Charlotte did a few stretches, trying to assess how healthy he felt. He was fine despite some mild uncomfortableness and the fact that if he bent over, he felt like hurling his guts out. The teacher seemed to give him at least the courtesy of letting him stretch before signaling them to fight.
As soon as it was called, Charlotte charged at them, guarding his hands with the gauntlets and locking his hands together. The maneuver was similar to what he used against Juba to knock him out of the wind barrier. The student raised his shield and held his sword back; he was most likely planning to stop him with the shield and stab him with the sword.
Charlotte slowed down just before he ran into the guy, slamming his hands into the shield. He kept his hands together, deciding to use them almost like a mace. The student pushed back as Charlotte once more struck the shield and pushed him back even more. He kept up the aggression, and the student seemed happy to let him. He hadn't seemed to catch on to Charlotte's plan yet, which was good. He just had to hope his body held out; he already felt winded, which wasn't normal.
After getting pushed back significantly, the student seemed to pick up that something was wrong. He tried to dodge to the right and escape his onslaught, only for Charlotte to slam his shoulder into his shield and follow it up by slamming his hands into it. The student was pushed back to the stage's corner, nearly falling off.
"...cheap bastard.."
The student said through gritted teeth. Charlotte kept a grin on his face. He was trying to act tough but was breathing heavily and sweating quite a bit, or at least that's how he felt. The damage might have been worse than he thought...if he kept having to fight people, he wouldn't last. So he had to scare the others so they wouldn't want to challenge him or at least consider someone else.
"How about I make it up to you?"
Charlotte regretted the idea, but he ripped the shirt and revealed the chest plate. He focused on the student, not wanting him to escape, as he removed the chest plate and tossed it off the stage.
"You get one free attack...but if you try and run, I'll bleed you dry like I did Haze."
The student glared at him with discontent, and Charlotte spread his arms wide, leaving himself open to attack. He was prepared to take the attack and counter at the same time.
There was a sense of stillness permeating the area, the students waiting with bated breath while the teachers were prepared to interfere if it looked like one of them was going to die.
Charlotte was surprised he didn't immediately strike; the student seemed nervous or scared to attack. Was he that easily scared?
Unbeknownst to Charlotte, when Haze had attacked him on the head. Blood vessels in both eyes had burst, causing the sclera to turn red. He had blood come out from both his ears and eyes, and during the fight, the blood had dried at this point. But it had given him a demonic look, and his grinning made it seem like he was enjoying the whole thing.
This all served to scare his current opponent and make them hesitate to attack him on the off chance that attacking him would result in their loss. Of course, there was another reason, which was that his ability remained somewhat hidden.
"Well? I don't have all day, or would you rather I beat you right now?"
Charlotte rested his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes, turning his head; at that moment, the student decided to move. At the same time, Charlotte felt almost like something was pressing down on him, making moving away impossible. His attack seemed to be aimed in between the spaces of his ribs as he thrusts his blade into him.
His blade pierced his skin and sunk into him slightly before coming to a stop. Charlotte grits his teeth as his right-hand moves down to grab the blade. His left hand struck the shield again, pushing him off the stage. Their hand had let go of the blade as he hit the ground.
Charlotte glared down at him, and all the while, the student avoided his gaze. The two were teleported back to where they had previously sat.
"Good job, Charlotte, taking advantage of a ring out to win. Ringouts are so rare that some students seem to forget them."
He looked up at the student who challenged him, who silently looked at the ground in shame.
"Let this remind the rest of you not to fall for the same trick: I find ring-outs rather boring."
Charlotte had stopped paying attention, mainly because his clothes had been fixed, and he was wearing his chestplate underneath again. It seemed moving up a ranks had granted him some emergency wardrobe privileges; he couldn't help but smile as he tried to relax.
"Fang, who would you like to fight?"
Fang stood up and pointed to one of the students next to Iza. Charlotte had noticed something; when Fang stood up, the students beside him seemed to shift slightly away. Was Fang really that scary?
"This should be interesting; I expect many fun things from you and Arc."
The two were teleported onto the stage, but Fang didn't seem to have a weapon as he took his usual stance. Arc, however, had a pike. He seemed nervous as he took his stance. He appeared ready to run as the teacher took a few seconds before gesturing for them to start.
Fang didn't move, waiting patiently. His gaze occasionally wandered towards the students sitting down. Charlotte felt he was looking at him as he tilted his head and tried to wave subtly. Fang smiled; he wasn't paying attention. The stage underneath him seemed to shake, and the stone spikes shot out.
Fang jumped and let the spikes smack against each other, landing on one of them. The spikes had lost their sharp edge, making it into each other, and now made decent footholds. Fang turned back to Arc and gestured for him to continue.
Charlotte was excited to see what Fang could do when taking things seriously, he might even get to see his power.