Right after initializing, we appeared in this giant arena reminiscent of the old Thunderdome-style battle site. It was caged in, with spikes sticking out from the top, limiting some but not all over-the-top skills.

It was a one-on-one fight with no spectators inside, but people could still view it. Outside were special rooms for watching with tables, couches, and a big holo-display from which the fight was broadcast.

Betting on some of these fights was commonplace when big names were involved. No one was going to bet on this one, but in some of the bigger venues frequented by some of, the more prominent families, fights could have bets that reached the hundreds of thousands or even millions of credits.

On the other side of the arena was Brandon.

“Are you ready for a beating, Khyrum?” he said arrogantly, pointing at me.

I just looked at him and nodded. I was not interested in playing his game. In my head, I figured I would go in, have him punch me a few times, concede, and then move on to the next thing. According to the attendant, the pain level was set low, so there was no harm in taking some punches.

Or so I thought.

Brandon came out full steam ahead. He rushed in, ready to fight, as he picked up his right arm and cocked his hand back, ready to unleash a massive punch.

“Force Punch,” Brandon screamed out.

“Force Punch? What the fuck is that?” was my thought when hearing him, but I quickly picked up the change in his right hand. It was glowing red.

It dawned on me, “This asshole is using a skill.”

Quickly I used wind step to slide to the left, just enough for him to miss me. It was not noticeable as I had practiced this skill for two years, so my control was excellent.

The look on Brandon’s face was one of surprise.

“How the hell did I miss that?”

“Brandon, how can you use a skill if you haven’t awakened yet?” I asked, feigning surprise.

“You caught that, huh?” he said smugly.

I nodded in agreement.

“Who wouldn’t, especially if your hand is glowing red?” I said.

Outside, the girls and the rest of the people watching were also surprised.

“How does he have skills if he is so young, not even awakened yet?” asked one of the bystanders in the room.

Eva showed some worry on her face, but Cora and Yara did not. In fact, it was the opposite. Their faces had more of a confident look. As if they knew something, the rest of the room didn’t.

“I’m a little worried about the fight. Especially for Khyrum since Brandon is using skills,” said Eva.

“I don’t think this is a fair fight at all. To think of it, this should be more like sparring than a fight,” she says with a worried look.

Cora and Yara look at each other. They know Khyrum will be ok, but they can’t explain that to Eva. They can’t reveal that he is also gifted and should be more than a match for Brandon. So, they resort to the next best thing.

“Eva, don’t worry too much. It's just a VR game. Even if Khyrum takes the punch, he won’t get hurt. It is more like getting hit with a sparring glove. At best, he will get the wind knocked out of him,” said Yara casually.

“Yeah, don’t take it too seriously. Remember that the attendant said that the pain level would be set too low, so they shouldn’t suffer serious injury,” Cora said.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

After hearing both girls, Eva thought they made sense.

“I guess it makes sense; I’m just surprised that Brandon has skills so early on,” she said.

Both girls nodded.

“Yeah, we were caught by surprise as well. He hid it well, as no one was aware of it,” said Yara.

As the three girls chatted, two young men sat in the back of the room watching the fight.

“Hey Ray, did you see that?” the mysterious Ty asked, intrigued by what he had just seen.

“What the punch that kid just threw,” said his companion Ray.

“Even though that was impressive, no. Did you see the move the other kid used to get out of the way?” said Ty.

“Wasn’t it a simple sidestep?” asked Ray, a little confused.

Ty just shook his head in resignation.

“See, this is why Ryze always gives you shit when we train; you don’t have good attention to detail,” said Ty.

Ray just looked at him like he was speaking a different language.

Ty tries to explain.

“Yes, that Brandon kid threw a very good punch, and at that short distance, there was no way anyone could have avoided it, but that Khy kid did.”

“How did he do it? That should be the question.”

“To me, it looked like he slid to the side instead of stepping, but there is no skill that will allow you to do that, or at least not one that I know of,” Ty finished saying.

“Oh, shit are you saying that kid has a hidden skill,” said Ray with an excited look.

“I don’t know; he is only 15, so it might be more of a charm than skill, as he has not awakened yet,” said Ty.

“Due to the nature of our visit here, it's more likely that both kids have charms,” he continued.

“Hmm, that would make sense. What big secret are we going to find here? I wonder,” said Ray.

“I don’t know, but we need to get going; we have our meeting with the black-market merchant that we can’t miss,” said Ty.

Both Gentlemen stood and looked at the fight on the holo-display one last time before departing the venue.

It had been mere hours since Khyrum had left the charm with Roy, but word had already spread to almost every corner of the globe about the charm, and some of the most important groups had started making their way to Rayong.

Unaware of this, Khyrum was still fighting with Brandon inside the VR arena.

Both Brandon and Khyrum were standing in the middle of the arena.

“If you like to know, this punch was a gift from my father, an early gift for my awakening,” said Brandon.

“He got me this charm bracelet with the tier-three Force Punch skill,” he continued, pointing to a blue and gold bracelet on his right hand.

“Oh, that makes more sense as here I thought you had developed skills even before your awakening,” I said, acting surprised.

“Brandon, do you think using skills to fight is necessary? Why don’t I just let you hit me so we can call this your win?” I whispered to him.

“We need to give these girls a show, Khyrum. If you fall after one hit, won't that make you look like a loser?”

“That’s not what we want, is it?"

"Let's do this; I will call the fight a draw if you can take three punches from me. That way, we both win. What do you say?” he said, sounding agreeable.

I thought about it for a second. I knew he would not let it go any other way, so I had no other choice.

“Alright, Brandon, let's do it your way. Just three punches,” I said as I backed off.

Brandon’s eyes gleamed with a vicious glare as he backed off himself.

“This is it, idiot. I’m going to break you so bad that you are going to wish you were dead,” he mumbled to himself.

We got ready, and the fight began again.

Brandon rushed back out. His steps were so fast that it seemed as if he was flying. He was getting close quickly.

“I’ll wait until the last second to activate my skill before punching. That way, he won't see it coming,” he thought.

“I’ll finish this in one punch.”

As he approached, I could see the viciousness in his eyes; I thought he would play fair, but I guess not. So, I got ready.

I leaped back to get a little more distance between us and then took my fighting stand. I took the low guard to protect my chest and rib areas, thinking he was not bold enough to go for my head.

Sure, enough, as he got close, I could see him cock his right hand back again. Being less than three feet apart, he zeroed in on my chest; as I was preparing for the punch, I looked up only to see this evil grin on his mouth.

“Fucker” was my only thought as I saw his eyes look straight at me. Then his right arm followed his eyes, and I heard the words next.

“Force Punch.”

He was aiming for my face!

In a split second of reaction, my golden body skill kicked in, allowing me to quickly move my left arm up to my face to block the punch. I didn’t have much time, as I could see his glowing red fist knuckles and all fast approaching.

My DSS enhancement immediately kicked in, instinctively merging with my golden body skill; my left arm was instantly covered in glowing diamond-scale armor. Seeing that we were wearing battle suits, it was not very visible.

The next instant, there was this thunderous explosion.

BOOM!!!!!

At the same time, there was this bright flash of Red and Gold.

Right after, a blood-curdling scream came from the arena.

“Aghhh….what the fuck happened to my arm….”

Brandon was kneeling on the floor in the middle of the arena, grabbing what was left of his right arm.

His arm had turned to mush from his hand all the way to his elbow.