'The sky is a bit cloudy today. Let's hope it won't rain.' Elder Song thought as he looked up above his head. The sun was trying to get through countless medium-sized clouds, but it was unable to do so, because of how dark they were,
'Elder Oak must be at the Library as always,' He thought while heading to the library. In the meantime, he was thinking about what led to this and about how he should have talked to him once they met,
'Damn, that brat! If it weren't for him I wouldn't have needed to talk to that man. A disciple that disrespects an elder so much should be expelled.' He was visibly annoyed by the fact that Arslan didn't tell him where his power came from,
"Elder Oak won't be easy to deal with. I bet he was the one to give Arslan that cultivation metho-" He suddenly stopped as he noticed something strange in front of him. A small crowd was gathered around the trees in front of the library,
'What is happening there?' He thought as he got closer at a faster pace.
"WHERE IS IT?"
"You won't get anything out of me. So, let me go!"
'Isn't that Arslan's voice?' Elder Song ran towards the crowd and, after moving past some disciples that obstructed his line of sight, he could clearly see the scene.
Troy was strangling Arslan's throat with his left arm while keeping him a meter above the ground, and Arslan was trying to get him off by clutching his arm with his hands.
"Does your strength amount just to this?" Troy asked with a grin on his face, provoking Arslan.
"Arghhh-!" Arslan's grip on Troy's arm grew stronger and stronger,
"I said..." A whirlwind of darkness began to form around the two of them, and the wind started to circulate around Arslan. The trees' leaves got plucked away and the trees themselves bent rhythmically following the wind,
"LET... ME... GO!!!!" His strength increased by ten folds, making Troy feel pain in his arm.
'I was right. Something is off with this power of him. He is only at the Early-stage of the Earth level and he is making me feel pain. If we add that he doesn't even have a bloodline... f*ck, the thrill this situation is giving to me... I want to f*ck him up so badly!" His uneasy smile could be seen by everyone. He was both angry and excited by the fact that someone he considered trash was rebelling against him, and the desire to know of Arslan's full capabilities made him even more interested in having a fight with him.
Suddenly, the wind became hot, and breathing in the air would cause one's lungs to burn,
"Guys fall back! Troy is getting serious!" A disciple screamed to the others around him.
"Ahhh, you are making me so excited trash! Come on, show me who the strongest is!" Troy's smile angered Arslan even more.
'This b*stard!' Arslan thought as he gritted his teeth and looked at him straight in his eyes with a furious glare.
Seeing as things were going, the disciples who were standing a few meters from them took some steps back. They didn't want to be caught up in the fight,
"Are they gonna fight here?"
"What is that black thing around Arslan? Wasn't he powerless?"
"Didn't you hear the news?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Apparently, Arslan used some strange techniques 2 days ago in the martial competition."
"Really? Damn it, I should have come to see it too! I thought it would have been as boring as usual."
Not every disciple watched the martial competitions, as the top 100 students didn't need to take part in it. Usually, they considered it as a waste of time, unless there wasn't some news about a strong newcomer attending the Academy. Thus, the news of Arslan's new strength didn't reach everyone's ear yet.
"Ten... Punches of Destruction..." Arslan prepared his left arm retracting it behind his torso and clenched his fist surrounded by darkness. Troy's tongue got out of his mouth in excitement.
"RUN GUYS, RUN!!" A disciple who was on the front line of the crowd in the martial competition said, 'F*ck, I already saw this scene! I don't want to get caught in it twice!'
Everyone started running away, except for the strongest ones. Elder Song didn't move, 'I know I should stop them but... finally, I can see it again!' He thought while his eyes were wide open not to lose any single moment of what was happening.
"FIRST PUNCH!"
Arslan hit Troy with all his strength. The explosion he caused blew away the disciples who didn't run fast enough. The high-pressured wind generated by the blast entered the Library and made dust go inside, dirtying the floor and sending books to fly for meters deeper into the Library itself. People inside came out to check what was happening outside as it was impossible not to hear such a powerful sound that made their ears and skin vibrate. Once outside, they found themselves in front of a wide fog of dust.
"Cough- What is this? What happened?" The unaware disciples asked as they stepped outside.
"Look! There are Jacob, Cindy, and John!" A disciple said. They were respectively placed 3rd, 4th, and 10th in the ranking.
"What are they looking at? What is there in that fog?" They kept wondering confused.
'This was amazing! It was even stronger than the last one!' Elder Song thought as he waited for the fog to be blown away by the wind to see the result of that huge blow.
The only three high-level disciples left to watch the fight didn't move a muscle exactly as Elder Song did,
"Was Arslan hiding this for all this time?" John wondered. The other two near him didn't say a word. Cindy was showing signs of worry, whereas Jacob gritted his teeth while his left foot was nervously hitting the ground.
Some seconds passed and the fog began dissipating,
"Well... that was quite a strong one."
'Was it Troy's voice?' Elder Song thought as he squinted to look better.
"Tsk." Arslan muttered.
Finally, Elder Song and the disciples left could clearly see what happened,
'Mhm... So, that's how it is...' Elder Song thought as his body showed some signs of nervousness.
Their positions didn't change. Troy blocked Arslan's attack with his fire-covered right hand and the left one was still strangling his opponent's throat.
"Hahahaha you really got stronger trash. But it is still far from enough to be my rival." Troy said as he looked Arslan straight in his eyes with an unsettling smile on his face.
After the fight with Walter, Arslan felt strong for once in his life and his confidence grew steadily from that moment... but he had to come back to the harsh reality.
"You just thought you could beat me right? Hahaha."
There was still a long way to go to become the strongest...