The Duel

The selected students were taken out of the large hall and were led into the main campus. It took them about ten minutes to arrive at the main campus. The hall and the testing grounds where the selection program was held, was secluded from the main school campus.

On getting into the campus, they were led to another hall to undergo another  series of tests.

"Welcome to the Arachis, you all shall be tested to measure your body's core level. When you are called, you are to  come to the podium, then you are to place your hand on this Energy detector. The Energy detector will measure your  core level and rank you accordingly." Said a gray haired man in military uniform.

"For example." The old man said and placed his hands on the energy detector. The Detector displayed two characters on its screen, an alphabet and a number.

{A2}

"The alphabet, shows your rank and the number represents your level within a rank. The ranking system goes from F to SSS. Above the F rank you have E and it continues  like that to the A rank. Above the A rank we have the S rank, SS rank and finally the SSS rank. The highest human rank ever recorded is the S+ rank. I personally believe any rank above the S+ rank is just a myth." The old man said.

'The number attached to the the alphabet, is your level within a rank. Each rank has a total of nine levels." The old man continued.

" I indulge all of you to participate in this test." He concluded.

He seemed to be in charge of the process. One by one the students stepped up and had their core levels measured. A few students displayed high energy levels while most were mediocre. It was Jackson Storm's turn, he stood up and walked to the podium and placed his hands on the detector.

*ding*

The detector rang as it it displayed his rating, A rank, level 5. Everyone  in the hall was stunned. The thing about ranking was that it was extremely difficult for one to upgrade the rank assigned from birth, one could rise in level but hardly in rank. Most soldiers trained for years to achieve even a  top level C rank, but here this young boy displayed an alarming rating without even going through an sort of military training.

Even the Old man, Grater, trained for 45 years to reach his peak, A rank, level 2, and this untrained kid was above  him in terms of raw strength and power.

Next up was another boy, He had a sea blue colored hair and eyes, with a slight pale white skin. He dropped a bomb on everyone when he placed his hands on the detector.

*ding*

The detector rang and displayed another outrageous rating.

Rank: A

Level: 7

Everyone just received an even greater shocker. These boys were on per with most elite soldiers meaning they could easily destroy most of the soldiers here.

Finally, it was Adrian's turn, he stepped up and placed his hand on the detector.

*ding*

The detector rang. Everyone was again dumbfounded, his rating was tragically poor. The screen displayed  F 9. He was the lowest rating the school ever recorded. Most students busted into laughter, even some personnels indulged.

Adrian just stood there expressionless.

"How did he even qualify?" Mr Grater giggled.

Mr Leo and Major Anna remained silent observing the whole situation.

"He is not qualified!" Mr Grater said.

"Silence!!" Major Anna roared. She released her aura shutting up the students and various observing officials.

"Do any of you think your better than him? If you do please step forward and lay your complaint. I'll make sure I punch a hole in that person's skull." Major Anna freakishly smiled.

"I can vouch for his competence." Mr Leo added.

"Since you both support him,  The school council would allow this trash into our school." Mr Grater laughed.

The testing process continued untill every last student was rated. They were all given cards containing their various dorm numbers, Adrian's card read Room G-15. They each received a smart watch so that every necessary information could be relayed to them later on.

"There are Four classes lettered A-D for you first years. This is regardless of your ratings. The concept behind this division is to produce the best first year class to represent the school at the Imperial Tournament held every year for  first year students. Your various classes will be relayed to you later in the day. For now, you should all go to your various dormitories and rest. Lectures begins in five days." Mr Grater said.

Every student left to their various dorms. When Adrian got to his door he opened it and found two persons inside.  The first person was the dude with the sea blue eyes and hair, the other was a black haired boy on glasses. "Hi I am Alexis Knight." said the  black haired boy.

"And he is Ryan Posiedion."  Alexis said pointing at the dude with the sea blue eyes.

"I am Adrian Kane." Adrian replied.

Adrian shelved his clothes and other items. He then took his time to observe the room, it was quite large. They were only three beds and shelves. It also had a mini library and  toilet at least. This was enough for Adrian and it seemed quite comfortable. Later that night they all received their various uniforms. It was a combo of black and white. A white shirt on black trousers, they also received info on the classes they belonged to. They all prepared for tomorrow and went to bed

The next five days was interesting as most students made several acquaintances. Adrian on the other hand talked at length with Alexis, while Ryan simply ignored them both. At the end of the five day break they all went to their various classes.

Surprisingly Adrian and Alexis ended up in the same class as Ryan and Storm.

"Good morning students, welcome to class 1-D. The name is Leonard Wood, but I prefer Mr Leo. I am this class supervisor. There are five courses you would all take part in, augmentation, emission, General knowledge, weapon assimilation and finally physical combat. I would handle the augmentation and physical combat classes while a few teachers would handle the rest."

"For today's lecture we would discuss the basics of augmentation. What is augmentation if I may ask?"

A pink haired girl at the back of the class raised her hand.

"Yes you." Mr Leo pointed.

"Augmentation is the incorporation of one's ability into his physical attributes such as speed, stamina, reaction speed, and strength, thereby receiving a physical boost." The pink haired girl answered.

"Interesting."Mr Leo said.

"What is your name young Miss?"

"Xi Hu." she replied.

Meanwhile, Adrian stared at the window throughout out the whole ordeal not even paying the slightest of attention.

"Mr Kane." Mr Leo said.

The whole class turned and stared at Adrian. He was quite popular after the whole rating event.

"Candle maker is now watching butterflies, how pathetic can you be?" A tall, silver haired jock mocked.

"Shaktar!!" Mr Leo roared, startling the silver haired boy.

"I would not tolerate any sort mockery in my class, is that clear?" Mr Leo threatened, releasing his suppressive aura.

"He doesn't belong here." Shaktar replied.

"Is that so? How about a duel between you and Mr Kane?" Mr Leo teased.

Most students laughed intensely, some even shedding tears in the process. Adrian on the other hand remained expressionless observing the whole situation.

"Let's all step out shall we?"

Mr Leo led the students to the training grounds to witness the duel. The school's rule was that fighting was only permitted on these grounds, fighting anywhere else was a clear violation of the school rules resulting in expulsion.

"Don't be scared Adrian, am sure Mr Leo would stop this duel if it got out of hand."

Xi tried comforting him.

"Don't worry I'll be fine." Adrian smiled.

The two combatants entered the field, while the rest of the class took their seats at the spectators section.

Shaktar took his stance and so did Adrian.

"You may begin!" Mr Leo stated.

Adrian had a smaller statue compared to Shaktar, he was far weaker, yet most students could see his face brimming with confidence.

"Die." Shaktar roared as he charged at Adrian with full speed.

On reaching Adrian, he stumped his right foot on the ground to halt his body's momentum and unleashed his left fist which continued to travel at an insane speed towards Adrian's face. Adrian did not avoid his punch and blocked it head on.

*Bam*

The impact of the punch created a ten metre wide crater. It also released a large amount of dust blocking the audience view.

"He is dead." A certain student muttered.

After the dust cleared, they were amazed to see Adrian still standing with a smug on his face.

"How are you still standing?" Shaktar asked in bewilderment.

"You call that a punch?"Adrian mocked.

Adrian caught Shaktar unaware and punched him in the abdomen, knocking him fifteen meters across the field. Adrian didn't stop there, he covered the distance in a single dash and unleashed another punch to Shaktar's  head sinking him five feet underground creating a massive crater simultaneously.

Adrian jumped back a little to observe Shaktar's condition. Shaktar crawled out of the ground with blood gushing out of his head.

"How dare you!!!" Shaktar punched Adrian in the face sending him flying. Adrian did a flip midair and regained his footing. Shaktar dashed towards Adrian not wanting to give the slightest opening. He released another punch towards Adrian's jaw.

*Boom*

Adrian caught Shaktar's fist, twisted it and broke his wrist, punching Shaktar in the throat with  his other fist.

*Bam

The punch released another shockwave.

Shaktar jumped back to gain some distance between Adrian and himself while

blood gushed out of his mouth massively. Shaktar couldn't comprehend why this guy before him could inflict so much damage on him with just a few punches. He had the ability to cover his body with a layer of steel, increasing his defence to unfathomable levels. Due to his style, his skin was much harder than that of an average human even without his metal skin.

But here this guy which was three ranks and two levels lower than him was punching his skin and inflicting  tremendous damage.

That period Shaktar used to contemplate was his undoing as Adrian stamped his foot on the back of his head, burying his face underground.

"He has to be cheating." A student even muttered unconsciously. Not many of them could stand Shaktar's brute strength, but this weak guy was even mopping the floor with him.

Shaktar pushed Adrian's foot off his head and stood up.

"I'll kill you." Shaktar roared.

*Cling*

The sound of Shaktar covering his body with his metal skin. He looked like a metal sculpture that had every inch of it's muscle well shaped and highlighted.

"You are going to die, now." Shaktar said in frustration, releasing his ominous aura.

Not only did Shaktar's defense increase, his speed, strength and stamina increased exponentially, his wrist even repaired itself. Adrian could not even follow his speed and ended receiving a barrage of attacks from Shaktar.

*cough*

Adrian coughed blood relentlessly after receiving those attacks, he even struggled to maintain his consciousness not to talk of his footing.

"Die!!" Shaktar roared as he morphed his right arm into a giant axe planning to dissect Adrian.

"Enough!!"Mr Leo ordered. Shaktar ignored Mr Leo and raised his hand to cut Adrian on the floor.

*Boom*

Mr Leo punched Shaktar in the face sending him 30 meters away.

"Did you not hear me??" Mr Leo threatened.

Everyone could see the dent on Shaktar's face, even Shaktar was surprised to see that just a punch from Mr Leo could dent his Iron skin.

"Alright I surrender." Shaktar said as he deactivated his Iron skin.

"Get him to the intensive care unit now!!" Mr Leo ordered the observing students.