CHAPTER 65 — AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR FOR PERCY AND CLARA

THE FALLEN LIGHT — SEASON II

CHAPTER 65 — AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR FOR PERCY AND CLARA

A month and a half passed. The seventy-eight points Wycliffe had awarded Percy had become the bane of the class for the first two weeks of that period. Percy had indeed gathered fourth-year textbooks, pursued topics he didn't understand, and dragged William into a new debate almost every break. Even though William seemed to complain about it, he would show up the next day bringing three new books related to the discussion, and the two would talk until they both forgot about lunch. Clara was mostly content to just watch them. Sometimes she dragged Percy to the dining hall, sometimes she forcibly closed the book in front of William, and sometimes she left the two to their fate. However, the excitement of the exam results eventually gave way to a much larger event at the academy. The inter-class arena tournament. The first-years were divided into three classes: 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C. Each class had sixteen students. A total of forty-eight students would first compete in individual ranking matches, after which the top-ranked students would represent their class in team battles. The winning class wouldn't just receive rewards. They would gain access to larger training areas, better Orin rooms, and private study privileges with upper-class instructors in the following year's curriculum. There were twelve days left until the tournament began. Percy and Clara were determined not to let those twelve days go to waste. After evening classes ended, they reserved one of the small training grounds behind the academy. This place was much smaller than the main arena, but its walls were resistant to Orin strikes. The damaged stones on the floor repaired themselves every night, and the barriers surrounding the area blocked attacks from straying outside. As Percy stood in the middle of the arena, Clara was stretching opposite him.

"Hand-to-hand first?" Clara asked.

Percy placed Blaze onto the weapon rack beside him. "Hand-to-hand first. Then elemental usage. Finally, we'll practice dodging moving spheres."

Clara took a stance, pulling her right foot back. "You make the first move this time."

Percy raised his fists. Just as they were about to move toward each other, the door to the training ground opened. Both turned to look. Nathaniel was standing at the door. The top buttons of his uniform were undone, and his hair was messy as usual. But the expression on his face did not belong to the Nathaniel they were used to. He waited at the door for a moment before entering. It was as if he felt he had arrived at the wrong time, yet couldn't bring himself to turn back. Percy lowered his hands.

"Nathaniel?"

Nathaniel avoided eye contact. "Am I interrupting?"

Clara broke her stance as well. Both of them immediately noticed that there was no joke in Nathaniel's voice. Percy gestured inside with his head.

"Come in."

Nathaniel closed the door behind him and walked over to them. Reaching the center of the arena, he shoved his hands into his pockets and thought for a few seconds about what to say.

"You're practicing for the tournament, right?"

Clara nodded. "Yes."

"I... Well..." Nathaniel cleared his throat. "Can I practice with you guys?"

Percy answered without thinking:

"Of course."

Nathaniel looked at him in surprise. He had probably expected to be questioned, to explain why he came, or at least a brief hesitation. Percy, on the other hand, acted as though Nathaniel's presence here was the most natural thing in the world.

Clara approached them. "What rank are you at right now?"

"Core 9. I'm near the peak, but I just can't make progress."

Percy stood in front of Nathaniel and extended his hand.

"Give me your hand."

Nathaniel looked suspiciously. "Why?"

"I'm going to check your Core."

"Couldn't you say that in a more normal way?"

"No."

Nathaniel extended his hand anyway. Percy grabbed his wrist and closed his eyes. A thin stream of Orin entered Nathaniel's circulatory pathways. Nathaniel tensed up instinctively, but Percy's energy didn't attack his core; it moved through his veins, monitoring the energy flow. A few minutes later, Percy opened his eyes.

"Your Core is ready."

Nathaniel was surprised. "Then why can't I advance?"

"Because while trying to advance, you're piling all your Orin into your core. Your Core is full, but its outer boundary isn't balanced. As you force energy inside, the center gets compressed while the surrounding circulatory pathways remain empty."

"How did you figure that out?"

"I made the same mistake you're making before."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "When?" Percy looked at her. "You'll be mad if I tell you."

"Now I'm even more curious."

Percy quickly turned back to Nathaniel. "I'm going to send energy to your Core in a moment. Don't draw it directly to the center. Rotate it along the perimeter and spread it to the empty areas. I'll guide the flow, but you'll complete the breakthrough yourself."

The hesitation on Nathaniel's face began to fade. He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes. Percy sat down opposite him. Clara stood a few paces away, watching the two of them. The Orin emerging from Percy's palm slowly flowed into Nathaniel's body. On the first few attempts, the energy was drawn toward the center again. Percy stopped the flow, told Nathaniel to take a breath, and started over. With each failed attempt, Nathaniel's shoulders tensed a bit more, but he didn't open his eyes once. After about forty minutes, the Orin surrounding Nathaniel began to change. The energy in the air trembled slightly. The pressure radiating from Nathaniel's core filled the entire arena for a moment, then pulled back inside his body. Nathaniel opened his eyes. He looked at his hands without saying anything for a moment.

"I reached Core 10."

Percy stood up and extended a hand to him. "You did." Nathaniel took Percy's hand and pulled himself up. A wide smile spread across his face, but a few seconds later, he averted his gaze.

"I don't know how to thank you guys."

Clara noticed Nathaniel's tone shift again. Nathaniel took a deep breath.

"I don't know if anyone knows. I've never told anyone before." He clenched his hands into fists, but his voice didn't waver. "I lost my father two years ago. Epic-class monsters attacked one of the regions outside the city. My father was in one of the units sent to stop the raid. He didn't return."

The smile on Percy's face slowly faded. Nathaniel didn't look up as he continued.

"My mother has been working on her own ever since. She covers my academy expenses, but we need money to live. She leaves the house before I wake up in the morning, and sometimes returns after I've fallen asleep. She doesn't say she's tired. And I pretend not to notice."

A long silence fell over the arena.

"If I win the tournament, the support given to my family will increase," Nathaniel said. "If I enter the top twenty, my scholarship will be expanded. My mother can work a little less. That's why I can't sit idle. Nobody might take me seriously because I'm always joking around, but... I really want to get stronger."

Clara looked at him silently. She had never imagined that beneath Nathaniel's constant shouting, turning everything into a joke, and saying ridiculous things even in the worst moments, lay such a story. Maybe Nathaniel liked making people laugh. Or maybe he was terrified of the things that came to mind the moment he went quiet. Clara stepped in front of him and said a single word:

"Get up."

Nathaniel raised his head in confusion. "I'm already standing."

"Get up to fight."

"Against what?"

"Against me."

Nathaniel blinked. "I just reached Core 10. Can't you let me be happy for a few minutes?"

"There are twelve days left until the tournament."

"At least ten minutes?"

"No."

Nathaniel looked at Percy as if pleading for help. Percy understood the look in Clara's eyes. Clara didn't pity him. She didn't view Nathaniel as weak because of what he had suffered; on the contrary, she wanted him to do justice to what he had just said. Percy smiled.

Nathaniel swallowed hard. "Why are you smiling?" Clara took a few steps back and assumed a combat stance. "If I can't get you into at least the top twenty, my name isn't Clara." Percy stepped forward too. "I'll help as well."

Clara slowly turned her head toward him. Percy saw Clara's glare. For a moment, the two locked eyes.

Percy backed off and sat down at the edge of the arena. "Or maybe sitting down and cheering you on would be better for my health." Nathaniel's face fell.

"Are you leaving me alone with her?"

Percy leaned back comfortably. "I believe in you."

"I don't!"

Clara lunged forward in an instant.

Nathaniel couldn't even see the first strike. When Clara's palm struck his chest, his feet left the ground and he was blown back several meters. When he hit the floor, the breath was completely knocked out of him. Before he could even push himself up, Clara was already upon him. Nathaniel rolled to the right, barely dodging a kick. Gathering Orin in his hand, he shaped it into a small sphere and threw it, but Clara tilted her head sideways to dodge the attack. She closed the distance between them in a single step and struck Nathaniel's shoulder. Nathaniel fell to the floor again. This time, Clara waited.

Grit his teeth, Nathaniel got back up. "Are you going to put me in the top twenty, or in a grave?"

"If your defense stays like this, both are possible."

Nathaniel attacked again. This time, instead of looking at Clara's shoulders, he watched her waist. When Clara shifted her weight as if moving to the left, Nathaniel followed her. But Clara came from the right. Nathaniel hit the floor for the third time. Within half an hour, he had fallen eighteen times. An hour later, the count had passed thirty. Clara wasn't hitting hard enough to break him, but just enough to make him feel the pain of his mistakes. By the time Nathaniel stood up for the thirty-seventh time, the exhaustion on his face was unmistakable. Clara tried to close the gap with her right step. This time, Nathaniel didn't pull back. Reading Clara's approach in advance, he slid to the side and extended his arm straight out. His fist slipped past Clara's defense. Because Clara pulled her head back at the last split-second, the attack didn't land on her face, but Nathaniel's knuckles grazed her arm. A small cut opened, and a tiny spot of blood appeared on her white uniform. The moment Nathaniel realized he had landed a hit, he was about to celebrate. Then he saw the blood. Then he slowly looked over at Percy. The color drained from his face.

"I... I didn't mean to."

Percy stood up and walked over to them. Nathaniel instinctively took a step back.

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"It's fine," Percy said.

As Clara raised her arm, Percy placed his hand over the cut.

"[Absolute Heal]."

Light radiated from his palm. The cut sealed within seconds, leaving nothing behind except the stain of blood. Nathaniel still looked nervous. "You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? You're training."

"But I hurt Clara."

Clara checked her arm. "Wasn't your goal to hit me anyway?"

"I didn't expect to actually hit you."

Clara looked at him. "I could take that part as an insult." Percy touched Nathaniel's shoulder.

"You were awesome. Clara didn't just make you fight; she advanced your fighting style. When you first started, you couldn't see her attacks coming. Now you found the opening in her defense."

Nathaniel looked at Clara's arm again. "I was lucky."

"No. It wasn't luck." Percy took a few steps back, standing where he could see them both. "But let me tell you something. Your focus gets scattered when you fight. You constantly look at your opponent's face. You try to figure out what they're thinking or where they're looking. Don't look at your opponent. Look at their movements."

Nathaniel frowned. "Aren't those the same thing?"

"No. While someone is looking at you, their leg might be moving. While their shoulder is still, they might be gathering Orin behind them. Their eyes can deceive you, but the domain of movement created by their body can't lie completely."

Percy raised his hand, gesturing to their surroundings.

"Because of the scorpions, you learned to accumulate probability. You moved by calculating where thousands of attacks could come from. However, you're still trying to use that directly on your opponent. This time, don't use probability on the opponent. Use it on the space where movement can take place. Try to sense the changes around you."

Nathaniel looked at Clara.

"Does Clara do that?"

"She does it even better than I do. That's why you lost. While you were looking at her, she was monitoring the entire space you could move into."

Clara was pleased by Percy's praise, but she didn't let it show.

Percy continued:

"Overall, you've improved a lot. But I have one piece of advice for you: No matter what happens, don't close your eyes. Even if you're afraid of an attack, keep watching. Even if you think you're going to lose, keep watching. Even if you know you're going to die, see your final moment. As long as your eyes stay open, you might find a new move, a new possibility, or an exit route you haven't noticed yet."

Nathaniel nodded. Percy then turned to Clara.

"And you generally use your right foot when you move."

Clara was surprised. "I use both feet."

"You use both, but you make your initial acceleration mostly with your right foot. Even when dodging to the left, you push off the ground with your right foot first. If someone notices that, they can anticipate the exact moment you're going to move. If you don't balance it out, it'll become a weakness."

Clara looked first at her feet, then at Percy.

"How long have you known?"

"Since the last week of the camp."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask."

Clara's eyes narrowed. Percy backed off toward the edge of the arena again. "Well, I've told you now."

Nathaniel asked in a low voice:

"How do you do that?"

Percy sat down. "Do what?"

"Pointing out someone's flaw and making them want to attack you."

Clara's gaze was fixed on Percy. Percy didn't answer.

"Clara," Nathaniel said, "I think your right foot is totally fine."

Clara stepped a few meters away from Nathaniel.

"Now we're going to do something else."

Nathaniel was trying to catch his breath. "We're not done yet?"

"We've just started. Attack me."

"I've been attacking you for an hour."

"Use magic this time. Attack with everything you've got. As if you're trying to kill me."

Nathaniel's face turned serious. "I could really hurt you."

"You just hurt me a moment ago."

"That was an accident."

Clara clasped her hands behind her back. "Your attacks can work even on me. I'm going to show you."

Nathaniel first looked at Percy. Percy nodded in approval. Nathaniel took a deep breath and began gathering Orin in his right hand. Energy extended out from his palm, shaping into a thin, sharp blade.

"Magic Slash!"

The attack cut through the air as it surged forward. Clara shifted her body just a few centimeters to the side, and the slash passed right by her. Without waiting, Nathaniel prepared his second attack.

"Magic Sphere!"

A rounded mass of energy hurtled toward Clara. Taking two steps to the left, Clara dodged this one as well. Grit his teeth, Nathaniel raised both hands. This time, the sphere formed much faster.

"Accelerated Magic Sphere!"

The attack was several times faster than the first two. Just before the sphere reached her, Clara stepped forward, pivoted her body, and the energy grazed past her shoulder. All three attacks crashed into the barrier behind her and dissipated. Clara turned to look at Nathaniel.

"Did you see how I dodged?"

Nathaniel thought for a moment. "I think... as Percy explained, you looked at the domain of movement." Clara's eyebrows shot up.

"Did you see it, Nathaniel?"

"I think I saw it."

"Don't say 'I think.' Don't linger between being sure and unsure. If you saw it, show me. If you didn't, say you didn't. Every moment you hesitate in battle belongs to your opponent."

Nathaniel's expression grew serious. "I saw it."

"Good. Now I'm going to attack you."

Clara raised both hands.

"First, I'll launch normal spheres. Then I'll use accelerated spheres. After that, I'll mix in mobile spheres. I won't tell you which is which. Some will travel straight, some will accelerate, some will change direction. If you look at the spheres one by one, you'll lose. Try to see the entire movement."

Nathaniel took a defensive stance. Five spheres of light formed around Clara's hands. The first assault began. Nathaniel dodged the first. The second struck his shoulder. The third grazed his leg. To escape the fourth, he leaped backward, but the fifth sphere changed direction in midair and hit his back. Nathaniel fell face-first onto the floor.

Clara stopped the attack. "Get up." Nathaniel pushed himself up on his hands.

"This is harder than it sounds."

"You can tell that to your opponent in the tournament."

Nathaniel stood up. Clara attacked again.

By the end of the second hour, Nathaniel's uniform was torn in multiple places. In the third hour, he began predicting which spheres would accelerate. In the fourth hour, he still couldn't see the mobile spheres, but by twisting his body right before impact, he managed to reduce the damage. In the fifth hour, his knees began to tremble. Percy had healed his wounds several times, but healing didn't remove exhaustion. His muscles grew heavy, and his breathing became harder with every passing minute. Yet every time Nathaniel fell, he got back up. Clara didn't make it easy on him once. When dusk settled over the academy, the lights of the training ground turned on automatically. The other students had long since returned home or to their dorms. But the three of them were still in the exact same place. Percy sat at the edge of the arena, sometimes healing Nathaniel's wounds, sometimes giving brief warnings about his movements. He never gave Nathaniel the answer directly. When asked why he couldn't dodge a sphere, Percy made him visualize the replay of the attack in his mind. When asked which foot Clara was using, he told him to figure it out himself. In the sixth hour, Nathaniel dodged three out of four spheres arriving simultaneously. In the seventh hour, he dodged all five for the first time. Clara increased the number to eight. Within a minute, Nathaniel was on the floor again.

"You did that on purpose," he grumbled.

Clara nodded. "Of course."

In the eighth hour, Nathaniel no longer had the strength to complain. In the ninth hour, he succeeded in taking his eyes off the spheres. He was no longer looking at Clara's hands, but at the entire space where Orin was moving around her. In the tenth hour, he sensed the curve of one of the mobile spheres before it even started. But he wasn't fast enough. The sphere struck his ribs and threw him to the floor. As Percy was about to stand up, Nathaniel raised his hand.

"Don't come."

Percy stopped. Breathing through the pain, Nathaniel pulled himself up on his own.

"Continue."

On the top floor of the academy's administrative building, two people were watching the training ground. Eleanor stood by the window, her arms crossed over her chest. Holar Jun sat on a couch a few steps behind her. In the arena below, spheres of light repeatedly illuminated the darkness of the night. Eleanor checked the time.

"It's nearly been eleven hours."

Holar took a sip from his tea. "I know."

"The boy can barely stand on his feet."

"Yet he keeps getting up."

Eleanor's gaze shifted to Percy, who was sitting at the edge of the arena. There was fatigue in Percy's eyes, but his focus didn't waver for even a moment as he watched Nathaniel.

"Percy loves things like this," Eleanor said. "When he sees someone who doesn't give up, who tears themselves apart to improve, he can't walk away."

A faint smile appeared on Holar's face.

"I want to say I dislike that trait of his."

Eleanor looked at him. Holar began to chuckle. Eleanor shook her head and smiled too.

"But you can't say it."

"No."

Below, Clara was preparing a new volley of attacks. Twenty separate spheres had appeared before Nathaniel. Some remained stationary, some moved slowly, and the air around a few trembled due to the compressed Orin within them. Eleanor looked back at the arena.

"Clara isn't stopping either."

"Because the boy gets a little better every single time."

And indeed he did. Nathaniel was still being hit. He was still falling, still in pain. But with every new attempt, one less sphere hit its target. After each failure, his movements became a bit cleaner, unnecessary steps vanished, and his eyes began to track a wider area. Clara lowered her hands. Twenty spheres moved simultaneously. Nathaniel ducked to dodge the first two. Sensing the third would accelerate, he leaped sideways. When the fourth sphere changed direction, instead of pulling back, he moved forward. The fifth and sixth attacks collided behind him. The seventh sphere grazed his cheek. Nathaniel didn't close his eyes. As the eighth attack approached his shoulder, he twisted his body. He stepped out of the ninth one's path. He realized the tenth sphere wasn't coming directly for him, but had been sent to cut off his path a few seconds later. He changed the direction of his dodge. Clara's eyes widened slightly. Nathaniel's lips moved. At first, nobody heard what he said. Percy raised his head. Nathaniel's lips moved once more.

"I am probability..."

Percy's eyes sparkled. Nathaniel raised his head. On his face, trembling from exhaustion, was an utterly serious expression.

"And probability is me."

A second of silence passed. Percy burst out laughing.

"Hahahahaha!"

Even Clara had to press her lips together to keep from laughing. Nathaniel's serious expression broke. "Why are you laughing?"

"Nothing! Keep going!"

"You completely ruined my cool moment!"

Clara raised her hands. The remaining ten spheres attacked Nathaniel all at once. This time, Nathaniel didn't look directly at any of them. He felt the Orin surrounding Clara. He combined in his mind the areas the spheres passed through, the tiny movements left behind them, and the paths that could intersect with one another. The first sphere accelerated. Nathaniel was already out of its way. The second sphere changed direction. Nathaniel vacated the space it was turning toward in advance. The third and fourth spheres passed by his sides. The fifth sphere flew over his head. He slid under the sixth. He caused the seventh to collide with the eighth. When the last three attacks surrounded him, Nathaniel didn't retreat. He passed through the only safe gap between them. All the spheres exploded behind him. The smile faded from Eleanor's face. Her eyes were fixed intently on Nathaniel.

"Did he see them all at once?"

Holar had stood up.

"No."

Eleanor turned to him. Holar's eyes narrowed.

"He didn't see the spheres. He saw the places where they couldn't move."

In the arena, Nathaniel looked down at his hands. He didn't fully understand what he had done either. Percy stood up. "One more time!" Nathaniel raised his head.

"This time, you're the one attacking. Use Accelerated Magic Sphere, but don't release the attack after launching it. Feel the movement around you. The sphere is a part of that movement too."

Nathaniel gathered Orin in his hand.

"Accelerated Magic Sphere!"

The attack hurtled toward Clara. Clara prepared to step aside. However, this time Nathaniel didn't focus on the sphere itself, but on the movement it generated around it. He sensed another path the energy could take. Involuntarily, he flicked his finger sideways. The direction of the sphere traveling through the air shifted. Clara dodged the attack. But the sphere didn't vanish. It curved and headed straight for the edge of the arena. Percy's eyes widened. The energy sphere pierced right through his arm and slammed into the barrier behind him. Blood spattered onto the stone floor.

"PERCY!"

Clara reached his side in an instant. In the administrative building, Eleanor leaned forward.

"He changed its direction!"

The teacup in Holar's hand cracked on the surface. Without taking his eyes off Nathaniel, he stood up straight.

"A child at Core level shifted the trajectory of an accelerated sphere after it was fired."

"Could it be a coincidence?"

Holar's gaze turned stern.

"No. If it were a coincidence, it would have merely veered off. This attack chose a new path."

When Clara saw the hole in Percy's arm, the color drained from her face.

"Percy, right now—"

"I'm fine."

"Your arm was pierced!"

"It's happened before."

"Don't say that like it's a normal thing!"

Percy placed his uninjured hand over the wound.

"[Absolute Heal]."

White light enveloped his arm. Torn muscles reattached, the bleeding stopped, and within seconds, nothing remained except the hole in his uniform. Clara held his arm and examined it. "Are you really okay?"

"I'm fine."

Nathaniel, meanwhile, stood motionless a few meters away. Clara turned to him.

"Nathaniel?"

Percy immediately raised his hand.

"Stop. Don't call out to him."

Clara frowned. "But—"

"Right now, he's recording all the information from the fight. He's trying to process what he just did. Let him be."

Nathaniel's eyes were open, but he wasn't looking at anything in front of him. His lips moved very faintly, and his fingers rehearsed the exact moment he had redirected the sphere. He took a step. Stopped. Raised his hand. It was as if he were redrawing the invisible sphere's path through the air. Percy quietly sat on the floor. Clara sat down beside him too.

"How long will it take?"

"I don't know."

"What if he falls asleep standing up like that?"

"We'll catch him before he hits the ground."

Clara looked at him. Percy smiled. Taking a deep breath, Clara sat beside him. In the academy's administrative building, Holar Jun and Eleanor didn't leave either. The four of them watched Nathaniel for the rest of the night.

The sky slowly brightened. The darkness of the night turned first to deep blue, then to pale gray. The first rays of sunlight rising behind the academy towers struck the windows of the training ground. Nathaniel was still standing. Percy sat at the base of the wall, and Clara leaned her head against his shoulder as they waited. Neither had slept. Holar and Eleanor had left the administrative building and come down to the training ground. Nobody spoke. Nathaniel's eyes suddenly came into focus. He looked around in bewilderment.

"Huh? Where—"

His knees gave out. Percy lunged forward and caught him before he hit the floor.

"How are you feeling, Nathaniel?"

Nathaniel blinked several times. An exhausted but happy expression appeared on his face.

"I feel great."

Clara crouched down beside them. Nathaniel looked at her first.

"I learned so much. I really learned a lot. Thank you, Clara."

Then he turned to Percy.

"Thank you so much too, Percy."

Percy helped him stand up.

"Don't mention it."

When Nathaniel stood on both feet, he tottered but didn't fall. Percy brushed an invisible speck of dust off his shoulder.

"By the way, Nathaniel."

Nathaniel raised his head.

"If you don't make it into the top twenty, I'll beat the absolute shit out of you."

Nathaniel's entire body froze like stone. He looked at the hand of Percy that had just caught him, then at the hole in the sleeve where his arm had been healed overnight. The smile on Percy's face was terrifyingly calm. Nathaniel's knees began to shake. Clara crossed her arms.

"I'll help too."

Nathaniel's trembling intensified. Still, he straightened his back. Looking first at Percy, then at Clara, he spoke:

"Fifteen."

Percy's eyebrows raised. A smile appeared on Clara's face. Nathaniel said it louder this time:

"Not the top twenty. I'll get into the top fifteen."

Percy placed his hand on his shoulder.

"That's my classmate."