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.

opponent. There's no way such mistake

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

around the arena for anything that could help him, he soon took a look at the ground and

imprints of his soles appeared all over the floor

my attack

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

looked at the arena was that he had only been attacking from the front. His footprints would

now realized that because of that his

his attack range became much more narrow, making

a serious

suddenly switched attack patterns and made them harder to

gripping onto his spear, Alex once

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

he knew that just brute-forcing his

his sudden actions, it was all futile on his end. It didn't matter if he made it

predict in the

-Swooosh! -Swooosh! -Swoooosh!

my hands, the rings revolving around me moved and surrounded Alex, restricting his

"Ah! Fuck!"

Alex could only helplessly stop trying to move in a zig-zag pattern, and charge at

"Dammit fight me already!!"

time to

Alex becoming increasingly frustrated by my fighting style, I knew it

-Swooosh -Swooosh -Swooosh

fast movement, jumbling up the rings together, with two rings at the bottom and one at

triangle started rotating in front

one looked closely, although the shield looked huge and impenetrable, the was a small gap in the middle of it. Small

That was on purpose.