Compared to the other disciples who were keeping their pace, Satoshi and the other two doubled their pace in order to catch up with everyone else.
They were half an hour behind, and they need to increase their pace in order to catch up.
"You look tired, Yun Zhe," Jonathan commented even though he was almost out of breath himself.
"I'm just getting started." Yun Zhe exhaled loudly in order to reset his breathing. He could barely keep up with the pace, but they knew they had to keep it in order to be on time. Adding to that, going faster or slower would only lead to earlier exhaustion.
Because of that, they couldn't do much. But on the offside, if they were to meet a beast midway, they allotted enough time to steer clear of a couple of them and still arrive on time.
Oof!
Agh!
Gahk~!
Varying sounds of struggle could be heard from the distance. And although it caught the trio's attention, they didn't bother taking a look since they were running short on time. There were a couple of instances where they almost encountered a beast. Fortunately, they were all quick enough to change courses before the beast was attracted.
Thump!
Despite their utmost efforts in avoiding any scrimmages, the trio caught themselves in the middle of one when a white-haired guy appeared in front of them. He was pretty beaten up, which was weird considering that this was a test of endurance, not strength.
There shouldn't have been any fistfights here. But right now, a group of Disciples was actually ganging up on two weaker Disciples.
"AH! It's that guy who was glaring at us since we were late." Jonathan accusingly pointed a finger at Himuro who was sprawled on the ground, blood dripping from his forehead to his eyes.
"AH! It's the bikini armor onee-san!" Yun Zhe exclaimed when he saw Nanako being pinned down on the ground while the others dealt with Himuro.
"What's going on?" Satoshi asked himself when he instinctively helped Himuro up. Despite their glaring eyes a couple of moments ago, Satoshi proceeded to help them since Himuro was badly beaten up.
A total of five people were ganging up on them and clearly, they were at a disadvantage. All of them present were Disciples, chosen as powerful people who had the most potential with their superpowers. Everyone was pretty evenly matched, so more people ganging up on someone would give them the higher ground.
"Thank you... um, Satoshi, was it?" Himuro confirmed as he dusted himself off.
Before Satoshi could say anything, Himuro charged at the two people who were pinning Nanako down. He immediately grabbed her by the hand and then transferred all his weight forward, throwing himself onto their fellow Disciples.
The Disciples didn't expect the attack, that's why they fell backward when they were thrown off balance.
"Are you all right?" Himuro worriedly asked as he propped Nanako back up.
Jonathan and Yun Zhe could've sworn that their nose almost bled when they saw the jiggle physics on that bikini armor. Then again, they have a problem at hand so they couldn't focus too much on Nanako.
"What's going on here?" Satoshi asked. He couldn't just leave without batting an eye, especially when there was a clear foul play transpiring.
Himuro subconsciously stepped forward, putting his hand in front of Nanako to guard them against their fellow Disciples. This was their fight.
Even though they were thankful that Satoshi and the others helped them out, they were fairly certain that the trio would continue with the challenge and leave them behind. They couldn't possibly ask for their help since they'd done more than enough for them in the first place.
"Thanks for helping us. You should go your own way." Himuro called out, implying to Satoshi and the other two that they got everything handled. Even though it was apparent that they needed some extra hands to help them out, they didn't want the trio to fail the test because of them.
It was a scuffle amongst the Disciples under Hermione Ranger, so they shouldn't include other Disciples in the mix.
Jonathan and Yun Zhe had second thoughts. Honestly, it didn't even matter if they failed the test or not. After all, they've already eaten.
Adding to that, they could easily repeat the test since it would prove to be a challenge for them. And if they failed because they helped someone out, it wouldn't leave a bad aftertaste on their mouth at all.
While the confrontation was going on, Satoshi was able to pick out a couple of things. He even understood the root cause of the fight because of his deduction skills. On one end, he saw that Himuro and Nanako had flags in their possession. While on the other side, the group comprising Five Disciples didn't even have a single flag under their belt.
It was clear that the fight ensued because of jealousy... or envy.
"We'll help you out. You two worked hard enough to pass. It's only obvious that you reap what you sow." Satoshi resolved to aid the two. "You guys go on ahead, we'll hold them off." He continued.
"What are you talking about? You're going to fail at this rate." Himuro pointed out. There were only forty-five minutes or so left before the test concluded.
Then an idea hit him— it was by far the best idea he cooked up so far in this Disciples' training. Himuro mischievously grinned as he opened his robe.
"You know what... sure, you can help us out. We'll give each of you a flag." Himuro continued. "Quite frankly, the flags were supposed to be for these guys. But they attacked us out of nowhere so there's no way I'm going to hand each of them a flag."
A vivid expression of surprise and regret filled Raniel's face when he realized what was going on. Originally, Himuro and Nanako went ahead in order to get their flags for them. But before he could give them anything, they just had to attack them, causing Himuro and Nanako to change their minds.
And now, those flags would fall in the hands of the trio under Bucky Barnes's management. "You're gonna regret this." Raniel gritted his teeth in frustration. His bad decision borne out of jealousy led to this situation, and now they were bringing in the 'bad fruits' of their labor.
"No, I won't. I won't regret this at all." Himuro said.
On the signal, the two groups charged at each other, and a full-on fistfight ensued. To be fair, Himuro and Nanako weren't expecting Jonathan, Satoshi, and Yun Zhe to be proficient at fistfights.
Raniel charged at Himuro while the others picked their partner for a fistfight. This was going to be the biggest brawl in the test, they just knew it.
Before Raniel could reach Himuro within arm's reach, however, Satoshi just had to offensively step in. Stepping with huge steps, Satoshi let the momentum carry him as he released a full-swing punch.
The hook landed squarely on Raniel's jaws, sending him flying as he rolled a couple of times on the ground before he found his bearings. Gritting his teeth, he furiously stood up and unleashed a scream while he swung a fist at Satoshi.
The taunt was effective, and Raniel was locked on Satoshi instead of Himuro.
"You're the strongest one here, right? I could feel it." Satoshi stated, fully confident in his assumption. He had never been wrong when it comes to judging other people's physical prowess, that's how he could tell that Raniel was the strongest and most formidable of the bunch.
"What of it?" Raniel growled, planting his foot on the ground while swinging a couple of hooks and jabs at Satoshi.
Without hesitation, Satoshi stepped forward and cleanly dodged all his punches. It was so smooth that even the other Disciples were flabbergasted. They'd never seen anyone move so fast before.
Just from his movements alone, Raniel could tell that Satoshi had been training for a long time. He too had been training ever since he was a kid but he was nowhere close to Satoshi's level— or so that's what occurred in his mind during that exchange.
"Hoh~ I see, so you're the strongest of the bunch here as well. I'm honored that you're willing to challenge me." Forcing a smile on his face, Raniel continued his monologue. "I've never lost to a fistfight before... so if you're going to challenge me, then you should have challenged me on a test where superpowers are allowed."
"Then I guess this is your first loss. I hate to break it up to you but I only awakened my superpower a couple of months ago. Even without my superpower, I can go head to head with pretty much everyone my age just with my pure physical strength alone." Satoshi continued. it was clear that he was overexaggerating but no one would know since they have no idea who he was in the first place.
"Hoh~ so you're challenging me? Come at me, um, Satoshi was it? Let's see if you're telling the truth." Raniel licked his lips, eagerly anticipating the challenge that was about to transpire.
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