"My money's on Nigel." One of the nobles spoke to his comrades. "We all know that he is going to win so why even bet." Another spoke watching the match. "Don't think you were able to deal with late C rankers means you will be easy to take me on." Nigel spoke in an unhappy expression but Luke looked at him carefree. "It seems that you need to be shown that there are people above you." He spoke before making a strength chant. He then proceeded to advance Luke who slowly changed his stance and a clanck was heard. Luke and Nigel were standing against each other and to everyone's surprise, Luke's wooden sword wasn't sliced in half. "Anything else?" Luke ridiculed him. Nigel backed up and the mana around his greatsword started to thicken. The students were aware of what move he was preparing as that was what got him the title of Monarch sword. "Monarch slash." He calmly said before releasing a horizontal wave capable of cutting anything in it's path. Luke looked at the wave before it seemed to engulf him. "Well Luke is done for." The students speculated. "I'd be pissed if someone mocked me especially Luke of all people."
*Smack*
Everyone heard it and looking at the source, it seemed unbelievable. Luke had slapped Nigel with his wooden sword with it's side painting Nigel's cheek red. A short burst of pain flowed through Nigel's face before he realized that he had been slapped. He swung his sword with ease considering it's size but Luke would easily dodge it before painting his face red. The situation started to look hopeless for Nigel as not only his face, but his uniform was majorly covered in blood. It continued for fifteen minutes till Nigel grew weary and fell on the floor on one knee supporting the rest of his body with his greatsword. He looked at Luke who seemed perfectly fine above him donning a mocking smile. "So if it was a real fight, the blood on you would be yours not mine but you're lucky it's not." He patted Nigel on his head before saying ,"You're boring though." He held back his kick towards Nigel's face so as not to kill him in a single move throwing him out of the arena landing on a wall forming a huge crack on it before leaving the arena. "Impressive Luke but you will serve as the base line for this test. You are not allowed to hurt any student physically." 'What.' That rang through the students minds. That would mean he would face them all and seeing how he easily dealt with the best in class as if he was toying with him was definitely something they wanted to face.
****
"Aaargh." One of the last student yelled before he hit the wall behind him crashing in a loud thud. Vanessa was surprised that Luke could hold out for so long. During the trials, he would often to with his fellow students for the most part before immediately kicking them off. The person behind this little spar wasn't her but the principal who was observing the whole scene. The ones remaining were Ciara, Elaine and Connor.
"Let's wrap this up and have them come at me at the same time." Luke spoke in a bored manner using the wooden sword for support. He would brutally knock his fellow classmates regardless of gender or status but not enough to put them in any danger. Most of them had never been so humiliated compared to how they had fought with Luke. He would often correct them but in rude ways rudely downing their techniques as they were unable to handle him and yet he hadn't used any mana yet they were exhausted. Vanessa saw that Luke was getting a little confident but all he said was true. He had been able to knock out most of the students with sheer strength without using mana so to trim his ego ,"Elaine,Ciara and Connor. You're all up." They were insulted as they wanted to have a fair fight but judging from Luke's spars,they halfheartedly went on stage. Elaine and Ciara were on the brink of B rank while Connor was B rank already so taking an lower B rank shouldn't prove too much,right? "Your streak ends here Luke." Elaine spoke in a destabale manner before they all brandished their weapons. Elaine was rocking a longsword while Connor had a ebony black with blue traced sword as for Ciara she had a beautifully decorated halberd. Luke with a calm expression and his wooden sword calmly stood amongst the trio.
Elaine was the first to make her move towards Luke whereas Connor and Ciara refrained from participating as they wanted to study his moves and find any flaws in them. The wooden sword blocked her sword taking her by surprise as she had gone for an upward slash. "I doubt that sword is wooden." She said and Luke giving her a mocking gaze threw his sword at her stabbing the platform right infront of her. She was stupefied with why Luke would throw his weapon away at her. She once again charged at Luke with a resolute expression and since he didn't want to shatter the sword with his bare hands, he started dodging. Regald keenly observing the fight found it impressive how Luke was able to dodge Elaine's attacks as she was personally taught by the king. She was clearly above her peers but infront of Luke, her superiority faded turning into mediocrity. Panting with drops of sweat dropping from her head ,"How are you able to dodge my attacks?" Elaine asked looking at Luke who seemed like he hadn't spent the last fifteen minutes dodging attacks from her even using mana. "Your skills are too basic and predictable." He ridiculed as he headed towards his sword before removing it from the ground. Looking up,he saw Elaine backing up to Ciara discussing about something with Connor. He patiently waited for them to be done with Vanessa wondering why Luke didn't stop them similar to the teachers watching this match.
After a minute, they broke off with Elaine using a mana restoration potion recovering her earlier vigour. They spread apart nearing the edges with Connor in the middle. Noise suppression was the tactic they'd use. They would combine it with illusion magic. They would form small mana balls that would cover the arena then under Ciara's masking, they would advance towards while Elaine would create illusion with an artifact of hers. Connor would deal the blow and while Luke was fazed,they would aggressively push knocking him off the arena. Was it cheating that Luke read their minds and knew their strategy or was it a benefit? Either way he had something else cooking up. The trio started covering the arena with small mana balls making Vanessa curious of what they were up to. Luke looked at the mana balls which surrounded him but didn't faze him and closed his eyes. 'Did he close his eyes at a time like this?' Vanessa thought looking at Luke but she continued to watch. "Now!" Connor instructed and the balls made small explosions rendering the arena hard to see with the dust concocted up. The trio made their advancement Regald agreeing that it was a viable strategy whereas Vanessa started piecing it together. Right before Connor was about to make his move, Elaine interjected him blocking him. "What are you doing?" Connor asked but Elaine didn't respond and started fighting him. Ciara seeing that Elaine deviated from the plan stopped and went over to help Connor.
"Elaine what are you doing? This isn't part of the plan." Ciara tried to convince Elaine but she didn't respond rather proceeding with her attacks. The smoke started clearing up and when it was gone, a scene unprecedented by all took place. Elaine was fighting Connor. The trio continued with their fight till Elaine performed her most potent attack on Ciara. Ciara caught by surprise tried to block the attack in which Connor using his time accelerated skill caught her and managed to prevent her from falling of the arena. "We have to get her off the arena. It seems that Luke is messing with her." Connor said to Ciara and they looked all over but they couldn't sense him. It proved difficult with Elaine trying to knock them of so they were forced to deal with her by fighting back and with their combined strength, they were able to knock her off. Once off the arena, she looked back at one of the noble students who cushioned her fall before saying in puzzled expression ,"Wait, you're not Luke!?!" Seeing that Luke could use illusion magic, Connor and Ciara stood side by side with apprehensive stances.
*Bam*
A fist hit Ciara's delicate face sending her flying off the arena. Connor was startled as he didn't think that Luke was capable of hitting a girl considering that she was her formerly engaged in such a brutal manner. Connor quickly swung his sword towards Luke who was standing after punching Ciara but it turned out to be an illusion. Ciara who managed to stop herself from crashing thanks to Elaine looked at Luke with an angry expression and why wouldn't she? He snuckily punched her and right in her face. "I thought you would sense that Ciara." A voice spoke from above the arena and looking up,it was Luke who was in a lotus position overlooking everyone. 'This entire time he was right there.' Connor thought as he hadn't sensed Luke as well as the rest of the audience including Vanessa. He gracefully made his descent with a lazy expression ,"Time to put an end to this." Aiming his wooden sword at Connor.'This is bad. He can mask himself not to mention cast high grade illusions that I can see through but I should be able to take him down with that. Hey system, what rank is he?'
[{Opposition is early B rank.}]
Connor looking at the result of the appraisal of his system failed to believe this. There was no way he was B rank judging from his movements and casts,he has to be higher than that. 'Let's give it a shot.' He said taking a new stance and activated his skill.
He tried using his skills but they were cancelled as he felt the pain from the force. Suddenly Luke reversed the gravity making Connor float only to meet Luke's fist making him hover with his head lower than his feet before receiving a forceful kick to his stomach sending him flying off the arena crashing into a wall. He coughed out blood before falling unconscious. The students were mortified with how Connor was taken out realizing that they had it easier. Regald had a frown whereas Vanessa was even more curious about Luke's limits as it seemed he wasn't exhausted. "Hehe." Luke gave a small laugh before stepping of the arena ,"Weak." The other students were furious about this but he was able to overpower all of them continuously so they could only take it in. "You don't have to look down on us because you are more powerful." Ciara spoke with a small streak of blood coming from her nose. She was mad what Luke had done to her considering he snuck up on her. "I'll be looking forward to that day but until then,you will always be weak."