In the northern part of the continent, a castle like structure stood atop a small mountain surrounded by a lush green valley. Inside the stone walls of the structure a group of youths in various types of armour could be seen strolling the halls.

“Did you hear about the recent attacks on the wolf and bear tribe territories?” A young lion beast-man asked looking at his friend.

“Yeah, I heard it was a rouge beast-man going on a rampage!”

Looking at his friend he couldn’t help but disagree. “Rouge beast-man? More like those despicable humans!”

“Humans? They wouldn’t dare touch us. It’s more likely that a beast-man has gone crazy and started a rampage.”

Before getting into a full blown debate with his friend, the academy bell rung.

“Time for class.”

Nodding in confirmation, both the lion man and his friend parted ways. Walking towards the combat hall the sight of four other beast-men and one human entered his vision. Striding in with the presence of a king, the lion man drew in the attention of his fellow peers.

Seeing all of his students arrive, a muscle heavy bald man wearing a pair of metal greaves, leggings, and chest plate, strode in with unusually large steps. Just like his appearance suggested his voice was deep and gruff. “Arthur, lead the class in training.”

The lion man known as Arthur nodded to the instructor and had the rest of the class follow his instructions.

…

A caravan of five wagons and twenty-eight people were traveling on a road towards a big academy built on top of a small mountain. Being an adventurer caravan, it was almost entirely filled with people in combat outfits. Of those 28 people only 7 of them were adventurers, 3 were teachers and the rest were students.

For the journey back to Berilia Knight academy, the school had hired seven skilled adventurers to escort them back safely. Due to the recent rumours of several Beast-men tribes being destroyed, the academy is now taking extra measures to protect their students when they have a class outing.

Sharing a wagon with the students, an unassuming young man slept peacefully through the noises of the gossiping students.

…

“So who’s the guy in the back?” Returning to the academy gates, a guard checked all the empty wagons before finding the sleeping young man.

A rough looking young beast-kin stepped forward to answer. “Just a straggler we picked up. Said he was coming here so we gave him a lift.”

He nodded to show his understanding. “Wake him and send him in.”

Waking up with a start, the young man was greeted to the sight of a huge red haired, muscle bound man. “What?”

Despite being irritated by the young man’s attitude, the red haired beast-man chose to ignore it. “We’re here.”

Jumping out of the wagon, the young man looked up at the knight academy and muttered under his breath “the islands of Mato are better.”

“What was that?” Looking over at the young man, the beast-man felt something off about him.

“Nothing… should we head inside?” Not waiting for him to answer, Daelos charged in without a second thought.

“Wait!!”

…

It only took five minutes for him to lose the red haired beast-man before he realised that he had no idea where he was going.

After travelling the beast-man territories for the last couple of months he realized that after his battle with the scarred beast-man that his biggest weakness lay in how weak his physical body was. Despite being stronger than the beast-man, he had to fight him for nearly an hour till he finally collapsed.

Ever since then he’d been constantly using vibrations to temper his flesh and stimulate his muscles. He’d also been challenging various beast using nothing than his physical body. He got the idea after hearing a saying that tempering his body while in a fierce battle could help him improve at an alarming rate. After months of battling beasts he felt that not only had his physical body improve but his combat senses also seemed to have enhanced.

This led to him seek out the knight academy. If he could improve this much after just challenging beasts then how much would he improve fighting real knights. Of course he wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that he’d defeat a full fledged knight. But defeating students seemed to be in the realm of possibility.

Somehow managing to find his way outdoors, the sound of heavy breathing and groaning caught his attention. Walking towards a small building behind the academy, the sight of five beast-men and one human weapon training entered his vision. Most of them were embarrassingly weak but the lion beast-man had an aura that attracted him.

Walking into the building, he drew the attention of everyone in the hall, including the instructor. Standing up from his seat he strolled up to Daelos. “Are you a student here.”

What an imposing aura! Feeling his overwhelming aura envelop him, he felt his blood start to boil. Taking several deep breaths, he managed to calm himself down. “No I heard that knights are the kings of close quarter combat, so I came to test that theory.”

“Oh? And what makes you think you have the right to challenge my students?”

“I heard beast-men only respect the strongest so backing down would show their weakness.” Smiling to himself an aura of arrogance slowly oozed out of him.

Staring down at the human below him a sneer couldn’t help but make its way onto his face. “You seem to know a lot about us.”

“Just general knowledge.”

At this point, the students had stopped their weapon training and come over to see what all the commotion was about.

“Hmm” seeing his students approach, the instructor decided that it’d be a good experience for them to fight a mage. “Are you a mage?” Asking in an imposing voice that said ‘answer me or die’ the instructor emitted a dangerous feeling.

Smiling at the instructor’s attempt of intimidation Daelos happily answered. “Mage-knight.”

“Oh? Well aren’t you a rare sight. I thought you mage knights looked down upon us lowly knights”

“Only people trapped in their own bubble can’t fathom the potential of knights.”

Nodding in agreement, the instructor’s pressurizing aura lessened. “What sub-class of mage knight are you?”

“Subclass?” Oh yeah I remember reading about that in the library. “Pugilist.”

Looking at the young man up and down a frown appeared on his face. “Seriously?”

Starting to feel irritated he showed an annoyed face. “Can I fight or not!”

Still finding it hard to believe that the young man before him was a pugilist, he instructed his student to gather every teacher and student in the academy and bring them out to the arena.

…

Half an hour later Daelos found himself standing atop a stage surrounded by a bunch of students staring at him. In the distance the instructor and a bunch of other older beast-men watched the stage.

A beast-man to the right of the instructor looked at the stage before talking to the instructor. “He looks a bit weak doesn’t he?”

Chuckling at his friend’s comment he couldn’t help but shake his head. “I don’t know how strong he is, but he faced my aura and still dared talk to me like we were equals.” Just remembering that scene caused him to feel slightly excited.

A shock expression covered the face of all the instructors. “No wonder your so interested in him.”

“Obviously, anyone able to withstand my aura isn’t normal.” Talking as if it was a major achievement to withstand his aura, a proud expression filled his face.

To his left another instructor joined the conversation. “So who did you pit him up against?”

Hearing this, a wide grin emerged on his face. “ARTHUR.”

“The lion? Isn’t he the one closest to achieving that state!!”

Smiling to himself, the instructor nodded. “Not only is he close to achieving that state, but he’s also the only student to ever remain standing when I unleashed my aura.”

As if hearing the most shocking news in their life, expressions of disbelief covered their faces.

“How do you think he’ll fare against the mage knight?”

This was the question that had been troubling him the most. “I don’t know…but whatever the results, Arthur will only grow stronger. Afterall he’s a king.”

…

Back down on the stage, Daelos felt various gazes scan his body. Hmm are they probing me?

Standing opposite him the lion beast-man looked at him with a challenging gaze.

Feeling that the gaze wouldn’t stop until the fight began. He decided to directly ask him about it. “What?”

“Your human?”

“Yeah”

“Then you must know you’re not my match!”

Not his match? “I think you’re a bit confused. Although knights are said to be the king of close quarter combat, in an actual fight mage knights hold the upper hand.”

“That was before my time. Now that I am here I will show you elves and humans the might of us beast kin!!”

*YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!*

*BEAST KIN!!!!*

In the background various cheers sounded out.

Walking onto the stage a bald headed human covered in muscles stepped in between the two. “Before we start, a few ground rules must be set. First, any killing intent will result in the participant’s automatic loss. Second, if any participant is injured they must remember they agreed to the fight and were warned about injuries. And third, both participants must fight with honour.” Walking off the stage, the bald headed human struck a gong and started the fight.

The two fighters started to exchange blow for blow. Sounds of metal grinding against metal could be heard. Arthur swung his ridiculously large sword with swiftness but was easily dodged by Daelos. The battle between the two continued until Arthur’s sword strikes became faster. Facing the speed of Arthur’s sword strikes, Daelos kept his distance only parrying when needed.

*CLANK*

*CLANK*

*SWISH*

*SWISH*

He was trying really hard to avoid making a misstep, but due to the increased speed of Arthur’s sword swings he felt himself slowly being driven into a corner.

Holding back the urge to use his vibrations, Daelos felt he’d reached the limits of his physical body.

The difference between this guy and that scarred beast-man is too big!!

Adding another layer of earth skin to his body, he charged at Arthur when he saw him reveal an opening.

As Daelos’s fist of got closer and closer, Arthur felt a surge of power erupting from his body. The once fast fist charging towards his face, suddenly seemed to be moving a snail pace. He felt his body lighten all of a sudden and he dodged the upcoming fist graciously while aiming the tip of his sword at Daelos’s throat. " Surrender!"

Seeing Arthur’s agile movements the instructors in the crowd felt like they were struck by lightning. “One with the sword… ARTHUR achieved the ‘one with the sword’ state!!!”

Daelos stood there wondering to himself what this one with the sword state was. Unfortunately for him the sword tip was placed directly on his adam’s apple and he feared his throat would get pierced by asking any questions.

Removing his sword from Daelos’s throat, Arthur uncharacteristically bowed to him. “Thank you for sparring with me. If you hadn’t held back I wouldn’t have been able to improve so fast.”

Everyone around the stage felt confused from hearing Arthur’s statement. Held back? Wasn’t he going all out?

“I should be the one thanking you.” Returning the bow Daelos looked upon Arthur favourably. “Thanks to this spar I finally realise the direction I should be heading in.”

“Are all the mage knights at your academy as strong as you?”

“I’m sure there’s a lot of people who are stronger than me now, but if I went all out I don’t know how many students would pose a threat to me.” Saying this he thought back to his spar with Rhina. I wonder how much she’s improved?

When the rest of the students heard the words mage knight they suddenly remembered that mage knights fought using laws and didn’t just rely on physical strength like knights.

“Mage knight Daelos, after comprehending the state of one with the sword, I ask that you battle me again but this time with your full power.”

Feeling like it wouldn’t be a problem, he quickly agreed. “Okay but after this I have something to ask your instructor.” Looking up from where he was standing he saw the instructor he met in the combat hall nod at him.

As the two of them got into combat stances... Arthur felt a dangerous aura being released from Daelos’s body. After feeling the different aura being emitted from Daelos, Arthur didn't underestimate him and directly entered the ‘one with the sword’ state from the start.

With 'one with the sword' activated, Arthur charged towards Daelos and attacked with a speed surpassing that of the previous battle. A blur of swords shadows striking at Daelos could be seen, but this time Daelos didn't bother to parry his swords instead he chose to redirect the direction of the sword with the back of his bracers. The scene of him and Arthur being locked in a 50/50 battle didn’t appear as expected. Instead it was Arthur who was at the disadvantage and being toyed around with. This sight made the instructors, and students gasp in shock.

Seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, Daelos felt that he should probably have held back more. I should end this.

Coating his arm in dense vibrations, he punched the upcoming sword heading towards him. When the sword and fist met, the sword paused for a second before shattering into pieces.

The instructors were speechless after seeing Arthur’s tier 3 bull sword shatter. Seeing the event happen before their very eyes caused them to feel like they were in a dream.

The instructor that set this all up remembered the face Daelos made when he asked him what his class was. PUGILIST!!!