Something about Jake watching the entire thing unfold while hidden from a distance was quite comical to Adam.
He believed Jake had a better chance of defeating him if Jake and Cassandra worked together.
Something about Jake's first words to him since his arrival in this world really rubbed Adam in the wrong way.
'I'm a monster for humiliating Cassandra?'
Anyone even remotely familiar with the relationship dynamic between Adam and his soon-to-be wife would know that whatever Adam did today wasn't even 5% of what Cassandra did behind closed doors to Adam.
Jake's comments felt like the old trope that happens in reality whenever the bully victim finally fights back against the bully, the teachers punish him instead of the bully.
'Where the f*ck was this energy when my predecessor was the one getting bullied?'
Adam started to get annoyed at Jake.
"I'm a monster?"
"Yes, anyone who saw what you did here today would believe the same thing."
"So I'm a monster because I defeated fellow competitors in this exam?"
"Don't try to change the narrative, you took your time and toyed with your opponents just to humiliate them in front of the whole world."
"Oh really? So whenever you take down your opponents instantly before they even have a chance to fight back, are you're doing a noble thing? That's how I should have done it right?"
Jake couldn't wrap his head around what Adam had just said.
To Jake, giving a quick defeat to all his opponents was the most respectful thing he could do to save them from humiliation.
"How is a quick defeat as bad as what you did?"
'This is how pompous I would have become if I faced no hardships in life?'
Adam couldn't believe that this was Jake's actual thought process.
It was predictable however, people who never face hardships will always think that a quick and painless defeat is a good thing.
"Ask yourself this, are you doing them a favor by defeating them before they even have the chance to retaliate or are you breaking their spirit?"
The sun never apologizes for overshadowing all the stars around it, the sun doesn't have to apologize for it either.
The strong will always overshadow the weak, that's how it's always been, that's how it always will be because we are animals that are unconsciously hierarchical.
But it really gets on Adam's nerves when the same people who are wilfully ignorant about crushing the hopes and dreams of the people around them, preach morals to him.
After hearing Adam's rebuttal, Jake was speechless for a bit, it was as if he had never thought about it from that perspective.
After a few seconds however, Jake took his sword stance, his expression changed from one of indifference to one of anger as he narrowed his eyes staring at his current adversary.
"You think you can talk your way out of fighting me? If you thought so, you thought wrong."
Adam was incredibly angry at the main character of the story by now, a hypocrite through and through.
The sheer hubris Jake had thinking Adam was trying to avoid fighting him was the straw that broke the camels back.
"Heh, hehehehehehe"
Adam started to laugh maniacally.
As he laughed he threw Roderick's rapier onto the ground and it turned into nothing but pixels as it vanished into thin air.
Adam had given up the only weapon he had.
"If you think you don't need a weapon to defeat me, you think too highly of yourself."
After saying this, Jake kicked off against the ground with his sword directed at Adam's heart, smart choice, end it as quickly as possible.
Adam prepared to completely overwhelm Jake with his ridiculous agility stat thanks to the buffs.
For Adam however, time stopped and a system window popped up.
|| THE HOST IS BATTLING THE HEAVEN'S BLESSED ONE. THE STARK CONTRAST BETWEEN YOUR HORRIBLE LUCK AND HIS AMAZING LUCK HAS CAUSED INVISIBLE BANANA PEELS TO BE ALL AROUND THE ARENA. EVERY STEP YOU TAKE WILL CAUSE YOU TO SLIP ON A BANANA PEEL FOR AS LONG AS THIS FIGHT CONTINUES. ||
What good is agility when you cannot even move your legs?
It was a time for a change in strategy.
Adam couldn't move his feet during the entire confrontation now or else he would slip and fall and Jake would win instantly.
Jake rushed and stabbed at Adam's heart with his sword, Adam dodged the the thrust by twisting his waist to the left and before Jake could follow up with a horizontal slash, Adam hid Jake's neck with A chop taking advantage of the opening and pushed back Jake's offence.
Adam had to play this perfectly or else even a single mistake would be game over for him.
The only reason he was even able to counter Jake was because of the extreme stat difference between their agility.
Golden light started to glimmer in Jake's eyes, he was taking the fight more seriously now but, something about the way Adam was fighting really rubbed him the wrong way.
'Knowing his speed and capabilities he could have ended it right then and there by charging in while I was being pushed back.'
'He didn't even move a single inch from his position. Is he looking down on me that much?'
It would have been understandable to Jake if his opponent was of a higher skill and stature from him.
The opponent right now was a pig with an inhuman personality who was famous for being incompetent.
If this wouldn't hurt someone's pride, I don't know what would.
Adam then went on to thrust his sword again, this time activating his skill to read his opponents movements before they happened while also wrapping lightening mana on his sword to ensure that even if he doesn't directly hit Adam, Adam would still be electrified by the sword.
This was bad news for Adam.
He would be electrified even if he dodged it.
For some reason however, Adam didn't seem to care about the new development, his expression remained indifferent and nonchalant as he stood still in his martial posture awaiting Jake's next strike.
Jake thrusted his electrified sword towards Adam's head.
Adam bent his waist backwards to dodge the thrust.
Jake saw this coming and was immediately ready to slash downwards on Adam.
Adam's body was now electrified due to the close proximity between the sword and him.
The only way to dodge that slash would be to either side step or break the sword itself.
Adam chose the more diabolical approach.
Guarding against the sword strike with his left hand which was already damaged by Roderick's winds, he took the electric shocks that came from Jake's sword throughout his entire body and punched Jake in the face while the slash was still cutting through his left arm making it impossible for Jake to avoid the punch.
After this exchange, both Adam and Jake were electrified but Adam had lost his left hand. It was bleeding profusely.
Jake fell to the floor he was writihing in pain due to the electrification.
The bleeding didn't mean anything to Adam, he wouldn't die from it anyway.
He stood still in his place. Not a single change in his expression even after losing a hand.
Most people would be screaming in pain right now.
The audience and the commentators were shocked at this display. They couldn't wrap their head around how Adam was still unresponsive to all the pain he felt due to the exchange.
The electrification on Jake finally wore out and he was able to stand back up again.
What he saw in front of him struck a cord deep within him. A severe sense of inferiority against the man he was fighting.
While he was rolling on the ground due to the pain, his opponent didn't move a single step from his original position even after being electrified and losing his left hand.
The meaning of the word monster that Jake called Adam started to change.
Jake's mind was racing, his mental was in complete chaos.
'How can he be completely fine after feeling all that pain?'
'Since when did he become so strong that he can match me bare handed?'
'He hasn't even used mana this entire time! He lost an arm but he still won't take this fight seriously?'
Jake readied his stance once again. This time, his sword glowed golden, with the aura surrounding it getting bigger and bigger.
"Adam Alastair Dacre, I can see that you truly don't think much of this battle because of the difference in our skill."
"With this strike, I shall give it my all, I hope that you take me a bit more seriously after this."
While Jake charged up his signature skill [SAVIOR'S CHARGE] Adam was facing immense internal turmoil, mainly anger.
'This f*cking piece of sh*t simp is about to go all out in the academy entrance examination?'
'If I could just move a single step, you would have been done for even before I lost my left hand!'
'Why is he trying so hard? He never does this unless some girl in his harem is about to die, and he only does this in cutscenes!'
Jake's signature skill was an unstoppable sword charge that did true damage to the opponent it hit, ignoring all defence and resistances.
It is a one hit kill as long as the enemy's health is low enough.
Adam was stuck at 1 hp due to all the bleeding.
Adam realised that to defeat Jake he would have to show a few more of his cards to the world and hope that nobody notices it.
Losing his hand felt kind of a waste because the only reason he sacrificed his left hand was to hide the rest of his capabilities but now there was no choice but to show them.
Right before Jake charged once again, He screamed, "This is for Mia!"
As the sword was about to reach Adam's body he flicked the base of the blade with his index finger with [OSCILLATOR].
The blade completely broke apart right before it reached it's destination.
Jake had an expression of complete shock and he was unable to stop the momentum of the charge even after the sword broke, Adam gave a right hook straight to Jake's face.
Jake fell into a deep sleep as soon as he hit the ground and was eliminated.
Instead of being happy about his victory he couldn't help but tilt his head in confusion.
'What does Mia have to do with any of this? Are they already that deep in their relationship ?'
Adam chose to not think too much about it since his victory was now being announced.
"Ladies and gentlemen we have our first zone leader! He is none other than the currenlty rank 1 candidate Adam Alastair Dacre! He managed to beat the most popular candidate Jake kennedy without using any weapons or mana! An incredible feat! I don't think anyone can take the 1st place after such an overwhelming performance! "
The crowd had been completely silent as the fight was going on due to the intensity of the fight.
After the commentator's announcement of the result of the fight, the crowd finally realised what had transpired and started booing loudly.
They didn't have anything personal against Adam, it was just that anyone would be angry if they lost their money in a gamble they were sure about.
Adam was didn't hold it against them but it only fueled his anger further as he started to turn into vanishing pixels as he was brought out of the simulacrum.
In his pod he was met with complete darkness giving him time to calm himself.
In another arena filled with volcanic eruptions a man that stood out like a sore thumb amongst all the burning bodies of his competitors in the arena as they turned into nothing but pixels.
This was none other than Yaketsuku Onigahara.
This entire competition had been a breeze for him, he was the first to reach rank one and held that position for the longest time.
Suddenly he heard an announcement from the commentator and looked at the rankings.
"The rank 1 student is now Adam Alastair Dacre and with this the first arena to be completed is the evergreen forest! "
There was something unexpected and annoying about that announcement.
He had never heard of a talent from the empire known as Adam Alastair Dacre.
'There was someone like that as well?'
Yaketsuku came here in order to get stronger and defeat Jake Kennedy who was famous for his talent and combat abilities, the princess of the dynasty Kexin Zhoufang was also present.
He never understood why she would relinquish her own title and change her name to something like Kexin Mortem Obire.
While he was stuck in his thoughts, all of a sudden a concentrated ray of water was shot towards his head, it was incredibly fast and he only managed to dodge it enough to be grazed on his cheek, he then turned towards the source of the spell.
A girl with light blue hair came running towards him with a deluge of waves behind her.
The ground underneath Yaketsuku erupted and instead of lava, hot water geysers were released.
He went on the back foot dodging the attacks and covered his sword in thick red and orange flames as he horizontally sliced it towards his enemy.
This caused a wave of flames to shoot out towards that direction causing all of the water from the waves and the geysers to completely evaporate on contact with the flames.
Yaketsuku charged in while his enemy surrounded herself in a thick protective shield of churning water.
Both of them got into an intense fight where nobody gave the other person a single inch to take advantage of but after 10 minutes, Yaketsuku came out on top causing his enemy to fall onto the ground with slight burn marks all over her body.
Yaketsuku was nice enough to not burn that pretty face of hers.
He slowly walked towards his enemy, offering some words of acknowledgement since nobody in his peer group was ever able to push him this far.
Slowly clapping with both his hands as he walked closer to the girl he said,
"You are truly a formidable opponent. I have never had to use nearly all of my strength to beat an opponent my own age."
Countering his back handed compliment, she said," The only reason you're not on the ground is because of our surroundings."
Mia was angry at losing this fight because she gave it her all and it all came down to elemental advantage in the battle arena.
She didn't use any of her ice spells as they were still unstable and she didn't learn how to fully control them which would have given her the edge in battle.
However, this humiliation from this foreigner was something her heart could not accept, her father's reputation was at stake.
She chose to overload her entire body with mana, soon the entire ground started to be covered in ice, Yaketsuku was caught by surprise and his legs were now frozen and he couldn't move away, he tried to melt the ice with his flames but it was already too late.
[Icicle eruption ]
The ground beneath Yaketsuku exploded with thick shards of ice escaping from it breaking many bones all over his body and knocking him unconscious.
At the same time, Mia endured Mana recoil and fainted due to the pain.
" Ladies and gentlemen it seems like the volcanic arena has also come to a close with it being a draw between both top participants in the arena. Keeping this in mind both participants will not be able to gain or lose their points due to the outcome of the battle and will instead remain in their original ranking! "
This was the first encounter between Mia and Yaketsuku.