Too Slow

Sir Davis strolled into the class lazily, he had no particular fondness for any course that made him leave the classroom. His eyes scanned through the crowd of students, before landing on the pitiful Midas.

Sighing, he brought up a holographic interface with the details of every student in Class 3A and stopped at Midas' column.

[Student Name: Midas Sullivan]

[Age: 16]

[Ability: Mind's Eye (S-Rank)]

[Rank: Awakened]

[Potential: 73]

"Mr Sullivan"

Hearing his name, Midas walked out from within the crowd and stood patiently while Sir Davis continued perusing through the interface. He did so for over half an hour before finally landing on who he was looking for…

"Mr Frederick"

Noah Frederick, one of the best students of Class 3A, walked out with a smug grin and stood beside Midas as Sir Davis finally looked up from his column.

[Student Name: Noah Frederick]

[Age: 16]

[Ability: Enhanced Speed]

[Rank: Awakened]

[Potential: 21]

…..

Midas and Noah faced in each other on an elevated platform in the centre of the training room which Sir Davis had raised.

"We have a lot of training ahead of us, so why don't we get the match with the least suspense out of the way."

"Begin!"

Immediately they received the signal, Midas took a fighting stance, spreading his legs to lower his centre of gravity as he willed Aether into his body while Noah rushed in with a confident smile as he ran with a blazing speed that most of the other students couldn't follow.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to match Noah in terms of speed, Midas had abandoned all thoughts of attacking first, focusing solely on his defence. In an instant, Noah had arrived in front of him, using the momentum he had built up through his short dash, he pushed off his feet and jumped two metres into the air; flipping and delivering an axe kick towards Midas' head.

Feeling the brush of wind brushing against his skin, Midas' head shot upwards as he crossed both of this arms above his head and crouched lower. The kick connected with his forearms and the force travelled through his body and dissipated into the ground below. Midas quickly retreated back five steps as he shook his numb arms. He looked cautiously towards Noah, who wasn't fazed by his attack failing to dispatch his opponent.

Meanwhile, while they both assessed each other, Sir Davis' eyes shone behind his glasses.

'He's finally figured it out, focusing more on training his body instead of his ability to make up for his shortcomings'

Noah rushed in towards Midas once more, appearing before him and sending out a straight punch to his head.

"You've gotten stronger, you usually just stand around and take a beating, what changed?"

Midas simply ignored Noah's line of questioning and quickly ducked below the fist, sending out an uppercut to catch Noah off guard, but his fist connected with air as he expected. Noah had vanished and now stood five meters away with a slight frown on his face.

'How is he reacting to my speed, no one in 3A has ever been able to keep up with me'

Seeing that Noah was content with just standing at a place till he figured it out, Midas rushed forward, sending out a punch, which Noah simply avoided by appearing by Midas' back and sending out a sweeping kick to take Midas off his feet, but to his amazement, Midas was still able to react at the last second and jump out of the way, performing a spinning sidekick that connected with Noah's chest.

 Noah retreated five steps backward before stabilizing himself. He frowned once again, a feeling of rage bubbling up. Rushing forward, he and Midas exchanged dozens of attacks with Midas mostly being on the defensive. After a few minutes of constant battle, Midas' movements became dull and slow.

Noah who had stood in one spot for some time instantly made his move, his legs instantly becoming a blur. The friction between his body and the air sounded like the clap of thunder. His arm became akin to a blade, and he simply cleaved towards Midas' neck.

The attack came rushing with a raging wind, but in Midas' eyes, it was simply… too slow. But that didn't seem to change anything, he could see it coming in what was basically slow motion, his body just couldn't react. The chop landed and the force behind it reverberated throughout his body and the world turned black.

…

Midas woke up and looked around the training room before sighing.

He had lost.

He clenched his fist until his nails drew blood. The last fights were taking place and no one had noticed that he had recovered from his concussion. He stood up calmly and simply walked out of the training grounds. Sir Davis noticed him walk out and was about to call out to him before he changed his mind.

There were simply some challenges people had to overcome themselves and trying to comfort them would only make their shortcomings more obvious, which would lead to your words having the opposite effect. Midas walked around the campus dejectedly, his mind in a daze.

He remembered his awakening and how proud his father was when he awakened an ability; not to mention one of such renown, he thought back to all the sponsors who were willing to take care of his growth as long as he came into their families.

All to find out that his body couldn't keep up with his ability, the first time he activated it, he nearly died from sensory overload, his fragile mind simply couldn't take in all the data it was receiving from his ability. It was an amazing feeling, it felt like having two sets of eyes, if one of them was completely separate from his physical body.

It still felt disorienting at times, suddenly switching between two perspectives.

He also remembered being advised to go into research, and truthfully, with the observational prowess of his ability, he would be able to rise through the ranks quickly but that wasn't him at all. Since he could remember, he had always wanted to stand on top of the world, and research was not going to take him to the pinnacle he wanted.

He had tried everything he could think of over the years, meditating and training till he had one of the best physiques for someone his age, but the disparity between his body and ability only seemed to grow. In battle, he could observe every single subtlety of his opponent, their micromovements, their expressions, and yet, his body couldn't keep up with his speed of thought, making it virtually impossible to progress.

BANG!

"Fuck!", Midas cried out in pain as he retracted his fist from the wall he had punched in frustration.

"That was dumb" A soft voice said from down the hallway.