“Go for it, Luiz!” Luka and Teddy cheered.
Luiz and Vargas faced off at the platform. They both carried the same weapons from the first round.
Vargas’s height and bulkiness overwhelmed Luiz. The latter’s brown eyes fiercely looked at Vargas.
`Damn it, how do I get around this guy?` Luiz didn’t feel confident facing Vargas at all. Although he blocked Vargas’s punch the other day around, it wasn’t something worth more than what was compared to now.
Vargas, on the other hand, grinned at him.
`Tch, that bastard!` Luiz was irritated by Vargas’s mocking look.
“Start!” Instructor Rufus shouted.
“Hah!” Vargas plunged towards Luiz.
Luiz jumped to his right.
‘Boom!’
Vargas struck the ground, making it tremble. A crack on the ground was formed, and bits of dust flew around.
Luiz snorted and counterattacked.
`Pak! Pak!`
His quarterstaff hit Vargas’s left arm twice.
Vargas was infuriated by this and tried to retaliate, but Luiz had already escaped from his range.
Vargas pursued Luiz while swinging his large war hammer. The training area was overwhelmed with tremors.
The platform slowly cracked.
However, things did not go well for Vargas.
He kept on missing his attacks and Luiz would take advantage of it by attacking his sides or arms.
Soon, Vargas began to show signs of fatigue.
`Amazing strategy. Luiz’s attack and run strategy riled up Vargas. With Vargas’s extreme pride and domineering behavior, Luiz’s plan worked better than expected.` Instructor Rufus analyzed.
`I wonder where did Luiz learn such a tactic…` He surveyed the other students.
However, he saw the surprised look on the student’s faces.
“Woah! Look at that!” The students pointed back at the platform. They were awed about Luiz’s peculiar movement.
“Isn’t this… from Zachariel?” Teddy still remembered what happened that day.
Instructor Rufus looked back and he had the same reaction as most of them as well.
On the platform, Luiz struck the ground with his quarterstaff and held tightly onto it. He then jumped and started to rotate just like how Zachariel did it on their training.
Zachariel felt awkward when he saw Luiz’s execution.
`The staff’s penetration is too shallow. Moreover, his grip is not strong, and the staff’s drenched from his sweat. It’ll fail.` He remarked.
Luiz fell to the ground.
`Oh no!` Luiz thought that he could replicate what Zachariel did before.
Vargas saw this as an opening and struck at him. His burly body overshadowed Luiz’s who laid on the ground.
Luiz rolled to his left.
‘Boom!’
Vargas’s attack missed again, and Luiz was blown away by the aftershock. He somersaulted and regained his footing.
`F*ck, I lost my tempo!` Luiz cursed himself.
He was already doing well earlier. Why did he have to show off like that?
Instructor Rufus shook his head in disappointment.
`Young ones are such a show-off.` He sighed and waited for the final clash between the two.
Vargas grinned. He regained his cool after Luiz’s mistake earlier.
`Kek, little brat! Let’s see how you deal with this! Earthen Spike!`
He struck the ground with his war hammer and sent out a ranged attack. It was so fast, but Luiz’s reaction was faster.
`Very slow!` Luiz felt that Zachariel’s attacks were too fast to compare against someone like Vargas.
Luiz jumped to his left, then charged at his opponent.
“Aahh!” He roared.
`He should be extremely low on stamina now!` Luiz observed his opponent’s body situation.
The latter was drawing very deep breaths, trying to recover their strength.
Meanwhile, Vargas was shocked when Luiz was able to dodge his attack.
Seeing the little guy charging at him, he tried to lift his war hammer, but couldn’t draw nor find any strength to do so.
`Oh sh*t! I’m drained!` Vargas gritted his teeth.
“Stop! The winner is Luiz Carrico!” Instructor Rufus announced. He was also shocked by how fast Luiz reacted to Vargas’s earthen spike.
The students clapped their hands.
On the platform, Luiz’s quarterstaff pointed at Vargas’s neck. The latter gulped because he thought that Luiz would follow up with the strike.
Thankfully, it did not happen.
The two broke off against one another and faced Instructor Rufus.
“Luiz, you almost lost the match because you tried to show off some skills in front of everyone. Do not ever do that again.” Instructor Rufus sternly remarked.
His narrowed eyes looked at Luiz.
“The demon beasts and any other opponent won’t give a damn thing about your flashiness. Fix this attitude of yours or you may end up dead sooner than you would expect. Am I understood?” Instructor Rufus added.
“Yes sir!” Luiz responded.
He put what Instructor Rufus said in his mind.
`F*ck! Look at what you’ve done, Luiz!`
Instructor Rufus then looked at Vargas.
“Also, Vargas. Do not lose your cool when things don’t go the way you expect them to. Some extremely intelligent demon beasts out in the wild will find you as a delicious snack if they know how impatient and easily irritable you are. Do you understand?” Instructor Rufus said.
“Yes sir!” Vargas replied.
Instructor Rufus nodded at the two of them. He then waved his hand, signaling the two students to get off the platform.
…
“Luiz, are you okay?” Luka and Teddy approached him.
Luka was rather worried that Luiz’s mentality might get a blow because of Instructor Rufus’s remark on the match.
“Yeah,” Luiz sighed.
Luka patted his shoulder. “You’re already doing good, keep it up.”
“Thanks,” Luiz smiled.
The three of them returned to their positions and waited for the next match.
“Next, Kaela Jeldane vs. Diega Tarella!” Instructor Rufus announced.
“Go for it, Kaela!” Luiz, Luka, and Teddy cheered for her.
Kaela blushed inside, but her outside expression was very different.
“Hmm?!”
She sternly looked at the three boys.
Luka and Teddy immediately hid behind Luiz.
“Ah, eh!” Luiz could not react in time.
“Luiz, I’ll deal with you after this!” Kaela threatened him.
“Eek!” Luiz felt that he was cheated.
`There’s also the two of them, you know!`
Meanwhile, Luka and Teddy sniggered behind him, amused at the future demise of their friend.
“You two-!” Luiz could not believe that he was betrayed by his best friends.
The two girls went up the platform.
`Diega…` Zachariel did not like the little girl at all.
`She might know something about Hal’s death.`
He was certain of Diega’s relationship with Prince Kane.
He wanted to know whether Prince Kane really did it or not through Diega. Zachariel could either con her or play along with her until he could gather the information that he needed.
`I’ll discover more of your secrets soon…` Zachariel closed his eyes and cultivated his mana essence instead. He did not give a damn about the matches after Luiz’s.
Sabrina noticed Zachariel’s peculiar behavior.
`He’s not watching Diega’s match?`
She remembered that Diega and Zachariel were a bit close to one another.
`How come he’s uninterested in her match? Is it because he knew that Diega would already win?` She guessed.
“Start!” Instructor Rufus shouted.
Sabrina snapped out of her thoughts after hearing Instructor Rufus. She looked back at the platform and focused on spectating Diega and Kaela’s match.
…
Kaela looked at Diega, who had a smile on her cute and small face. The little girl excitedly waved the great axe around.
Kaela narrowed her eyes.
`I won’t be able to close in on her. Hmph! Slashing wave!`
She sent out a slashing wave to Diega.
Diega jumped to her left, dodging Kaela’s attack.
The little girl continued jumping around. She would sometimes spin before pummeling the ground with great force, yelling, “Kyaah!”.
The ground shook and cracks formed towards Kaela.
Diega repeatedly did it twice, sending out three different earthen spikes back at Kaela.
`What the?! That many?` Kaela was stumped.
The earth mana essences closed in on her.
She perfectly timed her evasion by jumping right when the crack was 2 meters ahead of her.
The spike burst out but she was already long gone.
`Damn it! No choice, let’s charge in now!`
Diega was a threat from a distance, and Kaela had no choice but to close in.
`Maybe I can see through her this time!`
She had joined the training session against Zachariel for the last two days.
`Let’s see if you’re faster than him!`
She slashed out her scythe towards Diega.
Diega acted like she was scared and closed her eyes, rapidly swinging the great axe around her body.
“Stay away!” Diega did it again.
`Swoosh!` The winds became turbulent, and Kaela’s purple hair fluttered. She blocked out the incoming wind on her beautiful oval face.
She looked like a veteran warrior who faced a powerful opponent.
Kaela’s purple eyes observed Diega’s movements.
`There’s a pattern! She’s swinging that great axe on a crisscross pattern! There!`
She timed her slash when Diega’s arms and war hammer started to descend.
The momentum from Diega’s continuous movement and the sudden force from Kaela’s attack shattered Diega’s tempo.
‘Boom!’
The great axe struck the ground, cracking the entire 3 meters of the area around the point of impact.
A huge crater that was a fourth of a meter deep was formed.
Diega was shocked. `She stopped me?! Impossible!`
Meanwhile, Kaela used this chance to slash at Diega’s neck.
“Stop! The winner is Kaela Jeldane!” Instructor Rufus announced.
The students clapped and cheered.
“Go, Kaela!” Iria cheered for her, “Job well done!”
She was happy for her friend.
`It worked!` Kaela was happy inside.
She thought that she would certainly lose this round.
Instructor Rufus commended Kaela’s patience and creativity.
`She used her opponent’s strength against them. That was a brilliant move. Moreover, she saw through Diega’s pattern. How interesting.`
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Kaela, trying to find out how did she improve so much after a few days.
“Good match! Kaela, it is a commendable move for you to use your opponent’s strength against them! Well done!” Instructor Rufus remarked.
“Thank you, sir!” Kaela bowed at him.
Instructor Rufus then looked at Diega.
“Diega, you should be more careful next time! Although your defense is excellent given you have great strength, you should not be on the defensive stance all the time, or else you will be overwhelmed by your opponent’s attacks, or use your power against you. Understood?”
“Yes sir!” Diega replied.
`Annoying b*tch!` Diega cursed Kaela. She wanted to prove her worth to Prince Kane, but this classmate of hers just won over her.
`I’ll take revenge next time!` Diega swore.
Instructor Rufus waved his hands and the two girls went off the platform.
“Next match! Iria Usenko vs. Margot Bournier!” Instructor Rufus announced.
“Go, class president!” The three boys cheered again.
Iria coldly looked at Luiz.
`No, not me again!` Luiz slumped on the ground with a defeated look on his face.
“Come on Luiz, she only looked at you! What’s there to worry about!” Luka tried to con his friend.
“Hmph!” Luiz ignored him.
`Oh no, this idiot’s getting smarter!` Luka was threatened.
“Too bad, Iria said she would treat us to a meal if she won this round…” Luka plastered a sad look on his face.
“Yeah, too bad she won’t have any chance to win now…” Teddy followed suit.
Luiz’s eyes widened. `A treat to a meal?! Sh*t, I need to cheer harder! She needs to win!`
“IRIA, WIN THE MATCH!” Luiz shouted as if Iria was going to the finals of a match competition.
Luka and Teddy sniggered.
“You-!” Iria was stumped. She then blushed as her body trembled due to anger and embarrassment.
`Luiz, you’re dead!` She will kick him in the eggs again, later.
Everybody in the training area except Zachariel looked over at Luiz.
`What is this idiot doing?` Sabrina’s face twitched.
Instructor Rufus knew what happened. `Those rascals are at it again.`
He sighed and shook his head. `Poor Luiz.`
“Alright, start now!” Instructor Rufus announced.
Iria calmed herself and looked at her tall opponent.
Margot was holding a bow and equipped a quiver on her back with a few arrows on it. Her short brown hair covered one of her black eyes as she worriedly looked at Iria.
`Can I beat her?` Margot asked herself.
Iria charged at her.
Margot distanced away and drew an arrow from her quiver. She notched it to her bow and sent out an attack.
`Slow!` Iria could see through Margot’s arrows.
She slashed her septum polearm and, ‘Pang!’, deflected the arrow.
`She can see through that?` Margot was really worried now.
Although she could use propulsion to increase the flight speed of her arrow, her mana control wasn’t good.
`I don’t think I can do it!`
Iria saw through her expression.
`She doesn’t have anything else at her disposal! Now’s my chance!`
She struck at her while Margot was stuck in a daze.
The latter wasn’t paying attention and was caught off guard.
“Stop! The winner is Iria Usenko!”
The students clapped and cheered for their class president.
“That’s my class president!” Luiz felt smug.
“Luiz…” Iria was getting angry.
“Eek!” Luiz backed away.
…
“Margot, your lack of self-confidence is what made you easily lose to this match. You could’ve made Iria waste her energy by distancing yourself away every time she would close in on you!” Instructor Rufus remarked, before continuing, “Also, you could’ve tried to use propulsion enhancement to your arrows! You won’t know whether it would work or not unless you try it yourself!”
“Yes, sir!” Margot bowed at him.
“Good,” Instructor waved his hands, “Next match!” Instructor Rufus announced.
