Chapter 32: The Duel (1)

[Who is the mysterious person fighting chaos energy? No one in history has ever been able to manipulate space or get rid of chaos energy! Can we say the birth of a genius?]

[Breaking News: According to reports, the young man fighting terrorists is named Cale Rayne. He is sixteen years old and is currently a student at the Hoop Academy, the number one school in the humanitarian field. According to available data, he currently has a grade of D+. Such a high ranking at such a young age draws the attention of many to Cale Rayne...]

-Click!

Cale turned off the TV as he sat in his room watching the latest news. Yesterday morning he had disappeared in full view of everyone and worked there until the evening, activating his ability, the Mirror World. When he returned to the academy in the evening, luckily it was late and he was able to get in without anyone seeing him.

As Cale was entering his dormitory building, one of the instructors stopped him and told him that he had automatically moved to the first place in the rank order and led him to the Golden Lion building.

Cale, at a loss for words, dutifully followed him and settled into his room in the dormitory for the top ten students.

Even among the top ten students, his room was quite exclusive. In such a luxurious room, Cale's favorite thing was definitely the fact that he had his own training room, which was tough up to S level.

Sighing as he was already dressed and ready in his uniform, he stood up and left his room. Although he was worried about what was going to happen next, there was nothing he could do.

By now the whole world knew about his talent. His work continued to ripple through the human world. Cale also knew that its impact would not be limited to the human world.

Even if the races didn't get along, they could go where each other were because of the trade that took place between them. He was sure that the other races now in the human world had reported the news to their own side.

As disadvantageous as it may seem, he knew that it actually had many advantages. Now that he was in the public eye, he could protect himself and his ability. He would not become easy prey.

Since everyone wanted him on their side, they would inevitably put themselves at risk to protect him. Of course, there would be those who wanted to kill him, but Cale would take care of them.

When he entered his classroom, he immediately felt countless stares directed at him. Cale had prepared himself for this, so he ignored the stares and took his usual seat in the back row.

As he took his seat, he could hear the whispers of worried looks, even though he didn't want to. He didn't even need to heighten his senses for that.

"Is that him?"

"Has he really been hiding his power all this time?"

"I can't believe he fooled everyone!"

"He must have deliberately not fought back when he was attacked. Otherwise, with such a talent, he would have easily blocked that needle mace."

They were talking about Terry and Nevil's attack.

"Maybe he wanted to cause trouble!"

"It could be that he's an attention whore!"

"Tsk, people make too much of it. I'm sure the Union overestimated his ability. They're trying to make up for their own failures with this incident!"

"Then how do you explain him being a D+?"

Cale ignored the whispers and turned his head to look out the window. The snow was falling in flakes and he couldn't help feeling tired.

His right hand was still black from the chaos energy and so he continued to wear his black gloves on his hands.

'Somehow it doesn't seem to be healing'

Chaos energy healed different wounds, but wounds of the same energy either did not heal or healed very slowly.

'Maybe it's so slow that I don't notice it'

Cale wished with all his heart that it would be this way. He couldn't hide his hand forever. With all eyes on him, anything different about him would draw attention to himself.

He turned his gaze away from the window when he heard someone settle next to him. He frowned when he saw Dante sitting next to him, expressionless.

"What, you're not allowed to sit here?" he sighed as Dante smiled wryly.

"Do what you want," he said, turning around and resting his head on the table.

"Hey, are you okay?" he turned his head on his arms to look at Dante who was looking at him seriously.

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking if you're okay with your face all over the place?" he asked, a small smile forming on Cale's face.

"Why? Were you worried about me?" he asked sarcastically, and Dante scowled and grunted.

"Why would I be worried after seeing your power with my own eyes?"

"By the way..." he paused and Dante turned to him with a questioning expression. "If you're not busy this weekend, there's something I want to talk to you about."

Cale had asked Dante who the Black King was before the Union took him and had gotten no answer. He had a guess, of course, but it was important to hear it from Dante, who knew more about him.

"Don't you resent me for taking your ranking?" Cale asked curiously. Dante glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, a look of contempt on his face.

"I don't let an unnecessary ranking limit me."

Cale's ranking went up to one and Dante's dropped to second.

"Wow! You guys draw so much attention when you're standing next to each other!"

Cale saw Amaris approaching them, a mocking gleam in her yellow eyes.

"I feel like a circus monkey," Dante grumbled.

"Shouldn't you be used to that?"

"It's still annoying," he grumbled.

"Whatever," Amaris said, her eyes darting back and forth between the two of them as she ignored him. "In two months, the Academy Races will be here at the Hoop. You know that, right?"

"The Academy Races?"

"Yes, it's an annual competition that pits the most talented students against each other. It includes group and individual games and determines the most successful school. Hoop Academy has been in first place for years."

"Ha!" Cale sighed. "And now this."

"Better prepare yourself," Amaris grinned. "You'll be the first one they'll pick when everyone's paying attention."

"That's right, everyone is curious about the way he fights," Felix said as he and Hope went forward and sat down next to Amaris. As the two of them greeted her, Cale remained cautious and surprised that Felix, whom he was speaking to for the first time, was so friendly to him. When the lesson started, they remained silent and listened like everyone else.

***

Lunch time; 12:30 Dining Hall

Cale blinked at the student standing in front of him, wearing the same uniform. Cale swallowed his mouthful when the student pointed at him and shouted.

"Cale Rayne, I challenge you to a fight!"

Cale looked questioningly at Dante, Amaris, Hope and Felix sitting next to him and frowned as he saw them laughing under their breath.

The student, puffing out his chest with pride in his head, raised his voice a little louder. There were not only first years in the lunch hall, but also second and third years. The fourth years would not be at the academy until the academy competitions, as they had a monster-hunting mission in the dungeon.

Cale tried to remember the student's name but without success. However, he remembered that he was in the top thirty.

Although Cale couldn't remember, this student's name was Matt Ster. His ranking was thirty-five and he was one of those who did not believe in Cale's power, which had been in the news since yesterday.

How could he believe it when he knew that Cale's ranking was 1940? He thought, like everyone else, that the Union had glorified his talent.

Chaos energy was an extremely dangerous force, but he couldn't believe that someone so low in rank could handle it.

Manipulating space? He would have laughed at that. Such powers were legendary, and Matt knew that even if such a skill existed, it wouldn't go to someone from the streets like him.

That's why he was going to use this opportunity to crush him. He knew it was the duty of every noble to put him in his place.

Besides, he believed that if he could expose her lie, he would get a big reward himself. Matt looked at Cale with fire in his eyes.

"Do you accept or not?"

Cale took another spoonful of his food. Matt was annoyed by his gesture but said nothing. No one moved until Cale finished eating.

Everyone expected him to accept the duel, but they watched with empty eyes as he continued to eat with indifference. When Cale finished everyone was looking at him for an answer.

"Are you refusing?" Matt looked at him sarcastically. "Maybe you're scared? You thought I'd use the food as an excuse to leave, but I don't give up easily! Challenge me to a duel."

Cale stood up and Matt stood in front of him. "Are you running away? Don't be afraid, I'll be nice to you," he said and a few people giggled.

"No, I accept," he said, tilting his head to the side and smiling. "We're not going to fight here, are we?"

***

"Did you hear that? Cale Rayne and Matt Ster are gonna duel!"

"The whole school is going to the arena in C block!"

"Wait for me, I'll be there!"

"I'm so excited!"

After Cale's answer, everyone went to the big arena in C block. Those who were in the mess hall informed those who were not. Oddly enough, even the instructors had taken their places in the arena to see this duel.

The presence of Diane Reinhart, the head of the academy, who was barely visible to everyone, caused the students to whisper among themselves.

The two students standing opposite each other were getting everyone's hearts racing with excitement for the duel that was about to begin.

"I didn't think you would accept my duel. Someone as lowly as you should have realized you couldn't beat me and run away without looking back. Today I'm going to show everyone what a fraud you are-"

Matt blushed furiously as Cale yawned in front of him. "Do you underestimate me?"

"Hey!" Cale raised his hand, silencing Matt with that gesture. "Can't you understand that I don't want to listen to your useless sentences?"

"What?"

"Stop talking like a third-rate villain and make your move," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Are you ready?" Cale nodded to the instructor. Matt disappeared as the instructor started the duel.

When Matt appeared very close to Cale and swung his greatsword, Cale raised his hand and stopped it before it touched him.

As the sound of surprise filled the turbines, everyone watched as Cale, in one move, sent Matt flying meters into the air.

Cale disappeared before their eyes, and they appeared where Matt had been. Some of the people who saw this thought it was teleportation, but those who were more knowledgeable saw that it was a single step over a long distance.

He kicked Matt, who was in mid-air. When Matt fell hard to the ground with the impact, a crater formed in the center of the arena due to the force around him.

As Matt stood in the center of the crater, silence filled the arena. No one understood what had happened.

Is the duel over?

So fast?

All Cale did was stop the attack and kick Matt. How could it have been so simple?

All the people who were eager for the duel were disappointed because they wanted to see more. One of them was Diane Reinhart.

"That was a pretty boring show," she said, her voice ringing out across the field. Her eyes looked at Cale like a hawk. "I expected a better performance from you."

Cale didn't understand what the woman was trying to do as she looked down on him from above.

"If you don't mind, I would like a better duel for the enjoyment of all these people gathered here."

The whole arena erupted in shouts as the students responded enthusiastically to her cheerful voice.

"Why don't you have a duel with Damien?" Diane asked when Cale saw Damien staring at him expressionlessly from the edge of the arena. "He already accepted my offer. You will too, won't you?"

Cale saw Diane's sly smile. She thought she had Cale cornered, but all this was meaningless to Cale. So he agreed.

"I accept," Diane's smile grew as the turbines roared again.

"Then let the duel begin!"

Diane and Cale continued to stare at each other as the students in the arena shouted with excitement.