Proving Ground 4 (Patreon)

Proving Ground
Chapter 4

-VB-

Roxelana took in a deep breath.

She felt nervous.

She hadn’t felt this nervous in a long time, and the last time she’d been this nervous was when she snuck a few drops of the Source. She knew that she was going to be punished later when she stole it; no one got away with it, and even after the side effects of the Source showed up on her children, she managed to keep it hidden (but nothing remained hidden forever).

Today…

Today, she was to be punished.

Today, her master would beat the shit out of her.

Oh, he wouldn’t kill her. No, no, no. He wasn’t like that. Punishment, he often said, worked better on the living than the dead.

No, he wouldn’t kill her, but if she did not fight to her fullest, then he would mercilessly break every bone in her body before healing her and then doing it all over again.

As someone who’d seen that happen before to someone else who also angered the king, Roxelana was not going to let herself be subjected to that.

She would consider herself lucky if she lost an arm and decent if we got permanently crippled.

Better crippled than locked up with all of her bones broken for a full week with medics on standby to keep her alive.

Nope nope nope nope nope. I am not going to be broken puppet.

That’s what the corps called the punishment.

So she waited for the customary horn to be blown within the waiting room at the center of the colosseum. It was the biggest training area they had and the only structure possibly capable of being the stage for two S-rank (and above) fighters.

Because this was going to be rough.

Toooooottttttttt

She steeled herself and stood up, and then walked out of the waiting room.

She stepped through the dark tunnels and into the light.

When she saw her master and king on the other side of the arena, she felt her heart freeze and pound at the same time.

A visceral terror ripped through her.

Standing alone without an audience in this arena, she knew that her teacher would not pull any punches, maybe just enough to ensure she didn’t die in a single hit.

“Are you ready for your latest lesson, Roxelana?” he asked her with a genial smile that leaked a hidden wrath.

“... Yes, sir.”

“Good.”

And she screamed as she found herself face to face with her master’s killing intent. She saw images of the worst ways to die. Of slow and excruciating deaths. She screamed before biting her lips as her mind threatened to snap multiple times over a few seconds.

Then she broke through when she, in her own panic and through long-honed training, pierced her palm with her fingernails.

Killing intent was a technique that projected the user’s intent outwards through intentional chakra exertion. The mechanic of the fear enforced upon the effected was not well known or even explored, because no one particularly liked shitting their pants regularly for research. However, what was known was that with experience, one could break out of the induced fear and resisting the effect before the fear took place required equivalent chakra reserve and control, if not greater.

So for her to fall into the induced fear when she was rated at top 0.001% of all chakra users for both control and reserve spoke volumes about her teacher.

“Ho. It took you less time to break out this time. Last time I did this, you needed a full minute.”

She smirked weakly as her legs trembled. “I never stopped training.”

“Good, good. Because if you had lasted less than before, then I would have thought you were lying to me about using the drops of the Source to help your children.”

A shiver ran down her spine.

Before she could react, he disappeared and she felt a fist bury deep into her stomach.

She spat blood as she flew away and struck the wall multiple times, not bouncing or falling from the wall but grinding against the wall because the king’s punch had been that strong.

But she wasn’t his favorite student once upon a time for no reason!

“RAAHHH!!” she shouted as she slammed her fists into the wall and brought herself to a complete stop.

She dropped down to the dirt ground two meters below, but the moment she landed, she saw her teacher coming. She didn't bother blocking; she gathered chakra into the soles of her boots and slammed them into the air. The air condensed and became a foothold for a mere moment before dissipating, but that was enough for her to jump away from the incoming attack.

And still, his attack made contact.

She flew away once again, almost “ragdolling” as youngsters said these days, and slammed into the stone audience seats. The seats gave away like jello to her rock body.

She got up and jumped back into the arena, and this time, she led with an attack.

Water droplets hovered around her as she drew them out of the air, and then shot forth like lances.

And evaporated immediately as they met unbearable heat surrounding her master.

She carried on with her flying assault, still in her jump, but instead, surrounded herself with the water droplets to form her own water shield.

Her water shield slammed into the heat shield and powered through.

His fist clenched and lashed out.

She gritted her teeth and concentrated her chakra to … her forehead.

The king’s eyes widened. “You idi-!”

Conk.

At least, she still had a quick way out of this punishment.

-VB-

Deniz burst out of his bed while gasping loudly before he realized where he was: his room back at his parent’s house.

He raced out of his room and to the living room-.

He froze to a halt when he saw who was sitting in the living room.

Both of his parents were there. Dad looked upset but restrained, mom had a large red welt on her forehead, Sarah looked nervous, and … and the King Marris of Cer, the First of His Name, the founder of the Kingdom of Cer, and the Strongest Human.

That king, the old king whose slightly hunched back and short hair almost seemed to bristle despite his age, sat at the seat of honor of their house.

And he looked as equally upset as dad, if not more. He also seemed to be very exasperated.

“Oh, you’re awake, boy.” Dad and mom looked up, and dad’s frustration morphed into disappointment and mom … she just stayed silent. That wasn’t like her at all. “Come. We need to talk with you and your sister.”