I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 50

Arata began writing notes down rigorously, both Akari and Tallis were stunned by this. They had never seen Arata look this serious before. When he looked up, Aisha was already on the stage. She was a short girl with long brown hair. Her golden gauntlets were connected by a golden chain that she wore over her neck, letting the gauntlets hang their.

“I am from the Siren Clan. Although admittedly, I am a bit of an oddity. Most members of the Siren Clan use Sorcery or Visual Entrancement to stun and affect their opponents. I, however, was born with an unnatural strength. I was able to combine my strength and the Siren Clan techniques, creating my own stun technique called Golden Stun.”

Arata noted down everything of importance. He obviously knew of the Siren Clan. They were a Clan of beautiful people that cultivated around one’s beauty. The Clan techniques were mainly based around area of effect attacks and Support. They were able to stun, confuse, strengthen or weaken their opponents or allies. They seemed quite lovely and beautiful, but they were actually terrifying on the battlefield.

Aisha put her gauntlets on as she got ready. Matoki came on stage, clearly to be a punching bag. Aisha slammed her fists together and sent a Shockwave that collided with Matoki. Arata watched intently with Shadow Awareness as he watched the Shockwave fly through the air and hit Matoki. He then found that the shock wave seemed imbue itself into Matoki’s Elemental Reservoir, restricting it’s circulation. Arata nodded as he understood how her Stun worked.

It cut off the person’s access to their Elemental Reservoir while simultaneously keeping their mental thoughts in their head, so they can’t command their body to move or do anything. Arata stood up and placed a hand on Matoki. Matoki was released from the stun. Aisha was shocked to see that Arata was able to remove the stun so casually. He looked over to Tallis.

“Would you mind writing down what I say to you?”

Tallis didn’t know what Arata wanted to do, but he nodded as he got his notebook ready. He then turned to Aisha.

“I would like to test your strength, please hit me as hard as you can.”

Aisha nodded her head as her gaze turned vicious. Aisha seemed to channel her Energy into her right fist as she leaped forward. Arata was pleasantly surprised when he saw her speed. The Siren Clan were mainly support based warriors, so their strength and speed were quite mediocre. But Aisha seemed to go against that image as she flew forward. She threw her punch and Arata casually caught it. Arata closed his eyes and began concentrating. Arata and Aisha stood there silently for a moment.

“Physical strength is a 70. Speed is a 65 but it would be higher if she had access to the right technique, note down that we need to discuss this later. Elemental Reservoir is mainly full of the Unique Siren Bloodline Element. Although there are a lot of impurities due to her cultivation method. Her current cultivation method isn’t well suited for her.”

Arata wasn’t too worried about the specific spells and abilities of the class, he trusted that they had sufficient skill to be in Class 7. Also, most warriors wouldn’t just show all of their skills to everyone, Arata was the same, so he assessed them based of the Elemental Reservoir, meridians, cultivation, physical strength and speed. With his ability and understanding of the meridians and Energy within one’s body, he could tell more about someone’s strength by sending his Energy into the person than most people knew about themselves. Arata opened his eyes as he looked at the shocked Aisha.

“How long has it been since your cultivation has slowed down?”

Aisha was stunned. How did he know about this?

“It has been around 2 or 3 months.”

Arata nodded.

“Good, so it is still early and we can make the change before any damage is done to your meridians. Tallis, note down that we need to find Aisha a new cultivation method. I know of one that will suit her but am unsure where to acquire it.”

At this, Teacher Takuma chimed in.

“If it is within the Institute’s Grand Library, I should be able to get a hold of it ”

Arata nodded to Teacher Takuma. With that sorted, he let go of Aisha’s fist and sat down, looking over what Tallis noted down while adding his own notes. Akari took the initiative to gesture for Aisha to hop off stage and for the next person to go up. The class was now excited and nervous seeing how shocking Arata’s observations were. He was able to pinpoint Aisha’s strength’s and weaknesses instantly, while offering a method to strengthen her. The class was now brimming with anticipation.

Teacher Takuma was thoroughly impressed. She had a good eye and was able to see that Aisha’s cultivation speed had indeed slowed down over the past couple of months, but even she was unable to pinpoint the exact reason. She understood immediately that this was a great opportunity to grow the strength of the class using Arata’s assessment.

Next on the list was Akari, but he already knew her strength so there was no need to go into detail and test her. After her in the list was Antioch. Antioch stood on stage, yawning. Arata had been wanting to see how fast Antioch could move after his display if speed in the cafeteria. Arata walked on stage and pointed to the other end of the stage. Antioch went and stood where Arata was pointing.

“Your task is simple. Touch my back. Go.”

Antioch grinned as he disappeared before everyone’s eyes, however, the next instant, Antioch was on the ground in front of Arata, who had his hand on Anitoch’s chest, holding him down. Arata was stunned when he searched Antioch’s Elemental Reservoir. It was similar to his but also different. It was pure Non-Elemental Energy. But it was a different Non-Elemental Energy to Arata’s. It wasn’t exactly an Element, which is why it felt like Non-Elemental Energy. It was pure Speed.

He had converted all the Energy within his Elemental Reservoir into pure Speed. Arata was amazed but also knew that the speed that Anitoch showed just now wasn’t his max speed. He helped him up.

“Again.”

Antioch’s eyes lit up. Although no one saw what happened, he did. Arata had predicted where he would go and moved at an incredible speed to stop him. Antioch excitedly stood up and tried again, and again he was stopped. He was amazed at Arata’s speed. Arata looked at Tallis.

“Strength is at 40. Speed is at 90. His technique is flawed, thus I can beat him even though he is faster than me. However, with his current cultivation, I think that techniques will slow him down. The best course of action is to increase his speed and basic tactics before teaching him skills and techniques. I also have an inkling that I may be able to evolve his Elemental Reservoir, but we can discuss that later.”

Arata helped Antioch up before walking offstage.

“Antioch. Speed is only within you, but around. If you could connect your Speed to the Speed around you, what would happen?”

Arata spoke casually as he went back to his seat and began taking notes. Antioch had learnt a lot about his power from this exchange and took everything Arata said to heart. He went back to his seat and began meditating, as though he was trying to comprehend something. Arata looked at the list and saw that Aramis was up next. Aramis stood on stage and spoke.

“I am capable with using any weapon I forge, but forging is my forte more than fighting. I am not downplaying my strength and skill in a battle, but my forging is more useful than my battle prowess.”

Arata nodded. He liked this level of honesty. He tested Aramis by simply placing a hand on his shoulder and then observing his sword before giving his assessment. Next was Bardric. Bardric walked on the stage with his axe in hand. Bardric was a physically strong individual, but Arata was shocked to find that he had an empty Elemental Reservoir. Bardric could tell that Arata could see through him and smiled.

“My Elemental Reservoir is attached to my axe. My blade can absorb the Element of anything it touches and then creates a blade from that Energy. The size and power of the blade is directly related to the size and capacity of my Elemental Reservoir.”

Arata nodded in understanding as he scribbled down some notes. He then grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down a few things and gave it to Bardric. After reading it, Bardric’s eyes went wide eyed as he returned to his seat and began meditating immediately. And so the assessment of the class went along smoothly. Biron, the Dark agility user, was given a cultivation method from Arata, a special method from the Sato Clan. Although it was the Sato Clan property, Arata was allowed to teach others the first 2 levels of it. Biron immediately went off to begin cultivating it.

Next was Caldre, the Frost Dragon Bloodline. Arata sensed a strand of Energy in Caldre’s Elemental Reservoir. Arata’s eyes lit up as he realized what it was. A Bloodline Mutation. It was a rare genetic evolution that would change the ability and power of the Bloodline. After informing Caldre, he advised him to see what the mutation was and if he could unlock new powers and abilities from it. Caldre was shocked to hear that he had a mutation but was instantly excited as he returned to his seat.

Next as Cephas, the bulky young boy with the rock shield. Arata found a weakness in his cultivation and technique. He was too light to be a tank in a battle, Arata informed him to stop trying to spread out his effort and focus solely on strength and defense. There was no need for him to focus on speed right now, instead his direction should be that of an impenetrable wall.

Teacher Takuma was fascinated at the accuracy and wisdom Arata was showing. She knew that this class was going to grow immensely under his guidance. Teacher Takuma grinned as she began to plan the future of Class 7 with Arata at the forefront.

Arata sneezed as he wrote some notes down. He continued to observe and assess his classmates, continually being amazed by the monsters this class had. He also wanted to see how powerful they could all become, so he diligently did his best to improve them in any way he could. He also knew that if he could make them strong enough, he could sit back during the battle segments of the Class Tournament and let everyone else defeat everyone. Killing two birds with one stone.

Arata called out the next name on the list.

“Damien.”

The class went eerily quiet. A timid boy walked on the stage. Even though everyone here was 11 years old, this young boy looked even younger to Arata. He looked at the ground, too shy to look at anything or anyone. Arata spoke.

“So what can you do?”

There was a long silence. Tallis coughed as he leaned over to Arata.

“I think we should maybe skip Damien for now.”

Arata was confused. Why was everyone acting so weird? Arata stood up and walked over to Damien. The little boy shivered a little as he realized that Arata was standing in front of him. Everyone was shocked as they watched Arata’s face soften.

“I’m going to place my hand on your shoulder. There is no need to be scared. I won’t hurt you.”

Damien’s went wide with fear as Arata placed his hand on Damien. There was an explosion of Energy as Arata was sent flying off the stage, crashing into the tables. Ryouma ran over and helped Arata up.

“Captain, are you alright?”

Arata got up, but was staring in wonder at Damien. Damien bowed hurriedly.

“I’m sorry! I-I can’t c-c-control it…”

Arata just stared at Damien in awe and shock. He was able to briefly scan his Energy before he was sent flying. And he had a hard time believing what he sensed. He looked over at Teacher Takuma with questioning eyes. Teacher Takuma nodded.

“He is what you think. It is why he is here although he is a couple years too young.”

Arata was now filled with excitement as he turned back to Damien.

“A Child of the Source! He’s an actual Child of the Source!”