Due to the System’s notifications, which woke him up, Zeke’s mind was too preoccupied with what was happening to continue his rest. It definitely had something to do with the thug, but other than that, he could only speculate.

‘The System wouldn’t randomly do this. There must’ve been a catalyst… an unknown condition that was, most likely, accidentally triggered… ah! It’s those crystals! The ones from the tribulation!’

The only link and suspicious thing were the shards. Although Zeke was curious about what exactly happened, he didn’t rush to Sulong’s office. He was forced to join the Special Investigation Squad, and though he didn’t sense anything, he was almost certain that there were some people keeping a close eye on him.

The next day (Friday), early morning.

As always, Zeke attended the first two lessons and when it was time for the lunch break, he asked for Samuel’s help to locate Bella Bross, the girl he wanted to challenge.

As a female student from Class D, Bella was part of Francesca’s circle, so it wasn’t particularly difficult to find her.

Admittedly, the cafeteria was quite big and filled with no less than a hundred students, however, there was only one group filled with only girls.

As he calmly approached them, Zeke spotted his shy roommate, Alan, sitting next to Francesca and slowly eating his lunch with a flushed face.

He was being teased as he sat between two pretty girls, but it wasn’t anything serious, at least not from Zeke’s perspective.

‘I thought class D has two male Defects but I’ve only seen one.’

“Oh?”

Francesca and the seven or so girls around the table noticed the approaching Zeke and Samuel. Their leader, the black-haired Francesca Moon, eyed the stoic Zeke with an inscrutable smile as she loudly spoke,

“Well well! Isn’t this unexpected! Could it be that you finally decided to join my circle?”

She licked her lips and stood up, causing the rest of her friends to do the same. Most cast fleeting glances at Zeke, but they didn’t find him interesting enough, unlike Francesca.

“No. I’ve come to challenge Bella Bross of class D.”

Zeke shifted his attention to the tallest girl in the group, one with short and boyish red hair, a curvy and muscular body, and bright eyes.

“Me? For real?”

The girl in question was surprised but not offended, she pointed at herself as she stared back at Zeke, who was slightly shorter than her.

“Yes. Do you accept?”

Before she accepted, Bella looked at Francesca, who subtly nodded in response.

“I do! This is going to be interesting!” She let out a feminine and heartily laugh.

Although Samuel had accompanied Zeke, he wasn’t willing to directly implicate himself as he didn’t feel comfortable getting stared at by so many girls.

Apart from the First Year training facility in which most practical lessons were conducted, there were small and artificial arenas all around the open campus. They weren’t as good as a proper facility, but they were enough for normal spars and challenges.

Zeke was guided to one such ‘arena’, which was, in fact, nothing but a metallic circle engraved on an open grassy spot within the campus.

As he faced the eager Bella, Zeke took a deep breath and stated,

“I’m bearing no ill intentions toward you or your circle. I only want to test my abilities.”

“Sure! I don’t mind!”

Bella was the simple-minded and energetic type. She didn’t overthink anything and never suspected he would harbor ill intentions, but as someone in Francesca’s circle, she couldn’t rashly accept anyone’s challenge, especially someone from another class.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Of course, as with every official challenge between two students, an overseer must be present. However, that wasn’t an issue as a lankly and tall silhouette dropped the sky, creating a small cloud of dust as a result.

“Zeke, my boy! I’ve come here to watch!”

The Zyth Professor exclaimed with an overly-excited voice, his eyes squirming around.

Francesca frowned and didn’t hide her disgust of Nayro, but she didn’t voice her thoughts and just stood at the side, her eyes folded.

Next to her, Alan had his head raised, curiously eyeing Zeke. As a defect, he didn’t have to attend the practical lessons, but he was intrigued about his roommate, who had shed away the incompetent title of a ‘defect’.

“Both ready?”

Water came out of Bella’s hands as she enthusiastically nodded. Zeke, on the other hand, changed into a fighting stance and readied himself.

When the professor signaled the beginning of the fight, Bella conjured a miniature cannon purely made of translucent water.

The cannon seemed to be wrapped around her hand as she pointed it at the stationary Zeke and immediately fired a powerful blast.

Zeke used a little bit of the stored Aether in Rune of Life and coupled it with Voltage Manipulation, thus unleashing a burst of lightning that clashed with the cannon shot.

The clash was instantaneous and neither side suffered any damage. However, Zeke saw a large figure rash at him and continuously shoot more blasts.

‘She’s also efficient at close-quarter combat? Good!’

A smile formed on his face as he used ‘Sreyzhanian Arts’ to evade the incoming projectiles and zigzag toward the incoming Bella. When she was in range, he half-spun his body and raised his leg, swiping it at her side only to be hit by another cannon blast literally from her mouth.

‘One-star Side-kick’ failed and Zeke’s leg was pushed back, almost making his whole body fall to the ground. Fortunately, he hastily stabilized his body and used ‘Life Motus’ to dodge her quick punch, which was empowered by the swirling water in the shape of a cannon.

Zeke was confident that he could win if he used an empowered ‘Voltage Arrow’ or relied on ‘Spark’ or consecutive shots of ‘Voltage Zap’, however, he wanted to test his physical capabilities and see how he would be able to manage against an opponent like Bella Bross.

Zeke used ‘Life Motus’ again after dodging, thus appearing in Bella’s rear; He extended his hand and used ‘Fists of Fury’, succeeding in striking her back.

Surprisingly, his punches didn’t slow her down or push her back. The tall Bella quickly turned around and unleashed an even stronger blast that wrecked the ground and forced Zeke to jump back.

“Your skills are weird… but you’re strong!”

She beamed at him joyfully, clearly enjoying this battle. In fact, even Zeke was in a good mood, after all, his previous battles, at least most of them, weren’t as ‘easy-going’ as this one. Whether it was Rodrick or Jonathan, Zeke hated both of them and genuinely wished to harm them.

Meanwhile, Professor Nayro’s jelly-like eyes were glued onto Zeke, examining his every move. He had noticed the conspicuous Rune of Life and Rune of Death and was wracking his brains and trying to figure out their purpose.

He had felt subtle Aether fluctuation when Zeke made use of the Rune of Life yet the Zyth was incapable of determining what it exactly did.

‘He’s definitely using Life Aether… but how? How is he able to make use of it so easily and without suffering any repercussions? Is his reservoir that large? Furthermore, that lightning is odd. The only thing I got the hang of was his teleportation ability… if one is Aetherically perceptive, they could determine where he would teleport to.’

The battle between Zeke and Bella continued for another three minutes. The girl would shoot one blast after the other, but her opponent would either dodge or defend using his lightning. When they engaged in close-quarter combat, it was clear that Bella was at a disadvantage and she only held on this far thanks to her tenacious body. Eventually, however, Zeke’s ‘Sreyzhanian Arts’, coupled with ‘One-star Side-kick’ allowed him to emerge victorious.

He had first used his ‘voltage’ to disrupt her ‘Water Cannon’ then finished the battle with a strong and swift kick which blew her a meter or two to the back,her body thudding on the grass.

Even though she had enough strength to continue, Bella raised her hand and surrendered.

“Victory goes to Zeke Orland!”

The winner softly smiled and walked to the red-haired girl, extending his hand and helping her stand up.

“It was a good fight.”

“Yeah! You’re pretty strong!”

They smiled and complimented each other’s abilities. Bella Bross wasn’t a sore loser, she didn’t feel embarrassed to lose, and neither did she care about her rank getting worse.

As much as Nayro, the Zyth Professor, wanted to interrogate Zeke about his odd usage of Life Aether, he restrained himself and left right after the ending of the challenge.

“The rumors about you weren’t unfounded.”

Francesca too, wasn’t troubled by her friend’s loss. She approached Zeke, grinning at him as she glanced at the spot Nayro was standing at.

“Maybe in the future, we would get to fight each other. I mean, aren’t the exams next week?” The girl winked at him then patted Bella’s back while whispering something into her ear.

As there was not much else to talk about, Francesca took her group of friends and left the area, leaving Zeke standing there alone.

He was motionless like a statute, lightly frowning as he stared at his hands.

‘I feel a bit out of breath and my hands are a bit numb. High stats are indeed not enough to empower my body. I need appropriate skills… preferably defensive ones.’