บท 9: Working Students Fight! (1)

Exiting the rear gate of the academy, Durand quickly ran toward the forest on the mountain. The other students were quite easy to find and Durand soon arrived to their side. The scene reminded him of a schoolyard fight: two groups, each led by a leader standing in front facing each other. Xiao Wu led the working students and a tall arrogant looking boy facing them led the higher grade students.

The arrogant boy sneered was called Boss Xiao by the other higher grade students and seemed vaguely familiar to Durand. (Who is he? I think I've seen him before. Why can't I remember who he is?) As it turned out, this boy was the one who had scorned the working students on Tang San and Durand's first day at the academy in the cafeteria. However, as Durand had simply ignored the taunt and subsequent childish argument, he had little recollection of the event. Especially since he had been through such an exciting two days in the Spirit Hunting Forest, the boy who had originally been insignificant became hardly recognizable to Durand.

Still, the boy stood opposing the working students and Durand knew he could not just stand by as his fellow working students were bullied. He quickly made his way toward the working student group. Recognizing him as someone who had been able to defend even against Xiao Wu, they made way for him; allowing him to reach the front, next to Xiao Wu.

At this moment, Boss Xiao sneered contemptuously and said to Xiao Wu, "Little girl, there is still time for you to apologize. Of course, I don't mind having a pet rabbit. Your spirit is a rabbit, isn't that right?"

Durand frowned, feeling disgust at the comment made by the arrogant boy in front of him. Next to him Xiao Wu seemed to take little notice of the pedophilic taunt. Instead she responded with a taunt of her own, "Boss Xiao, are you scared? Scared of losing and becoming my little brother?"

"HA!" Boss Xiao yelled out a fake big laugh. "Why would I be scared? Have all of you working students lost your mind? You've gotten some clueless girl to lead you all to pick a fight with me. Haven't you asked who I am? In Nuoding city, if I walk from east to weast, there isn't a single person who would dare to stop me; not to mention anyone in this academy."

Impatiently, Xiao Wu demanded, "Cut the nonsense! Let's start. How do you want to fight?"

Boss Xiao's eyes narrowed, revealing a sneaky expression, "Rest assured, I won't bully you. Since you guys have ten people here, we will also only use ten people. One versus one matches, winners can continue to the next fight. We'll continue until all the people on one side are defeated."

As the leader among the students, Boss Xiao naturally is not a rash person. On the contrary, he was rather clever. Although on the surface Xiao Wu looked like she was no threat, Boss Xiao was familiar with Wang Sheng, the former working student leader. Knowing Wang Sheng's attitude and personality, if Xiao Wu didn't have the fighting ability, he knew that Wang Sheng would not easily recognize her as the working student's representative.

However, how strong could this little girl be? On his side were all the higher grade students, each of which were strong. On the working student's side, they only had Wang Sheng and this little girl. By grinding these two down with a few of his underlings, he would naturally win this battle that was clearly stacked in his favor. He wouldn't even have to come out to battle.

Durand and Wang Sheng realized Boss Xiao's plan. Of course, Durand wasn't worried at all. With a hundred year spirit ring, he was already among the most powerful students in the academy. Moreover, his spirit mutation had increased his physical attributes so much that it was likely that he could face all ten people by himself.

Wang Sheng was about to say something to Xiao Wu but before he could open his mouth, Xiao Wu had already spoken, "Fine, we'll settle it like this. Alright, whoever is first, come out!"

A large higher grade student immediately stepped out. Wang Sheng paled as he recognized the student. The large student was Liu Long, who was in the same class as Wang Sheng and had defeated Wang Sheng into a miserable state multiple times before.

Durand clapped his hand onto Wang Sheng's shoulder.

"Do you want to fight? I can handle this if you'd like," said Durand.

Wang Sheng looked relieved and gestured for Durand to fight. Originally in the story, Wang Sheng had volunteered to fight because he felt that he was the only person on the working students' group that could face Liu Long aside from Xiao Wu. But if Xiao Wu went up first and was defeated by the next person or the person after that, the working students would have a large blow to their morale and suffer in the battles following her defeat.

In this timeline thought, Wang Sheng had seen Durand's endurance and defensive prowess and felt that even if Durand wasn't able to defeat his opponents quickly, he could at least tire a couple of them out to submission. As Durand stepped forward, he glanced back to reassure his fellow working students. As he did, he noticed that Tang San had already made his way here.

Liu Long sneered when he saw Durand. Despite Durand being tall for his age and boasted a toned phsyique, his boyish looks and unfamiliar face betrayed his first year status.

"Sending your ugliest freshman I see. Don't worry, I'll beat your face so badly that you'll become handsome," Liu Long taunted as he laughed at Durand's face.

Durand coldly stared back at Liu Long. Though he was used to the jeers toward his facial features in his previous life, it didn't mean that he felt nothing when people made such comments about him. Even when he had faced God when he reincarnated, God's remarks on his looks had made him a little testy. Inwardly, he had already decided to beat Liu Long in a way that would humiliate him. It was childish. He knew. But his looks had been a sore subject. He had secretly hoped that his spirit ring would enhance his features like it had for Tang San but it had only made him bulkier, not handsomer.

Coldly, Durand said, "Come." He taunted Liu Long with his finger with a beckoning motion.

Liu Long frowned and summoned his spirit, a two meter tall long staff. Without warning, he charged and thrusted the staff in hand upwards into the air. This was immediately followed by a sharp descent, smashing towards the left side of Durand's face.

Durand snorted. Moving his right foot back, his body shifted into a back stance: his body shifted its weight onto his right foot, about a foot and a half backwards. His right foot faced to the right, his body at a 45 degree angle between his right and left foot. His left leg stayed in place, facing toward Liu Long. As Liu Long's long staff swished in the air, missing and passing by a mere inch from Durand's face, Durand pushed hard with his right foot. Durand's body shifted again into the forward stance. Both feet faced forward, his left leg bent, right leg straight with body aggressively pushing forward. As he did so, he punched forward with his right fist, borrowing the slight twisting and fast forward motion to increase the devastating impact onto Liu Long. Moreover, Liu Long's forward motion toward Durand's fist would increase the impact. Though Liu Long could see Durand's fist, the situation was happening too quickly for him to dodge.

Instead, his staff flickered and disappeared from sight. Immediately afterword, the staff reappeared, this time in front of Durand's fist, his arms holding the staff in a defensive position to block the attack. Against a normal opponent, this would have been the appropriate and sufficient move to defend against a counterattack like Durand was using. However, Durand had already been incredibly strong with the power of the Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor before the spirit mutation. Fifteen Ton Ants were known for their strength ability which was many times more powerful than the carrying weight of similar sized creatures. Of course, they were known to be incredibly weak creatures due to their lack of spirit abilities. This was also why Durand's spirit had also been deemed worthless alongside Tang San's blue silver grass.

Durand's spirit mutation had not only massively increased his endurance and defensive prowess but had also increased his strength significantly. As a result, when Durand's fist landed onto Liu Long's staff, it forced Liu Long's arms back, smashed the long staff into his body and launched him nearly thirty meters. Most alarmingly, the spirit staff had even released slight cracking sounds when Durand's fist crashed into it, suggesting some spirit damage. This was a significant injury and Liu Long would have to spend a lot of time and effort to repair his spirit. As a result. His cultivation may be delayed as he spent his meditation time and spirit power repairing his spirit instead of gathering more spirit power and increasing his rank.

Liu Long whimpered when he landed on the ground far away. Damage to a person's spirit transferred to a spirit master when it was unsummoned. He had instinctively recalled his staff when he had been launched so furiously into the air. The higher grade students seemed to pale collectively as they watched Liu Long fly in the air. Though they were shocked by the scene in front of their eyes, soon several of Boss Xiao's underlings quickly ran to Liu Long's side.

One of them quickly checked Liu Long for his vitals. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned to face Boss Xiao and gave him an okay sign. Around them, Boss Xiao and his underlings let out a sigh of relief before glancing at Durand in fear. The result had left them shaking in their boots. There were however several circumstances that had led to the terrible damage to Liu Long. In addition to the strength that Durand had gained from his spirit and then the spirit mutation, Liu Long had been counterattacked by Durand which increased the impacting force. Furthermore, Liu Long's spirit, the long staff, had little defensive power as it was a weapon spirit primarily focused on balance between attack and defense. Most importantly, Liu Long had yet to gain his first spirit ring whereas Durand had already gotten for his first spirit ring, a comparatively freakish one from a 600 year spirit beast. This had led to a massive disparity in strength, endurance, and agility attributes. Perhaps the silver lining to the situation is that Durand had not even used spirit power to attack Liu Long. If he had, Liu Long's spirit likely would have snapped in half and some of his ribs would, without a doubt, have broken.

Even so, the upper grade students could not help but gasp in fright. In contrast, the working students behind Durand cheered in celebration. After all, Durand had long been considered second battle ability ever since Durand had admitted his loss to Xiao Wu when the two of them had reached an impasse after sparring to exhaustion. Including Tang San and Wang Sheng, they had four decent competitors for the 9 rounds of fighting ahead of them.

Across from them, Boss Xiao stared at Durand in shock. It had to be known that Liu Long was ranked third in strength among his subordinates. If it wasn't for having received his first spirit ring, Boss Xiao did not believe he could guarantee a win against Liu Long. His thoughts grew wild. Was Durand the hidden boss among the working students? Maybe they had pretended that Xiao Wu was the leader of the working students to trap him.

With this thought in mind, he grew more confident. If Xiao Wu was just a puppet then his plan should work. As long as he tired Durand and Wang Sheng out, he would be able to win against the working students. With this glimmer of confidence, he quickly waved a few students away so that they could bring Liu Long to get treatment.

Turning to face his underlings, Boss Xiao called to a tall and muscular boy. This boy was also a higher grade student named Gao Zi. Even though he was ranked fourth among Boss Xiao's group in strength, he was deemed better suited to face Durand than the stronger subordinates among the higher grade students. This was because Gao Zi was a rare defensive spirit scholar. In Boss Xiao's eyes, Gao Zi's endurance would prolong his fight with Durand. This would allow Boss Xiao or his two strongest subordinates to finish Durand off.

Of course, this would have been true if Durand was an attack type spirit scholar like Boss Xiao believed him to be. In the previous fight, Durand had not summoned his spirit which caused Boss Xiao to believe that Durand had yet to absorb his first spirit ring and was still a spirit scholar. Together with Durand's amazing offensive capabilities, as displayed when Durand ended the fight with Liu Long with only one punch, Boss Xiao had been led to incorrectly believe that Durand was an attack system spirit scholar.

Unfortunately for Boss Xiao and especially Gao Zi, Durand was neither a spirit scholar nor an attack system spirit master. Durand was a defensive system spirit master with a mutated spirit and a 600 year spirit ring. The fight progressed similarly to the one between Liu Long and Durand. This time Durand's opponent, Gao Zi, flew just 20 meters. Disastrously for Boss Xiao, he had interpreted the smaller flying distance as a sign of Durand's falling stamina.

The smaller flying distance was in fact, not a sign of Durand's falling stamina. Durand was just simply not angry at Gao Zi like was at Liu Long. Furthermore, Durand had also planned to teach Boss Xiao a lesson for having such dirty thoughts about Xiao Wu. He wanted to inflict as much damage to Boss Xiao's reputation. Having a single working freshman student defeat multiple higher grade students would certainly embarrass Boss Xiao, the strongest among them. So, Durand feigned tiredness as he won fight after fight, maintaining a small flicker of hope in Boss Xiao.

Finally, in the fifth match Durand "barely" won over his opponent. At this point, Boss Xiao had begun losing hope. After all, a single working student had been able to defeat five higher grade students. The morale among the working students had increased to a fever-pitch and the moral among the higher grade students had fallen to an all-time low. At this point, each of the remaining fighters on Boss Xiao's group would have to win against two excited and aggressive working students. Even if they were weak, any mistake would lead to an extremely embarrassing moment for the higher grade students. However, seeing that Durand had "barely" just defeated his opponent, Boss Xiao got excited and quickly sent another student, Ling Feng, to fight Durand.

Ling Feng's speed was very quick. Even among the highest, sixth year students, he was known as the fastest and his strength had been established as only second to Boss Xiao. Again, Boss Xiao had made an incorrect assumption about Durand. Had Durand been quickly losing his stamina as Boss Xiao believed, Ling Feng would have been an amazing decision. Using Ling Feng's advantage to target Durand's "weakness", Ling Feng would only have had to dance around Durand, wasting Durand's dwindling stamina before finally defeating him. To everyone's surprise, Durand suddenly turned around and walked back towards the other working students.

Looking at Tang San, Durand said, "Hey, I think it's your turn."

Boss Xiao nearly screamed in frustration, "Where are you going?!"

Durand stared at Boss Xiao like he was an idiot and replied, "What? I'm tired."

"Don't worry, Tang San is the one who taught me how to fight and Xiao Wu beat him a few days ago. So you don't have to be concerned about not losing. They'll make sure that you do," said Durand as he flashed Boss Xiao a 'reassuring' smile.

With that, Durand completely retreated to Xiao Wu's side to 'recuperate' his stamina even though he was clearly breathing normally. His opponents had been no match for him. Frankly, Durand had only stopped at this point so that Tang San could have his fair share of fights. At the same time, he was getting pretty bored of the situation and was hoping to push the rest of the 'work' off to his friend.