The next morning, after both had breakfast, Sarah had slept over again, they started training while waiting for James to arrive.
Although Jay's statistics could not go any higher, improving his Wind Control was a necessity.
However, there were benefits to its statistics being at the limit.
For example, he now could dodge and deflect Sarah's attacks using his speed along with the wind glove.
It was relatively easy for him because Sarah had been throwing little stones with her hands at the start as she didn't really want to hurt Jay.
But after seeing that he could dodge and deflect most of her attacks, she raised the difficulty.
"How about this~!" Sarah shouted while throwing a stone the size of a fist, although she hadn't thrown it using her hand this time, but with her wand...which was worse.
The stone quickly approached Jay, aiming at his stomach, the speed it was going was much faster than before.
"Nope!" However, it didn't get a chance to hit him since Jay deflected it in time with his wind glove before making a proud smile...it seems that he was having fun.
Sarah was a little surprised that he dodged it, so she decided to a raise the difficulty once more after that.
"Alright, now I'm gonna get serious...!"
She then took out her wand and used a spell, causing several stones the same size as the last one to come up out of the ground.
Seeing that Sarah's competitive spirit had awakened, Jay knew that he would not get out of this unscathed, and even though he knew he would recover quickly, he still couldn't help but grieve a little.
"...It's going to hurt..." he said as he took a combat-ready position...or at least one he considered combat-ready.
***
Meanwhile, James was on his way to Jay's house, he had been called in the night before to teach Jay how to "fight".
"I knew he was planning something...and I'm sure it has something to do with the entrance exam..."
Although James didn't know Jay as well as Sarah did, as a pugilist and the heir of a powerful sect, he had seen a lot of people that didn't feel like normal people to him.
People that just stood out but not because of their skills, strenght or anything like that...but because they had something special about them, although one could not see what it was...and Jay was one of those.
Thinking about these things, James quickly arrived at Jay's house. Even though there was a little bit of distance from his home to Jay's, it was nothing compared to what he had to go through when training.
As he was about to knock on the door, he heard some voices coming from the backyard.
"OUCH!"
"I-I'M SO SORRY, I SWEAR I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW THAT HAPPENED!"
They were the voices of Sarah and Jay respectively.
"...Could it be that they started without me...?" Said James before jumping onto the roof of the house.
Even though the house was several feet high, that height was insignificant for a pugilist of James' level.
"This..."
Now in the roof, the first thing he imagined he would see when was that Jay would be lying on the ground after being beaten up by Sarah, but this was totally different than he had imagined.
Jay was in the backyard, yes, but he wasn't lying on the ground or anything, in fact, apart from being shirtless, he was perfectly fine.
Oberving Jay's upper body, although he wasn't completely toned, one could see the effort Jay had put into working out.
In his right hand, a fairly small whirlwind that surrounded his hand could be seen, that, combined with the determination in his eyes and the fearless grin on his face, made even James feel some pressure for a second, it was as if he was seeing a fearless and proud warrior, ready to give it his all even if he could not defeat his opponent!
James was impressed by how much Jay had changed in such a short time, although it was true that Jay seemed like someone that stood out in James' eyes, it wasn't as if he was strong, so James had always unconsciously labeled him as someone who needed protection, hence his attempt to "train" him some time ago.
Momentarily ignoring the fact that Jay seemed to have a wind glove in his hand, James turned his head so he could see the person Jay was facing... and there he saw Sarah.
She was wearing a black sports outfit that matched with her long blue hair which was waving in the air, her gaze radiated a faint blue light, on her face, her expression showed an unwavering seriousness, as if she were facing a lifelong rival.
Several stones were floating around her, illuminated with a blue glow, which indicated that they had been reinforced with mana...at this moment, Sarah's appearance was definitely that of a beautiful and exceptional sorceress decided to defeat her opponent!
Seeing the atmosphere in the backyard, even James could feel the pressure that was emanating from both of them, especially from Sarah.
He had only seen her like this on very rare occasions, as for Jay, he had never seen him like this!
"You really had the guts to throw a stone at me...and you're even smiling!" Shouted Sarah interrupting James' line of thought.
"I swear I don't know how I did that, and you know that me smiling is a nervous habit!" Answered Jay.
"It's too late for apologies, and even if you don't know, you will find out soon!"
Suddenly, all the stones that were around Sarah rushed towards Jay, seeing what was happening, James got worried, those stones really could harm Jay after all.
"Sh*t...!" Shouted James, rushing to block the stones that Sarah had thrown, however, the stones were going at a very high speed.
And even though James was a skilled pugilist, with him being on the roof, he wasn't going to make it in time.
However, at that moment, Jay moved, much to James' surprise, he didn't back up, instead he moved forward to meet the stones!
Just as James thought that Jay was going to heavily injured, he, with his own eyes, saw Jay deflect the stones using his right hand, not letting even one of them touch his body.
"...What?!"
James was incredibly surprised by Jay's actions, as a pugilist, James had seen this kind of physical ability before, he himself was someone who could not only deflect, but also shatter those stones easily.
However, the times he had seen that kind of physical ability was in people who were making use of Qi to enhance their bodies and their senses, in other words, only in pugilists, even he was inevitably dependent on Qi.
That's why he was so surprised, after all, he could not even feel a trace of Qi in Jay, it was as if his body didn't need any kind of energy to display such reflexes and agility.
After recovering from the initial surprise, he turned to look at Jay again, who had finished repelling all the stones, and this time, something had changed in him, his gaze, which had once given off determination...now had a very faint green light in it!
***
"AHHH, WHY CAN'T I HIT YOUU!!" Shouted Sarah while grabbing her head, visibly frustrated.
"DO YOU WANT TO SEND ME TO THE HOSP-" Jay tried to answer, but right then, he fell to the ground.
*Bam*
Seeing that, both Sarah and James hurried to help him.
"Jay!"
"Are you okay?"
Said both at the same time, laying Jay on his back, James checked his physical condition and confirmed that he had only fainted from exhaustion, causing both of them to breathe a sigh of relief.
"I think you overdid it a bit." Said James, even though he always thought that the harder a workout, the better, one thing was improving and quite another to get seriously injured in the process, especially when the person concerned had been a normal person until a while ago.
"Look at what he did to me!" Said Sarah, pointing to her forehead, where one could see a bruise.
"...Did Jay do that...? How...?" Wondered James, he knew that Sarah was an expert when it came to throwing objects, so dodging or even grabbing objects thrown to her should have been something as easy as breathing for her.
"...Well, I may have let my guard down..." She said, avoiding his gaze.
"Then it's your own fault." He replied, downplaying the issue, that part wasn't very important to him right now after all.
What was important was that Jay had demonstrated a higher physical level than a person without skills was supposed to have.
The wind that enveloped Jay's hand could be explained as a late awakening, but that did not mean that his whole body would receive such a significant improvement and even less in such a short time!
"Sarah..." He said as he suddenly remembered the other part that had caught his attention the most, "Why did Jay's eyes had an aura...?"
Aura, that was the name given to the intentions that supers manifested in their bodies.
It was also a way to demonstrate how much power a super was currently using, in the initial levels, they would only have one way to show their Aura, which would be through their eyes.
James and Sarah could do it, although they rarely showed it because it was only shown if they were emotionally agitated or if they were using all their power.
Anyway, they could do it because they had reached the (C-) rank, going through the (D+) rank, which was the minimum required to be able to manifest an Aura.
Although the Aura in Jay's eyes had been extremely faint, it could still be considered as one, however, it was impossible for Jay to have reached the (D+) rank in such a short time, so James was quite intrigued by this.
Seeing the intense look in James' eyes, Sarah quickly started to think of an answer that could explain everything that had happened.
"...It..."
Suddenly, before Sarah could respond, Jay said a few words.
"Jay?!" They both said at the same time seeing that their friend was waking up.
"...It was worth fainting..."
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[New Skill Unlocked: Overload]
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