Capítulo 21: Showing Off
Kayden, Connor, and Hannah were seated on the floor, panting heavily and drenched in sweat.
"This has been one of the most intense training sessions I've ever had, if not the most," Connor said, breathing heavily.
"Same here," Spoke Kayden.
"Same," Hannah's soft voice left Kayden briefly dumbfounded. Even though he hadn't heard her voice once, he had imagined it similar to Audrey's.
Instead of a cold, unkind voice, it was as gentle as the brush of a breeze in the countryside.
However, after seeing Hannah's outstanding skill with the bow, Kayden knew that whoever underestimated her would definitely regret it.
"What are you going to do now?" Connor asked, looking at Kayden.
"I guess I will go to the gym hall. I want to improve my physical strength without completely relying on mana nodes."
"I see that you are taking seriously the words of our superiors too," Connor said.
'More than our superiors, the one I take seriously is Lord Thasal,' Kayden thought, not saying it out loud, fearing that one of them was related to the superiors.
"Something like that," he answered.
"You really like being mysterious, don't you?" Connor said, "Hannah and I will cultivate, won't we?"
"Yes," she said.
"I hope we will train like this again in the next few days," Kayden uttered.
"Sure. We usually come in the afternoon, so you know when to meet us."
***
Kayden walked toward the gym hall, deep in thought.
Even though he had said multiple times that he was going to look solely after himself, the experience of training with Connor and Hannah slightly changed his mind.
'I wouldn't risk my life for them under any circumstances. However, in a normal situation, I guess having friends has its benefits.' He thought.
During the training, he realized that having friends with diverse skills could be extremely useful. They were able to complement each other, leading to accelerated improvement when it came to training.
Of course, this also showed that being friends with an untalented person was pointless.
Kayden arrived at the gym, eager to push his limits further. As he entered the well-equipped training area, he scanned the room for the available equipment.
Since all the recruits were cultivators, normal weights and machines were not useful for them.
Therefore, the government provided the gym with special materials, such as discs that weighed up to a hundred kilograms. These allowed cultivators to train normally.
Kayden's eyes landed on a set of weights and one of the pull-up bars.
He approached the weights, adjusting them to a challenging level. Several people looked at him dumbfounded when they saw how much weight he was setting.
"Don't you think there should be a limit for bragging?" A mocking voice asked, drawing Kayden's attention.
He turned to the voice, finding a young man with an arrogant look. Surprisingly, he had a white badge on his shirt.
"What do you mean?" Kayden asked in a serene tone.
"Isn't it obvious? You are bothering everyone else by picking so much weight just to show off!" He exclaimed as the three guys behind him nodded like dogs.
'Is he simply so childish that he doesn't realize there is no reason to pick more weight than what I'm going to use? Or his ego is so big that he thinks no one can lift what he can't?' Kayden thought, looking at him as if he was a clown.
This seemed to infuriate the young man, who started shouting at Kayden as he approached him.
"Do you think I, Grayson, am a joke?" He said, now so close to Kayden that their noses were almost touching.
"I don't know who you are, but if you don't want to leave this place on a stretcher, you better go away and let me train in peace," Kayden uttered in an icy voice.
Kayden was trying to avoid provoking a fight, if you could even call it that to hit him unilaterally, but the young man named Grayson was starting to get on his nerves.
Hearing Kayden's threat, Grayson's face turned livid with anger as he angrily retorted while grabbing Kayden's arm.
"Do you think just because you have a white badge you can act however you want? I'll show you that even among those with white badges, there can be a world of difference!"
He grabbed Kayden with one hand while throwing a punch with the other.
Grayson smiled as he threw the punch, already imagining Kayden's face crushed by his blow.
However, the reality ended up being different from his imagination.
Raising his free arm confidently, Kayden easily parried Grayson's blow with his palm, leaving everyone present speechless.
Grayson was surprised before his anger flared as Kayden's block had hurt his ego.
As Kayden easily dodged and blocked his blows, Grayson's confidence began to fade.
"Come and hit him, you idiots!" He ordered the three men who appeared to be his henchmen.
His eyes sparkling with excitement, Kayden laughed as he dodged the four's blows before counterattacking.
Twisting his body to generate more force, he punched one of the henchmen squarely in the belly, causing him to fall to the ground instantly as he started coughing up blood.
The other three paled, but before they could say anything, Kayden moved quickly and struck another in the side.
"Aghh!" He fell to the ground while clutching his ribs, breathing hard.
Meanwhile, Kayden moved with agility, launching a sidekick that hit the temple of the last henchman, causing him to fall unconscious.
Finally, Kayden turned to Grayson, who looked at him in terror before stammering.
"I-If you hit me, the first rank of my group will take revenge…"
Hearing his words, Kayden flashed a vicious grin while asking, "And who would that person be?"
"E-Elena."
Kayden's grin widened even more at his words.
"Elena, heh? Tell her she can come to me whenever she wants," Kayden said before becoming suddenly serious, "I'd like to let you go, but you know… I am a man of my word."
He slowly approached Grayson, who backed up until he bumped into the wall.
"And I told you that you weren't going to be able to leave this place without a stretcher," he uttered before launching a hook toward Grayson, who tried to cover himself without success.
Grayson coughed as he looked at Kayden, "The captain will punish you for hitting other recruits!"
Kayden sneered and replied, "Don't you realize yet? In this new world, since I'm more talented than you, I won't be punished as soon as I don't kill you!" He concluded, laughing as he attacked again.
Which each blow, his knuckles gradually became stained with blood. However, even though he seemed to have lost control, Kayden was still careful to avoid hitting vital places to prevent Grayson from dying.
After a while, Kayden walked away, and Grayson's body fell unconscious to the ground.
His eyes were black, and the rest of his face was now a jumble of blood and swollen flesh. Moreover, these were only the injuries visible from the outside.
Kayden sighed, "It seems he was right, I ended up showing off," Kayden murmured in a sad tone.
Presentes
-- Presente
recebido Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder