‘New Challenger!’
The other end entrance opened revealing a masked guy not wearing any armor just like Rex,
He wears a black tank top with a necklace decorating it, combat pants that hugged his legs tightly, and his body is jacked, unlike the usual lean students.
From a glance, Rex can already feel this guy’s dominating pressure.
He somewhat felt the guy’s aura is familiar, ‘Did I know him?’, Rex thought with a frown.
The guy started to walks inside the Arena with steady steps,
His demeanor tells Rex that he’s not impressed with Rex’s feat before, his long strong stride adds a confident aura around him making Rex feel annoyed.
The guy stops about five meters away from Rex, his back is straight as an arrow.
Rex is trying to figure out the familiar guy in front of him, he just can’t put his thumb on who this familiar guy is.
“Who’s that?”
“Masked student? I never saw him before”
“But his demeanor looks similar to that guy, the first-year top three ranker”
“Now that you said it, he indeed looks like that guy. He even has a gold orb”
The guy stares at Rex from behind his mask, “You changed, I’m quite surprised that you have become this strong. It also shocks me to see you here, I thought you will not be interested in this kind of tournament”, he said with a muffled voice.
Hearing this, Rex becomes more certain that this guy is someone he knows.
Before Rex can even answer,
‘Begin!’
The hologram screen announces the start of the fight, the guy instantly dashes towards Rex.
He wears brass knuckles similar to Rex’s, the decisive dash and movement are all telling Rex that this guy is an expert!
BAM!
Rex blocked the guy’s right punch, he can feel his force barrier trembling for a bit.
‘This guy is strong!’, Rex thought, he then jumped back to create a distance between them trying to restart the match.
Rex knows that the first one to close the distance will have the momentum in hand-to-hand combat, so he’s trying to restart the fight.
Looking at Rex jumping back, the guy smirk.
Swoosh!!
The guy’s body glows with a red aura, his movement becomes even faster as he rains a flurry of punches towards Rex.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
Rex got pushed back because of the punches, it is way heavier than P-1’s attacks before.
He dodges the guy’s left hook and counter with an uppercut towards the guy’s chin, Rex’s counter is flawless and it is very hard to dodge or block it.
Just before the punch landed, the guy suddenly jump dodging the punch by a hair’s length.
‘What?! His reflex is pretty good, he’s even better than any students I fought’, Rex thought, he was surprised that his counter got dodged easily.
The guy landed a couple of meters away,
‘This is my chance!’, Rex thought as he dashes like a shadow, he arrived in front of the guy in mere seconds.
Rex can see the guy is surprised, he then rains punches towards him.
Every punch he sent is targeted and decisive, it should overwhelm any opponents he fight even during his military times against veterans but the scene in front of him shocked him to the core.
The guy’s defense is rock solid, he blocks and dodges every punch and even has the time to counter some of them.
The crowd was mesmerized by the fight, even the other fight stops after seeing Rex’s.
“Oh my god! They’re even!”
“I don’t know which one to root anymore, they’re both good!”
Trevor’s eyes glued on the fight, it is his passion to become an expert of hand-to-hand combat.
Hera was also shocked, she can’t believe that someone can be on par with Rex’s hand-to-hand combat that even no students in Ochyra University come close.
Rex dodges the guy’s counter and sends a kick towards his right kidney,
The guy noticed that he can’t dodge it so he quickly twists his body and sent a spinning back fist towards Rex’s head.
BAM!!
Both of them got hit,
Rex’s kicks landed on the guy’s back because of the guy’s movement, while the guy’s spinning back fist got planted right on Rex’s face. They got flung a couple of meters before stopping.
Blood leaked out of both of their mouths, the attack they receive is heavy and it definitely hurt them both.
After a brief pause, they dash to each other again.
‘His defense is rock solid! I need to aim his legs’, Rex thought, during the military, he is taught to aim at the opponent’s legs if they are turtling. It will make them opened up and do mistakes.
Rex swing a low kick but suddenly,
Grab!
Before Rex can even aim at the guy’s legs, the guy already anticipated this and grab Rex’s leg and push him to the ground.
‘Shit!’, Rex fell to the ground.
The guy quickly get on top of him pinning Rex down,
Rex’s hands is held by the guy, he’s in an unfavorable position with his chest exposed to attack.
Just as Rex wanted to get out of the position, he saw the guy’s mouth started to get fiery as fire mana concentrate.
In the nick of the moment, Rex manages to pull his leg and kick the guy off of him.
Rex then rolls backward and stand back up with his battle stance, he then said, “That’s cheating, I thought we’re fighting using fist only”
The guy didn’t respond,
Looking at this, Rex decided to also use his skill.
Force started to gather on his hand fiercely creating a white hue, it makes the wind flutter. Because of Rex’s Force Manipulation skill, he can control the amount of Force in his Force Beam and he can even use all of the force in his body to gather on his arm.
His Force Beam skill grows stronger thanks to the Force Manipulation skill.
The guy didn’t sit idle, Fire mana started to twirl around his fist before turning into a red hulking figure.
It stares at Rex fiercely before he dashes towards Rex.
Rex accepts the guy’s challenge as he dashes towards the guy with intense Force swirling on his arm.
“Force Beam!!”
“Fire Titan Art, Colossal Punch!”
BOOM!!
Both fists collided creating a huge explosion of energy,
The explosion makes the sand burst creating a shockwave to the surrounding, it makes everyone inside of the Training Ground glance at the arena feeling the intense fight.
It blasted both Rex and the guy away towards the Arena’s wall,
BAM!!
They both got planted inside the Arena’s hall creating a huge crater on it, the Arena barrier even flickers because of the impact.
Rex gets out of the Arena’s wall with a smirk etched on his face, his full of injuries body seems to not hurt him at all.
On the other side,
The guy is also going out of the Arena’s wall, he also has a smirk on his face as his mask cracked.
“It’s been quite a while…Edward”, Rex said with a smile.
Edward scratches his head chuckling, “I wanted to keep it a secret some more but you caught on too quickly Rex, That’s no fun”, he said with injuries all over.
He then walks towards Rex before giving him a bro hug, “How are you dude?”
“Hah! I’m fine. I was quite surprised confused when you can hold against my attacks, but your military-style takedown gives it off”, Rex replied.
All this while, Rex never meets an equal in hand-to-hand combat. He was quite shocked at first when he found a pretty sturdy guy in this place but who would’ve thought that this guy was Edward all along.
“No wonder It’s hard, it’s you all along”, Rex continues before tapping Edward’s shoulder.
Edward laugh out loud and said, “Of course, they didn’t call me Turtle King for nothing. Let’s catch up, I know a place around here”
Rex nodded before they both walk out of the arena.
The crowd was speechless, the fight ended just like that. They both left the arena while joking with each other like an old friend, which makes the crowd confused.
Hera and Bennie follows from the back,
Hera was quite confused and shocked by Edward’s sudden appearance but Bennie doesn’t, she then asks, “Who is he?”
Hearing this, Bennie answered, “He’s Edward, the other guy who got the same two medals from UWO just like Rex. Heroes of Dwight City”
“That’s the Edward?! No wonder he can match Rex, How can every ex-military personnel be this strong?”, Hera said wryly, she still can’t believe there’s another monster that can compare to Rex.
Bennie chuckles lightly, “I don’t think so, it’s just them I must say. Heroes of Dwight City really lives up to their name”
After walking out of the Arena,
“That’s the guy on the web! Rex Silverstar!”
“No wonder he knows our top ranker, Edward Rearta”
“Why are they so fierce, Military Personnel are so scary”
The crowd looks at them with different gazes, but one thing for certain. They will not mess with Rex.
“I never ask you where you are but who would’ve thought you’re in Ochyra University after those injuries”, Edward said while shaking his head. He then continues, “Now look at you, you’re so strong and you can even match me without using your Awakened power. That’s so cheeky of you, Noob Awakened”
Rex smiles, he then said, “You notice I become an Awakened?”
Edward chuckles lightly, “Really? Your elemental aura is reeking as if it was about to burst out of you”
“A lot has happened, I’m glad to see you”, Rex said genuinely.
“Hey, hey, I’m not used to you being like this. Usually, you would’ve said something like, ‘Yes, I will use this power to kill Supernatural!’, or something like that”, Edward said jokingly.
Rex can only chuckle wryly, remembering his days inside the Noob Box.
“Oh yeah, after the tournament we can visit Kyle’s parents”, Rex said, he remembers the conversation he had with Edward before.
Edward widened his eyes and replied, “I just remembered that, let’s do that then”
Bennie and Hera were ignored on the back, they haven’t said a word since they left the Arena.
Just as they’re talking, Rex’s phone rings.
Ring!
Rex looks at it and saw Rosie calling him,
Edward saw it from the side and said jokingly, “Is that you’re girlfriend? I’m not surprised to see you fall to a girl knowing how long you’re in the military”
“Well sort of”, Rex replied before answering Rosie.
Edward on the side was shocked, “Wait, I just said that as a joke, a JOKE! I can’t believe you really have a girlfriend”, he said with a surprised expression.
Rex ignores Edward’s shout, “What is it?”
“Why are you so grumpy? We’re done packing our stuff, where are you”, Rosie shouted.
Hearing Rosie’s shout, Rex can only put away his phone for a bit before answering, “I’m going to catch up with a friend of mine, I’ll send you the location later”
“Okay, don’t forget to send it”, she replied before ending the call.
“Quite a sassy one you got, she’s perfect for you”, Edward joke.
Rex replied Edward with a glare making him shut his mouth completely, ‘He’s still as scary as ever’, Edward thought.
Just as they wanted to leave the Training Hall, a voice called out to them, “Ho, it’s the hero of humanity Edward, who’s that on your side?”