[Trigger Warning: Visual and in-depth details of torture, gore, and cruelty evident throughout a majority of the chapter... Please Skip If you will not be able to stomach it, reading further chapters will give you an idea of what happened here anyway. This is not a joke, If you can't stomach it I am genuinely urging you to skip this chapter.]
Sora had found a fairly secluded park within the academy grounds that he could use for a few hours without any questions being raised so after a few failed attempts, while the student was awake, Sora finally managed to wrap his vic-*cough**cough* assailant in a cocoon of Ice formed completely from his [Lesser] Ice Spread. There was a whole Sage series thing he could have tried but he had already decided to put it off and would stick to that decision until he was certain of what was going on here. So far, all he had gotten out of the guy was that his name was Yun Bo, that he was a shadow mage, allegedly, and that he would never forgive Sora before blacking out from the cold.
Sora thought about it for a moment and decided to try something, he used his ignition casting method to cast a regular [Lesser] Flame Spear, the intermediate spell for the Fire element, and observed it for a moment. He always wondered why Lima wasted so much energy forming new ones all the time after launching new ones repeatedly, when there was no specific function of the spell that prevented you from using it like a normal spear. Sora fed the spell some more mana to increase the heat and pressure of the flames, not applying his Golden Flames of Destruction, before slitting Yun's cheek with the Flame Spear, making him jolt awake from the heat and sudden sharp pain.
"Alright then, where were we?", Sora pondered before letting his spear hover over Yun's throat, "Right... Who sent you five idiots after me??", Sora demanded in a calm and chilling tone. "Even If I knew I wouldn't tell you asshole, you will reg-", Sora interrupted Yun by cutting him just below his eye singeing the guy's face slightly. "Let's try this again, wise guy... who sent your little party of 5 after me?" Sora demanded once more in the same tone.
Yun was visibly trembling but still did not shake on his position of not 'snitching'. Sora nodded with satisfaction before resting his spear on the Ice and letting it melt off of Yun as the 2nd year male dropped to his knees in fatigue. "Screw You!!! I'll make sure the whole year knows where you are!!!", Yun mocked with a gleeful laugh as he 'caught' Sora with his [Perfect] Shadow Lock spell. He stumbled to his feet and tried to walk away just to have the full force of Sora's [Perfect] Precision Spark shoot up his body through his legs.
The shock lasted for 10 seconds as he slowly dropped to his knees and onto his face where he felt the water from Sora's melted Ice splash on his face. Yun's muscles were softened now and he was bleeding from his eyes, ears, and both nostrils as he lay in the wet grass twitching. "So the whole 2nd year group is in on this", Sora thought out loud as he wondered why they would be involved with him outside of challenging him but put the thought aside. No use wondering ceaselessly when the idiot on the ground would tell him whatever he needed to know.
"You're not very bright for a second-year mage", Sora commented as he walked up to the grounded Yun and formed another [Lesser] Flame Spear before plunging it through the back of Yun's left thigh, pinning the leg to the ground and constantly burning Yun as he did so. He then did the same to Yun's right thigh, lower back, middle back, right shoulder, left shoulder, and upper back. Sora made it a point to plunge the Flame spears in slowly, enjoying the musical symphony that was Yun's screams of agony as he felt himself being stabbed and burned all over his body simultaneously.
"You saw me use lightning magic in the Trial Tournament finals... You saw me melt the Ice cocoon around you... and yet you assumed I wouldn't be able to channel that same lightning magic through the water to electrocute you when you tried to escape", Sora said with a sigh as he lamented the below-room-temperature IQ of his upperclassman. "But I digress... Why are the second-year students wasting their time fighting me without caring for my Divine Tower Pass??", Sora eventually asked Yun after the young man had stopped twitching from the very literal shock to his system and seemed to be able to string a sentence together coherently.
"S-S-Screw you... Basta-!!!!", Sora interrupted as he channelled another [Perfect] precision spark through the ground to electrocute Yun. This time though, Yun's skin was touching the water so the 10-second-long jolt was 3 times as potent as the earlier one making Yun bleed even more profusely as the 2nd year shadow mage's eyes began to lose focus. Sora saw an extra wet patch form under Yun's legs as a brown patch rapidly formed around his bum while the young man twitched violently.
Tear streams flooded out of Yun's unfocused eyes as Sora raised the intensity of the fire in all of the Flame Spears that were holding Yun to the ground. Yun was once again jolted awake by the heat before Sora turned it back down to a 'tolerable' level. "You can either spend the rest of your night going through all of this protecting a group that couldn't care less about you... or you can answer my questions", Sora stated in a matter-of-fact tone as he squatted down to Yun Level. Yun visibly trembled at the thought of going through this any longer and desperately sought a way out.
"O-O-Ok ok ok... I'll talk, please just stop!!", Yun cried out desperately as the tears ran down his face even faster. Sora nodded and rose to his feet once more with a smile, "You see that wasn't so hard now was it??", he said with a beaming smile without making any effort to free Yun, "Now all you have to do is answer me with useful information and you will avoid as much suffering as possible", Sora added on with a clap of his hands as a smug grin tugged at his lips. "N-N-No... But you said".
"I know, I know", Sora interrupted Yun with a wave of his hand with the phrase ' you're such a drama queen ' practically plastered on his expression, "So long as you don't answer half-heartedly and give me information that will be useful to me you will be home and safe before the night ends", Sora elaborated, "Either that or I will test out my Space Magic on you".
Yun felt a chill run up his spine hearing that, not at the fact that Sora had the space element awakened, but rather at the fact that Sora was hiding his magic from most people seeing that he hadn't used Ice before this, who in their right mind would expose all of their secrets to a hostile person who they planned to let go? He didn't have the time to go further down this train of thought as Sora began his questioning again. "Why would the 2nd years wish to attack me outside of the Trial Challenges??".
"A-A bounty was put on your head by the elite class in our year... T-They said you had committed a heinous crime against Xiao Yaya and called us up to defend her honour and provide her with a chance at revenge by wearing you out", Yun admitted with a weak tone before another shock, however brief, shot through his body again almost making him vomit were he lay. "What crime exactly is your year group meant to be avenging??", Sora asked out of genuine curiosity. If it was something stupid like him being too aggressive with her during the tournament then he would laugh it off, but he wouldn't accept genuine blows to his reputation.
"It was said that you Assaulted Xiao Yaya during the week that you were missing with Marcus Sterling leading the Elite class and the rest of the year group to corroborate the story to the Xiao Clan... they issued an active bounty for anyone who could assist in the Elite Class' cause, and as a result even those who planned to stay-", Before Yun could finish his sentence the flaming spears that Sora plunged into his body dissipated catching Yun off guard. However overjoyed Yun was though, he never got to live out his joy for more than 3 seconds after which Sora struck his throat with the basic spell of the space element [Lesser] Mental Force, crushing the young man's voice box, making it impossible to speak without healing magic.
Yun fell into despair when he couldn't even scream out in agony as Sora proceeded to use Yun as a testing dummy or target practice to help him refine his technique with his 4 elements for the following 3 hours. When Sora was done, Yun was unable to speak, walk, and string coherent thoughts together, and he had no more waste to release from his body. Yun was a mess of blood, piss, sweat, shit, and vomit that lay akimbo in the wake of his mess.
Sora lifted Yun a few feet into the air with a light and continuous application of his [Lesser] Mental Force basic spell as he used his Golden Flame of destruction to incinerate the evidence of Yun's different types of discharge. Sora then continuously froze and melted Yun's body to wash all of the residue off of his person, destroying the last of it with his flames of destruction before dropping the guy on a patch of dry burnt grass. "If you know what is good for you... You will forget the fact that Ice and Space Magic were used today", Sora warned sternly before walking off towards the dorms once more.
Despite it already being midnight, Sora felt his fatigue melt away and rather opted to meditate for the next two hours to replenish his mana reserves- Only once he was done with that did he finally let himself fall asleep so his body could rest from his practice for the future fights. Sora Silently resolved to deal with Marcus one way or another, petty rivalry was one thing, but dragging his reputation through the mud was another.
Sora was the furthest thing from a noble, upright, upstanding member of society sure, but he still preferred to be judged and vilified for things he did as opposed to flights of someone's imagination. At least if he did it he would be in control of his response to the situation and could plan accordingly. Sora noted that the four other 2nd years nobodies were gone by the time he came back and reconned one of the other 2nd years had come to get them so they could lick their wounds.
All in all as annoyed as Sora was he recognised that there was nothing he could do about it right this second and prioritised getting rest above everything else. At least that was what he thought before his door was kicked open and someone immediately cast a [Basic] Great flash, the intermediate spell of the Light element, that forced Sora to wake up but did not blind him temporarily like was expected. He was still able to see the outline of a student rushing at his bed using a [Perfect] wind Path wielding some sort of shiny object that shone under the moonlight.
Sora left a sheet of Ice where the Wind Mage was set to land making the young man slip forward, Sora then connected a clean Fire Fist-Drive that blasted the assailant back out to the corridor making him smack his head on the wall and pass out outside of Sora's Door. Sora walked over to his window to find 10 other male students ready to bombard the outside of his room with attack spells at the ready. Sora felt his patience slipping as he closed his blinds and walked out to the corridor to find one more student before him.
Standing before Sora at 6 ft 2 with a large athletic frame, short dark-brown hair, and calculated golden brown eyes was none other than the rank 5 student of the second year, older cousin of Han Junjie and bane of all modern mages at his level, 'The Accursed Flame' of Interstellar academy, Han Yunji.