The days toward the event passed on, and Cael began to receive significant attention from those of his institute. Now, he was no longer the weakest of the bunch and wasn’t even average either.

In a heavily anticipated sparring match, Cael stood ahead of Keagan. He was the towering bold fighter that acted annoyingly loyal to the likes of Blaine. He hated to upset him and was almost one of the lead members of the clique that grew around him.

Keagan contemptuously stared down Cael and slammed his right fist into his other palm with utmost confidence. Arlo pushed for this spar to occur, and even Cael himself was quite reluctant.

He might’ve grown stronger, but it did nothing to change his attitude. He felt more confident in his own abilities but remained humble.

“Begin!” Arlo declared, causing Keagan to rush forward with confidence and aggression.

He saw no need to give his adversary any sense of respect and distance. In the past, Cael was known to be the weakest of the bunch. There was no way he’d climbed so much to challenge his own strength.

Wildly swinging straight at Cael, the nimbler fighter was able to evade the strike. He watched his fist soar straight past his face, and the wind behind the punch caused his hair to flow up and backward.

As for the next punch, though, Keagan used his smarts and aimed lower. He stared at Cael’s face and looked like he was still aiming for that part of his body, but he drove his fist straight into his stomach, instead.

The punch knocked the wind straight out of him, forcing him back a step. Another sequence of punches came his way but he managed to catch them on his forearms, minimising the damage caused.

Cael was still struggling to steady his breathing after taking those hits, and had really opened his eyes to the raw strength Keagan possessed. His strength was second to only Blaine. For his lack of speed, skill and battle IQ he made up for it with pure muscle strength.

Keagan continuously slugged his fists toward Cael, occasionally catching him with powerful, devastating shots. He would take a few seconds as light breaks to ease off the intense assault but it still felt relentless from Cael’s end.

Whenever he felt like there was an opportunity to attack back, he would be walloped by a haymaker.

Even though Cael initially fought in this form, the crowd were in awe. For most of the students, taking this many shots from an angered Keagan would put them straight to bed. However, this courageous gladiator-like warrior remained on his feet, taking the constant pressure head-on.

Arlo was astonished by Cael’s valiantness, and couldn’t bring himself to break the fight apart. Therefore, he stayed back and watched on like the other students, instead hopeful for Cael to turn the tide and gain the advantage.

Cael, even though he struggled against the powerful advance of Keagan, was calculating his next moves. As Keagan continuously unloaded, he was revealing his most stylish, useful combinations. Cael hid behind a ruse of timidity and fear, but was waiting for the perfect chance to strike.

Keagan cocked back his right fist and shouted, aiming it straight at Cael’s bloodied face. Instead of feeling the skin of Cael’s face, he managed to evade just in the nick of time and -in that same motion- landed a punch straight to Keagan’s chest.

BAM!

With the large warrior literally walking onto the shot, it only added to its overall impact. Keagan stumbled away, holding his chest in pain and the crowd was in complete shock. The only person who could do damage to Keagan like that was Blaine.

Keagan couldn’t stand for such humiliation, and his fury only intensified. He threw a punch straight at Cael again, but he managed to parry it and swiftly follow up with a whipping kick to the chin.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

KRAK!!

Blood shot out Keagan’s mouth as he fell back in the same motion. The attack had totally rocked him, and he was in shock from receiving it. He simply stood there, holding his chin while he gave Cael an incredulous look.

After a few seconds of silence and stillness, he broke it with another one of his standard, beast-like approaches.

He simply thrusted forward his leg in the form of a front kick, but Cael leaped over it to strike him straight in his chest with a kick of his own. Keagan had once again run into one of his incoming strikes, causing him to fall back and hold his chest in pain.

He’d internalised the fact that Cael could cause him no damage, and Cael could see his face scrunching up from anger. Even if this fight wasn’t exactly going in Cael’s favour, the fact that he was landing clean shots was still humiliating to the bruiser.

Shouting and vehemently slugging forward his fist again, Cael had simply seen enough. His punches were thrown in very similar ways, and all that he needed to do was duck under his fist and strike him right in his open flank.

POW!

Cael continued to use his wits and smarts to land punches of his own, still getting walloped from time to time. However, he was landing more attacks now and looked like he was faring better than his opponent.

Eventually, Keagan decided to switch his gameplan and grasped onto Cael before he had the chance to retreat and recalculate. Here, he could use his power to enter a grappling match so that he could hopefully get the win.

The fight had gone on for a surprisingly long time, and he wanted to end the show right here and right now. The two fighters struggled for a time, and Cael struggled to keep his footing when pushing against the stronger, heavier fighter.

Whenever he’d push forward, his feet would just slide back even more so he could gain no new ground.

Keagan swiftly swept at his legs, hurling him straight to the ground and was able to control Cael due to his greater strength. He could get him exactly where he wanted him, so that he could throw punch after punch to deal the most damage during the grapple.

Cael spent this time analysing Keagan as much as he could, trying his hardest to find an opening to inevitably escape. Keagan lifted to throw down a downward punch, aimed for his face, but Cael took this chance to throw his body right out of the way and lift back up to his feet in the same motion.

Keagan wasn’t fast nor alert enough to stop him from doing this, and Cael was free in one swift movement. The spectators gasped at this swiftness and skill, surprised that Cael was capable of such a thing.

His lack of strength and speed caused him to always hide behind a shell when fighting these students. Now that he had a stronger body to work with, he was better able to show off his skills.

“Rrr...” Keagan grunted under his breath, infuriated.

His gaze was still lowered, but Cael could now tell that this fighter was furious. In a flash, he launched off his large feet and charged toward Cael as powerfully as he could.

Each stride that he took was long and heavy, causing the ground to rumble with every step that he took. Leaping forward, he hurled every ounce of strength that he could into this attack, to hopefully take Cael down.

Before his fist could collide with Cael, he slipped his head right out of the way of his incoming punch, while throwing one of his own. Keagan had pretty much ran into his fist, and there was an audible crack once Cael’s knuckles crashed into his skull.

Keagan fell to his knees and slid forward slightly, now with blood coming down the right side of his face. Seemingly unbothered by the strike, he lifted up only to stumble to the ground once again. His legs simply buckled and couldn’t hold his weight any longer.

Cael had won.

Arlo soon stepped in between them, even though Keagan was more than eager to continue the fight. He staggered to their instructor’s side, desperate to continue the fight.

A loss against Cael was clearly something that his brain couldn’t even really comprehend. He continuously tried to push his way past Arlo, but his strength and figure didn’t even budge under his frequent shoving.

“Stand back, Keagan! You lost, now accept your loss and grow from it!” Arlo commanded, bringing the large student to a stop.

The students were in such shock that many were completely silent. Even Blaine felt a similar way. His arms were crossed, and he tried his best to put on a ruse of indifference, but he internally didn’t feel the same way.

“You did brilliantly, Cael. You fought like a true warrior here! Everybody, I want you all to emulate the hard work and dedication that Cael has shown in these recent times. After achieving a wonderful position in the Championship Fighter-Mechanic Event as a mechanic, mind you, he has also made leaps and bounds of growth as a fighter. Know that there is always progress to be made.” Arlo announced.

“How did you even manage to do that? You clobbered Keagan!” Miles, the green-haired student he had previously sparred, commented from beside him.

Cael acted humble and didn’t celebrate wildly from this success. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t happy to have finally showcased his new talent, but he wasn’t willing to gloat over his win either. It just felt wrong to him.

“Just training. I analysed his style quite a bit so I could pick it apart after some time. I only won because he underestimated me. If he thought more, I would’ve been in big trouble.”