"I may be a D-ranked weakling, but I WILL RISE UP THE RANK!" Leo yelled, sweat pouring from his face.
Kreen who was A-Ranked only scoffed as he spread his legs wide open, waving the beast sword in his firm but flexible grip. "You're just a D-Rank, boy. I'll beat you without breaking a sweat."
This was the beast-weapon combat class at Earth's most intense Quirk Academy or barrack as it is mostly referred to.
Tai Fung, the combat teacher stood outside the combat ground watching the two students with keen interest. Of course, Kreen was A-Ranked and he will most likely win even though the combat class didn't allow students use their quirks to fight. But Tai couldn't deny the level of determination and tenacity that Leo was showing even though he was a D-Rank. He loved to imagine where this is headed.
The two of them has an A-Ranked beast sword in their hands, so the match could be as fair as possible without the use of their quirks.
"Round two start!"
Leo immediately lunged at Kreen with his A-Ranked beast sword, throwing loads of attack at Kreen and using the sword impacts to stay in the air, pushing him to the edge of the stage.
Easily, Kreen parried all the attacks with simple waves of his own A-Ranked sword too. He moved back constantly to give him a little gap from Leo, but Leo wasn't stopping his attacks.
Tai Fung, the combat teacher smiled at what he was seeing. To others, it seemed like Leo was getting the upper hand, pushing Kreen where he wants, but to Tai Fung, Kreen was skillfully showing Leo where to attack, so he was in fact controlling Leo.
Clang, clang, clang, the combat class rang with the noise from the clash.
Kreen who was tired of defending, twisted suddenly to his left and jumped over Leo as he landed. Now, he has more space behind him and Leo has been cornered to the edge of the stage.
"Let me give you some o' that too, boy."
Suddenly, Kreen's beast weapon began to glow in a deep orange colour, lighting the dim stage up.
The students watching gasped. "Why is his weapon glowing? But we are not allowed to use quirks, right?" One of the students asked, concerned.
"That's not a quirk. He's only activated the beast weapons' rage mode, so it will get stronger and faster. It's similar to when a live beast suddenly become more dangerous when wounded," another student replied the first.
Leo stood still, watching Kreen activate the rage mode. He'd have done the same with his beast weapon too, but he doesn't know how to activate it. Leo still has a lot to learn if he wants to really rise up the rank.
"Die!" Kreen screamed as he launched the glowing energy from the sword at Leo. The attack was too fast for Leo to dodge. Everyone thought the fight has ended, but at the last second Leo moved...
It was like the glitch in a game. Instead of moving left or right to dodge the attack, Leo appeared to have moved right through the attack, leaving his fading figure behind him and appearing right in front of Kreen with his weapon poised.
"WHAT?! A phantom evasion?! How did he learn that?! Only a few S-rank could do that!" A student screamed.
Tai Fung was enjoying this the more. He never expected a D-rank student to perform a phantom evasion. It has always been a thing for the S-ranked because they have more core strength and expertise to perform it. It might not look like it, but the phantom evasion takes a lot of energy and only someone with a high level of stamina could perform it. "He should be getting weaker by now," Tai Fung said to himself.
Meanwhile, Leo was himself surprised by his last move. He had never been close to getting out of his D rank, talk more of being able to activate a phantom evasion technique like some S rankers.
'How the hell did I do that?'
Leo has morphed so close to Kreen that there was no space for Kreen to react to the attack. "No, you die!"
Leo whipped his sword hard from the right straight at Kreen's shoulder. He already know that Kreen was weak in defending from his left, so he was ready to spend his last energy into bruising him once.
A sword came up to block the attack, but Kreen's hold was too weak to block it completely. Leo's attack couldn't be stopped as Kreen's sword was knocked off his hand, and the sharp edge dug into his left shoulder, ripping both fabric and skin.
Kreen went down on his knees, furious.
"I am Leo, and I WILL RISE UP THE RANK!" Leo repeated after his victory.
Tai Fung called on a B-Ranked student with healing quirk to come up on stage and heal Kreen as first aid before he is taken to the medics. The girl jumped on stage, eager to carry out the assignment but she stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw.
Kreen had dropped the sword and was now gathering some energy in his body. His eyes had turned white, and blood was coming out of his nose. He has started gathering his quirk against the wish of the teacher. "You must die," he growled.
Leo's back was turned to him, so he couldn't see what was happening behind.
"Leo, watch out!" The girl screamed.
Leo turned immediately to see what the warning was all about. He saw Kreen standing upright with his head down in fury. "I SAID DIE!!!"
Kreen jumped a little and slammed his feet together at once. Immediately, a hundred large icicles was formed out of his body, with the pointy ends aimed at Leo.
With a rush, the icicles flew towards Leo at amazing speed. There was nothing he could do as he was not ready to perform another phantom evasion even if he could summon that skill at will. Instead, he used his sword to displace some of the icicles and braced his body for impact.
About twenty icicles dug deep into his body as he fell down with a loud thud.
"I SAID DIE!!!" Kreen screamed again as he stood over Leo and another hundred icicles ready to attack.
Leo's eyes began to dim, and his head felt light. There was nothing he could do.
Tai Fung saw the madness on stage, but he was too far to immediately stop it. So, he started running towards the students.
"I SAID DIE! DIE!! DIE!!!" Kreen combined all the icicles in front of him into a large one with a sharp and dangerous pointy end before throwing it at Leo's lying figure, aiming to kill him in his blind rage. Leo closed his eyes in surrender.
"I can't die now."
Something flickered in Leo's vision before he closed his eyes.
Suddenly a purple energy started swirling around Leo, forming rapidly as the icicles edged closer. The large blue Icicle made impact with Leo's body but instead of piercing him, a loud explosion went up.
Tai Fung who was already near the students was thrown back with a strong force before hitting his head against the wall.
Purple flames surrounded the classroom after the impact. The other students ran away to the other corner of the room.
Engulfed in the thick purple energy that has now surrounded the stage, he opened his eyes slightly to look at his attacker. He could however tell that the purple flames were only visible to him. No reason why, but he could just tell.
Kreen was seen at the top wall of the classroom, hanging limp and probably dead from his own large icicle which had impaled his stomach and went out of his back, sticking him to the wall.
The Healer girl who was on the stage with them has been thrown further back into a corner where the beast weapons are enclosed. She appeared limp as well. Leo wished she wasn't dead.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of Leo, displaying bold texts in a runic format. It was imposing and impossibly hard to ignore.
[Congratulations, Leo. You have been chosen as the host of the Impossible System]
[You are currently a "One Season Wonder".]
'Meaning?' Leo was careful enough to not voice out his thoughts. Because as it seemed, he was the only one seeing the system right now. Also, it was a strange phenomenon and not heard of even after the eternal drift after the Xollante attack on Earth.
[You will find out soon, host.]
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DISPLAYING HOST'S STATS:
Name: Leo Votan
Race: Beastling
Bank Status: Utterly broke (Emergency situation)
---
Morph ability: E
Willpower: D
Carnage capability: E
Humor: A (upgraded for host's survival)
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Leo stared wide-eyed at the epitome of ridiculousness that was displaying right before him, and all he could say was, "I think I'm going bonkers," before collapsing.
He blacked out.