David took a deep breath as he stepped into the sparring area, demarcated by a flat packed circle of dirt, surrounded by evenly spaced pillars covered in strange runes. The runes lit up with a blue glow as he entered the ring, and a system message popped up on his interface:

You have entered a training area!

Damage reduced by 50%, HP recovery increased by 100% for tier I lifeforms.

David fought the urge to quirk his eyebrow. He had known about the training areas of course, but the White Fox dojo must have invested a considerable amount to get such a high recovery and damage reduction out of their runes. The runes themselves would have been crafted by a relatively high level, at least tier III Runic Mage. They had diminishing returns, of course. Runes powered by a tier III mage would not be strong enough to reduce the damage and increase recovery sufficiently for, say, a tier V individual. Regardless, the vast majority of all warriors in the city would be able to train safely and effectively within this area, unafraid to test their abilities against others.

Across from David, his opponent flexed his shoulders, bouncing a few times on his toes as he too entered the ring. Rolland Castival, the only tier I human among the students who had the skill Hand-to-Hand Combat at level two, would be his first opponent for live training with abilities. While he had evidently impressed Blane with his current combat abilities, Rolland was a different story. The harder David trained with Cassandra and Timir, the more Rolland seemed to dislike him. He had a constant deriding sneer plastered on his face whenever he looked at David, which led him to no end of confusion as David rarely spoke and had certainly never insulted the man.

Sometimes other people just aren't logical, but David couldn’t really blame the man for harboring a deep dislike for him.

After all, David had spent years hating himself as Leon Richardson.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that others would feel the same way.

He rolled his shoulders as he stepped somewhat nervously into the ring, today would be his first time really fighting another person. With his powers.

He sucked in another deep breath, feeling a sort of nervous energy radiating throughout his body. He hoped he was ready.

The rules had been explained to him, of course. They would start ten meters apart, using all of their abilities to try and bring the other person down to half health, render them unconscious, or until one person surrenders. It might seem a little over the top, rendering your opponent unconscious during a training spar? Such a thing would likely make you look like a terrible person back on earth. Unfortunately, New Era Online’s NPC’s had a different outlook on life.

Power was tangible in this world and gaining it meant sacrifice and often the risk of death. Add that to the rather high chance of encountering incredibly dangerous beasts and monsters pretty much anywhere outside of highly populated areas, and you had a recipe for toughness and a widespread belief that weakness was practically a sin. There was no room for coddling in the city of warriors.

David waited nervously at the ten meter mark, hoping his prodigious skill at hiding his emotions prevented it from showing. Across from him stood Rolland, a look of impatience plastered on his face as he waited for Blane, the referee, to start the match. Blane stood calmly outside the ring, his hands clasped habitually behind his back. Alongside him stood Temir and Cassandra, with one looking almost peaceful, lidded eyes half closed as he stoically waited. The other was an obvious mess of excitement, her hands never staying still as she bounced on her feet with manic energy.

Blane Watson raised one powerful arm above his head, his palm and fingers knife straight. He paused for a brief moment, turning his head to look briefly at Rolland, then at David. He gave them a nod, then quickly lowered his hand - “Begin!”

All feelings of nervousness fled from David's body as Rolland launched off his back foot, hoping to pressure him right off the bat and close the distance. A sudden strange clarity filled his mind, all of his emotions seemingly shrouded by the fog as a cold rationale proceeded to the forefront of his consciousness. David felt his focus lock onto Rolland like a laser, all distracting thoughts banished from his mind. It was like the fog suddenly blanketed anything that wasn’t related to combat, and he could only think about one thing.

He wanted to win.

David quickly used Identify on Rolland, an action that was considered extremely rude outside of the sparring ring, but David needed all the information he could get in order to face Rolland.

Rolland Castival - Human, Type I. - Warrior - Level 9.

HP - ???

Class - N/A

Skills - Hand-to-Hand Combat, lvl 2

???

???

Abilities - ???

‘Damn my low levels!’ he growled at himself, without hesitating he summoned a Minor Force Shield in front of him as Rolland approached him at a sprint, losing fifty precious MP. David ducked down underneath the shield, reaching under it and making an underhanded throwing motion with one arm, summoning a Minor Forceball and throwing it directly at Rolland’s head. The forceball flew invisibly through the air, impacting audibly with Rolland’s face, a small notification pinged, telling him he had done fifty divided by two damage, or twenty five. His critical hit with the forceball had caused it to deal increased damage from its base of thirty, but he had only caused twenty five actual damage due to the training ring.

Rolland stumbled, but continued charging straight at David, now within two meters of David’s Minor Forceshield which hung invisibly in the air between them. A quick glance at his MP showed his mana at 70/150, meaning he had enough for two more force balls or one more shield.

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David jumped in place as he reached over his shield, pegging another forceball at the top of Rolland’s skull. Just as the invisible ball of compressed force collided with the man’s head, Rolland activated his first ability of the match. Tucking his shoulder forward and lowering his center of mass, he suddenly flashed forward two meters, crashing into the invisible shield in front of David and shattering it. Rolland bounced briefly from the impact, and David took the initiative, rushing in to kick Rolland high in the chest while he was still reeling back.

David’s kick made a solid impact against the man’s chest, sending him sprawling onto his back. David tried to keep his advantage as he smashed down with his last Minor Forceball, but he missed as Rolland kicked out and rolled, pulling David’s feet from under him. Both men landed in a sprawl of flailing limbs as suddenly David felt Rollands hands latching onto him with an incredible grip, his higher strength stats allowing him to easily attain dominance as he wrestled for control. Rolland swept David's legs out from under him once again as he struggled to stand, turning the sweep into a reversal that pulled him on top of David's chest, where he sat on him and punched down with a sudden crack.

A strange light flashed off of Rolland’s fist as he punched, and the impact filled David’s head with a dizzying force. He got a system notification warning him of being stunned as fists started to rain down on his face. David tried to keep his arms tight to his head, his biceps flexed and his shoulders pulled up in an attempt to soften the blows, but it was useless. He felt his head bounce off the floor as another impact smashed into his nose, and he felt the urge to growl in anger. His HP plummeted with each impact, steadily driving his health towards the fifty percent mark.

—------------

Temir watched as the new student, David, fought with Rolland. The man was as jealous and angry as the feld that occupied the plains outside the city, and had decided to hate the new student from the moment Cassandra had brought him into the Dojo. She and Blane, his teacher, watched silently by his side, as Rolland managed to achieve the mount, raining down powerful blows on the intrepid new student.

It was a given that Rolland would win, of course. He had been training at the dojo for two years now, almost attaining superhuman status as time passed. There was no way David could win against him. Still, he had hoped that the quiet man would have been able to put up a better fight, he had performed extremely well right up until the point when Rolland managed to get ahold of him… Still, there was something different about the newcomer.

“He fights with no fear in his heart…” Temir found himself thinking out loud. He saw Blane’s stoic face alight into a slight smile. “You are close, my student. It is inhibitions he lacks. Fear is included in this, but did you see how quickly he changed, from a nervous wreck to a cold faced warrior?” Blane’s smile grew even wider. “This one will be interesting to watch, in the future…”

Temir stood in contemplation, trying to puzzle out how his teacher had come to that conclusion from watching the fight. As he watched, David suddenly bucked his body up, reaching a hand under Rolland’s legs and grabbing his collar with the other. He lifted with one arm and pulled with the other, and the two suddenly changed positions. It was a clever move, if futile, as Rolland did not even bother to defend himself, simply continuing to rain punches on David’s now swollen and bloodied face as he struggled to gain a better position. Looking closely at the now bloodied man, Temir could see something strange.

Though blood dripped down his cracked lips and over his white teeth, Temir could see it.

David was smiling. The quiet and unusually timid man was actually smiling. While he was losing. Temir felt a small shiver go down his spine as another punch landed, spraying blood across the dirt arena as David’s head snapped back. The man was still smiling! It was unsettling, Did he not feel pain?

Temir barely noticed when he heard Blane announce the end of the fight, until Rolland eventually stood. He looked down at the new student, sprawled in the dirt with blood running down his face. Rolland looked like he was about to say something to David, whose chest was heaving from exertion, but instead he set his face, turned, and walked away.

‘What a strange fight….’

—----------

David lifted a swollen hand to his face, feeling his injuries healing at a prodigious rate. The multiple lacerations across his forehead, cheeks, and nose were steadily closing shut, the bleeding slowing to a small trickle. ‘I wonder if dirt will get trapped in my skin as it heals…’ He felt the urge to shake his head. He had almost had him!

He had hit Rolland twice in the head with a Minor Forceball, each doing twenty five damage for a total of fifty. After that he had kicked him in the chest for five damage and landed two glancing blows for three damage each. A total of sixty one damage was dealt. David’s HP, with ten points in constitution, was one hundred flat. Rolland was only four levels above him, and it was unlikely that he had an entirely CON focused stat allocation based on his personality and fighting style, as well as the inhuman grip he had applied to David when he grabbed onto him. That meant he had to have gotten the man close to half health.

He had almost won.

‘Haaahhh…’ He sighed inwardly. He was more exhausted than he’d thought he would be, and a quick check on his stats showed his stamina was close to the halfway mark, alongside his HP, though both bars were climbing steadily with the effects of the ring.

He wanted to rest for a few moments more, but as soon as the thought of doing so entered his mind it was quashed by his intense desire to be stronger. ‘Get up David, dependable people do not lay in the dirt…’

He forced himself onto his feet, his body protesting every movement. His face felt sore, but not in the way he had expected. His cheeks hurt.

From smiling.

He hadn’t realized he was doing it at the time. He didn’t know when it started. Although he was pretty sure that Rolland had punched him at a bad angle, lacerating his own fist on David’s teeth.

He wanted to sit for a while and think about his fight, to ponder over what he had learned, when an alarm blared throughout the city.

“ATTENTION CITIZENS” a female voice blared out of loudspeaker drones flying throughout the city. The quality for the speakers must have been incredibly high, as the woman’s voice could be heard very clearly over the noise of the city. ‘They never did get that right back on Earth…No one could ever tell what the announcement was even saying when they tested the emergency systems…’ He caught himself thinking uselessly nostalgic thoughts of his home as the loudspeakers continued.

“ATTENTION CITIZENS. A THREAT TO THE CITY APPROACHES. ALL CITIZENS MAY ENTER THEIR DESIGNATED BOMB-AND-BEAST SHELTERS AT THE EARLIEST CONVENIENCE.” The woman paused for a moment, and the city seemed to be filled with an intense sense of stillness for a moment, as people waited with bated breaths for what she would say next.

“ATTENTION CITIZENS. BE ADVISED THAT OUR MOST HONORABLE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL, MR. CHARLES EADWHIN, WILL BE ENGAGING THE THREAT.”

A massive wave of sound hit David as every student in the dojo, and quite possibly every person in the city, let out a cheer. David looked over to see Cassandra jumping into the air, her face filled with excitement, even Blane’s usually stoic face wore an excited expression. There were great shouts of joy throughout the dojo as usually serious warriors suddenly turned into entirely new people. It was almost creepy, how happy that announcement made them. Shouldn’t they be more afraid…?

‘...These people really love Charles Eadwhin….’