Appearing simultaneously before each other, Alex and Amon exchanged their first blows with Alex matching attempting to match his power.
Their fists made contact with Alex's fist being pushed slightly back due to his inaccuracy to match Amon's power. However, the attack did nothing to push him back. His stance was firm as it was perfect.
To the untrained eyes, it was Amon's victory, but to instructor Horvey's eyes, he understood what Alex attempted.
Meanwhile, Amon was proud of his feat. To him, Alex failed to draw out much of his power, resulting in him getting pushed back. His smile told Alex of what he was thinking, but he cared little for his thoughts.
He adjusted his output after the initial clash and turned to defence to observe how Amon would capitalize on his small victory, and he did not disappoint.
Amon quickly pushed his advantage by pressing Alex with a combo of powerful kicks and moves, pushing Alex back bit by bit.
Of course, Alex was able to keep up with Amon's speed with no problem. He blocked all the attacks he could and evaded the other ones by ducking, sidestepping, backstepping and all the evasive moves he knew.
The speed at which they moved around on the stage impressed their colleagues. They could keep up of course, and as the seconds passed, the keen ones began to notice how Amon's attacks weren't hitting Alex in the slightest.
"He's holding back, isn't he?"
"Yep, he's toying with Amon."
The comments reached Zen as well and he agreed with them.
'Amon never stood a chance. And this is him going strong against him. He won't be able to bring out his full strength.'
The sight of his friend's attacks doing basically nothing against Alex even though he was the one constantly backing away saddened him.
'If this is the best he can do, then he'd have to try harder!' Alex decided to push things a bit further. When Amon threw his next roundhouse kick to his head, he avoided it by bending his back away from the kick and swiftly spun around using the momentum to appear behind Amon, taking him by surprise. The technique was flawless and showcased Alex's control over his body and power.
Amon had already noticed how his attacks were not connecting. Every move he made, Alex evaded or blocked with precision and minimal movement. This frustrated him to no end, but he also refused to turn to his abilities.
Now faced with an incoming attack, he quickly made the choice to discard his pride, which resulted in his ability to mitigate whatever Alex was planning to do.
'Not a chance!' He exclaimed inwardly, channelling his mana through his entire body and activating his ability.
Alex quickly took out the remaining leg of Amon planted on the ground from his roundhouse kicking move, disrupting his balance.
He attempted to follow up with another kick but felt a breeze generating from Amon, instantly understanding what the boy wanted to do.
'Tsk…' he tsked and crossed both arms as it was too late to move out of the way.
Fortunately, the ability Amon used generated a strong gust of wind in all directions, sending Alex skidding across the stage with his feet planted powerfully and arms crossed against his face.
Before Alex could regain his footing, Amon was already on him from above, his right hand covered in a wind blade and attempting to cut Alex in half. The look on his face spoke volumes of his state of mind.
'I guess it's time to increase my output a bit.' There was no need to keep on holding back too much. Since he had resolved to fight with only his physical stats, to make up for the gap created by Amon using his abilities, he also had to increase his speed and power.
When the wind blade was close enough to cut through Alex, he disappeared from the view of Amon and practically everyone else paying close attention to their fight. Only their instructor saw what Alex did.
'He's finally decided to take the fight a bit seriously. But I doubt he would still use his light abilities.'
Amon was confused when he lost sight of his target. His right hand cut through empty air. He quickly turned around, searching for where his target disappeared.
He noticed a shadow on him and looked above, only to see Alex descending with his right hand, palm opened, and directed towards his face.
Before he could respond, the palm held on to his face and with a force proportional to a moving train slammed him forcefully into the ground.
Amon almost lost consciousness. His vision blurred and the pain from the force of the palm strike spread throughout his body. With his body awkwardly buried in the stage, Amon was out for the count.
Once again, the crowd were mesmerized by the display of power. Julia and Ross were equally impressed. They barely followed his movement in the last moments!
'This is bad… I couldn't even follow his movement.' Zen looked around observing the expression of everyone. Some had admiration in their eyes while others had fire lit within. The sight did him some damage.
'Tsk. There's still time and a bigger stage.'
With the upcoming competition to assess the progress of all first years, Zen had the perfect stage to put Alex in his place. Right now, he understood the current him was no match for Alex. Besides, individual strength wasn't everything. He began making multiple plans around that notion.
Meanwhile, Alex stood up and backed away from Amon after the latter could not move after a few seconds.
'I didn't even use that much strength!' The condition of his opponent surprised him as well. He half expected him to get up for the fight to continue, but his wish would not be coming true anytime soon. If he had to make a guess, he used about 60% of his full strength.
All of his classmates haven't yet made it past the [600 units] of strength a low-tier Class E hunter had.
"Winner, Alexander Gray!"