Zero Potential: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

Professor Chan was not holding back, his contempt was clear for everyone to see on his face.

He began with one of Professor Chan’s killing moves, generally this was done well after she had been training under the mad professor’s tutelage, when he was certain that no wounds would be formed by the attacks. Yet, as usual something was off, and Terra knew exactly what was different about this time, she was.

Relentless Strike.

Seeing that Professor Chan was no longer holding back, Terra felt she should do the same.

Devouring Palm.

As he swung out with his sword in an endless barrage of energy infused blows, any of which would be hot and corrosive enough to cut through her skin, infuse her body with poisonous miasma, and then seal the wound shut in one strike. Seeing his blows, she quickly countered the pattern and routine of combat being too predictable by this point.

He began with his typical probing attacks, high swipe left, counter reverse sweep right. Terra, knowing the pattern and having spent hundreds of years battling against Professor Chan exploited her knowledge to its utmost.

Hand Sweeps Blade.

Jab Exposed Torso.

Leach.

Terra’s response was as fierce as it was restrained. Only going so far as to use the minimum of strikes to stop his body’s natural circulation of energy. As she moved, she got the recognition from the Professor that she had wanted.

Parry: Tier I: You have demonstrated to a master that you are able to parry and redirect their attacks with your martial techniques. All attempts to parry cost 10% less energy.

Unarmed Combat: Tier II: You have demonstrated to a master that your Unarmed Combat skill is superior in nature. You can do Aggravated damage while unarmed, and all damage done without the aid of a weapon is 20% stronger.

Blind Fighting: Tier II: You have demonstrated to a master that your Blind Fighting skill is superior in nature. Your movements are not penalized as much for visibility issues. Your other senses, other than sight, are improved by 20%.

The more they fought, the more Professor Chan got angry.

“Tell me demon, why have you come here!” He shouted as he poured energy into his sword, causing the blade to erupt with an intense blue flame.

Purifying Blade Strike.

Seeing the blade turn blue, Terra almost paused, as the blue flame was something one learned to use when fighting a demon. The change in the fight and the shifting of power made Terra realize that Professor Chan had likely seen her true attributes and saw that she was given the clothing of a commoner and concluded that she was here to hide her ulterior motives. While she was here, and she did have ulterior motives, the idea of being a demonic entity, let alone one who would come to infiltrate this school was not something she had wanted.

Realizing the mistake, Terra ducked her head low and used an evasion technique.

Fleeting Apparition.

Suddenly a golden visage of her appeared to stand still, while the brightly glowing blue blade struck through where she had just stood. This was divine magic, something that would be beyond a demon’s capabilities and something that only those chosen few who were blessed by the Gods could wield. While it was true she was not blessed this time, her blessing of divine well energy had been taught to her so often that she could find her divine source, even without the aid of the Gods. That was why she pulled forth the energy now, as Terra was certain that seeing divine energy in use would prove hands down that she was not a demon.

The burning blue blade lashed out and struck at her divinely powered apparition that glowed so brightly that it hid her true movements away from everyone.

Whoosh!

There was an explosion of light, even with her eyes closed Terra could feel the remnants of the burning flames shining brightly against her retinas. Fortunately, the bright light only served to help prove why she needed to utilize her blind fighting.

By the time the apparition had done its part and received the attack of Professor Chan, she was a good ten paces away.

Evasion: Tier I: You have learned to evade your enemy’s strikes. Your movements, energy use, and precision are now 10% better when evading an enemy’s strike.

Basic Combat Magic Casting: Tier I: You have been identified by a master as being able to cast spells while in combat. Your movements, energy use, and rate of magical expenditure are now 10% better when casting magic in combat.

Basic Wordless Casting: Tier I: You have been identified by as master as being able to cast a spell without verbal components. Your ability to conserve energy while casting spells without a verbal component is now 10% better.

Seeing the messages, it was clear that Professor Chan knew what she had done. While getting these basic level skills was her original goal for this whole forced meeting, Terra couldn’t help but feel that this had somehow gone far off the deep end.

Frenzied Strike

Professor Chan was like a wounded animal, striking out wildly with their still burning sword. It was clear that they were blinded by striking the divine energy with his blue flame sword. The blue flames were meant to be colder and were used as a counter to demons and their naturally fiery blood, where fire would often pose no danger to the younger demons, while it had healing properties for the demonic leaders. That was where blue flames came in, as they were able to counter the fire that resided within demons. That said the blue flames reacted violently to Divine energy which could only be wielded by a blessed person, or at the very least a person who was not wholly corrupted by evil, like a demon.

Yet, Professor Chan swung his re-ignited blue flame sword around. The blue magical flames causing ice particles to form on the ground wherever they landed.

Seeing this, Terra realized that she should use this moment to try to defuse the situation.

“Surely you saw the divine image?” Terra said, her words causing the Professor to stop swinging wildly and focus directly on her position. It was clear from a glance that he was desperately trying to blink away the after images from his eyes.

“I saw what you wanted me to see demon!” He shouted as he barreled forward.

Seeing that he was clearly unhinged by the whole encounter, Terra decided to do a quick disabling strike on the combat master.

Devouring Strike.

Devouring Strike.

Using just her extended pointer and middle fingers she reached out and lightly tapped the brightly burning core nodes on the Professor. The only problem was, that she had expected him to move slightly, as he almost always dodged to his right side, towards his dominant planting foot. That was why she aimed for his core center mass, knowing that once he turned out of the way, she would still land her blow on the main feeder meridian that wove its way from his core. Striking the meridian would be enough to disable his wildly flailing strikes and surges of energy that were now being kind of reckless, if Terra had to say so.

Yet, Professor Chan didn’t turn out of the way, and her strike landed perfectly.

Terra had assumed that Professor Chan was faking his blindness, or at least playing it up so that she would doubt him. Yet, he apparently had been blinded and was still willing to attack with reckless abandon.

Shattering glass.

There was a crashing sound, as she felt her mana infused fingers land, and then pierce the thick outer shell of Professor Chen’s core.

The result of the blow happened faster than she had anticipated. She expected to deal a blow that would slowly drain the energy from Professor Chan, causing the equivalent of internal bleeding that would need to be stopped and focused on to survive. Now, with the shattering of his core, things had gone from mildly threatening if immediate attention wasn’t provided, to a life or death scenario.

See the problem with a shattered core, especially a core as large as Professor Chan’s, was the fact that the natural energy that his body pulled in and used to survive was now leaking out directly into his primary muscles and causing a rapid bleeding effect. Worse, with the main core being broken, the rest of the meridians were still circulating the energy of his body from the other parts straight to his chest, where it was being forced to pool together.

Realizing he only had seconds, Terra did multiple things all at once. First healing the core of a person was something that took time, and was normally performed by an expert who only had to deal with a slight crack on the external wall of the core. Here Terra had not only cracked, but completely shattered the outer wall of the core. Meaning that even if Terra was the absolute best at healing spiritual damage, which she was, there was no way to fix his core in time to save him before he effectively drowned in his own bodily energies.

This was why Terra first went about ruthlessly striking at and disabling every primary feeder node of Professor Chan’s body that fed into his core. This way the pressure going to his core would be alleviated enough for Terra to provide healing to his core.

Crack, shatter.

One by one her fingers quickly poked at every major node, including the node within his brain, to avoid the brain from also pooling of abundant energy, causing a mana stroke. Somewhere by the third major strike, the already ambulatory Professor Chan passed out. This was good, as soul damage was one of the hardest for most people to deal with psychologically.

Acupuncture: Tier I:  Your understanding of the human body is so advanced that you can identify the resting spot for the major nodes of the body. All attempts to find and interact with the energy nodes of another are 10% easier.

At first Terra was angered by the notification, but then realized that this notification was likely perfect, as it meant that the spell she would cast next would be easier to cast.

Focusing quickly, she cast the spell within her mind, and then proceeded to cast multiple overlapping spells all at once.

Soul Heal.

Regeneration.

Core Renewal.

Node Renewal (X7).

She cast spell after spell, in what felt like hours, but had only been seconds.

“What was that?” One of the two students who had been practicing in the far field spoke loudly.

“I don’t know it was some type of golden light.” The other student spoke.

Hearing that made Terra realize how fast combat truly was. They were just now reacting to the light show that had blinded the professor. Then realizing that the professor was now knocked out and had all his nodes shattered with her being the clear reason why, she decided to leave. Her sixth sense telling her that there was likely no way for her to explain this one away, especially not as a Zero Potential student who just so happens to have amazingly maxed out Attributes and Magical abilities.

Taking one last glance at the unconscious Professor Chan, Terra nodded to herself after seeing that her spells were already having an effect. The layered spells would take time and would require the usage of the Professor’s pooling energy to heal himself. This was actually a good thing, as it would prevent the internal bleeding like effects that she had been worried about.

Using her movement skills that she had spent lifetimes mastering, she quickly blurred into the darkness.

“What? Did you see that?” One of the students asked.

“See what?”

“The shadow?”

Stealth: Tier I: You have been identified by an expert as being able to slip away quietly. Your movement costs while trying to move silently and without being noticed are 10% easier.

Basic Obfuscation: Tier I: You have been identified by an expert as being able to slip into your surroundings, hiding your body from prying eyes. Your ability to blend into your surroundings and move away unseen is 10% easier.

Seeing the notices, she realized that the upper classmen apparently had gotten a lot of practice at sneaking around on campus during their time here. While that was not truly surprising, it was worthy of noting that she had been recognized for her skills at evading. This would make most of her time her that much easier. At this rate, there were only a few more skills and schools of magic that she wanted to have unlocked that she would not be able to gain elsewhere. Then once she had acquired those few skill designations, she would feel confident going out into the countryside, taking a quiet life and waiting until the being of ultimate evil finally decided to make its presence known. Then once it was finally ready to make its move, so too would Terra.

Until she had gotten all of the basic skills taken care of, she decided that she would stay here. Though she had to admit that her patience was wearing thin at her treatment. Was it like this for all trash tier students?

Terra did not remember it being so bad before, but then again, she never really got a chance to interact with any of the trash tier students, as it had always been the school’s position to keep her grouped with the best of the best. Meaning that she only saw the trash tier students passing. Even then she tried to be nice to them, but only now did she realize she could not remember any of their names.

With that in mind, she snuck into her room, and silently snuck into her bed and covered herself under her coarse blanket that had been supplied to all students. These were the thick woolen blankets that would keep you warm and were so coarse that they would rip apart any would be bed bug that tried to make a colony there.

Still, it had been an interesting first day. Realizing she was close to her limits she let out a silent sigh, and began making plans for what she would do tomorrow. There were so many moments, the mid-year tournaments to try out for so she could get resources. Then there were delving missions she would need to undertake to gain money to pay down her debt that was already accruing at 10% interest. Then there was the…

BLARING ALARM!

The school’s alarm bells began ringing wildly. Instantly Terra’s mind that had been slowly winding down from an action packed first day at campus sprung to life as she was certain that it was the Western Dustor Kingdom declaring their invasion. It was pretty fast and would likely cost the Dustor Kingdom the amount of resources they could muster at this point, but it was something that would still need to be dealt with.

Suddenly the tired sensation that Terra had been feeling from feeling she would not be needed, was suddenly erased as she looked around and saw her roommate and the other girls of the eight-person open bay dorm room waking up.

“What is going on?” One of the girls cried out.

“I don’t know.” Another girl replied.

There was so much confusion going on and Terra got out of bed. To her surprise she realized she was still wearing her school uniform. But then a quick glance around showed that everyone was wearing their school uniform in some form or another. Some had taken off the top and hung it over the edge of their bed, but by and large most wore the uniform. It was at this point that Terra realized that this was likely the best piece of clothing they had, and the itchy fiber of their uniform was likely desired as it helped them stay warmer at night. Realizing that made Terra feel slightly sad at the revelation. In her past lives she had earned tens of millions of coins from her adventures. The least she could have done was provide her fellow classmates with better clothing. Yet, she had often been naïve and gave her extra back to the kingdom that had given her so much. At the time she had thought that the money would ultimately trickle down to students like these, but thinking about things, she was not quite so certain they did. Granted in the grand scheme of things such concerns were wasteful at this point, as those lifetimes were dead and gone. Now all she could do was work for her current future.

“Everyone outside on the double. We are conducting a health and welfare check.” An older dorm monitor stated.

“What is going on?” One of the girls cried out.

The dorm monitor paused, almost debating whether to tell the girl anything. Then realizing that this would likely go smoother if she was answered, the monitor spoke. “There was an attack on one of the Professors. We are doing a full accountability to see if the attacker managed to take out anyone else, before they were driven away.”

Hearing that, Terra’s ears started burning as she felt she knew that this was not the invasion from the Dustor Kingdom that she had hoped. In fact, this was likely going to be a cluster of confusion.

“One of the professors?”

“Yes, Professor Chan, he is one of the Master level professors that teaches third year combative techniques.” The dorm monitor stated, before leaving the dorm. This was likely smart as if she had stayed, she would have likely been forced to answer many more questions.

As it was Terra, not quite knowing what to do in this situation, just decided to hide in plain sight. While her actions could be considered cowardly for running away, she had made sure to heal the professor. Also, it had been the professor who had been so relentless with his attacks. And if asked she would either leave, or offer further healing.

Going out with the other trash tier members of the student body. She formed up, and waited, and waited.

The dorm monitor that had told them all to form up, came out and counted them once going from the left to the right side of the formation. Then thirty minutes later they repeated the process, this time counting from right to left. Then finally when one of the head Professors, Professor Maclaren came, he spoke three words to the monitor. During that time his eyes crossed over the formation, and for a second Terra thought her eyes locked with the professor, but they quickly moved on.

“Good job. We are almost done here.” Maclaren stated.

Then they waited, every formation of students was up and formed, ready to be inspected until midnight.

During this time Terra was prepared to give her side of the comments, to explain what had happened, but no one came to ask her any details.

Finally, after two plus hours of everyone standing around, where Maclaren came by and got a second count from the dorm monitor, the large bells began ringing a gentle tune.

“Go back to bed!” Ubaldis, the school principal shouted out over the campus.

And like that, the major alert on campus was over, and Terra was allowed to go back to her room and finally rest.