Chapter 38: Honor

Moving about quickly, Fang pressed the offensive with a continuous barrage of small Energy Balls; it seemed like he had the advantage, but in reality, he was barely keeping up with Ray’s counterattacks. However, anxiety filled Ray regardless – how long could this go on?

Damn, this kid’s a freak!

Calculating, Ray knew that the fight couldn’t continue this way. While it looked like it was easy for him to defeat Tom, he had expended a sizable portion of his energy, and surprisingly, Fang showed no sign of exhausting his energy. In terms of endurance, he wasn’t sure he could outlast Fang, so Ray decided he had to end this quickly with an overpowering skill.

At the moment when Ray took a different course of action, Fang noticed instantly, and while continuing the last ball of energy, he put his hands together and sent out a large, mass of swirling energy.

2nd grade yellow skill – Energy Crush!

The crowd stirred, this 2nd grade yellow skill was the same that Tom used. Though it was normal for a 4th grade intermediate to use it, most 2nd grade intermediates certainly didn’t know it.

Fang trailed behind the mass of energy, he clearly wanted to use it as both the shield and spear to attack Ray while protecting himself.

But this mimicked what Tom did, resulting in his defeat as Ray was too strong and broke through that energy blast.

Unless Ray was low on energy, there was no outcome where Fang would win.

Ray was also aware of the change in tactics by Fang because of his actions, and instead of surprise, he felt happy.

This guy should also be at the last dredges of his energy, so he must be desperate for a strike as well.

In battle, there was no need to play fair, he thought. Ray eliminated the two stray Energy Balls in his way and with slight difficulty, raised his energy to be a 5th grade intermediate.

Since I already became a higher grade, there’s no harm in going higher to ensure victory and utterly crush this kid!

Twisting energy surrounded his legs as he smirked; it was the same skill that demolished Tom’s Energy Blast.

It was too late for Fang to retreat, Ray had deliberately waited until Fang came close before raising his energy and dashing towards him.

There was no room to dodge, seconds away, before the impact, Fang’s energy around his palm expanded.

3rd grade yellow skill – Energy Devour!

Even if the skill was melee, it was following up behind Energy Blast, and the power behind the two was sure to be strong.

Ray looked in dismay as he approached Fang, this kid knew how to use Energy Devour!

I should’ve started all out from the very beginning, but hell, my Energy Press is going to overpower that Energy Blast and Devour.

From the air, he descended and destroyed the Energy Blast with ease, and met the Energy Devour.

Bang!

Though most of the power from the Energy Press was offset, it broke through and continued to progress towards Fang.

It’s done, Fang’s lost!

Class eight let out a collective sigh, although it was a pity, Fang demonstrated with pride his skills that pushed Ray to a standstill.

Overjoyed, Ray laughed inside, when I step on your body, it’ll be marked that I’m the stronger!

Though Fang’s Energy Devour was broken, he didn’t cower in fear. Instead, he took a long, deep breath and taking advantage of the small window of opportunity Energy Devour provided, paused for a moment. Energy formed into a distinct shape of a hammer, and he kicked out viciously towards Ray.

4th grade yellow skill – Hammer Kick!

This was notoriously difficult to use compared to even Energy Devour, because the majority of energy users weren’t familiar with shaping their energy and concentrating it into other parts of their body than their hands.

Perhaps, in the history of Garden College, a few people would have mastered both of these fighting techniques. But right now, from the class with the worst students in the school, a 2nd grade intermediate mastered them.

This again changed the audience’s disappointment into an uproar, and from the number of surprises Ray saw, he almost fainted.

Hammer Kick, is this guy a monster?!

Fang’s heavy energy on impact told him he wasn’t dreaming.

Hammer Kick, as its name suggested, was a kick that mimicked the action of a sledgehammer. The small amount of energy left by Energy Press was promptly crushed, and Fang fell back.

“Ahhhh!” Ray held his broken right shoulder in pain as he rolled on the floor in pain.

Fang slowly approached him, and lifted up his foot in silence.

Desperately, Ray closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

His foot came down, but it didn’t step on his face, and stomped the ground, leaving an imprint. “Unfortunately, I’m not trash like you, so I don’t do that sort of thing!”

Dropping his words off, Fang moved off the field. When he passed Ray’s classmate, he stopped. “Go and help him up!”

In fright, they unconsciously shook.

Although Fang must have expended the most of his energy, they weren’t willing to face off against him – if there was another loss, class two would be unable to hold their faces up in pride ever again in Garden College.

Seeing no response, Fang coldly said, “In that case, leave your classmate to rot on the ground!”

Being frozen like that for minutes would be stupid; hurriedly, people ran to the field and helped Ray up, limping away.

When Fang returned to his class in the audience, they woke up and immediately started to cheer loudly.

Before the match, no one expected Fang to win, even when he used Hammer Kick, they thought he would lose. However, Fang put down Ray, and gave him a lesson in humiliation – a 2nd grade intermediate solidly took victory from the top class, a 5th grade intermediate!

“Fang, is this reality? You’re extremely strong, Ray wasn’t a match for you.”

“This was one of the top classes, surely, they won’t look down on us anymore thanks to you Fang!”

Surrounded in praise, Fang felt happy. Previously, his courage was honored by his peers, but their tone now showed that they admired his strength, and brought pride for the rest of the class.

Though he was a bit shy, this unaccustomed feeling felt nice.

Someone muttered, “Damn Fang, why didn’t you step on Ray to take revenge for Tom?”

He smiled. “There’s no need to lower ourselves to their level.”

Laughing, Tom patted his back. “You’re right, it’s not worth bringing us down!”

Seeing how he wasn’t arrogantly bragging about his win, the students from the other classes felt admiration towards him as well. Finally, after speaking with a ton of people, the crowd parted and Fang pulled over his roommate to the side with a serious expression. “Hey, Blue, why’d you do that?”

Blue blinked. “What do you mean? I just gave you a chance to become a hero and here you are, the hero of class eight. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”

Slightly embarrassed, he replied, “But doing something like that suddenly was a bit unexpected, at least discuss it with me.”

“Oh, so it’s fine to watch our classmates lose and get humiliated one by one by Ray? That bastard needed to go down, and well, didn’t that win feel good?”

Fang nodded in agreement, but then put his arguments aside as he didn’t want to degrade his relationship with Blue. “I guess you have a point.”

His roommate smirked at him. “That’s surely right, everything I do is justified!”

Even if Blue looked calm on the outside, her mind was astonished.

They were together as roommates in the training camp, and ended up in class eight. At the end of the training camp, it was only a couple of weeks that they didn’t see each other, and Blue was curious as to how much progress Fang made.

His repertoire of techniques increased – Energy Blast and Hammer Kick was all learned in that short period of time, and she noticed that his combat movements improved significantly; he knew how to chain his skills appropriately and take advantage of the cover as well as move to minimize damage.

Of course, Lady Valeria must have taught him these things, but the speed that Fang learned was scary!

This guy’s really full of surprises...