The Messenger of Death

"My name is Tsukishima." The teacher said.

He looked like he was still in his early 20s, an extremely tall young man with black eyes and wavy black hair that is at shoulder length. He was the kind of teacher that has female students crushing on him.

"I will be taking you through the theory and practice of combat and tactics training. Most of my classes will be practical."

"Follow me to the training area," Tsukishima said to the 30-some students that were present. They all stood up and followed him. The training area was an open space behind the lecture hall. The trees had been cleared and the ground leveled.

"I would not waste my time trying to teach every single one of you how to fight, of course, I will give some pointers and tell you your wrongs. And if after all that you still can't think for yourself when you are in battle then you are hopeless.

Also, you will be fighting without weapons and your cultivations will be temporarily sealed. There would be no excuse or what so ever like that."

"You and you step forward." Tsukishima pointed at two guys, they did as he said. He brought out two paper talismans and placed one each on their abdomen. The paper went into their bodies after that.

"I have sealed your cultivations. One of you is a rank-3 nascent realm cultivator and the other, a rank-6. Do either of you have any previous combat experiences or training?"

"I-I don't, sir." The rank-3 responded timidly.

"I do, sir." The rank-6 replied with confidence.

"You, forget all you have been taught about combat." He said to the guy that replied to him with confidence.

"The two of you will have a short spar, in this spar you can only be the winner if you take down your opponent how I ask you to take him down. You will have 2 minutes to take your opponent to the ground and make sure that his back stays in contact with the floor for at least 3 seconds. You are not allowed to punch or kick your opponent. Begin."

Tsukishima stepped back and gave them more space to spar.

The rank-3 cultivator started to fidget as he stepped back in fear. His opponent is someone with higher cultivation than his, even if their cultivation was sealed it still left some fraction of fear in him.

Secondly, his opponent admitted that he has some experience in battle, those alone destroyed every confidence in the rank-3's heart.

The rank-6 cultivator chose to attack when he saw that his opponent was too scared to do anything.

He ran and quickly arrived in front of his opponent, he held his opponent's shirt and threw him over his shoulder. After that, he climbed over his opponent and placed his opponent's hands under his knees. The rank-3 cultivator didn't even put up a fight, he had his eyes closed when his opponent climbed over him.

"That's enough. Get up, the two of you." Tsukishima ordered. The rank-6 got up with a smug smile plastered on his face. He looked at his opponent the same way an adult would at a child.

"In this spar, what we saw was a predator pouncing on its prey. The prey already knew that his opponent has the experience and is initially stronger than he is, so he chose to cower and resign to his fate, as he had nothing to lose but his dignity. Do you know what this means?" Tsukishima asked the students around. But no one answered.

"It means that your face, your dignity has no real value. It is just glorified self-conceit." He turned to face the rank-3 cultivator that just got beaten.

"The two of you will spar again, and this time there would be repercussions if you lose. I will deduct 10,000 MP from your name if you do not show me a satisfactory performance." The rank-3 student had tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"If those tears drop from your eyelids then I will make it 20,000 MP." Tsukishima threatened.

'I can't let that happen, I came to this school to get stronger. If that much MP gets deducted from my name then I am done for.' Hearing his threat, the rank-3 held his tears back and closed his eyes.

"Good, now begin."

The rank-6 still had his smug smile on his face, he was enjoying the misery that he would be able to cause to his opponent. He decided to attack the same way he did the first time.

Right when he was within arm's reach of his opponent, he grabbed his shirt and was about to throw him over his shoulder when he felt someone's arms wrap around his neck from behind. It was the rank-3 cultivator, he held his opponent's neck tightly.

"Let go!" He elbowed him on his ribs.

"Argh!" The rank-3 cried out in pain but he still refused to let go.

The rank-3 received more elbow thrusts to his ribs till he couldn't take it anymore. He released his grip from his opponent's neck but before he fell off completely, he bit the rank-6 on the back of his neck.

"Argh, you dog!!"

The rank-6 screamed out in pain. His neck started to bleed, his opponent's teeth sunk into his skin but fortunately for him, he didn't take a chunk of meat along when he dropped to the ground. The rank-6 cultivator was still in the process of accessing his unexpected injury when his opponent charged at him, another thing that he didn't expect.

The rank-3 hugged his opponent and trapped his hands within his hug. His opponent struggled and fought to escape his vice-like hug, when he had almost escaped from his grip he decided to attack the only way he could. With his head, he head-butted the rank-6 on his nose.

"Ough!" The rank-6 exclaimed as he didn't expect this attack from the rank-3.

He head-butted his opponent again, on his nose.

-Crack!

The rank-6's nose had broken, but that wasn't enough to make his opponent stop. He continued to receive head-butts till he had almost passed out.

The rank-3 cultivator let his opponent go when the blood from his opponent's nose had painted his face red and entered his eyes. He stepped back fell to the ground, while his opponent passed out upon being released, on the ground.

Almost everyone that spectated this spar was speechless.

"Always remember this, a desperate opponent that has something to lose is one of the most dangerous opponents you can face. In such cases, the person loses rationality and common sense."

Tsukishima turned and look at the rank-3 cultivator who was still sitting on the ground trying to clean the blood that got in his eyes with his shirt.

"There are two types of opponents, the weak opponent and then the strong one. Strength isn't necessarily your physical or cultivation prowess, your quick-wittedness is also part of strength, your smartness is part of strength, your confidence, even your countenance in the face of a stronger opponent is part of strength."

Tsukishima walked to where the rank-6 had passed out, he forced his mouth open and placed a pill in his mouth. Then he brought out a paper talisman and placed it on his broken nose, to accelerate his healing process. Not long after the nose healed quite well and the rank-6 woke up.

"Ahhh, my head." He said weakly as he could still feel the pain from the brutal nose pounding that he received.

"The pill that I gave you should kick in very soon, it would help with the pain," Tsukishima said.

The rank-6 unintentional glanced at his side and saw his weak opponent that previously bashed his nose with his head. "You dirty cheater, I'll kill you."

He was about to charge at the rank-3 but a light tap on the back of his head from Tsukishima, sent him crashing to the ground, headfirst.

"Don't make false accusations, he didn't cheat. You were too overconfident to notice that your opponent was desperate, too inexperienced to know that desperate people are dangerous people.

You thought you could take him down the same way but in return for your foolishness, you were taken down in a more bloody way than you took him down with. And your foolishness has also earned you minus 500 MP. Hand me your badge." The rank-6 did as he was asked. He looked at his opponent with hate in his eyes.

"And if you attack him anywhere but here, I will make sure you know pain." Tsukishima threatened the rank-6 cultivator.

"Desperate people are anomalies, so are talented people. When you meet any of these two anomalies, expect the unexpected." He continued to lecture the students.

...

"Hey weakling, you want to try going against me?" Drake asked Alex.

"Stay away Drake, he's mine to beat up first. After I'm done you can beat him up." Katherine interjected.

"People, there's no need to fight for who gets to go against me first, I can take the two of you on." Alex made a bold claim.

"I really want to beat you up." Katherine was boiling with anger now.

"Excuse me?" Alex raised his hand as he called out to get Tsukishima's attention.

"I would like to spar with these two, at the same time." He said when finally got Tsukishima's attention.

"Do the three of you have any kind of grudge?" He questioned.

"Something like that. But that's not why I want to spar with them, we are teammates and we don't know our strengths or flaws. Sparing would create some understanding between us." Alex explained.

"Okay then. The three of you come out." They stepped out of the crowd and stood at parallel positions. Tsukishima placed paper tailsman on their abdomen that sealed their cultivation.

"There's no rule, you can kick or punch, but the criteria for winning remains the same. Begin!"