Prodigy

Ardere stared at Kenji as he looked at his surroundings.

The student was still struggling to pull himself away from Kenji's grasp, and as a last ditch effort mustered the last of his Mana to lite kenji's uniform on fire.

Kenji looked back to the student and punched him in his already beaten face knocking him out. Kenji dropped the boy and patted down the small flame on his arm.

Ardere looked around the room and realised everyone's attention was on Ardere and Kenji.

Ardere looked to the student on the ground and noticed the blood on Kenji's knuckles.

"What are you doing!" She whispered to Kenji with a snap in her voice.

"Well...believe it or not I didn't want it to come to this." Kenji gestured to the boy on the ground.

Ardere looked around the room and noticed almost everyone that was watching before went back to doing their own thing. Fights were common in the school and students almost never cared.

"Can you tell me why this happened then?" Ardere said

"Well I was a bit irritated looking for anyone who might have skipped class, and when I found them i was going to blackmail them for some information."

"So then why is he on the ground covered in wounds?" Ardere pointed to student.

"The bastards had the balls to try and shut me up, too bad they couldn't fight to save their lives"

Arderes eyes widened as she just realised what he said.

"Wait you killed them?!"

Kenji looked Ardere in the eyes for a moment wondering if she was serious.

"what? no, I didn't kill them. That was an idiom."

"what?"

"Seriously you would think a noble would read a book or two in her life." Kenji whispered to himself.

"Look it doesn't matter the other two are in the exact same shape as him." Kenji said pointing to

the boy on the floor.

Ardere looked at the student and realized what Kenji had said.

"Wait, your saying you fought three students without magic and your basically unharmed."

This gave Ardere hope since now that Kenji had experience fighting other Demons then maybe he could put in more work then she initially thought in the upcoming fight.

"Yeah, it wasn't difficult to knock them all down. The first two went up and held me while he tried hitting me with some kind of green energy. All I had to do was overpower them and moved them in the way of their own spells."

Ardere looked to the boy on the ground and her smile faded as she heard what Kenji said. The spell he described was called 'Focus Blast' it was a spell used at the beginner level to help students learn how to focus their mana into a ball and blast it at their intended target. Later after mastering this student would learn to put elements into their attacks and it would then increase their power.

Ardere looked to the boy on the ground and remembered how he touched Kenji in order to start a flame. The students Kenji fought were likely at the basic level, only capable of using the Focus Blast and unable to add an element to it. Even Ardere with her small Mana pool was at the intermediate level.

...

Melodi looked in awe as Ardere argued with the boy she had met earlier. The spell was supposed to bring her summon to her and now right in front of them was a boy. It didn't' make sense, summons were magic beasts and yet here was a boy.

Despite the blood on his knuckles and the student on the floor Melodi couldn't help but blush. She had never felt this way before, no one ever made Melodi feel this way before.

Her parents made a hefty profit from the luxurious clothes they sold; so many boys had tried to catch her attention so one day they could become her betrothed.

Melodi never gave any of these boys a thought since she knew their intentions and all the girls in her city that knew of her despised her saying she must think that she was too good for any of the boys that came to her instead of going to them.

Despite all the presents the boys would get her or the attention she was given no one ever gave thought of her as a person and only as a way into the money her parents had accumulated.

Melodi knew the boy in front of her wasn't a magic beast, but somehow he was still a summon and since he was contracted to Ardere she could build a relationship with the two and finally have some people she could call friends.

"Well did you at least find out what Ian's summon was, this will probable get us in trouble for fighting before the idle period was over so i hope this wasn't in vain."

Kenji walked up to the towels that the Ardere had and wiped the blood off his knuckles.

"Yeah he has a black wolf."

Ardere brought her hand to her chin as she thought about it for a moment.

"I know of the black wolf, but not about its abilities i'll have to do some research before the battle."

"Okay you do that."

Kenji looked to the boy on the ground and went to pick him up. Kenji lifted him on his shoulder with ease and began walking off.

"Where are you going?" Ardere asked.

"I don't have a grudge against the poor bastards i just didn't like how they decided to jump me like that. Im going to take them to Vincent and i'll be back soon enough."

Ardere couldn't believe what he had said, she had Kenji pinned for the type of person that left his victims to suffer where they lay while he went off to do his own thing.

While Ardere was in disbelief Melodi was in awe. Kenji was strong enough to lift the student with ease and had enough care that he was going to take all the boys to the infirmary. It was something only someone with a truly kind heart would do and Melodi knew Kenji was Kind.

While Kenji left the training hall with a body on his back like he had done so several times before Ardere began speaking with Melodi again.

"Please forgive Kenji he is a bit different from the other Summons."

Melodi leaned forward and grabbed Arderes hands.

"So that was your Summon!"

Melodi said with sparkles in her eyes

"He's amazing, He's so strong he fought three basic tier Mages on his own and he doesn't even have a scratch on him, and he's even kind enough to get those Mages medical attention. Ardere I am not surprised that you would Summon such and amazing being to become your....what is he to you?"

Melodi had such joy in her tone when she first began speaking, but as she said those last words her tone became more shy.

Ardere thought for a moment. The relationship between Master and Summon is technically a partnership as stated by the contract however it's more like a commander and his soldier.

However Kenji made it perfectly clear that he did not want to be treated as someone below her so their situation was indeed a partnership.

"Kenji is my partner; It is quite unfortunate, but that is the way it has been decided."

Melodi's heart sank for a moment. Ardere was a noble so it would make sense that she was to have an arranged marriage, but to her Summon was unexpected.

"So you are to marry him?" Melodi said with a sad undertone.

Arderes looked Melodi in the eyes before bursting out laughing.

"Oh no you got it wrong. we are not in a relationship he is just my contracted partner."

Arderes explanation lifted Melodi's spirit and she decided to laugh it off.

"Well how about we start training then." Ardere said.

"How would you like to do this then?"

Ardere looked towards the doll that Kenji had thrown to the ground earlier.

"I have an idea."

...

Kenji had spent about an hour carrying the students to the infirmary. Despite how strong he was carrying two people was a bit mich for him since he didn't want to drop them while he was heading down the several flight of stairs.

Once all the students were in the infirmary Kenji decides to head back to the training hall.

Upon arriving Ardere and Melodi were sweating profusely and gasping for air as they sat on the bench.

"What happened to you two?" Kenji said.

Ardere barely had any energy to look up at Kenji before pointing to the doll that was still activated.

[Level 2 Magic Training Failed]

[Would You Like To Try Again]

Melodi noticed Kenji and blushed a little and couldn't help, but feel embarrassed he was seeing her in such a state.

"Moving...and performing magic...is difficult..."

Ardere spoke taking breaths in between every other word, trying to catch her breath.

"Damn all that magic training and you don't even have any stamina."

Ardere just looked down to the floor at the comment.

"Why don't you try fighting it again. its no use if you don't get any training in."

Kenji looked to the doll and walked forward.

[No Mana Detected]

[Would You Like To Switch Battle Modes?]

"yes."

[Please select a battle mode]

"Hand to hand combat."

[Hand to hand combat has been registered. please select a difficulty]

Kenji looked to Ardere.

"Do you know how many levels there are?"

Ardere was still out of breath so instead of speaking she just held up ten fingers.

"Level six"

[Level confirmed]

[Beginning Battle Sequence]

The doll began moving again, but this time it held up four of its arms protecting its self from multiple sides while Kenji widened his stance and brought his hands up to protect himself.

In an instant and without warning the doll shot forward using one of its arms to attack Kenji and Kenji blocked the attack as the second fist came out and Kenji moved out of the way.

The attacks were fast and precise and all Kenji did was move out of the way and block the attacks until the doll attacked with its right hand and Kenji moved parried the attack and moved it in the way of the dolls other hand.

Kenji then attacked for the first time aiming for the dolls head. The attack almost connected before the doll used uts spare hand to grab kenji's hand and attacked Kenji with its left arm.

Kenji moved his head back just far enough for the attack to miss and grabbed the dolls head with his free hand and lifted himself up intending to knee the doll in the head before the dolls last free hand stopped the attack and pushed his leg back creating distance between the two.

Kenji stared at the doll for a second and smiled.

Ardere was in awe at the level of skill that Kenji had. She couldn't believe he had managed to get out of such a tough situation.

Then Kenji widened his stance again and lifted his arms up to protect himself. It was almost the exact same stance as before, but it was slightly different and Ardere couldn't figure out why.

Then once again the doll shot forward cocking its arm back ready to attack before Kenji pushed forward matching the doll and clashing.

Kenji had managed to knock the dolls fist completely off course and Kenji shifted his weight and spun around building momentum and kicked the doll, but the attacked didn't connect again and the doll had used two arms to grab Kenji's leg.

Kenji then pulled himself back trying to throw the doll off balance with his weight and the doll let go.

Kenji caught himself and widened his stance once again except he didn't raise his arms in the same defensive position as before and instead only raised them up to about his waist.

Then once again Kenji rushed forward except this time he didn't have a smile, instead he looked bored.

Just as Kenji was about to swing his fist he instead directed it to the ground and twisted his body swinging his leg towards the doll. The force that he exerted was powerful and when the doll blocked his attack it had used two hands once again, but Kenji was too fast this time and the doll couldn't hold onto his leg.

Once again without a second thought Kenji attacked. Swinging his body around and lifting his leg he aimed for the dolls head.

The doll dodged this attack and counter attacked. Kenji jumped around and the fight went on like this for a minute. The doll would either block the attack or dodge and when the doll tried attacking Kenji would jump around constantly moving never giving the doll a chance to attack.

The fight was impressive to Ardere as each attack Kenji delivered was acrobatic with almost every attack being performed with a flip, but something about the way Kenji was fighting was almost like a dance.

Every attack he delivered or dodged he would jump around and move about with so much speed it seemed unreal, but one thing he never did was use his hands. Kenji only ever used his hands to move about and wouldn't use them to attack; it was a completely different fighting style and just watching the way Kenji was moving made Ardere feel drained and exhausted.

"How can he have so much stamina?"

Kenji picked up the pace and didn't give the doll any chance to attack and just kept attacking relentlessly with no particular pattern to each attack it was impossible for Ardere to predict where he might attack next, until finally Kenji had a perfect opening and swept the dolls foot and as the doll tried to regain its balance kenji followed it up with a roundhouse kick to the head and the doll fell to the floor with a loud crack as the wooden doll hit the padded floor.

[Level 6 Battle Complete]

It was an amazing fight Kenji had worked up quite the sweat, but he seemed dissatisfied the way things turned out. Ardere walked up to Kenji.

"What's wrong you won."

"It was a boring fight; the damn things like a robot its attack patterns are too easy to read. It just got boring after the first minute of fighting the thing it was like fighting an NPC. Even though its attacks were fast and strong it couldn't have won against anyone who was ever in an actual life or death fight before."

Ardere was amazed, Kenji could see a pattern in the dolls movements and not only that he actually kept up with its speed, strength and endless stamina.

"That reminds me, halfway through the fight you changed your fighting style. How did you do that?"

"What do you mean how? it's not hard to change the way you fight its like changing the way you play video games. It all depends on what you want the outcome to be."

"I'm sorry I don't understand."

"Oh, right i'm still in a fever dream. Don't worry about it just know I can do it."

"It seems too unreal to believe, how can you have mastered two different fighting styles. I've only heard of people fighting using one."

"Okay first of all i used three different fighting styles, but two of them were very similar. Second of all it's definitely not unheard of for someone to learn a second fighting style, but it is a very dumb thing to do."

"When I was learning how to fight I was told that you needed to Master one fighting style before you could even attempt another, otherwise you just end up doing everything wrong. However learning just one fighting style often takes years upon years of practice so people tend not to practice another for fear of forgetting how to properly fight using the first one they learned."

"Then how can you possibly fight three different ways." Ardere asked

"I'm what you would call a prodigy. Someone gifted with natural talents at birth, but that doesn't mean I never trained. When it comes to fighting everything I know has been carved into my head. Quite forcefully i might add."

"Then you can fight multiple ways? but why would you ever want to do that it seems like it would be a waste of energy."

"In more ways than one you're right, but i fight multiple ways to avoid the exact same thing that happened to that doll, when your faced with someone who is stronger than you and can read your moves like a book you need to get creative or else you're screwed."

"Who could ever be so amazing that they could take someone down so easily."

Kenji just stared at Ardere for a moment before Melodi came up to Kenji and offered him a towel.

"Thanks." Kenji said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead and around his neck; opening his shirt a bit to get his upper chest as well.

Melodi's face flushed and she turned around and hid her embarrassment behind Ardere

'Damn did I scare her or something?' Kenji thought as he saw the girl turn around quickly and move behind Ardere.

"So i have to ask; what kind of fighting style was that? The one you used to win the fight."

"That one was called Capoeira."

"I'm sorry Capo-what?"

"Capoeira. It was a fighting style meant to be thought of as a dance since the people who practiced it didn't want others to know it was actually a way for them to rise up and escape slavery. I say was because now it's actually used as a dance performed with music and an audience, though some still use it as a self defence."

"Wow that's incredible"

"Not really. Only Humans can find a way to piss each other off enough to the point where everyone has found a way to secretly build an army of lethal fighters."

Ardere could only imagine the history of Kenji's people. Demons had their fair share of wars between other races, like the dwarves or the Anilaks, but mostly experienced peace within their country.

"Your people seem very proficient in war." Ardere said.

Kenji hung the towel around his neck and looked at Ardere.

"You have no clue."