Chapter 1: Orientation (Part 5)

"Impressive! Your movements are sharp and you’re quite agile, I wasn’t expecting this. Your reaction time and instincts are good too. Given that you failed the Tabulization process, you must have very worked hard to get to this level," Smiled Glenn, as I shot forward and unleashed a relentless flurry of strikes against him with my wooden blade.

But he was blocking all of them, the sound of wood colliding against wood echoing out across the space...damn it, I’d like to land at least one hit on him, but that’s proving to be a hell of a lot easier said than done.

He’s really been keeping his guard up after I used my Command Skill on him, his defense is airtight.

Come on, think, how do I land a blow?

I need to do something different, catch him off-guard somehow and create an opening. But that’s going to be a hell of a lot easier said than done.

Even retired, his current Power Level puts him at a high K-Rank level, while I’m around lower-mid J-Rank at best, there’s no way I’m landing a hit in a fair fight.

I then sprang back and backed away, getting some distance and taking a moment to catch my breath.

He’s barely even broken a sweat, while I’m feeling pretty worn out at this point. There’s no sense in dragging this out, I’ll just exhaust myself further.

In which case...

As I caught my breath and composed myself, I shot towards him again, tightening my grip on the handle of my short-sword, while he held his sword up defensively, waiting for me to strike.

Suddenly, as I closed in on him, I hurled my weapon forward with a sharp flick of my wrist, launching it towards him with a rapid spin from about a meter ahead of him, his eyes widening slightly before he quickly swung his blade across, a thunk echoing out as he deflected my weapon away.

I crouched down as the short-sword hit the ground with a clatter and slid away, before springing up and grabbing his wrist before he could lower his sword...he’s way stronger than me, so I won’t be able to maintain my grasp for long, but I only need a few seconds!

As he began to wrench free of my grasp, I drove my knee up towards his stomach with all the speed I could muster, right as he freed his wrist from my grip.

He began to leap back to evade my knee strike, but it was too late-...

A sharp, agonized wheeze rang out as my knee slammed square onto the middle of his crotch, before he collapsed onto his knees as his face turned pale.

U-Uh...crap, that’s gotta hurt, I feel bad.

The moment he sprang back, I shifted the momentum through my knee more forward instead of upwards, to try and strike him faster, before he could get out of my reach.

That inadvertently ended up lowering the trajectory of my knee towards his groin instead of his stomach, resulted in a full-blooded knee strike to the balls.

He was trembling in pain, wincing and letting out a slight whimper as he began to try and get back up.

"I, uh...I’m really sorry," I apologized sheepishly, before reaching out and helping him back up.

"N-No, it’s okay, I-I’ll be okay. Th-That...that was a nice move," He replied with a shaky smile, trying to play it cool, not particularly convincingly.

"Yeah...thanks. You, uh...you sure you’re okay?"

Yeah, stupid question. There isn’t a guy alive who’d be okay after taking a knee to the balls.

"Y-Yes, I’m perfectly fine. You really were q-quite impressive there. To be th-this talented despite failing Tabulization...it’s a shame, y-you’d be even stronger if your powers had been s-stabilized. K-Keep working hard, young man," He smiled encouragingly as he tried to play it cool and stifle his stutter, though his expression was still wracked with pain.

"Thank you, sir, I plan on doing exactly that."

"Good to hear. Frankly, in terms of power, you’re likely close to your upper limit. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get stronger, you can always refine and hone your technique, battle instincts and combat sense, so keep that in mind," He advised me, his expression having eased a bit.

Seems the pain’s starting to fade, I’m glad.

I like this guy, he seems like a solid dude. I doubt most people would be this nice to someone who just kicked them in the balls, regardless of whether it was accidental or not.

"I will, thanks for the advice and encouragement, sir, I really appreciate it," I smiled in response, giving him a slight, polite bow of my head before heading back.

Heh, I’m liking the looks on the other students’ faces, they look pretty bewildered. Trey in particular, he looks downright flabbergasted.

"Wow, he’s good."

"Yeah, I didn’t expect that."

"He must have trained really hard."

Heh, keep the compliments coming, it’s been a long time since anyone-...

"Hah, please. I’ll admit, I was pretty surprised. But really, it’s not that impressive if you really think about it. You’ve already peaked, or at least close to it, so it won’t be very long before you’re left in my dust. Enjoy your moment in the spotlight while you can, because I assure you, it won’t last long," Chimed in Trey, provoking me with a taunting smirk.

Hey, Ai, if I use Command to tell him to rip off his own dick and shove it up his ass, how likely is that to work?

Yeah, I know, I wasn’t actually going to do it, it was just an intrusive thought...I’ll just ignore him instead.

Still, though, why’s this dickhead zeroing in on me like this? It’s really annoying.

"Alright, we’ve still got two more of you to go, so who wants to go next?" Called out Glenn, as he glanced between the last two students who were yet to spar against him.

Well, that was pretty fun, I’ve got a good idea of where I stand with my current abilities now.

I’m not all that powerful, but thanks to my training, I’m at a decent starting point as far as skill goes. Going forward, it’s just a matter of building on the foundation I’ve established from here on out...