Chapter 59: Ch98. Technique
The night came to an end with the three friends saying goodbye when they reached their dorm’s hall.
Indigo had their own dorm, same as Dark-Green and Crimson, but the irregulars from Indigo Class had a dorm just for them, which allowed the students not only to make friends among each other, but to also be the target of envy and segregation from the other classes.
Even more when they learned that, despite many members of the three different classes in the academy being friends with each other, none of them would want to befriend any irregular.
And it was just the beginning of the survival game which they learned that being an irregular meant.
They went to their respective rooms, and as Kurt opened his door, he was thinking about how stupid he was, to even consider that his system might’ve had a role in the blocking of his friends abilities.
"That was definitely stupid..." He laughed at himself, taking off his t-shirt, and sprawling on his bed. "Now... Shit, I’m tired, but I still have combat practice in the morning before my next free period."
He enjoyed a few minutes in bed before going to the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed for his class.
But His mind wasn’t only in his class.
He still felt very curious of how Lester was capable of doing such an unprecedented feat, as to basically block a wielder’s power.
He had agreed with Nikolai and Evellyn, that they would pay Lester a visit in the infirmary the next day, if the Crimson student was awake.
But Kurt had a different idea in mind.
He went to class, and still he wasn’t able to focus on a single word the professor was saying.
"Mr. Blake!?" The professor’s deep voice called him, and all students turned towards him.
Kurt was daydreaming about how he was going to find something that made him unrecognizable to Lester, so he didn’t understand that the professor was calling him, until a huge fist came towards him like an angry bull.
And Kurt felt the familiarity of the situation.
He lowered his body and moved forward, launching a strike with his bare knuckles that aimed precisely at the professor’s throat, and stopped right at the last hairsbreadth.
The sudden exchange made a few students gasp in awe, while others just grunted in envy.
Evellyn and Nikolai, in the further back of the class, just chuckled inwardly.
"This is gonna be fun." Nikolai whispered to Evellyn, and she nodded.
"Impressive..." The professor said, retreating his fist and scratching his throat. "Not a single movement wasted, and the strike was so precise, that even if you didn’t use your awakened strength, you would’ve been able to, at least, make me feel some pain. Are you sure you’re a teenager?"
"I just had my fair share of practice, professor Rodrick." Kurt answered, making the professor, a huge man with bald head and bulging muscles smile brightly.
"So you were listening to me after all." Rodrick retorted. "If you were, you can answer this simple question. In a fight between two wielders, who wins?"
Kurt laughed bitterly inwardly.
He wasn’t intending on meeting Rodrick this time, if he was able to avoid it.
But the sensations he felt in the [MEMORY FRAGMENT] extended all the way to this part of his life, so there was no way for him to run away from the other Kurt’s memories.
However, Kurt wasn’t going to make the same mistakes his other version made.
"It depends on their classes, their abilities, and the combat experience that each of the wielders have." Kurt answered, and before Rodrick could raise his brow in reproach, he followed up. "But even if we’re taking each of this aspects separately into account, everything comes to a single determinant factor."
Rodrick smiled.
"Which is...?"
Even Evellyn and Nikolai felt a bit jealous of Kurt’s intelligence, but the other students almost growled at him as he spoke.
However, none of them said a single word, knowing that he was right, and completely baffled that a student was showing theoretical knowledge that only experienced wielders usually displayed.
"Technique." Kurt answered. "If you know how to take a punch, it’s going to be hard to take you down. If you know how to throw a punch, you can gather more power to it, which makes it easier to take down tougher opponents. And if you know how to not waste movements while gathering enough power in your strike, your opponent will never see it coming." He breathed in, taking a small break. "Which means that, if you know the right way to do something, you’re already one step ahead of your opponent, and it gets you closer to victory. So, the wielder with the more refined technique wins, despite his class, firepower, or anything that usually differs one wielder from the other."
"Nerd." He heard a male voice sounding from within the student group, but paid no attention to that.
Rodrick clapped his huge hands in a solo round of applause.
"That’s what a student is, and that, kids, is what a wielder should be like. This knowledge might be the difference between life and death, so take notes, everyone."
"But we’re only going to fight in Nests, right?" A girl asked. "Why are you talking about fighting against another wielder?"
"Do you want to know why, Serena?" A guy spoke this time, stepping forward.
He was lean built but strong, his muscles looked like they were made of steel under his Dark-Green shirt, and his amber eyes glowed furiously, almost greedily, towards Kurt.
"Because this nerd may have all theoretical knowledge in the world in his head." He popped his fingers. "But it means shit if he doesn’t know how to use it." He pointed a finger at Kurt. "I know it was, somehow, staged between you and the professor. You’re nothing, dude. How about we have a match? Right here, right now."
Kurt looked at Rodrick, not knowing if something like that was even acceptable.
But the professor just nodded at him, smiling ever so slightly.
Rodrick had good eyes for potential, and when he tried to catch Kurt’s attention, he understood the feral instincts that the boy had, as soon as he vanished from his field of view, reappearing under his arm and swaying to throw that punch to his throat.
The only thought in the professor’s head at the moment was.
’Go get him, kid!’
The students formed a ring of people around the Kurt and the other student.
He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and glared at Kurt, with a murderous smile.
"Let’s see what you got." And charged towards Kurt even before Rodrick could announce the start of the fight.
But Kurt was already prepared, he was expecting the guy to act recklessly.
Right when the fist neared Kurt’s face, he stepped sideways just enough for the punch to not land fully.
His cheek got slightly red from the punch, but Kurt’s support foot was already moving forward, and when the movement was over, Kurt’s fist appeared over the student’s extended hand, bending over it like a snake, and hitting the students face with full force.
The sound of a bone cracking was so loud that a few girls had their eyes wide, and a few boys’ jaws dropped low.
"You have a good stance, I’ll give you that." Kurt said, shaking his fist. "To be able to keep standing while unconscious, is something really cool."
He turned around and walked towards Evellyn and Nikolai.
"I think I cracked a few bones in my hand." He whispered to them, chuckling. "Who the hell is he?"
"He is Simon Delaware, and he has an ability called Reinforcement, that allows him to harden his body at will. And as I see that you already noticed, it’s not a defensive ability to be taken lightly." Rodrick’s voice sounded right behind Kurt. "But you did pass right through it with only a few cracked bones, and you did let him fully unconscious." He pointed at the group of students carrying Simon to the infirmary. "Do you mind staying a bit longer? There’s something I need to check, and one thing I want to talk to you about."
