“That was quicker than I expected,” Executioner Leywin muttered, eyeing the boy on the ground a few meters away, struggling to stay conscious.

Beside her, Stella and Isaac were still processing what happened. They couldn’t catch Delta’s last move either, they only saw Chase flying out of the ring.

‘How are we supposed to land a hit if he can move that fast?!’ Isaac thought nervously.

“Let’s not waste more time; Isaac, you're up next,” Executioner Leywin instructed.

Isaac gulped, picked up the two-handed sword beside him, and nervously walked to the ring. He wasn’t particularly muscular; if anything, he was rather slim. Seeing him carry such a big sword was a strange sight, especially since he didn’t look at ease.

‘What’s with this boy?’ Delta thought, annoyed, as he saw the nervous boy stepping into the ring. However, once he assumed a fighting stance, Isaac’s entire demeanor changed.

All doubts that clouded his mind disappeared as he focused on the fight.

“Ready? Begin!”

Swoosh!

Isaac disappeared and reappeared in front of Delta, his sword raised over his head, ready to strike. The sudden acceleration surprised even Delta, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t easily handle, and he gracefully sidestepped, dodging Isaac’s attack.

BANG!

Isaac’s attack struck the floor with such strength that it sent a shockwave into the surroundings. Having missed his target and due to the size of his sword, he wouldn’t be able to swing it in time to defend himself from Delta’s counterattack. However, before Delta could even think of taking advantage of the situation, four black and red energy-filled spheres appeared between him and Isaac.

BOOOOOM!

The four spheres exploded in a big ball of fire alongside some black and red bolts that shot at random into the surroundings, stopped only by an invisible barrier at the limits of the ring.

Dark energy usually couldn’t interact directly with normal matter; Isaac’s ability allowed him to create containers inside which dark energy built up in an unstable state in which it could also interact with normal matter. Due to the unstable state of the dark energy inside the spheres, when the container disappeared, an incredible amount of energy was released into the surroundings in the form of an explosion.

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Whooosh

Delta got out of the smoke cloud completely unscathed.

‘Such destructive power potential… any esper of his age would have been caught in the range of that attack unless they had some ability that increased their speed,’ Delta thought, impressed, looking at the size of the explosion.

The moment Delta stepped out of the smoke…

Swoosh!

Isaac appeared behind him, and in a swift motion, he swung his sword at Delta.

‘He’s incredibly fast, is he using an imperfect form of precision energy-enhancement?’ Delta simply dodged the slash, however, once again, four spheres appeared between him and Isaac before he could counterattack.

BOOOOOM!

Once more Delta got out of the smoke completely unscathed. However, this time two other black and red energy-filled spheres followed, spiraling through the air as they closed in on him.

Careful of his surroundings, Delta waited for both spheres to get close enough to explode, then channeling energy into specific muscles in his legs, he got away from the spheres’ explosion range in the blink of an eye.

BOOOM!

Several spheres appeared all around the ring and chased Delta. Every time a sphere exploded, another one would appear and head immediately toward his position.

More than once, Delta found himself completely surrounded by the energy-filled spheres; however, each time, he managed to dodge the explosion and come out unscathed.

‘This is starting to get annoying…’ Delta thought as he leaped into the air, avoiding another explosion. Still mid-air, he looked around the ring trying to locate Isaac. He was determined to end it as fast as possible. Yet, his eyes widened as he found Isaac standing in the center of the ring, his eyes closed, one hand holding his sword’s handle and the other touching the sword’s blade, as red and black bolts ran through it.

Delta felt the immense amount of power building up in Isaac’s sword and thought, ‘not bad, kid.’

Not even a second later, Isaac opened his eyes and looked up at Delta.

Handling his sword with two hands, he pointed it at Delta. At the same time, Delta extended his arm toward Isaac and channeled the energy to the palm of his hand, and then out of it as otherworldly glow appeared in front of his hand.

Wasting no time, Isaac released the energy in his sword toward Delta in the form of a powerful high-energy beam.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The whole gymnasium shook due to the power of the attack, and the invisible barrier around the ring flickered as it struggled to contain it.

‘That’s an attack three steps above him,’ Executioner Leywin thought, looking in Isaac’s direction as she increased the energy output of the ring’s barrier.

The beam gradually receded until it completely disappeared as black and red bolts still danced around the ring.

In the center of the ring, completely out of breath, Isaac gazed at the smoke cloud where Delta should have been.

‘It’s impossible he could have dodged that,’ he thought.

At that moment, he felt a hand on his left shoulder.

“Nice try,” Delta said before tossing him out of the ring.

Isaac flew for a couple of meters before landing forcefully on the floor.

‘He seems to have further improved that attack of his,’ Executioner Leywin thought.

“Damn, I really messed up,” Isaac muttered, as he slowly got up.

Looking around he noticed Chase was still lying on the ground.

“Chase, are you okay? You haven’t moved at all since I started my spar.”

“Sh-shut up,” Chase answered harshly. He still hadn’t completely recovered from Delta’s last kick so it was still difficult for him to speak.

“Y-yes,” Isaac said nervously.