“What’s going on here?” One of the young men behind Brodin said.

What is this weird looking mana shield? I’ve never seen anything like it.. Brodin thought to himself. He decided to create some distance between himself and Alex and began taking Alex more seriously, no longer underestimating him.

What a powerful punch!! Alex thought. That took probably half of my black mana, I should be more careful. Alex entered a fighting stance and sent small streams of mana across his entire body, enhancing it a bit. He has more combat experience than I do. I'll go for a counterattack and conserve as much mana as I can, he resolved.

The two stood there, eyeing their opponent and waiting for them to make the first move. After nearly half a minute,

“All of you, get out of here right now! There will be no fighting in here!” A man wearing a security uniform said. After hearing this, the two reluctantly let down their guard. No matter how strong they were in class, they were nothing to the outside world. Alex, still needing to do some things, decided to ask to the security guard,

“I still need to buy some food, is that alright?”

“That’s fine, but the others are going to have to leave the store,” The security guard responded. “Until you are done shopping, the others cannot enter.”

Brodin and his friends began leaving, but not before sending a glance towards Alex. How did he get so strong? He is nothing like before.. They all thought. Brodin stared at Alex the longest, still remembering how Alex’s weird mana shield blocked his punch. An intermediate soldier blocking a peak soldier's attack was unheard of. No, Alex must be a peak soldier but everyone is just keeping that hidden. There's no way an intermediate soldier could do something like that.

Brodins thought process wasn’t necessarily wrong, as a peak soldier can casually send a punch out as strong as an intermediate soldier's strongest attack. The gap between ranks is like night and day.

Alex began looking for food again, but he was still thinking about his encounter with Brodin. To think that just one casual attack from him took half of my black mana, is this what all peak soldiers are like? He thought to himself. I wouldn’t be able to beat him without using the black mana punch, but showing strength like that would put too much attention on myself.

“Thank you for stopping our fight, I probably would’ve gotten really hurt if not for you.” Alex thanked the security guard that was following behind him.

“There's no need to thank me,” The guard responded, “Keep in mind that there won’t always be someone strong to save you, so use this as a learning experience.”

Alex nodded and continued grabbing food. After getting everything he needed, he paid for the food and went back home. At this point, Alexs’ hunger was quite tough to ignore, so he rushed home as fast as possible and made himself something quick to eat. After eating, he sat down and began thinking…

The guard is right. There won’t always be someone strong to save me like today. I need to get stronger, and I need to learn more about this black mana. I doubt that I can learn anything about it while I am still weak, so that’s all the more reason to get stronger. Alex stood up and continued practicing. But this time, Alex imagined fighting against Brodin again. He thought back to his first punch and tried many different ways of stopping it, and found that parrying was his best option against a punch like that. Sure, using the shield worked, but it took too much black mana. He needed to save it for life or death situations.

Alex continued fighting against Brodin and the robber, essentially shadow boxing, for the rest of the night.