As soon as Professor Grave Call gave the signal to begin, Max energized his muscles with as much mana as he could handle without supercharging using the mana vault. With all the power he had, he threw his sword up into the air. Then he sprang forward toward the group of sparring enemies.

His spectral armor had already formed from the Lavinia spirits.

Gantry was closest, which suited Max just fine. His friend’s eyes widened in shock as Max closed the distance so quickly. Max never fought this hard during any of their normal spars. Mid-air, he parried Gantry’s hasty strike with an armored forearm and kicked his shoulder. The man cried out and flew back, but he recovered quickly. He had been getting excellent training, after all.

Max wouldn't be able to truly handle some of the aerial swordplay he'd been known for in his previous life, but a two-star mana body gave him many more options than a one-star mana body had. Instead of landing on his feet, he dove and performed a front handspring.

He used his momentum and weight to precisely kick aside an attack from Gantry, using the flat of his foot on a hand. Fingers broke. Then Max dipped low upon landing, striking hard with the knife edge on the side of his open palm, breaking a leg. He came up and delivered a softer hit to the jaw. A broken jaw hurt like hell, and Max was not trying to maim, kill, or humiliate his friend.

At least a healer was nearby.

Everyone in this class was familiar with going to see the healer for injuries. Some of the students in class had physical abilities from a spirit that they were contracted with that would help them get there faster. But even for the uncontracted, everybody in this class was in good physical shape.

They’d make it to the healer quickly if they needed it. Pain was a great motivator.

Immediately after finishing with Gantry, Max turned to Percy. He dodged two thrusts in quick succession.

Generally, fighting somebody wielding a sword with bare hands was practically suicide, but that was only if there wasn't an overwhelming level of skill or physicality difference. Max had both. He dodged another strike, got up under Percy's arm, and after securing a strong hold, pivoted all of his weight over his hips. There was a sickening crack as the other man's arm broke. Then Max jumped and kicked him in the head. At the last minute, Percy rolled and Max’s kick connected with the shoulder instead. That should be enough, he thought. Then he stepped forward quickly and touched his toe to Percy’s throat. “Dead,” he pronounced. No use in actually killing the man and making him lose class time.

Now only Isaz was left, and Max didn't wait for her to come to him. He used a move he'd been coming to affectionately nickname the Slick Slide. He dropped into a controlled slide, courtesy of Slick's power, and easily avoided an attack aimed for his head. Then he punched sideways as he was going past, breaking her knee.

Max sprang up into a standing position before Isaz had even recovered and hit her in the kidney and in one shoulder at the same time with a double fist strike. He wasn’t sure if anything had broken, but the blow didn’t sound good. Of course, in a real fight, he could have aimed for her neck and just let Saliron run wild. That was not necessary now, though.

With all three opponents down, Max dashed to where he'd started from, barely reaching the position in time to deftly catch his practice sword and mimic sheathing the blade.

Stunned silence rang out around the practice field, other than sounds of pain from the three he’d just broken like toys. Maybe I went a little too hard.

But as he surveyed the carnage, he reminded himself that he could have killed all three. Even with his bare hands it wouldn't have been difficult. From that perspective, maybe he’d shown restraint.

Of all the people on the field, Professor Grave Call seemed the most stunned, but there was also an element of excitement to his expression. Before anybody else could speak, the professor said, "We are very fortunate to have such a skilled student in our class! From this moment on, Max is no longer a team leader and will instead be a stand-in for bosses. Although he is obviously powerful, all three members of the other team can teach everyone here a lesson. They did not work together well.

In a real battle, working together, even with such a disparity of power, would have possibly prevented such fast takedowns”

.Just like I thought. I guessed right, thought Max.

He looked around the training yard one more time and specifically sought out each of his students that he'd be teaching later. All of them had a mixture of emotions on their faces except for Gantry, who was obviously in a great deal of pain. There didn't seem to be any resentment on his face though. That was good. Warriors could be tricky about pride. He knew that from experience.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Max only paid half attention as Grave Call gave an impromptu lecture about group tactics versus a strong monster or an exceptionally skilled opponent. Then everyone went back to the classroom and researched a specific battle in which a far smaller unit prevailed over a massive monster invasion. Even though Max had other things on his mind, he still found it worthwhile to tune in once in a while. It was interesting how similar the professor's story of a massive, world-shaking battle was to the story on Earth about the last stand of three hundred Spartans. Only the scope, world, and weapons were different. The broad strokes were the same, though.

Finally, when class was over, the professor somewhat predictably called out for Max to stay.

Max waited for the class to leave. On the way out, all of his students that were not actively avoiding him gave him apologetic or knowing looks. He was sure that they'd ask him a bunch of questions later on that day. When Max and Grave Call were alone in the room again, the professor said, "Would it have killed you to turn it down a little bit, Max?"

"I did.”

"Really?"

“I didn't use a weapon and I wasn't going full power."

The professor ran his fingers through his long hair. "I'm going to keep increasing the number of students fighting you, not all the time, but once in a while. From your perspective, actually maybe probably pretty often, since you only take the class once in a while. I'm suspecting that eventually it will be the entire class fighting against you."

Max frowned. He hadn't truly fought at his absolute full strength yet in front of anyone, even Headmaster Territ Mond. To be fair, Territ had pushed him close, and Max was very aware of the fact that even if he'd gotten his absolute full power in that fight, he would have still lost. Territ hadn’t really been trying to kill him seriously. Some differences in power could only be overcome with numbers, information, proper planning, or some combination of those three things. This was obviously also what Professor Grave was currently trying to teach his class.

The entire class, huh? Max wasn't sure if the entire class all together could defeat him, but there was a possibility. He was sure. His capabilities had increased a lot, but he was nowhere near where he wanted to be. As a disorganized mess he could destroy them all. But he was probably still not strong enough yet to face an entire class of Challengers who were all planning to take him down, working as a team, watching each other’s backs, and armed with a plan made ahead of time on how best to deal with him.

There was a big difference between fighting solitary warriors and defeating a cohesive army. That had been a mistake that he made in his last life, not understanding that fact. Although there was a caveat to that rule. If a warrior is powerful enough, it just didn't matter. So his second mistake in his first life was not being stronger.

But Max had a long way to go before he'd hit anywhere near those heights.

Professor Grave Call got quiet and looked pensive as he tapped the pen on the table. Eventually, the tall Summoner stood and said, "I knew you were special to begin with, Max, but Headmaster Mong Hao Han was correct. You are truly a monster. I mean that in the most complimentary way. In fact, right now," he said, hesitating, "If you and I were to fight, who do you think would win?"

"I don't know all of your abilities, Professor. So I can't even guess."

Grave Call gave a rigid grin and nodded. "That would be exactly my answer too, which is both exciting and also frightening. You haven't even been in this Quartet for half a year. And I would bet that there are quite a few professors now that would have difficulty fighting you."

"Didn't Headmaster Mong Hao Han tell you that I sparred against Headmaster Territ Mond?"

Professor Grave did a double-take. "No, he didn't. How did it go?"

"About as well as you would expect," said Max. "I would have lost."

Professor Grave Call looked disappointed but maybe also a little relieved. "Well, just keep working hard, and that might change."

"Absolutely," said Max, his eyes sparkling. "I'll keep working hard, that is. Is there anything else, Professor?"

"No, that was it. I just wanted to let you know that you're probably going to be enemy number one of the class for a while, maybe even the rest of the year."

In the moment, Max almost informed the professor that he'd been teaching his students, but decided not to. There wasn't any big reason to keep his extracurricular training a secret, but Max was cynical by nature now and did not want to volunteer information unless there was something to gain from it. The only reason he'd told Professor Grave Call that he'd sparred against Territ Mond was because he wanted to see how much Mong Hao was divulging to his inner circle.

Apparently not a lot. Good.

Luckily, Max was fairly certain that Professor Grave Call wasn't going to leak a word of this information to anybody, too. That tracked since he was trusted by Headmaster Mong Hao Han in the first place.

"All right, I'll see you later, Professor," said Max. He left and as he walked across campus back to his dorm, he ignored the curious stares and challenging half-shouts from some of the other students. If any of them had actually put serious effort into getting his attention, maybe he would have obliged. None of them had the stones to actually approach him, though. So he got back to his dorm without further incident and decided to meditate before heading out to train his students.

Suddenly, Lavinia whispered in his ear, "If you're going to meditate, you should also probably respond to the messages from your students beforehand. I'm sure they've asked you if there's going to be practice today, but you've had your tablet off since the dungeon."

Feeling a bit embarrassed, he turned on his tablet, and promptly turned off the notification sounds for notifications, unable to stand the constant noises as it caught up. Then he opened up his message log and sadly shook his head. Meditation was going to have to wait a while.