The entire combat room was filled with silence, everyone stared at the ring with startled expressions.
Zack was among the startled spectators.
The brown haired kid, whose name remained unknown to Zack had just defeated the strongest student of the academy with relative easy.
Looking at the outcome of the match, the students began to whisper amongst themselves.
"What-, how can this be?"
Another student suddenly said,
"Didn't you see what happened, gods that regular kid won by some impressive luck, with his clumsy movements he was somehow able to deflect Ray's strike and due to the force of his acceleration, Ray was not able to stop in time, in midst his charge so thus falling out of the ring"
"Oh I see, so his win was just a fluke then?
asked another kid.
From Zack's left side, a soft voice, sounded,
"Ofcourse it was, don't tell me you think he planned all of it, gods no the guy wouldn't even have the brains to pull that off, this is nothing but dumb luck"
Zack released a sigh when he heard these insults.
' Sigh ignorance is truly a bliss'
Zack had been carefully watching the fight as it unfolded and he had been taking point of every key detail that stood out.
For example the students were saying that the brown haired kid was weak, and yet he was able to withstand a full blown punch from a genetically modified human, who was powered by an high grade full powered exoskeleton, and the regular kid wasn't even wearing a proper armored exoskeleton to begin with.
Zack could see that he wasn't the only one who had speculated this, among the group of students, Zack could see several kids who were now staring at the brown haired kid with respectful gazes that carried a small hint of fear.
These students were among the few talented individuals in combat, science and sorcery classes, so Zack wasn't surprised to see that they had come to the same conclusion.
Shacking his head, Zack couldn't help but think.
'To think that he planned all of that in a matter of seconds, the guy surely has to be extremely skilled in combat techniques'
Ray was now standing on a far away corner, downcast after his sudden defeat.
The instructor who had been standing near ring, suddenly smiled towards the brown haired kid,
"Hey kiddo, impressive moves you got there, but next time would you at least try to hold the fight for a little longer, you know like, trade blows with your opponent ,make the fight exiting"
The regular boy, then released a shy smile, his voice was uncomfortable as he replied,
"Uuum, okay-l-l will try my best"
The professor nodded, turning to the students, he spoke loudly,
"Okay, the first sparring match goes to-...."
The instructor was silent for a moment before he eventually asked,
"Uh whats your name again kiddo"
"Leon-Leon Kage", stammered the regular boy.
"First sparring match goes to Leon. Now who is willing to face this fellow for the second sparring match.
From the grouped up students several of them volunteered, under the misguided thought of being superior to Leon because he was from the slums.
What followed next was humiliating to say the least.
The first boy to volunteer was a tall young boy, probably fifteen years old, he had long spiked red hair and dark brown eyes.
His armoured exoskeleton suit, was covered in a thick dark metal, attesting to its high grade quality.
This armoured suit was probably the reason why he was so confident in volunteering to fight, sadly it didn't matter.
Once the fight began the tall boy was the first to strike.
His armoured glinted with a silver light as turned into a blur and yet before he could reach leon, he suddenly fell outside the ring.
To be more precisely, he jumped out of the ring, the pampered fool had charged up his exoskeleton with incredible speed forgetting that he was fighting in a small training ring.
Staring at the dumstrucken fool, Zack could only shack his had in disappointment.
He couldn't fathom how someone with such little brains was even present at this academy, which was well known for its great genius performance.
The instructor after staring at the dumbstrucken boy did not rebuke him for being a failure nor did he complain to Leon for the short fight this time.
Arching his eyebrows the instructor stared at Leon in silence and then latter released a loud laughter.
"Got to say, that's some one hell of an insidious ability you got there kiddo"
Upon hearing the professor's comment the other students did not take to much interest on its meaning.
Zack on the other had been very attentive.
After hearing the comment, he was suddenly dumbstricken.
'Wait he can't be an awakened, can he?
In this modern era, the social hierarchy was determined by one's own personal strength.
And amongst all types of humans from sorcerer's to genetically altered humans, awakened humans were the most powerful to attain the top position.at the social ladder of the world.
These humans were also rare, barely amounting to ten per each country.
And whenever a young awakened human like Leon appeared, most organizations, institutes, militaries and governments would curry any favor for chance to rope him on their side.
Knowing full well about this, Zack couldn't quite fathom why someone with such a unique status would bother learning at a middle tier research academy when they could get access to the most revered academy or even better, a world class institute with just a snap of his fingers.
'Maybe he is just like me'
Looking at the disinterested, gloomy gaze of the brown haired boy, Zack began to wonder,
"But according to my glasses from earlier there was a huge possibility of him emerging as a genetically enhanced human or- could it be that not only is he a awakened but also a genetically altered human- no that's not it , if that was case then there would have been an additional possibility during my enlightment, leaning on both the possibility of being awakened and being a genetically altered human. Mmmm perhaps this might have been an effect caused by his awakened ability, misguiding me into thinking the least likely possible outcome. Yes, yes, this has to be it, after all judging from his fights, his awakened ability seems to be related to disrupting movements, making people clumsy, basically it is related to luck'
In midst of his thoughts Zack was suddenly interrupted by the booming loud voice of the instructor.
"Now this will not do, a one on one sparring match would simply be unfair for other contestants. Okay lets make this fair all of you are to fight against him at once, that ability of his has to have a limit"
At this moment the entire students were startled and confused by the sudden shift of things.
Leon on the other hand only released a short nervous chuckle.