Upon hearing Philip’s remarks, Willard had decided to make this bunch a scapegoat. Willard continued walking in a magnanimous manner, he could tell that this further enraged the group. As he caught on to them, turned and smiled at group.
“Today at the ceremony, pray to the Gods we don't meet during demonstrations” Willard said as he picked up his pace.
The words Willard uttered had stuck with the group for a while. They had never seen Willard act that way. Usually he would always cower at any confrontation, but today he had publicly declared an intention to fight. The group was silent for a while until Philip decided to break this silence.
“That arrogant brat thinks he can talk big to us today.” Philip said in annoyance.
“Hmph. He is doing this because there would be people watching the demonstrations, and we can't go too far” Philip continued
After hearing that, Quin couldn't help but agree. After all Willard was the weakest person in their class. He was really bad at cultivation, and the last time they measured the level of natural energy, which was about three months ago, Willard was dead last at the beginning stages of level 2.
“Even if we go too far, we can always blame his injuries on the fact that he was too weak” Quin said with a mischievous look on his face.
The group continued walking as the merrily chatted along the way. Willard encountered several more of his classmates, but they were not as overbearing as the earlier group. All they could do was idly gossip while staring at him. Willard having noticed all this was not the least bit surprised. Afterall, all of this will change today. He was planning to put on a spectacle that the village had never ever seen before. Having his memories of his life as the God of destruction, Thanus, Willard had transformed from a shy and cowardly state of mind to an extremely cold and violent one. Only no one in the entire mortal world knew of this. Even when he was a god, he was still cold and violent, and now that he was surrounded by mere mortals, all he had was a condescending view of his surroundings.
The graduation ceremony went on as usual, all the participants of the different vocations were present at the village square. All the rights and processions took place as usual, and the final stage of the ceremony had come, the demonstration part. The various pupils displayed what they had learned so as to fetch an interest from the various masters present. The smithing students displayed their finest works and everyone inspected it. The Magic practitioners showed all of their marvelous spells and incantation. Some had even dwelled others and showed their proficiency in battle.
It was finally the turn of the warriors. The teacher of this year's graduating class was a peak stage level 7 warrior, by the name of Azeya. He had instructed the class for the past two years, and had gotten to know the students. He was on stage greeting the spectators and introducing his students to them. Azeya was particularly proud because his class had produced a prodigy by the village’s standards, and that was Quin. Quin at the tender age of 17 had already cultivated to the beginning stages of level 5.
“I will like to demonstrate first.” Willard said loudly.
This statement surprised Azeya heavily. He had never seen Willard this bold, and forthcoming. Not only is he participating, but he is trying to be the opener.
“I will also like to challenge any and all who have the ability to challange me” Willard said boldly.
Everyone immediately started gossiping. What Willard had said caused everyone to bicker back and forth. “Isn't that supposed to biggest failure among the warrior class?” Some people asked.
“He must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed today” Others concluded.
Azeya immediately started calming the crowd down. He was irritated that the one who caused all this fuss, was his biggest failure, Willard. Although he had produced an outstanding genius, Quin, he had also produced an outstanding failure, Willard. A hint of anger could be seen all over Azeya’s face as he stared at Willard.
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“This must be my lucky day. This brat will get the beating of his life today” Philip thought to himself.
“I would like to volunteer as his first opponent” Philip immediately said.
“Also, this is a fair match between equals. So no one should blame any one for any injuries caused due to this fight.” Philip took the opportunity to absolve all blame from himself.
Azeya hearing this could pretty much guess what Philip had in mind. He was also angry at Willard’s audacity, and as such gave a blind eye to Philip’s action.
“That idiot needs to be put in his place.” Azeya thought to himself.
Soon after, the stage was set for the two to battle each other. In the crowd, Angelica was staring with a look of desperation. She wasn't sure what her son was thinking, and from the sounds of things he was the underdog. Willard noticed his mother was worried for him, and was touched at her kindness. Before his reincarnation, he had always been alone and had no relative to care for, but now he had actual people that were special to him.
"You may choose your weapons now" Azeya said while pointing to the weapon rack. There were a lot of weapons at display, from conventional weapons like the sword to the spear and the less conventional ones like the spiked club. For practice purposes, the weapons were mostly blunt and made to be as harmless as possible.
Philip chose a short sword and waited for Willard to pick his weapon. Willard stared at everyone's expectant gaze.
"I don't need a weapon. " Willard said in response to Philip and Azeya's stare.
To the bewilderment of everyone, Willard had declared he intended to fight without the use of any weapons, and this further enraged Philip. From his chubby face, one could tell he intended to thoroughly tear Willard apart. Soon after the fight began, Philip dashed towards Willard with the fastest speed he could muster. Within a couple of seconds he had arrived right in front of Willard. Philip slashed his sword across Willard's right shoulder, but to his surprise Willard escaped by an inch. Philip furiously continued to slash at Willard, but to his continuous surprise he barely missed every time.
"Stop moving around like a mouse and fight me" Philip said while panting.
Willard stood still, and without a second notice dashed towards Philip. That sudden movement caught everyone by surprise, more so than others was Philip. It only took Willard about a sec to appear right in front of Philip. Azeya seeing Willards movement was completely sure Willard had utilized a martial arts movement skill.
“Where did that kid learn this from?” Azeya questioned.
The Yellow Hew village was a small village, and with villages of that size, they usually do not have any martial arts it trained its descendants in. Seeing Willard perform an exquisite movement skill made Azeya look at him in a different light.
Philip seeing Willard suddenly appear before him was shocked, but after a short while he caught himself and directly tried to strike him. Willard caught Phillip's sword wielding hand in its motion to strike him. While holding Philips hand Willard stared deep into his eyes, like lovers, but instead of love Willard hard the polar opposite emotion towards him. Anyone seeing this could tell who the victor of this dwell would be.
While holding Philips hand, Willard started barraging his face with punches. He had done that with the uttermost intent to completely knock him out. After a couple of seconds, Philip was out cold. The crowd was silent, they were stunned at what they had just witnessed.
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