Three men were sprawling on the ground and plenty of others were watching. Not only men were watching; there were also some women and what's in-between, but it went well with the sentence.
"Woohoo!"
Someone cheered. I only noticed them now, after the adrenalin from the fight faded, noticing there were plenty of phones out, capturing the glorious moment. Those people wouldn't find such quality fights in professional battles. Yeah, I might be biased.
"Beat them!"
"Let them have some more!"
I looked at the three, feeling this crowd was a bit too ruthless. Steven was still struggling to breathe, although he had gone a long way since my first punch and already made it to his knees. Jack, however, was knocked out cold, while Toby writhed on the ground and held his shin in his hands. It might be broken, but that's on him for being so persistent.
'Ouch,' I thought and rubbed my shoulder. Taking a roundhouse kick from that big guy hurt, even with the Qi strengthening my body far beyond my usual limits. Luckily, it was that kind of pain you expected to pass within an hour or two.
"You won against them in under a minute!" Leo rushed to my side excitedly, "Are you alright? You took some heavy hits there, you are bleeding!"
My upper lip had a shallow cut from that first hook from Jack. He had a good left for such a scrawny guy.
"It's nothing, it will pass in a few days," I grinned victoriously. A few security guards were weaving their way through the crowd, and I could see the students scattering to their classes. Luckily, I was not some Superman, so my performance might not get to the point of raising the wrong people's interest.
"Let's go, we don't want trouble with the school's security," I whispered to Leo and the two of us made ourselves scarce. I knew the other three wouldn't want to flare the incident up, especially since the fight was recorded by too many people, so they wouldn't try to complain once they were released from the hospital.
"Hey, hero. What was that?"
A cute feminine voice called out to me and made me turn my head. Huh, there she was, the woman I wanted to see all day. She stood there in a floral summer dress that might look too light for the early spring to people who did not know about her resistance to cold.
It was fine, most girls these days wore clothes too short for the season. They loved showing their skin, and we loved seeing it.
"Nyssa, here you are! I meant to text you when those guys picked a fight with us," I took her into my arms in a hug, enjoying her always warm body.
"Right in front of everyone?" She whispered shyly and tried to separate. I say she tried, but if she truly wanted to separate, we'd be apart now, so…
"Of course, I need to let those horndogs know that the number one rose is taken," I announced loud enough for bystanders to hear.
"You are too greedy, you date the number one rose and live with the number two rose," She chuckled, this time sinking into my hug.
The conversation about the roses reminded me of Leo, and there he was, standing by the side with his mouth opening and closing like a fish. The public affection exchange took him by surprise.
"Hm? Is this someone you know?" Nyssa questioned as she noticed my gaze. Leo tried to clear his throat to answer, but he couldn't. It was quite embarrassing, enough even to make a loyal friend like me want to deny any connection to him.
"Ah, this is Leo, we are…" my eyes met his in my hesitation, and the begging reflecting from them made me sigh and tell the truth, "We are best friends, he is my friend here on campus."
"Oh, won't you introduce me then?" My cute princess couldn't take a hint, or maybe she just enjoyed toying with the poor guy. It would be more merciful to give him some time to recover from the shock, he'd eventually act normally.
"Leo, this is Nyssa, my girlfriend. Nyssa, this is Leo, my friend," I formally introduced them despite both knowing that much by now. Nyssa was now standing by my side, her arm wrapped around mine at elbow height.
"Hi…" Leo made a brave attempt to produce a couple of words. Can't say it was a great success, but it was a start.
"Hi Leo, nice to meet you. I hope you don't mind if I steal Nick from you for a while," Nyssa gave him a bright smile that dazed him too much to give a better response than an affirmative nod.
"He looks like a nice guy, although he might not find a girlfriend any time soon with that attitude," Nyssa said as we turned away. "He looks like someone who'd lick any rose's foot for attention."
"At least wait until we get further, he still hears you," I mentioned dryly. Hopefully, hearing it from a rose would make him change for the better, but a look back told me that he didn't even take it as a bad thing.
"Mhm. Anyway, are you okay? I know you should be, but I see you got some bruises," she touched a bruise on my cheek worriedly, her white hair scattering to the side as she turned her head. Ah, I wanted to grab it.
"I'm fine, don't worry, that much is nothing to me," I bragged without thinking twice. Like hell I'd complain about the pain after my great victory.
"Ouch!" My pride didn't last long.
"What are you acting so tough for?" She berated me as she squeezed my hurt shoulder in her hand, "I watched the fight, you know."
"Fine, fine, my Nyssa is the cutest in the world, and you are worried for me. It stings a little, but it's not that bad, it'd pass in an hour or two," I complained about her rough treatment, but she conjured some ice underneath my clothes to numb the pain, which was a nice gesture, but my mind was busy with whether I'd have to walk around with a wet sleeve the whole day.
"Hmph, don't try to hide things from me next time."
"Wait, speaking of hiding things, what were you doing in the Business building? You had never been seen that close with Merry before, or else the school would've known the two top roses were friends!"
"She wanted to talk to me about last night, she was a bit angry that we stayed until late together and wanted all the details about it. You don't have to worry about it, I just mentioned that we are a thing now, but I said nothing about cultivation."
It felt like something was amiss, but there was nothing I could say without doubting her words. Since she didn't feel safe to share whatever it was, I'd just wait. We were together for less than 24 hours, there's no reason to be impatient or demand answers for every single problem like an insecure maniac.
"Alright, enough of that. I'm glad you are not injured, but it's time to talk about your cultivation. You were lucky that the battle barely took ten seconds, otherwise, you'd be in trouble if you ran out of Qi and had to face them with your… fighting skills…" she groaned those last words as though she insulted the term.
"Hey, my fighting skills are great, I won the fight-"
"Brawl. It was a brawl. They barely had basic self-defense skills and you still took so many hits directly, that's just brawling."
"Fine, but I still won the brawl. Anyway, I wouldn't be in trouble," I ended my words with a triumphant tone.
"Why not?"
"You were watching. If I lost, wouldn't you intervene to save your handsome boyfriend from having his pretty face ruined?" Shamelessness at its finest, but I knew I was right.
"No, I wouldn't. Being saved by your girlfriend from some average dudes is much more embarrassing than being beaten by those dudes."
That harrumph was too insincere, and I landed a kiss on her cheek in response. She seemed happy with it, but she didn't forget her original goal.
"My point is, that you need to learn how to recognize Qi when it's spread in the air around you, it's slightly more difficult compared to sensing a Spirit Stone like the one I gave you."
It seemed like she didn't tell me the method yesterday on purpose. My diligence was not for nothing though, it was important progress.
"Why didn't you teach it to me yesterday?" I asked as she intertwined her fingers with mine. She did it so swiftly and gently like she hoped I wouldn't notice.
"Because you went through a lot yesterday, you needed rest. Overworking yourself is always counterproductive."
It worked just fine for me, but okay.
"Hmm, makes sense. By the way, I tried meditating for half an hour like you taught me, I can sense and absorb Qi from the air now."