Chapter 175: Chapter 164 : Introductions (Part 4.1)

‘Fuck fuck fuck…fuck!’ Roxy cursed furiously as she suffered stinging slap after slap.

Ralf gave her a taste of her own bitter medicine, doing to her what she had done to her opponents, well her weaker ones. He dealt with her attacks with effortless ease, all the while, landing slaps, punches and kicks all over her body.

The reason she still stood despite taking dozens of his blows was due to him holding back. Ralf kept his attacks light and snappy. He had no strong feelings about the female fighter’s previous actions, he just didn’t want to hurt her too badly.

Though, frankly, she would rather have him hit hard than continue as is, for while her body remained intact, Roxy’s ego was shattering into a million pieces in real-time.

“Keep going, kick her ass, ahaha…”

“Another one, and another one, don’t stop, woo…”

“Go, Combat Master!”

The crowd of students ate up the one-sided spectacle, cheering on every successful hit, especially the ladies who had been on the receiving end of such treatment earlier. They cheered Ralf on with ecstatic faces and loud voices. In the span of minutes, the Transmigrator had won a handful of hearts with his domineering performance.

Meanwhile, as Roxy bore Ralf’s blows, Adrian watched things play out from his corner, face crimson and scrunched up with two visible handprints marking his cheeks.

‘Dammit…this is fucking embarrassing,’ Adrian dug his fingers into his palms as frustration and bitterness raged within his heart.

The pair didn’t fight together, not now or since the match’s beginning. As advanced Martial Seniors, they found Ralf’s proposal to fight them both at the same time supremely insulting, believing that either one of them would be more than enough to trounce him one-on-one. Holding this belief, they had decided to take turns fighting him while the other waited in the corner of the square.

Adrian went up first, having won the game of rock paper scissors that decided the order. Needless to say, things hadn’t gone as he or his fellow Kuling practitioner expected. Just like Roxy, he was helpless before Ralf’s martial prowess.

When it came to physical stats, Ralf was superior to both Roxy and Adrian, but not by any absurd margin. The real chasm between him and the Kuling practitioners was…martial skill; Ralf was simply on another level entirely.

Despite boasting similar physical stats, his combat speed was almost double theirs. He pulled off this feat through pure skill alone. The pair were completely outclassed.

He slipped through their attacks like a ghost, redirected their limbs with water-like motions, and when the Kuling practitioners tried to make it a contest of strength, things got embarrassing for them. Ralf grabbed at their Gis and manhandled them, tossing them wherever he so desired.

Adrian’s minute-long turn ended by being tossed away by Ralf in this fashion. He then traded places with Roxy and now, she too was made to suffer.

Swoosh!

‘Hm, your intentions couldn’t be more obvious,’ Ralf had casual thoughts run through his head as he weaved through a flurry of Roxy’s grabbing attacks. Her palms flew in and snapped shut like snake bites, one after the other.

Looking into her blue eyes, the Transmigrator could practically read her mind. Her thoughts and desires were just that unmasked.

In hopes of seeing agony visit Ralf’s carefree face, she aimed to snatch either one of his swaying earrings and rip it from his ears. The Transmigrator read her intention and his lips couldn’t help but tug up; he found it rather amusing.

Roxy flared up at his smirk and fired off her latest attempt at making him bleed; her left hand thrust forth at superhuman speeds.

Though, through Ralf’s enhanced senses, her movements appeared exceedingly sluggish. With this being the case, he could cleanly avoid her attack by a large margin…but he didn’t. The ever-present mischievous devils on his shoulders whispered their desires and he obeyed without question. He ducked away at the last possible moment, causing Roxy’s hand to shut just millimetres off from his left earring.

The female fighter exploded in frustration at the near-miss, but Ralf was far from done. While ducking, he shifted forward to arrive at Roxy’s backside. With swift motions, his left hand grabbed the female fighter’s lengthy ponytail. He yanked hard and instantly collapsed the Kuling practitioner’s balance, bending her into a ‘C’ shape. Then, Ralf followed up with a kick to her buttocks and sent her hurling forward.

“Urgh!” Roxy released a sharp yelp.

She had stopped herself from crashing face-first onto the floor, but it came at a painful cost. The last-second raising of her arms caused her to land on her elbows. Their impact with the hard ground seemingly sent bolts of lightning shooting through her bones all the way to her brain. Her jaw clenched and an electrifying tingle swept through her entire body, paralysing her.

She didn’t stay stunned for long though, her molten anger prevented the possibility. Roxy pushed off the ground with her palms while spinning herself right-way-up. But upon regaining her footing, she was once again knocked off balance. Ralf had closed in and sent another kick to her rear, sending her toppling forward again.

Roxy fared better this time around. After a slight stumble, she threw herself into a frontal roll, before spinning around to face Ralf. She glared at him with a fierce expression, heart boiling in anger and indignation. Her muscles bulged within her crimson Gi as she readied a charge. But before she could, a voice reached her ears.

“Enough!” Yu Ling spoke up, his voice betraying great disappointment. His students’ poor performance had soured his expression to no end. He couldn’t bear to continue watching their foolishness play out without saying a word.

“You have no chance against him alone…how long until you reach that conclusion? No…you’ve already understood this well enough…and yet, you’ve let your emotions blind you to the solution, to a possible solution. You two are hopeless, more hopeless than I could ever have imagined,” he rebuked with a stern voice.

The pair of Kuling practitioners had no retort to the scathing words, just shameful silence.

Yu Ling took a breath to calm his rising agitation before continuing.“Enough of this farce. You two will fight him as one from now on, is that understood,” the Martial Master narrowed his eyes as he said not asked.

“Yes, master!” the pair said in unison while cupping their hands toward Yu Ling.

The Martial Master showed a look of approval and then shifted his focus to Ralf. “Sorry for the interruption, Combat Master,” he said, his voice echoing with a trace of respect that wasn’t there previously.

Ralf waved his hand in dismal, totally unbothered by the interruption or the prospect of facing both Martial Seniors together.

“No need, I’m glad you gave them a talking to.” His eyes suddenly welcomed a cheeky light as a new batch of words settled on his tongue. Liking the taste, he naturally shared them with the world.

“And frankly, you did me a solid interrupting when you did. I could feel my eyelids growing heavy. A few more seconds of that farce and I would have dosed off. You really saved me there,” a look of relief flashed across Ralf’s face as he said.

He then turned to Yu Ling and like Roxy and Adrian did earlier, cupped his hands toward the Martial Master. “Many thanks, Master Ling, I won’t forget this debt,” the Combat Master said with a cheeky smile and a voice echoing feigned gratitude.

“Hahaha….”

*Clench* *Clench*

Where their master could laugh at Ralf’s words and antics, Roxy and Adrian could not. Flaring up in anger, they snapped their bodies to face Ralf while arching forward and dropping their stances. Their leg muscles tensed with power as they prepared to launch forth. But before they could, Ralf stopped them in their tracks.

“Hold up,” he said, putting up a hand in the fighters’ direction. “Slow your roll…simply charging in blindly won’t do.”

The senior Kuling practitioners’ faces twisted at the words, and then again when they heard agreement from their master.

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“Yes, that won’t do.”

“Indeed,” Ralf nodded sagely, before shifting his sights to Gerard, who stood with a blank face. He and the students had been put on ‘standby’ mode as they took in the strange exchange. “Gerard, can you hook Roxy and Adrian up to a private telepathic network?”

“Huh, why?” Roxy questioned with a scowl.

Ralf glanced her way and replied. “Before we resume the match, I’ll give you two some time to come up and agree on a tactic or strategy to use against me. I’m thinking a minute, two at most.”

“We don’t ne-”

“Accepted,” Yu Ling cut in, silencing his pupils’ resistance to the idea. “Let’s do that then. Gerard, please.”

The Basic Psi Combat instructor nodded and then communicated orders through the telepathic network he was connected to. A few seconds later, telepathic links invaded the venue from afar and bridged Roxy and Adrian’s minds. They turned their backs on Ralf and with sulking postures, traded thoughts. The next sixty seconds saw the venue become smothered in a strange silence.

Finally, at the snapping of the telepathic links, the pair of Kuling practitioners concluded their meeting of the minds. Without a word, they moved to individual corners of the square and assumed a combat stance, their previous agitation now replaced by focus.

Ralf showed a look of approval. He then turned to the Basic Psi Combat instructor. “Hey, Gerard, we’re ready, give us a countdown from three.”

“Uh, yes, sure. The match will resume in three. Three, two, one…fight!”

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The pair dashed in from their respective corners. Their trajectories were queer; they started off with a beeline, before suddenly crossing each other, only to once again head in a beeline. They performed the zigzag at speeds no slower than Lane’s match-winning dash, all without hitting each other. Adrian led while Roxy followed in his shadow just a metre behind.

The plan was for Adrian to go for a tackle. If Ralf attempted to receive him directly and they entered a tussle, Roxy would add her weight and at worst, push both of them out of the square. If Ralf sidestepped Adrian, the more likely outcome, Roxy would follow up with an attack that would hopefully knock him out or out of the square.

This…was the extent of the two’s planning. If this opening sequence didn’t work out, they would just wing it. They trusted that their numerical advantage and years of joint practice would be enough to overcome the skill difference between them and their vexing opponent.

At their speedy approach, Ralf was nonchalant, too nonchalant. He hadn’t even shifted into a combat pose, remaining in his upright one, staring them down with cool unworried eyes while providing more openings than a grater.

His stance - or lack thereof - and the self-confidence he radiated sowed bafflement and anxiety in Roxy and Adrian. Still, they pressed on, not letting the psychological pressure slow their steps at all

It was only once they crossed the halfway mark that trepidation vanished from their hearts. When they captured Ralf bringing his hands to his chest, their gazes brightened as they welcomed the light of imminent victory. Only metres away, they were convinced that Ralf’s reaction window had passed.

But then it arrived…

Ralf flashed a smile and then clapped. Sound waves spread out, but more importantly…

The pair’s mental cogs were involuntarily thrown off-kilter as a different kind of wave struck them. Their minds blanked. It was for but moments, but this was more than enough to seal their fates. When they came to, a second later, they had to catch themselves to prevent a hard fall.

‘Huh? Wait, what just happened…’

Adrian and Roxy found each other’s shaky gaze as they scrambled in place; they met unbridled confusion and then horror, as a certain realisation set in. With rigid motions, they looked back and confirmed their suspicions. Indeed, they were now both outside of the square’s border.

Incredulity painted their expressions as they found themselves in this new reality, wondering where their old reality had suddenly vanished too. Their bizarre expressions were mimicked by the students, Gerard and even Yu Ling, who all quickly cast their gazes to Ralf, the one seemingly responsible for the bizarre phenomenon they had just experienced.

Still in the square, the Transmigrator cut a dashing image in the aftermath of his ‘attack’. His hair, coat and earrings swayed gently in the winds that hadn’t yet settled. The room looked on in awe, bafflement, and many other emotions.

Ralf ran his fingers through his hair as a victorious smile surfaced on his face. ‘Way too easy,’ he couldn’t help but think.

“The so-called mental signal, I see I see,” the Silver Fang Hunter was the first to recover, “so you can use it offensively too.”

“Yep,” Ralf admitted nonchalantly.

The ending sequence was simple to understand.

Timing it to match his clap, Ralf quickly turned his mental signal dial all the way to a hundred. The resultant wave of intense electromagnetic energy rippled out and collided with Roxy and Adrian’s brains, thereby stunning them. Then, during their temporary blackout, he closed in, grabbed at their Gis and using their momentum, flung them out of the square, all in one motion.

Importantly, his mental signal spike affected more than just the two, everyone was stunned…well everyone except Violet.

The private talk with the princess earlier involved the use of this tactic. Given the fact that the Thunder Monarch inheritance made its user extra sensitive to electromagnetic energy, Ralf was worried about how it would affect Violet should he attempt to use his mental signal spike tactic in her presence.

‘Normal’ people could shrug it off after suffering a temporary stun, but with her constitution, he feared that she would be seriously harmed by the tactic, perhaps even die from it. These concerns popped up in his head as he was planning his match with the Kuling practitioners, and were the reason he set up the private booth when he did.

He explained his mental signal spike tactic to Violet with the intention of establishing a sign that would let her know when he was about to use said tactic so that she could erect an anti-electromagnetic energy barrier to protect herself.

But…his concerns turned out to be unnecessary, as Violet explained in her string of words. While Thunder Monarch upped her sensitivity to electromagnetic energy, it also gave her added resistance to EM energy spikes like the one the tactic employed.

The pair did a quick experiment within the barrier without anyone noticing and Ralf confirmed her ability to handle the tactic. Getting that peace of mind, he decided to follow through with his initial intention and used the mental signal spike tactic.

“Quite a weapon you have there, Combat Master,” Yu Ling continued. “My students stood no chance, but I can’t fault them, even I’d be helpless before its might,” the Martial Master admitted with a bitter smile.

Without a netherian stone, Aether Zenki, or a unique constitution like Violet’s, one couldn’t resist the stunning effect. It was brief but significant, especially against someone of Ralf’s calibre.

“I don’t suppose you had thoughts of using this stun tactic against me when you made your offer earlier?”

“Aha, I might’ve had such thoughts,’’ Ralf admitted while flashing a grin.

“Hahaha…”

Yu Ling chuckled up a storm, though more out of relief than amusement. He thanked the Divines and his past self for refusing Ralf’s offer; losing to a new student in his position would be incredibly embarrassing after all. His fellow Martial Masters would certainly never let him live it down.

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