Toying with the ranking

"Number one," the old man said and then pointed directly at Jack.

This dumbfounded the whole group.

Actually, most people in the top 10 would avoid fighting Jack as long as it wasn't compulsory. They, in a way, had fear of him, and at the same time, they respected him. He had fought for their glory and honor against the scouts representative and had defeated him, so why wouldn't they respect him?

But on the other hand, there was young master Yun's sister.

The young master Yun himself was very strong and they all knew it because they had all clashed with him at least once. They knew he was a pompous asshole who wanted everyone to respect him, but no one could argue about his power.

He was powerful, but his sister was much more powerful than he was, so it surprised them that she wasn't chosen as number one. They didn't say that Jack didn't deserve it, but it still seemed a bit unnatural to them.

But that was only the beginning.

"Number two," the old man said, and then pointed his finger at another young man.

This time, when he did that, a cunning smile slowly appeared on his face.

"What?" Frank looked dumfounded.

Yes, that's right The person he chose as number two was Frank. This turn of events not only shocked Frank, it also shocked everyone in the crowd, Jake and Joey included.

But for some reason, Jack didn't seem fazed at all.

His expression looked like he was saying "it's only natural."

When Frank saw this, he smiled, not for the reason the others in the crowd were thinking,

He knew Jack.

Jack was secretly gloating in his head as the old man seemingly valued his talent more than Franks.

...…

The people in the crowd had frowns on their faces.

"Is this old man for real?" they thought.

Most didn't believe that Frank was qualified for that position, mainly because of the young master, Yun's sister.

Yes, Frank had reached a bit of a stalemate with the young master Yun as he had managed to stop his sneak attack, but you have to remember that the young master Yun was also not as powerful as his sister.

So for jack and frank to take the top two spots was very surprising to them all at the very least

In the corner, the young master, Yun, was fuming.

"Why wasn't it me?" he thought.

He had been waiting for an opportunity to show up his sister for the longest time. She had always been a pain in his ass. He just wanted revenge.

"Number 3" The old man pointed and his hand landed on the young master, Yun's sister.

She was calm, Jack, Frank, and everyone expected her to be angry, but she was unusually calm at this time.

She, who was ready to eat the four of them up when they attacked her brother, was calm. She was clearly hiding her rage for sure.

The old man didn't waste a lot of time before calling out the fourth person.

The fourth person was the youth with red and messy hair.

The whole group could now affirm that the old man was indeed messing with them. The kid with messy hair was a virtual nobody, with no feats to speak of. He was virtually a ghost. How could he be stronger than the young master Yun?

But

The young master, Yun, didn't seem surprised though. This time his face was filled with anger.

The red-haired youth was actually strong and he knew it. Unlike the rest, he was informed, that's not what pissed him off. What pissed him off was that he had completely forgotten about the red-haired youth and now he had been pushed to number 5.

"Number 5" The old man pointed out again, and once again he picked someone unexpected.

Joey

"This is not fair. You are being biased." The young master, Yun, couldn't take it anymore and flew into a rage.

He was tired of the old man messing around with him, but most of all, he was afraid of what his father would do to him if he found out that his sister was ranked that much higher than him In the rankings

"Hm?" The old man glared at the young master, Yun, fiercely.

"insolent child" The old man's voice echoed, and as soon as it did so, a heavy pressure weighed down on the young master Yun suddenly.

"Arg" The young master Yun had no choice but to get on his knees as the old man's pressure was just too powerful.

The old man's eyes slowly drifted away from the young master Yun, as if too lazy to pursue the matter further.

"Number 6," he said flatly while pointing at the young master, Yun, with his hands.

He didn't look at him though; he now despised him.

The old man continued giving rankings to the candidates until he pointed at the last person.

And that was Jake.

This disappointed Jake a lot. The rest of his friends were so much higher than he was. Unlike the rest, he didn't think the old man just chose them on a whim, so you could imagine how he felt.

The ninth was Gertrude, and number eight was some youth with bulging muscles. He was huge but also very agile. He dominated all his opponents during his matches, and number seven was wilder.

....

On the platform, nine young men and one fierce-looking lady stood at attention facing a bunch of officers.

"We will begin from the back." The old man sitting in front of them said with a cough,

Jake understood, so he stepped forward.

"Is there anyone who you think is standing in the position you should be in?" The old man asked

"Yes sir," Jake bellowed.

Of course, he wanted to fight. He hadn't used his full strength yet, so he believed he had a fighting chance. He wanted to prove himself not only to the old man but to his friends. If not, he would never hear the end of it.

"Okay, you may challenge anyone here," the old man said flatly.

"him" Jake pointed to the eighth position.

He didn't fear the man's build nor did he fear his agility. He would beat him and that was what he was determined to do. As to why he didn't fight against Gertrude was quite simple.

They were friends and he didn't want it to become sour. Their relationship wasn't the same as that with himself and Frank.

And soon they were facing each other in front of the old man.

"You think you can defeat me?" The bulky guy asked with a smirk on his face.

He clearly didn't value Jake in the slightest and thought that he could defeat him on a whim.

Jake didn't reply to him though, he just took a fighting stance and readied himself for a fight.

"Hold on." The old man's voice suddenly echoed

"Do not injure your opponent too much." The old man continued

But to everyone's surprise, they saw that he was referring to Jake.

The crowd could only grumble.

"You were the one who ranked him as 10th. If you knew that he was stronger, then why did you make him number 10?" They kind of thought collectively

The old man was messing with them. But the cadets knew that the main culprit that made the old man behave as such was seated at the back of the crowd having lunch.

Yes, the old man wouldn't be coordinating this if not for Arthur's insistence and this pissed the old man off.

"Okay, you may begin." The old man's voice echoed, suddenly cutting off the line of thought for the crowd.

As soon as his voice echoed, Jake's opponent started dashing towards him.

He was enraged that the old man had humiliated him in front of everyone.

"What is so special about you that makes him think you could possibly beat me?" He thought during his dash

And soon he arrived before Jake and started raining down a volley of punches.

"fire-bird dance" Jake activated his skill and dodged with maximum accuracy.

The exchanges became intense The bulky youth did all he could to try and land a punch on Jake, but Jake would only dodge everything that came his way.

At this point, he was getting frustrated.

When his opponent saw that his punches weren't coming close to even hitting Jake, he decided to change strategies.

He jumped back.

In that brief moment, the bulky youth threw himself at Jake and tackled him to the ground.

Jake struggled to get free, but the more he struggled, the tighter the bulky youth grip became.

"Aghhhh," Jake screamed.

This startled Frank and the others.

They became worried. It seemed like Jake no longer had control over the situation.

Until

"Raging fist first rapid," Jake punched the bulky youth in the ribs.

"Arghh!" The punch was hurtful, but he held on tight.

"Raging fists second rapid" --this time Jake aimed for the head.

As the bulky youth saw this, he quickly let go and moved back.

"That would have been fatal," he thought.

They were both staring at each other at this point.

Jake was holding his belle and the bulky youth was doing the same to his left rib cage area.