The students were given a few minutes to prepare, and Rhys was nervous. He decided to open his stats to remind himself of the changes that were made to his system.
Parties did not last indefinitely, and he definitely wasn't in a party at this point. However, the panels he was shown were still in a totally new colour scheme and showed completely new stats.
[STATS]
[Level: 1]
[User: Rhys Arkwrighte]
[Titles: Fledgling]
[Strength (STR): 3]
[Speed (SPD): 6]
[Durability (DUR): 4]
[Endurance (END): 5]
[Species: Vampire]
[HP: 10/10]
[XP: 0/100]
[MP: 10/10]
[Stat Upgrades: 0]
[Skills] [expand]
Almost all his stats had received significant improvements, except for his MP and HP that had instead decreased. His speed had shot up quite drastically from where it was recently, though.
The first battle was between some average strength students. Most students gained their power from commonplace items called skill trees. Skill trees were special trees with numerous skills that students could eventually unlock after levelling up and paying up any additional in-system costs.
Some types of skill trees seemed to be more helpful to other types of people, so skill tree types usually ran in families.
One of the students had been utilising a skill tree pertaining to rock manipulation, while the other had a defensive-based skill tree based on hardening and protecting the body.
The rock user managed to take the win, simply due to his more offensive-based skill tree. It was great and all blocking attacks, but one still would have to use attacks of their own to win fights.
After the fight had concluded, the master sergeant simply gave the winner a healing elixir. Even though he had won, he seemed to have sustained more injury than his opponent.
As Rhys saw this fight happen, he realised that their movements didn't look as hard to track as they used to. It was as if they were moving more slowly, and he could better analyse the fight at hand.
A few random fights passed, and then Rhys' name was called.
"The next spar will be between Rhys Arkwrighte and Leandro Azar." He stated.
"Good luck, man!" Emmerich said, tapping on Rhys' back.
"Give him hell, bro." Lewis whispered to him encouragingly, as he stood up from the corner that they were currently sitting in.
Leandro was slightly taller than Rhys was, standing at a large 6'5. He was very slim though and was only about 200 pounds. He had moderately long messy brown hair, and hazel eyes. He was granted a D-Rank system just like Emmerich, but his system was at a higher level of that rank.
"I'm going to crush you, Rhys!" Leandro declared, slamming his fists together.
He was from a family of average wealth and was below average for the Azar family. However, he was still not someone to be overlooked for the likes of Rhys.
[Sudden Quest!]
[First Battle]
[Take down this opponent with the new power that you possess. Show them how strong you are now!]
[Rewards: 1 Stat Upgrade, 50XP]
Upon seeing this notification, Rhys couldn't help but smile. This was going to be the first test to see if he had really received such an upgrade. With the bountiful rewards shown to him, he felt newfound determination to crush the fighter that stood before him.
"Begin!"
Leandro enveloped in a red aura and rushed ahead, while Rhys remained put. Unlike before, he could clearly see the movements of his adversary.
He swung in his right leg and as it did so, it ignited, and his dark green sweatpants became coated in chaotic flames.
"Pyros Kick!"
BAM!
Rhys was forced to block due to the speed of his kick, that was much greater than his previous movements.
He had used a skill, which had amplified his speed somehow. After feeling his greater perception, though, Rhys thought that there maybe would be a way out for him. He could see more than he could before, and just had to test the new limits of his body.
He had no extra skills beside basic mana manipulation and not even a single skill tree, but he had hope.
Leandro rushed forward with immense confidence. He placed no effort into trying to block any incoming attack from Rhys, because he knew how weak he was. Rhys was known across his year group for being the very weakest, and he wanted to show off and win with flash.
However, as he charged ahead, Rhys could see that his head had been left wide open and he landed a technical, powerful punch to his face.
Stopping him in place, his knuckles crashed into his nose, and he was surprised with how fast he had thrown that punch. It was much quicker than even his fastest of his jabs, and Leandro slowly wiped his nose to see droplets of blood in the palm of his wrapped hand.
He just looked upon this sight with confusion, but Rhys readily pounced on him. Racing ahead, he slugged his fist right into his stomach while he was still distracted by the blood on his hand.
He tried to ready himself, but it was too late, and he fell back about two steps after receiving such a blow unguarded.
"Fireball!" He called out, releasing the ball of flames right at Rhys.
Somehow, Rhys felt as if the fireball was flowing through resin. He slipped around the ball with immense speed, and it disintegrated in thin air after reaching a few metres behind him.
"Fireball!" He called out once again, but Rhys was too close to him now to simply take this attack head on.
He blocked the incoming ball of fire but realised that not much damage was done. He could feel pain from his heated skin, but there weren't any skin breakages and just red burns.
He couldn't waste time looking at his forearms, though, as a punch came right for his face. Almost reflexively, he pulled his head away and managed to evade it entirely. Leandro followed up aiming lower with another sweeping kick to his body.
This time it wasn't enhanced by his pyros kick skill, so Rhys could prepare for it much more easily. Parrying the blow with both his palms, it couldn't reach him, and he slid back slightly.
The students watching this exchange of attacks were astonished. Leandro was supposed to have already nearly killed Rhys by now, he was somehow managing to survive.
Rhys smiled after parrying this kick, in astonishment from his newfound strength. However, Leandro was furious. He looked to the crowd of students, where he could hear snickers and comments being made about his weakness.
Turning back to Rhys, his eyes seemed to possess a new fury, and he was powered by the motivation to not be embarrassed in front of these people.
He threw numerous punches and kicks of various types, but Rhys continued to whizz past and evade every blow. He flowed like water, and just seamlessly stepped into the next movement to remain untouched.
He wasn't powerful, but that didn't mean he didn't have technique. This was the only thing that he had seen results in from his training, and it was therefore something he found pride in improving and developing.
The other students were just blind to it because he never had the power to properly show off his skills.
Leandro shouted in rage and leaped forward, annoyed that his punches had not been landing. However, Rhys caught his punch and slid back slightly, along with Leandro that had fell forward.
Seeing him slightly off-balance, Rhys yanked back his outreached arm then landed a powerful front kick to his chest that forced him back numerous steps.
As soon as he saw his opponent retreating, Rhys pounced on him and landed a straight punch right to his jaw before aiming lower and landing a liver shot right at his ribcage.
"No way!" Lewis blurted out upon seeing this combination of attacks.
Emmerich stood up from the seat that he was currently sat on, with his hands on his head.
Lewis couldn't help but raise too with a smile as they saw this happen.
Leandro tried his best to hide the pain that he felt, but Rhys could clearly see he was hurt. He shook his head to try and clear his mind, and he could see a light tremble in his feet. It was go-time.
Rhys rushed forward and Leandro drained the remaining MP that he had with a final fireball. However, Rhys decided to just charge right into this fireball.
A cloud of smoke was released, and Rhys intensely coughed upon stumbling out of it, but then dashed at his target. Leandro looked ahead with eyes of pure fear, and there was nothing he could do.
Rhys rushed ahead with such speed that Leandro couldn't even properly react, and he unloaded with a series of punches that were met with little to no resistance. Every time Leandro tried to block an incoming punch, Rhys would simply hit an area that he wasn't properly protecting.
Leandro was clearly slower than Rhys was, and it made it easier for the blonde fighter to adapt and land his punches.
Leandro stumbled back, now with blood dripping out his nose and mouth. His legs had a strong tremble in them, and he instinctively throwed out a jab as Rhys advanced.
However, he threw a punch over his slow jab and collided with his cheek, finally dropping him onto the canvas.
Thud!
[Quest Complete!]
[+50XP]
[+1 Stat Upgrade]