Chapter 20: A Small Spar [3]

My body seemed like it had disappeared into thin air, leaving streaks of blue afterimages from my glowing pupils.

"Woah, did you see that? They both disappeared!"

Dray had also activated Mana Manipulation, but ultimately, his speed was inferior to mine.

Before he could move from his spot, he was forced to raise his elbows in defence at superhuman reaction time and bare the forefront of a powerful kick from my shin.

My body was levitating in a slanted direction, increasing the heaviness of the kick.

"KGGHH"

Gritting his teeth, Dray managed to push away my leg from his elbows, by increasing the density of mana within his mana circuit. If he had not done so, the bones in his arm would have easily been shattered.

I decided to step back a bit to regain balance and think about my next move.

'So he could resist that?'

Aunt Mary had always told me to go in for a heavy kick to the face at the beginning of the fight, to surprise them, as well as let them know how dangerous my legs were. I could not count the number of times Aunt Mary had nearly blown my face off in the many duels we had.

The tactic she had ingrained within me was to always show your most powerful card first...

But to always keep a 'Jack of all Trades' hidden underneath.

Lunging forward, I slightly increased the density of mana near my shin, and ran towards him with my right foot slightly behind my left one, making it seem as if I was going in for a kick.

Dray was able to easily read the flow of mana exuding from my body, so he concentrated some mana near his arm in defence.

What he had not seen or anticipated, was the concentration of mana hiding in my fist, and travelling towards the side of his face in the form of a left hook.

With a cold and merciless look, I stared down the eyes of Dray, boring my glowing eyes down his soul.

All living creatures lived in this world where it was to kill or be killed, and humans had developed an instinct to certain death as a result of this.

Dray was feeling this emotion at this moment in time.

By accident, I had let out a hint of intense bloodlust, and now Dray was fixated in fear. His eyes were clouded from the anticipation of death and he was now probably having his flashback of life being played to him by the Grim Reaper.

Within a millisecond, I realised what I was doing and closed off the tap of my murderous intent. The problem was, my arm had already started swinging, and there was no chance of fully stopping its momentum, without snapping a few of my tendons in the first place.

Dray was going to die.

My brain went into overdrive, trying to gradually slow down the force of my punch, and even though I had succeeded in slowing it down a fair bit, with the concentration of mana lingering near my arm, there was still the foreboding situation of where I would kill a student by crushing his face within.

I couldn't just remove the mana staying there as well, because if I did, with the force of my moving hand, I would break some of my own bones on impact, and it would not be the wisest of ideas to break both of our bones with one punch.

I could use my magic spell, but it would instantly be caught by the instructors, as it would look like I had just teleported back in time.

Slowly, my fist inched closer and closer and I had given up on saving the situation anymore.

BOOM.

The sound of my fist making impact left a sonic boom, and the wind pressure that was created blew the hairs off the audience watching.

'Shit.'

As the dust that was created on impact cleared away, it revealed the hand of one of the instructors, who had placed the palm of their left hand to halt my punch.

Their hands and legs were coated in thick mana, and they stood there in the same position for a few seconds, letting a drop of sweat fall from their head.

"Phew... That was close..." said the instructor.

I looked up into the eyes of the man and saw him letting out a small grin.

"I know I told you guys to hold a show, but there was no need to go all out."

The instructor started to shake off the force of the punch, which had seemed to still damage him even through the thick coat of mana.

'All out? I had reduced the force of the punch by a milestone.'

My mana manipulation produced results much stronger than a normal human should have been able to, and I could now tell that it was able to raise my strength stat to at most a 'C' level, given that I was able to damage an instructor with a bit more than half strength.

"I will pronounce the victor of this battle Ray Steelheart, due to the opponent being unable to continue."

Dray was petrified unconscious and rushed to the medical facility for some treatment.

"Bruh, of course, the Steelheart would win, who in their right mind would think that the Rubyheart would?"

"That was a bit overkill don't you think?"

"Yeah, he didn't need to try killing him to show his strength."

The opinions of the audience were changed as soon as they had witnessed what had happened.

To them, it looked like the relentless beatdown of a Rubyheart, not even letting him give one attack to the opponent, and leaving him unconscious.

'How stupid. Their opinions were all positive and curious before, and now they all are scared or disgusted by me.'

I thought about how fickle the hearts of humans were, turning on someone as soon as they won't be the person they were expected to be.

At the end of all this, however, I could not care less.

Reputation doesn't mean anything to me, and I had already learned a few things from this fight.

I was not nearly strong enough. I wanted to control my body. So much so that I would have been able to stop my punch whenever I wanted to.

This is what strength meant to me.

I was now walking back to the locker rooms and met with Arthur, Ren and Damian.

"Yo, how was the match? Did you win?" asked Ren.

"I did."

"Nice!" said Arthur.

Arthur looked like he had now recovered after he had been placed in an ice pack for his shoulder after going to the medics.

The lesson time had also just finished, and we were free to do what we wanted for the rest of the day.

"Yes, so, are they going to be doing the next round from the tournament bracket in the next lesson?"

"Yeah, so apparently, they have changed plans and it is going to be a 60-person free for all. Including magic and weapons. They had told us that there were too many people for a long tournament, and so this would be much more efficient for them."

"Are they allowed to just change plans halfway like that?"

"I mean, Professor Rebecca is the one organising this, and I don't think she has fully planned the whole thing out. Anyway, this would be a really good chance for me to use magic!" said Arthur.

"Ready to use your big shield, 'Mr. Captain America'?" teased Ren.

"Not funny dude."

A few seconds after, all of us received a notification on our watch.

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○ PLEASE ARRIVE AT THE MAIN TRAINING GROUNDS READY FOR THE NEXT LESSON.

○ READ THE EXPLANATION OF THE EVENT BELOW

Students will bring their chosen weapon, and be given access to magic in a 60-person free for all match. Everyone will be given a special defence item, capable of protecting the wearer from death as a one-time use. Students will need to 'kill' other students, in any way available.

After the student has died, they will be teleported out of the enclosed arena for spectating. The aim is to remain as the last man standing.

This event will be useful for gaining familiarity with your weapon before private group lessons begin, which have been delayed until the lesson after the next one.

This will also give you a real-life experience of what the battlefield is like, where there is always a chance of death.

______

"Oh wow, so this is going to be a real-life experience huh?" said Ren.

"Cooool, this is gonna be exciting!" said Arthur.

"What was the point of the mini-tournament, if they were gonna do this anyway?" I asked.

"Uhmm, guys, if this is free for all, doesn't this mean... we might have to also attack each other?"

"Oh."