Nero was not surprised that Wendy had a different fighting style. Her innate ability allowed her to coat any sharp edge with a venom. It was an extremely potent ability, and she had learned how to use it well. Even her fighting style was adapted, by the school instructors, so that she would have the best possibility of slashing someone with any sharp edged weapon. In case she had no weapons, then even her nails, or the edge of a card would do.
Thus, while everyone else who fought hand-to-hand did so with the intention of landing solid, stable hits, she had a very agile fighting style, allowing her to dodge attacks while landing small, seemingly insignificant nicks. Of course, in this situation where her venom was not available, she altered her style slightly to land light jabs. Oh, and her nails were incredibly sharp so she could still land a few cuts with those.
Wendy had not only gone to the same school as Nero, her family had lived nearby to his own, which meant that they grew up fighting each other in and out of school. Thus, her fighting standards were inevitably far greater than the average.
As Nero walked up to her battle arena, he could tell that she was aiming for a quick jab at her opponent’s windpipe, while the opponent was doing a decent job of blocking. If this were a serious fight, he would have died from her venom long ago. Now, though, in exchange for keeping himself from suffering an instant knock out, he was slowly and surely being beaten into submission one light jab at a time.
The guy tried to fight back, but Wendy was too nimble. Nero could see that she had improved many times since the last time they met, making it likely that she had also become an Initiate.
None of that was unusual. What was odd though was that there was no one around to watch her fight. Where was Harold? Nero was sure that he had been admitted to KMA as well. Or the Dale brothers.
Instead of speculating, Nero stood beside the arena and watched the fight, taking in Wendy’s enhancements. She was a lot faster now than she used to be, and a lot angrier too.
A few minutes later, Wendy won the fight when her opponent’s arms became too numb to block her attacks anymore, barely able to defend his neck. He promptly surrendered, much to Wendy’s disappointment.
But, she didn’t dwell on that. Instead, she turned towards Nero who was standing on the side, smiling at her. She took in his changes, and realised that he too had become an Initiate.
She clicked her teeth in irritation.
"Didn’t you just synchronise like a year ago? Why have you become an Initiate already?" she asked, annoyed at his progress. She was really looking forward to bullying him for a bit.
"I’m fine, thanks for asking," said Nero in a deeply teasing voice. "How are you? I see you’ve ascended a rank - congratulations. Get any decent upgrades to your ability?"
She glared at him, and then turned away.
"Follow me, you’ll want to see this. And don’t you dare try to annoy me today Nero Grant, or I will kick your arse! I’m in a really foul mood," she said as she stomped away.
Nero only smiled and followed her, saying nothing, yet that seemed to agitate her even more.
"What is it? You think I don’t know what you’re thinking?" she demanded, looking back at him.
"I didn’t say anything," Nero said, holding up his hands.
"Oh, but you were thinking something, weren’t you?" she asked as she narrowed her eyes.
Nero said nothing, suppressing his chuckle. He was quite familiar with what she was like when she got like this. Rationality, logic and common sense all took a back seat to whatever she was feeling. It was better to indulge her so she could vent her feelings.
"You caught me. I was wondering if you’d dumped Harold yet, but from the looks of things, he might have been the one to dump you," said Nero, giving Wendy all the ammunition she needed.
"As if he would ever do something like that," Wendy said, actually calming down instead of exploding. "He’s totally and hopelessly in love with me, and who can blame him? Although, he’s not too bad himself, which is the problem."
Nero raised his eyebrows, not understanding the situation.
"He’s not bad, and that’s a problem?" Nero asked, unsure of what to make of that statement.
Wendy glared at him, as if angry at him for ever even doubting Harold.
"There’s a girl in his battalion who’s been mooning over him all of last semester. And now they have night training together. I just know she’s going to try to make a move," Wendy explained.
"Oh, so you’re worried something will happen," Nero said, finally understanding the situation. It was jealousy. "Don’t worry, Harold’s not that type of guy, and if he does anything, I’ll help you beat him up."
Wendy glared at him once more, but didn’t say anything. Nero was right. Harold wasn’t that type of guy.
Before the conversation could continue, Nero realised where Wendy had been taking him. From afar, he caught sight of another familiar face, although there was blood on it. Silas.
"What’s that about?" Nero asked as he pointed towards the sorry excuse for a fight.
Silas was slow, hesitant, and honestly, quite amateurish in his movements. That didn’t make sense, because back in Lumina he had held up just fine, surviving even though there were Berserkers out to kill them. Sure, he wouldn’t use cards, but that shouldn’t have impacted him so much.
From what Nero saw, it looked like Silas was afraid, and fear was slowing his movements, clouding his mind.
"That’s Andrew. He’s been trying to ’ convince ’ Silas to help him pass the Midnight battle course, which can help get merits for the Exemplar Index," Wendy explained as she watched the fight impassively. "This has been going on for a while. Honestly, we tried to help, but it’s not like we can challenge Andrew everyday, and even if we do that, someone else will challenge Silas.
"As long as he accepts the fight, there’s nothing anyone can do, and he refuses to reject a challenge. At least he’s grown a spine since school, I’ll give him that. But I don’t see how getting beaten up every day is solving any problems."
Nero nodded along as she spoke, and once the fight ended, which didn’t take long, he walked up to them.
"You’re a fresh cadet - you can’t issue challenges before your first month," Wendy quickly told him. "Also, don’t start a private fight or you’ll be running drills for the rest of your life."
She was concerned that Nero was going to beat up Andrew. After all, during school, Nero had protected Silas from bullies. But even in her wildest dreams, she could not have imagined what Nero was about to do.
He walked up to Silas, who was receiving treatment on the floor by a nurse. The disoriented boy actually seemed to relax, as if he was glad that the fight was over. It was almost as if he had mentally accepted that he would be taking this beating forever!
The next moment, when Silas opened his eyes, he saw Nero’s frowning expression, and elation filled his chest!
"Nero, you’re here!" he exclaimed with such enthusiasm and excitement that it drew everyone’s attention. Even Andrew, who had grown used to this and was walking away, paused to look back. Honestly, he was on the verge of giving up on Silas. This was a pointless endeavor.
That is, until he heard that excitement. An idea flickered through his mind. Silas didn’t mind taking a beating, but would he remain the same if it was his friend being beaten up?
Andrew’s gaze flickered to Nero, and found that he was already looking towards him.
"I have a question for you?" Nero asked, stepping aside from Silas and walking towards Andrew.
"Oh? And what is that?" Andrew asked, putting on a confident smirk as he assessed this newbie. He could tell that this was a fresh cadet, for Andrew had never seen his face before.
"Why the hell were you holding back so much in that fight?" Nero asked angrily.
"What?" Andrew and Silas asked, together.
"You heard me. Why were you holding back so much? If you want to intimidate someone, you have to crush any hope they have of winning. The way you were fighting, I’d bet Silas can almost believe that he could fight back one day. Not to mention, what kind of a pathetic beating was that? He barely has any bruises, and look at how much energy he has, screaming out my name like that. You could have knocked out a few teeth at the very least !"
The more Nero spoke, the angrier he got, thoroughly confusing everyone on the scene. Hadn’t Nero come to... save Silas? Why was he suddenly on Andrew’s side?