Attention?

The nurses quickly appeared along with the soldiers. The fight had been a blood bath and one could see some limbs lying around with a lot of dry and fresh blood. Even David got his fair share of injuries, although not as bad as the rest, he were still painful.

In the fight with Althea, he had been overwhelmed beyond his estimation. He started the fight with the thought that it would be an easy win so he underestimated the sweet-looking and heavenly creature in front of him not knowing that was intentionally Althea's plan, he looked down on her, and to his surprise, Althea threw the first punch which was just a diversion as she kicked him from behind. David caught the foot but before he could do something, she warped in front of him and punched him in the stomach. He counter-attacked with a water wall that didn't do much. The vigorous fight went on until they both ran out of mana which resulted in physical combat. David had the upper hand in this and quickly overwhelmed Althea. The moment when he was about to deliver a final blow was when Noah released the vast amount of flames. She used all her remaining mana that was replenishing and warped but David wasn't so lucky and due to his absence of mana, his water wall quickly vanished resulting in third-degree burns.

He had learned something from the fight that lasted about ten minutes.

Noah was in a very bad condition and for the first time, the nurse was surprised as she found him unconscious but healed his broken bones. He awakened after about five minutes and so did the other students. Many were clueless as to who won the fight but soon a loud cheer erupted as the seemingly "nice" Althea told them to clear their nervous minds.

They were all delighted even those who hadn't really contributed much but it was still an occasion to celebrate although no one had that time and the happy faces retreated forming frowns as the harsh reality dawned on them.

If this team had been this tasking, the other teams were going to surely plummet them into the ground. While all the weak teammates were at the brink of going mad, Noah had a slight smile as he still had the rush of the battle dwelling on him, he didn't know why but releasing those flames had actually relieved him in some way.

It felt like he had released something within them that was troubling him, in short,

It felt good.

They were transported to the Hall where they found many troubled faces sitting along the bleachers, they looked distraught and others just disappointed. Noah guessed that it might be due to the recent fights as the teams were nothing to joke about in the previous round.

Actually, Noah was under the impression that Ripples were meant to be in Sector 2 which brought him another thought that confused him considering the fact that many students here were Ripples.

"Maybe the College isn't just in one sector, perhaps it's in a location that connects all the Sectors to one place where even Pures who want to join can join" he concluded.

It was the only explanation that made sense, it would explain the vast number of Ripples in this place and the unfortunate who don't have fixtures but that problem could be solved easily with a few weeks into the year after the Gauging Exams.

As he was standing alongside his team, he gained attention from the girls that were on the bleachers. This was a new feat for him as he had never got any attention to the female species and it wasn't because of his weakness, well, that was part of the reason but he was just average in looks and could never be considered hot or handsome and have guessed that they only noticed him because he was among the last teams that were to face each other.

He believed that it was because of the glow-up he received but he didn't believe that someone can just have a miracle glow up just like that out of nowhere.

"Kastiel, Is it possible that the heat tanned my skin and made my skin tighten around some parts of my face bringing out an outline," he asked but he knew that his hypothesis would most likely be correct and to his delight, it was.

"Hmm, thought you would never catch up that, you ARE above average intelligence," Kastiel said in a teasing tone that sounded way too harsh to be a teasing statement.

Noah just frowned at his reply because he was confident in his knowledge and smarts so it was a blow to his pride but he brushed off the topic as he knew the answer would be somewhere along the lines of Kastiel's answer.

He looked around and overheard the conversations of his teammates in the process.

"His team was excused from this match~

"I heard that his opponents had a near-death experience~

"If we are going to fight that guy, we are dead~" Adrienne said with a sad expression as she talked back and forth with Sebastian.

"I had his brown hair is really silky though," Adrienne said slightly blushing.

That's when a bulb suddenly turned in in Noah's mind. "The time manipulator," Noah thought as he shuddered in fear. He was defenseless against his fixture and the fight would be over within a minute, he had no chance if he didn't have the system.

*Hmpf*

Kastiel was at the brink of laughter at Noah's newfound predicament.

"Please"

"No"

"Please"

"No"

"Please"

"No"

~

This conversation went back and forth for 2 minutes until Kastiel gave in.

"If you can obtain a soul fire before the next match starts, then you can have the system back," he said in a patient voice.

Noah just smirked and went to a secluded corner of the hall where no one would see him.

Kastiel was curious to see what the boy would think of so he kept quiet and observed.

Noah disappeared and in the next minute, he was back with a victorious smirk painted on his face.

Kastiel didn't expect this event as he thought that Noah would think small-mindedly but was delighted that he didn't. There was no reason as to why he wouldn't give Noah his reward.