The Author's POV

—Start!

-Booom!

As soon as the referee announced the start of the match, like a missile, Alex shot in my direction. A shockwave resounded across the arena as his figure disappeared from where he was standing.

-Dash

Moments before Alex shot in my direction, tensing my calves I moved backward and quickly drew a circle in the air.

-Swoooosh

Just as the tip of Alex's spear was about to reach me, motioning with my fingers upwards, the ring I created moved right in front of the spear.

-Clank!

"Wh-at!?"

Caught off guard, Alex's arms which were still holding onto the spear tightly, flung in the air as the spear clashed against the ring disrupting its momentum.

His body became wide open.

Capitalizing on the opening, without skipping a beat, using the scabbard of the sword I hit him in the face and the sound of something breaking resounded across the arena.

-Kacha!

"Kuuuuaahhh!"

Taking ten steps back, Alex opened his eyes wide open as his hands held onto his nose.

-Drip! -Drip!

Soon red droplets fell onto the pavement of the arena. Taking a moment to process what had happened, Alex looked at the ground for a moment before screaming with bloodshot eyes.

"H-how dare you!"

-Vuam!

Soon, a thick pressure started emanating from his body, surrounding the whole arena.

Noticing the changes happening around me, I rubbed my chin and stared at Alex. The red hue surrounding his body had become thicker and stronger than before.

He was finally starting to take me seriously.

Licking my lips lightly, raising my hand I provocatively beckoned at him

"Come"

...

In the stands, watching the spectacle unfold before their eyes, Ronald and Samantha Dover were pleasantly surprised by their son's performance.

Although the match had only just started, from the way things were going, Ren seemed to be having the upper hand.

"Oh my god, since when did Ren become so strong?"

Covering her mouth to hide her shock, Samantha looked at her husband who although seemed to have had no significant change in expression was too shocked as his hands shook as soon as Ren hit Alex in the face.

"...He's definitely become stronger"

"Hmph, he just got lucky"

Martin, who was a few rows behind them, snorted.

However, although he said that, his face was grim. Sitting up on his chair, his eyes remained glued to the arena.

'Alex must've underestimated his opponent. There's no way such mistake would happen again'

He just couldn't believe that Alex, a talent that he had spent countless resources on to convince him to join him, was currently losing Ren. Someone evaluated as a <D> ranked talent couldn't possibly beat Alex who was evaluated at <B> rank.

It just wasn't possible!

...and true to his predictions, the fight began to lean in Alex's direction as soon as he released his full power.

From then on, Alex was on the attack, whilst Ren was on the defense.

Secretly sighing in relief, Martin leaned back on his chair and looked at Ronald.

"See...what did I tell you, he was just lucky"

...

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

Alex's spearmanship was truly domineering and vicious. With each swing, he would directly aim for my heart and head resulting in me having to switch focus so that I could constantly defend myself from his attacks. Using the spear's long reach, he constantly cut, smacked, and stabbed in my direction.

To the spectators, rather than a duel, this was more like Alex viciously attacking me with everything he got.

-Swooosh! -Swooosh!

Circling the rings around me, I would constantly move them towards where Alex was attacking, repeatedly blocking his every attack.

-Clank! -Clank!

Soon, the sounds of Alex's spear clashing against my rings repeatedly reverberated across the arena.

The crowd's booing followed suit.

"Do something!"

"Fight back!"

"This is so boring"

As if everything went from one ear to the other, I kept defending.

Although it looked like I was struggling, I really wasn't. Since I decided to hide my main sword art, I decided to use this time to get familiar with my second sword art. [Ring of vindication]

...and what better way than through real combat.

"Stop hiding like a rat and fight you pussy!!"

Annoyed, noticing that things were currently going nowhere, Alex screamed as he fiercely stabbed the spear in my direction.

"Just do something! Dammit!"

-Clank! -Clank!

As Alex hacked with more power and with greater speeds, I continuously matched his tempo and redirected the rings around me accordingly. Whenever I noticed that a ring was about to break, I would instantly create a new one. This endless cycle repeated a couple of times before Alex stopped attacking.

"Huu."

Taking a deep breath, Alex stopped whatever he was doing and clenched his teeth hard.

"What's wrong? Tired already?"

Seeing Alex distancing himself from me, I immediately taunted. However, this time, he ignored me.

Licking his dried lips, Alex's grip on his spear increased. He was trying his best to calm himself down and come up with an appropriate strategy.

'Calm down, calm down. Let's think things through. This bastard is like a turtle. No matter how much power I put into my attacks he always blocks them with his strange rings. Especially when he stacks them together. Once he does that, breaking his defenses becomes impossible! Dammit, what should I do?"

Glancing around the arena for anything that could help him, he soon took a look at the ground and finally noticed something.

Holes with the imprints of his soles appeared all over the floor of the arena.

'Are my attack patterns too predictable?'

Taking a better look at the surroundings, Alex noticed that whenever he attacked he would leave imprints of his foot on the ground.

...and the one thing he managed to notice as he looked at the arena was that he had only been attacking from the front. His footprints would only be left whenever he propelled his body forward in a straight line.

He had done so to maximize his speed, but he now realized that because of that his attacks had become predictable.

With him just charging from the front, his attack range became much more narrow, making it easier for the opponent to defend against.

This was a serious flaw.

What if he suddenly switched attack patterns and made them harder to predict?

As his thoughts reached that far, gripping onto his spear, Alex once again dashed in my direction.

This time, his movements were quite complex. Like a crab, he zigzagged as he steadily charged forward. His movements weren't as predictable, as it had no set pattern. A stark contrast to before when he would directly lunge in my direction.

It was obvious that he knew that just brute-forcing his way through wasn't going to give him the win.

Although I was surprised by his sudden actions, it was all futile on his end. It didn't matter if he made it hard for me to predict his movements.

...I didn't need to predict in the first place.

-Swooosh! -Swooosh! -Swoooosh!

Gesturing with my hands, the rings revolving around me moved and surrounded Alex, restricting his movements.

"Ah! Fuck!"

With the rings around him, Alex could only helplessly stop trying to move in a zig-zag pattern, and charge at me directly.

"Dammit fight me already!!"

'...It's time to release the bait'

Noticing Alex becoming increasingly frustrated by my fighting style, I knew it was time to end the match.

-Swooosh -Swooosh -Swooosh

In one swift and fast movement, jumbling up the rings together, with two rings at the bottom and one at the top, I formed a triangle.

With a movement of my hand, the triangle started rotating in front of me creating a large defensive shield.

However, if one looked closely, although the shield looked huge and impenetrable, the was a small gap in the middle of it. Small enough for a human to fit in.

That was on purpose.

The reason I rotated the ring wasn't so that it would create a visual image of a pure shield, no, it was done so that Alex would assume I was covering up the small flaw.

-Halt

...and just like I predicted, halting his steps, Alex stared at the large ring before him. Noticing something, his previous grim expression disappeared and a smirk appeared on his face.

"Hee, it looks like god has not given up on me!"

Tensing his calves, Alex propelled his body forward.

-Boooom!

Creating two small craters on the ground beneath his feet, the sound of an explosion resounded throughout the arena as Alex disappeared from where he was standing.

In an instant, he appeared before the shield. Whilst in the air, stabbing his spear forward, Alex leaned his body forward and smoothly dived into the ring, appearing right before me.

Smiling manically, he shouted

"Die!"

Watching the tip of the spears nearing my face, I grinned.

'So predictable'

Sidestepping, narrowingly avoiding the spear as it grazed my shoulder, I briefly made eye contact with Alex.

Smiling, coating my fist with mana, I threw an uppercut towards Alex who was still in the air.

-Baaaam!

"Kuuuuuaaaaah!!"

Although he tried to avoid my fist, in the end, because he was moving too fast, it still connected. As my fist hit his stomach, a large shockwave swept the arena and Alex's eyes became dyed in white for a split second.

-Thud!

Dropping on the ground hard, holding onto his stomach, green liquid escaped from Alex's mouth as he constantly gagged.

-Barf! -Barf!

"khhh"

Arriving in front of Alex, stepping on his face, I looked down on him and smirked. Slowly the white glow around me intensified.

-Vuam!

Soon my <F> ranked pressured enveloped the whole arena causing Alex who was on the ground to open his eyes wide.

"H-how!? y-ou!"

Smiling at him, I nodded my head

"Yea, I never considered you an opponent to begin with..."

-Kacha

Stomping onto his face once, Alex passed out on the ground.

"Fuuuu..."

Taking a deep breath, I looked towards my surroundings.

Silence

Everything around me was silent.

Be it the referee, the audience, Martin, or my parents. No one spoke.

Only silence prevailed in the arena.

Not paying my mind to it. I once again looked down on Alex.

"I guess you really were right about us being in completely different worlds..."