Strategic Gambits Part One

The tenth round of the Grava Academy tournament is going to start in three minutes. After his battle, Wayne went directly to the student stands to watch the next match.

Wayne arrives at the stands and sits with Kage and Unknown.

"What's good Wayne! That match with Fred was cool as hell, but gotta admit, pretending to be out for the count is kind of pussy!"

Unknown punches Kage in the arm.

"You realize he's a level zero right? Let him fight any way he chooses!"

Kage punches Unknown in the head.

"So what! I was just making an observation, and don't hit me bitch!"

"I will if I want to!"

Kage and Unknown start punching each other over and over again.

Wayne takes a seat next to them.

"Fighting like usual, I see."

Lex lands on the top of Wayne's head.

"Oh, there you are, Lex. Did you enjoy my match?"

"Grrr!"

Wayne picks Lex up and puts him on his lap.

"You think Paul is going to win. I heard Feltzes has a powerful ability."

"Grr!"

"Yeah, you're right; there's no way Paul would lose."

In the waiting area on the left side of the battlefield, Feltzes is sitting in a chair, waiting to be called onto the battlefield. Feltzes is currently deep in thought.

"They really made my first match against Paul the level one demon. I know he is proficient in all the core level-one techniques. He also has a high battle IQ, from what Marfumi told me."

Chika walks into the waiting room.

"I'm guessing you are still strategizing on how you're going to fight Paul."

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm doing."

"I've never seen you think so hard about a fight before. Usually, you're all like, "No need; I will win with my power."

"Well, the opponent I'm about to fight beat Marfumi, who can move at light speed. Also in the survival round, I fought this guy named Alexander, and he used his powers to find out my ability and escaped, which means I failed to beat him. These opponents we are facing are strong, and I must be able to overcome them if I want to protect you."

Chika points to Feltzes's shoe.

"There's a mark on your shoe."

Feltzes becomes annoyed by Chika's statement.

"That's not important right now, Chika!"

"Hehe, look at your face. You look like a maniac. Stop worrying about me and all those small details; just go out there and do your best."

"Coming out of the left corner is Feltzes!"

After hearing Mr.Brown's announcement, Fletzes gets up to go to the field.

"Trying my best isn't enough; I'm going to win."

"Hehe! Good luck!"

Feltzes looks back at Chika and smiles.

On the battlefield, Feltzes walks to the middle.

"Now from the right corner is Paul!"

As Paul walks out, the crowd starts to chant his name.

"Paul! Paul! Paul!"

Mr.Brown starts to make his announcements.

"It seems Paul's reputation as the level-one demon has spread further than just on school grounds; this should be a match for the century!"

As Mr.Zane starts to read out the rules, a rivalry continues in the teacher's stands.

"So, Mr.Mink, it seems it's finally time for my class to get back at that Paul for defeating Marfumi."

"Sorry, Mrs. Iris, it seems your class is pretty unlucky. Having another one of your students lose to Paul is a shame."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I'm ready to see you eat your words."

Tota laughs nervously as he watches the two teachers talk. On the battlefield, Mr.Zane starts the countdown.

"Three! two! one!" 

Above the stands, Elias is in the same spot, watching the battlefield. Mr.Strout walks up next to him.

"Why do you seem so upset, my dear Elias?"

"I hate him so much."

"Now, my dear Elias, what did I tell you to do when you feel this way?"

Elias focuses his vision purely on Paul and nothing else.

"Focus my anger on the one who caused it, and then, when the time comes, crush them!"

"Good, dear Elias!"

Mr.Strout starts to ominously chuckle.

On the battlefield, Mr.Zane finally screams, "Fight!"

Mr.Zane instantly jumps into his special stand. The crowd starts to go wild with excitement, but instantly the excitement dies down when everyone realizes that neither of the fighters is fighting.

In the teacher's stand, Tota asks the question everyone is thinking.

"Hey, Mr. Mink, why aren't any of them moving?"

"Well, it's really simple. Both of them are the same type of fighter: calm and collected."

"Oh, I think I get it! Since they both are calm fighters, they would rather wait for their opponent to make the first move."

"Exactly. Now the question is who is going to attack first because they can't stare at each other forever."

On the battlefield, Feltzes is scanning Paul up and down.

"So this is Paul, the level one demon. The same guy who defeated Marfumi. This is my first time seeing him up close. I heard he refuses to use his level two powers under any circumstances. Well, he better use them or he will lose this match!"

All of a sudden, Paul gets sliced on both of his arms. Paul looks in shock as his arms lose their strength.

"He sliced the nerves in my arms!"

Paul jumps away from Feltzes.

"This is my first time fighting the level one demon, and I already have him backing away from me. I'm making good progress."

Feltzes rushes at Paul and throws a punch at him. Paul lifts his right leg to block his punch.

"I'll give you credit, Feltzes. Cutting the nerves in my arms to disable them so you can have an early advantage is a good strategy, but now I wonder what power you have that allowed you to cut me without me being able to see it coming."

Paul does a backflip to kick Feltzes away.

"Even if you did, it wouldn't make a difference."

Feltzes uses the momentum from Paul's kick to do multiple backflips until he reaches the wall behind him. He then applies the flex technique to the muscles in his legs and jumps off the wall towards Paul. As he's flying toward Paul Feltzes pupils glow green.

"Tch, bad move. Let's see if I can make up for it!"

When Feltzes gets right in front of Paul, he swings his head back so hard that he does a midair backflip. At the same time, Paul was trying to kick Feltzes in the neck but missed thanks to Feltzes last second dodge.

"That was close!"

Fletzes lands on the ground and instantly hits Paul with an uppercut. Paul gets sent flying back by this attack.

"Interesting It's almost like you knew my attack was coming. This battle really will be interesting."

"Thanks for your compliments, but your situation isn't looking so good."

Paul removes his cloak and throws it between him and Feltzes. Feltzes punches the cloak with the flex technique applied.

"He's gone!"

After the disappearance of Paul, Feltzes starts looking all around in search of him.

"Where could he have gone? Is this his level-two power? I'll use the sense technique to try to find him."

Feltzes starts to use the sense technique with his ears and nose.

"I can't find him."

Suddenly, Feltzes gets kicked in the face by Paul. The kick pushes Feltzes back, but even so, he pushes through and attempts to see where Paul came from but still can't find him.

"Where could he ha—"

Feltzes gets kicked in the back, but when he looks behind him, he sees nothing.

"Wh—"

Feltzes gets kicked in the face once again.

In the teacher's stands, Tota has his camera on the fight but is also confused about what's going on.

"Hey, Mr.Mink I'm using this advanced camera, and I can't even keep up with Paul. Is he just that fast?"

"Paul is pretty fast, but no, this isn't a speed thing. What Paul is doing is using a level technique called sneak."

"Oh wait, Unknown told me you all encountered this technique when Death showed up on the beach."

"Yeah, that's what Paul is using, but he isn't as good with the technique as someone like Death, so he's using a strategy most master sneak technique users use. What he's doing right now takes a lot of skill when it comes to balancing two techniques at once. First, he used his cloak as a cover, then used the accelerate technique to get to Feltzes's blind spot, and when he got to the blind spot, he used the sneak technique to disappear from all of Feltzes's senses. Right now, he's just hitting Feltzes from different sides and instantly moving back to his blind spot so he can stay out of his sight."

"Oh wow, I didn't think Paul would be the type of fighter who would use a strategy like this."

"Well, I think the second Feltzes made Paul's arms unusable. Paul became extremely wary of Feltzes's abilities."

"Oh, that's smart! Now it looks like Paul has this match in the bag."

"Not quite. Remember, the battle isn't over."

On the battlefield, Feltzes is still getting hit with an onslaught of attacks. These relentless attacks have left Feltzes with bruises all across his body.

"Is he really planning on doing this the entire match?"

Suddenly, Feltzes pupils glow green.

"Finally."

From behind Feltzes, a massive explosion occurs.

"There you are!"

Feltzes looks behind him and sees a crater.

"I'll admit that accelerate and sense technique combo is pretty strong, but you won't beat me with a trick like that one."

Paul walks out of the crater with many bruises and cuts all over his body.

"I think I finally figured out that power of yours."

Chapter 107 end