"Rong Yizhan...just what exactly are you planning?"
Xin Linhua had always wandered about something. It’s been bugging him for a while.
Rong Yizhan was given the name ’Phantom’ not because it’s his codename but because of his abilities.
No one knows what it is, they just know that looking into his eyes will resort to madness. And there was news that went around a few years back, when Rong Yizhan was found.
A rift. High level. Way out of control and definitely something the institute can’t control. A few Sentinels had died inside the rift along with their guides.
It was said that Ring Yizhan walked into the rift with his own two feet. Everyone was distracted, panicked and scared. They hadn’t noticed until someone sighted a figure being swallowed by the endless abyss of a rift.
No one wanted to go in, no one dared. They all stood around the rift and tried to strategize, to think of a way out. Even their A-Ranks had nothing on the rift so they stood by and made sure no one else went in. The monsters that came out were dealt with, but the institute lost a lot of lives that day.
Then...the rift shook. A loud screech echoed from within, like nails clawing on glass. Their ears rang, bled and some almost went deaf. Anything made of glass exploded on the spot.
The dark endless mirage suddenly cleared up and people were able to see what was within. Their hearts shook.
Monsters. Different forms, different abilities, different levels were all laid across the floor. Dead. Decapitated. Their lives stripped away from them.
The Sentinels walked in, threading the place on high alert. No sign of life.
Just when they start to relax, they find an unconscious human. Someone identified him by his clothes as the youth who had walked in a few hours ago. He’s still alive. Barely breathing, but alive.
After careful treatment, assessment and a week of comatose, Rong Yizhan finally woke up. What baffled them was how calm he was about everything, how he asked for a blindfold, how he agreed readily to stay in the institute with the condition of having no guide. He accepted everything without much thought or fight.
No one knows what happened inside that rift. Rong Yizhan refuses to say.
The institute tried to force a few guides on him, but they all died. They ran mad, yelled and cried about how his eyes were full of nothing but death and they all died the next day.
Ever since then, he was known as the triple S-Rank without any abilities except bringing death upon people with his eyes. The name Phantom was given to him because no one knows anything about him. He’s like a Phantom– a shadow in the institute. You are reading on novelping . com, the official source.
An existence they can deny or ignore, but they can’t read either.
"That can’t be right..." Xin Linhua mutter to himself "That day, I clearly saw it. Those shadows like tentacles. I saw them. It looks like he was controlling them. Rong Yizhan... Just what exactly are you thinking?"
While Xin Linhua is still trying to deduce the situation, something happens.
A mechanism clicks loudly in the large hall. People shuffle back even more. Steel rises from beneath their feet, forming a large encirclement around Rong Yizhan and his opponent. About eight meters tall.
A soft red light transmits between the steels. A barrier.
It’s Xin Linhua’s first time seeing it so he wiggles his way to the front, leaning in to get a better look.
Standing across from Rong Yizhan, the C-Rank Sentinel is surrounded by nothing but steel and more steel.
"Geomancer." Xin Linhua ponders "Geokenesis. This is some Avatar level cinematography they’ve got going."
"SENTINEL TRAINING IN PROGRESS. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE BARRIER AND DO NOT INTERVENE."
An emotionless and mechanical voice blares from the speakers.
All eyes dart towards the two figures at the center of the whole thing.
A soft click.
The floors suddenly rise into the air, breaking into parts like stepping stones. A large gap is in between each section and the surfaces are about four feet wide.
The onlookers hold their breaths. The training grounds go silent.
The ventilation system hums somewhere above, the barrier hums softly before them.
At the center of it all, Rong Yizhan stands tall. His pristine blindfold, grey combat jeans and white hoodie. His hands hang loosely at his sides.
It’s the first time Xin Linhua has seen him look less murderous and cold. He looks more like a youth this way.
"Don’t hold back, Phantom." The C-Rank says.
"I know."
The onlookers snicker. He may be a triple S-Rank Sentinel, but he’s as good as useless. They think of the Sentinel’s word as humor.
Then the floor moves– a phenomenon so fast, they barely catch it.
A sharp crack split through the room. Rong Yizhan steps sideways, his arms behind him.
A slab of steel-reinforced concrete erupts from the floor where his foot had been. He remains calm, his attention fixates on the Sentinel before him.
There. Thirty-seven degrees to his left– Eight meters. His opponent is moving. Rong Yizhan lowers his head.
A second crack. The floor buckles beneath him, but this time, he moves, leaping from his original spot in a split second.
A jagged ridge tears through the spot where he had stood a moment ago. Any later and he’d be dead.
He lands lightly on the edge of another raised section, barely touching it before pushing away once more.
Rong Yizhan tilts his head lightly, his hands finally unfolding behind him.
The section he’s standing on suddenly seems to have turned against him, it breaks into parts, each sharp edge aims for him.
He leaps down to solid ground, catching the steel slab coming for his head.
"Shit!" Xin Linhua can’t help but cuss "Is this training or are they testing how many lives he has?"
Any later, just two seconds late and his head will be flying across the room!