"Excuse me? So you're rude and a waste" The woman said.
"The fuck is you're problem huh? If you've got a problem we can take this outside"
What shocked Max was how Dell could make such a threat without knowing who his opponent was, even more so how he could make a threat with no aggression. Just a cold toned promise.
"What? You dare to make threats when you didn't even take that bout seriously?" The woman said, clenching her fists and scowling.
"Huh? The fuck do you mean? I was trying my best just then-" Dell was interrupted by the quickest high kick he had ever seen in his life. Yet what left him in shock was how he managed to block on instinct.
"See? That attack was much faster then any the examiner delivered. Yet you blocked it" The woman would put her leg down to stand normally, however she realized Dell's reaction was off.
"Do you... Not know how strong you actually are?" She asked stepping closer.
"I have a vague Idea" Dell responded with complete honesty.
The woman would sigh. "I apologize for my outburst, it seems that I've misjudged you. Would you allow me to start again?"
"Go ahead" Dell would retract his gauntlets.
"I noticed you weren't fighting nearly as well as you should be. You have alot of strength stored up yet its not being used well"
"Why does that concern you?" Dell asked while crossing his arms.
"Even though you weren't fighting as well as you could be, you still did much better then the majority of people here. Above anything I hate wasted potential"
Dell would look at Max. "You've been awfully quiet this whole time. Is she someone who bothers you?"
"Are you accusing me of being some sort of thug or bully-"
Dell raised his hand. "Wasn't talking to you"
Max would answer with a clearly nervous tone. "I um... I'm not exactly strong myself and it's quite common here for the strong to take out thier frustrations on the weak after failing a test or getting into an argument..."
Dell would slightly bend so that the two were eye level, Max standing at around 5 feet and 8 inches.
"I don't remember getting frustrated after losing, nor do I remember threatening you. Relax a little, I'm not petty enough to take out my own loss on someone weaker then me. It'd be a huge blow to my pride doing something like that" Dell explained calmly.
"Thats a rather odd reason, but its certainly reassuring" Max said with a sigh of relief.
"Now back to you. Was your goal just to tell me I'm wasting my potential?" Dell asked while standing up straight again.
"Of course not you fool. My intention was to offer some advice" The woman was tapping her foot quite alot by this point.
"Whats your name and the advice?" Dell asked.
"My name is Ruby. And I advise that if you insist on fighting with your fists, wich I believe is a waste, then do it properly. Train so you understand how strong you are, learn some martial arts or at least an improved way of fighting. And those gauntlets are too chunky, all they're efficient for is heavy blows so if possible refine them to something lighter. A strip of material across the knuckles, a plate covering the back of your hand and forearms and some pieces here and there down the fingers eventually leading to the claws"
"You taking notes Zephyr?" Dell said with a chuckle.
"You may be mocking me but indeed I am. I'll attempt to condense the material so it's stronger since we're going to be using less" Zephyr responded.
Ruby would raise an eyebrow. "Are you an infected?"
"Not quite no" Dell answered.
"Your awakened ability?"
"Something like that"
Dell wasn't sure how to explain Zephyr yet, and he didn't feel the need to explain to somone he just met.
After thanking the woman for her advice, the next month or so wasn't as interesting as he had hoped. He trained almost obsessively pretty much every day, learning martial arts and getting a better grasp of how strong he was. During this time period Dell came across many types of people. Strong who took thier anger out on the weak, weak who showed more will then some hunters and those who just kept to thier studies.
He also learned what the other buildings were for, Lord Zion provided housing and food for his students. There was plenty for everyone so it wasn't a source of any arguments.
However one thing that did change for Dell was his view on Max and Ruby. Over the month he had grown fond of the pair of them. He fount Max's kindness to be strange yet welcomed. Max wasn't aggressive and owned his flaws, his gentle personality didn't clash with Dell's and that led to a slow friendship to form over the month. Ruby, though rude, was a surprisingly honest and hard working person in Dell's eyes. They clashed but not to a point where they disliked eachother, through there arguments and contests of ability they pushed eachother to become stronger and Dell was well aware of it.
But, on his way back from training he came across something he wasn't ready for.