Scattered across the gym, various bodies lay on the ground, with almost each and every one of them covered in sweat. Like everyone else in his class, Victor gazed up at the ceiling, the harsh light reflecting off his bronze skin, making it gleam. After minutes had passed of him catching his breath, he finally sat up, letting the moisture run down his dark curls.
Victor finally pulled himself to his feet for the umpteenth time during this class, leaving a large stain on the floor that resembled him before dragging his body to the corner so he could drink some recovery fluid.
As the cool liquid entered his stomach, he felt a rush of energy spread throughout his body, rejuvenating his tired muscles. Vitality appeared on Victor's face as his eyes focused on an invisible screen.
An expression of slight surprise appeared on Victor's face as he looked at the rankings in his vision.
'3rd place?'
Victor's sharp eyes turned to look at the ones who had surpassed him on the ranking list. Still lying in his ring, the arrogance that had seemed etched on his face was almost completely lost. From this angle, Victor was unable to see the tattoos on his chest, but Doak's arena was close enough for him to see bruises forming on his face and his arms.
While he should have been shocked that something had been able to damage Doak's hardened skin, Victor was even more horrified to find scattered pieces of metal lying across the arena and that ring's robot missing everything below the right shoulder.
While he had entertained the idea of someone breaking the robot, he hadn't expected to see it so soon. However, much of his enthusiasm for this achievement was diminished upon realizing that Doak was the one who had accomplished it.
'He shattered the robot but was only able to achieve second. How did he make first?'
Yes, second place is Doak, and first...
Seemingly the youngest of everyone in the room, Rufus leaned calmly against a wall, giving the impression he was unbothered by the whole ordeal. Of course, with some of his features still undeveloped, it was a little difficult to take him seriously.
Even so, his ranking spoke for itself in spite of his demeanor, so none dared approach.
'First place both games... Maybe it's not a bad idea to team up with him.' Victor mused.
"Only third place, huh?"
Victor turned, facing the approach of three students he knew, all of them still carrying the weapons they used in the previous fight. While he didn't interact with them much, he knew their names and that they were relatively high achievers at this school. Of course none were comparable to him. He quickly glanced at the rankings, and sure enough, in the three places after him, he found their names.
'Tabian, Ally and Cobb.'
Tabian spoke from the middle of the trio, still sporting two hand axes on his belt with a bitter expression on his naturally stern and pale face. Unfortunately, that couldn't hide the nervous air Tabian displayed as he approached Victor. One of the biggest reasons Victor could confidently claim he could beat all the other students besides the transfers in a fight was that the fear they had for him was too overwhelming for them to put up a proper fight.
Honestly, he felt like rolling his eyes at the sight of these three students who used to cower at the thought of fighting him. It was especially disappointing because they really could put up a good fight if they got over themselves.
Victor recognized the shorter sharp-nosed girl on the left, who had a saber and a dagger at her hips, as Ally. He knew that at one point she had been another one of Rosa's fans. Given that her hair was back to the brown that came natural to her, he figured she must have moved on from that phase.
Cobb stood on the right using the war hammer to lean on and wore a similar aggrieved expression on his pudgy face, trying to hide his anxiety like the other two. Seeing that they caught Victor's attention, Cobb nervously hurried to speak while looking over at Rufus unhappily. "I don't know how they got so lucky, but we have to stop letting those transfers win these games."
"These guys just showed up, and they are already fighting people, and the way they act is honestly just despicable." Ally continued. "We can't let them keep earning a place they don't deserve."
Hearing the two pour out their grievances, Victor couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Noticing his lack of response, Tabian decided to speak up once more.
"I suggest we team up against them and suppress them before they get too out of hand."
Victor immediately became disinterested in the conversation as he picked up his weapon, ready to return it to the wall. As he stood up, leaving the conversation, he left a single sentence behind.
"There are 10 of them and 100 of us. Teaming up to deal with them sounds pathetic."
Victor walked away, uncaring about the reactions of the trio behind him. He would rather not deal with losers like them.
After that, the rest of the class was relatively uninteresting, consisting of various training exercises and practicing various combat techniques. By the time the class was over, another three hours had passed from start to finish.
Victor texted his friends as he left the building, asking them to meet him after class to practice with their abilities more.
Very soon the group of five was once again in a training room having a conversation where Victor explained the events of his gym class.
"So, I'm hearing Rufus beat you twice in one day, then." Elaine couldn't help but tease. "That's not even counting how he saved you earlier, either."
"I didn't see his fight against the robot, but I can tell he is a smart combatant." Victor analyzed.
"Enough about Rufus." Darius rolled his eyes. The most shocking part is that Doak broke the arm off the robot. I can't imagine anyone strong enough to tear the arm straight off."
Victor's expression shifted as he recalled the shape of the debris in Doak's arena. "I also didn't see that fight, but I get the feeling the arm was shattered rather than torn off."
"He probably used his ability." Rosa suggested. "The rules did not state that anyone was prohibited from doing so. There were a couple of people who tried that in our class." She said as she gestured to Elaine, who spoke.
"If there's one thing those transfer students have on us, it's definitely their skill in using their abilities."
"You are forgetting about the strange body modifications." Jax interrupted. "One guy in my class has a mechanical hand. Plus that Doak guy has those strange tattoos."
"Don't worry about all that." Victor spoke. "Sooner or later, their tricks will be revealed. The most important thing for us is to focus on developing our abilities."
The group nodded in response. They all stood up, and then Rosa, Jax, and Elaine found their corners inside the training area to practice. Victor and Darius were seated outside of the training area, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Darius had his hands placed on the metal wall, preparing to experiment with his ability, with Victor's palms on his back seated behind him. This was how they agreed to train both of their abilities at the same time.
"I'm starting now." Victor's hands then glowed with familiar symbols as he closed his eyes and entered his ability space.
A black hole orbited by strange symbols and metal shards appeared in Victor's awareness with six white sparks floating in the surrounding space. Near the boundary of Victor's ability space, another area came into view, almost like a boat sailing through the darkness before docking at a port. The area coming into view was just as Victor expected. A flat grey metal plane extended into the distance completely unblemished, featuring a multicolored hand at its core. The only change was the seven white sparks randomly dispersed across the plane.
Victor patiently waited until the black hole spun at its peak speed before he began experimenting. While observing the position of his ability shards, Victor concluded that they hadn't moved since his last visit, which made sense because he hadn't used his ability at all. He then tentatively focused his powers on each of the sparks, watching them shoot toward the black hole while practicing adjusting his focus between them.
After an unknown amount of time passed, Victor curiously turned his attention toward the sparks in Darius's ability space, attempting to pull on them. Despite his best efforts, he had no effect on their speed. However, he did notice the sparks moving. Every so often, the colors on the giant hand shifted across its surface, accompanied by a short but strong attraction force that pulled on all the sparks across the metal plane, causing them to bounce a short distance. When the hand settled down, the metal plane began to vibrate and buzz softly. When the buzzing occurred, the ability shards slid closer and closer to the palm at the center of the plane.
"It seems I can monitor the results of Darius's training from here."