Chapter 451: Humbling

Christina POV

Christine was a top-tier talent. That wasn’t her being pretentious or arrogant, either. It was just a simple fact. She and her brother had been trained since they were young by some of the best teachers the Empire had to offer.

However, she liked to believe that she was the more powerful of the two of them. After all, she enjoyed training more than Cyrus and spent more time honing her skills. Cyrus spent too much time messing around with his friends instead of training.

While she wasn’t quite on the same level of talent as Derek, she was confident that she was one step behind. With that being said, she didn’t think there were many people in the entire world who had Derek’s talent. She didn’t know how her mother didn’t understand this. For some reason, she always liked to brag about Christina and Cyrus to others, constantly comparing them to Derek.

She had been extremely excited to see Derek again after a whole year. Not only that, but she and Cyrus would be able to train side by side with Derek. That wasn’t something she had the pleasure of doing in all her years of knowing her cousin.

While her father had to force Cyrus to participate in the training, she didn’t need any convincing. She was already leaping at the opportunity. Seeing how Derek trained might give her some needed inspiration with her own lightning magic.

Furthermore, several powerful individuals were assisting with their training. House Zenith was going all out to help them and managed to secure Marcus Avery’s help from House Violet.

She had heard a lot about the man from her father. He wasn’t shy about complimenting the man. Marcus was House Violet’s terrifying weapon, they used when they needed results. However, she didn’t know how she personally felt about the man, especially not after what he had just said to her.

They would also train alongside one of Derek’s good friends, Aubrey. From what Christina understood, Aubrey was the daughter of the Crystal Tyrant, which was a surprising revelation. That scary woman’s reputation was quite well known, even to someone as young as Christina.

The Tier 6 powerhouse had sent one of her retainers to help with their training. The man’s name was Cygnus, and while Christina didn’t know anything about the man, she knew that he had to be impressive if the Crystal Tyrant was willing to send him to help her daughter.

Finally, House Zenith had Stella to help as well. If there was one person she looked up to more than Derek, it was Stella. The woman was powerful, arguably more powerful than Marcus Avery. Her talents in time and space magic were unbelievable.

Even though it was their first day of training together, the woman had already helped Christina fix the issue she had been having with her lightning magic. She had trouble conducting her lightning through complicated aura defenses.

Thus, she had been in a good mood. At least until she saw one of Derek’s other friends looking at her judgmentally, it was the same quiet one that she had met last night. Julius was his name, if she recalled correctly. He had been very reserved, and thus she had almost forgotten about him. However, she noticed that he had a very close relationship with Derek and his other friends.

Julius was young. Younger than her. Yet, he looked at them as if he were superior, silently judging their abilities and techniques as he stood on the sidelines. She didn’t like it. Not one bit.

It didn’t matter if he was Derek’s friend. She didn’t appreciate someone looking down on her and acting like they were better when they weren’t. It was why she had decided to say something. But imagine her surprise when Marcus bluntly told her that he believed the boy was better than her.

What made her more annoyed was the fact that nobody spoke up in her defense either. Derek stood there calmly as he watched things unfold, and not even Stella spoke up. Perhaps, they were testing what Christina would do and wanted to see her prove herself.

She scoffed lightly. She didn’t have any problems doing just that. This would be the perfect time to show Derek just how much she had improved over these past couple of years. The last time she had fought against him, he had absolutely torn her apart.

It wasn’t even close. He had picked her apart like it was nothing. His mastery over lightning magic had superseded hers, and it showed. She wanted to demonstrate how much she had improved over the course of this time.

So, with a fire lit in her soul and properly motivated, she followed the black-haired boy across the field and positioned herself in front of him. She reached out her aura senses to examine Julius. What she saw didn’t impress her all that much. It felt like a typical Tier 3 aura, which meant he likely didn’t have more than one Concept, if that.

This will be easy, she smiled to herself. She glanced back at where Derek was gathered with the rest of the group. They had all decided to take a break and watch this situation play out. However, she did notice that a couple of them had a slight smirk on their faces.

She ignored this, though; she wanted to show off her power, and the best way to do so would be to finish the fight swiftly. She didn’t want to leave any doubts that she was better. She would show Marcus that it wasn’t a good idea to underestimate her.

“Are you ready?” She asked, noticing that he hadn’t taken out any weapons or whatnot. She had already taken out her staff from her storage ring. The lightning magic enchantments infused in the weapon were already sparking the air.

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Julius nodded at her. He had a confident and calm look on his face, which earned him a small piece of her respect. However, she didn’t know if it was arrogance or ignorance that let him act so calmly.

She glanced over at Marcus, awaiting his signal. The man had decided to be the referee for their fight and was standing between the two of them. When he ensured that both parties were ready, he lowered his arm to initiate the battle.

She didn’t waste any time; her specialty was casting speed, and she showed it off right away. Not even a second after the battle began, a streak of lightning shot through the air toward her opponent. Her Lightning Concepts helped her increase the power of the lightning, and she grinned when she saw him not moving out of the way.

However, that grin quickly turned into a frown when she spotted a faint shimmering barrier of mana protecting the boy’s body. It wasn’t even how fast he had deployed the barrier that concerned her; it was how subtle he had been about it. She hadn’t even sensed it until her attack hit him.