Spar

Chapter 26

"How do you think the spar will go?" Elizabeth asked Kevin while they were walking towards their classroom.

"No idea. Depends on what we are allowed to use and what we aren't. Most of the student's abilities are offensive so if they can't display their lethal skills, in doing so they will be unable to show their true potential." He replied, giving his own viewpoint.

Reaching the class, they sat down in their places. A few moments later, Benny entered the classroom followed by Haylee.

"After ten minutes, everyone is to be present in the field for your sparring session." He told them. "And never forget, don't use any lethal skills or the consequences will be worse than you think." Along with a warning.

=========================================

They were all present in the field after ten minutes.

Benny, without wasting any more time, started calling for students to fight. The first ones were Sarah and a boy named Ethan, an air user.

They stood opposite each other, preparing themselves, waiting for Benny to give them a go.

"Ready. GO!" Benny shouted and Ethan started gathering air in his hand only to be engulfed in ice.

Sarah had trapped him in ice. Ethan was frozen, literally.

Benny hurriedly declared Sarah as the victor who broke her ice, freeing Ethan who was shivering because of ice.

The whole class was stunned at Sarah's overwhelming display of skill control.

Kevin thought of ways to counter that move only for one solution to come to his mind, charging in recklessly with speed. Of course, that was when fighting an amateur. An experienced person would surely think of ways to counter that.

After that, a few names were called.

Nathan, the power-type ability user, just punched his way through his opponent's skills and obtained victory.

Sasha blinded her opponent with a flash of light and incapacitated him before he could recover.

Elizabeth had to show her fighting skills as her ability wasn't helpful in a fight, at least the one she showed to the class.

One thing was sure, except for Sarah, no one was able to display their might so overwhelmingly.

"Kevin Derek and Steven Swenson," Benny announced next.

Hearing his name, Kevin stepped forward while Steven also moved from the other side with a sneer on her face. An expression Kevin recognized very well.

"Are the selections random?" He asked turning to Benny, who replied, "We sent your data we collected in the last four days to management who then decided on the matchup."

Kevin sneered, sure that Steven had used his name to bribe a management official to pit himself against Kevin.

Benny also found Kevin's question a little strange, so he asked Haylee who also didn't know anything.

'Pyromancer. Different from a fire ability, where ranged attacks are possible, pyromancers are hand-to-hand combat fighters. They cover their body parts with flame energy to deliver internal flame damage on contact.'

'If it had been a normal pyromancer, then it wouldn't have been a problem but seeing as he is an heir to a leader family, his fighting skills must be on a great level.'

Kevin analyzed the systematics of Steven's ability and prepared to fight.

A simple stance, one leg forward and one leg backward, with his fists raised to his face, his elbows perfectly on the same level as his abdomen, leaving no opening for a fighter to attack, protecting all of his vitals.

Steven's stance on the other hand was not a defensive one but leaning more on offense. His hands glowing light yellow, he ran forward, crossing the distance between both of them with a decent speed.

Too bad that speed was not that great given Kevin's agility had increased by sixty percent since gaining the system, making him faster than he was before.

Moving to the sideway, avoiding Steven by a small margin, he unleashed a punch, not packed with his full strength, to his ribs.

Which turned out to be a good decision as even when he had held back, Steven had gained significant damage. Putting one of his hands on his ribs, he stopped, breathing with a bit of difficulty.

Kevin didn't follow up with an attack of his own. His plan was to stay on the defensive as abilities were unpredictable, especially when there were human emotions involved.

Turns out that he was right. As soon as Steven stabilized himself, the glow on his hands darkened, taking a deep yellow color. He was increasing power, the heat radiating off of them felt by Kevin.

Steven again ran forward, this time a little slow, not exactly rushing in but still maintaining enough speed to react to defensive moves deployed by Kevin.

Kevin stayed in his spot, calculating his next move. Yet every conclusion ended with him taking a hit. Begrudgingly, he had to admit that Steven, despite being a hothead, was good at hand-to-hand combat.

His earlier hit was because Steven had underestimated him. Deciding that he couldn't avoid being hit, Kevin opted for the least damaging scenario.

As soon as Steven was in his range, he ducked down, his arms open wide, slamming in a running Steven, trying to tackle him to the ground.

Unfortunately, while he was superior in terms of speed, in terms of strength, they were equal, or possibly, Steven had greater strength than Kevin, which was why Kevin was unable to throw him to the ground, his tackle enough to bring Steven to a stop but in doing so, he had left his back open for Steven.

Steven, not one to let go of the opportunity, slammed his glowing hand on his back, delivering significant damage to Kevin, which he felt clearly along with a confirmation message from the system.

[HP -11]

[HP 14\25]

[You have received an internal wound]

A damage of 11 HP, taking almost half of his health, Kevin hurriedly delivered a hit to Steven's knee, throwing him off balance, delivering another hit to his ribs, but this time not holding back, earning a crack from Steven's ribs, fractured if not broken, Kevin instantly moved back.

He felt a searing pain in his back, but it wasn't a surface wound, the damage Steven had delivered was internal, hence the reason his health was still slowly dropping.

[HP -2]

[LE will be used to heal the internal wound of the user]

[20 LE consumed]

[HP has been replenished by 10]

[You are no longer wounded]

[HP 22\25]

Message after message appeared in his vision, and with the appearance of each message, his pain lessened considerably until he felt no signs of pain at all.

Steven on the other hand was holding his side of the ribs, groaning lightly in pain, showing that unlike him, he hadn't had a companion to heal his wounds.

Kevin however wasn't happy. He didn't know what would happen if his LE reached zero and he wasn't willing to experiment when there were a lot of eyes on him.

Not giving Steven any chance to collect himself, he ran towards him at his full speed, reaching him in less than two seconds to deliver another blow to Steven's head.

However, somewhere in the whole spar, Kevin had forgotten something very important.

Pyromancers were hand-to-hand combat fighters and that was true, but his opponent was a member of a leader family, a multi-ability holder.

Sensing another spike from Steven, Kevin was too late for whatever was about to come so all he could do was brace himself and try to deliver damage while doing so.

A spark of electricity emanated from Steven, hitting everything in his one-meter radius, including Kevin.

Electrocuted, Kevin lost his health and his balance at the same time, but the momentum of his fist didn't change, only the direction did.

Hitting Steven in his diaphragm with all of his power, in a very dangerous place, Kevin had realized a little late about the sensitive spot he had delivered a piercing hit to.

[HP 8\25]

[Critical damage has been delivered to the user]

[Applying emergency healing]

[15 LE consumed]

[HP has been replenished by 7]

[HP 15\25]

[Warning]

[LE is below 20 percent]

[User is advised to replenish LE immediately]

[1 point of LE will be used every 30 minutes to hold back the user's inherent nature]

Message after message again, followed by one which left Kevin with an ominous feeling. But right now, he had a more pressing problem, he had hit Steven in the very wrong place, very hard.

He was pretty sure that he had ruptured Steven's diaphragm if his difficulty in breathing was any indication.

Benny hurriedly came by his side and checked for injuries, only to breathe a sigh of relief seeing that none of them were badly injured. Well, Steven was but not to the point of no return.

Their match had suddenly gone up a notch and before Benny could intervene, they had both delivered damage to each other.

"Winner, Kevin Derek." Announcing the result, he turned to a staff member, signaling to Steven on the ground, who was still having difficulty breathing, to be taken away to the infirmary.

Kevin walked back to his spot, next to Elizabeth, "That was amazing." She congratulated him, but Kevin was not happy in the least.

Many times, in the match, Kevin could have gotten seriously hurt. The only reason he was still standing was because of the system applying healing at the cost of LE which was his biggest concern at the moment.

Turns out that LE was holding something back in him, what was it, he didn't know. But what he did know was the ominous feeling arising in his heart. He had to replenish his LE and the only way of doing so was Elizabeth.

The only problem was that he was running out of time but there were still some matches left.

==================

Share my novel if you like it.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions.