PROMOTION BATTLE(2)

While Noah was preparing for his battles to come, Melv was also training hard as well.

The last 3 days, the academy gave special permission for all participants in the Promotion Battle to use the Gyms within the academy. Noah made him work hard till he almost dropped dead.

Melv had a huge difference in EQ with his opponent. To deal with it, he had to follow certain tactics and put some effort into achieving it. Melv's strength was in lifting heavyweight and dashing his opponent. Keeping that in mind, Noah and Marty had helped in building up his strength a bit and prepared for an apt strategy.

"Time to show everyone what Melv can do. Then all girls will be..." Melv was thinking.

"Hey Trash. Don't waste my time. Come at me with all you got..." shouted Dusky.

"Whose Trash? Say that to your grandpa's father's great-grandson..." an offending finger came out of Melv's fist slowly.

Dusky took some time to process. "You. How dare you? Do you know which family I belong to? How can you speak about my family with your filthy mouth? Looks like I will have to beat the crap out of a trash like you.

"Oh boy! It seems the same finger in my other hand wants to come out as well, hearing your BS talks. Why don't you stop barking and come attack me..." smirked Melv.

"You. I will make you pay for your words."

"Bhow Bhow. All bark and no play. Cut the crap already..." Melv angered Dusky even more.

Dusky was using a Crossbow. It can fire 5 rapid bolts at the opponent before it needed a reload time of 10 seconds. As there were no other projectile weapons like a gun or launcher allowed, the crossbow was the only closest one that could deal mid-range damage. Dusky was not a close combatant, so the weapon was his only disadvantage that Melv had to exploit.

Melv, on the other hand, was using a Heavy Shield. This was not like the one Stefanie was using in the other match. That one was lighter and equipped with an Energion crystal. But the one Mev is carrying is a Heavy Shield, it cannot electrocute the opponent but it can certainly open slides from each side and cover the user with shields on all sides. The durability becomes lesser that way though.

Dusky, enraged by the words of Melv, attacked with a flurry of 5 bolts. Melv easily defended with his Shield. Dusky quickly jumped in the air using his ability Frog Jump, utilizing the time for reloading his crossbow. This was his basic pattern of attack. After another attack, he would jump towards the blind side of the opponent while reloading and unleash another set of bolts.

He kept on jumping from side to side and attacking Melv. However, Melv easily blocked all the attacks, as he was totally concentrating on defending. But that is not all Melv was doing. He was also calculating the time between each reload, the time Dusky stays in the air while jumping as well as where he would appear next. After a while, Melv had calculated the pattern.

So did Noah. "Now Melv..." a faint whisper was heard from Noah.

As one attack completed, naturally Dusky jumped in the air to reload. Melv had predicted his next position of attack and thrown his Shield at him. Everyone was shocked as to why Melv is throwing his shield away, the very thing that is using to defend.

But this was the strategy they came up with earlier.

The Shield hit Dusky at the predicted position. Dusky was unable to change his position while being in the air. The Shield hit him and opened all the slides. Dusky was wrapped by the Shield like a Spiral bound. Unable to move he fell to the ground.

Melv reached towards Dusky. "Yo Frog boy! Let's play Roller Ball. Hee hee!"

Melv rolled Dusky, wrapped in a shield, like a ball throughout the Arena. Melv, having the ability of Dung Beetle, naturally possessed the greatest attribute of it, roll a ball of shit. He was having the fun of his lifetime. He continued rolling.

"Roll Trash Roll. Roll Roll Roll." Melv kept singing as he rolled Dusky.

The crowd in the stands were laughing their hearts out at the events. Some even fell from their seats while laughing. Noah was trying hard to cover his laughter.

Suddenly, an announcement sounded.

"Melv, could you please stop for a moment. We think that Dusky has fainted."

"Ohh. Is it?" Melv checked on Dusky. Foams coming out of his mouth, eyes rolled upwards.

"Oopsie. I overdid it."

"The opponent has been incapacitated and cannot fight any longer. Thus, the winner of this match is Melv. He moves on to Gamma Class."

Melv jumped in joy. "Take that you ball of shit…" Melv continued to curse Dusky.

"Congrats buddy!" Melv was joined at the Arena by Noah as the match ended.

"Did you see? I told ya I can do it. Huh."

"I never doubted you..." smiled Noah.

Dusky was carried on a stretcher by the doctors.

"Moving on to the next match."

Gamma Class 2nd Top Daimonjji vs Delta Class 1st Top Noah.

Match 3 - Statistics:

Name - Daimonjji (Original - Daimonjji Ito)

Age - 16

Gender - M

Class - Gamma

EQ - 20

Weapon - Hammer

Ability Power - Mandrill

Strengths - Brute Strength

Name - Noah (Original - Noah)

Age - 16

Gender - M

Class - Delta

EQ - 15

Weapon - Dagger

Ability Power - NA

Strengths - Intelligence, Hope

As a giant muscular student entered the Arena, the smile on Melv's face was gone. There was only anguish as he clenched his fists. There was a history between the two.

Some months back Melv went to the normal gym of the academy for training. But in the end, he was beaten black and blue by this well-built student, Daimonjji. He bullied Melv on the pretext that weak people should not avail the gym facilities. Melv was almost in bed for a week after the beating. They were too weak then to do anything about it. But now, things have changed a bit.

So this was also a reason for Noah to challenge Daimonjji. The students of Delta Class were aware of the enmity between the two. They started chanting for Noah.

"What Trash is this? No ability power? What are these BS strengths? Such a weak student challenging our Class Top 2nd. Is this a joke?" shouted students of the Gamma class.

But truly the gap was big enough for anyone to throw the question.

"What was that student even thinking when challenging Daimonjji out of nowhere?" The Professors of the Gamma Class conferred. "I think it got to his head by reaching Top of Delta Class..." others stated. Prof. Sawyer was also anxious. "What was he really thinking? Can he take him on?" Numerous thoughts pondered in her mind.

However, she announced the start of the match. "Let the match begin."

"So the little puppy came to avenge his friend? What happened? You want to hit me?" Daimonjji reached out his face in front for Noah to hit him. Daimonjji started mocking Noah.

"Come li'l puppy. Come come. I will give you a handicap to start with. I won't even dodge. Come now. Oww the li'l puppy will cry now? Don't be like that?" Daimonjji kept on ranting.

The Gamma Class started laughing at the provocations. It was hilarious to them.

"That guy is carrying a..what? What is that? A dagger… Oooppfff…" laughed the Gamma Class students. "It is like using a pin to dig a mountain. Hahaha. Look at Daimonjji. He has a Hammer you fool. One hit and you are finished. Quit and go home." All kinds of insults were poured at Noah by the Gamma Class students.

But Noah was unmoved. He carefully observed Daimonjji.

"Come on hit him. He is giving you a free hit anyway. Hit him." The crowd shouted.

"Come on. Finish it already. We want the Beta matches." The crowd kept on shouting.

But within a fraction of a second, something happened. Something most of the audience missed. Noah has turned back from Daimonjji now. He was not facing him anymore.

"Did he give up? But wait, what was the gush of air? Did we see it wrong?"

Going back a few seconds, while the crowd was still shouting, some of them saw a gush of air. They couldn't really understand until Daimonjji fell flat on the ground.

"What the hell happened man?" The crowd was shocked. Things changed in the blink of an eye.

"How did Daimonjji fall on his own? What just happened?" Everyone looked at each other.

Prof. Sawyer jumped up from her chair. She asked the technician to rewind a few seconds. But they could only see a gush of air again. "Play it slow again", she shouted.

"How many?" whispered James who was sitting next to Angelika.

"12", replied Angelika angrily.

"12? I saw only 9. Gosh. That's why you best me every time..." James replied.

"15", whispered Marty who was sitting behind them.

Angelika quickly turned behind. "Are you sure?" Angelika had thought she counted correctly.

"Quite sure. A might have missed one or two but certainly not less than 15."

James was looking at both of them. "15? Seriously?"

Everyone was trying to make something out of what really happened. The video was played slowly at -5x speed. This time they could see something. Noah moved from his spot at a tremendous speed and hit Daimonjji several times.

"Wait, how did he move so fast?"

"That's not it. How did he finish Daimonji with one strike?"

"Dummy, see it clearly it was more than one strike."

"More than one? In the fraction of a second? Is that possible?"

On the request to Prof. Sawyer, the video was played again, this time frame by frame.

This is when they understood, Noah launched a deadly attack on all 5 Pressure points of Daimonjji's body repeatedly in a flash. The attack on pressure points can often lead to deadly outcomes. So it is advisory to use it only for self-defense or dire situations.

Few Deadly pressure Points in the Human body -

LV - 14: The 6th intercostal gap has a pressure point on the mamillary line, two ribs below the nipple, known as Liver 14 or Qimen. A solid strike can cause the heart to stop and the lungs to collapse.

GB - 25: The lower border of the free end of the twelfth rib, placed on the lateral sides of the abdomen, known as Gall Bladder 25 or Jingmen. A medium strike can cause a knockout, a more severe strike can cause kidney failure.

SP - 12: On the lateral side of the femoral artery, at the level of the upper border of the symphysis pubis, superior to the lateral end of the inguinal groove, known as Spleen 12 or Chongmen. A medium strike can cause severe damage to the femoral artery.

TW - 18: Located near the middle of the mastoid process, at the intersection of the middle and lower thirds of the curve, and posterior to the helix at the auricle's root, known as Triple Warmer 18 or Chimai. A medium strike can cause concussion and a hard strike can even cause death.

SI - 16: Located on the lateral part of the neck, lateral to the laryngeal prominence and on the posterior border of the Sternocleidomastoideus muscle, known as Small Intestine 16 or Tianchuang. A medium strike can knock out an opponent and a hard strike can cause heart problems.

When Daimonjji had realized it, his HP went below 0 and he lost consciousness. If not for the Battle Suit, he would have died several times over. Noah had also used this method considering the same fact. Each strike on a pressure point chipped away a bit of HP. There were a total of 16 strikes, altering between the pressure points, the last one being a simple push of a finger.

"Ah I missed the last one..." shouted Marty as he sprung off his seat.

"That was not even a strike, just a push." Angelika shook her head.

The audience was dumbfounded. Just a few moments back they were chanting for Daimonjji and now it's over. The Professors who were speaking ill of Noah earlier, had their jaws dropped to the ground. Prof. Sawyer was awestruck. She kept analyzing the video until she recalled that she had forgotten to announce the winner. Noah was waiting patiently in the arena.

As most people were wondering, the announcement sealed the outcome of the match.

"The winner of this match is Noah. He moves on to Gamma Class and will be participating in the next Promotion battle between Gamma and Beta class. We will resume after a short break."

…