Life Hunter

Chapter 96: ''You're a hell of a teacher''

Arima inspected his arm for a second then looked at Ofia who was gawking at him. She hurriedly landed near him and bowed to greet him. She was then joined by the other students and as they greeted Arima, they all saw his injuries and were even more respectful since they witnessed his Silver Emperor form.

They still didn't know how strong he really was but it was obvious for them that he was otherworldly powerful compared to their standards. But even then, they still didn't realize that it actually surpassed their imagination.

Of course, they also all noticed Chulainn resting on Arima's shoulder, and instantly recognized the serpent tail and his face. It was very similar, if not identic, to the monstrous beast they saw coming out of the gate.

When everyone had gathered in front of him, Arima waved his hand and every monster in the area disappeared into nothingness.

The students held their breath. Their understanding of the world was slowly crumbling apart. Ofia looked around her with a shocked expression. She couldn't find any monster on the horizon.

She looked back at her teacher and once again broadened her mind to imagine Arima's full power. But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't picture it. It was like every time she tried to probe into Arima's strength, her instincts would automatically warn her that it was impossible to judge or describe.

"Alright," Arima's voice jolted the minds of all his students. "I came here to give you your next training," He declared and snapped his fingers. When he did that, an upsurge spirit struck the students and they all felt something strange going through their body and soul.

At the same time, an odd figure formed right before them. The figure slowly became clearer and its appearance was then revealed to each student, stunning them beyond words. A perfect copy of themselves was standing just in front of them.

"They will be your training partners from now on. They're you, literally. I want you to fight them, analyze them, and find the openings and weaknesses in your own techniques," Arima explained and everyone finally understood.

They all had the same thought at the same time: "(It's only an imitation anyway)"

The moment they thought this, Arima grinned. "Don't underestimate them, nor lower your guard. They are exactly as strong as you. Don't misunderstand children. 'I' created these clones. It's an easy thing for me to create something at your level. I could have produced a magic beast capable of beating you all at once if I wanted to."

When they heard Arima's words, the whole class instantly regretted the thoughts they just had. Being prideful in front of someone like Arima is the last thing they should do. Of course, he can flawlessly copy their abilities. He was on a completely different level from them after all.

"Now, let's start," Arima announced and the clones trembled before taking the same combat stance and expression as their original.

Ofia observed her clone and gulped. The exact same stance, the same look in the eyes reflecting awareness and seriousness. She seriously felt like she was seeing herself in a mirror. Just that her 'reflect' was now physical and was releasing an aura.

Ofia only took a step forward, but her clone directly charged toward her. Ofia bit her lip. She had to admit that she hesitated and lost the first move. It wasn't all of it, the clone actually used her resonance straight away and became a harpy.

Ofia was startled and urgently resonated too. She clashed with her reflection with her claws and the ground cracked. Ofia jumped back at the impact and summoned her bow. And with the exact same timing, her clone conjured a bow as well and aimed at her.

The two of them shot an arrow of light in the same instant and the arrows filled with energy exploded in mid-air. A second after that, arrows started flying everywhere and the explosions stacked.

Meanwhile, the rest of the class was experiencing something similar. They had been spread across the entire area and all of them were struggling against their clones. And most of them were losing. Only the ones like Irian and Ferzia were actually were going toe to toe against their 'copies' without overthinking it.

Ferzia lifted her greatsword and hacked the other side's. The two dark elves, original and clone, were fighting aggressively and smartly. Not even wasting a movement or a second. They knew each other perfectly after all. If one makes a mistake, the other instantly recognizes it and takes advantage of it.

On Irian's side, it was just a brutal fistfight. The two of them were laughing madly, using their claws under the bear form to hit the other. Most of the students kept their distance from them.

Ofia glanced at them and conjured a sort of star in her hand and threw it at her opponent and so did her clone. The two stars made of light collided and caused an explosion that released a great deal of light of different colors, producing a magnificent color show.

Ofia retreated afterward and shot an arrow that collided with her clone's. "(This isn't right,)" She thought. Then, she heard Arima and Chulainn talking since she was pretty close to them.

"You're a hell of a teacher," Chulainn remarked and Night snickered.

Arima shrugged. "They'll find out soon," He said and glanced at Ofia. The latter felt the gaze on her and shuddered. She concentrated on her fight and started thinking about the situation. She looked around and observed her classmates battling.

She, of course, noticed that the originals actually didn't have any advantage on their clones. They had the exact same strengths, weaknesses, mana pool, processing ability, and techniques.

But the more she thought about it, the more doubtful she became. She thought that it wasn't Arima's style to do this. He wouldn't give a training so shallow to them. If you just think about the instructions he gave, it was basically self-training.

At some point, Ofia was struck by the shock wave of an explosion and was forced to retreat. At the same time, she happened to witness something a few hundreds of meters away. A pair of students teamed up to fight their clones. At first, Ofia didn't think much of it since she saw that even the clones could imitate teamwork.

But she then realized something and her eyes widened. She smiled. She had finally understood the biggest problem with this training session and what was the best solution to it. She spread her wings and flew away.

Her counterpart couldn't react immediately but followed her soon after. "Lena!" Ofia shouted when she had her sister on sight. The latter turned around in surprise and looked at her sister.

Ofia wordless pointed at the clone chasing her and Lena nodded. She flapped her wings and flew toward Ofia, her own clone also started pursuing her.

"{Is she asking to fight together?}" Lena's soul beast, the eagle, asked.

Lena shook her head. "No, I don't think it's that," She shortly responded and passed by her sister. Ofia flashed a smile at her and patted her shoulder. Lena's expression abruptly changed and grinned. The two sisters swapped opponents afterward.

"Seems like she understood your little lesson," Chulainn said to Arima. "But she didn't choose the best opponent."

Arima smiled. "No, she perfectly chose her opponent," He said and Chulainn frowned.

When Ofia was confronted with her sister's clone, she knew she had a great disadvantage. Lena was a lot stronger than her in close combat and her speed was also a lot higher. Especially for aerial fights. But she never intended to fight her head-on.

She halted in mid-air and stared at Lena's clone approaching her. She closed her eyes and her aura congregated around her eyes. When she opened them, they had become golden with a black slit in the middle. "[Eyes of the Gorgon]."

When the clone's eyes crossed Ofia's, it was already too late. Her body started turning into stone, starting from her wings. She fell down and crashed on the ground, changed in stone.

"The stare of the cockatrice?" Chulainn remarked.

"Yes. Ofia came to me for advice before. She said that she wanted to control the eye powers of the cockatrice and asked me for help," Arima said. "So, I helped her a bit. But it was mainly her talent."

"Normally, if you use the soul contract, you can't acquire all the abilities of the target. Especially something so unique as the eye powers of the cockatrice. But she did it. It means her soul was domineering enough to even steal that during the contract."

"Of course, the power in itself has some downsides. It doesn't work on mindless creatures, it has to be seen, and the range depends on the user's ability. But in Lena's case, its effect is stronger since she has the eyes of an eagle and her eyesight, unfortunately, allows her to see the eyes better," Arima added and Chulainn nodded.

"Okay then, she defeated her sister's clone. But what about her actual sister now? Won't that girl's clone also use the eye powers of the cockatrice?" Chulainn asked and Arima just motioned his head as if to say 'look'.

At the same time Ofia used her eyes, her clone also did the same but Lena actually ignored it and engaged her in close combat.

Chulainn frowned and glared at Arima for answers. The latter laughed. "When Ofia touched Lena's shoulder earlier, she gave her the 'antidote'. Her eye powers are like a poison that she keeps in her eyes and which is capable of infecting someone at distance. But it doesn't work on her because she can create an antidote to keep herself immune. And that antidote, she passed it on to her sister," He explained and smirked at the cub on his shoulder. "You didn't notice?"

Chulainn sneered. "Did you forget the form I'm in at the moment?"

Thus, Lena defeated her opponent with Ofia's help and the two of them finally got rid of their clones. They nodded at each other and flew off in opposite directions. They traveled from a person to another and assisted them to beat their clone.

Ofia had grasped that the biggest problem in this training was the students' mentality. What they felt when they fought with themselves. Except prideful and 'junky' people such as Ferzia and Irian, others would feel hesitant and anxious in front of themselves.

This training was most likely made for the students to strengthen their minds until someone else beats their clone by teaming up according to their affinities. After that, they could begin to help the others to win too.

Even if the students didn't win against their counterpart alone, they still fought with them for a while. They accumulated mental strain which was recovered through fighting with someone else. In this way, they could indeed improve their mental fortitude.

Additionally, the initial goal of this training was still valid. They could spot their own weaknesses even more easily when the clone was cornered by a greater number.

And finally, on top of that, the class would also improve their teamwork.

When Ofia reviewed all of this, she affirmed in her head that it's how Arima's lessons should look like. When every clone was defeated, around an hour later, everyone gathered around Arima, exhausted.

The only ones that weren't there were Ferzia and Irian. Those two were in fact too stubborn to accept help and were still fighting.

Arima permitted them to do whatever they wanted and spoke to his class without waiting for them. "You all are the ones I chose to register in the ranking competition. In the next few days, I'll pick the last ten members then we'll enter the last month of my contract, during which I'll train you all personally," Arima declared and everyone nodded with enthusiasm.

"Good. I'll transfer you back to the PA in a second," Arima said and walked to Ofia. He grabbed Chulainn with one hand and put him in her hands.

"Eh?" The Hellhound exclaimed and Ofia froze.

"Take this guy with you," Arima said to her. "His gate was responsible for the destruction of your castle and the surrounding houses. He's the one who'll repair it."

"what?" Chulainn took a long time to react and Ofia stiffly held him in her arms. She still nodded to Arima.

"Hey, wait a sec-!" Before Chulainn could finish his complaint, he was teleported away along with everyone else. Arima then patiently waited for his two last students to conclude their fights and also left.

The same day, Chulainn restored the whole part of the city which had been destroyed by the gate with a very wronged expression.

In the following morning, the castle was already good as new and nothing was demolished anymore. No one knew what happened overnight.