The scene continues from Bhaal's entrance to the central palace training grounds. Bhaal momentarily raises his hand as acknowledgment of his disciples greatings, then continues walking towards the meeting section of the hall and instructs the disciples to follow him. The sitting area of the Central Palace Training Grounds features a spacious, symmetrical space. The walls are lined with shoji screens, allowing soft, diffused light to fill the space. In the center of the room, there are several large, rectangular yellow cushions placed on a polished black floor. As they reach their destination, Bhaal goes to his designated cushion and sits in a kneeling posture with the bottom resting on his heels. And asks his disciples, including Aria, to sit. "Hello, everyone, as you all know, I have formally taken in Aria as my direct disciple. I know you may think it may seem unfair, but I have my reasons."Bhaal says. "I object to this, Father. She has barely turned one year, and you mean to tell me she is on par with us, we who have already fought and survived our gauntlet initiation. True, I have had rumors of her exceptional magic attributes, but aside from that, I see nothing special about her." Varyn says with no fear or contradiction, waiting for his father's answer while the other bhaalspawns remain silent. "Hmm, Varyn, do you know why despite your handwork and dedication to the way of the spear you are still rank 2 despite having superior martial prowess when compared to Kedan who is rank one, it is because you use your muscles to fight every battle not all battles are won with strength some times knowledge of one's opponent could be the difference between life and death," Bhaal says as she momentarily pauses then continues. "I was observing all of you when you were training from my main office, seeing how you would react when Aria entered the training, and I have to say I am disappointed with all of you, except Kedan. What Kedan did when greeting Aria was to test her mana capacity." Bhaal says as a holographic video image from a magic crystal replays the scene when Kedan went to greet Aria, at normal glance it truly seems nothing is out of the ordinary but the the mana sence feature and it is seen that during their handshake Kedan passed a small amount of mana into Arias hand and found out that Aria had already reached the created the third circle in her mana heart meaning despite not being only 11 months she is already on par with Darek Nightfire or am I wrong Kedan?" Bhaal says, looking at Kedan. "Your insight is frightening as ever, Father. I was indeed a little curious to know why you had taken such great interest in her. Sorry, Aria, I hope you are not mad." Kedan replies as she pats Aria, who is seated next to her. "Of course I am not mad, big brother." Aria says to Kedan, but internally she says, "Seriously, is everyone in this family a snake?"
"For today let's have a practical lesson to welcome Aria. Everyone, go and pick wooden weapons of your choosing. We are going to have a little sparing match." Bhaal says. " What fun, are we going to spar against your father?" Lorcan says he is simply exhilarated by the chance to test his skills. "No, all of you are going to fight against Aria for a duration of 5 minutes should she loose or fall unconscious within this period she will directly be demoted to a normal disciple and the winner will be the one who lands the critical blow and will be elevated to become the new direct disciple while also receiving the Jade pass currently owned by Aria but should Aria win or hold out for the duration of 5 minutes she will become the new head captain of the crimson bloods thus will be entitled to higher training resources. "Wait, what? Father, how the hell am I supposed to beat 5 of the top-ranked initiates on my own?" Aria asks as she stands, seemingly wondering what the hell his father is thinking. "You are my direct disciple, and as such, I expect you to surpass reason to go against natural order. If you feel the weight of your new rank too heavy, you can relinquish your jade pass to me, and I will choose another to take your place."Bhaal says in a strict yet firm tone. Aria ponders for a moment. Aria ponders for a few moments, "If I give the pass, I don't have to fight, but I will also lose all my benefits as Bhaals' direct disciples. Fine, I just have to survive for 5 minutes. I will have to go all out this time, just hope I can stall my siblings long enough." "Fine, Father, I will do it," Aria says in a timid but resilient voice.
Bhaal teleports all of them to the center of the Arena within the central palace, with all of them holding their chosen wooden weapons. Kadan Stormfury is equipped with a wooden longsword, Varyn Ironwolf is equipped with a wooden spear, Darek Nightfire is equipped with a wooden staff, Lorcan Mistborn is equipped with a wooden great sword, Riven Shadowwolf is equipped with a wooden katana, and lastly, Aria is equipped with two daggers. "This being a sparing match, you can use your special abilities, but no killing is allowed. You may begin," Bhaal says as he teleports and sits on a nearby throne placed in a room overlooking the entire arena, allowing one to see the full events taking place in the Arina. "You should have just forfeited the match. Aria knows I take no joy in fighting you." Varyn says as he begins charging toward Aria. Aria remains calm and parries every attack. "What the hell is going on? Why is he moving so slowly compared to Joon? This is child's play." Aria says as she begins to counter Varyn's attacks with swift and precise attacks, the others, noticing Varyn being pushed back, move in to assist. Kedan jumps into the air and begins to pass aura into his blade. "Thunder dragon mystic art raging dragon suddenly a lightning dragon appears and begins to charge towards Aria, with quick reflexes, begins chanting a spell extremely fast, then she says "Saltus Volare, jump" Aria suddenly jumps 30 feet, dogging Kedan's attack which destroy s a nearby wall. As she tries to get her bearing suddenly she notices Darek chanting a spell although compared to her he is relativly slow, Aria observes the symbols of his magic circles indicate a fire spell she then begins to cast a new spell "Volo, Sileo, Elevare, levitate" on completing casting Aria begins to levitate and it seems Darek has finishes casting he the says "Ignis Telum, fire bolt" suddenly a huge fire bolt shoot from his hand and jets towards Aria but Aria makes a simple maneuver and dodges making the fire bolt hit the nearby wall leaving a huge hole. 'I don't get why their attacks are so weak, even their spell casting and ability releases are mediocre, although powerful, they take a long time to execute." As Aria is assessing the battle, she suddenly feels a presence behind her. It seems that Riven Shadowwolf looked for a blind spot, jumped behind Aria, and took advantage of her spacing out in the middle of battle. Aria Parry attacks but loses one of her daggers and begins to fall after losing concentration on her levitate spell. Suddenly, Lorcan, noticing Aria falling, comes in to finish her with a powerful side slash, but Aria is able to parry, but in the process, her wooden dagger is broken, and she is flung to a nearby wall, hitting it and spraining her ankle. As she looks at the timer, she notices 60 seconds remaining, and she tries to stand up. "Sorry, Aria, I acknowledge your skill, but I, too, wish to be Bhaal's disciple," Kedan says as he uses his aura to send a blue crescent attack on her. The others also want to charge their ultimate attacks in order to be the one who lands the critical hit on Aria. Varyn uses aura to launch a fire dragon-shaped thrust attack, and Darek launches a fireball spell. Riven uses her aura to launch a tornado-style attack, and Lorcan uses his aura to launch a powerful vertical slash.
Aria momentarily feels as if she will lose. Suddenly, from her shadow, Yinrou, her shadow wolf, comes out and easily parries all the Attacks with one powerful claw attack, "Who dares to harm my master?" he says, letting out a ferocious growl. He then launches an area of attack ability called negative burst, which sends out a black shockwave that knocks out all of Aria's opponents unconscious. The scene ends as Aria is standing alone with her shadow familiar as the timer hits 0, making her the victor