After attending their various classes, it was soon 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The trainees, who had been impatiently waiting for this moment and were barely able to focus during training, immediately bolted toward the direction of the arena that was on the second floor.
Ivan had just finished his training with Miss Elora and also headed for the arena; their training today wasn't as intense because Ivan had three matches right after, so he was still full of energy after their training.
Arriving at the arena, Ivan saw that the place was already packed with trainees who had come to spectate the long-anticipated match.
Some trainees immediately spotted him and caused a ruckus.
"There he is! Ivan is here!"
"It's really him! He never bothered coming here all these months, but he showed up today; I wonder who his opponent is?"
" I suspect it must be Sommy or that scary girl, Miko. Anyway, only a repeater will dare to challenge him "
" What are you saying? Do you think those in the top 10 are jokes?"
The place immediately became noisy as the trainees debated on who would fight Ivan, Ivan ignored all of this and calmly walked toward the stage.
The arena was like a small stadium built inside the tower, it was the size of two basketball courts combined with a spectator's seating area built around it. The fighting stage was like a ditch at the bottom of a pit.
Around the fighting stage was a faint yellow barrier which Ivan speculated was supposed to block the attacks of trainees inside from going out.
At the side of the barrier was a middle-aged man in a black uniform; he stood straight like an arrow with a serious face and sharp eyes; he was an expert in the tower.
"Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, proceed to the arena for your match!" The middle-aged man voiced out in a powerful tone, his voice spreading throughout the whole arena.
The words of the man left the huge crowd of trainees in shock, they fell into silence for a while before breaking out in an uproar.
The person who challenged Ivan was Luke.
They were expecting either Sommy or Miko since they were the closest to Ivan's position on the ranking, but it turned out to be Luke.
One had to know although Luke was one of the repeaters, he was known to be the weakest among them. He had not managed to move up from sixth place since the ranking was made!
Ivan ignored the buzzing of the trainees and approached the man with calm steps after hearing his number being called and stopping only a meter away from the man, the feeling that Ivan got from the man was similar to that of instructor Logan.
'Strong' was the only thing that Ivan could think of.
The man turned to look at Ivan; his eyes showed a slight amazement, but his facial expression didn't change as he carried on with the challenge procedures professionally.
"Name and number on the ranking?" The man asked in an expressionless voice as if he didn't recognize Ivan.
"Ivan, first place on the ranking"
Ivan responded casually.
The man nodded and placed one of his hands on the yellow barrier, causing a part of it to split open like a door.
"Go in, your opponent will arrive shortly," the man said, and Ivan responded with a nod before walking onto the stage.
After Ivan entered, the split on the barrier didn't close.
A few seconds later, Luke appeared before the middle-aged man as well; he was allowed to enter after answering the same questions Ivan was asked.
Only after Luke entered the stage did the split close; the middle-aged man had entered the stage with them but kept himself suspended in the air above the stage.
Luke and Ivan stood opposite each other with a gap of over twenty meters between them; the middle-aged man in black uniform who would act as the referee for their match was in the air above them.
"Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, the rules of the arena are as follows:
Killing your opponent is not allowed.
Attacking your opponent after they surrender is not allowed.
Any form of cheating is forbidden.
Violating any of these rules will result in immediate disqualification and be punishable by the Tower, a restriction could be placed on you or you might even get kicked out from the tower "
The voice of the middle-aged man rang through the arena as he told the two young men below him the rules; he stared at the two for a few seconds before flying higher and slowly opening his mouth.
"Begin!"
Immediately after the man gave the command to start the match…
BOOM!!!
Luke exploded with so much Nexus energy that the ground three meters around him directly shattered into a small crater.
Wooosh!!
The Nexus energy swirled around Luke's body and started to change into pieces of a red nano suit; his eyes did not leave Ivan during this period as he stared at the white-haired youth with a wicked smirk on his face.
Luke maintained eye contact until his whole body was fully covered in an inspiring nano suit, a small portion of Nexus energy moved to his head and formed a helmet with two glowing red eyes on it.
Luke had gone into full battle mode immediately after the start of their match, displaying his ability as a battle mechanic!
Seeing Luke, who was now looking like a cyborg, brought a wave of excitement from the trainees who were spectating; they could not wait to see him in action!
After summoning his talent, Luke pointed a finger at Ivan who was on the other side of the stage.
"Hehe, you were really stupid to accept my challenge. Unlike before when I had to go easy on you during training, there are no rules that we should go easy on our opponents here; your first place is mine!" Luke voiced out with a burst of confident laughter.
Ivan's face remained unchanged as he stared at Luke's Mecha face, he sighed slightly and then raised his left hand.
The whole place immediately became dead silent when the trainees saw Ivan's action, they wanted to see what he was going to see; after all, not many people were aware of what his talent was or what it could do.
Swoosh!!
Nexus energy appeared above Ivan's palm, it swirled around for a few seconds before condensing into…a blue card with golden edges.
Trainees "A card?!"
Middle-aged man referee: "A card?!"
Luke "...."
'A card?!'
Thousands of question marks appeared in everyone's mind at the sight of the card in Ivan's hand. The first place on the ranking was…a card.
Only a few people who were already aware of this managed to remain calm at the sight of the card, although they were curious as to what the card could do as unlike James Owen, no one else had seen Ivan's talent in action.
"Are you kidding me? Ivan's talent is a card?!"
*Seems I'm not the only one, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!"
" How is he supposed to fight and keep his first place with that card? It looks useless!"
" A freaking card? Is he going to play his opponent to death?"
" Just keep quiet and watch, don't forget he reached the 25th level of the training room with that talent "
The arena was drowned in the loud voices of the trainees; the appearance of Ivan's talent had shocked them, but Ivan did not react to this despite being able to hear everything.
In a corner, Glen and Ralph sat next to each other quietly.
Ralph had a serious expression on his face while Glen was looking down at the stage with a worried expression.
"Ralph, do you think Ivan can win? What does his talent do? Can he cut people with that card? Or does it explode in people's faces? Have you seen him use his talent before? Are you aware of what his talent can do? Did…"
" Shut up!"
Ralph was unable to take it anymore and yelled at the fidgeting Glen who was about to kill him with questions.
" We both know as much as each other does regarding Ivan's talent, how do you expect me to know the answers to all those questions?" Ralph spat at Glen angrily before turning back to focus on the stage.
He was currently trying to get a good look at the card in Ivan's hand to see if he could recognize it from any of the card talent books he had read about in the library.
'Although most card talents aren't that strong compared to battle mechanic talent, Ivan should be able to cover the gap with his superior rank' Ralph thought inwardly while shifting his glasses.
In another corner of the seating area, a young, beautiful woman with long green hair and a well-fitting black uniform could be seen staring down at the stage below with a cold and expressionless face.
This person was Miss Elora, who had come to watch the fight between Ivan and Luke; she had picked a place where no one could see her to watch.
"A card talent? How unexpected," Elora thought to herself after seeing Ivan's talent; she was as surprised as the trainees.