"Scholars believed that the Eclipsed were created due to the imbalance left behind by the gods," Professor Sirius repeated, "and they seem to have only one goal, rid Aureum of every life."

He took a small pause and glanced around the room again with a small smile on his face, his gaze rested on Cass for a while before he moved in, tapping on his tablet and letting three holographic Eclipsed appear, each of a different shape and size.

One was in the shape of a bear, the other a dragon, while the third had multiple hands growing all over it.

"Eclipsed come in different shapes and forms," he explained, "some look like normal animals and creatures of myth while others look grotesque and with a shape completely unrecognizable."

"But even with all their differences, Eclipsed have one thing in common," Sirius said, looking at the faces of the students, "would anyone like to try and guess what that is?"

They were silent for a while, that is, until someone in Nox's row raised a hand. This time, instead of Cass, it was Linda.

"Yes," Professor Sirius allowed her to talk with a pleased smile on his face.

He liked when the students were interested in his classes and answering questions was one way to show their interest.

Linda adjusted her glasses before saying, "their forms seem to completely absorb light."

"That is correct," the profess said, "all Eclipsed are entities that devour light, hence the reason why, even in broad daylight, they seem to only a dark form."

"Now then," he continued, "let's talk about what most of you are actually interested in, their rankings."

With those words, he turned to the red haired boy who was still a bit embarrassed and gave him a small smile.

"Eclipsed range from tier 1 to 6, based on the level of danger they present," Professor Sirius went on with the lecture, "tier 1 being the lowest and 6 being the highest."

As he said, this successfully got the attention of most the students in here as they say up straighter.

The large majority of them were from the combat division, as shown by the black uniform they wore, so this information was very much important.

Though, that wasn't to say it was useless to the scholar, engineering or stealth divisions.

"Tier ones never actually grow past the size of a house cat," Sirius paused before chuckling, "well, except the ones in your holographic test."

"The harm caused by them has never gone past the death of a few humans without a core."

He stopped and made sure the students were still following before he continued.

"Tier twos are a problem," he said, "if left alone, they could possibly bring down an entire town, as the reports from the recently fallen Zone 9 stated."

Cass and Devon subtly turned to him, since they knew he was from there, but he had never mentioned anything about an Eclipsed attack.

Nox, on the other hand, quietly continued listening to the lecture. He'd already gotten a front-row seat to what a tier-2 Eclipsed was capable of, but that didn't mean he had any kind of trauma from it…

Well, maybe just a little, but he wasn't going to talk about it, so the two just turned back to the professor.

"Tier threes are where things start getting messy," Sirius continued, enlarging the hologram on the bear-like Eclipse, "they possess enhanced strength, speed, and, in some cases, limited intelligence. A poorly trained knight engaging one alone… rarely ends well."

"And tier fours…" Sirius exhaled and tapped his tablet again and the hologram changed to an even larger Eclipsed.

"Tier fours almost always require a coordinated party. If a tier four appears in the wild and is not neutralized within hours," he added, "a medium sized city must initiate emergency evacuation protocols....if everyone in it doesn't end up dying within the first few hours."

Students from the combat division stiffened and a few nervously swallowed, they were going to face these when they graduated?

"But, Professor," one of the students raised a hand, "why do some look normal while others look like… that?" He pointed at the many-armed creature.

Sirius smiled as though he'd been waiting for that question.

"Because not all Eclipsed are born equal. Most low-tier Eclipsed, the ones shaped like normal animals or common beasts, are incapable of using Umbra Energy, most of the times."

"Umbra Energy is the purest essence of darkness," Sirius continued. "It is not common, proven by the fact fact that not every Eclipsed possess the ability to use it."

He pointed at the grotesque Eclipsed.

"And those that do… almost always appear like this, no longer resembling natural creatures, but corrupted reflections of something that once was."

"So, Professor," another student raised his hand, trying, and failing, to hide the slight tremor in his voice, "you're saying… grotesque ones are automatically capable of using umbra energy?"

"Not automatically," Sirius corrected, "but usually."

He flipped to a new hologram, this one showing silhouettes arranged by size and power.

"Tier 5 and Tier 6 Eclipsed are almost always Umbra users. They can manipulate shadow, use special abilities, distort space, or even regenerate at impossible speed."

He let that sink in.

"Your instructors will teach you how to handle such encounters," he said, "for now, it wouldn't hurt to know about them."

A quiet "damn" escaped from Devon who was sitting beside Nox, who was also completely absorbed in the lecture.

"So if an Eclipsed displays the ability to manipulate Umbra energy, treat it as one rank higher despite what any scanner says," He concluded, "and maybe run?"

Linda and Cass scribbled notes furiously, completely absorbed in the lecture.

Though, Cass's reason was because he wanted more points to debunk than actually study, since this was all basically general knowledge for him.

"Of course," the professor added lightly, after a couple of minutes of tense silence, "you will not be facing anything above Tier 2 during your first-year training. Tier 3 only for supervised exercises."

Relief washed through the majority of the students in the room.

"Now then," Sirius said with a bright smile, "let's talk about rifts."

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