Nightblade (Darkest night)-Chapter 218: Disarray

Looking across the table, Emily let out a quiet sigh.

"Listen..."

She went on to narrate her meeting with Edmund, Warren, and Xander Grey.

Talia and Lucian silently listened until she was done, the latter clearing the food on his plate at an equally alarming rate.

"So what do you guys think?"

Lucian silently shrugged, continuing to sip on his drink.

"You really want to take part?"Talia asked, her lips curling into a small smile.

Emily thoughtfully stared at her drink, slowly swirling it around with a bendy straw. Her reflection stared back at her, distorting weirdly in the shifting fluid.

"I..."

A shrill sound suddenly cut her off.

"That’s the bell..."

Lucian got up.

Picking up his tray, he abruptly paused, staring into the distance.

"I don’t particularly care what you want to do. But if you want to give it a shot, then go for it. "

With that, he walked off.

Emily Lingere,d watching his disappearing form.

"What’s his problem? Talia asked, a small frown appearing on her face.

Emily remained silent for a few moments before eventually murmuring.

"He’s still not fully back yet."

Talia opened her mouth to speak, and then her eyes widened slightly in realization.

Her gaze slowly drifted to Lucian’s retreating figure.

"I understand..."

****

Talia did understand.

Walking back to the large auditorium that was also the lecture hall they were using, her eyes drifted to a familiar brown-haired youth.

Lucian sat alone, deliberately distancing himself from the rest of the Survivors.

His head was propped on his fist, silently staring into space.

With uncanny accuracy, almost as though he’d felt her gaze on him, he calmly turned, returning her gaze for a few moments before turning back with an aloof expression.

It was a bit infuriating.

She almost missed the domineering attitude and easy-going smile he’d had in Tenebris when they battled the veliscera and the kravenar.

It was almost as if he were a completely different person.

"We’re all going through the same thing...we all went through the same hell," Talia muttered.

"But why is it bothering you so much?" Emily asked. The Talented girl was seated with her for the lecture. Rat, her Talia had sought her out and sat with her for the lecture.

Emily looked genuinely curious.

"What do you mean?"

Emily shrugged.

" Before Tenebris, wasn’t it always like this? You two weren’t close before the incident. I think that to L and Cian, this is actually quite normal. Or am I wrong?"

Talia opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.

"She’s right..."

Looking at Emily, she could see the genuine curiosity in her eyes. And even more infuriatingly, she was right.

It was also strangely quite refreshing seeing things from a different perspective.

Talia had to admit that she was right.

Despite both of them being scions of two of the revered Great Houses, before the incident, the two of them had actually never interacted at length.

"It’s strange..."

Her gaze once more drifted to Lucian.

" Well, that’s one way to look at it..."

Before the incident, Lucian behaved like a sniveling, snotty-nosed brat.

Back then, she’d mostly hang out with Xenia Mordrew and Raven Snow.

She’d received news that Xenia had made it back from Tenebris in the batch of novices found near the Varas stronghold. While she’d wanted to meet her friend, Xenia hadn’t returned to the academy for a while now.

Raven, on the other hand, was still missing.

"It was true...back then I didn’t pay him any attention."

Lucian had been quite harmless. Sure, he’d excelled in theory,y but his physical ability and techniques had been nothing remarkable.

Later, after witnessing his prowess for herself, she’d begun suspecting that it’d all been an act. If anything, that only made him more dangerous.

And even more impressive.

And, it made her intrigued.

The thought of it was quite terrifying and infinitely daunting. The fact that he had deliberately held himself back to such a degree...

Talia’s mind was in disarray, so much so that she couldn’t completely focus. Before she knew it, the lecture was ending.

She slowly got up in a daze and made her way through the throng of Scions and Talented with no particular destination in mind.

Whispers of "ice princess" followed in her wake.

Eventually, she ended up at the massive gymnasium. She silently entered, sitting in the back in silence.

Eventually, a dull rhythmic thudding sound reached her ear,s breaking her out of her reverie.

At first, she barely noticed the discrepancy, but as the minutes crawled by,y she noticed the discrepancy.

" What the..."

A strong breeze blew pasherer immediately followed by a loud crackling sound.

Faintly feeling the umbralis surge through her body, Talia moved forward and then froze at the sight in front of her.

Two talented people were sparring.

If it could even be called that.

The dull rhythmic thudding came from several water shape fists that whizzed through the air with impossible speed, moving unpredictably but in sync with the Talented wielding them.

Eyes aglow with brilliant blue light, the youth moved with impressive speed. The water shaped first around him revolved erratically, striking at different points every time he attacked.

Talia subconsciously drew closer, watching with rapt attention.

It was fascinating.

Every time the destructive fists whizzed through the air, they only hit...air.

Literally.

A barrier that seemed to shift and move protected the dark-haired youth on the other side of the platform.

Talia didn’t know the youth wielding the fists. But she remembered the youth he was facing.

" What was his name?"

As she pondered this, a shout suddenly echoed through the empty gymnasium.

Oblivious to Talia Edmund, gritting his teeth, his eyes glowing even more fiercely.

"Come on! You’re not giving it your all, Warren! Do you think you can get me half-heartedly?"

With that, the water churned, rapidly morphing into four humanoid figures.

A split second late,r Edmund and the humanoid figures bolted forward, rapidly jabbing at the invisible shield.

With a silent roar, one of the figures launched itself at the shield, splattering across it brutally. But interestingly, the water droplets hovered in the air, and then slowly froze over,r tracing an outline in the air.

Without wasting any time, the shorter youth dashed forward, directly breaking through the now frozen icy barrier and charging directly at the still figure of the dark-haired youth.

Warren lazily took a step forward.

With that single step, Talia realized where the crackling sound from before had come from. With a thunderous crack, several bolts of dark electricity streamed across the floor, zapping through the humanoid figures.

The remaining humanoid figures exploded in a shower of hot steam, the steam rapidly spreading across the stage.

"I don’t need to exert myself to..." a voice spoke through the cover of the steam.

A moment later, Warren flew out of the steam, then gracefully flipped through the air, skidding to a stop with a mixture of surprise and shock on his face.

"Interesting," he whispered.

"Alright, I’ll take you more seriously then."