Ch 11.3 - Fight of the ExceptionalsーStart

With Arnold out of the way Rusty now faced Lin. They both stared at each other intensively as though they were arch-enemies from long back in history. Rusty had revealed his tricks but Lin hadn't moved an inch yet. Everyone knew their fight would be grandiose. The winds took their pace and the clouds stifled the sun as if to witness the fierce contest. A can could be crushed by the tension in between the two. Both refused to jest the others' capabilities and range. But that was no battle in the end one had to make a move, and the one to take the call wasー

❂ ❂ ❂

This whole time Lin watched the others fight, standing in the middle of the ground with his hands folded and a deadpan face. He watched Rusty as he dashed towards Arnold and after a short exchange of hands knocked him out all while maintaining a calm demeanor and without even batting an eye. He commended Rusty's martial arts skills but wasn't truly pleased by them, if asked to him why he would respond with, 'Any Martial Artist can pull that off'. He didn't hold any kind of opinion on Arnold, rather he didn't even acknowledge his participation in the fight. Though, when he saw the girls disheartened at Arnold's defeat he cringed.

After emerging victorious against Arnold Rusty now stood facing Lin. Lin stared down at Rusty contemplating his build. As their intense staredown continued they both knew one had to take the first step and attack the other. The question was who would? After processing this multiple times in their heads they knew who it would be.

Lin wasn't standing with his hands folded anymore and had taken a stance by focusing most of his body weight on his front left foot and his arms near his face with his chin touching his shoulder. Rusty had started racing in on Lin henceforth the stance. Rusty knew Lin wouldn't be making the first move because as per him Lin didn't want to reveal his cards, whereas Lin knew Rusty would make the first move because he simply thought he was arrogant.

As Rusty neared Lin he jumped into the air, closing in the distance he prepared to kick Lin. Lin took in a deep breath and grabbed Rusty's foot then instantaneously concentrated his aura to drop the kinetic energy and then froze his feet. The ice spread till his exterior retinaculum, and even entered his shoes completely covering his feet from the inside.

Rusty was bewildered by this. He couldn't believe Lin stopped his kick mid-air but also froze his feet in a second. He could feel his warm blood flowing in his feet while it's skin was in subzero temperature. The sudden forming of ice inflicted stinging pain in Rusty's legs causing him to panic and not think straight, he tried concentrating Crux Particles at his feet but then he realised his feet had stopped responding. He agitated the Crux Particles on his palm and discharged them to his feet. Lin immediately condensed the ice and let go of Rusty's feet and jumped back causing the latter to burn his own feet. Rusty fell on his hip and the strong flames blasted through his plam to his feet.

Miss Iva rushed for help but Rusty pulled out his palm telling her to stop. "I won't forgive you for this humiliation." He said to Lin, who still hadn't shown any sort of emotions. The burns on Rusty weren't severe thanks to the leather of Rusty's shoes which blocked the flamesー

The reason Rusty had attacked first was because he was jealous of Arnold receiving the attention and wanted to draw it all to himself. Had he defeated the man of the females and the six feet tall boulder he would have become the most admired in the class… or so he thought.

"I won't let you off without a big scar on that pretty face of yours." He said. Then he punched down the ground between him and Lin and composed a fire and thrusted its flames towards Lin. The flames approached Lin like a tsunami, it was too big to avoid, too hot to tame and too fast to run away fromー

The reason Lin hadn't attacked first was not because he wanted to hide his skills. It was because he simply wasn't interested enough in fighting the likes of Rusty and Arnold. For him they all were beginners who knew nothing. He had already read all of the books provided by the academy and had memorized all the tricks mentioned. If he were to sit for the final exam right now he would easily ace them.

Lin took a deep breath and concentrated his focus on his aura. Recognising all the Crux Particles around him he deviated them all and the big flame of fire extinguished right at his faceー

No one knew what had happened. Whatever they saw was incomprehensible as it was never taught to them, it was their fourth day at this place, all they knew was how to create fire and ice. Only Lin and Miss Iva could tell what had happened. Rusty was very furious at the turn of events. He couldn't contemplate the situation and was fuming.

For the first time, Lin opened his mouth, "I'm bored." He said. And in a span of a second he closed in on Rusty and jabbed him in the neck knocking him out. It looked like he had teleported right inside him.

Everyone was dumbfounded, with their jaws dropped trying to process what had just happened. After staring at the scene for a few seconds Miss Iva came back to her consciousness and rushed to the scene. Rusty and Arnold were both unconscious so she asked a handful of students to carry them to the infirmary. After talking to Lin for a few minutes she asked him to go back to the class and rest.

"So as you students saw, it was a grandiose fight, but I'm still not content so I'll have you all fight one-on-one. The rules are all the same. So, let's begin with the pairings."

Ch 11.3 - Fight of the ExceptionalsーEnd