Silea didn't let Avon leave the realm and continued training him for the upcoming tournament.
She taught him to move the mana to more than just his eyes, he was directing it to his core, legs, hands and many different parts. This was to make him move faster.
He practiced for many days and could feel the improvement.
Doing so helped him control them even better and also slightly boosted the healing process in that part.
"Since you don't have the time to make further breakthroughs, strengthen yourself like this. I will teach you how to handle a dagger after you learn this perfectly. It should take another few days according to my estimations."
She was right, three days later Avon was proficient in doing so. Pulling out a dagger, she began teaching different ways to use it. He practiced those movements day in and day out till it was settled in his muscle memory.
Again she made him do this until he was extremely fast with the movements.
On the day just before the tournament, she sparred with him for a bit. Avon was totally overwhelmed and could not do more than blocking. But Silea seemed content with it so he didn't mind it much.
"Avon, I consider appearance to be just as important as your inner skills."
WeSilea said out of the blue.
"....okay.."
he didn't understand.
"So you must groom yourself well, you must look like a proud disciple of mine, so groom yourself well."
She said in a strong manner.
Avon understood what she meant, his beard had grown a lot and his hair was so long that it fell to his neck.
" So is there a barber in the sect?"
"No, you must do it on your own."
"But how does someone cut their hair alone?"
"You can if you have the experience."
"I don't "
"Then you need help"
"You are not letting me exit the realm so I suppose master will help me cut my hair?"
"Yes"
She said casually.
"Now try and materialize a blade. I want to see if rather than extending want is there, can you materialise anything out of scratch."
She told him waiting for his action,
He tried to make a blade out of just thin air but couldn't.
He felt slightly dejected when she spoke,
"It is fine... you need to be able to control and understand the elements of the universe along with all its laws for such actions. You can extend or modify what already exists because you have the final product and just need to make more ....whereas to make from scratch, you need knowledge about the product and the elements needed...it cannot be done intuitively. Still, this is good progress.."
The she materialized a blade and scissors out of thin air and gave the blade to him,
"Get to work"
Then a mirror formed out of nowhere.
After he was done shaving, he looked better. His beard had grown out too much.
Then she began cutting his hair.
He sat there in silence and it was very awkward. Silea didn't seem to mind. She already knew that he was a little awkward with people.
"Master?"
"Yes"
"Have you done this before?"
He asked curiously. He couldn't imagine his master cutting hair but watching her actually do it brought various questions into his mind.
"I have, quite a lot actually. There were times when I and my friends were trapped or stuck in difficult situations, we had to help each other."
"Are your friends are strong as you?"
Then a smile appeared on her face, a very small one,
"Yes, obviously. You will know about all of us soon. You know some but I won't tell you who, let them tell you on their own."
This surprised Avon.
"Master Reveria could be one friend....who could others be..."
"Like I said, I won't reveal."
"Okay..."
There was one more doubt in Avon's mind, just how was she going cut his hair.
What if she gave him a buzz cut? Or some wierd cut?
But he didn't ask and just observed
Once she was done, he was relieved. Because she just cut his hair medium-short length which was good. He always used have his hair cut like that on Earth too, because he didn't have to comb it, he was lazy and felt that combing hair was a hassle because sometimes they wouldn't listen!
"Now now now, what a face you were hiding behind that beard and long hair. Now you look like my disciple"
Silea spoke with a teasing smile on her face.
On the day of the tournament,
"Wear this before you go. Cover yourself so that others can't recognise you. You should be able to perform well. Use a random name rather than your real one. "
"But doesn't the sect have my name registered....how could an outsider participate in the internal tournaments?"
"Outsiders cannot participate but you u can still keep your Identity anonymous in tournaments. If anyone does not want to reveal that they are participating, they can. The sect will not ask the disciple to state their details."
"But what is the point? Since they are someone from inside people will figure it out right?"
She frowned upon hearing that and said,
"How many disciples do you think are present here?"
"Umm...many?"
"About ten thousand."
She said in a flat tone.
Avon was shocked.
"That many? Is the sect wide enough to accomodate so many?"
"The sect is as wide as a city Avon....you couldn't see the map so you didn't know.
Anyways wear this attire and get ready. We must go to the tournament."
She had given him a black, hard but flexible fabric that had a few yellow likes running across. It had a hood to cover his face. It was like an assasin's outfit.
As they were getting ready to exit, Avon asked her the question he had in his mind for a long time,
"Master?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you choose me as your disciple?"
"I thought you would never ask, it is because you are very unique."
"Unique..? Didn't the orb show that I have no affinity?"
"The orb-readers couldn't read it properly, that is their fault. You will know about it soon. For now focus on the tournament."
Soon he and Silea exit the special realm and were back in the sect.
They went separately to the venue.
On his way he looked around, the sect was very huge and has many people inside. It was also very clean. As he looked at the map in his hand, he saw how huge this place was.
It was indeed as huge as a city.
He continued to walk to his destination while covered. Once he reached the venue, he saw there a few people who had covered their faces like him.
He quickly stood in line and registered his name.
It seemed that the tournament was for people yet to enter the soul evolution stage, that indeed gave him a winning chance.
After registration, he was given a number and told to wait. The tournament was to be held in a huge fighting ring surrounded by audience. It seemed that all the wing masters, the knight and the seniors in the sect were here watch how much potential the new joins had.
There were around two hundred participants.
Soon the matches began and his first opponent had earth affinity. He was raising chunks of the ground upwards to block Avon's vision.
But it was taking too much time. The barriers had to rise from the ground to the top, which took some time.
His opponent was slow in using his elemental powers. Avon quickly jumped over the rising barriers and closed the distance between them.
He landed a hard kick in the man's gut and made him fall out of the ring. The first match was too easy.
He looked for Zia in the remaining participants but couldn't find her. He didn't know how she looked so he searched for a woman wearing purple attire, but he couldn't find anyone.
The first round was done and they were down to 110 remaining disciples.
Avon saw that certain disciples had great abilities like manipulating space or stopping time in a restricted area for a shory duration. Some were very efficient in their use of elements. Some were proficient with a weapon.
His next match was with a woman who used a long spear. She was quick in her movements and he very aggressive while attacking.
Avon was blocking her attacks when a strong gust of wind hit him from the back, pushing him forward and the woman hit him with the butt of her spear in the gut.
It hurt a lot and he immediately jumped back to create some distance. She could use wind too.
He decided to not give her much time and attacked her with a greater speed.
She kept up so his increased his speed even more. She was now struggling to keep up. He had be even faster to not let her think of her next move and he was fast, very fast because of the training he had received.
He moved even fasted and that was it, she was taking hits and Avon pushed her to the edge and when she was about to dodge he sweeped her off her feet with a strong kick. She lost balance and fell out. It was another victory but required effort.