"HAHAHAHA! THAT'S RIGHT! COME AT ME!"
'How barbaric.'
Allen silently observed his classmates fiercely battling the professor while leisurely sitting in the spectator seats.
'They aren't half bad, but it's too normal.'
Their fighting techniques and patterns are too robotic, as if they just did what is told in the books. Some of the students were so bad that most of their attacks doesn't even hit the teacher. There are some lazy students who doesn't seem to want to move at all.
'Ahem...'
"... It's not that I'm being lazy and all... Observing my classmates' attack patterns in the back and criticizing is not being lazy y'know..."
In particular, a group of students circling around an arrogant girl seems to not care about the fight at all.
"Ugh, I really should've stayed in the classroom."
"You're right. Me too!"
"This is a waste of time. I don't need the prize anyways."
"Hahaha, of course!"
"You don't need to worry about all that, Miss Trisha. It's a waste of time since your father already has connections from many powerful people!"
"How can he not? Her father is the owner of the Parker&Co.!"
"Well, it's the largest weapon-producing company in the city!"
'Suck-ups.'
Allen rested his head on his palm and looked around the platform. Almost missing his eye for a second, Allen found a frightened individual hiding behind the stairs of the spectator seats. He has cyan-colored hair and a relatively small physique. Along with him are the same students who bullied him in the classroom except for the leader.
'… And now there's cowards.'
"HAHAHA! IT WON'T WORK!"
Allen's gaze moved to the center of the platform where the professor is. The students are having a hard time landing a hit on him.
Professor Qiang Shanqu.
He was once a licenced professional hero with the power of wind pressure who fought with the first unit of IHA (International Heroes Association) in order to defend Central City from the invading Crimson Knights. Former Hero Qiang Shanqu is of Chinese origin, but he has dark skin. He had since long ago traveled everywhere, trying to find strong individuals to spar with until he settled here.
'Why? Because he's a battle junky.'
He liked being in the frontlines and handling enemies face to face. The idea of fighting the strong rankers of the Crimson Knights hypes him up so much that he rushed toward them alone
and left the unit. However, the hero association that time did not have enough strong heroes to defend the 8 officials of the enemy, as well as the thousands of pawns in its arsenal.
In the end, the heroes were able to defend their hometown and their people from them, but at the cost of many lives of heroes. Professor Qiang is one of the few who survived.
'Oh? What's this?'
Allen saw numerous earth attacks hurdling toward the professor. The professor parried the attacks with wind pressure from his arms.
The attacks have great power, but it also makes other students unable to fight properly due to accumulated dust and piles of soil. There was also the fact that the earth user does not care about injuring other people just to achieve his goal.
"What the hell? Stop blocking!"
The blonde-haired student angrily shouted.
Richard Brandon.
An Earth user from a common background. Born from a run-down orphanage managed by an old couple. When the couple passed away, their only son inherited the land and took care of the children. Richard was luckily born with a strong power that helped him get a scholarship in this school.
But he's so hotheaded that he has to be put on leashes.
His performance in the exam is great, and his written exams aren't bad either. He probably could've gone to class 2 if it weren't for his bad temper.
"ARE YOU NUTS? WHO WOULD WANT TO LISTEN TO THE ENEMY?"
"What's that, Fartface?"
"Hahaha! Are you being rude at your own professor?"
"Why do you care? I don't need to listen to my enemies!"
"Ha!"
Richard and the professor continue to mock each other as they clash. The dust accumulates further, making the students unable to see anything. Within the confusion, Richard was suddenly thrown to the platform wall, making him unconscious. The dust was pushed away and the students are able to see clearly again.
Without a moment to spare, the students charged again to the professor. The professor easily parried the attacks while loudly laughing like a maniac. Sitting way far and observing the chaos, Allen slowly shook his head while saying,
"Hahaha. What're you guys thinking? You can't beat a retired professional hero, especially one who survived the war six years ago while fighting in the front lines."
The students are visibly tired as they were huffing vigorously but Professor Qiang didn't even look tired except for his sweat that was seeping through his shirt. The professor could only open his arms in front of his tired students and shout,
"Hahaha! Is that all you've got? I thought you kids wanna be heroes! Heroes can't--"
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a sudden chill on his back and turned his arms around to defend himself. The professor blocked the kick. A student was quietly aiming for the pressure point at his back, between his shoulder blades. Seeing that his attack did not work, the dull green-haired student calmly twisted his body and aimed for the back of the professor's knee.
'Oh! It's the student from the entrance exam!'
"Hahaha! What's this? Coming at me without even using any abilities?"
The professor looks entertained, seeing that he hasn't used his ability to knock out the student. Allen saw some of his classmates completely shocked seeing their fellow classmate spar with the professor without using abilities.
It also made them feel hopeless that they, who used all of their means to defeat the professor, couldn't even bring to make him tired. They also feel pity to a student who doesn't seem to use an ability try to repeatedly attack the professor only to be blocked again and again. Allen gasped, recalling something.
"I remember the old man mentioning to me about the only inept* individual who passed the physical division in the exam this schoolyear. I couldn't believe it was him."
(*Inept- not able/inexpert)
'Hmm… It was obvious that this student attacks based on different martial arts that he must've learnt.'
However, his unusual and off the beat* moves, the ability to quickly decide the next attack after seeing an unsuccessful scenario, the unusual calmness in his eyes despite his tired and frowning face, is not something that can be taught to people. It can only be harnessed through experience.
(*Off the beat- improvised)
Other students probably thought that this student only attacks just to hit the teacher at least once. They didn't even realize that every part that the student tries to hit are all the human body's pressure points. Allen laughed in amusement, blurting out his inner thoughts.
"Hahaha. When did such a hard-working person appear?"