Without the students realizing the sky is starting to get late, a couple of windows in the training hall sparkle with golden light from the noon sun.
'No matter the plan Mr. Joseph is cooking, I'll just deliberately lose. The students are clumsy in using handed weapons, but they are way faster and stronger than a normal person', Rex breaks off his eye contact with Mr. Joseph and gets into the arena.
Laura saw Rex gets into the arena, and she has no choice but to get into the arena too.
Knowing that Rex is not an Awakened such as herself, she innately thought that he's not an opponent for her. Laura's power can even rival the top of the class and now she has to fight a non-awakened person. It is an unhonorable fight for her, this can be called bullying.
'Rex should be better in hand-to-hand combat since he has a military background, let's just overpower him with my speed', Laura's gaze turns sharp looking at Rex from head to toe.
With the intense and vigorous hand-to-hand combat training in the military, it can be considered an understatement to call Rex good at fighting bare-handed. Back in the military, his abilities can even match that of the veterans. Confidence in hand-to-hand combat is there, but if magic is added to the mix then the favor will tilt to Laura immensely.
Standing face to face inside the ring, Rex remembered their brief encounter before.
'Are you worthy enough to approach me?'
'A normal person like you should get away from me'
'Face reality, we're on a different level'
Remembering the insult that he suffered in public, Rex clenched his jaw tightly as the words that came out of Laura's mouth greatly hurts him. It's nothing coming from others, but she's a childhood friend of his.
'I'm confident in beating the likes of Poru, but if Laura is stronger than Poru then I probably have a slimmer chance to win', while fixing his battle gloves, Rex analyzes Laura using his eyes. A cloud of pride keeps on prickling his mind, especially when he has the power to potentially win this fight.
'Wouldn't it be nice if I can see the enemy's stats, wait, I can!'
Rex looks at Laura with the thought of seeing her stats, a dinging sound was heard. A notification from the system appeared just beside Laura that is standing in front of him with the katana in her hand.
Race: Human
Power: Rank 3 Awakened (Early) - Water Elementalist
Mental: 21
Strength: 9
Agility: 23
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 30
Upon seeing her stats, Rex started to sweat a little.
'I'm still lagging behind...', but Rex shakes his head and analyzes her stats, he notices that Laura has a low strength so he decided to use that weakness against her. He becomes determined to beat Laura.
Laura looks at Rex and saw the sudden change in his temper, she unconsciously takes a step back.
Rex lifts his head up and looks at Laura, his eyes staring directly into Laura's. He doesn't know why but Laura ignites something within him, it seems to make his eyes burn with blazing fire.
'What is happening? Why is my body shaking?', Laura thought as she looks at her trembling legs.
Meanwhile, Mr. Joseph looks at both of them in silence.
The corner of his mouth quirked up seeing the change in Rex's demeanor, even the other students seems to also notice the change. But they still look at him with contempt underestimating his abilities as a non-awakened, while Laura who is in the same arena as him can't help but become alert.
Then suddenly,
Laura has said some harsh words to the user and hurts the user's feelings. Beat Laura fair and square during the fight in the arena to assert the user's dominance!
Quest Reward: 400 Exp, Shell of Defense
'Okay, it seems I have to go all out'
With the sudden quest from the system that requires him to win this fight, Rex goes into his battle stance as he waits for Mr. Joseph's signal to start the battle. His body is trembling in excitement longing for the fight to start.
Laura also went to her battle stance, but now she didn't want to underestimate Rex so she started circulating her elemental properties into her body and her new katana.
A blue aura started to cover her whole body as water vapor comes out of her body,
"START!"
Just exactly when the signal from Mr. Joseph came, both of them exploded with power as they dashed toward each other. The students' eyes widen in anticipation as both of them launch their first attacks, Laura slashes her katana while Rex sent out a punch with his new battle gloves.
The muscles in his arm bulged as he sent out a punch packed with power, one can even feel the power by just looking at it him throwing the punch.
Clang!
A metallic clanging sound was heard coming from the collision of their attacks. But to the student's surprise, Laura got pushed back a little by the force brought by Rex's punch.
'What? Is her strength really way lower than mine? How come I can only push her a bit?'
Rex was surprised that he can only push her back a little bit with his superior strength, but then he realizes the water vapor around her body, 'This blue aura... it increases her physical abilities just like what Benjamin and Poru did before'
Despite Rex's surprise by the aftermath of their collision, the one that is surprised the most is Laura.
'What happened... did he just push me back? A non-awakened?!', Laura exclaimed inside her head with a frown, she then jumps back to create a distance between them and reset the fight.
The students start to snap out of their surprise before their eyes widen in utter shock.
"HOW?!"
"He's a non-awakened but he can match Laura's strength?!"
On the other side of the watching students, Adhara also gasp in shock seeing that Rex managed to be on equal ground against Laura, 'He's really not simple, but I really can't feel any elemental from him so how did he manage to do this...?'
Lowering her stance, the blue water vapor cloaking her body is starting to get more intense.
With the newfound realization that Rex is pretty powerful despite being a non-Awakened, Laura bolted toward Rex as her speed becomes even faster. The increase can be noticeably seen.
Rex steps back and brings his hands up in defense, he can't follow Laura's movement!
Out of nowhere, Laura appeared on his right and sent a slash with her katana. Rex brings his hands up to block the slash but then suddenly he felt a solid hit landing on his stomach.
Bam!
"Argh!", Rex grunted in pain as the punch was a heavy one.
Laura uses the fear of the slash as a fluke before she sent a punch right into Rex's guts, he was pushed scrambling to the right a couple of steps.
Utilizing her superior speed, Laura disappears again from his side.
Another slash attempt to threaten Rex that is still recovering from the previous punch, his eyes widened when he saw a katana aiming at him just as he recovers from the blow. It makes a swooshing sound before grazing Rex right on his cheek.
The katana left a bloodied line mark on his cheek boasting its sharpness.
Without any other choice besides defending from Laura's relentless attacks, Rex brings his hands up to his face trying to guard his head the best he could.
Slash!
Slash!
Slash!
'Shit, I can't see her movements! She's aiming my blindspot!', Rex thought while he was being slashed again and again by Laura from all angles, it was starting to get overwhelming. And upon seeing this, Laura nodded her head as she kept attacking.
This is the result that she expected of the fight, 'He has incredible strength but in the end, he's only a non-awakened person. This is his limit...', she thought as she attack Rex with the dances of her katana.
Laura's speed is overwhelming, everybody knows that.
She is nicknamed the Water Vortex by the students because of her speed, many of her opponents got drowned by her blade work until they finally succumb to her swiftness and nimbleness style of fighting.
"Surrender, there's nothing to prove. Your talent is limited...",
Rex peeked to his front and saw Laura is already standing there undisturbed with her katana decorated with his own blood, she flicks her katana splattering the blood to the ground. It colored the golden sand into red color.
With a heavy exhales, his eyes spark without any sign of yielding.
Despite the wounds all over his body that is dripping with blood, the fighting spirit is still there. Upon hearing another mock from Laura, anger welled up inside of him out of nowhere.
In the next second after that, a dinging sound seeped into his ears as notifications appear.
Rex glanced at the training hall window, the sky is already dark with a crescent moon decorating it.
After hours of fighting between students in the arena, the day unknowingly turns into night. The corner of Rex's mouth curved up realizing that it was night already, and the anger within him started to somewhat feels good. It's started to get addicting.
Laura raises her eyebrows in confusion upon seeing yet another change in Rex's demeanor.
'Why is he smiling like that? No matter, let's just end this!'
Swoosh!
Vanishing from her spot, Laura appears behind Rex who is standing straight like an arrow with the smile still etched on his face. Her eyes glisten fiercely as she thrust her katana aiming to stab Rex's back.
'This is the end...'
Laura closes her eyes knowing that her win is imminent, she only needs to wait for the katana to pierce Rex's back or for Mr. Joseph to stop the fight. But despite already stretching her arms fully, the scream of pain that she anticipated never came.
Upon opening her eyes, she gasps in shock as her eyes widen fully.
Not only does she doesn't manage to stab Rex's back, but her katana was caught by Rex!
The other students also sucked in a cold breath in surprise, the thought of Rex catching the katana by his bare hand never crossed their minds. Mr. Joseph smiles while upon witnessing the shift in the tide of the battle.
Realizing that she failed, Laura intended to jump away to reset the fight again.
But when she wanted to pull the katana away, she realized that she can't pull it out of Rex's hand. No matter how much she tried, the katana didn't budge as if it was held by god himself.
Inhaling a deep breath of the night air, Rex steps closer and towers in front of Laura.
Rex's bearing intimidated her so much that her legs turns into jelly, she was frozen in place as she heard a leathery sound from Rex gripping the katana tighter by the second.
"Ground Splinter!"
With nothing but a light chant, Rex launches his other fist toward Laura.
Now that his body is enhanced by the moonlight, the muscles and veins start to bulge and contract with might as the fist gets closer and closer. Rex now looks like a demigod sent by god himself with his towering figure shadowed over Laura's body.
Swoosh!!
Rex's punch travels like a jet, it's so fast that only some students saw its trajectory.
BAM!!
Just before the punch collides with Laura, the students look away in fright. Even they can't help but be fearful upon feeling the impact and force Rex's punch brings despite not being inside the ring with him.
It was horrifying and they can't believe that it was a force coming from a non-Awakened person.
'No way, he's not normal!'
This thought travels into every student's head as they can't believe what they are witnessing, a non-Awakened beating an Awakened shouldn't be possible. But they can't help but feel that Rex already won the fight.
Whooshh!
With the powerful force Rex's fist brings, the sand was blown and hinders the students' visions.
Slowly but surely, the last particle of sand that blocks their vision fades away. Rex's shadowy figure started to emerge with another person in front of him, and the person blocks Rex's punch.
Upon seeing the person in front of him, Rex was surprised.
Mr. Joseph steps in and blocks Rex's attack, his hands are covered by rocks as he grips Rex's fist.
"Rex, this is a spar. I already assessed both of your capabilities and you've won the fight, so get down from the arena now", Mr. Joseph said with a genuine smile on his face.
On Mr. Joseph's back, Laura fell to the ground with a dumbfounded expression.
She knelt on the ground because her legs turned into jelly from fear.
Rex looks at Laura without any expression and decided to ignore her, he walks down from the arena under the other students' gazes. Everybody makes way for him, they are all scared of him now. No matter how anyone looks at it, Rex is not normal.
'Well if he's really a normal person, there's no way he could get those medals'.
They all nodded in realization, trying to make sense of what they have just witnessed just now.
While Rex walks through the students leisurely, a shout suddenly came from the side attracting his attention, "REX! How dare you... HOW DARE YOU TRY TO HIT MY SISTER?!"
Rex turns his body to look at the source of the voice, turns out it was Tom Frostbrand, Laura's brother.
In a fit of anger seeing that her sister was about to be punched brutally by Rex, Tom steps forward with his body emitting the same water vapor as Laura, "Eat my magic! Basic Spell, Water Spike!"
Just after the chant, rows of spikes made of water burst from the ground aiming at Rex.
Laura noticed that her brother is trying to defend her, she glanced to the side before she screamed trying to warn her brother to not do anything rash to Rex, "Tom! DON'T!!", but she was too late as Tom already attacked.
With ease, Rex dodged the water spike by stepping to the sides.
Tom leaped toward Rex with clear anger etched on his face, he clench his hand into a fist before sending out a punch aiming at Rex's face. But Rex caught Tom's fist and stopped it midtrack rather easily.
Despite trying to pull his fist away, Tom can't do anything under Rex's grip.
"YOU BASTARD! LET GO!"
Even with him struggling to break free with all his might, Rex's grip is too strong for him. Tom is just a rank two awakened, even his sister Laura can't beat Rex in terms of strength so how can a measly rank two Awakened stand a chance in front of Rex?
"Piss off!"
Rex sent a kick that landed solidly on Tom's stomach, it sends him screeching away.
Blood leaked out from the corner of Tom's mouth while he holds his throbbing stomach in pain, he raises his gaze exposing his eyes burning with hatred. But seeing that Rex turns around and left Tom alone, Mr. Joseph didn't interfere.
While looking at Rex's back, Mr. Joseph can't help but smile.
Although he's smiling, his hand that is covered by rocks has a crack on it from blocking Rex's punch earlier, 'He really is not a normal man, there's more into him...'
Meanwhile, a smile crept onto Rex's face while he was walking away.
The smile, of course, comes from seeing the notifications from the system that appeared in front of him, it delights him that the system acknowledges the fight as a win for him.