Clay turned towards Tom.
"Uh, if I break this boulder, I would get 10,000 credits, right?" Clay asked.
"I will keep my word, young man, if you can break it that is." Tom smirked.
Tom never took any student seriously when it came to the bet. No student has ever broken the stone, heck, that kid who reached the 250's range was the highest he's ever seen. Normally, that amount of strength usually only came from those level 30 above, the powerhouses of this world.
Even he would struggle to make the stone glow a gray sheen if he solely used his own strength.
Tom glanced at Rafael and the others, sure enough, Rafael was already scribbling something down on his notepad which suddenly appeared out of nowhere, seriously, how was he always carrying a notepad? Where did it even come from? Tom was sure that the notepad didn't fit in any of Rafael's pockets.
"Are you feeling confident, kid? Give it your best shot." Tom gave out a hearty laugh, waiting for Clay to make his move.
The crowd behind Clay shaking their head mockingly as they heard him mention breaking the stone.
"Does he really think he can break it? I bet he won't even reach the purple glow." Someone in the crowd sneered.
"I hit that stone with all I've got and it made me feel that I was the one getting hit. And this guy dreams of breaking it?"
"Just another guy who doesn't know his own limits."
"Does he think he's the main character or something?"
Clay, with his heightened hearing abilities, naturally heard each and every whisper behind his back.
'Seriously? I didn't even do anything yet and they're already mocking me?' Clay was dumbfounded at how the crowd mocked him when the only thing he had done was speak.
Clay shook his head.
'Anyways, with this stone, I can finally test my whole strength, I still don't know just how strong I currently am.'
Clay clenched his fist, producing a shockwave extending from him just from that one small action.
The shockwave startled everyone at the training grounds.
Tom furrowed his brows, his previously relaxed composure gone.
And before barely anyone could react, Clay threw his punch.
For a moment, it seemed that the world itself was trembling.
Then came the sound.
BANG
CRACK
The sound of something exploding and shattering.
Black particles mixed with dust flew up everywhere, obscuring everyone's vision.
One of the first to react was Rafael, a fraction of a second after Clay threw his punch.
And even then, Rafael barely put up a forcefield in time to protect everyone from the aftermath.
However, only a few moments passed before cracks started appearing in his forcefield, leaving Rafael shocked.
Tom reacted next, a rare expression of seriousness on his face. He equipped his shield just in time before the forcefield broke down.
"Nullification!" Tom groaned, struggling against the sheer force of the shockwave.
The command made the load lighter, still overwhelming, but far more manageable.
And still, even Tom was struggling to keep his shield upright.
Right when Tom's shield was about to falter, a figure suddenly appeared right beside him.
It was the 14th headmaster of the academy, Lorei Swan Vramann, still dressed in his formal suit.
But unlike his previous appearance where he looked like a feeble old man, this time, he gave of the feeling of an insurmountable mountain.
The headmaster tapped his cane gently on the floor, releasing an invisible ripple that spread throughout the entire training grounds.
Tom felt the ripple pass through him, and just like that, the force that was clashing against his shield disappeared.
However, the dust cloud was still blocking everyone's vision, so the crowd could only wait for the dust to settle before they could really see what had happened.
A few moments passed before a figure slowly emerged from the debris.
Clay coughed as some of the debris particles got into his lungs.
"Argh, seriously? Why is there so much dust, all I did was punch it." Clay patted his clothes.
"No way.... Did he really destroy it...?"
"Impossible..."
"This has to be fake...."
The crowd gasped and whispered amongst themselves, shocked by the sight before them.
There among the rubbles of the testing stone was Clay, still patting down his clothes, trying to get rid of the dust, clueless to the reactions of the crowd that was watching him.
Tom, whose eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, Charlot, with that smirk still adorning her face, albeit with some visible shock. Rafael, who wiped his glasses and muttered some unintelligible words. Andwelf, whose mouth gaped so wide that a watermelon might just fit perfectly inside.
There were many reactions the crowd had to the scene before them.
Josh just shook his head in disbelief, Steve and Khael both pinched each other to make sure what they were seeing was real.
And finally, headmaster Lorei, who actually didn't show any cracks in his usual expression, except for the fact that his cane was slightly trembling.
"Uhh, Sir Tom? I think I broke the stone." Clay scratched his head.
'You think we can't see that?' Thought almost everyone in the crowd.
"That's.... Not possible... That 'stone' is made out of Öbedanite, one of the hardest materials in the world... And you just smashed it?" Tom approached Clay and the remains of the Öbedanite boulder, his voice shaky.
And just when you thought Tom's eyes couldn't widen any further, it popped out even more that it made one think it was actually going to fall out.
That was because when Tom's looked at the scattered pieces of the Öbedanite, he saw that it had lost its usual murky black color. Now instead of black, it glowed a brilliant white.
"T-this..." Tom stuttered.
"Aha! No wonder he was able to break it! It turns out that the stone was worn out by our previous attacks!" A boy in the crowd pointed out, seeing that the stone was not its usual color.
"Yeah! That's why the stone suddenly changed color! It's because we've done all the work!" Another person agreed, thinking that Clay used everyone like a stepping stone.
"N-no.... T-that's not it... I read this somewhere...Öbedanite only glows white when it has taken a hit stronger than it can bear..." A girl in the crowd spoke, lips trembling.
"Indeed, what this young lady has said is true" It was at this moment that headmaster Lorei spoke, grabbing the attention of everyone.
"Öbedanite only glows white if it has sustained an impact beyond what it can take." The headmaster explained.
Hearing this, the crowd went into an uproar.