-Flahsback-
> "--So, I want you to learn to fight by analyzing the situation around you carefully... But I don't expect you to succeed" Ron said, crossing his arms.
>
> "H-Hey! Why do you say that?" asked Erwin in surprise, who didn't like the last part of Ron's speech at all.
>
> "Because is the truth." said Ron, who had no intention of taking back what he said – "Maybe you didn't notice, but your way of fighting is very different from mine. Unlike me, you are someone who acts instinctively, you are not good at waiting and underneath, you also feel enjoyment in fighting so much that sometimes you let your emotions and your instincts guide you during a fight ... Right?"
>
> Erwin tried to counter, but at that moment, thinking about it, he knew that Ron's words made sense; during the fight with Rudolf for example, although he was in a dangerous situation, he found some pleasure in confronting someone else; even when he faced Elaine, although at first he was not happy at all, his heart was throbbing for the impending fight.
>
> "I will take your silence as a sign that you agree with me..." - he began in the meantime Ron, who had hit the mark – "You're a fight fanatic, it's in your blood as a spirited boy. Telling an idiot like you to stop relying on his instincts and remain calm during a fight is like asking a bird not to fly, it makes no sense."
>
> "Then... why did you tell me that I have to learn well to analyze the situations I find myself in during a fight?"
>
> "... Because even a bird, at certain times, decides that it is appropriate not to fly in some days."
>
> "It doesn't make sense..." whispered Erwin, who looked at Ron with a dubious look.
>
> "It makes sense instead. You have no experience in fighting, and therefore, like a newborn bird, you will fly recklessly, trusting only your instincts. But there will come a time when your instinct will no longer be enough, and at that point, something similar, but at the same time different, will take over: The intuition."
>
> "Intuition? Isn't that the same thing as instinct?" Erwin said confused, Who was not understanding anything of what Ron was trying to teach him.
>
> "No, you damn idiot. Instinct and intuition are two different concepts, but a fool like you wouldn't understand anyway. So, my advice is to fight following your gut, only then will you understand my words..."
>
>
-End of the Flashback-
-------
Erwin put himself in a fighting stance; although the doubts that plagued him were many, the desire to become a student of the academy outweighed all the doubts he had up to that moment, and the moment he found himself facing his opponent, it was as if his brain made a switch, thus focusing solely on the fight.
Erwin thus placed himself in front of Arnold with an extremely determined look, ready to defeat his opponent.
The principal, who at first noticed the boy's malaise, was surprised at the ease with which Erwin changed his attitude, creating in the old gentleman's mind a certain curiosity about the boy's abilities.
Arnold, on the other hand, initially did not feel any pressure from Erwin, believing that it would be easy for him to beat him; but because of the fight between Brenin and Luke, and because of the sudden change in attitude of his opponent, his senses went on alert, leading him to act with great caution.
Suddenly, Arnold's body began to give off a strange yellowish light, a symptom that was strengthening his body; then, he assumed an extremely compact position, carrying both arms in front of him like a shield; in Erwin's eyes, his enemy looked like a compact boulder.
At that moment, Erwin's heart began to speed up the beats; the same thing happened with Rudolf, and in part, the same thing happened with Elaine; at that moment he was excited about the fight, forgetting in fact, that he was doing an admission test: he simply wanted to confront Arnold.
A smile appeared on Erwin's face, a symbol of happiness for the upcoming fight.
"Well, you can start the fight-!"
Erwin, without waiting a second longer, rushed at his opponent, approaching the latter at a very high speed; Arnold, who was paying close attention to the boy's movements, was taken by surprise, since despite all his attentions, he could not even perceive the boy's movements.
[W-Woah...!!]
Erwin began to storm Arnold with extremely fast and precise blows, with the latter who, due to the speed of the attacks, had no chance of counterattacking; Erwin's movements, although apparently simple, showed an incredible coordination, combined with a correct execution of the techniques, leaving the professors amazed, who certainly did not expect such a level from a little boy of just over 15 years old.
"Wow... That guy.... Where did you find a guy like that, Leonard? He's moving like a fucking cat..." Professor Martha asked to his colleague, surprised but also excited to see Erwin in action;
Leonard, who had only sensed Erwin's potential, was surprised to discover the boy's abilities, which far exceeded his expectations. If until yesterday he was skeptical about Erwin and Elain's talent, he no longer had any doubt, thus thanking his friend Ludwig for sending him two incredible talents.
"Let's say... I have a very good instinct!" Leonard strutted, with a smile on his lips.
"Yes, Erwin has an incredible talent.... Anyway, that Arnold is holding all those attacks pretty well... Will it be due to its magic element?" the principal asked himself, watching the clash carefully;
In fact, although Erwin was storming him with violent and precise blows, which gradually became faster and faster, it is also true that Arnold, although he could not counterattack, at that moment the damage he was taking was really minimal, and if at first he was worried about Erwin's speed, after "tasting" his power, he in fact found a state of tranquility.
"Well...now it's time for me to go on the offensive, too!"
At that moment, Arnold completely ignored Erwin's attacks, attempting to hit him with a violent direct punch on his face; Erwin, as soon as he saw the the attack coming on his face, he immediately felt the danger behind that shot.
Normally, it would have been difficult for him to dodge that shot, as at that moment, he was in the midst of his barrage of blows with no chance of stopping, and that's the first thing he thought too, given that the moment Arnold started his attack, Erwin was in an uncomfortable position.
[YOU'RE DEAD!]
Arnold's fist hissed in the air before going to break against Erwin's face with disconcerting violence. The impact made Erwin's head spin, unarmed in the front of the power of the shot. Arnold, at that moment, thought he had concluded the dispute in his favor, convinced that Erwin's fate was sealed.
But Erwin's mind reasoned a little faster than normal during the fights; in fact, at that moment, the only ally he could count on was his keen instincts, and despite the power of Arnold's punch, his instincts made him somewhat calmed in the face of impending danger: although Arnold's punch was loaded with power, it was given by making large, clumsy movements that left half of his face completely uncovered, and therefore vulnerable.
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Within a split second, Erwin decided to exploit this weakness behind Arnold's attack; in a moment, he decided not to counter Arnold's powerful attack, but to exploit the inertia of the blow to his advantage. He abandoned himself to the impact, causing the force of Arnold's fist to spin his head in a controlled manner. At the same time, he used all that energy to make his body veer along the outer part of Arnold's arm, an unexpected movement that took all the spectators, including the professors, by surprise.
In an instant, Erwin hit Arnold with a lightning-bright, violent backhand. His cunning had turned an inevitable blow into a surprising move, causing Arnold to retreat a few meters, who, incredibly, came out of it without an obvious wound. The scene left everyone speechless, demonstrating that in that skill duel, Erwin's ingenuity had played a crucial role.
"... He's hella tough!" Erwin thought out loud, wiping his blood from his mouth, surprised that he couldn't scratch Arnold.
[T-That Erwin... He's crazy!] They thought in unison both Martha and Brenin, intuiting the fact that Erwin had allowed himself to be hit on purpose to counterattack the next int.
Brenin couldn't conceive how Erwin decided to take a similar risk, but at the same time, he began to feel some admiration for that madness he saw a few moments ago, wondering if he would act that way too.
"... I'm not an idiot like him!" He hissed Brenin with an amused smile, then shook his head.
"... Brilliant." said Yilenia, who watched the young Erwin with interest; initially, she believed that among the three examiners seen today, Erwin was the one least likely to pass, but after seeing his skills, his elegance and the mastery over his body, Erwin made her change her mind, thus looking at Erwin with different eyes.
"I knew his instinct was amazing, but this is..."
Leonard could not conclude his sentence, being astonished by Erwin's qualities.
"His instinct.. is like that of a cat" – the elderly principal began – "A cat, when he feel a danger situation, use the surroundings to escape from a potential situation dangerous to them... It's the same thing this boy did: seeing that he would not be able to dodge his blow, he used his instinct and his sense for the fight to get out of that position and counterattack at the same time."
"It's exactly as you say, Mr. Principal..." Martha replied on the elucidation of his 'boss' – "In this school, there are very few with the ability to use a disadvantage in their favor. That boy is amazing."
"True, but there's something I don't understand...Have you noticed it too, right?" the principal asked perplexedly to his employees, who immediately understood what the principal was referring to, thus looking at the fight with even more attention.
[T-That bastard...] Arnold thought angrily, that despite not having suffered any damage until then, he had suffered a wound in his pride after that lightning-fast counterattack: everything was so fast that he could barely figure out what had hit him. But it wasn't made for this...
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Arnold exclaimed, invending against Erwin, who was bewelled by such reaction.
"Huh? Why should I---!!"
"Why the hell aren't you fighting me seriously?! Why don't you use your element?!"
When Arnold exclaimed that sentence, silence reigned in the room; of the same thought was the principal, who had been wondering for a few seconds why he had not yet used his magic element, and it was also the thought of the professors at that moment; in fact, Erwin should have tried to use his element to further enhance his strikes, yet he did not do so, limiting himself to using only the mana to strengthen his body and strike Arnold.
"Mh... In fact, I'm curious to see his element..." said Brenin, who was curious to find out which element Erwin possessed.
Erwin did not know how to answer that question, since he was in fact unable to manipulate any elements. He wanted to tell the truth, but he was afraid that by revealing his serious deficiency, they would throw him out of the academy without letting him finish fighting.
"I-I'm not taking you lightly...And by the way, you're not using your element either!" countered the boy, trying to procrastinate and change the subject.
"I'm using it instead! Look!" Arnold replied again, showing his arm to Erwin;
At first, Erwin did not see anything in particular, but it was after observing it for a long time, that he realized a small detail.
"Your arm... No, your skin is strangely rough..."
"It's not rough!" Arnold frowned, looking badly at Erwin – "I strengthened my body thanks to the element of the earth! What you see is a layer of rock that acts as a shield!"
"... Oh, now I understand why you are so tough..." replied Erwin, who looking at his hands only then realized some unexplained cuts on his knuckles, which because of the adrenaline in his body he did not immediately feel the pain.
"Now that you know... Come at me seriously! Otherwise you won't be able to beat me!" - exclaimed Arnold, who at the time, was working as hard as he could and wanted his opponent to do the same.
"..."
Erwin didn't know how to behave, as in fact, he was giving his all. And yet, the fact that he told him to try harder sounded strange to him; how did he hope to do him harm, if he couldn't do it at his best?
[That idiot... He's not focused] Thought Brenin, who at that moment saw in Erwin the gaze of a person not focused at all to what was happening.
The professors noticed that Erwin was no longer as focused as before, and Arnold noticed as well, and annoyed by this, he took advantage of that moment of lack of concentration to attack Erwin; he charged Erwin like a raging bull, trying to hit him with a series of powerful punches; Erwin, caught off guard, still managed to dodge those blows, but his movements, which a moment before were fast, precise and controlled, had become slower, clumsy and awkward, to the point that Arnold's slow and predictable attacks began to be dangerous because of the power behind them.
Arnold's blows began to graze Erwin more and more, beginning to superficially wound him; Erwin realized that even one blow from those could knock him out for good. This only made Erwin agitated, who, for the first time since the beginning of the battle, was afraid of those heavu yet clumsy blows.
He had received far more powerful blows, both during the hard training with Ron and during the fight against Rudolf, but mentally those blows he saw coming against him, because of the importance of that fight, seemed 1000 times more dangerous than Ron's punches.
[Stay focused ... Come on!] - Erwin thought, but he could no longer enter his "zone" as before. Distracted by all this, Erwin executed a wrong movement in an attempt to get out of that interminable barrage of blows; this then allowed Arnold, who had been waiting for that very moment, to violently strike Erwin's sternum, who released a painful groan. Attempting to back away, Erwin realized that that blow had severely restricted his movements, thus failing to retreat. Without hesitation, Arnold struck forcefully again on the sternum, breaking some ribs with a sinister sound.
"Aaaargh!" Erwin groaned as the pain forced him to slowly collapse to the ground. At that moment, Arnold decided to inflict the final blow, hitting Erwin's chin with a precise and violent punch that caused him to lift from the ground for a few meters.
[... Damn] thought slightly saddened Brenin, who hoped that Erwin could enter the academy, so that he could confront him directly and improve together; despite the little time spent together, he liked being in the company of Erwin, since the two looked a little alike.
"It's over..." said Martha, visibly disappointed with how the fight had ended, looking away from Erwin's unarmed body.
So did the other professors, who did not believe that Erwin would recover after all those vicious blows. Leonard of all was the most disappointed by such an outcome, as he really believed that Erwin would be able to defeat Arnold.
Still, the only one who looked at Erwin was the principal, who had huge doubts about the boy's abilities.
"I don't know if it's really over..." the latter replied to Martha's statement, looking almost amused by what was happening.
"Eh? What do you mean by...?!"
Suddenly, while everything seemed lost, an explosion of mana occurred, coming from Erwin's seemingly inert body, caught everyone unprepared, except the Principal, who was amused by what he was seeing...
END OF CHAPTER 23 - ERWIN'S EXAM