A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

Today was the first day Calvin's absence would have an impact on the students. Not only has Calvin never missed a single day of teaching, but he's also the only one that teaches anything even close relating to combat. Alastor would be taking over Calvin's role as the professor for his class, mainly because Alastor teaches psychology, and there are plenty of other professors who can easily fill that role.

However, since Calvin didn't announce his leave to the students, they were left puzzled when five minutes had gone by, and there was no professor in the class. Some were already preparing to exit when a tall, red-haired man walked in, preventing them from doing so.

"Good morning students! My name is professor Hellsgate, and I will be taking over professor Pride's teaching for his time away from the Academy!" Alastor said with a bright, evil looking grin.

A student in the front row raised their hand, and Alastor gestured for them to speak. "Where is professor Pride? If you don't mind me asking.."

Alastor stared at the kid, making sure the poor girl knew she was being stared at. "My my, aren't we curious today?"

The girl remained silent, keeping her mouth closed for the remainder of the class. One look into Alastor's eyes of darkness told her everything she needed to know.

"Now then," Alastor began, pulling out a few pieces of paper from Calvin's desk, scavenging through them in seconds, and beginning the lecture. "Seems like my dear old friend professor Pride was in the middle of discussing weaknesses, and the beginnings of human anatomy."

The class remained silent, so Alastor knew he was correct. "Can one lovely student fill me in on where professor Pride left off, Yes?" Alastor's eyes danced around the room, looking for a hand.

A different student raised their hand, but Alastor didn't call on them. Instead, he looked directly at Laena, asking her to answer his question, "Ms. Emarin, how lovely of you to volunteer." He said sarcastically, getting nothing but confused looks and blank stares.

Laena quickly jolted in her seat as the nervousness of the class suddenly revolved around her, "Uhm.. I-I believe we were just about to start talking about weaknesses…" She said, nervously.

"Marvelous! Now when I say weakness, what does one imagine?" He glanced around the room again, calling on a random student who didn't have their hand put up. "Mr. Clark!"

The boy looked up, scratching his head in confusion, "I don't know. I guess if a guy is like super strong, he probably won't be fast on his feet."

Alastor continued his devilish grin without saying anything for what seemed like too long, until finally Alastor decided to start the lecture, "Incorrect!" He said happily, and full of excitement.

"Weaknesses, revolving around magic use are strictly correlated to what your body can't handle. For example, a person's VO2 max is the utmost amount of oxygen your body can utilize during strenuous and intense training regimes or exercise. That can be considered a weakness of the human body as a whole, but getting to that point is almost impossible without using magic."

Alastor walked over to the blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and drew a stick figure on the board. "This is a human," He said, proceeding by drawing muscles on the stick figure. "This is now a very strong human. However, he can use the extra muscle to his advantage, gaining force from the muscle fiber contractions his body produces, actually gaining an advantage in some form of combat."

The boy from before raised his hand again, "So like what weaknesses are you talking about?"

Alastor looked at the boy like he was a mere insect. "Weaknesses in magic of course... Everyone has magic that is unique to them, but there are those who are blessed with incredibly powerful abilities that some only dream they could possess. But those are the ones who have the most impactful weaknesses." Alastor paused, letting everyone write down what he was saying. Alastor wasn't much of a note-taking professor, but everything that came out of his mouth needed to be taken with caution, and the greatest respect.

Another student raised their hand, this time, it was Katie. "What if a person has the power of immortality, saying it's possible of course. What would be their weakness?"

Alastor looked at the girl with a hostile expression, "And what might your name be? Young lady."

"My name is Katie Liff, professor. My brother's name is Caspian Liff, who also attended this Academy when he was younger."

"To answer you question Ms. Liff, those with immortality have the greatest weakness of all: Their emotions. Being immortal means you get to see your friends and family vanish, and never come back. Everyone you meet will soon die, and you will keep on living, meeting new friends, starting new families, just to see them gone every century or so. That burden.." Alastor dimmed his grin for the first time, "Is something that humans will not forget, and something they will always hold dear to."

Katie gulped, "Wow, I never thought of it like that... But why do you say the word 'humans' so carelessly? I'm quite positive we're all humans here." The class laughed a bit, but Alastor's expression didn't change, remaining shallow and cold.

"Because," He began again, "Humans are the only ones that have emotions. Animals do not. Plants do not. Insects do not. We... do." Alastor flipped to a different page, "We'll be using the remaining class time to introduce to you some basic, functional Anatomy. We will start with the lower extremities, moving up on the human body with each lecture. So be prepared, there will be a lot of material we need to cover."

The students all sighed, but were prepared for Alastor to do something like this anyway. They took out their notebooks, flipped to a new page, and began writing bony landmarks Alastor instructed them on.

…

Another month had gone by since Rina and Calvin left. Marlyn and Teak continued practicing with Endless Sun at least once a week, giving both parties adequate training to prepare them for the tournament.

However, instead of their usual meeting at night, Mooks decided to make a small meeting with Teak, Faibel and Marlyn in Endless Sun's Guild hall at the headquarters. Both Teak and Marlyn had guest passes to Academy grounds, so Selvis didn't bother with their frequent visits, but he didn't like it regardless.

In the Guild Hall, Mooks jumped on top of the planning table, waiting for Faibel, Teak and Marlyn to take their seats.

Teak leaned back in his chair, waddling it like he was still in high school despite him being in his mid-twenties. "Yo, what's up with the kid?"

Mooks gave him an unfriendly look, making sure Teak was aware of his rudeness, "Faibel is smarter than you and Marlyn. If you don't like it, leave."

"Alright damn, calm down scaredy cat." Teak cracked a slight chuckle, but left it aside for now.

Mooks looked at all of them, hoping he wasn't about to cough up a hairball. He realized it was nothing more than a few scraps of his previous meal, so he continued, "I have a theory about the preliminaries. Since I have never entered the tournament myself, I would like your opinions and thoughts as well."

Marlyn stayed silent, but gave a slight bow in respect.

"Why do you believe the Bureau is sending out one representative to qualify an entire Guild for a preliminary round against other Guilds."

Teak thought for a moment, "Cuz that's what they usually do chief? They'll always ask for like five heads or somethin, and send them to compete."

Marlyn quickly realized what Mooks was implying, "You're saying that sending the strongest member in terms of raw power isn't ideal?"

"Perhaps not, Perhaps it is." Mooks said, tighten up his posture on the table. "I realized that most preliminary rounds from before have required strategy, precision, and teamwork. So why would they change it up all of a sudden?"

"Cuz they can?" Teak laughed.

Mooks gave him a death stare, giving him a look like he was on the final layer of thin ice. "Leave if you aren't taking this seriously."

"Okay, sorry…"

Faibel nudged on his glasses, "We believe this is a trick. A simple fluke to scare, and perhaps over prepare the contestants."

"What are you implying foureyes?' Teak gave him a wry look.

"To put it in simpleton words for you: Send the Guild member with the most adaptive, and knowledgeable abilities instead of the pure strongest."

Teak laughed, but Marlyn took Faibel's words seriously, questioning why he even said it. "Why would you tell us this. We would be your opponents after all, seems pretty irrational."

"Because," Mooks butted in. "You both have helped us a lot in the past months. This is the least we could do in return. However, there is also a very good chance we're wrong, so you can disregard everything we've told you if that happens to be the case."

Marlyn crossed his hands, "I thought the great Mooks was never wrong." He sounded like he was about to laugh, but the straight line on his mouth didn't move.

Mooks smiled, but it looked too cute rather than intimidating. "You're right. I'm not."

Teak got up, bouncing up from his chair, "Aight, I'm out. We still sendin Ellacina, so be prepared gentlemen." He locked eyes with Marlyn, "We're winning this year." His face had a horrific grin painted on it, making his words that much more terrifying.

Marlyn brushed him off, "Whatever you say. I'm more worried about these kids. They have a very promising roster."

Teak laughed, waving goodbye as he left the Guild Hall.

"You don't have to answer," Marlyn started, "But who will you be sending."

Faibel got up, his mouth slowly forming a crescent shape on the edge, "Yours truly."

"Let's hope you aren't wrong then." Marlyn said in the most monotone voice possible, "Because I haven't seen you fight once. You might have some special tricks up your sleeve, but your power level is still a mere 0 in my eyes. Please don't take my words the wrong way." Marlyn tried his best from sounding rude, keeping his manners in place.

"No offence taken." Faibel sat back down, wanting one more question answered before he left as well. "Who is Ellacina that Mr. Teak keeps talking about?"

Marlyn sighed a deep breath of warm air, "She's their Guild Captain. Ellacina Batallia, a girl you don't want to be facing one-on-one to say the least. However, she isn't the only one that's dangerous. Ellacina is in the same Guild as Teak, best known as the Elamantalists. There is another guild, however, a much stronger one: The Golden Eagle."

"Teak has mentioned them before.."

"Yes," Marlyn nodded silently, "Practically every member of the Golden Eagle is a force to be reckoned with. Even we barely manage to scrap by into the top 10." Marlyn kept calm, but deep inside he seemed to be boiling with fury. "I hope since you are new, you won't get targeted as much, but because your Guild consists of 17-18 year olds, that might attract more unwanted attention."

Mooks laughed a bit, "You know, we're not the only Guild from Princewood that's attempting a spot in the tournament this year."

"My, I had no idea. Who else might be competing?"

Mooks glared at Faibel, letting him do the talking. "Kryptonite. They're strong, but they lack intelligence."

Marlyn unfolded his arms, "I guess this will be an interesting year for the Gilded Throne."

Mooks nodded, as did Faibel right after.

…

On the opposite side of the Pacific, where countries bordered the Oceans, and the towns aligned perfectly to one another. Calvin and Rina finally arrived at their first destination: the city of Los Angelanos, a dangerous, ruthless place for a couple of travelers.

The dock they arrived at was dirty, covered in broken barrels and half-opened crates filled with various food that seemed way too old to be eaten. Countless larger boats occupied the majority of the dock, but the people on them seemed like the perfect definition of filth and poor hygiene.

Calvin and Rina stepped off the boat, letting the enigma traverse back into the sea to prevent anyone from stealing their only way back.

"What is this place?" Rina nearly puked as she stepped into a pile of trash the second her foot touched the ground.

Calvin on the other hand took a nice deep breath, smiling as if he was taking a whiff of a freshly baked pie, "Ahhh, my old home. Los Angelanos. Where crime and danger lurk around every corner, and the thieves don't even disguise themselves during robberies. A place that no one wants to step foot in except convicts and criminals. Also a place where me and Mooks lived for a couple years or so with Henrietta when we were on the run."

"You lived in this..." Rina couldn't even think of a word to describe the mess she was seeing, so she just covered her mouth, hoping not to let go of her previous meal.

"Oh, I almost forgot. You need to blend in." Calvin reached into a small pocket in his robes, pulling out a small bag no larger than the palm of his hand. He shoved two of his fingers in it, and pulled them out with some dark paste on them.

"Here," He said, gesturing for her to take the paste of his fingers.

"What is it?" She gently swiped it onto her fingers, unsure of what to do with it.

"Rub it on your face, you need to blend in."

"EXCUSE ME?"

Calvin gave her a look like he wasn't joking, "It's just brown face paint, but you need to look dirty and unwanted. With a face like yours roaming these streets you'll be snatched and sold in an instant."

Rina gulped her expression of disgust down her throat, and rubbed the paint on her cheeks and chin. It went against everything she knew, but with her same shoes from before, her once white, but now brown buttoned shirt and a pair of unwashed pants, she looked like a perfect resident of Los Angelanos.