"Since none of you saw what happened, I will explain." Lucas spoke. "Aldrin charged at Grey, blade in hand, mana in his feet. Grey then ran towards the speeding Aldrin, and pushed his sword into the air. Then he pointed his spear at him. Simple, right!"
"What, he barely did anything. Was Aldrin always that weak?" One of the boys in Aldrin's clique spoke.
'I barely saw the motions. He's strong.' All the top 10 thought.
Grey moved out of the arena, his back to Aldrin, and he swiftly went to Elijah. Aldrin stood still, shocked. As Elijah challenged Grey, like he originally planned to, Lucas went up to Aldrin.
"Don't worry bud. My son's just abnormally strong. For your age, you're in the top 10%. With a little practice, you can get as good as him. Now, I've got a match to referee, so come watch if you want."
Aldrin listened with a blank expression on his face, staring at the floor. His thoughts were in complete disarray.
'That's not what was meant to happen! I was supposed to kick his ass, and then get recognised by my peers. Then I would climb the ranks until Rank 1, and would become super famous… Yet, I lost immediately!?… Impossible. I'm a noble elf. I can't lose!'
---
Elijah and Grey stood opposite each other, just as Grey did with Aldrin minutes ago.
Grey focused on Elijah, aware that he most likely had real combat experience. However, he was unaware that whilst he had no 'real combat experience', the experience accumulated from sparring against his grandfather and father was enough to wipe the floor with anyone his age.
"You're pretty strong, Grey. I know I won't win, but I'll do my best!" Elijah was prepared to go all out from the beginning, so Grey knew he would have to try. If he didn't he was worried he might lose.
They both looked at the ref and nodded, so Lucas called for the match to start. "Begin!"
Elijah had his longsword drawn, held in two hands, whilst Grey's spear was held in 1 hand behind him. In a blink for the students, Grey was suddenly slightly in the air, his spear in a whipping motion, ready to knock Elijah's blade out of his hands.
Yet, as the spear fell on the blade, Elijah managed to block it by enforcing his arms with mana. Elijah had scored abnormally high on the mana test, in the hundreds, so he was sure that he had enough mana.
'More mana, I need more!' He thought, pushing it through his channels. He gained enough momentary strength to knock Grey away, and then he spread it through his legs, boosting himself forwards.
Grey watched the teen come at him with a wild smirk on his face, the joy of the fight evident. 'I don't want to harm him, so I will only use a little mana.'
Grey poured a little mana into his arms, unaware that little to him was almost half of Elijah's entire pool of mana. Also, Grey didn't have channels, meaning that his mana was able to permeate his body better and give him a bigger buff. Added to that, he was stronger than Elijah in every aspect, according to the test, so he easily won the confrontation.
Their blades met in a swing, and the resultant force sent Elijah flying backwards for a couple of metres. 'Oops. That's not good.'
Grey stood still, watching Elijah get up, as the boy sweat buckets. Not a single drop of sweat could be seen on Grey however, which left the audience, other than Lucas, deeply shocked.
Elijah stood back up, wiped the sweat out of his eyes, and then talked. "Damn, Grey, you're strong. You know, I had to use all my mana to block that. I'm out. How's you're pool?"
"Not even a tenth drained." Grey replied quickly and truthfully. He had no reason to lie to his friend.
"Wow, you truly are deserving of Rank 0. But don't think I'm done yet!" Elijah ran forward, about to use a weapon style. He ran low to the ground, and his blade was held at a weird angle.
Poised, Grey decide to use a move from his spear art. 'Lacerate.'
His spear was pointed to the floor, and suddenly flew in an upwards arc. Elijah, who was in range of the spear, backed away. Before he could fully regain his footing from the change in stance, however, the spear flipped its motion, moving back down. Elijah pulled his sword upwards into a defensive position, but the spear moved backwards, and Grey switched into a stabbing posture.
The spear thrust forward, and Elijah, unstable and unable to block, could only watch as the spear flew through the air, heading for his face.
WOOSH!
The spear cut through the air, stopping just in front of his face.
"Match over, Grey wins!" Lucas announced.
"Woo, that's my Grey! Good fight Elijah!" Var screamed, which set off the crowd of students.
"Did you see that! Elijah went all out and couldn't even force Grey to sweat!"
"What a monster!"
"Now I get why he's Rank 0. He's abnormal as hell!"
Grey, uncaring of the surrounding crowd, walked through the students, heading towards Var and the group. He looked around, and his eyes met with Aurora's. She blushed, which made Grey smile involuntarily.
'Cute.' He thought as he moved on.
- Oh, could it be that Grey has found someone who tugs at the heart of the unresponsive demon? - Fallen Star suddenly spoke up, and Grey's cheeks suddenly became heated. He ignored the annoying voice in his head, and spoke to Var.
"So, how'd I do as Rank 0?"
"You're damn strong, that's for sure." Var's response was as Grey expected, but a voice asking for a challenge caught his attention.
He turned around, and saw a blonde girl ask a black-haired elf to a duel. "I challenge you to a duel, Aurora Novis."
"Well then, Hannah, how could I refuse." The elf girl readily accepted, and the audience got ready for another match.
Lucas refereed the match as always, and with another, "Begin!", the third match began.
Aurora wielded a longbow, and Hanna wielded dual short swords. As Grey had learned from his father, dual wielding in general was several times harder than singular wielding was, but mastery could give exceptional results.
Hannah charged at Aurora, not planning to let the girl use her bow, but an arrow quickly made her rethink. "Don't even try it, Hannah. You're not coming near me!" She teased.
"Oh yeah, well, Ignis Flore!" At Hannah's words, a flower made of fire appeared in front of her, but it was a mere bud. Moments later, the flower bloomed and released a ball of fire, and it flew towards Aurora. Hannah then ran round the fireball, in an attempt to force Aurora to make a choice.
Her at close range, or the fireball. The strategy was good, but there were still 2 different directions Aurora could go, so it made little sense to Grey.
However, before it could even play out, Lucas appeared in front of the fireball, cutting it in two with just his hand, before moving to Hannah, stopping her from going further.
"Disqualified for use of magic, Aurora wins!" Lucas' decision to disqualify Hannah because she used magic was slightly unfair, simply because he had not told anyone that they could not use magic.
"But sir," Hannah began. "You didn't say we couldn't."
"Well, what is this class called?" He asked cryptically in an attempt to let Hannah figure the reason out herself.
"Um, well it's PT, and that is Physical Training, so…" Hannah's shoulder's drooped down, as she realised her mistake. "We can't use magic because it's not using our body."
"Exactly. Good job figuring it out. Although, you're right, I should have said. My bad." He gave her a small pat on the head and turned to the class.
"I've seen the top rankers duel it out, and I can make judgements for them. It also allows me to evaluate the level of the class, but in all honesty, this was for my own satisfaction. I'm now going to give you comprehensive tests, so I know where to start for each of you."
'Wow. Is that really my father? That man who's so intently doing his job? Impossible!' Grey thought as he watched Lucas dole out the instructions for the first test.
---
Outfits were given to everybody to wear, and then the students were given 3 tests.
Endurance. Lucas made them run around the track, then swim in the pool, and then climb an artificial hill over and over until they all collapsed.
Strength. Lucas made each student hit a bag that measured their strength.
Speed. The students were told to run 100m as fast as possible.
By the end of the 3 tests, every student was lying on the floor, huffing and puffing for air. They were all tired and wanted to sleep, but they couldn't peel their eyes from a certain somebody. Grey was stood, covered in sweat, a towel around his neck, talking to his father.
"How… is… he… doing… that?" Var asked Elijah through deep breaths.
"I… don't know, Var." Elijah responded.
10 minutes later, once all students had caught their breaths, Lucas handed out bottles of water for everyone. "Here you go. Get changed and then off you go, head to your next class."
The boys moved through the crowd heading to the left of the room where the boys changing room was, and the girls did the same on the right side of the room.
After getting changed, they headed to their next lesson. Grey was walking through the corridor when an arm looped around his neck, and an excited voice came out from its owner.
"Yo Grey! How do you do that?" Var inquired.
"I trained every day since I was 3. I took occasional breaks every few months, though. Each break only lasted a day."
"No! You're lying, aren't you! Since you were 3? Yeah, right!" Var was shocked. 'Since he was 3! I barely trained since I was 10!'
"I'm serious." Grey spoke. "I have no reason to lie to you, especially since you're a friend."
"Hey, Var. Leave him alone. He's probably telling the truth. Just 'cause you're a lazy ass doesn't mean that he is." Elijah popped out of nowhere, on the other side of Grey, followed by both Darren and Blake.
"So, where's the next class, Grey?" Blake asked. Grey had spoken to Blake a bit during the PT lesson, and the boy seemed pretty chill.
"It's in the same room as our home room and theory." He replied.
"What! So we're always there? That's boring!" Var complained.
"Yeah, but it's a lot easier to remember, right!" Elijah commented, which made Var nod his head.
"You right, you right!"