章節 18: Second Step [7]
"...the winner is Ray Flowers."
'I... won? How? Why?'
With a head full of confusion, I simply couldn't comprehend what was happening.
For some reason Celine's back was facing me as she had fallen to her knees, her sword lying completely still next to her. There was no trace of the red energy surrounding her anymore, and no trace of the passion she had shown me during the spar.
Now she looked like no more than a young girl in my eyes, a young girl who had lost.
'Is she okay?'
"Celine!"
Before I even got the chance to check on her, a red-haired flash passed before my eyes, not stopping until he had made his way to Celine. His broad back was tense as he bent over with one knee touching the ground.
"Celine, are you okay?"
"...I'm fine."
"Are you su...?"
"I said I'm fine!"
Celine quickly rose to her feet, and without showing either me or Cerus her face, she spat out a quick response before running away from the field with a ragged breath. Sadly, despite only seeing her back, it was impossible for me to miss the liquid drops that fell to the ground as she ran.
"...you!"
Out of nowhere, a rough hand flew at me, trying to catch me by the collar of the uniform that I was still wearing. Unlike when Wyll had grabbed it at the assembly hall I was still too riled up for my instincts not to kick in, making me avoid it by slightly leaning back.
"...Cerus."
His eyes no longer resembled those of a champion, now looking more like those of a beast hunting for his prey, tinted red with the same kind of power that Celine had used.
"Ray!"
His fist was raised into the air as he wasn't able to control his emotions, his arm firing off the punch as if it had been a gun. This time, however, I wasn't going to simply dodge it. No, my emotions wouldn't allow me to do so as my fist also shot forward in excitement.
*BAM!*
Despite us both throwing a punch, none of them landed. At least not on each other.
"Morons!"
"Argh!"
"Hah?"
Our teacher had already made his way in between us, catching both of our fists in his hands and pushing us back in an instant. As he hadn't used much power, and since I had been able to see him coming, I was able to keep to my feet. Cerus, however, had been too invested in his emotions and therefore fell backward as he hadn't been ready for the sudden shove.
His eyes still looked like they wanted to burn me alive for what I had done to his friend, but as a result of our teacher's interception, he at least calmed down enough to not immediately throw himself against me again.
"Class is over. You guys, get out of here."
Mr. Folm, on the other hand, still looked calm as a cucumber as he spoke with clarity to our classmates before turning his sights to me and Cerus while our classmates scurried away.
At this point, I had also managed to calm my roaring emotions and was now as calm as the context permitted me to be. Something that could not be said to be the same for my red-haired classmate. A fact that didn't go unnoticed by our teacher who walked up to him and put his hand on his shoulder.
Even if our teacher had been pretty strict earlier, he did appear to have some empathy for the man as his voice softened a bit.
"Don't make things worse than they already are. There is no point in fighting right now."
"..."
"Cerus! Don't you have a friend to go to?"
"...shit."
Pushing himself off the ground, Cerus kept staring at me, his eyes still burning with anger. Then, his eyes finally let go of me as he jogged off to find his defeated friend.
I also turned around, knowing that if I didn't cool off a bit more, I might also do something stupid.
'It's too early... way too early...'
A strange mix of excitement, joy, shame, and frustration was currently invading my mind, a mixture of emotions that would spell nothing but trouble if I didn't address it in time. At the same time, a voice rang out behind me, a voice filled with anger and disappointment that I did my best to ignore.
"You... you are a real bastard, aren't ya?"
'...guess I'll go for lunch.'
[Mr. Folm's POV]
Turning my head to the blue sky, I felt a bit of frustration that the sun was still shining brightly despite what had just happened, as it didn't appear to feel any remorse or care for the humans beneath it.
'What a mess...'
I knew that my strategy of allowing the freshmen to spar during their first few days at the academy was controversial, but throughout my years I had gained a lot of good results from it.
It had birthed great rivalries, motivated students to become stronger, and made the students who underestimated the academy instantly wake up to reality. It was also a great way for me to get acquainted with all of my students, showing me not only their strengths but also their weaknesses, which in turn made it easier for me to lead them.
This year had been no different. At least not until the last spar. The reason that things hadn't turned out as I wanted was all because of one single student who didn't seem to care at all about any of the unofficial rules that many viewed as sacred.
'Ray Flowers...'
He had emerged from nowhere and from the first second the term started he had shown just what he thought about the academy. If he didn't think something was interesting, he had no qualms about showing it on his sleeves. In my eyes, he was nothing more than an arrogant bastard who had no empathy for other people.
What was frustrating, though, was the fact that he also managed to back up his nonchalant way of carrying himself with his skills.
Even if Celine was far from being on Cerus' level, she wasn't weak. During the review of the academy applications, she had been one of the students that the vice principal had told us to keep an eye on as she had potential. Which made sense as she was trying, and to some extent succeeding in keeping up with Cerus.
However, none of that had mattered during the spar with Ray. She had gotten completely and utterly outclassed, and no matter what one thought about Ray, no one could deny that fact.
'She must be heartbroken.'
No one deserved to be treated like Ray treated Celine. She lost without even being able to touch him, while at the same time being ignored to the point where he didn't even bother attacking back. With that in mind, there was no helping that I couldn't blame Cerus for losing his temper as he saw his friend's fall and frustration.
But it was still unacceptable for a student to assault another student outside of a spar, even if he had a somewhat understandable reasoning behind it.
"My hand's still a bit numb from his punch..."
Cerus' punch had been more than enough to prove just how furious the young man had been, as it had contained more than enough power to knock an average freshman out in the blink of an eye. It was even enough for me to feel a bit of pain as I caught it.
"Wait a minute..."
Then, as I thought back to how the two men tried to punch each other, I realized something. A very, very strange, even bizarre realization. While Cerus had thrown a punch strong enough that I instinctually used quite a bit of strength to push him back, there had also been another punch that I caught that wasn't nearly as impactful. Neither in actual physical strength nor in terms of stirring a reaction out of me.
'Ray's punch... was weak. Extremely weak.'
Peering down on my left hand, the hand with which I had caught Ray's punch, I could barely remember the sensation of his hand hitting my palm. At least not until I had sorted through my memories of the sequence of events.
And that fact scared me because that meant that even in the middle of that heated exchange, he must've realized that I was going to stop them, lessening the power of his punch on purpose.
'What kind of insane spatial awareness does he have to be able to react like that despite being in the middle of a punch, a punch that was thrown in response to a surprise attack?'
I was already aware that his eyes were something special, but this was so far outside of the norm that I had trouble processing it. Unfortunately, there was something else that I had even more trouble understanding.
If Ray's eyes were otherworldly, did there even exist a word that could describe the skill he had used to dodge Celine's final attack?
At first, I had thought that he teleported, but when I thought about it, there was no way that someone would be able to activate such an advanced skill that quickly, nor would a freshman be able to withstand the insane consumption of mana without passing out.
But it was still a fact that I had lost sight of him. So either he had moved fast enough to even trump the eyes of an instructor who had spent most of his life training and fighting, or...
'It's a skill that the world has never seen.'
A smile emerged on my face as I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the future.
No matter what opinions I had of Ray as a person, it was still exciting to think about what he would be able to accomplish, just like it was exciting to think of what Cerus would do as he grew stronger.
"Ray Flowers and Cerus Hale, huh?"
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