Ray enters the room.
Malik turned towards him.
"You can take that pod over there, I'm ready when you are."
Ray nods.
"So I just get into the pod and close my eyes?"
Malik turns towards him once more before getting in his pod.
"Pretty much."
Ray takes a second to observe the room. It had soft white walls like one of those quiet rooms with practically nothing of note; in fact, other than the pods, there was nothing in the room.
'This school keeps getting weirder.'
Ray enters the pod and closes his eyes.
When he opens his eyes, all he sees is darkness.
'No, please not this again'
But immediately the darkness turns to blue as he sees a screen appear right in front of him displaying the words, "Choose your weapon".
Ray pauses.
'So I guess I can't just bring my real weapons in here.'
The screen then lists various weapons, many different types of swords, spears, hammers etc.
But Ray wasn't really used to any of these weapons, he mainly fights with his hands. So if he were to use a weapon it would have to be something that allowed his hands to move separately from each other like brass knuckles or…
He finally sees something that interests him.
'Two daggers that might work, it's worth a try.'
He clicks on the screen where the daggers are.
'I guess two is better than one.'
As he presses accept, a woman's voice resonates in his head.
The great wolf's fangs acquired.
'That should do it'
The daggers then appeared, holstered to his lower back. And the woman's voice returns.
Entering simulation.
Ray's vision turns white as if he had been teleported to the sun, then he found himself in the middle of an open field and directly in front of him maybe 10ft away was Malik, and he was holding the biggest sword Ray had ever seen in his life.
"What took you so long." the young man says.
Ray approaches him.
"Yeah, I couldn't decide on a weapon, I usually fight with my bare hands."
Malik laughs.
"You could have always picked something random and just not used it."
Ray nods.
"I thought I would try something new, well, it's not like I've never used a weapon."
Malik's expression seems to change as he says in a serious tone.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you."
Ray laughs.
"I would recommend against doing that."
Ray prepares himself.
'It's been a long time since I fought with another person.'
The fight begins with not a moment of hesitation, both of their movements so fluid they seemed rehearsed, but it didn't last long.
Ray was being overpowered
'Shit, this guy is really strong'
Ray struggles to parry Malik's sword.
One slash.
Ray barely avoids losing his head.
He knows that to win this fight he simply can't get hit, if he gets hit he will die.
Ray holsters his weapons.
This change in momentum confuses his opponent.
He enters a stance, his body lowered slightly into a crouch, his hands glued to the handle of his weapons, but he isn't drawing them for some reason, but then he looks into Malik's eyes as if telling him he's ready for him to attack.
Malik lunges at him, his sword above his head, his next attack is bound to do damage, and with him being so close to Ray how is he supposed to dodge this attack.
'What is he thinking'
That's the only thing on Malik's mind right now, that's what Ray wants him to be thinking right now.
Malik swings. His sword now right above the young man's head but then.
One slash.
Two slashes.
10…
His vision goes black.
Ray drops to the ground.
The familiar sound of the woman's voice he heard from the system resonating through the field the smell of grass consuming his senses as if he were really there.
The Victor is Ray Valric.
Record 1-0
Ray wakes up.
His opponent, already standing above the pod, looks down at the young man whose eyes are still trying to settle.
"What the hell was that."
Ray looks at him with a confused look.
"What was what."
The young man looks pale.
"You don't know how strong you are, do you."
Ray shakes his head.
"I suppose not, I don't have too much experience fighting humans."
Malik turns around.
"Follow me."
Ray gets out of the pod and follows the young man out of the room.
Malik leads Ray to the middle of the duel center to a desk with a computer, the young man turns to Ray.
"This is the leaderboard so far this year, well I guess the last 3 or so days."
On the screen there is a list of the first year students who Ray took the exam with, but they were ranked by their records in duels so far, and at the top of the list at the number one spot it says.
Malik Thomas record:10-1
'I see'
"You must have some strong power, huh?"
Ray laughs.
"It's simple really, it's just a speed enhancing ability."
The young man chuckles.
"Bull shit."
He smiles at Ray.
"Fine, keep your secrets."
Ray laughs. But inside he's very scared about the future.
He's made a big impression before the school year even started.
'I mean technically, I didn't lie, all my ability does is increase my speed.'
He looks at his friend.
"I think I'm going to call it a day, I have a lot to think about."
Malik nods.
"I'm gonna stick around here for a bit, I'll see you later."
Ray got up.
"See ya."
Ray walks around the school with an uneasy feeling, he's not used to this, any of this, he's not supposed to be strong, his whole life he's been hated by his family for his inadequacy, just because he didn't awaken an ability for so long. It's hard for him to imagine someone like that becoming this much stronger that quick, Its ironic if you think about it, after all these years of constantly training his physical abilities, no matter how good his technique was he was always weak, despite being a genius martial artist he was still weak, but here he is after awakening his abilities in a mere 6 months he's out done all the years he's been training, and he will get much stronger.
This is only the beginning.