Rocky could not sleep properly the night after his fight with Zhi.
While he was still pissed at the Gemini Gods, he was more pissed at himself and the way he fought.
After fighting Zhi, Rocky realized that he was a pretty one dimensional fighter.
He had good swordsmanship skills and natural body strength, however, that was pretty much it.
He was like a one trick pony with no creativity, as once someone neutralized his sword skills and his strength, he had nothing else to fall back on.
He had no moves that could help him safely retreat.
He had no defensive maneuvers under his belt.
He had no special movement techniques under his belt.
He had no creative attacks under his belt that were not related to the sword.
He was a very incomplete and flawed fighter, however, because he was much stronger and skilled than his peers at the university, he never realized just how weak he really was.
"I need to grow stronger.... I need to grow a lot stronger" Rocky murmured to himself as he made a mental note to improve on every aspect that he lacked.
After fighting Zhi he realized that without a foundation in defense, stamina, movement and a variety in offense, he would stagnate as a one dimensional fighter and that to become truly exceptional, he needed to have many options on the chessboard.
***********
From the next day, Rocky changed his approach to training, as instead of furthering his mastery in the sword, he began sparring with Professor Mae and Professor Maven with the sole intention of perfecting his defense.
Requesting the professors to go as hard on him as they could, Rocky took an absolute beating while facing them, however, he tried to get accustomed to their superior speed and strength and tried his best to withstand it.
Naturally since it was his first day against them, who were both tier4 warriors with several years of experience under their belt, he could not survive even 20 whole seconds against them, however, he could instantly reflect on his mistakes after every short sparring round that they had.
Having photographic memory, he could perfectly recall every spar that he had and where he made a mistake.
Rocky's kind and caring attitude towards her only made this idea of defecting even stronger, as when he compared his treatment to that of her family, Sophia felt as if Rocky was a dozen times better than them, as she slowly but surely started to fall deeper and deeper into Rocky's trap.
***********
( Meanwhile Principal Liam )
With Sophia not responding to any letters by Perseus, the 21st floor floormaster had no other choice but to dispatch spies to the university for nourishment of young talents to check on his sister.
While he did not send assassin's and only sent scouts and spies, for Liam there was no differentiation between the three, as for him anyone who entered the university grounds illegally became a potential threat.
While Maven dealt with as many of these threats as he could, when they tried to infiltrate the university in large numbers, Liam was forced to act personally, as he mobilized his army of specters to kill all invaders.
In his unstable state of mind, the usage of his powers only made his condition worse, as his mood became even more erratic than usual and his sanity seemed to hang by a very thin thread.
The gap between himself and insanity was now so small, that even the slightest disturbance could push him over the edge, which was why Maven employed additional security for the university and placed several professor's on patrol duty to ensure that Liam did not need to act personally, even if a security threat did arise.
**********
( Meanwhile Perseus )
Unable to contact Sophia for the past four weeks, Perseus began to slowly lose his mind.
He immediately began fearing the worst, that Rocky had somehow kidnapped Sophia and was holding her hostage in exchange for his sister, however, because he did not receive a negotiation letter from Rocky either, he felt like the reality of the situation might not be as grim as he imagined it to be.
His second and third guesses were that Sophia was either planning on defecting or had already joined hands with Rocky.
These outcomes made his heart boil with rage, as he vowed to kill Sophia himself if she ever really betrayed the family.
Finally, he also felt like his sister might just be upset and acting like a brat, which enraged him even more.
He knew she was a spoiled princess and that after he scolded her too much, there was a possibility of her acting out, however, he hoped that she would behave more maturely, especially in such trying times when the True Elites were preparing for a floor raid against him.
"When will this girl grow up? She's giving me so many headaches as if I don't already have enough of them on my plate" he complained, as he shook his head and sighed.
"Send more competent scouts to check on her.... Say that we'll pay thrice the usual price of their assignment, but just get it done ..." he commanded his assistant, as he requested for even more scouts to be sent to the university, unaware, that his actions were about to start a chain reaction, that he could never have anticipated.