The Knight had never used Tyun's sense manipulation skill so masterfully before, it had to continuously figure out just how to convince the humans of its intentions, without giving it away. Half of it was still crushed for letting two human souls walk away.
The Knight had learned that it's true that it only needed to consume a single pure soul per cycle, but that is merely for survival. If the Knight wanted to perform at peak levels it would need to consume over dozens, its body has been used to the diet of one per cycle, but that often left the Knight feeling drained.
In the end the sword is more important, the slaughter can wait. A wolf can't ask the rabbit where its family is, if the rabbit is trembling with fear at the one who asked. The gates of the academy are huge, the Knight could just teleport itself in, but the fact that those two were hesitant about entering, it made the Knight realise that breaking in might be more problematic that waiting.
It paid off though, the gates opened and the knights past the Knight, they just took a long look at the Knight and continued to rush to their patrol shift. A few minutes later, a whole retinue of them came from their patrol, the Knight followed them inside. The communicator pendant was working, but it did not hide the true tongue in which the noise came in, it only facilitates understanding, at least it was instantaneous.
The Knight was using the sense manipulation to make the realisation that the Knight is speaking in a strange language impossible to conclude.
"Tyun better not die."
The human next to the Knight, the one who asked the Knight to follow inside, asked, "What did you say?"
"Oh nothing"
Then the knight was brought to a strange room. Most of the buildings were like a mixture of stone and metal parts, even though the metallic parts were less, they were more intricate. This academy however was fully archaic in nature. A grand hall from the romans, fully adorned with tapestries, making the well-off buildings the Knight saw on its way in here look like charity work.
The whole place was grand, even at three metres the Knight did not have to bent not even once, actually it had looked up a couple of times. Then a lady in a stylish set of a body suit, with a blown-up pair of trousers walked in, parts of the suits were strange, having those carvings the Knight saw on the walls of the city.
"Greetings, but who are you exactly, and why have you come here dressed like that, pretending to be a knight would be dangerous around these parts."
The Knight softly thanked Folisha, because the Knight had been thinking about this for a while now, and becoming a full-fledged human knight would greatly improve its search, better yet, if it was in a position to get this information. By the confusion, the Knight had seen on Folisha, asking normal people about the sword would be useless, so then the Knight had to become one of the figures that could claim this information.
The Knight was not sure just how strong one has to be to be a full Knight, but by the looks Folisha gave it when it asked, it's most likely that the Knight was already strong enough to become a Knight, but now the Knight was strong enough to be guaranteed a spot. The Knight was not sure how strong they were, but if exposed, killing them would be fun.
"I want to try-out to become a knight."
"A what?"
There was a pause and before the Knight said anything she continued, "I know that ever since the Banneret came here, things have been different, but continuous charge of the foolish seeking attention and fame is not what a knight is. A knight is the symbol for which humanity rallies behind, of which is no joke. I would like to just send you to become a trainee but seeing as that you have come fully equipped in personal amour I will let you try out sir."
'I was assigned to this city along with the Banneret. Recently though, things have been getting progressively rambunctious. So, unlike the last batch which settled for becoming trainees, this one came fully equipped, thinking that armour is all one needs to be a knight.
He's not wrong though, there is a way to join without having to go through proper route, the rite to evoke a challenge. So, in a way he will become an example. I am really fed up, and this will teach this imbecile some humility and respect for the knights. Even through this challenge, becoming a knight is still a duty and a promise.'
She looked up at him and thought, 'Just in case he happens to be stronger than my senses are telling me right now, I will have to make sure that things go smoothly.'
"If you really are serious about this, then will you be taking the rite to evoke a challenge? Sorry to say but normal try outs are not available at this time of the year, and if you want to join now then this will be your only way in."
The Knight was having a struggle with having the conversation like this, so it moved back and then answered, "Rite to evoke challenge?"
"Yes, this is where you first challenge one of the knights. If you pass, you are then allowed to take the analysis, then the scoring board will assess your understanding of protocol, there will be more tests and such, but in the end the decision solely rests in the hands of the highest authority, which would be the senior knight Commander, but since the disaster, you final assessment will be done by the Banneret. Winning the match does not make you a knight, only the knight you fight can make the decision to pass you to the next phase."
'Why am I explaining all this, beating a knight Commander is already a feat, I doubt this numskull really knows what's happening, after all he does not know about the rite. Well, to be fair, the rite is nearly impossible, so it's not well known.'
The Knight however knew about it, Folisha was quite peculiar about it, she even wanted to do it because normal try-outs took longer, and even if she gets in; she will just be a trainee. This is why she wanted to get strong enough to evoke one. The Knight was asking the question because, from what Folisha said, not all requests are excepted. It has been a hundred years though, things change.
"When will it start."
She looked up with pity in her eyes; she just hoped that at the very least this would not discourage him from applying for actual try-outs. "Just wait here, it will take about a couple of hours to arrange."
***
A few hours had passed. The secretary had asked one of the willing Commanders to come. Then she assembled the necessary people, the witnesses, a knight Bachelor was even asked to join, she was feeling generous, so she came. There was a couple of other officials, even the guild leader had come.
The audience was a mixture of civilians, knights, officials, adventures, some had even closed shop to see this rare occasion. Some Commanders had even come because of the gathering crowd. The academy halls were usually not this full, outside tournaments. This crowd became more curious after seeing Commander Campbell show up next to a three-meter knight, with a petit women walking between them.
There were a couple of minutes of activating the patterns carved into the colosseum. After the barrier had formed, leaving only the Knight and the Commander inside. The crowd was silent; Jack and Dart were even more confused than the rest but kept quiet to avoid letting it slip what they were up to last night.
It was strange though, they had never imagined that this guy was not even a knight at all, then this put their senses on high alert, cause then why was he in the darkness? Their thoughts were interrupted by the announce stating the rules and giving the crowd context.
"The rules are simple… The match will end when the knight Commander states, or the challenger is defeated. Killing your foe will be seen as failure to admit defeat. The challenger is a man going by the name Knight, and the respondent is our beloved knight, Commander Campbell. This is a rite of challenge to become a knight. You may begin."
Campbell looked ahead and warned the Knight, "I will not be holding back, Zuri over there said she'll have my head if I do, so I hope that you really conceit before things get bad, who knows you might have potential to one day become one, but not today, I'm the second most powerful Commander, next to the senior Commander Verne. That might change if you can prove you are worthy of being a knight."
You have encountered a level 184 human, Commander Campbell. Type-Knight.
Then he lunged at the knight the sword aiming for the arm, and just before it hit, the Knight vanished, instantly appearing behind. Campbell felt a huge hand grab its head and crush it to the stone floor with a thunderous bang.
The Knight then stood up and looked down. 'I can't use the void because it would be dangerous. My powers might kill him, and I'd rather start on good terms.'
Then Campbell stood up and brushed the rubble off. "That caught be off guard, I know it's no excuse, but I had not thought you would be able to teleport."
Then Campbell threw a glance at Zuri, silently telling her that he's going to go harder on him.
Then the air turned stale and his sword flashed, glowing brighter and brighter. This is his special skill, burning sword, actually, it's the fire being channelled through the sword. At this level of evolution, this skill even allows him to channel the fire directly into an opponent's equipment, however this set of armour was not getting hotter.
The heat and pressure of the sword made it become so hot that the air had become dry, the floor was becoming charred even though the sword was not touching it, for Campbell this was too cold, but enough to sever anything. Then the Knight hit the sword from the side crushing it completely. Then the Knight summoned the hammer, and brought it down, making it heavier than a mountain, but somehow, he still stood.
'Knight are no joke. I believe it now.'
Then the feather shattered, and soon the hammer was glowing with the same intensity, then while bringing it down on the Commander, it shattered with one fist thrown up at the hammer.
'The strength of a level 184 is really no joke, if I was still weaker, I would have to come up with a strategy.'
The Knight was just starring at its broken hammer remembering the days when it was weak and insignificant in the dungeon. Right now, it would retreat to a crevasse and come up with a myriad of way in which to slay the foe, but too bad for this human, the Knight was no punching bag.
After activating battle monger, the Knight manipulated the sense of direction of the Commander to make it slower, and the Knight vanished using camouflage. Then teleporting around, delivering hit after hit, from every direction stopping the Commander from falling.
The Knight avoided striking the soul with Sirus's power because then the soul will become mangled. Strangely though the armour and the knight inside held. The look in Campbell's eyes was not that of a beast, but of a calculative foe, the look the Knight used to have when it was being pummelled by the monsters, meaning that there is still one thing this knight can do. So, the Knight disengaged and reappeared.
This then gave Campbell the opportunity he had been waiting for. The Knight saw it, this Commanders soul was leaking out, whisps of soft light blue fog, invisible to the crowd, kept escaping in larger and larger quantities. The Knight felt something was wrong with the world, it seems that the soul was creating a field of sorts around itself.
"A power…!"