Aodhán would have loved to say he felt the most disgusted out of the group, but that was far from the truth. Andrew’s expression was so shaken that he nearly looked traumatized as blood dripped from his face, while Yurin…Yurin was puking in a corner.

  Aodhán only partially understood their reactions considering the unconventional nature in which the Rithclaw had died, but he would be lying if he said he could relate. They killed creatures all the time, both in the tower challenges and during their dungeon and rift delves, so what made this so different?

  Daruk, on the other hand, looked just as calm and collected as usual, and the only sign of disgust in his expression was a slight downturn of his lips. That wasn’t to mean that Daruk was comfortable with the whole thing; his cold expression was simply a result of him channeling his willpower to maintain the unbothered persona of his affinity.

  In the silence that followed the Rithclaw’s death, Aodhán created a storm cloud that drenched the entire workstation in rain and washed off the blood from their bodies, the walls, and the pedestal itself.

  After all the blood drained into the sink, Aodhán cut off the rain and dismissed the storm cloud before turning to look at Yurin and Andrew. “Would you guys prefer to sit out the next phase of experiments? I understand that this is uncomfortable for us all, and I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay.”

  Andrew seemed very eager to say yes, but after a moment of thought, he shook his head and said, “No, let’s continue.” Yurin merely nodded to signal his agreement with Andrew, so Aodhán turned his gaze to Daruk.

  Daruk shrugged and said, “I will stay, naturally.”

  Aodhán nodded, and without further hesitation, he activated {Lightning Beam—Black}, engulfing the entire corpse in necrotic lightning and turning it all to ash before taking out the next Rithclaw.

  This time he skipped his little speech after injecting the Rithclaw and instead delved directly into experimenting. It was obvious now that although {Elemental Lightning—Green} had healing capabilities, it wasn’t gentle or refreshing in any way. Aodhán had no idea what the insidious web of sickly energy was, but he intended to find out. The skill had healed the Rithclaw twice without issues, so why had it suddenly turned the third time?

  As Aodhán processed the result of his previous experiment, he soon came to two assumptions or hypotheses. The first was that there was a limit to how many times he could heal a single creature with {Elemental Lightning—Green} before things started to go south, while the second theory, and the one he was leaning most towards, was that he could only afford to use the skill for minor injuries, injuries that would eventually be easily taken care of by minor regeneration. Any serious injuries would be a problem.

  To test out his theories, Aodhán made a small gash on #Rithclaw2 and healed it. He repeated the process half a dozen times before discarding the idea that there was a limit to the number of times he could heal a person’s wound. That left the second theory, and with cautious movements, he opened a large gash on the Rithclaw’s belly, tearing it from side to side.

  This injury was even larger than the one he had opened on the previous Rithclaw, and with a whispered prayer to whichever god or ascendant that was watching, Aodhán channeled lightning into the wound. This time, he hadn’t bothered employing his willpower, just to eliminate that worry. Still, the bizarre phenomenon repeated itself.

  The Rithclaw jerked violently and spasmed as its wound began knitting itself back together. However, barely a quarter way through, the knitted skin turned sickly, and the greenish web of insidious energy appeared again. It spread outward, draining the life from wherever it touched instantly and causing the area to decay rapidly.

  Aodhán cut off the skill immediately, breathing heavily as the Rithclaw twisted erratically and its injury darkened to a purplish infected hue. Despite Aodhán’s quick deactivation of the skill this time, the damage had been done. The sickly web of energy spread, draining the life from every area and widening the injury.

  It crawled steadily towards the Rithclaw’s heart, and Aodhán knew he had lost another Rithclaw. He raised a hand to put the poor creature out of its misery, but Yurin beat him to it, stabbing a sword of light into its throat and severing its head in one quick motion.

  Aodhán nodded in thanks and said, “I think it’s safe to say the Sylvael lightning skill is no healing skill. It is more appropriate to call it a leech or even parasite skill as it ended up draining the life of the Rithclaws after accumulating a certain amount.”

  “It seems more sentient than parasitic to me.” Yurin frowned in confusion. “It’ll heal minor injuries without issue, but it turns when it senses a larger injury. Perhaps it has a taste of blood—

  “Or perhaps the answer is simpler.” Daruk interjected. “Perhaps it’s simply a matter of quantity. Lesser injuries require a smaller amount of the lightning, so it’s possible that the energy is used up before it can turn against the test subjects. A larger amount, though...

  Daruk trailed off, and Aodhán nodded, understanding what Daruk meant. There was a threshold somewhere, a line very similar to the oversaturation in plants. As long as he didn’t cross that line, the green lightning would heal the injuries without issue, but the moment he crossed the ominous line, the green lightning would turn, draining the life of the test subject rather than healing it.

  Still, that begged the question. Could he slowly heal a major injury by slowly healing it instead? No, he shook his head. The test subjects would bleed out before their skin knitted back together if he took that route. Magical healing had to be instant to save lives.

  “You haven’t even tested the poison.” Andrew muttered in the silence, and Aodhán shook his head.

  “If healing a major wound is already a problem, imagine adding poison to the mix.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt to try.” Daruk shrugged, and after a while, Aodhán decided to give it a try.

  He glanced at the severed head of the Rithclaw for a moment before cleaning the whole thing up with a burst of black lightning. Another Rithclaw appeared on the marble with a thud, and after injecting the anesthetic, he looked to Andrew, who created a black vine from his palms and placed the tip above the Rithclaw’s belly, just before Aodhán slashed it in two.

  The belly tore open with a spray of blood, and a shiny black liquid the size of a pebble dropped from the vine into the open wound just before Aodhán channeled a torrent of {Elemental Lightning—Green} into it.

  Needless to say, the results were far from positive. This time the wound didn’t even heal. Instead, the lightning exploded with what seemed to be fury. It attacked the poison, lashing on to the liquid with a multitude of insidious energy tentacles, and the Rithclaw simply decayed from the inside out.

  No violent spasms. No twitch. Just instant decay.

  It was both amazing and concerning at the same time, and Aodhán realized he could never let Principal Zatya know the effect of this skill. It was too insidious. Too terrible. It was the perfect instrument for torture.

  “I think we can all call it a day.” Yurin said after the silence stretched too long. “I’ve seen enough, and I think it’s better to stop now.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Aodhán sighed, unable to disagree. He was disappointed. He had been hoping, despite all he had seen that this skill was a healing skill, that he could perhaps be good for something else other than battle, torture, and death. He had wanted to prove it to himself that he was good, that he was nothing like Az’marthon. Alas, it seemed that regardless of how hard he fought it, he was destined to walk in his patron's footsteps.

  Daruk and the others tried to cheer him up, but Aodhán just felt too down to be cheered up even though he let out a few smiles to let them know that he was fine.

  They stepped out of the Vivarium half an hour later, and as they returned to their individual residences for a quick bath, Aodhán wondered how he would keep this skill secret from principal Zatya. Was it possible to delete a skill?

  ***

  The rest of the week passed by in a monotonous fashion, and throughout this period, Aodhán buried any thought of the green lightning deep in his mind. He didn’t even think about it lest the mere thought of it exposed its nature to the principal; instead, he focused on his medication and classes with single-minded devotion.

  With the selection process postponed, there was barely anything fun to do aside from the forge matches, tower challenges, and rift delving. However, a burst of fun returned when the class on Awakened Combat came around, and Professor Alaric led them to the simulation chambers once more.

  Excitedly, the students piled into their pods and a few minutes later, they found themselves in a familiar environment. There was less puking this time as the students made their way to the Red Order, and Aodhán felt a pang in his chest when he instinctively reached out to hold Lupin and found no one. Too stubborn to let that emotion bring him down, Aodhán reached forward and grasped Andrew’s hands.

  Andrew glared at him but didn’t pull away, and when they reached the red fort, he muttered. “You better be writing me a check soon if you’re going to make me your emotional support human.”

  This time they didn’t bother showering and instead dove directly into planning. They obviously couldn’t use the same tactics they had used the last time, as the Black Order would be prepared for that. So, they spent the next few minutes deliberating, and in the end, they decided on an all-out battle.

  The plan was simple: the high rankers among them would fight and hopefully defeat the high rankers of the Black Order while Cameron and Lupin went around culling their weaker members. The problem lay in the fact that the Black Order had more high rankers than them, but that was where Varéc came in.

  The Black Order seemed to have had a similar idea, and half an hour later both groups stood at their respective boundaries, glaring daggers at each other while their soldiers marched below.

  When the Black Order noticed Lupin’s and Cameron’s absence, they tensed, searching back and forth for the assassins who were already making their way behind enemy lines. As if the Black Order wasn’t tense enough, Aodhán chose that moment to summon Varéc, who exited his spirit with a roar of excitement, and that was when all hell broke loose.

  With a roar of competitive fury, the Red and Black Order clashed. Lilith clashed with Ayisha in a cascade of blood and stagnant time. Daruk clashed with Alesh Vilaris in a cloud of smoldering ash and hail. Yurin clashed with Eren in a brutal dance of burning light and cold metal, Grendar clashed with Andrew in an eruption of wriggling vines and steel, and up in the sky, high above all the others, Aodhán and Cyrus clashed in an awe inspiring wave of roiling storms and spatial essence.

  Thunder boomed as Varéc descended from the sky, unleashing a massive beam of red lightning on the Black Order that completely obliterated a host of their simulated army and a handful of their members in one move. This caused a few of their members to falter, and the Red Order quickly took advantage of that.

  Invisible to the senses of most, Cameron and Lupin moved through the battlefield, cutting down soldiers and students alike in order to lessen the burden on the high rankers. Lysirel tried to block them, but she was quickly intercepted by Scarlett and Azul Fetherson, while Dihlon rained explosions on Ankaz Urdania and his brother.

  The sounds of battle increased as chaos grew, and hovering above it all was Varéc, who unleashed beam after beam of lightning upon the Black Order. Many turned to attack him, but it was an effort in futility. Their actions only served to excite Varéc, who was nearly immortal for as long as Aodhán was alive.

  With another roar, Varéc proceeded to unleash a horror of lightning spears on the Black Order, taking out 90% of their army and nearly a dozen students with the attack. Varéc’s emotions bled into his own, filling him with an intense burst of chaos and excitement, but with {Eye of the Storm} and the enhanced perception that came with it, Aodhán had no trouble controlling himself. Instead, he used the chaotic emotions as fuel, his grin widening as he cranked his perception to the maximum, and with a speed that even Cyrus had trouble following, Aodhán unleashed a condensed beam of red lightning straight at Cyrus.

  Cyrus managed to dodge, but that was the last attack he dodged. For the next few minutes, Aodhán nearly beat the pompous noble to death, running circles around him and simply overpowering him with willpower. Cyrus tried to fight back, even putting up a strong defense, but Aodhán was just too fast, and his skills were too strong thanks to the perfect imbuement technique.

  With a quick activation of {Create construct}, Aodhán slammed a huge hammer of red electricity into Cyrus’s face, and the force of the attack snapped Cyrus’s head to the side so violently that Aodhán suspected he had broken something. Whatever it was, though, it wasn’t enough to kill Cyrus, so Aodhán slammed the hammer on his head this time, shattering the construct Cyrus stood on and sending him to the ground below.

  While Cyrus fell helplessly to the ground, Aodhán opened his spirit up to the origin plane of storm, and as chaos poured into his spirit, he channeled it all into {Lightning Beam—Red}, unleashing a torrent of red electricity so great that it seared the very atmosphere.

  Like a storm given life, the beam smashed into Cyrus with an intensity that sent shockwaves into the air, formed a crater several meters wide, and would have completely obliterated Cyrus had it not been a simulated reality.

  Cyrus was eliminated from the simulation exercise immediately, and despite the Black Order’s best efforts, it all went downhill from there. Aodhán dove back into the chaos, aiming for the stronger members of the Black Order that hadn’t been dealt with yet.

  Isis took a hammer to her head at full force, dying before she could even realize what killed her. Yurin went next, and ten minutes later, only a few stumbling simulated soldiers remained of the Black Order. The Red Order had also lost a lot of their members, but with nearly two dozen members remaining, they were undeniably the victors.

  Aodhán emerged from his pod a few seconds later, and the noise of celebration that greeted him was nearly deafening. In that moment, Aodhán forgot his worries and basked in the admiration of his friends while the Black Order sulked on the other side of the simulation chambers.

  The rest of the week moved on quickly, and as the 10th week drew to a close, the tower leaderboard changed so drastically that it was nearly unrecognizable. Perhaps it was as a result of an overflow of adrenaline left over from the simulation exercise, but in the next few days, the students challenged the tower like there was no tomorrow.

  Aodhán himself had challenged the tower twice, and although he finally beat the blood orc guarding the 26th level, he was now stuck on the 27th level, barely able to survive more than five minutes against the monster of a creature guarding that particular level.

  Leaderboards.

  -Tower of Ascension (1st year)

  ? Aodhán Brystion, Level 27—1st

  ? Cyrus Valerion, Level 26—2nd

  ? Daruk Brystion, Level 25—3rd

  ? Cameron Lorde, Level 25—4th

  ? Lilith Bloodmoon, Level 25—5th

  ? Lysirel Cosmind, Level 25—6th

  ? Yurin Lahey, Level 25—7th

  ? Isis Anvindr, Level 25—8th

  ? Alesh Vilaris, Level 25—9th

  ? Marcellus Edgarin, Level 25—10th

  Cyrus had also progressed into the 26th level, but he’d had to advance into the 23rd tier to do so, which drastically reduced the significance of his achievement and only made him detest Aodhán more.

  One thing that gave Aodhán joy about the new leaderboard was that finally, Grendar’s name had been pushed out of the top ten. In fact, many of the top names had been pushed down, replaced by a ton of new names, most of whom were commoners.

  Aodhán was particularly impressed with Cameron, who, without a bloodline, managed to reach the fourth spot on the leaderboards. Except something drastic happened, though, Aodhán doubted he would be climbing any further, considering those he would have to surpass to do so.

  The updated leaderboards brought their own share of conflicts and anger, which turned the already tense competition between the students into something bordering on a frenzy.

  When the weekends came, Aodhán decided to spend the time getting his spiritual advancement in order. He started by taming a ton of willpower, and when he was done, he moved on to the essence threads and began expanding. He worked dutifully, dedicating a whole day to the task and only taking time out to defend his position in the forge matches.

  For the rest of the weekend, Aodhán meditated and worked tirelessly on his advancement, but when the 11th week finally rolled in, Aodhán put aside his advancement in favor of studying. He focused more on AAT and UEA as they were the bulkiest but also managed to devote ample time to Awakened Combat, Awakened Plants and Herbology, as well as Runic Theory.

  Revision classes went on as usual, but with the examinations being so close, the usual excitement that had plagued the academy for the last two weeks finally subsided as students spent most of their time either in the library or in their rooms reading.

  The 11th week passed without much drama either, and in a blink of an eye, the 12th week rolled in.

  It was time for their first semester exams.