Echo and Gertrude clashed in the middle of the arena with a shocking force which shocked everyone except for those who knew him before they came to the institute and that was Kaiden and Greg. The shock was from the strength Echo displayed by standing his ground even though he clashed with someone 3 years older him. Three years meant nothing but considering they were both from one of the 5 great families, it was obvious she had trained more than Echo, but he changed their mindset of him, even his opponent. Earlier, she thought they were insulting her, and that Echo was weak but here she was, being pushed 3 meters back from a "weak" opponent.
Echo just had his usual cute smile on his face as he beckoned her to come at him. Gertrude, feeling insulted and mocked, dashed towards Echo with shocking speed. Even without an element she was very fast, but she forgot or more like she didn't know Echo could compete with speed with Greg and Kaiden without losing out much and it was known among the younger generation of the 5 great families that Kaiden and Greg were the fastest without elements. Gertrude was that fast because of the special techniques she was trained in her family. She was sure in for some surprise.
Echo still had his innocent smile on, but his fierce eyes told otherwise. One thing Echo despised was when someone underestimated him, and Gertrude did just that and she was going to pay dearly. As Gertrude closed in on him, she jumped and attacked with a chop which was too fast for most of the cadets but not Echo. Echo saw the attack and moved slightly to the side, dodging it with ease and countering with a hard punch to her ribs.
CRACK!
Gertrude flew a great distance from that attack while screaming in pain. Her ribs had been broken and everyone could tell by how loud she was screaming in pain. The cold and confident lady had been turned into a screaming lady in agony with tears, blood and snot covering her face and the one who caused it was just smiling innocently while moving towards Gertrude.
"Senior sister? Are you okay? Why are you crying?" Echo asked with confused expression at the crying girl causing chills to run down her spine. Even the cadets felt chills when they saw this. It was that moment that Dilian opened his eyes. Kaiden and Greg seeing this instantly stood up with worried expressions.
"Let me help you up." Echo said as he made to "help" Gertrude up, but she pushed his hand away. She then stood up with a pained expression while eying Echo like he was her arch nemesis.
"You can get up? Good!" Echo exclaimed with a happy expression as he started bouncing on his feet. Before Gertrude could react, Echo was in front of her with an innocent smile plastered on his face and a knee in her abdomen. It took some time for her to process the pain and within that time, Echo had added some more beatings causing her to scream once again in pain when she felt it. It hit her like a boulder, paining her to her core that she wanted to collapse and forget everything, but it seemed that Echo wasn't willing to let her go scot-free. He walked slowly towards her with same smile on his face.
Now the thoughts of everyone were, 'This kid is a sadist. A psycho!'
They were not wrong but not right either. As they were pondering the situation, Echo made his move. He flashed from his place and reached Gertrude in an instant. She was struggling to get up and Echo wasn't willing to let her rise up. He raised his leg and made to stomp on her head but something unexpected happened.
Instead of the stomp connecting with a head, it was rather in a hand belonging to a winter-grey haired boy, Kaiden. Kaiden had climbed the stage without anyone noticing. Greg was right behind him.
"Captain Lola! Please Gertrude can't continue anymore. Can we end it?" Kaiden said to Captain Lola who was sitting on a hovering platform in above the stage with a worried face. She wanted to stop the duel, but the conditions weren't met yet.
"But..."
"Please Captain. My brother also can't continue anymore. Please?" Kaiden insisted.
"Brother? Why?" Echo asked with tears in his eyes. "I was having fun... sob, sob."
"Too much fun isn't good. I will play with you later, okay?" Kaiden said as he patted Echo's head.
"Okay!" Echo exclaimed gleefully.
"Sigh! You are a lot. Greg please can you take care of him?"
"No problem. Come on Echo."
"Okay!" Greg then left hand-in-hand with Echo. Medics quickly came to Gertrude's aid. She was still conscious, and she was still in so much pain that they had to give her painkillers and zolpidem to make her lose consciousness before they carried her off the stage.
...
Kaiden stood face to face with a silver-haired boy with dark grey eyes called Wilbur Davidson. He was also from one of the 5 great families, the Davidsons. The 5 great families were the Arkoniuses, Oaks, Kanekos, Davidsons and the Hermeses respectively.
Kaiden and Wilbur greeted each other formally and positioned themselves, entering battle mode. Wilbur assumed a beast-like stance, a trait of the kind of martial arts they practiced. Kaiden also assumed a boxing style while hopping on his feet, just like how Echo was doing earlier. The moment the command was given was given, both vanished from their positions and clashed in the center with a fierce and strong force that they were bounced back about a meter or two. Before the others could figure out what was going on, they clashed again, their fists and legs colliding endlessly and quickly. This was a high-level battle for NORMAL humans who weren't awakened. The sheer power of their strikes sent shivers down the spine of all who witnessed it, mostly the cadets. Even some of the members of the SLB had cold sweat running down their faces. Their thoughts were, 'What if they were awakened? ....'
They were right to think that though because this kind of battle was pretty much high levelled for 1st year cadets but here, they were, witnessing one. This time, Dilian had his eyes wide open and happy smile on his face like he had seen his favorite anime. "I can't wait to fight them." He muttered still smiling.
The fighters though, oblivious to the raging emotions of their colleagues and instructors had battled for almost two minutes with each having a point. As the battle reached a climax, something strange happened.
Space started twisting and breaking inside the barrier. Before anyone could react, a dark light burst out from Kaiden. It was so dark that they couldn't even see Kaiden in it. Captain Lola reacted fast enough to snatch Wilbur from there and they appeared outside the barrier and the stage.
"Deactivate the barrier and all cadets stay in your positions! No one moves!" Captain Liam commanded in a cold tone. 'He's really awakening but the element doesn't seem like one I've ever seen before. At least not in a human.' He thought.
As he made to check up on Kaiden as the light was receding, another light burst from him. This one was white, so white that they were all blinded or more like they were seeing a white world on the stage with Kaiden nowhere to be seen.
"Brother? Brother! Brother!" Echo was now in tears as Kaiden wasn't responding to his calls. Not like he could even hear.
As the light receded a little and they got their sight back, Captain started backing away from the stage, causing everybody to be confused. Their confusion was sated in a second as two lights burst out from Kaiden simultaneously amidst screams of pain from him.
"What the fuck?! Is he awakening?"