The Author's POV

—Start!

-Booom!

As soon as the referee announced the start of the match, like a missile, Alex shot in my direction. A shockwave resounded across the arena as his figure disappeared from where he was standing.

-Dash

Moments before Alex shot in my direction, tensing my calves I moved backward and quickly drew a circle in the air.

-Swoooosh

Just as the tip of Alex's spear was about to reach me, motioning with my fingers upwards, the ring I created moved right in front of the spear.

-Clank!

"Wh-at!?"

Caught off guard, Alex's arms which were still holding onto the spear tightly, flung in the air as the spear clashed against the ring disrupting its momentum.

His body became wide open.

Capitalizing on the opening, without skipping a beat, using the scabbard of the sword I hit him in the face and the sound of something breaking resounded across the arena.

-Kacha!

"Kuuuuaahhh!"

Taking ten steps back, Alex opened his eyes wide open as his hands held onto his nose.

-Drip! -Drip!

Soon red droplets fell onto the pavement of the arena. Taking a moment to process what had happened, Alex looked at the ground for a moment before screaming with bloodshot eyes.

"H-how dare you!"

-Vuam!

Soon, a thick pressure started emanating from his body, surrounding the whole arena.

Noticing the changes happening around me, I rubbed my chin and stared at Alex. The red hue surrounding his body had become thicker and stronger than before.

He was finally starting to take me seriously.

Licking my lips lightly, raising my hand I provocatively beckoned at him

"Come"

...

In the stands, watching the spectacle unfold before their eyes, Ronald and Samantha Dover were pleasantly surprised by their son's performance.

Although the match had only just started, from the way things were going, Ren seemed to be having the upper hand.

"Oh my god, since when did Ren become so strong?"

Covering her mouth to hide her shock, Samantha looked at her husband who although seemed to have had no significant change in expression was too shocked as his hands shook as soon as Ren hit Alex in the face.

"...He's definitely become stronger"

"Hmph, he just got lucky"

Martin, who was a few rows behind them, snorted.

However, although he said that, his face was grim. Sitting up on his chair, his eyes remained glued to the arena.

his opponent. There's no way

a talent that he had spent countless resources on to convince him to join him, was currently losing Ren. Someone evaluated as a ranked talent couldn't possibly beat Alex who was evaluated at

anything that could help him, he soon took a

the imprints of his soles appeared all over the floor of

my attack patterns too

the surroundings, Alex noticed that whenever he attacked he would leave imprints of his

looked at the arena was that he had only been attacking from the front. His footprints would only be left whenever he propelled his body

he now realized that because of that his attacks had

from the front, his attack range became much more narrow, making it

was a

patterns and made them harder to

gripping onto his spear, Alex

complex. Like a crab, he zigzagged as he steadily charged forward. His movements weren't as predictable, as it had no set pattern. A stark contrast to before when he would directly lunge in my

just brute-forcing his way through

was all futile on his end. It

didn't need to predict in the

-Swooosh! -Swooosh! -Swoooosh!

revolving around me moved

"Ah! Fuck!"

helplessly stop trying to move in a zig-zag pattern, and charge

"Dammit fight me already!!"

time to release

becoming increasingly frustrated by my fighting style, I knew it was time to end the

-Swooosh -Swooosh -Swooosh

together, with two rings at the bottom and one at

rotating in front of me creating a large defensive

huge and impenetrable, the was a small gap in the middle of it.

That was on purpose.