Chapter 211 Manipulation Is An Art#2

The lectures were over and soon came the last class. It was a sparring class so that each of our classmates would get familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, this would be useful in forming groups and hunting in an organised manner during the later part of the course.

Of course, we moved out of the class and were currently at the training area where we would be sparring. Since there were just 20 of us, with 2 unorthodox ones, I believe almost all the people will fight today, including me, of course.

"Hey, I would like to spar with you?" I heard Rheo's voice at a distance as he challenged Jenkins, one of Paul's subordinates, which made Jenkins and Howard laugh out loud at him before asking him to scram.

"Chickening out? Well, I thought you had more guts than that," Rheo spoke with a smirk before he began to move away but Jenkins grabbed him by the shoulder and spoke with a serious yet cold smile,"if you are so desperate for a beating then you shall get it."

My eyes turned to Gloria and Variel, who were eyeing me from a distance, asking what I was trying to do here, but I just kept quiet for the time being and observed the upcoming match.

They both asked permission from Professor Hoffman and he smiled at them before speaking.

"Until one person loses consciousness or gives up, the other person will not win. The time of battle is 15 minutes, after that the winner would be decided by the scorecard. Cheating is strictly forbidden and if I find things getting too serious, I will interrupt. If you both agree to the conditions, move up on to the stage."

Hearing his words, everyone got excited as the anticipation for the upcoming match increased. Almost everyone believed that Jenkins would win this as his rank, 88th, was higher than Rheo's, 94th.

Both of them got on the stage. Rheo took out his blades and Jenkins took out a staff which he was most familiar with and they both took their stance.

"3… 2… 1… Fight!" Professor Hoffman spoke and the first one to dash was Rheo.

Rheo used short blades in this battle, so he needed to cover the distance in order to have an advantage against Jenkins, a staff user. Rheo added a small touch of Dark Magic in his weapons, which enhanced the weapon's powers drastically.

As for Jenkins, he just smiled as he saw Rheo coming towards him. Preparing his staff and charging it with fire magic, he skillfully wielded it, attacking Rheo in the front. Rheo dodged to his left, and Jenkins immediately took a step back, rotated his staff, and attacked with the staff's other end.

Rheo looked at the follow up attack and used a bit of magic in his legs and swiftly dodged his attack once again and closed the distance. Jenkins, who wasn't expecting Rheo to dodge his follow up attack, panicked a little and began moving back.

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However, Rheo was faster as he attacked at his chest, barely cutting it.

-AAAA!!!!

Though the magic being Dark Magic, this was enough to inflict a great deal of pain to Jenkins before he fell on his right knee and began using fire magic to evaporate the remains of Dark Magic on his chest.

But it was enough for Rheo to get a wide opening to attack and he began attacking again. Between dodging, healing himself and finding a stable stance to parry Rheo's attack, Jenkins was struggling against Rheo at every step.

-BAM!!

-BOOOM!!!!

Everyone's attention turned to their left to see Variel pitting down Howard, who was about to dash towards Jenkins. As I guessed, he was going to attack Rheo when he saw Rheo winning.

I looked at the three girls with Paul looking at Jenkins with a scared gaze and Paul himself looked a bit shocked at what was happening.

It wasn't just him but almost everyone here… nobody expected Rheo to be this strong. Well, it makes sense… now onto the next move.

"Gloria, can you do me a favour and fight with those three sl*ts there?" I spoke as I pointed at Green, Campbell and Cook, who were there standing with Paul. I needed to make sure they were broken a little before I could use them.

"All three of them at once?" She asked with a questioning gaze and I nodded before speaking,"after you defeat three of them, whisper these words to Green,'I know your secret. What happened 8 years ago, I know everything about it,' leave the other two as it is."

She looked at me and then pondered a little before moving towards them. On the other hand, Jenkins had already given up and as he was glaring at Rheo. Rheo turned around to move away from the stage, but Jenkins moved at a rapid rate as he moved to attack Rheo with a wide, mad smile.

-Clank! Though Professor Hoffman looked at Jenkins with a narrowed yet furious gaze. Jenkins saw Professor Hoffman and finally returned to his senses. I looked at Jenkins for a few seconds, before I smiled and then turned to see Rheo walking towards Paul.

"Would you like to fight with me? Your henchmen are a… bit too weak for me to practise on," Rheo spoke with an apologetic and mocking expression and Paul raised his chin as he looked down on Rheo.

Paul scanned around to see everyone waiting for his decision. Though, before he could speak anything

"Excuse me, ladies… I was thinking of fighting you three, if it is not a problem with you all?" Spoke Gloria with a humble smile as she looked at the three girls. Those three girls confused looked at each other before looking at Gloria and speaking,

"Are you… trying to take all three of us by yourself?"

"Did I say something else?" asked Gloria with a bit of a confused expression as she looked at the three of them, before Campbell turned furious and spoke,"what exactly are you trying to achieve here?"

"I just want to fight someone of equal standing. Variel seems busy with Howard. Rheo is dealing with Paul. As for Melissa and Phillips, they aren't here right now… so everyone is not just strong enough. So I thought about fighting multiple people at once, and given how close the three of you are here, I believe you would have developed some coordination to fight against me?" Gloria spoke and everyone started pondering about it for a moment… Thinking about it, there was no problem with the logic itself… just that you need to think a bit more in detail to find the hidden trap underneath these words.

Those three just stood there before Green spoke,"well… sure, we don't mind. Isn't that right, girls?" and the other two, a bit sceptical, nodded at themselves.

'Well, once this is done, let's start the next phase as well,' I thought as I observed everything around me with a calm smile. Perhaps I had started enjoying this for some reason… manipulating so many things at once… it has been a while since I had done something like that… I almost forgot about the feeling… I sorta missed this feeling… I guess I was a little excited too.