"Uhhhg" Jacob grunted as he was thrown to the ground again.
He spent a second on the ground catching his breath before grabbing the hand that had been extended to help him up.
The hand belonged to Arthur, and they were currently training along with Victoria in a vacant practice room during free time.
Normally more members of their group would have been with them. Shin would almost always join in due to them being roommates but on this occasion, he was studying with Stephanie and Ressana.
The smart young girl had insisted that they needed to study after seeing their grades on the latest exam. Shin had agreed quickly since he wasn't particularly averse to studying anyway. In fact, he was reasonably intelligent. He just found it hard to study since he was still learning to read and write in English.
Ressana on the other hand was practically dragged kicking and screaming to the library. Stephanie was the only person in their group who could force the wildling to do something against her will.
Fredrick on the other hand was not on campus as he still lived with his parents and attended the University by commuting. Not to mention the fact that the boy rarely participated in their duals anyway.
With that, it was only Victoria, Arthur, and Jacob. They decided to do a 'winner stays on' system.
So far Jacob had yet to win a single round.
Initially, after he had gained the adaptation style, he was able to hold his own to some degree against the more combat-inclined of his friends. He had even managed to beat Shin once with a well-timed feint.
However, as the others had gotten used to fighting with their abilities, he had stagnated.
It wasn't surprising considering his only actual combat ability had come from analysing and compounding the skills of other people.
To be fair to the system, it was mostly his blatant lack of talent that kept his skills from increasing.
He watched Victoria and Arthur fight again, wondering how exactly he could win against either of them in a direct confrontation.
To make things at least partially fair Arthur was only using his Jin clan ability against them which meant that Victoria had a chance.
Despite that, even Jacob could tell that the young man had an outstanding talent for combat.
The way he moved and adapted to his opponent while capitalising on his strengths and position was mesmerising to watch.
It was more impressive considering Arthur had revealed that before his nightmare trial, he had never held a sword before.
He had also later told Jacob that his Jin ability, the only one Jacob couldn't figure out properly in their first duel, was an all-rounder.
It changed according to his will.
How busted was that?
If he needed strength, he got strength.
If he needed speed, he got speed.
That plus his instant movement ability and his healing buffing combo ability made him a downright menace to fight against.
Of course, Jacob did manage to figure out a weakness of his.
It was only due to their first fight. When the young man had used all his abilities.
His mana expenditure was huge.
It was a well-known fact that dual affinity dreamers had two mana pools. One for each realm and associated ability/s.
From what Jacob could tell the only ability Arthur could use consistently was the Jin clan strengthening. The lighting movement had maybe a couple of charges while the healing ability seemed to be a one-off.
From that he gathered that if he wanted to beat Arthur he would have to bait out the healing ability without showing his trump card since whatever he did, Aruthr would be able to recover from it at least once.
It would also be best to get him to use the lightning dash ability as many times as he could as well.
Victoria on the other hand was different, her ability was about stamina, endurance, and defence. But she lacked powerful offence.
Not that this mattered much, Jacob himself possessed none of these capabilities. The only real advantage he had was being able to increase his reaction speed temporarily during a fight. Helpful, especially considering his lack of talent. But not enough to be a game-changer against them.
Ideally, he would have done whatever he could to get a basic relic like the one Arthur had.
At least then he might be able to get an advantage with reach.
But since his realm was an unknown one there were no relics to be traded.
He sighed as he said.
"Hey, it's getting a bit late so I'm gonna head out" He told them while they were having a short break.
"You sure? I reckon I could go for a couple more rounds!" Arthur replied with his signature innocent smile.
"Well, you two have fun, I'm gonna call it a night" Jacob said slightly despondently.
He didn't mind the difference in skills and talent that much, but it still wasn't great to have it pointed out.
Especially since the guy doing it was so naive that Jacob knew he didn't mean anything by it.
As he left, he heard Arthur yelp a little. Seems like Victoria had taken the opportunity for a surprise attack.
He left the practice room and walked through the campus grounds.
'It's gotten late huh' he thought to himself as he looked at the darkened sky.
As he was walking by the library, he spotted a familiar face.
It was the same guy he had seen ages ago, his first week at UDRD if he recalled correctly.
The one with the hoodie.
He had called out to him back then and from what he could tell he had startled the crap out of the guy.
Seemed like he was headed back to the library again.
Jacob debated talking to him but eventually decided against it, he wasn't in the mood to deal with anything annoying like meeting new people.
Speaking of annoying things.
"Well if it isn't the one punch wonder" a mocking voice came from Jacob's right.
Jacob briefly hung his head in exasperation, sighing at his bad luck.
"Hey Victor the pricktor, what brings you to the library? Finally decided to learn how to read?" Jacob quipped back as he turned his head.
He had liked that insult ever since Stephanie had said something similar to him on their first meeting. He was glad he got the chance to use it. Less glad about what he saw when he looked up.
"Wow, brought a lot of tutors with you huh? Although I gotta say from the looks of them I'd reckon they also need some lessons in basic literacy." He still managed despite his now dry throat.
Vincent was backed by 3 boys, well men.
They were all taller than Jacob, not much of an accomplishment given his average height but still daunting to look at.
"There's a lot of shit coming out of your mouth. Maybe we should bring some balance back, how do you feel about eating some?" Victor's speech started out casual and degraded into a growl as he moved towards Jacob.
His lackeys moved to cut off Jacob's exits as they surrounded him.
Or they would have if Jacob hadn't turned and begun sprinting the moment Victor had taken a step forward.
"Hahahah, you fucking idiot. Did you already forget who I a-" Victor began his sentence walking towards Jacob before teleporting as he completed his taunt.
Only to be greeted with Jacob's fist inches from his nose.
Exactly as Jacob had planned.
Jacob had known for a while that Victor wasn't the type to leave things be, even if he didn't seek him out he would definitely take the chance to beat the crap out of him if he got it.
So, he had long made a general plan of action.
His bully was a tough opponent. He was a rank 0.5 dreamer. Meaning he had completed one quest for one of his mana affinities.
Not only that but he had short-distance teleportation.
Needless to say, it was pretty overpowered in a lower-level fight.
But Jacob had done his research.
He knew that the teleportation ability only really had two problems.
The first was that the person who teleported would be slightly disorientated. Only because their perception and viewpoint would have suddenly changed.
Meaning with practice they could get over it easily.
But it did mean that the cover of darkness and Jacob's hurried movements could cover an overhead punch thrown directly to where he guessed Victor would appear.
The other weakness was that the location of teleportation needed to be in clear view of the ability user.
"Mother fucker" Victor shouted as Jacob pushed off his body, unbalancing the already stunned bully while giving himself a small boost.
This startled his underlings slightly, buying Jacob valuable seconds.
Victor Shook his head as tears welled in his eyes, a common effect of being hit in the nose.
That was Jacob's aim, he needed to block Vincent's sight to effectively disable his teleportation, at least for a bit.
Jacob knew he had maybe 10 seconds, probably less, to get away.
Not to mention he had no idea what Victor's followers could do.
"GET HIM YOU FUCKS!" Victor shouted at them.
Jacob had just rounded a corner of a building as he heard them running after him.
Fast.
Faster than he was for sure.
At least one had Jin affinity.
Jacob kept sprinting away. As he did so he heard a whistling sound from behind him, no... Approaching him.
Fast.
Too fast.
The next thing he knew his back was sending notice of a piercing pain emanating from it.
He wasn't sure what he had been hit with, but it hurt like hell.
It wasn't the worst pain he had felt, he could keep running.
He had realised in training that he could deal with pain a little better than others could.
Maybe it was a side effect of the affinity adoption Stephanie mentioned. Maybe his mind was more inclined towards logic because of his ability which let him ignore factors to pursue logical courses of action.
Maybe he had just taken too many beatings recently and was getting used to pain.
Either way, he was grateful at that moment. If it was the version of him that entered the nightmare trial, he definitely would have fallen the moment he was hit.
He concentrated and asked analysis what it was, hoping for an answer.
[Lacking visual data. High probability of small sub-zero projectile shot at high velocity into right back region]
Although Analysis couldn't be exactly sure he was willing to bet on the high probability and say that one of the dreamers was an ice user.
He used some mana and had his overclock increase to 2x since it had been on 1.5x since he had started the fight.
He then spent more mana to have analysis predict the trajectory of the projectiles and moved to avoid the next two.
Both were off slightly from the predicted path, leading one to graze the side of his head.
He held his new wound with one hand as he ran.
It couldn't be helped. Analysis could only use sound as input data so there was bound to be a rate of error, at least he hadn't taken another direct hit.
Jacob saw the next corner he could round and created a plan.
The corner was that of an on-campus café.
The most important thing to Jacob was the glass sliding doors that occupied both sides next to the brick corner of the building.
Jacob quickly formulated a plan.
His thoughts went back to Arthur and Victoria, he had already thought he might stand a chance if he had a weapon.
But he didn't have a relic to summon on command.
But so what?
He didn't need a relic anyway.
Just a weapon to even the odds.
At that moment, Jacob stumbled slightly leaning a little against the glass door.
He used the hand that had been holding his head to steady himself.
His handprint marked the door distinctly, making him realise that the bleeding may have been worse than he thought.
At that moment he jerked away from the door, a smart choice considering the ice pellet that smashed through it the next moment.
With that in mind he kept running, rounding the corner quickly to get away from the relentless ice pellet fire.
As he came by the corner he stopped and took a breath, beginning step two of his plan.
It unfolded as the first of his pursuers rounded the corner.
But what awaited him wasn't an exhausted boy shaking in fear.
It was a glass shard aimed directly at his dick.
Jacob had been crouched right next to the corner, waiting for his first victim.
He had baited the ice projectile to break through the glass and pierce into the second window around the corner.
That way he could grab a glass shard from the window around the corner.
The shiv pierced excellently, prompting a full second of silence as the man regained his balance by propping himself up on Jacob's shoulders.
Then he screamed.
In pain.
A lot.
Jacob didn't blame him.
Jacob quickly backed off, glass shard included and got a good look at the large amount of blood flowing from the man's groin.
"I'd get to the nurse if I were you. Or make your peace with being an eunuch" Jacob said casually to the devastated young man.
The despairing man looked back and forth between Jacob and his genitals, or lack thereof.
His teeth were pressed together so forcefully, and his eyes were practically building out of his head in rage but after a second he seemed to get his priorities in order and ran off to the nurse's office, hoping they would still be in.
Jacob looked at his hand that held the glass shard as tightly as he could, its edge slicing into his fingers painfully.
"One down, three to go" Jacob said resolutely.