The three of them came to a momentary stand-off as Max quickly tended to his wound, while Crea and Mana caught their breaths and gathered their bearings. Despite being pounded by the two siblings, she felt amazing. The way of fighting that she had just engaged in was incredibly satisfying and fun. A strange feeling came from within her, she didn't really understand what it meant.
Attack to defend. Make it count.
These principles that Rui had imparted to her really resonated with her.
Why that was the case, she didn't know, but she decided to ride the wave. Making it her only principal way to engage with her opponent.
She had a fierce expression as Max and Mana regrouped, preparing another volley of attacks. Yet just as they leaped at her.
"Waaaaah!" A boy went flying just between the siblings and Crea, surprising them. He landed a few meters away, groaning in pain. The three of them couldn't help but look in the opposite direction, wondering what launched him flying.
Their eyes widened as a faint aura crept over them, pressuring their minds. They stiffened as they gritted their teeth, their attentions had already been drawn away from each other.
The boy walked towards the three of them with a lazy grin, assessing them as they did him.
"Martial Apprentice..." Crea clenched her jaw as she whispered.
Just her luck, before she could even obtain the necessary badges, she was ambushed by two punks and now even a Martial Apprentice had taken note of them.
What was especially eye-drawing was the number of badges pinned across his clothes. There were many badges across his upper garbs. It was clear that he had accumulated more badges than he needed. The man was no longer just fighting to pass the second round, he was fighting for fun.
Crea would have ordinarily evaded him, but it was too late, his eyes were locked on them. Max and Mana could sense the same, as they faced him instead of each other.
He smiled, wordlessly, there was nothing to say at all, after all.
The three of them took their stances. Crea still held hope, she knew who the boy was. He was a talented heir in the Martial community who was part of the rare group of adolescents who had broken through to the Apprentice Realm prior to entering the Martial Academy or becoming an adult.
However, he had broken through very recently, and Crea was sure that he hadn't mastered any Apprentice-level techniques either. She could see a bruise or two on his face, which would be impossible if he had mastered even a single Apprentice-level technique.
The atmosphere tensed as the three of them faced him waiting.
But evidently, he was done waiting.
In what seemed like an instant, he had crossed the gap between them, and launched a kick at Max, launching him several meters backward.
"Max!" Mana cried out, yet she made the blunder of losing track of her opponent in the middle of combat.
A single strike across the jaw caused her to crumple down like a puppet with cut strings.
Crea growled as she adopted a highly closed stance. Her eyes were bloodshot, she loosened her jaw a bit, ready to use her brand-new bite intercept attack.
A low kick to the ankle brought her down to one knee. It was too fast for and too difficult otherwise to be able to counterattack upon. The boy scoffed lightly, before launching a swift kick to her face.
Crea spun backward, collapsing to the ground.
A sharp pain flew up his foot, startling him as he looked down.
"ARGH!" He kneeled down cradling his bleeding toe.
"Heh.... hehe..." Crea stood up like a zombie as she chuckled unsteadily.
Something had snapped inside her. A switch had turned on, a door had opened. Inside her head. It was a path that extended deep beyond her fathoming. A path that she had taken a single step down.
She spat before him, amidst her saliva was a human toenail.
"You fucking bitch!" He got up, ignoring the pain and bleeding as he charged at her at full speed. He threw his full weight behind a strike. Yet what she did shocked him.
Instead of moving away, she charged toward him and his attack.
His strike struck her shoulder, clearly dislocating it, yet her elbow buried itself in his throat, forming a deep indentation.
"ACK!" His eyes watered as he fell flat to the ground, cradling his throat, trying to breathe.
Crea soccer kicked him in the head, but he managed to mitigate the impact by shifting just enough, getting up to his feet.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" He screeched. "FUCKING DEAD. DEAD! YOU HEAR M-" "Shut up."
He froze as he felt a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Crea was a mess, she was bruised up and bloody. Yet her piercing eyes made him shiver. There was no way a normal human could make him feel like that.
('That's right!') He gritted his teeth. ('She's still weak. Only way I could feel this threatened is if she was a...')
He took a good look at her, growing more shocked by the second.
('She discovered her Martial Path... She's a fucking Martial Apprentice.') He gaped.
She walked towards him with a fierce expression, completely unperturbed. He clenched his jaw with a tense expression.
The two Martial Apprentices exerted a tremendous amount of pressure on the other applicants, the rest of them had already moved away from them, flinching. The two of them exerted a maelstrom of pressure on everybody else, together it was above the pressure that the applicants faced in the first round.
Everybody stayed as far away from them, returning back to combat only after they were confident they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.
The two of them lashed out at each other, charging at top speed without any restraint.