Vilhelm wasn’t the only one who felt the difference. Although Nero kept strict control over his emotions, not letting them bleed into Aetheric Halo, everything about him seemed different. To say that Nero had been treating the previous spars as a game would be incorrect - he had genuinely fought with the intention of winning.
There was, however, a difference between how he fought normally, and how he fought when everything was on the line. It was not something he noticed at first, since he hardly ever lost normally. Yet after repeated missions, Nero just realised that there was a difference. That is what he tried to teach Silas as well: to fight as if his life was on the line.
"Before we begin, I’d like to ask you a question," Nero said, his gaze locked onto Vilhelm. This time, he was not asking a question to mentally manipulate him. Rather, he just wanted to assess how many of his own speculations about Vilhelm and his life experiences were accurate.
"Go ahead," said Vilhelm with a broad smile. This was the first time Nero was taking an initiative in getting to know him, which made him feel rather pleased. Though he could still sense a large extent of indifference from Nero, he also finally sensed a hint of curiosity.
"You’re a pretty good fighter, not to mention the Ayurvedist combat style you showed yesterday. How did you learn to fight so well?" Nero asked.
That was a perfectly natural question to ask. In fact, Nero wasn’t the first one to have asked such a question, he wasn’t too surprised.
"Well, for the most part I learned through regular combat training at school. The Ayurvedist combat style I learned from a theoretical paper I read once, and the rest I learned from actually fighting and sparring. I do my best to learn from whoever I fight against," he answered casually. It was no secret.
Nero paused. He learned it... from reading ? He laughed and shook his head. One really couldn’t judge a prodigy by normal standards.
"What about you?" Vilhelm followed up. "You’re pretty good as well, not to mention your control over your strength is phenomenal."
Nero smiled, as if appreciating the compliment.
"Right now, I’m sixteen years old. That means I learned combat through over ten years of training, of over ten years of sweat. What I learned, I honed using the blood of my enemies. What I honed, I mastered through intentional application. Allow me to share with you what I have mastered."
Nero slowly and deliberately got into position. His face showed none of the aggression that he had on the first day, nor did it show any frustration from his loss on the second. No, his face was completely calm.
The difference, Nero learned, between himself on normal days and on days that he was on mission, was that he always strove to remain absolutely calm during missions. He acted with a clear head, and direct purpose.
It was in his calmness that Nero was most lethal, and now, he faced Vilhelm with no excitement or anticipation. There were no elaborate thoughts or intricate plans. There was only a calm mind, led by an intention to win.
Very few actually understood the change that had overcome Nero, but Vilhelm, as the one facing Nero, felt it the clearest. Compared to the first two days, Nero was entirely different. One could even say that by defeating Nero once, Vilhelm had earned the right to face Nero at his utmost.
Gabriel, who stood at the edge of the arena as always, suddenly got a flashback of the days when he met Nero for the first time. He had been incredibly confident in himself. How could he lose to some average students who lacked the background and upbringing of a Great family? That was a question Nero answered for him quite swiftly.
"Begin," said the referee and stepped back.
Once again, Vilhelm rushed to attack. He doubted that Nero would change his combat style in a single day. Yes, he might cover for the weaknesses Vilhelm exploited yesterday, but Vilhelm had other ideas of how he could control the fight, and yet...
Nero was like an impregnable wall. No matter how he attacked, how he baited, how he feinted, it made no difference. Instead, each clash felt like a dance with certain death.
Vilhelm was absolutely sure that if he gave Nero even one opportunity, he would not survive. It was not just his explosive strength that was dangerous, but how he used it as well. But what unnerved Vilhelm was that Nero made no attempts, at least so far.
He did not try to attack, nor did he try to hold on when Vilhelm attacked. It was almost like what Vilhelm himself was doing during the first match, with the exception that Nero seemed to be absolutely in control.
For once, even Vilhelm’s speed did not work because Nero could not be baited. To leverage his speed, or his strength, to lift Nero off the ground he needed that first instance of contact, but the more that Vilhelm attacked, the more afraid he became of that contact himself because there were absolutely no openings.
What’s more, Nero’s gaze remained entirely calm throughout the match, yet Vilhelm started to feel more and more pressure, as if he was slowly getting pulled into a quagmire without realising it. Yet no matter how he looked at things, he could not see where the issue was.
Deciding to change up his tactics, Vilhelm took a step back and that’s when everything changed. That one one step back became the domino that set his demise into motion.
Nero’s attack was swift, targeted and meticulous. Though Vilhelm, as always, managed to dodge, he discovered that he was moving as and when Nero wanted him to.
Vilhelm moved to the side, but found that Nero was already attacking in that direction. He quickly spun on the heel of his foot to head in the opposite direction to find that Nero was there as well, his calm eyes looking at Vilhelm as if he could read not just all his moves, but all his thoughts as well.
It was strange. No one technically had any advantage, but Vilhelm was feeling pressured. The absurd thing was that he could not understand why.
If Vilhelm had watched the fight from an external point of view, he would realise that the reason he felt pressured was not because of Nero himself, but his domain of control.