It wasn't even close.
Satoshi just annihilated Horatius four consecutive times after his win in the first round. It was just a best of five, but it was clear that Horatius couldn't even hold a candle to Satoshi.
Despite the fact that he had the audacity to ask Satoshi for a duel, as well as having the utmost confidence that he won't be defeated, he suffered one of the most humbling losses he'd ever experienced in his life.
To be fair, Satoshi was surprised at himself as well for being able to go head-to-head with Horatius. He may be considered one of the strongest Disciples of Magnus Carter, but even with his full activation of enhancements and skills that would bring out the best of his arm wrestling prowess, he still utterly lost.
His pride was almost shattered when the fifth round ended, and he couldn't bear to look everyone in the eyes. The competition between Magnus Carter's Disciples was off the charts compared to the other Managers, but that didn't mean they don't get along at all.
Some of them were good friends, while the majority treated each other like rivals. Most of them were aware of how powerful Horatius was, and that's why they couldn't believe that he lost to someone in an arm wrestling contest.
If it were a Manager who fought against Horatius and won without using any superpower, then that would've been understandable. But this was Satoshi they were talking about here. He was the most powerful Disciple they'd ever seen in the three-day survival match, and now he had just defeated one of their strongest in the contest of manly strength.
Slowly, the Disciples clapped while Horatius and Satoshi shook each other's hands. They conversed for a couple of seconds before the two of them headed to the side where Finana and Lucy were.
"Great job out there," Finana patted Horatius and Satoshi's shoulders while she flashed a smile. It was genuinely a good fight, that's why she gave them the compliments. "Oh, and we can have our duel later on, Satoshi, we have less than an hour left before our Manager returns, wouldn't want to tire you out before the first test."
Since it felt like Finana actually changed her mind instead of being thoughtful of him, Satoshi didn't push the idea of dueling her. Besides, his arms were pretty exhausted after that five-round arm wrestling with Horatius. He didn't want to bother Sera at the moment since she was probably taking a good rest.
"All right then, let's go head to your abode, shall we?" Horatius gestured at them in a friendly manner. Inwardly, he felt a bit crestfallen after his loss a moment ago, but he didn't want to ruin anything for Lucy and Satoshi. If any, he still wanted them to feel welcome as he expressed his hospitality on behalf of everyone else.
"Here in Magnus Carter's dimension, we all have separate houses but since you arrived shortly, Magnus could only prepare one for the two of you. Don't worry, everyone worked hard on cleaning it up so you don't have to worry about it looking like a storage shed or something." Finana explained.
Before she could continue her explanation, Horatius moved forward and stepped beside Satoshi. He then extended his hand forward and swiped it sideways. "Now that that's out of the way, how did you get so strong? I've never met a Disciple who was as physically strong as you."
"Yeah, usually someone with an overpowered superpower would just neglect their physical capabilities. We saw the live stream of the three-day survival test and you're pretty strong... who would've thought you'd be physically talented as well?" Lucy nudged an elbow at Satoshi's side, causing him to flinch.
"I want to know too." Lucy called out. Surprisingly, she was also interested in Satoshi's life story. It had only been five days since they come across each other but she was invested in his past because of how powerful he was.
He didn't want to leave them hanging so he told them his story as concisely as he could, starting from when he got tested for the Alpha Gene but he didn't awaken his superpower. Or maybe he had already awakened it back then, he just wasn't aware of it.
Then he told them about his physical training just to keep up with the superheroes, and this strenuous training continued to his teens, up until his high school year when he first encountered his superpower.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm After that, Satoshi summarized everything that happened in the past. Now that he went back to it, he realized that a lot had happened in the past couple of months. From invaders, to gates, to tamed beasts and tournaments. Ever since he awakened his superpower, his life had been more than eventful, and with it came the challenges and the friends he made along the way.
It didn't take long before Satoshi's story reached the present, and at that point, the three of them nodded at each other as if they completely understood his life experiences.
Well, they more or less knew why Satoshi ended up the powerful superhero he was, and his experiences were nothing but challenging so it was the catalyst for his awesome power-ups.
But even now, they still couldn't understand what kind of superpower Satoshi possessed, and they didn't bother asking since it might just get even more complicated. All of them did make a mental note to observe him so they could understand him even more, the friends they were.
"Still, that was awesome. Your parents were the top two superheroes in your country, and you could even keep up with everyone at your age back then? Wow. If I didn't have any superpower, I'd have given up already or something." Horatius said to himself as he clenched and unclenched his fists while trying to imagination the scenario in his head.
"It's awesome, no wonder you're really powerful right now. All that physical training and hard labor paid off. Now you're an admirable balance between physical power and superpower. That's like a cheat code in real life... but you worked hard to earn that cheat." Finana commented.
"..."
"..."
"H-how about you guys? It wouldn't be fair that I'm the only one who gets to share my life story. We're all here for a reason, right?" Satoshi brought up, just when they were pulling up in front of a vacant house. He didn't want to make it more awkward for everyone since it had gotten quieter after he was done speaking.
Besides, he was also curious as to how they became Disciples. Compared to him, the three of them were long-time Disciples so he knew that they had more experience than him. He was especially curious about this.
"I'm a princess in our country. We have a long history as Disciples but my parents didn't want me to join the superhero scene. Instead of flying everywhere and saving people, they want me to stay in the castle and learn etiquette and the like. I get that they were important, but they were not as interesting compared to becoming a superhero." Lucy didn't waste her time going first. She decided to tell everyone her story before Finana and Horatius shared theirs.
"Then one day, I met the prince who was supposed to be my fiance. He was weak, and not only that. He was a spoiled brat who wanted everything to go in his way. I didn't want to get married to someone like him so I just..." Lucy trailed off as she played with her fingers. It was obvious that she was getting rather anxious to share the next bit of her story.
"What is it? Are you going to torture us with a cliffhanger?" Finana gently asked.
"That would be pretty bad. I'm already invested in this royal drama genre we have going on here." Horatius nodded his head in acquiescence.
"I-I mean... he was doing everything to make me his bride... and they were pretty underhanded like employing assassins to kidnap me, framing my parents for crimes they didn't commit... and things like that. In the end... I had enough so I..." Once again, Lucy stopped short as she nervously swallowed her saliva.
Mustering her courage, she stopped short and clenched her fists. "I... I destroyed their entire kingdom, pretty much ran it to the ground with my superpower. They didn't stand a chance since I have pretty powerful people on my side." Lucy continued.
"Whoa... badass..." Finana's mouth hung open as her jaw dropped to the ground. "Did you really? That was epic."
"Right right, we get it. It's all epic and all... but what happened next?" Horatius became even more invested in the story since it turned into a military drama setting instead of your typical romance drama.
"I... of course, I had to finish what I started so I took over their kingdom. Now I have a kingdom under me and honestly, the people said it was in better hands than before." Lucy cut her story short since she was already feeling extremely embarrassed.
"And then after a month or so, when my kingdom was already self-sufficient... our Manager contacted me. My parents were her Disciples as well, but she knew that my parents were against me becoming a Disciple. As usual, I didn't listen to them and I became her Disciple. So here I am now, hoping that I'd make my parents proud one day." There was warmth in Lucy's words as a gentle smile appeared on her face.
"Whoa, you own a kingdom? That's so sick! No wonder our Manager wants you to join us as well." Finana lit up as she put her arm on Lucy's shoulder.
While they were having their heartwarming conversation and catching up with each other, Satoshi noticed something in his peripheral vision, which made him do a double take.
A couple of Disciples were surrounding a certain individual, and from afar, it looked like they were bullying him. Satoshi didn't think twice about running towards them, ready to jump in the action the moment they started throwing hands.
"Satoshi!" Horatius snapped as he tightly grabbed Satoshi by the arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He warned with a serious expression on his face.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢