Chapter 61: CHAPTER 57 – Combat Exams (Part 2)

[The first duel of the day is between rank 400, Olivia, and rank 915, Cristopher!!! With almost double the difference in rank, what’s the plan of cadet Cristopher to win!? He sure has the advantage in type! But will that be enough!? Or will cadet Olivia prove her rank to him right here, right now!?]-An overexcited host announced from the main stand of the arena.

*WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH*-I could even hear the shouting voices of all the visitants.

{*sigh…* I can already see Fran’s face while hearing about my rank… Well, I guess Olivia did make me a favor. Maybe I’ll go with some cadet of a rank close to her once this is over.}-I thought while standing up and walking towards the exit of my waiting room, with two more cadets who I don’t know looking at me, kind of surprised by the sheer difference in the ranks.

“Cadet Cristopher, over here.”-A Cube’s worker lead the way towards the arena.

I slowly started going up the stairs towards the arena. Right in time to see Olivia coming from the other side of the arena.

*WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!*

Even if the place was deserted in comparison with the second arena, there was still a lot of people here.

A mana barrier roused up all around the arena, just to stop any attack from going out and injured someone.

“*whistle~*”-I whistle as I look at the arousing mana while walking towards my position.

On the way, I found Fran looking at me with a frown on her face, and both kids jumping up and down while trying to scream something that I couldn’t hear with all the noise from the spectators.

“Hey.”-Olivia started. “I doubt you’ll lose on purpose, right?”

“Mm… Not really. Now it’s not even my choice you know?”-I said while looking at Fran.

“Huh?”-Olivia looked there too and saw a red-haired beauty with two kids. “Wh-what!? Who are those?”-She asks surprised.

“People from my orphanage. They came to watch me. And I won’t like it if they think I can protect myself, you know.”

“The heck does that mean?”

[Now!!! Let the match… BEGIN!!!]

“Doesn’t matter. Come on, time for lesson two. This time, a more personal combat training. Remember that this won’t be like in the gravity chamber.”-I said while unsheathing my training sword.

For the record. We couldn’t use any personal weapon or item. All we got was Cube’s training weapon and training armor.

“…*gulp…* Don’t worry. I’ve been preparing for this moment since I chose to duel you here. I don’t plan to go down so easily.”-She says while taking two knives on each hand.

“Mm? Oh… Look at that… Nicely done.”-I said as I looked at the knives being covered in a small membrane of mana, kind of like an aura. “Did you got the trick from using the Promise of the Ice Wing Queen?”-I ask her.

“I told you. I don’t plan on going down so easily!!”- She shouted at me while throwing her knives, which had a slim and seemingly weak aura surrounding them.

“Well. I’m glad that trip was useful for you.”-I said while evading them, and this time, rushing towards her. “But you still need to be faster when applying the cover on your knives.”

She started walking back while throwing as many knives as she could, some of them with aura, some without it, and even some with a pitiful aura, as if she couldn’t get to put more power into them.

While advancing towards her I either evaded or parried with my sword. I kept running until I was getting close to the range of my sword, there, I just jumped forwards toward her, making a simple cut.

She stopped to receive my attack with both her daggers for short-range stopping my sword an inch away from her shoulder.

“Well, that was a nice change of weapon. Though… I don’t think it was appropriate to defend when there’s a difference of strength so significant.”-I say.

“…”-She just glanced at me, before gripping her daggers tighter.

I slowly pushed my sword more towards her, putting my body’s weight over it, but she just smirked while lowering her stance a little for more stability and making an effort to not let my sword cut her shoulder’s armor.

“Also… Why do you push so hard?”-I asked while lifting my eyebrow.

“Ah?”-She mumbled.

Immediately after, I stopped pushing against her, stopping any force on the sword and letting her push the sword upwards along with me, using the momentum to jump up.

“Wha-!”-She exclaimed when she saw me flying on the air. But then had to stop the daggers coming from behind me, making them fall on the ground.

“You see…”-I said while stopping on the floor a little back. “I know about your power. You know I do. Why still use it that way? Or it’s that the only way you know how to? Oh well… We’ll go over it later.”

“...”-She just clenched her teeth. “Haaa!”-She shouted while making the knives on the earth raise up again, and then walked forwards them, picking the ones in front of her from the air and throwing them to me.

“That’s better.”-I smirk while parrying them.

She just kept advancing while grabbing the knives from the air and throwing them at me.

{I guess she can make simple commands for the moment… But… Maybe later her ability will evolve to something else. We’ll have to work on that.}-I thought while parrying all the incoming knives, starting to walk forwards against her.

The knives weren’t thrown only to one place. She threw them to different parts of my body. Legs, head, chest, stomach, feet, arms, or even hands. She tried to make the attack as erratic as possible. But I just had to do small movements to either evade or parry for them to be rendered useless, that’s the problem with small projectiles when your enemy can see or evade them.

When there were no more knives to throw, she once again took her daggers and went at me, and I received her in kind with my sword.

We exchanged a few attacks in a second. Her speed improved considerably thanks to the training she went. And having dual, short, weapons, make it easy for her to strike continuously. Though, sadly, her attacks didn’t connect.

“You’re faster than before. That’s good. We’ll need to use that speed to your advantage.”-I said while parrying one of her daggers and stopping the other using my left arm to stop her right arm before her dagger could reach me.

“…”-She just clenched her teeth and reassumed her attacks.

“Now. That’s better. Keeping me here while summoning two knives was indeed better than trying to push against me when calling all of them.”-I said while stopping her next attack and kicking her away, using the force of the kick to turn my body and evade the knives, grabbing the last one with my left hand, infusing mana in the knife and breaking the control she had on it before throwing it back at her.

“Kuh!”-She grunted in pain when the knife reached her shoulder.

“Remember, you use throwing weapons. What does make you think that I won’t be able to throw them back to you when I can clearly see and evade them as I please?”-I said to her before rushing in again.

She tried to defend, but it was hard with one shoulder hurt, making it hard for her to move her right arm freely. So, I just put enough strength to break her posture, kicking her feet next and making her fall to the ground while pointing my sword towards her neck.

“This seems familiar… Oh right. Anti-personnel training, wasn’t it?”-I said while looking at her. “You know. With your shoulder hurt, you shouldn’t defend, unless you have the strength for it. And, well, you’re more speed-oriented. So, it won’t do any good. Learning to evade would be more useful for you, like some kind of glass sword, lighter to use, able to only make shallow cuts, but faster than any other sword. Of course, you should also note that it would break if it gets in contact with any other sword.”-I said to her, before turning and spinning my sword to stop the five knives incoming grabbing the last one once again, breaking the control on the knife before throwing it towards the raising Olivia.

She used the opportunity of my defense to stand up from the ground quickly, but then again, the knife I threw reached her left leg this time.

“Ugh!”-She clenched her teeth as a pained groan once again escaped her mouth. But immediately tried to stand up.

“…”-I looked at her. And the next thing I do is run towards her.

She tries to get an attack with her left arm to reach me, but I merely bypass her dagger, got close to her, trapped her left arm with my own while grabbing her shoulder from under her armpit, putting a little strength on the shoulder while I step further and slightly kicked her foot, making her lose her footing and falling, I turned behind her and went down with her.

She ended up on the ground, with me crouching over her with her arm trapped and my sword close to her neck, once again, her other arm under my knee, and her left dagger in the ground close to us.

“Surrender, will you?”-I tell her while putting a little bit of pressure on her trapped arm.

“…”-She clenched her teeth, but still didn’t say anything.

“… Surrender already. The lesson is over.”-I said to her once again.

“…”-She clenched her teeth.

I noticed that she, once again, tried to call her knives. But there was a problem with that.

“Stop it. Surrender.”-I say to her while putting more pressure on her arm.

“Ugh…”-She let out a groan of pain and the knives that slowly raised up, once again fell on the floor.

“You can concentrate on the knives with the pain. Surrender already.”-I said to her.

“Ugh.”-She clenched her teeth harder, squirming, trying to release herself through pure strength.

“*sigh…* You’re so stubborn…”-I said, letting go of the weapon and hitting the back of her neck with just enough strength to make her faint.

After that, I just stood up, grabbed my sword, and looked towards the referee that was just outside of the barrier alongside the host.

[C-ca-cadet Cristopher wins the match!!]-The host announced after a little silence.

*WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!*-The audience shouted loud. I could also look at Fran’s surprise and both kids jumping with their fists high while screaming.

{What’s there for them to be so excited…}-I thought while sighing before sheathing my sword and going towards my waiting room.

Immediately, a medic team came to the arena to pick Olivia up, while workers of Cube picked the knives and daggers that were on the floor to give them to her when she wakes up.

I glanced at them for a little while and then kept going towards my waiting room.

***

After my fight with Olivia, I nominated another random cadet from a rank close to her, rank 402 to be exact, I was supposed to fight him in the same dueling arena at 5:00 PM, so it was one of the later duels.

He was a male cadet warrior that used a longsword just like me, so I thought it would be okay for me. I already prove myself in front of Fran with a ranged cadet, now it was time to fight against a melee type.

But, since I still had time, I texted Fran to tell her I’ll go to where they were, after all, my next duel starts at 5:00 PM, while my fight with Olivia was the first of the day, being at 8:00 AM…

There was just too much time between fights. And I still have to think about another cadet to nominate for my next fight, but that one would have to wait for tomorrow.

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I exited the area for cadets and went towards the spectator’s stands, sitting next to Fran.

“Hey.”-I said hi.

“Oppa!”

“Hyung!”

““You were great!!!!””

Both kids suddenly assaulted me and started to talk about how great I was in the arena and that I was too awesome, or stuff like that.

“Now, now, stop. It’s not that great.”-I said to them.

“You were great indeed. I guess it’s right. You do know how to defend yourself, Mr. Rank 915”-Fran said with a smile.

“Well… It’s not like I was trying to hide it from you… But that’s just the rank they gave me here… It doesn’t have anything to do with me being able to defend myself or not, okay?”

“If you say so… But for what I’ve heard… Ranks in Cube are a really accurate way to calculate a cadet’s strength. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course not… It’s just bullshit. Really, don’t worry about me. I’ll even fight another cadet later at 5:00. He is ranked 402, so it should be enough to prove myself, right?”

“Yes, it would surely be helpful to prove your innocence. But… Well… I don’t think we can stay that late… You know there’re things I have to do back in the orphanage.”- Fran says with a sorry face.

“What!? But noona!!! I want to see hyung fight again!!!”-Antonio shouted at Fran.

“That’s right aunty!!! You can’t be so mean!!! I’ll start calling you evil granny if you don’t let us see oppa fight!”-Anne shouted after him.

“Sorry. But nothing can be done. We have to be home early. Remember that you weren’t the only ones excited to come. So, it would be unjust of me to bypass the rules so you can watch your elder brother fight while the other kids at back at the orphanage.”-She said, right before hitting Anne on the head. “And who are you calling an evil granny!?”

“*sigh…* Fran is right. It wouldn’t be just for the others if you get to stay so late here watching me fight.”-I said. “So… What do you say if we go and have lunch outside before you go back? Of course, You’ll have to bring something back to the others.”

“Yes!!!”-They both shouted in agreement, while Anne was grabbing her head with one hand. It seems that the hit from Fran was stronger than usual this time.

“Thanks… But you don’t have to do this, you know?”-Fran intervenes. Making the kids look at her with a slight glare.

“Don’t worry. There’s no problem. I’ve told you before. Also… It’s just a little lunch for kids. It can’t be that expensive.”-I answered her while smiling.

“Yes! He’s right noona!! It won’t be a problem!”-Shouted Antonio.

“See aunty!! No problem there!!! Let’s eat! Let’s eat!”-Shouted Anne before receiving another hit, this time a lighter one.

“Hahaha… Calm down… We’ll go at lunch. I’ll text my friend so he can also go with us.”

“Mm? Oh, Kim Hajin? I wonder how he was in his fight…”-Fran said with a pondering face.

“Well, I don’t think it was that bad. After all, even if he loses, he’ll win a lot of points.”-I said, thinking to myself of the fight between Hajin and Kim Horak.

***

After that, we watched a few fights from the arena, before leaving to eat something. We grouped with Kim Hajin, who was also watching a few fights before he had to fight again.

Like me, he has other fights, being the first one at 5:00 PM, while the other one is two fights after that.

We ate hamburgers, being the favorite food for any kid, at least for most of them, so it was like a shot to the ground, a totally safe pick.

After eating and talking about things in Cube, how it went in our fights and stuff, Fran and the kids left Cube, with bags full of hamburgers for the other kids and workers back at the orphanage. It was a lot of food, though Hajin offered to pay half of it, talking about Arachne’s thread’s debt and whatnot. I didn’t refuse though.

So, now we were back to the park close to the dueling arenas, talking a little bit until we had to go back to our own fights.

“So, how was that fight with Kim Horak?”

“I told you already… I lost. Well, it was obvious. In a certain way, I had a lot of luck. He’s just a brainless muscle-head. He went with a full-body qi reinforcement, which I destroyed twice with an anti-magic bullet, giving me chance to rain bullets on him… Though, I was left without more bullets to shoot, so I surrendered at the end.”-Hajin said while shrugging.

{So, he used the anti-magic bullet… That should be enough for Boss to start paying attention to him. After all, revenge is her main goal.}

“Anti-magic bullet? Man… Destroying a full-body qi reinforcement with a bullet will surely put you on the Guilds’ recruitment list. That’s good.”-I said while stretching a little bit.

“… It’s not like I want to be a hero, though…”-He says.

“You don’t? Why? Have anything else in mind?”

“Not really… I mean, maybe I’ll have to… But who knows? There will probably other things to do. I’ll think about it slowly.”

“Well, it’s fine. Do whatever you feel like. Though, do try to think about what would be better for your path.”-I said.

“By the way, what is that thing about the orphanage? We’re not of this world.”-He asks me.

“Oh, that’s a funny story actually… Remember the incident at the museum?”

“The Djinn and monsters’ attack? Yes… I remember, why?”

“Well… The day before I went towards the museum to check the route, and see what would be the worst places for monsters to attack, or where could they make the most damage.”

“Aha… So?”

“Well… That day I happened to meet Fran… And well, things went on from there…”-I started explaining my meeting with Fran, the story about the next day’s attack, Fran discovering my lie, and the rest.

“So… You met with someone from David Ross’ past… And somehow could make your way in there by lying?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Though, Fran discovered me pretty much the moment I started to lie.”-I answered while lying.

“But… Why do you care about it? It wasn’t you who grew up there… You know?”

“…”-I looked at the sky. “At first, I looked for them during the attack out of ‘payment’ towards David Ross… The orphanage was attacked that day. So… Fran would probably have tried to become bait so the wolves that attacked wouldn’t hurt the kids. After all, the monsters would surely find the small shelter they have in the basement.”

“… At first? Does that mean… That you changed your mind?”

“Yeah.”-I answer, looking at him. “I had a little sister. And… Well… Apart from the fact that I tend to supersede her with any small children in need I find… Antonio and Anne remind me a lot of how she and I were… Always fighting with each other for the smallest thing, looking to pick fights just for fun… Or merely tormenting each other when we were too calm.”

“…”-Hajin looked down. “Something happened to her? Your sister… I mean.”

“Yes.”-I said looking back at the sky before standing up and stretching. “Oh well, guess I’ll be going now.”

“… So soon?”-Hajin asks.

“It’s already 4:30. My fight will start soon. Yours too for that matter.”-I said to him while looking the hour at my smartwatch.

“Oh… It’s later than I thought.”-He says while standing up.

*Vrr… Vrr…*

It was then that my smartwatch vibrated.

“Mm?”

“What?”

“I got a message.”-Looking at my smartwatch, I couldn’t help but smirk. “Well… Would you look at that? Such a surprise…”-I murmured.

“What happened?”

“Well, it seems someone nominated me.”

“What? Who? Rachel?”-He asks.

“No. She’s too focused in her ranking for her to try and fight me.”

“Then?”-He asks while lifting an eyebrow.

“Shin Jonghak.”

“What…? Who? Can you repeat his name again?”

“Shin Jonghak. He was the one to nominate me. My fight is with him. Tomorrow at 11:00 AM.”

“…”-Hajin just stared at me with his mouth open.

“Guess the guy is confident in beating me…”-I said while looking at my smartwatch again.

[Duel 5] [Rank 2 - Shin Jonghak vs. Rank 915 - Cristopher.]

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