Damien looked at his opponent for the spar.
A small and thin guy with black hair and a bowl cut. His hair even extended to cover his eyes.
It was one of Ronnie's cronies.
Damien's brow furrowed.
When did the guy join their group?
Well, whatever it was, Damien didn't care. He knew he was definitely stronger than whoever that guy was and the only thing that was his concern now was the extent of the powers he was going to reveal.
If he used the mind needle once again, it wouldn't take long for people to catch on to it and come to the ranking battles wearing mind defense artifacts!
Even if by that time he was already at the Advanced level of the Enlightenment realm and the power of his mind needle had doubled, it would still be a waste of mana to use mental attacks on those prepared for it.
That was unless he had a wider range of psychic techniques to add to his arsenal and the way to get more of it was by having more CP.
And now, the CP was coming to him for just a little effort.
If he managed his stamina well and won all his fights, he would be walking out of here with more than 300 CP!
Coupled with the 50 CP bonus plus other factors, he could as well make close to 500 CP!
His CP problems would be solved temporarily and he would go all out to buy many techniques to add to his arsenal which was woefully inadequate.
Rich kids like Vance and Silas and Ronnie probably even came to the Imperial Institute already having about three to five techniques due to their families.
If Damien wanted to surpass to them, he had to take advantage of every opportunity to increase his strength and CP.
This Ronnie crony would be the first of many people he would defeat to get his CP!
"Start!" commanded the Instructor.
"Check this out Vancey… isn't that the Damien guy? The one who's trending in that 'oops my bad' video?
He's having a spar with one of Ronnie's dumbass followers," Silas nudged the dark haired, dark dressed and silent boy in front of him.
Vance Amorth, one of the faction leaders of the middle sector.
One would wonder why Silas and Vance were actually able to interact carefreely like that despite forming different factions from the same sector.
Well, their families were close friends for starters and besides, Vance was one of the few people Silas respected, after all he was strong and most of his taunts didn't work on him.
"Mm," Vance hummed in reply.
People who didn't know him would assume that he wasn't interested but on the contrary, he was focused on Damien's spar to see what Damien would do!
He had heard that Damien was one of the best geniuses among the current batch of students with four powers, an insane mark of 19 and he was even someone a person like Ronnie Quentin was after, hoping to recruit.
Surprisingly, Damien had rejected Ronnie!
This showed that he was very bold and daring.
Someone like Damien was someone to look out for during the ranking battles. He had the potential and capacity to cause a huge upset or even win the first spot!
He had to observe him and the techniques he used.
He wasn't the only one paying attention to Damien's duel.
Eliza, Diego Del Rio, Vishnu and Annie Golding were all focused on Damien's spar with interest.
Would he use that weird power of his?
How much of his strength would he reveal?
In a few seconds, they had their answer.
"EYAAAGH!" the bowl hairstyle opponent of Damien's rushed forward with fancy footwork to meet Damien!
Damien stood quietly, not making any move until his opponent was but a meter away!
He side-stepped the outstretched hands of his opponent which had been shaped into a claw and delivered a solid kick to the gut of his opponent!
"Oompf!" the poor guy crashed into the mat, curled in a fetal position, holding his tummy in pain.
The instructor went to check up on the guy and then declared Damien the winner of the spar.
The instructor then turned to Damien.
"Solid technique execution there, kid. Your opponent's attack would have gotten you if you had attacked a millisecond later though.
I suggest you visit the reflexes class to enhance your reflexes so you can better react to attacks.
Keep working hard," said the Instructor.
"Thanks instructor, I'll keep that in mind," Damien nodded.
The instructor then took Damien's opponent out of the ring.
Damien leisurely walked out of the ring and returned to his previous spot.
"That was so cool, Damien! Please do take it easy on me when we spar!" said Austin.
Damien nodded with a small smile.
His opponent had been quite idiotic.
He saved him the trouble of revealing too much of his strength!
"What an idiot!" Silas face palmed.
Damien's opponent was so stupid that he rushed up to Damien without thinking. His attack had barely forced Damien to reveal any of his power.
"As expected of a follower of Ronnie. His stupidity exceeds everything! When God was raining wisdom, this idiot probably came along with an umbrella!" Silas berated the bowl cut guy angrily.
"It's not all loss though. At least we know Damien has a solid body technique. Fighting him from close range won't be that easy," Vance observed.
"Shit. Doesn't it mean that he has both long range and close range offensive capabilities?" Silas cursed.
"Mm… something like that. Too bad none of those in his group possesses sufficient power to push him to reveal more. It would be nice to know the range of that strange attack of his," Vance murmured, still keeping his eyes on Damien.
"This guy is strong, Diego, and careful too. He's also hiding his strength," Eliza remarked with a light frown, looking at Damien's back.
"It's not a big problem, Mi Reina. In due time, everything which is hidden will come to light," Diego said, waving his hand grandly.
"But he would be a challenge for you during the ranking battles!" Eliza complained.
"Don't worry about it, Eliza. I am also strong. A little competition will liven things up," replied Diego, patting Eliza's head.
His family and Eliza's were very close and he had known her since they were kids.
She only had eyes for him and now they were dating, with the approval of their families, of course. They couldn't try any funny business though till they got of age or else Eliza's old man would beat the daylights out of Diego!
Meanwhile, at another part of the hall, Rico and Victor had also observed Damien's spar.
"This Damien is going to be a thorn in our flesh," Rico said, gnashing his teeth.
He had pushed Nonny, the guy with the bowl cut to join Damien's group and test his close range capabilities.
Nonny had failed woefully and the only thing he was able to get Damien to show was a kick.
His face turned ugly in anger.
If not for Silas, he would have been able to add Tobias and the other two who had taken him out in Damien's group so they could also test him and see what he was capable of.
Thanks to the foul mouth of Silas, that plan had gone to moot and now the only person he was able to get in was defeated with a single move!
"It's not like this would be the last spar we have here, Rico. There'll be plenty of chances to force him to reveal his strength. Just be patient," said Victor.
Rico nodded and turned around.
Apart from Nonny, none of the people in Damien's group posed a challenge to Damien. He would probably just bully them with his body.
There was nothing to see anymore…
For now.
Damien was elated.
He had faced fifteen opponents and defeated all of them in less than three moves, earning a grand sum of 300 CP!
If he added the 50 CP bonus to it, he was having 350 CP!
Now the total CP he had when he added the 55 CP he already had was now 405 CP!
Just from using the strength of his body alone!
And he wasn't even close to his limit!
Austin too did well. He won more spars than he lost but unfortunately he had run out of mana so he had to sit aside to recover his mana.
Damien though, was still feeling dandy and raring to go!
"You're a beast!" Austin complained when Damien defeated his seventeenth opponent with a quick chop to the neck.
Damien was on a roll!
His CP kept on increasing as Damien sparred and resparred with every person in his group, even defeating some over and over again!
Of course, his acts hadn't gone unnoticed. After all, he was one of the few undefeated people in the hall and he defeated all his opponents with no more than three moves!
"That's the spirit kid! What's your name?" asked Head Instructor Riley, approaching Damien.
"Damien, sir," he replied respectfully.
Instructor Riley nodded and looked at him carefully.
"I'm impressed by your performance. I'm giving you 200 CP as a reward! Don't get complacent though. Focus on your training and don't relent!" Instructor Riley finally said!
Everyone gasped.
By being undefeated, you received 200 CP just like that?
"Same goes for all those of you who are still undefeated. 200 CP for you!" Head Instructor Riley looked around.
Diego, Vishnu and a few others cracked wide grins!
They just received 200 CP!
"Keep working hard, everyone! You can do better than this! I want to see improvement during our subsequent meetings.
Many of you fight like trash. Work on your techniques!
That's the end of this class.
You're all dismissed!" said head instructor Riley.
He and the instructors he came along with left the humongous hall.
The students broke into excited chattering as they also exited, talking with their friends and discussing their spars.
Damien though, checked his school bracelet with a wide grin.
He now had 715 CP!