Confronted by Vaelor's cold stare, Darius felt an unexpected flutter of panic. An inexplicable sense of danger crawled up his spine—instinctive fear he couldn't rationalize.
Which only made him angrier.
How dare an E-Rank piece of trash make him feel threatened?
Screech!
The sharp sound of furniture scraping against floor echoed through the silent classroom as Darius shoved his desk aside and stood. He towered over Vaelor by nearly half a head, using his physical advantage to look down at the slimmer young man.
"What if I say it again?" Darius snarled. "You're worthless! Trash!"
Cade shot to his feet immediately. "Darius, you son of a—"
"Whether Vaelor passes his exams is none of your damn business!"
To everyone's surprise, Seraphine Vex stepped onto her chair and rolled up her uniform sleeves, her delicate features twisted into an expression of pure aggression.
"What are you barking about, you mangy cur?"
Her voice dripped with contempt. "You awakened a B-Rank talent and suddenly think you're special? How about we settle this in the practice arena and see how 'special' you really are?"
Shocked murmurs rippled through the classroom. Nobody expected Seraphine—who'd awakened a rare-tier profession—to publicly defend Vaelor.
Vaelor couldn't help glancing at his former neighbor with renewed interest. She'd always been oddly protective of her territory, but this was something else entirely.
Darius's bravado faltered slightly. "Fight you? That's just asking to get humiliated. I admit I can't beat you. I concede."
"Bah! Coward!" Seraphine spat, planting her hands on her hips. "Then apologize to Vaelor!"
Darius's gaze slid back to the subject of this confrontation. "I respect people who are stronger than me. But I won't apologize to garbage."
Seraphine's pretty face flushed with genuine anger. "What did you just say?!"
Darius raised one arm and flexed, his muscles bulging visibly. He grinned down at the notably slimmer young man who barely reached his shoulder.
"I only believe in strength. This era belongs to the powerful. Everything is decided by force." He jabbed a finger toward Vaelor. "If he can beat me, I'll do more than apologize—I'll kneel and kowtow and call him daddy."
His grin widened, showing too many teeth. "The question is... does he have the strength?"
Darius swept his gaze across the entire classroom with deliberate arrogance. "In my opinion, aside from Seraphine and Garrett, everyone else in this class is garbage."
A heavyset student named Roland lurched to his feet. "Darius, you piece of—"
"What?" Darius turned his predatory smile toward the larger boy. "You got something to say?"
Roland's eyes dropped to Darius's raised fist—knuckles already whitening with tension. His courage evaporated instantly. He sat back down without another word.
"My vitality measurement exceeded 3.0," Darius announced loudly, preening like a peacock. "I've awakened a B-Rank origin talent. My admission to a first-tier Combat University is practically guaranteed. Meanwhile, even if you worthless nobodies dedicate your entire lives to training, you might—maybe—scrape into a second-tier school."
He paced slowly, enjoying his captive audience. "Once I enter university, I'll have access to resources you can't even imagine. The gap between us will only widen. Before long, you won't even be able to see my back."
"So if any of you want to challenge me, do it now." Darius spread his arms in mock invitation. "I'm feeling generous today. In another month, you won't even qualify to breathe the same air as me."
Anger simmered through the classroom, but nobody moved. A collective sense of powerlessness settled over the students like a suffocating blanket.
His words were cruel and heartless—but they reflected cold, harsh reality.
In the face of superior talent and family resources, personal effort often meant nothing at all.
Darius turned his attention back to Vaelor, his expression twisting into something ugly. "Look at you, hiding behind women like a coward. It disgusts me how seriously you take your training, working so hard despite having zero talent. You think effort alone can make you strong? Pathetic!"
"If hard work actually mattered, the streets would be full of warriors instead of corpses."
He leaned forward, voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "Even if I only train two hours a day and take a few supplements, I'll surpass you easily. My talent crushes yours completely. So tell me—doesn't that make you angry?"
Vaelor met his gaze with unnerving calm, then looked past him toward the front of the room.
"Instructor Mordain," he said clearly. "I formally request access to a trial combat chamber."
Instructor Mordain froze, clearly caught off guard. Seraphine whipped around to stare at him with wide eyes.
Cade grabbed his arm urgently. "Vaelor, don't be impulsive! Think about this—"
Darius cracked his knuckles with audible pops, his grin stretching wider. "Hehehehe... you've got guts, I'll give you that. If I don't put you on your knees today, I'll consider it a personal failure."
Instructor Mordain studied Vaelor's expression carefully. "Vaelor, don't act rashly."
The unspoken message was clear: Don't do something you'll regret.
Vaelor shook his head slightly.
If someone was actively seeking death, who was he to deny them that courtesy?
Seeing his resolve, Instructor Mordain sighed deeply. She couldn't refuse—the regulations were clear.
In this brutal era filled with existential threats, the path to power required countless battles. Combat experience was mandatory curriculum, which was why all combat academies maintained specific policies: as long as matches didn't endanger lives, students were permitted—even encouraged—to engage in supervised duels.
Instructor Mordain tapped her watch interface, invoking instructor-level authority.
BOOM!
The entire classroom began trembling. The walls expanded outward with mechanical precision while desks and chairs retracted smoothly into recessed floor panels.
Within seconds, the ordinary teaching space had transformed into a spacious combat chamber with gleaming metallic surfaces and advanced technological fixtures.
"Unarmed combat. Ten-minute time limit." Instructor Mordain's voice carried the weight of official judgment.
Darius strode forward, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. He didn't bother adopting a proper stance.
"Won't take ten minutes. This'll be over in one."
He extended his right hand and made a taunting 'come here' gesture. "Come on then, you worthless piece of trash. Can't say I didn't give you a chance."
The next instant—
Vaelor simply appeared directly in front of him, fist already in motion.
The punch stopped millimeters from Darius's face, close enough that the displaced air ruffled his hair wildly.
"..."
Darius's expression went completely blank. Cold sweat erupted across his forehead.
The watching students—including Instructor Mordain, Seraphine, and Cade—all stared in shocked silence.
"Did anyone... actually see that movement?"
"What the hell?! How was he so fast?!"
"Isn't he supposed to be E-Rank?!"
Multiple confused voices overlapped.
"What's wrong?" Vaelor's voice carried cold mockery. "Didn't you have a lot to say a minute ago?"
"Is this all you've got?"
Darius's face flushed crimson as humiliation transformed into rage. "I—I was caught off-guard! That's all!"
"Now I'm taking this seriously!"
He stepped forward aggressively, cocking his right fist back before launching a haymaker directly at Vaelor's face.
Vaelor's expression didn't change at all. His eyes tracked the attack with perfect clarity.
Such a telegraphed, clumsy strike didn't even warrant dodging.
Vaelor's body shifted almost imperceptibly. His vitality circulated through specific meridian pathways, generating a peculiar force that radiated outward in concentric waves—like ripples spreading across water, except these ripples were composed of blood-red energy.
The Vibrational Force Technique intercepted Darius's punch and simply... deflected it. The kinetic energy dispersed harmlessly.
"What—" Disbelief flashed across Darius's features.
Before he could process what had happened, Vaelor surged forward at an impossible angle. His right hand formed a perfect palm strike and clamped onto Darius's face like a vice.
"!"
Darius didn't even have time to register the attack before overwhelming force yanked him off balance. His entire body tilted backward uncontrollably.
BANG!
Darius crashed onto the metallic floor, sprawled on his back, staring blankly at the ceiling while his mind struggled to comprehend reality.
Cade—who'd been watching through his fingers like it was a horror movie—blinked rapidly in confusion.
"...Huh?"
Complete silence blanketed the chamber. Everyone remained frozen, unable to process what they'd just witnessed.
Roland's voice cracked with shock. "Vaelor just... knocked Darius down?!"
"Oh my god!"
"How did he do that?"
"What the hell just happened?!"
Everything had occurred so quickly that most observers couldn't follow the exchange. One moment they expected Darius to dominate, the next the situation had completely reversed.
Darius finally regained enough cognitive function to realize what had happened. He scrambled upright, face contorted with disbelief and fury.
"You... what did you do to me?!"
"Nothing special." Vaelor's tone dripped with contempt. "You're just weak. I thought awakening a B-Rank talent would make you somewhat formidable, but you're disappointingly fragile."
He paused deliberately, then spoke two words with cutting disdain: "Garbage."
Vaelor had deliberately restrained himself to pre-awakening power levels, relying purely on martial technique rather than his current ridiculous attributes. Yet even so, Darius couldn't offer any meaningful resistance.
"It's martial arts amplification," Instructor Mordain murmured, her eyes wide with surprise.
If vitality served as fuel, then martial arts were the 'weapons' that transformed that fuel into devastating force. Mastered techniques could amplify combat effectiveness by factors of five to ten!
"That's impossible," a student protested. "In our class, only Garrett achieved minor proficiency in Basic Combat Arts. Everyone else is still at beginner level."
"But Vaelor consistently scored highest in practical martial arts assessments..."
"Did he actually reach minor proficiency?"
Garrett Steelheart frowned deeply. "No. Not minor proficiency."
Minor proficiency wouldn't produce that level of amplification.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!"
Utterly humiliated by an E-Rank "trash" student, Darius snapped completely. He kicked off hard, launching himself forward like an enraged beast, intending to use his superior size and strength to simply overwhelm his opponent.
A yellowish substance began coating his skin—hardening into armor-like plating.
"That's his talent!" someone shouted.
"It's over. Vaelor awakened as Shadow Reaper—he's not a tank-class warrior. There's no way he can break through B-Rank defensive talent."
But the instant those words left their mouth, Vaelor moved.
His leg snapped out in a devastating kick.
Fast. Precise. Ruthless.
The strike cut through the air with a sharp whistling sound, demonstrating perfect form in every aspect—angle, power, velocity, and timing all synchronized flawlessly. The kick targeted a specific weak point in the defensive coverage with surgical precision.
The yellowish armor coating Darius's body shattered like glass, fragmenting into countless pieces.
Darius's larger frame was launched backward like a cannonball fired from a cannon, propelled by the overwhelming kinetic force.
The student who'd confidently declared Vaelor couldn't possibly break the defense stood with his jaw hanging open, completely stupefied.
"What the actual hell is happening?!"
CRASH!
Darius slammed into the metallic wall with bone-rattling impact, creating a small crater in the reinforced surface. Dust and debris rained down as he slid downward, leaving a trail of smeared blood. His eyes rolled back in his head, consciousness fleeing entirely.
He collapsed in a crumpled heap at the wall's base, motionless.
The entire class stared at Vaelor in stunned silence, their minds struggling to reconcile what they'd witnessed.
It seemed impossible.
That lean, unassuming frame containing such explosive power?
Nobody wanted to believe it. Shock, disbelief, and cognitive dissonance warred across every face.
"Two moves. He defeated Darius in two moves." Someone's voice trembled. "And he's supposed to be E-Rank?!"
"Am I hallucinating or has the world gone insane?"
"Someone pinch me. Please."
Cade clutched his head with both hands, fingers digging into his scalp. "What is happening?! Is this the same Vaelor I've known for three years?!"
"When did he become so terrifyingly strong?!"
At the front of the chamber, Instructor Selene Mordain stared at Vaelor with an expression of profound shock and dawning realization.
Something was very, very wrong with this picture.
Or perhaps... something was very, very right.
Vaelor met her gaze calmly, his dark eyes betraying nothing.
And for just a fraction of a second, she could have sworn she saw rainbow light flickering in their depths.