Lu Chen yawned as he stretched, digging into his robes and tossing out a number of dao stones. As they clattered on the floor, minor sparks flew, caused by the dao energy inherent in them.
The fourth-year student that was busy cleaning his shoes noticed the dao stones, and hurried to swipe them all up.
"Thank you, Sir. Always a pleasure, Sir."
The student pocketed the dao stones eagerly. This was a currency that they could not earn at the Academy, and so any student with enough real-world experience would jump at the opportunity to get them.
Lu Chen stood, adjusting his robes and looking around.
He had done some digging, and found out quite a lot about Jin Huang.
Firstly, and perhaps the most surprising piece of news, was that Jin Huang was a first-year student.
He had not been present during the entrance examination or the orientation, because he was granted access to the Academy via Stamp of Approval.
Despite being a first year, and being assigned to class four, Jin Huang did not stay at the appropriate building. He was housed in the auxiliary dorm, for students who had missed out on the opportunity to get a room in the regular dorms.
Perhaps the easiest piece of information for Lu Chen to uncover was that Jin Huang was a gluttonous monster, capable of devouring more of Madame Cho's food than any other student.
When he found that out, Lu Chen's smile left him. Frowning, he set out to gather more information.
As he leaned against the wall of a lecture hall, Lu Chen sensed a filament of hostile intent, thin as silk and sharp as wire.
He turned without hurry.
Across from him, Nagira stood with that same familiar looseness in his posture, his eyes gleaming with restrained mischief.
He winked, "Long time no see... Leader."
"Ahh," Lu Chen replied, pushing off the wall. "That brings back memories. Long time, Nagira."
They closed the distance between them, and Lu Chen extended his fist. For a fraction of a breath, it looked like an old greeting between comrades.
Then the air changed.
By the time Lu Chen felt the distortion, Nagira's fist was already in motion. Wind erupted from the movement, a compressed torrent screaming forward as the ancient's arm blurred.
The force behind it bent the light in front of his knuckles, space warping to accommodate the velocity.
Lu Chen's body flowed, unwinding in a way that allowed Nagira's fist to tear past him by a hair's breadth. The gale slammed into the lecture hall's wall, igniting the defensive formation.
Silver sigils flared across the stone, layered arrays surfacing in cascading geometric brilliance. The impact rippled through them in waves, humming with restrained violence.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Lu Chen chided softly as Nagira drew his fist back.
"What was rule one again, Leader?" Nagira asked, lowering into a battle-ready stance- one hand chambered, the other extended.
His center of gravity dropped unnaturally low, joints aligning with inhuman precision.
His bloodline advantage as an ancient was on full display; an impossibly perfect constitution for battle.
Lu Chen mirrored him, replying with a look of both nostalgia and amusement as his clothes settled and his breathing evened, "No words, just fists."
Nagira moved, the world itself crying out in protest.
Space folded inward around him, collapsing the distance in a violent compression that made the Academy's artificial spatial laws shriek in complaint.
The floor cracked in fibrous fractures beneath his step, then the air popped as pressure inverted.
Lu Chen snorted coldly, "Too excited, ancient."
He pivoted. Nagira appeared in front of him.
His fist came like a meteor, wind spiraling around it in a drilling vortex.
Lu Chen's palm met it and, shockingly, the impact did not explode. It coiled.
His hand absorbed the force at an angle, redirecting it along the curve of his body as he twisted at the waist. Power slid across him instead of through him. His shoulder dipped, his hips rotated, and just like that Nagira's momentum betrayed him.
His own force pulled him forward, spine twisting as Lu Chen stepped off-line and guided the strike past its intended mark. The ancient's back turned in a blink, feet leaving the ground as centrifugal force seized him.
Lu Chen's hand slid from fist to wrist, a subtle pull, but a violent correction.
Nagira's body flipped, robes snapping in the air before he planted his palm into the ground to prevent himself from being driven face-first into the stone. The floor cratered beneath the contact.
"You still get carried away," Lu Chen said calmly, already stepping into range. "You were too committed to that punch."
Nagira grinned upside down, the grin only growing wider with time. His planted palm clenched, and the stone beneath it detonated.
Fragments lifted as gravity briefly reversed around him. His legs scissored upward in a brutal arc aimed at Lu Chen's jaw, the kick tearing through the air with a crack like splitting timber.
Lu Chen leaned back just enough for the heel to skim past his nose, a single strand of dark hair severed cleanly and drifting downward.
His expression did not change, but his eyes sharpened. The first exchange was simply a greeting, the others would be a lesson.
Nagira's heel cut through empty air, but before his leg had even begun to fall, Lu Chen moved.
His hand snapped forward, catching Nagira's ankle mid-arc. The grip was iron, and with a short twist of his hips, he redirected the momentum downward and drove the ancient toward the ground.
Nagira reacted instantly, his free leg whipping around, the kick splitting the air toward Lu Chen's ribs.
However, Lu Chen's elbow intercepted it.
Even so, the impact rang through the Academy like struck iron.
Nagira rolled with the recoil, palms striking the floor as he sprang back upright. He stepped in again immediately, sparing not even a moment. Aflurry of blows followed, fists tearing through the air with thunderous pressure.
Each strike bent the wind, each step fracturing the tiles beneath his feet.
Lu Chen met them with infuriating calm. Palm diverted fist; shoulder slipped past elbow.
A knuckle grazed Nagira's wrist and changed the angle of a punch just enough for it to crash harmlessly into the air.
Three exchanges.
Four.
On the fifth, Lu Chen stepped inside, his palm striking Nagira's chest with explosive force and precise placement. The impact halted his advance like a wall had risen in front of him.
In the same motion, Lu Chen's fingers hooked behind Nagira's collar and turned him.
In the very next instant, Nagira found himself pinned lightly against the lecture hall wall, Lu Chen's forearm resting across his chest, the edge of his other hand hovering casually at his throat.
The defensive formation flickered faintly behind them before silence settled things for them.
Nagira blinked once.
Lu Chen sighed.
"You still haven't changed, Itchy Ancient."
Nagira tilted his head slightly. "Oh?"
Lu Chen released him and straightened his robes. "You love fighting too much," he said simply.
"The moment a fight starts, you forget everything else. Positioning, intent, consequence- it all goes out the window."
Nagira rubbed the back of his neck, grin creeping across his face again, " I still managed to come out on top in five of our exchanges though."
"Yeah, but you landed zero," Lu Chen replied flatly. "What good is an attack that doesn't kill?"
Nagira laughed, shaking his head.
Lu Chen turned and began walking down the pathway as though the fight had never happened.
"Come," he said over his shoulder. "Walk with me."
Nagira pushed himself off the wall, stretching as he fell into step beside him.
Lu Chen glanced sideways, "I have a few questions for you about Jin Huang."