The match continued onward, the next battle was between William and the one who kept on insulting Cromer's kendo team. Still shaken by Alex and Setsuna's match the Hillman student couldn't perform as well as he was supposed to and the match ended in a draw.
The next match was also anti-climatic the captain of Hillman's Kendo team easily beat Noel, showcasing the superior skill of Hillman's team. Aside from Alex's overwhelming performance, William's battle was a fluke since his opponent wasn't in the best mental state. While Noel's loss was within prediction.
Since each team had one win they needed to fight one more battle for the tiebreaker. On Hillman's team, they decided to send out their captain Souske. Alex then nominated Oliver to be their representative wanting to see how good he really is.
Noel and William seeing Alex's confidence in Oliver as well as remembering his stellar performance, believed that Oliver might show something incredible.
Oliver got ready on one side while Souske was on the other. When Souske saw that Oliver had no chest plate he was suspicious. Seeing Oliver had a bigger frame than him who was called a gorilla was wary of Oliver, what doubled Souske's vigilance was that he was sent to fight the last match instead of Alex, which made Souske think that Oliver might be as strong or even stronger than Alex.
Ken who scanned Oliver's stance and bearing, instantly figured out Oliver was a total amateur. Still, he wondered if Oliver was just faking it so that everyone would let down their guard, he didn't even have a chest plate on.
Also, that muscular body of his, couldn't be made in just one day, he trained for that, but Ken was sure it was not muscles trained for Kendo, the calluses in his hands were wrong. If he was more inclined to use a sword the calluses would've formed in his palms, but on closer inspection, his calluses were in his knuckles. Ken quickly concluded that Oliver was an unarmed specialist.
Ken's analysis of Oliver was pretty accurate, even though Oliver hated pain, he was still someone who was hardworking and wanted to improve. So despite the pain, he felt the urge to become stronger so he still trained to become his ideal self.
Oliver was proficient in Karate as well as Taekwondo and even knows a bit of WingChun. Also even though he was never officially ranked he had a 1st kyu brown belt level of skill in Karate and a green belt level of skill in Taekwondo.
The reason why he never gained an official rank was because Oliver was scared of getting hit. The reason why he built up his muscles into what it was now, was because first of all he wanted to become his ideal self, but second and most important reason, Oliver was scared of getting hurt. He was sure if he had enough muscle mass, he might be able to not get hurt after getting hit. Even now Oliver has never found out if his muscles can protect him from getting hurt since he has never truly fought anyone properly before.
Most of the time he was able to scare his opponents or if they fought he was able to easily defeat them with a hit.
Now Oliver stood in front of the Captain of the third-strongest kendo team. Oliver was a little perturbed but after patrolling with Alex he found a little courage. This time he needed to face this now and become closer to the person he wanted to be.
Seeing Souske looking at him seriously and brimming with fighting spirit, Oliver gritted his teeth and lifted his right arm holding the shinai. Oliver had zero experience in using a shinai and had only seen some videos of people doing something Kendo-like. With all of these facts, Oliver decided to use his only advantage against Souske, his overwhelming physique. One slash downward with his strongest and fastest swing was Oliver's plan.
When Souske saw Oliver's stance he was now sure Oliver was a total amateur, holding his shinai with one arm and lifting it up high like that, would make his strike slower than if he used two hands and his sword's stance was lower. Souske relaxed his guard a bit since he felt a sudden sense of relief that Oliver wasn't a second Alex.
Ken, on the other hand, felt a bit disappointed. he had thought there was something special about Oliver, but it turns out he was just a stupid amateur.
The match started Souske had moved one step, it was just one step and the match was over. A horrible sound resounded throughout the whole gymnasium it was like the sound of thunder echoed in the gymnasium.
Everyone's eyes looked like they were going to fly out of their eye sockets. The expected easy victory for Souske didn't happen. What actually happened was Oliver's shinai had broken in half after hitting Souske's head. There was even a little dent in Souske's helmet.
Souske had fainted from the shock of the strike. The members of Hillman's kendo team rushed toward their captain's side and removed his helmet. They checked if he was still breathing and he was indeed still breathing, he just fainted. The members looked at Oliver as if they were looking at a monster.
It turns out all of Oliver's effort to become his ideal self was not useless, at this moment it was proven that all of his hard work had meaning. Oliver noticed the gazes of the Hillman Kendo team were directed at him, so he tried apologizing.
"Sorry, I should've tried to hold back."
Oliver bowed, but everyone who saw this scene didn't think he was apologizing. They thought that Oliver was honoring Souske by telling them he couldn't hold back since Souske was that good. The kendo team nodded their head acknowledging his statement.
The experts watching the match had different opinions.
Alex who saw the entire thing was pleasantly surprised. Oliver didn't use any technique, he simply used his great physique to win the bout. It was as if he was telling the opponent that he needed only to use his brute strength to win.
Ken, on the other hand, thought that Oliver only used his arm strength and didn't utilize the unity of his body, soul, and mind, or even just the unity of his body which was the hands the torso, and his footing.
No Oliver didn't bother using anything else aside from his arm strength, and the result was that devastating strike. If he had used a proper stance and technique the power of the strike would've easily doubled. Ken knew Oliver was an amateur, but now he categorized him as someone with potential.
Ken just thinking about that shivered in delight. Two talented youngsters were hiding in this tiny school. The other one was already taken by Ryu, but he might have a chance to ask Oliver to be his disciple.
Gunther who was watching on the second floor was also amazed by what happened. Unlike Alex who used technique, and timing Oliver only relied on his superior physique.
'So those are the guys the freshmen messed with. I can smell the strong scent of the battlefield. Heh, this should be a very interesting hunt.'
"Let's go back, Jerome."