The following days passed in a blitz of rage for both Leo and Su Yang, their tempers burning like wildfire.
They moved like men possessed, throwing themselves into their training with reckless intensity, that was driven by humiliation and fueled by an insatiable need for redemption.
But the academy life did not let them be.
The students around them did not let them forget the humiliation they suffered a few days ago, as every time they stepped into a class, the giggles and whispers began and everywhere they walked, smirks followed them, the silent mockery lingering like an unshakable stench.
And to top it all off, during the ’Basics of Magic Theory,’ class Leo found something new waiting for him—a single note on his desk.
A simple, taunting message written in scrawled, messy handwriting:
[Yu Shen’s gonna kill you on Sunday.]
Leo stared at it for a long moment, his fingers tightening around the paper before he crushed it in his fist.
He did not need this reminder.
He was already counting down the days till he could redeem himself, and incidents like these only pushed him even harder, fuelling his rage as he went wild with his training at night.
—----
(Rodova Military Academy, Practical Combat Grounds – 8:00 PM)
BOOM!
Another training dummy exploded into splinters, its form disintegrating as Leo drove his dagger deep into its core, executing [Kill Strike] with brutal precision.
His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths, sweat rolling down his back as he wiped his face with the back of his hand.
Slowly but surely—
His body was remembering.
His skills, his instincts—they were coming back to him, as he felt more and more sure of his fighting style.
"That’s the seventeenth dummy you’ve exploded tonight Skyshard, and while I’m glad to see your skill activation time reducing fractionally, I must also remind you that these dummies don’t come for free.
Although, we don’t charge you students for destruction of practice dummies and let you use as many as you like, they actually cost 20MP a piece and you’ve just destroyed seventeen of them tonight.
That’s equivalent to the monthly salary of my assistants—" Major Hen said, as he walked over to Leo, with an eyebrow raised.
"Breathe deeper, or control your explosive movements to a point where you can sustain them.
I’ve seen your file and your training for the past few days.
You have an uncanny ability for sudden change in direction and burst of speed, but it takes a lot out of you.
Not every battle is decided with one decisive strike.
Some go on for hours.
So control your power Skyshard, huffing and puffing against your opponents is helping you win no matches," Hen advised, as looking at the panting form of Leo, he could not help but shake his head in disappointment.
"Major, if you don’t mind me asking…. Do you think I can win against any of Yu Shen’s team members on Sunday? Do you think I have what it takes?" Leo asked, as he straightened his posture and looked into Hen’s eyes for an answer, but the Major simply shrugged his shoulders in response.
"You could—, you clearly have some very practical skills.
Especially the decoy one, and the short range teleportation one.
Those make you very unpredictable. However, that’s pretty much all you have.
The hellish academy life that you’ve been experiencing for 5 days, your seniors have experienced it for over a year, and to top it off they’ve already fully absorbed their genetic awakening serums and have undergone a special training camp this summer.
I’m pretty darn sure that you don’t have the raw physical ability to compete with them, so you’re going to need to be very smart if you want to beat them," Hen said as he gave Leo his unbiased opinion.
"Just how big of a difference do you expect to see in our physical abilities?" Leo asked, hoping for more answers, as Hen simply shut him down.
"You’re an Assassin aren’t you boy? And you also attend the scouting and movement course—
Go figure that shit out yourself, I’m not gonna stand here and be your source of information on how to deal with your opponents" Hen said, as he walked away from Leo yet again, but not before tossing him a small vial of stamina potion.
*Clock*
Uncorking the golden potion bottle, Leo took a sip of the stamina potion and instantly felt the warmth coursing through his body as it soothed his muscles.
He had been training hard for the past few days and had pretty much learnt how to control all of his skills, except for [Parallel Processing] which still left his body in a puddle after only 15-20 seconds of usage.
Unlike his other skills, which he could perform with relative ease, Parallel Processing seemed to take a lot out of him, and although he had learnt how to control the move now, and prevent it from accidentally activating whenever he felt like his life was in danger, he still could not neutralize the backlash from using it, which made it a liability in battle.
’What was I even thinking when I decided to learn this skill-move? It’s overpowered, yes, but it’s useless when my body is so frail–’ Leo cursed, as he could not believe the stupidity of his past self for learning such a ridiculous move that was more of a liability than an asset.
Nonetheless, having learnt how to control it was good enough for now, as at least he could rest assured that he would not accidentally activate it in battle anymore.
"So I need to be smart with it huh?" He muttered, recalling what Hen said, as he threw his dagger towards another practice dummy 25 meters away, before using the skill move [Blade Switch].
Almost immediately, he reached the location of his thrown dagger, as he plunged it into the neck of the practice dummy before using [Kill Strike] yet again, as he exploded yet another dummy head.
*BOOOM*
An explosion rattled the entire practical combat training field, as Hen clicked his tongue in disapproval from a distance.
It seemed like Leo had decided to disregard his advice on exercising restraint, which made him feel disappointed as an adult.
However, that disappointment aside, he was really excited to see Leo in action as he performed his skills, as although he did not speak it out-loud, he pretty much had his mind blown away with how crisp Leo’s fighting basics were.
Whether it was stance, balance, or form. Leo had nailed everything down to perfection.
Every movement that he made naturally linked up to the next, which made it seem like he was floating on a battlefield, rather than moving on it.
His dagger throwing accuracy was better than some of the professors at the academy, as although the way he gripped the dagger and threw it was not the standard they taught at this school, it was something unquestionable, as in the several hours of practice that Hen had watched Leo perform, he had yet to see him miss a target by even a millimeter.
Whoever his previous teacher was, had to clearly be a very accomplished assassin, as Leo was clearly an exceptionally well taught talent.
However, although his strengths were exciting to witness, his weaknesses were also glaringly obvious to a veteran like Hen.
From his perspective, the boy did not understand the concept of stamina conservation and had clearly never fought a fight that lasted longer than an hour.
He got tired too easily and constantly fought at his 100%, rather than controlling the tempo as and when needed.
He also did not have the necessary physical strength to go toe to toe with a swordsman or any other short ranged fighter from amongst the second year students.
As with his strength being average amongst even the first years, he was a mile behind the second years for the same.
And, if by chance he fought an opponent that was both faster than him and had a good defence, then Hen saw no qualities in him that would suggest that he could take him down.
As overall, Hen found Leo to have:-
A lacking stamina
A lacking defence
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And average physical qualities made him easy pickings for a seasoned fighter from second year, which was why Hen expected him to lose badly come Sunday.