Chapter 48

Sean and the green haired girl went inside the student council President's office to see Carmella seated at her desk while a violet haired woman seated opposite to Carmella. Sean went and stood diagonal to Carmella while the green haired girl went towards the woman seated opposite of Carmella and said "Ms.Cornelia, it's been a while" while giving her a slight bow.

Sean remained in his place while observing the violet haired woman whom the green haired girl called Cornelia. Cornelia chuckled and said with a smile "Liliana, it's been a while. You have grown up. The last time I saw you, you still had the look of a girl and now you have become more beautiful. I bet you are popular amongst boys as well as girls. With your tom boyish disposition it wouldn't be a surprise if you had attracted more female admirers. Do you already have a boyfriend or perhaps a girlfriend?"

Cornelia continuously teased her to the point that she made Liliana blush, but quickly reined her emotions and said "Ms.Cornelia, in terms of beauty I am no where close to you or Ms.President. By the way, why are you here?" while skillfully avoiding the topic regarding whether she has a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Cornelia pouted as if dissatisfied of not getting any juicy information out of Liliana. Sean continued to observe the woman whom he considered to be from a very high status, a power woman who was used to the pressure of elites. Though currently she showed a playful disposition, Sean knew that she wasn't anywhere near playful and showed this side only to close associates.

Before Cornelia could answer Liliana's question, Carmella spoke with a smile "Before going into the details of the mission, first let me introduce the partner whom you are going to do the mission this time. He is Sean Walker, the boy who won this year's entrance test combat tournament. He had joined our Mercenary team just a few days back. You and Sean are going to be guarding Ms.Cornelia while she is going for shopping. Though I call this a guarding mission, you will only have to escort Ms.Cornelia to shopping district and bring her back to my mansion. Even if someone does try to hurt Ms.Cornelia it wouldn't be their main forces. The real mission will be starting from tomorrow where you both would be travelling with one of our elite teams to bring Ms.Cornelia back to Arcadia city".

Liliana frowned when she heard that she had to do a mission with a rookie first year who probably doesn't have any experience in any missions and being a straight spoken woman asked Carmella "Why are you allowing a kid to do a bodyguard mission and that too while we are guarding Ms.Carmella. What would you do if he messes up during the mission?".

Sean stayed silent while inwardly was also thinking about the reason for him being chosen for this mission,

"His skills have been vouched by Lucy and myself, So you don't have to worry about him being incompetent" said Carmella while inwardly thinking to herself 'Even I don't know how good he is, but according to Lucy, Sean slaughtered everyone singlehandedly in the VIP suite of Sapphire restaurant when they burnt it down. Well judging by Liliana's character, there is no way she would take my word for it, unless she experiences it herself. If my line of thinking is right, she would taunt Sean into having a spar with her. This is good. With this, I could see how good Sean Walker really is.

Cornelia stayed silent while also observing Sean for the first time as she heard Cornelia and Lucy having high opinion on this kid and frowned when she saw that he was only a third level warrior. 'Really, with this level how did he win the combat exam?' thought Cornelia.

Like Carmella had initially thought, Liliana did not believe in the judgement of Carmella and Lucy and proceeded to provoke Sean by saying "Hey kid, if you can survive my attacks for the next minute then I will allow you to do this mission with me. Of course, you can decline, but I would suggest you to return to your class of you decline as you would be unfit to perform this mission with me"

Sean stayed silent with his hand in his pocket while silently taking out a particular object from his system and kept it hidden inside his pocket while thinking 'Though I could defeat her using my gun, this is just a spar. We are not here to kill each other. That being said, a hand to hand combat against a level 7 warrior is an absolute disadvantage for me. I wouldn't last 10 seconds much less expecting to last 1minute of a level 7 warrior's onslaught. If a head-on fight is disadvantageous to me, then I have only one option left'.

Sean took a deep breath, removed his hand from his pocket and positioned himself in orthodox boxing position while taunting "Alright, but let's see whether you can last for a minute against me".

Sean taunted Liliana knowing full well that this would piss her off. Being an experienced mercenary she who used to taunts and trash talks would remain calm and cool headed, but this theory works only against fighters of similar calibre to her. However getting trash talked by a boy who was both younger and weaker than her made her pissed. This does not apply only to her as anyone who had achieved a certain level at such a young age generally tend to have great pride towards their accomplishment and if their ego gets rubbed then they would get pissed and start attacking recklessly to show off their power and this was the outcome Sean had wanted. If on the off chance Liliana stays calm and fights him while keeping her cool then this would be his loss. But it seemed like luck was on Sean's side as after hearing his taunt, Liliana lost her cool and started to rush at Sean while saying "Brat, I will break your bones for trash talking to me".

Sean waited in his position as he watched Liliana Cross the distance of 20 feet in under a second and was already on his striking zone making a large swing using her left hand to break Sean's guard which he had used to protect his face.

'Fast' thought Sean 'But because she lost her cool, she abandoned her technique and wanted to overpower me with power and speed. It would have worked if I was a normal level 3 warrior, but because of my genetic enhancement, my speed is equal to a peak level 5 warrior and my strength is equal to a level 6 warrior. Though only for a few seconds I can now dodge your attacks thanks to your recklessness' as Sean dodged her attack by pivoting his left leg towards his right making Liliana's punch slip past him on his left. This sudden movement caught Liliana off guard as her body went forward due to her large swing and the weight behind the punch made her loose balance, while Sean, from his sidestep towards his right had a wide open angle towards Liliana's left side and decided to capitalise this by throwing a sharp and compact punch towards her left temple, planning to finish her in this move.

'Shit' thought Liliana as she his fist coming towards her temple at high speed and brought her left palm which had just made a huge swing to block the punch while trying to move backward to escape from this range, however she felt herself stuck on the place and could not move her leg. Liliana looked down to see her foot being stamped on by Sean using his left leg, effectively blocking her path of retreat. Looking at this, Liliana tried to bring her other hand to block the punch which was already near her left palm which was currently blocking her face, but was too late as she felt a piercing punch on her palm which had enough power to break her guard and strike at her temple.

The punch left Liliana groggy as despite her palm blocking 60% of the power behind the punch, her head recieved the remaining 40%. This time it was Sean's turn to be shocked as he didn't expect her to block that punch from that position, however quickly recovered himself. Liliana quickly covered her face expecting to receive a barrage of punches on her face. However a sharp pain came from her abdomen as Sean punched her Solar plexus making air escape from her mouth. As she was groggy from receiving a punch near her temple from point blank range, Liliana could not react properly to the punch on her solar plexus nor could she retreat because of her toe being stamped by Sean. However these two strikes had made her wake up and take this fight seriously and quickly regrouped herself and sent a straight but compact and sharp punch filled with power of level 7 warrior hoping to make Sean retreat so that she could retreat and regroup for the next set of attacks. However since she sent the punch from a bent down position due to the strike in her solar plexus, she did not see Sean moving behind her using his footwork at full speed.

Liliana's punch met nothing but air and by the time she looked in front of her, there was no one. However Liliana felt danger from behind her and planned to send a kick towards her back, but it was already too late as she felt a sharp shock which numbed her entire body making her fall to her knees. Liliana looked behind despite the pain on her body and the numbing effect to see a black object having two prongs and blue electric sparks flying between them. Liliana tried to stand up but her knees were shaking and so we're her arms and watched Sean send a kick towards her face. Knowing that she could no longer block the kick, she just rolled to escape the blow, however she could no longer escape from the follow up punch and closed her eyes resigning herself to take the blow.

The pain which Liliana expected never came and opened her eyes to see Sean's fist inches away from her face. Sean gradually pulled his fist back and looked at Liliana saying "I think the result of the match is clear".

Liliana felt rage and bitterness but it was not directed towards Sean rather it was towards herself 'I lost, Am I an idiot. If I had maintained my composure when he taunted me and fought while maintaining my cool he would not have lasted for more than 20 seconds. Despite being a level 3 warrior, being able to win the championship in combat test against probably level 5 warriors from large clan is a testament to his strength. Have I become proud and careless just because I am considered to be an elite fighter and have won a few fights against other level 7 warriors? Looks like I need to change my mindset and start focusing on my training rather than reveling on my past glories'. Liliana took a deep breath and calmed herself and got up. There was a clapping sound from the back and the person who was clapping was Cornelia as she said " That was a good fight from both of you. With you both being my guards, I think my shopping would be much smoother", while inwardly thinking 'He actually had the entire match under his control. This boy's IQ in fighting is amazing and will definitely grow into a strong fighter in the future'.

Meanwhile Danny was walking towards his class after roaming around the campus to get himself familiar with the surrounding. Since he was busy observing the campus, Danny failed to notice that there was an abnormality in his shadow. His shadow was currently in blurry form and the cause of this was an emancipated figure who was walking behind Danny while maintaining a safe distance of 100 meters with an eye closed. Through this closed eye, the emancipated youth could see every movement of Danny and had a cold smile on his face as he selected Danny as his next victim and just thinking about the ritual he felt hot and his blood boiled as his other eye which was open turned red.