Conflict

Waking up for the new day, Ace checked his phone. He saw he had a new email and looked at it, but his eyes widened in pure rage.

"Hello, Ace Takahashi. Unfortunately, due to your sparring match having been interrupted, we cannot accept you into the heroes association. Sincerely, Supervisor Anna."

He pocketed his phone and walked out of his home, full of rage. He couldn't even take it anymore. He didn't deserve this, he tried his best. He even went for a few seconds against that sorcerer.

'I did everything, I tried so fucking hard…'

Looking ahead, Ace saw that same hero he met a few days ago - Ami.

'Isn't she the one who was at that bank robbery?'

"Hey, you. I think I've seen you before…" She asks, inspecting him.

"Yeah, I think I met you before at that bank." Ace responds, looking up at her.

"Ah, you're one of the guys who was in the incident yesterday at the application center! Are you okay?"

Ace nods, before looking back to meet her eyes.

"I'm alright. But for some reason they rejected me for nearly dying there. That was an S Grade for god's sake!"

"Yeah, Hiroshi dealt with the sorcerer though, thankfully." She said, raising a smile.

"You should try re-applying." She continues.

Ace shakes his head, looking at her.

"Nah. I'm not cut out to be a hero anyways, everyone is so much stronger than me."

"Who are you kidding? You defeated four sorcerers!"

"E Grade sorcerers, who an average human could beat in a fist fight."

Ami responded by shaking her head.

"I still don't think you should just give up like that. You can train and get stronger!"

"Sounds easy to an A Grade like you. But I'm weaker than E Grades in terms of power, I had to find that out the hard way in that fight."

Ami sighs.

"You have potential. Please, don't waste it."

She says, walking by him.

'Waste it? There's no point anymore.'

He continued to walk in the streets, until he saw a stranger, one who had just appeared.

"Ace Takahashi, right?" The stranger whispered.

"What's it to you?" Ace responds.

The stranger grins, looking Ace in the eye.

"You killed four of us. I think it's only right that I cut you into four pieces."

'A sorcerer! He knows my name?'

The sorcerer, with insane speed, tosses Ace into a building on the side. Ami was too far away to help now.

'Shit, what grade is this guy?' Ace thinks to himself, landing on all fours and looking ahead.

"What's your grade?" He calmly asks.

"What's it to you?" The stranger taunts, repeating his very own answer.

'Son of a bitch…'

The stranger then sprinted towards Ace, tossing him through the roof of the building and kicking him down into an alleyway.

"No one's gonna save you here, Takahashi."

"I don't need anyone to save me." Ace proclaims.

Ace stands on his feet, glaring at the man as he pulls out his two daggers.

"I'll take you down with the daggers that took your comrades." Ace taunts the man.

"Tsk Tsk." The sorcerer responds, as he holds his palm out.

Suddenly, the daggers explode into metal pieces.

'Did he just break it from that far away?'

"I prefer a hand to hand fight." The stranger chuckles, sprinting to Ace.

'Okay…Speed Core, then.'

Ace's speed doubles as he activates his speed Core, swaying to the side and avoiding the stranger's attack.

"You were slowing yourself down? I can sense you've gotten faster." The stranger inquires.

"Figured I shouldn't bother with D Grades like you." Ace responds.

"D Grade? You really think I'm that weak?" The sorcerer asks, taking out his fists and cracking his knuckles.

Ace was already upset at being denied from the heroes association, coupled with this arrogant bastard…

"I'm going to kill you." Ace stated, meaning he was going in with the intent to kill.

"Come and try." The sorcerer demanded, taunting Ace to come get him.

And so, the fight between Ace and the cocky sorcerer had officially begun.

Rushing ahead, Ace activated his double speed Core again, jumping ahead of the sorcerer and landing behind him to kick him ahead.

"That speed of yours, I wonder how you do it." The sorcerer seemed curious, turning around to meet Ace.

"It's like you move in short bursts of speed."

But while he was too busy chatting, Ace activated the Speed Core again, closing the distance between them and striking him in the head.

"Focus on fighting, not talking." Ace states, kicking him back.

"How about you focus on not dying?" The sorcerer yells, driving a knife through Ace's shoulder.

'Shit, he got my shoulder!'

Ace quickly acted, jumping back.

"Wasn't this a hand to hand fight?" Ace asks, even more furious.

"I'm a sorcerer, I don't follow rules!" He taunts, laughing at Ace.

Ace grabs the knife and pulls it out of his shoulder, gritting his teeth as he did so.

'I'll make him pay for this…'

Rushing ahead, Ace activates his Speed Core again, ducking under the sorcerer and driving the knife into his right waist.

"Payback."

Ace continues the slide, standing on his foot again. His shoulder wound will have to be worried about later.

"Heh, you're a feisty one." The sorcerer echoed, looking ahead as he held his palms out.

"You don't seem to grasp what my Core is exactly, do you?"

His palm hovers over the already inserted knife, before breaking down the metal into nothingness.

"I don't need to worry about a knife inside of me now, because I can destroy metal."

'He could have just pulled it out…'

"How about we up the ante? This fight's getting real interesting." The sorcerer asked.

"Yeah, I'm just about to take your head off your body anyways." Ace retorted.

The two fighters clashed with one another, fists striking.

'He's strong, unbelievably so…but I'm faster with that Core.'

The sorcerer easily overwhelmed Ace, pushing him back.

'I need to use my Speed if I want to win.'

Ace dashed ahead, circling the sorcerer with his usage of his Speed Core.

'Shit, running low on energy. I can only pull this speed off a few more times.'

Ace continued to circle, closing in for attacks a couple of times, however, they weren't very powerful attacks - only quick ones to weaken him. But they worked, and Ace had his opportunity.

"I see it now, your weakness." Ace proclaimed, standing with a menacing glare.

"It's been obvious this whole time…" Ace continued.

"And I'm about to end this facade." Ace ended.