hopes in his enhanced body holding out. And it was the right call at the end. He bet on himself and won.His enhanced body proved strong enough to withstand the 100% force of the Lloyd's, but what he'd misjudged was Crystal's battle iq.She waited for the instant his hand made contact with the floor and picked her moment to strike perfectly.As Sidney remained upside down, he dispersed the mana he'd gathered in his throat, allowing the tiny alchemy circle to show itself.A mouth came out from the alchemy circle, biting repeatedly like a pair of jittering tee
Earl was panting on the floor, pinned down by a butt load of straw, which doubled as the other end of Sidney's arm.Earl messed up. He'd let the curious side of him out too much, egging Sidney on to press on the offensive. This was what ultimately caused his failure. Earl hadn't even shown all the tricks he had up his sleeve. But to be fair, neither had Sidney, both men had simply fought, and one ended up being the winner.Earl didn't feel bad in the slightest though. The thrill of fighting Sidney for the first time left him with a smile on his face."That's the match!!!" Yelled Jake, "Sidney wins, and Earl loses!" He added. "You're amazing, Sid," said Earl, wide grin on his face as he remained pinned down. Sidney reverted back to normal, the straw dissipated.He walked over and held out his hand, "that was a lot harder than I expected," he smiled. Earl grabbed his hand, Sidney pulled him up."So you can like, transform into Gy now?" Asked Earl. "It's a new spell I got," said Sidney
Chapters 225: A winner, Earl Vs SidneyCrystal still stayed in shock as she slowly turned her head around to see Jake. He had most likely used his wind to slow his fall so that when he landed next to her it would sound like he was farther away.She was still completely capable of fighting. They'd only just started the fight after all, and she hadn't shown all she had to offer, but the fight was already over.If this was a real fight to the death, he would've lopped off her head in that moment. Perhaps she was just overconfident before, but she'd been sloppy in her first match.No, she couldn't even make herself think she would've done better. There were still two people she would fight later, she could show more of her power then.As for now? She'd totally lost. A smile sat on her face. "Whoa... You weren't playing around," said Crystal. "I kept your face in tact, now you can seduce Henry another time without worrying about how pretty you are," Jake smirked."You think I'm pretty?" As
The rules of the mini-tournament were clear enough for everyone to follow. Whoever won the most battles would be the winner, and the ones who lost the most would be the fourth strongest.Though it wasn't completely official, it was still going to be had. The four of them knew that the difference in power between them would most likely be miniscule at best.Crystal was a natural talent, and she came from the family of the Lloyds, known for being incredible combatants. She was bound to be one of the strongest in the school from birth alone. Jake was the epitome of hard work. Luck was on his side from the beginning, so he was something of a big fish in a small pond.But now that he'd been introduced to the river, he still held his own. Wind alchemy wasn't seen as something incredible or noteworthy by most, but Jake had changed that fact in the minds of the students.He'd held his own as one of the strongest people amongst them, and he didn't look like he would stop growing anytime soon