"Fight!" The announcer yelled out to commence the fight between the two competitor, but even though the announcer commenced the fight, no one on either side started to move. All they did was just stare at each other.
" Aily, just surrender, a rose like you is only good enough to make the scenery better. A frail looking girl like you wouldn't even endure a punch from me," Adam said, finally breaking the silence between him and Aily.
Aily couldn't help but scoff at Adam in her thoughts at Adam. " How about you stop talking and show me what you have as talking doesn't show you how strong you are," Aily said with an emotionless face.
"Fine then," Adam immediately charged Aily after speaking. From Aily's point of view, when she saw Adam's stance, all she saw were flaws and openings. Now seeing the sloppy charge and seeing how weak the punch Adam was trying to wind up, Aily couldn't help but laugh and mock Adam silently in her mind as she stood there before Adam motionless.
Adam on the other hand thought Aily was frozen in shock. " You should've surrendered when I gave you the chance!" Adam cried out as his punch was about to come into contact with Aily. But just right before it came in to contact with Aily, Aily immediately took evasive maneuvers and spun her body, dodging the punch.
Seeing how fast and smoothly Aily dodged Adam's punch, he couldn't help but be in shock. Now that Aily was now behind him, Adam tried to turn around as fast as he could, but sadly he was too slow to turn fully around.
With a clear a shot, Aily kicked Adam's back that was facing her, knocking him to the floor. Aily, Following it up by grabbing his neck with a hand and using enough force to pin him to the ground without breaking his neck, not allowing Adam to get up.
Just like that, in less than a minute, the fight ended with Aily destroying Adam in a mere three moves. The room was amazingly silent, not a single word was spoken as everyone stared at Aily in astonishment. They never expected to see Aily, who looked like she hasn't trained in martial arts one bit to demolish Adam who was really muscular. The audience alongside Adam truly learned to never judge a book by its cover.
" The winner is, Aily Fields!" The announcer said after coming of his shock, officially ending the fight between her and Adam. The silent gym immediately echoed in applause and cheers for Aily. Before Aily let her hand off Adam's neck, she leaned down so that her mouth was next to Adam's ear and whispered,
" Though roses can be used to make the scenery better, but there is one thing you forgot. It's that roses have thorns," After finishing her final words, Aily released her powerful hold on Adam's neck and walked off the stage to where Reed was sitting.
No longer feeling any pressure that was holding him down to the floor, Adam got up and turned to watch as Aily was walking off the stage. As Adam looked at her, he didn't feel angry or vengeful as everything that just happened to him was mostly his fault. The only thing he felt was curiosity. " Just how strong is she, and how did she become so strong?"
In this world, determining the ranks of those who hasn't broken through into Gold rank was really difficult as there was no way to tell those who haven't broken into Gold rank by looking at them. The only method was to have them test their strength was by having them take strength measuring test. The required strength of Silver one was 200lbs and the next rank Silver two required a strength of 300lbs. To sum it all up, to reach the next rank in the Silver ranking, you would have to increase your strength by 100lbs.
The school Reed is enrolled at, Crystal High, did have that test. The only reasons they're having the marital competition before the test was because even though some students might be stronger when compared to some other students. The weaker students could still win against. The school's faculty members understood this, hence the reason why the competition was hosted before the strength testing.
When Aily sat on the same bench Reed was sitting on, Reed looked at her and asked, " How did it feel fighting Adam?"
Aily tilted her head to think for a bit before she replied, " I have nothing much to say much him, the only thing I can say is that he's weak compared to us."
Reed nodded and smiled, " Of course he would be weak compared to us, but what about if you were to compare him to those that aren't us?"
" If I were to compare him to those that aren't like us, then he would regarded as an elite among those of our age. Do you want to recruit?" Aily looked at Reed with a questioning look as she spoke her last sentence.
" I'm considering it yeah, but though Adam can't compare to us right now if he were join us and were to be given the necessary resources, in the future I'm pretty sure he'll be renown figure among our ranks. Plus, though he was arrogant when faced against you, I can't blame him. There was no way he could sense your strength since you're a Silver rank, not gold. So there was no way for him to know that you were a silver rank as well and stronger than him. Plus, if he were to join us, I'm pretty sure his arrogance will lessen and he'll learn to be more humble."
At this moment another two names were announced to come to the stage to fight one another. The two names that were called was Reed and another guy named Victor Devolo. When Reed got onto the stage and got in a fighting stance, Victor who was across from him surrendered right away.
Since Victor surrendered, Reed was announced winner of the match and was now going to fight in the 2nd round. Victor surrendering wasn't an uncommon thing as other before him have surrendered as well, so no one thought much about it and applauded a little when Reed was announced winner by default of the match.
Reed's match was the final match of the first round and there was going to be a break time before the 2nd round started.
-----
Now in the cafeteria of Crystal High there Reed, Aily, and Kendall sat on a rectangular table at a discreet corner of the cafeteria.
The reason Daniel wasn't sitting with them at this moment was because his dad was among the audience. So of course during the break time Daniel would sit with his father rather than with Reed and his group. With Daniel not there, Reed wouldn't have to leave the cafeteria to somewhere else in the school when Kendall reports to him.
"Kendall what do have for me this time?" Reed asked Kendall who sat across from him on the other side of the rectangular table.
" I have two thing to report, the first is that last night, Baron got into contact with Thomas Velp, the outcome being a positive that favored on our side by a lot. As not only did Thomas Velp agree to our help, he even said he'll work for us for ten years if he were to become the head of the Velp Family."
Hearing what Kendall said, Reed was shocked. The trade off was really in their favor when you think about it. "Thomas must be desperate for help since he signed off a tenth of his life to us," Reed chuckled. "What the next report?"
"The next report, is that we have found the location of Lillian Myers, wife of Conor Myers."