Amon slowly woke up to someone kicking his leg. "Oi, Amon, get up." from the voice, Amon instantly knew it was Michael, not that anyone else would have the balls to kick his leg while he was asleep.
Getting up with a groan, Amon did a few stretches to get rid of the stiffness in his body before he took off his shirt showing his muscular body to everyone in the dorm. After taking off his sweatpants as well, he looked in the drawer next to his bed and took out a skin-tight black body suit. This was the combat suit for whenever they had combat training and Michael told him yesterday that he'd need it for today's king of the hill battle.
As Amon put the suit on, it felt like he wasn't putting anything on as he could still feel the air hitting his skin. It was like the combat suit had become a new layer of skin for him.
"Man, you do look intimidating, like a big ball of muscle." Michael also had his suit on, showing off his well-built, slender physique, which unlike Amon, didn't look too muscular in the suit. Amon, however, was full of muscle but it all looked like it was in perfect sync, not too much muscle in one place but just enough to make the maximum visual impact and have the most battle orientated purpose.
Amon grunted in response and looked to his bed, seeing a note on it. It was pretty much Lilith saying that she'd gone to pick up her battle suit. Amon felt a pang of worry in his chest but soon shrugged it off, he was pretty sure that Phoenix girl wouldn't let anything happen.
Amon and Michael started walking to the training ground. When they arrived, they both gathered many stares. One of them a slender and handsome scholar and the other a wild-like handsome, barbarian of a man. Like complete opposites but they both seemed to be friends, which caused for a weird dynamic to be shown to all the others in the training ground.
Amon looked around, using his superior height to look for Lilith. It didn't take long to find her as she was talking to the purple-haired girl from before, or as Amon called her, the Phoenix girl.
Both girls looked over to Amon, like all the rest of the crowd and slowly walked over themselves. Michael looked at the Phoenix girl and smiled as he messed with his hair, trying to make it right somehow.
"Hello, Phoenix girl." Amon's deep voice seemed to unconsciously pressure the purple-haired girl as he spoke to her. "Amon! Stop bullying Big Sis Julia!" Lilith stomped over to Amon and started banging on his chest with her little fists. Amon smiled and patted her on the head, he smiled in apology to Julia. "Sorry, my Demon and Draconic sides can be quite rude." he tried his best to appear friendly as he spoke.
Julia nodded with a relieved expression on her face. Michael came up to Julia and continued speaking to her for a while, obviously trying to flirt with her but Julia seemed to be quite cold to him. Although this didn't deter him.
"Are you okay, Lilith?" Amon looked at Lilith as he worriedly asked. Lilith felt warmth enter her chest as she smiled at Amon. "Yeah, I'm fine. Big sis Julia helped me get my battle suit and she even reprimanded the girls." Amon felt happy that Lilith had found a friend, so he ruffled her hair which elicited a pout from her as she tried to sort her hair out again.
After this, Amon heard someone tap on a mic, so he turned towards a stage near the middle of the training ground. He rolled his eyes at who he saw as an annoyed grunt escaped his lips.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! You're all A-Rank and above in terms of bloodlines and physiques, and that's why you're at this camp, [Iron Blood Camp]!" The woman spoke with enthusiasm and passion. Amon rolled his eyes because it was Sasha, the woman who brought him and Lilith to the camp.
"Now, if you're wondering what ranks are, then let me explain it to you!" Everyone turned to Sasha on the stage and looked at her with curious eyes. "Ranks are what determines both your potential and your power in the stages. These stages are what you Bloodline Warriors will use to determine your strength. You're all at stage 1 right now and you will reach stage 2 when your bloodline purity reaches a certain level." Sasha took a big breath after talking so much.
Soon she carried on. "Beware, however, everyone's strength is different when they're in the stages. An S rank will be much more powerful than a B rank in stage 1 and the disparity will only get larger as you advance. There are seven ranks, from D to SS." everyone looked at her with even more curiosity than before as she carried on "The realm you're in right now is Bloodline Refinement, there are 10 stages to it. It's the foundation to you're entire life as a warrior."
Everyone understood what she said somewhat; Some bloodlines were insurmountably better than others. "Today we're going to see your combat efficiency and assign you to classes depending on your wins. The more wins, the more advanced the class you'll be put in, with the maximum wins being 9, before you have to go off the stage to give others a chance. Is that clear?" her question heralded multiple nods from everyone present. Satisfied at their response she explained what was about to happen.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Okay, someone get up here." A fairly muscular guy jumped onto the stage. He looked a lot like the orcs Amon had killed on the first day of the change, but he had a much darker green skin color and he although he was shorter, he felt much stronger.
"Good. Now...you, come up here." Sasha pointed at Michael who was right next to Amon and told him to come up. "Looks like I'm gonna have to show you my strength, Amon, Julia," Michael whispered with his voice full of mirth.
As he got onto the stage, the Orc looked at him in disdain, obviously looking down on him because of his slender physique. "Okay, now you two, when I say fight, fight. Whoever wins gets to stay up here continue fighting to get into a better class. The person who loses can challenge another opponent when the one who beat them steps off the stage." Sasha stepped in between them and spoke these words before stepping back again to the edge of the stage.
"Okay...FIGHT!" as soon as Sasha's voice reached Amon's ears, Michael and the orc ran at each other. The orc wildly swinging his fist, like a mindless ape, and Michael slashing with his now clawed hands. Unlike Amon's claws which looked like bulky blades on his fingertips, Michael's were like slender swords and they were white, unlike Amon's black claws.
Michael ducked under the fist and sent his slash along the Orc's arm, eliciting an angry roar as the Orc sent a sloppy kick towards Michael. Michael smirked and stepped backward out of the reach of the kick, before quickly dashing in and slashing at the Orcs joints.
Before long the Orc was lying on the floor, with many cuts across his arms, legs, and shoulders which seemed to stop him from moving with any meaningful strength.
Amon nodded, he had seen from this fight that Michael had incredible reflexes and speed, along with a brilliant instinct for battle; a worthy rival.
After this, Michael went on to win against 8 other people in the same way, showing his efficiency at dispatching foes. Amon, Julia and 2 other people hidden in the crowd could feel that he hadn't even used all his strength.
"Michael Celeritas, you have won 9 consecutive matches, well done. You are to admitted to the SS ranked training program." Sasha came up to Michael to congratulate him and then told to him to step off of the stage.
Amon walked toward the stage and jumped onto it. Everyone was shocked at the grace he showed while he jumped and landed like he was as light as a feather. Amon stood on the stage with his arms crossed, black hair flowing in the wind, with his eyes blazing with fighting intent. He put out quite a bit of pressure like this, all he needed was a throne and he'd seem like a Demon King at the end of a game.
Soon after he'd got on stage, a slender, tall boy came onto the stage. Looking at his face, Amon couldn't help but feel that he looked somewhat like a sly fox and judging by his physique, his bloodline should focus around speed. Amon smirked; this sly fox thought Amon was a slow brute.
As Sasha signaled for the fight to start, the fox-like boy rushed at Amon with considerable speed, like a bullet. Other's were in shock, thinking that it was over for the lumbering brute, most of them forgetting his earlier grace.
Amon smiled as he stepped forward and reached out. The boy had brought a dagger on stage and was currently slashing at Amon who he thought would be too slow to react. Unluckily he was wrong.
As Amon stepped forward, he grabbed the boys arm and stopped the dagger in its tracts. "Weak." was all Amon said before hitting the boy with a seemingly casual blow.
A loud bang went off as Amon's fist drove the boy into the ground, leaving his face all bloodied up like he'd been stomped on by multiple people. As the boy hit the ground, a thud echoed throughout the training ground as the ground around the boy cracked from the force left over from the punch.
The boy was still alive, but he was seriously injured and didn't even have the energy to scream about the immense amount of pain he was in.
Amon walked up to the boy with disdain practically dripping off of his face and kicked him off the stage with a swift shove of his foot.
Amon looked around at the people around him before a menacing grin spread across his face, which soon turned into a smile showcasing his sharp teeth for all to see, giving off an aura of an evil monster instead of a normal person. "Who's next?" his question caused the people closest to him to gulp nervously. Someone laughed before stepping onto the stage.
"You've got balls, I'll give you that." a gruff voice spoke out as someone who wasn't that much smaller than Amon, at 6"9, stepped onto the stage.
He was just as wide as Amon making his seem slightly squarish, his skin was dark grey looking and his eyes were black, the same as his hair. His legs were incredibly steady, like trunks of the sturdiest wood, but he gave off an impression of slowness as well. He was just as muscular as Amon but he seemed a bit too bulky, compared to Amon's perfect muscle.
Amon saw this weakness and smirked; he might possibly have the same amount of brute strength as himself but he was definitely slower.
But Amon disregarded that thought, he wanted a proper fight. He was gonna show this bastard who he was dealing with and how much weaker he was than Amon. The guy looked at Amon like he was looking down upon him. Amon let out a ferocious sounding growl as he decided what he was gonna do.
He was gonna crush him.