Azure flinched and stepped back quickly, looking behind him. A girl with long black hair and dark eyes stood before him, wearing a black hoodie and pants. What caught his attention most was the faintly glowing red necklace around her neck.
The girl's gaze was like she was looking at an interesting toy. She spoke again. "Will you agree? Don't worry, I'll treat you well." She started approaching him closer.
Azure backed away further in fear, standing on the opposite side of the table, smiling nervously.
The girl suddenly vanished before him. Azure looked around in confusion… until she reappeared behind him and grabbed him from behind. But the moment she touched him, a massive explosion threw her with tremendous force against the wall behind her, causing her to spit blood. Azure was flung forward and fell to the ground.
He felt intense pain in his mind, as if it were caught in a massive vortex. He tried to stand, but his vision was completely blurred.
The loud commotion quickly brought the other girls to the living room. There were three girls beside Kira.
Kira was shocked by the sight of the room. The chairs and table were destroyed, and half the sofa was broken too!
She ran to the girl against the wall first. "Raven, are you okay?" she asked, her voice filled with fear and worry.
Raven laughed weakly as she stood with Kira's help, blood staining her mouth. "Don't worry, I didn't expect this to happen," she said, moving her arms to check her physical condition.
The three girls glared at Azure angrily. One of them used her magic to trap him, ice forming from the ground and wrapping around him. Raven looked at her and spoke weakly, "It's not his fault. I caused this."
The girl stared at Raven for a moment before canceling her magic. The ice began to melt.
A small girl came and helped Azure stand. He felt dizzy as he got up, trying to focus on the girl who helped him. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, her features extremely innocent and cute, wearing a long white dress embroidered with gold.
"Thank you," he said, thanking her while holding his head and looking around. He found all eyes on him, most of them unfriendly.
Kira cleared her throat loudly to get everyone's attention. "Before we start anything, we need to clean up the room again. Azure and Raven should've done this alone… but since they're injured, it'll be a group effort."
The girls didn't say anything, nodding and moving. Azure didn't know what to do.
Kira gestured to him to help her carry one of the broken sofas. He went to assist, then helped move the rest of the furniture with them and started cleaning and wiping down.
…
After an hour, the room was back to its previous state. Azure discovered they had a large room just for furniture… It seemed this wasn't the first time this had happened.
After everything was done and they sat down, Kira looked at Raven and Azure, speaking seriously with narrowed eyes. "So… will either of you do me the honor of explaining what happened?"
Neither Azure nor Raven spoke. Kira stared at them coldly. "Don't want to talk? Fine, then you'll be punished…"
Azure's eyes widened in surprise. "But I haven't even agreed to be a disciple yet!"
Kira stared at him, narrowing her eyes further. Azure felt every cell in his body shrink in fear and awe. She spoke, "It won't be a big punishment. Since neither of you wants to explain how you destroyed the living room… you'll face me."
What? Azure didn't understand. Raven explained, "She wants us to fight her physically. Since we won't explain the problem, we have to at least fight her. If words won't solve it, she wants us to use force."
"But I don't have any magical powers…"
"It'll be a physical fight."
Azure fell silent, staring at Kira. Every cell in his body screamed at him: Don't do this! He sighed quietly.
Kira stood, looking at them coldly. "Follow me."
Azure and Raven followed her, keeping a distance from each other. The three other girls trailed behind.
There was a door leading directly to an open courtyard overlooking the city. Azure was amazed as he approached. The city looked exactly like Earth—if it weren't for the explosion and magic he'd seen, he would've thought he was on Earth.
Kira stood in the centre of the courtyard, a small, sadistic smile forming on her face, her eyes glinting slightly as she looked at Raven.
Azure looked at her with awe and hesitation. Eve, what do you think about my chances of winning?
[With Master's current strength and experience… Master's chance of winning is 5%.]
Well, that's… encouraging. He looked at Raven, her expression fully focused on Kira. He took a deep breath.
Kira and Raven locked eyes. Raven suddenly moved quickly toward Kira. As she got close, she tried to punch her stomach, but Kira dodged and grabbed Raven's wrist.
Raven tried to kick Kira's side, but Kira raised her leg to block it, then pulled Raven and struck her hard in the stomach, throwing her back.
Raven adjusted her stance as she landed and stood again, rushing forward to aim at Kira's face. She attacked quickly, but Kira easily dodged every strike, stepping back.
Kira suddenly smiled. Raven sensed danger and tried to retreat, but it was too late. Kira pulled Raven's arm, hitting her stomach multiple times with rapid strikes. Raven bent over in pain, but Kira didn't care, striking Raven's back with her elbow. Raven screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
Kira didn't let up, using her knee to hit Raven's face, lifting her into the air, then striking her with a powerful fist, sending her flying.
Azure watched all this in fear. If she's doing this to her fellow disciple, what will she do to me?!
Kira looked at Azure, cracking her neck side to side, smiling at him.
Eve, are you sure there's no way out of here without dying?! He was already terrified.
[Eve has something that might help. Eve can connect to the public network and download all martial arts data to Master's mind.]
Wait… you can do that?! Not only Azure but Lycarius and Vladimir were shocked too. That's a damned powerful ability… They spent decades training and mastering techniques, facing hardships, and now a kid could learn it in seconds!
[Although Master will have general knowledge of all techniques, there's a difference between knowing a technique and mastering it. It'll be harder for Master than learning one skill.]
Azure thought for a moment, taking a deep breath and thinking seriously… Though Kira might be dangerous, the real danger is this world. The moment he arrived, a panther attacked him!
He looked at Kira, smiling. Eve… do it.
[Eve will start transferring the data. Master may feel some headache.]
As soon as she finished speaking, his head began to ache. He clutched his head in pain, gritting his teeth to endure.
Kira's smile faded as she looked at him, speaking with concern. "Are you okay?"
He only raised his thumb in approval. After about a minute, the headache started to fade.
He closed his eyes, thinking of martial arts. A torrent of techniques flooded his thoughts—forms, stances, strikes—knowledge he could use, even if unmastered.
He opened his eyes again and looked at Kira, a smile forming on his face.