( Luke's POV )
Professor Elara had high hopes from Luke, who was her star student.
She had personally mentored him right from pre-semester all the way to the end and while it was frowned upon in the teachers circle to show open favoritism to one student, Elara did not hide it at all.
Luke's growth had been simply remarkable throughout the year and in terms of ability, he was miles ahead of his peers.
If despite this advantage Luke did not clinch the number one spot in the class's final evaluation, then Elara had the right to be disappointed.
The final evaluation was done in the form of a knockout style tournament, where every student drew randomized lots to pick a number, which would then be matched up against a random opponent.
With there being a total of 120 students in the class, a few got lucky and got a direct bye into the second round, with Jerome being one of those lucky few.
" Haha- looks like I won't be facing you in the very first round at least" said Jerome as he slapped the back of Luke in joy, who was not lucky enough to get a bye and was supposed to fight a rather underperforming student named Anderson Silva.
The fight was technically over before it ever began as the moment Luke threw a glance at his opponent, he stiffened up and shrunk back, as Luke understood that his opponent wanted no part of him.
Having mostly only sparred with instructor Elara all year, Luke was infamous for breaking a students ribs in practise when one day he sparred with a student daring enough to take him on.
Luke, having no idea about the level of the general class, put his usual strength behind his maneuvers, as he accidentally gave the guy a belly to belly suplex that was too harsh and ended up fracturing two ribs.
Although he was extremely apologetic and the sparring opponent did forgive him, since that infamous incident no other student dared approach Luke anymore as his reputation as a rough fighter began to propagate.
Clearly, Anderson was one of the students who had heard such rumors about Luke and was not impressed at all at the prospect of facing him in the very first round.
***********
As the fights began one after another, an hour passed by in a blink of an eye, as students came out to test whatever they had learnt throughout the past year.
There were many interesting conflicts where the difference in skill was marginal, while there were many that ended swiftly because the gap in skill was too large.
Since Professor Elara had decided to create an out of bounds concept for the final fight, anyone pushed outside the 4 meter ring of action was to automatically lose the fight as many lost the fight by being creatively forced out of bounds as well.
Finally, as Luke's name was called, cheers went up from the crowd as despite how people were jealous and wary of him when he was their opponent, when he was not, everyone liked Luke as a person as he was humble and talented.
" Please, don't break my bones-" requested Anderson before the fight began, as Luke smiled softly and replied "I'll be gentle"
Professor Elara then looked into both the contestants eyes as they took their starting spots, giving Luke an extra wide grin as she said " Start!", signaling the start of the fight.
Luke immediately went for his opponent's waist, trying to get him down in a wrestling style tackle as Anderson tried his best to defend against Luke's strength by getting over him and trying to push him down flat on the mat.
Unfortunately for him, the moment he applied downward pressure, Luke slipped to behind his back, hoisting him up from his waist for a German Suplex, just like how Elara had did to him countless times during sparring.
*CRASH*
Planting his opponent headfirst, Luke won the match by scoring a physical down, however, although he was extra careful to provide his opponent with a soft landing, the sound of bones snapping could be heard through the arena, as apparently Luke broke a bone in Anderson's neck.
*Crack*
" AGHHHHH, MY NECKK…. AGHHH" Anderson screamed and writhed as Luke watched in horror as the medics rushed in and carried him out of the arena and towards the emergency dorm.
Luke looked towards his hands, and then wondered as to why it turned out this way, as he could have sworn that he had not even used 30% of his full strength!
" I'm sorry…." He murmured, although his opponent could no longer hear it as he glanced across the audience who flinched back at his gaze as everyone regarded him as a monster.
" I'll just forefit if I come face to face with him…."
"Yep, this guy might accidentally kill us"
" Life over marks, that's for sure-"
Were what students said to each other, as after that round, all his opponent's from round of 64 to the quarterfinals refused to fight him at all, surrendering without a fight, as Luke became the only student to enter the quarterfinals while having only fought a single fight.
Jerome was one of the other competitors who made it to the quarters, however, his right eye fluttered every time an opponent of Luke surrendered without a fight as while he got a lucky bye in one round, he had to tooth and claw his way in all the rest, while Luke only fought in one round, and got a sort of bye in the rest.
"Not fair…. This is absolutely not fair" He murmured, as he gave the semifinals his best shot, but lost, his fight lasting a whole 3 minutes, while Luke won his semi finals round in just under 6 seconds, albeit without a student breaking bones this time.
Finally, in the finals match, Luke got a semi-decent fight, having to put some real strength behind his maneuvers, as his opponent lasted a full 14 seconds against him, however, after 14 seconds he too received an amazing belly to belly suplex, ending his ambitions of coming out on top.
" Winner! Skylion!" Said Elara with pride, as she approved of how her favorite student dominated the final tournament, coming out on top in convincing fashion.