44 Dance of the Lightning Dragon

"I never thought that you would qualify to be an all-rounder, Ying," Gaius said as he ate a spoonful of rice.

"And I already predicted I am going to be shunned," Chang Xiuying said as she swallowed her food.

Gaius sighed. "No one will take you under their patronage anymore. At first, since you're a person who I recommended, they were excited to see you and teach you. When they witnessed the activity of the crystal ball, they already left the cathedral."

"As expected."

"It would be alright if you have affinity to four or five elements, but you got seven! For instance, those elements inside your body are like plants huddled together. They'll just impede each other's growth. Moreover, you are even qualified as a knight! What kind of monster are you?"

"I see now. But I'm not a monster."

Gaius smiled wryly then arranged their empty plates on the tray. Chang Xiuying smiled at him and they went out of their way from the cafeteria.

"Since you have an affinity for knights, you are also required to attend later's knight class in the training ground. Of course, I'll be there with you. So, don't worry about useless things anymore."

"I'm not worried."

"Well, you were bullied earlier… and they can't bully you if I'm there, right?"

"You have classes. Are you going to skip them?"

"Of course!"

"You're a prince, Gaius."

"Urgh… but!"

"Trust me," Chang Xiuying said as she directly gazed on Gaius' eyes. The male stepped back, not tearing his gaze away from the female.

"O-okay."

She smiled then went to the training ground, leaving Gaius by himself as he settled his hand on his chest, trying to calm his loudly beating heart.

* * *

"Now, this is everyone… in addition to one," the instructor, named Alektor, said as he scanned the group.

"Yes, sir!"

"Alright," he looked at Chang Xiuying, "Since you're new here and we are already in the middle of our syllabus. I have to see for myself if you are worthy to be a knight."

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, class, time to pick a partner and practice sparring."

Then Alektor approached Chang Xiuying despite the murmurings he heard from the class. He never even heard them clash their swords. They could only focus on Chang Xiuying with their mocking eyes. He just sighed and then said to Chang Xiuying, "Do you want to borrow a sword?"

"No thanks. I have mine," then retrieved a wooden sword from her item box.

Alektor gawked at the ring. "An item box?!"

"It seems so," Chang Xiuying said as she took a stance.

"Your stance… have no openings. Good. That was unexpected."

"Come!" Alektor shouted.

Chang Xiuying walked halfway and then ran. She stroked Alektor's sword and the pressure was immense. He steadied his legs as he battled Chang Xiuying's strength. The ground cracked and the whole place shook.

"Ah… sorry, I forgot to control my strength."

Alektor could only look at her with eyes opened wide. "This strength is not normal… who are you?"

"Chang Xiuying."

She already won in their contest of strength, but there were still techniques and strategies. This time, Alektor took the initiative to strike first.

He thrusted and slashed fast on Chang Xiuying's vital points, but it kept on being blocked and intercepted. Moreover, he was being pushed back.

That child's reflexes are too primal!

He jumped back to gain distance and Chang Xiuying only stood and didn't follow.

"You… what are you, really?"

"A human, maybe."

Then they started clashing weapons again and the whole training ground became a battlefield. They were too fast to be followed by normal means.

When Alektor was already out of breath, he said, "I surrender," and threw his wooden sword on the ground then raised his arms. The students were silent as they watched the exchange that only lasted for a minute. They were dumbfounded as their unbeatable instructor surrendered in front of a girl.

"Chang Xiuying, I am the captain of the Knights, Alektor. That was a good spar."

"Thank you, sir Alektor."

"From our exchange, I don't have anything to teach you. Your form is already complete and your strength is… anyway, you're too strong for a girl. I'm looking forward to the six months you'll be here."

Chang Xiuying smiled then watched the students start their group sparring. She also started teaching students who came at her to be taught. After all, she took great pride in her physical quality and was proud to be teaching people.

When the class ended, she immediately went to Gaius' next class. Moreover, it was a class about elementals. She could also easily pass those, but she didn't know what the basics were in this world.

She waited for Gaius outside the classroom. When students went out of their classes, they ignored her as if she never existed in the first place. She never paid heed to those people and looked around for Gaius.

"Oh, Ying. You're already done?" Gaius said as he lastly exited the classroom.

"Yeah."

"Let's go now," he said, leading Chang Xiuying to their next class. "How was the knight class?"

"It was a breeze."

"Huh… ? Ah… it must have been easy for you."

"I also got new friends." More like, students.

"..."

"Why are you suddenly quiet?"

"I'm envious..."

"You'll find worthwhile friends too, Gaius."

"No one is like you..."

"That's impossible."

"No… you are the only one who treated me like an equal. You disregarded my status as a prince and was very straightforward to me."

"I see now," Chang Xiuying touched her chin, then continued, "Are there any group activities here?"

"In the knight class, they always group themselves to spar. While elementalists practice their elements with dummies."

"How about dungeons?"

"Dungeons? What's a dungeon?"

"It is something from my homeland."

"I see."

"Then… adventuring?"

"Ah, yes. We also go out to do quests as part of the curriculum. We were also paired up based on our abilities to balance the group."

"Then use that opportunity to make friends. After all, when it comes to danger, there are no obstacles to friendship. Once you fight with them in dangerous situations, the distance between you will shorten."

"That's the problem… my father won't let me do quests."

"... we're going to be late."

"Ah!"

Then they raced while they laughed. When they entered the classroom, they were laughing and wheezing. The classroom became silent. Fortunately, the instructor still wasn't there. Chang Xiuying and Gaius shared a table at the back as the students' eyes followed.

However, Chang Xiuying heard these murmurings.

"Is… isn't the prince so handsome when he smiles?"

"He's too precious..."

"I want to make him smile too!"

Chang Xiuying grinned then looked at the oblivious, but smiling prince. Upon closer look, he is kind of handsome, she thought.

"Oh? The class is unbelievably quiet..." a female teacher came and announced her presence.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Geraldine."

"Yes, good afternoon. So, we will start our lesson for today---ah right, Chang Xiuying," she called.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Do you have any experience controlling elements?"

"I never tried, ma'am."

"Okay. So, class, we'll only take a short review before we proceed to our main lesson. After that, we have to go to the training ground to test your individual prowess. Let's begin."

* * *

In the training ground, they formed a line and Chang Xiuying was at the back since she was only a beginner. She had to pay close attention to the people before her.

They were chanting an unknown language then forming a visualization of the spell and controlling it outside of their body. Chang Xiuying could see how those energies flow inside their body into their hands to release them by their form. Now, she fully understood why having an affinity to all elements was hard to learn. It indeed would take years to master than a person who had a high affinity to one element.

She began practicing using her inner eye. But then, she had no idea how to pull out those elemental energies out of her oceanic life energy. She gave up in the end.

Then Gaius' turn came. He formed an ice wall then melted it with fire with enough temperature. Then he slowly took control of the water and made it a whip before it condensated from the heat.

Well… that was awesome, but she still had no idea how she could control elements.

When her turn came, she looked at Geraldine and asked, "How do I take out a specific element from my body?"

"You just need to identify the elements in your body and pull them out. Concentrate them into one point, like your hands, and slowly pour them out."

'Ah! Just like in modern earth,' Chang Xiuying thought. Then without further ado, she closed her eyes and started searching in her oceanic life energy and her cores. Since the largest one she had was the purple core, she concentrated on those and slowly pulled out threads and threads of purple lines.

The students snickered when they saw how long Chang Xiuying took just to take out an element out of her body. However, in the next second, they saw purple aura emitting from her body.

Geraldine gasped, "Aura!"

"What?! How can she use aura?!"

"That… that still wasn't taught to us!"

Then Chang Xiuying raised her opened hand, then closed it. Suddenly, a thick bolt of lightning came from the sky. She opened her eyes that had a speck of purple lines, then stared at the lightning. Her arms flowed as the lightning followed.

It was a beautiful sight.

Gaius was once again caught by the beauty in front of him.