My Soul card is a Reaper

From the above, Uphiar was observing this special student.

From the start, he knew this isn't going to be an easy battle even for him.

Despite that, he asked him to hold back his strength in the form of training.

As he expected he saw Azzy was trapped by the tornado. After all, strength isn't everything. Even if one can destroy a mountain with a fist, they can't destroy a simple pond with something like that. They will only split the water.

Likewise, every problem has a method of defeating it. You can't use the same method for every problem. It won't work like that.

Because he saw Azzy defeated the black knight and the lava beast with a fist, Uphiar already predicted Azzy would choose the same method to defeat the snake too.

And everything went as he planned, the snake also used the fire tornado.

But then, he saw the kid managed to redirect the soul energy to all parts of the body. It was easier to distribute the energy from the soul orb to the whole body but is difficult to redirect the energy from a part of the body to another within a short time.

'What a genius…' The teacher can't help but feel excited.

But then, he saw the dark and corrosive energy expelled from him, destroying not only the skill but also the beast as well as affecting the surroundings.

The lake dried up. The trees withered. In an instant, the land became barren as all the life has been lost.

"What is this dark energy…" Uphiar's excitement turned into a horror. "Unless he controls his strength, I must make sure that he doesn't fight alongside or against the peers. I need to meet the principal, right away."

Meanwhile, Azzy saw the surroundings changed. He returned to the same place. The barren land once again turned into a beautiful lake and the beast once again came back to life, still sleeping on the lake bed.

His charred body returned to normal and his soul power became full once again.

He wondered. "Previously, I returned to the classroom after defeating the beast but now, the time was reversed back to the beginning… Hmm…"

Suddenly, he remembered Uphiar's words.

"I see…" Realization dawned upon him. "Now, I understood one of the rules of this place. The Master of this world placed a condition.

The condition is that I need to pull the punches and kicks worth rank-2.

Unless I achieve that, I can't leave on my own but what's worrisome is that…"

He glanced at the surroundings and remembered the scene where all the life became devoid as they were touched by his soul energy.

Then, he remembered his spar against Evelyn back when he was at Violet Pavilion.

"Make sure not to use your soul skills against friends or weaker people…"

He remembered her warning. At that time, he thought the Death energy was incredible but now, he realized it was far more worrisome than his lack of control over the strength.

Azzy sat on the grass instead of engaging the combat.

Sitting in a meditative position, he closed his eyes.

"Hmm, what is this kid, doing now?" Uphiar wondered as he continues to watch from the above.

Then, his attention shifted to the other memory world where the six of them are fighting against the lava beast for the fourth time.

Azzy was back into the mindscape to meet the Reaper and his pet wolf.

"Chronos, I need your help with..."

"Yeah, I know." The Reaper interrupted with a nod as if he was expecting him to visit. "Now, I'm going to teach you a Sealing method. It is called Decarune Seal."

"Sealing?" Azzy wondered what it is…

The Reaper nodded, "Yes. It is a long lost method developed by the first generation Arcana Masters to improve control over their soul power and Arcana.

With the help of Energy, you can seal your soul orb and make a window to allow only a part of it.

But, I warn you to never use it on others, at least in public."

"Why?" Azzy asked him.

The Reaper answered, "it is a long lost method currently only known to the guards of Black Citadel."

'Black Citadel?' Azzy wondered what that is… He continued to listen keeping his thoughts to himself.

"Reveal it unnecessarily to the world only let you become a target. Not to mention, the Protos energy will not just seal the soul orb of others, it will corrupt them…"

Azzy nodded, "I understand. So, what should I do."

"First, concentrate on your soul orb. Now, I'm going to impart the knowledge of the ten runes into your mind. Memorize the order, first."

Azzy sat down and closed his eyes as the Reaper floated towards him and placed his skeleton hand on the kid's head.

Ten unique Symbols made from the runic alphabets appeared in his mind. Azzy memorized the order as well as their images before proceeding to ask, "now?"

The Reaper answered, "Now, try to use some of the soul power and form the runes with the soul energy.

These are nine runes, each corresponding to a rank. Since you are rank-4, you only need to apply the first five runes.

The first rune will seal 10, the second rune will seal 100, the third rune will seal 1000, the fourth rune will seal 10000 and the fifth rune will seal 100000 soul power.

When needed soul power, you need to open the seal in order to let the soul energy flow through..."

Thirty minutes later;

"Uphiar mumbled before he looked at his watch. "Oh! It's almost time…"

As he snapped his fingers, Azzy and the other six returned to the classroom.

He was startled for a second before complaining inside, "damn… I can't even form the first rune."

In an instant, the Reaper's voice once again resounded in his head. "Of course, it isn't that easy since you know nothing about the runes. It would be more helpful if you study more diligently about the subject of runes in this academy."

Suddenly, an arm was put over his shoulder, followed by a tone filled with excitement, "dude… I didn't expect you were this strong."

Azzy turned his head and looked at Gideon. He almost saw stars in his eyes.

Gideon continued with a smile, "I heard from Lark. We tried so hard but all of us faced death more than six times but you killed it with one punch… I bet you can take on most of the tenth-grade students even without your Arcana…"

Then, he leaned forward and whispered, "Lark was complaining too much about you. It seems he's just jealous that someone stronger popped up."

Azzy didn't know how to respond to Gideon, who was maintaining his liveliness even after facing death many times.

Even now, he was feeling a little uncomfortable, remembering how his body was burnt and became charred just half an hour ago.

He glanced at the others. 'I see… So, it's just this guy is abnormal.'

Except for Gideon and Lark, the others seemed to be filled with despair. As for Lark, he seems to be frustrated.

Azzy and Lark's eyes met. The latter turned his head away, clenching his fist.

"Now, attention, please…" The teacher then brought everyone back to the senses. "Until now, you have faced weaker beasts but now that all of you are upper-grade students, in the Arcana World, you will face the beasts that are as strong as the one you faced, right now."

"You over there…" He then pointed to Lark.

"Yes?"

"Tell me what went wrong… Why haven't you been able to defeat the beast."

Lark stood up and answered, "We weren't strong enough."

He then glanced at Azzy, "if we had more strength backing us up, we would have killed it."

"Do you really think so?" Uphiar asked him in return.

"Huh?" Lark and the rest of the students were taken aback. They tried their best but their strength wasn't enough to defeat the monster. Its spikes on the back acted as a perfect shield as well as offense.

The teacher then took out a memory storage card that has the function of a hard disk and projector.

He poured soul power into it and a holographic video started playing before them. "Let's discuss where you made mistakes as well as the ideal strategy."

He played the first battle where Azzy made a mess.

"You should have understood from the first battle that Azrael has a terrible control over his strength. It is also the reason I isolated him from you, for the rest of the battles."

Watching himself from the third party made Azzy wonder how much of a fool he is to charge alone, only to make a greater mess.