"Thank you but you need not be concerned about my issues. If anyone challenges me I'll admit defeat right away, they won't be able to do anything to me then," said Mo. "Am afraid that's not possible," said Alvin. Mo stared at him and then asked, "What do you mean?" "If a student do the same thing as you did, then the higher ups of the academy has no choice but to arrange a must fight battle. This means you can't admit defeat before the time allocated is exhausted. The least time they can allocate such kind of battle is one minute and I think that'll be your case. Also, unless serious injuries are dealt, the academy won't stop those fighting before the time is exhausted," explained Alvin patiently.
"Oh!" Mo's brows furrowed. "You'll probably receive a red uniform and badge tomorrow. To be honest it's really shameful to wear a red uniform, I don't know if you have noticed that there is no one wearing a red uniform currently in the school. You are probably the talk of the whole academy now," said Alvin his words having traces of pity. "I don't care if they talk. About the must battle, you don't have to worry about it. I'll just dodge until the time is over. Nobody in the academy can catch up with me without my permission, not even you, so dodging want be a problem. I'm confident to leave the arena without a scratch," said Mo indifferently.
"Your confidence reassures me but your words might not be true if you have to face King. That guy is a monster! I hope you don't have to face him. We had once ganged up on him, me and the other two with dark indigo badges thinking that we would win for sure but the end result was something that even the higher ups didn't expect. We were beaten to the point that not even our mothers would recognize us," said Alvin with embarrassment.
The night passed and soon came the dawn. On waking, Mo found a red badge and uniform on his bed and instantly understood that they were meant for him. He wore them and left to have breakfast. After an hour or so, he left for the arena. In the arena the few green ranked students challenged each other. Some won, some lost, while most fought to a draw. By midday, the ranking competition had come to an end and the tier competition would started. Students from all grades were mixed up in different arenas but only those at yellow tier and below competed. Nobody came to challenge Mo after seeing his attraction-seeking red uniform. After all nothing much would come from challenging a student at yellow tier let alone one at both yellow tier and rank.
In Principal Lee's office, the seven men sat facing a wall which had nine big screens with the one in the middle being bigger than the others. The screens were arranged the same way the arenas were. Everything that happened in the arena would be shown on these screens. Upon looking at the eye catching peculiarity in the screens, that is the red uniform, Feng said, "That kid is really having it easy." "No one can challenge him now that he has a red uniform," added Lee. "Old Feng, is that the kid you want to make the next guardian? You be really blind this time. He is nothing than a coward. Even if he doesn't know anything about fighting, he should at least fight like a rogue rather than admitting defeat right away," mocked Seth.
"Humph! What do you know? That little thing doesn't want to fight otherwise he would not have admitted defeat so easily. Let me tell you, the first time I met him, he was being chased by ten men and he managed to get away without a scratch and that was three years ago," said Feng with a snort. Josh asked about what transpired after the kid was surrounded whereas the other old men listened keenly. Feng looked like an old swindler who had gotten the chance to market his 'goods'. Although Mo was surrounded by ten men who attacked him, they didn't manage to leave a scratch on this body. He managed to escape unscathed.
"How shameless of you, Feng! Your ability to imagine things even surpasses those sci-fi movie writers. I wonder why you didn't become an author, am sure your novels would be the best selling in the market," said Seth who couldn't contain his laughter. "Are you asking for a beating? Bring it on! I want to see how much you have improved," an angered Feng said as he stood up and started walking towards Seth's direction with ill motive. On seeing that, Seth hurriedly left his chair and cried out, "Old brother Paul!" "Let's focus on what is happening there, Feng," Paul helped Seth out.
"You are lucky this time but don't think luck will always be by your side each and every time," Feng snorted as he went back to his seat. If Mo was here he would have been amazed at the ability of the old man to instill fear. "What will you do to that kid?" Principal Lee asked his question directed to Feng. "That kid thought that he can make this noble man lose face and walk away with it, wait and see how am going to make him regret causing trouble to me," said Feng as an evil grin formed on his face. The people present rolled their eyes and felt embarrassed on behalf of Feng after hearing him call himself noble. If he was a noble and had god manners, wouldn't that make them angels then.
Upon noticing them rolling their eyes, Feng said, "Do you all want a beating?" "Why don't you try to beat all of us if you are able to," said josh as they all stood up and stared at Feng with eyes seemingly telling him to dare. "We also want to get a clear picture of how strong you are currently." Feng saw through them and knew they were plotting to teach him a lesson. He turned around and run away very fast. Feng was not foolish enough to go against the six alone. Even though he was strong, he wouldn't be able to defeat the six alone. At most he would fight a tie against four of them.
The night came and the competition for that day was over. Students with green badges down to red badges had completed their challenges and the following would see the blue rank students to the dark indigo challenging each other. But, before that, the green ranked students would be given chances to challenge above their rank. The students went to their dorms clearly anticipating the following day. That would be the day that top students fought against each other. Also, the top three students would fight for the title champion. Some students said that Alvin would win against his two opponents while others showed favor in Jason while a small group believed that Taylor would emerge the winner. Most students thought it would end a tie as it had for quite some months.
Early in the morning after Mo took his breakfast, he went to bask while after a few minutes Alvin appeared beside him. Since the day that Mo admitted defeat, Alvin seemed to have become interested in making friendship with him. Although the commotion Mo had caused had gone down because of the finals that were about to take place, many students would still talk among themselves in low voices whenever they saw him though nobody dared to mock him in Alvin's presence. After an hour, Mo and Alvin headed to the arena which was full of people. Normally the arena wouldn't be so full at this hour but the finals were about to take place leading to the eagerness of the students.