Chapter 131 129 - The First Challenger

Milo's friends aside from Maria knew about Milo's reawakening. Chris and Mark were witnesses to it and Allana had overheard it from her brother. Hearing the student challenge Milo, the three of them knew the thrashing that was to come.

"Oh boy," Chris said, "this kid is in for it."

"Anyone else excited to see Milo throttle this kid with his new powers?" Mark said.

Hearing Mark say this, Maria was confused for two reasons. First, Mark was usually a calm and collected person who didn't care much for fights unless they were necessary, and second the mention of "new powers."

Maria asked Mark what he meant, and the group explained what happened to Milo during the attack on New York. Milo was too busy with Mr. O'Neal listening to his explanation on what would happen during the challenge to hear them talking. They explained everything just like Milo told them, from the start of the ambush on the camp, to Corinna dying, all the way up to his fight with all the Fellowship members. They then went on to explain how he had supposedly reawakened during the fight with the cardinal. Hearing this news made Maria glance at Milo, he was too busy listening to Mr. O'Neal to notice, but it was a look of worry.

Maria was worried about Milo, why hadn't he told her about Corinna or anything that happened to him during the attack? She thought the two of them were closer, based on the date they went on at the end of the previous year, but Milo must not have thought that way, or at least he was too caught up in everything to worry about telling her. Mr. O'Neal was finishing his explanation and the rest of the class got up to go to where the challenge would be carried out, when doing so, Milo noticed Maria looking at him. He gave a gentle smile causing her heart to settle a bit, but she was still worried about what was going through his head.

Soon the entire class was moving towards the arena. According to Mr. O'Neal, all the challenges would take place here. It was made for combat and also would allow them to all watch the challenge from the seats surrounding the battlefield. The challenges for one's ranking would consist of one on one combat, students were allowed to use all abilities or equipment they had at their disposal. It was exactly like the final exam Milo had to take at the end of his first year at the academy.

Milo and the student who challenged him were in the arena set to start. Mr. O'Neal and the rest of the X rated class were in the stands waiting for the fight to start, while two academy employees were set to referee the match. Mr. O'Neal signaled the start, and the student who was Milo's opponent began his offensive immediately.

The student had an ability that allowed him to throw out strange balls of energy. There were different types as well, three to be exact. One would hit the target like any other projectile, the second was able to burst into smaller projectiles almost like a grapeshot, and the last would trigger a small explosion. The student also carried a sword on him, as well as was wearing a full set of equipment. He was most likely from a rich family but his ability wasn't raised high enough to be placed in the X ranked class his first year.

The student threw out a ball of energy that rushed towards Milo. Milo chose to defend it using the ice attribute since it was the one he was most comfortable with. He threw up a wall of ice, and the orb slammed into it creating a small dent. The student threw out two more orbs after the first and they too collided with the wall Milo made. Seeing this, the student chose to try and different approach and threw out an explosive orb and followed behind it. When it collided with the wall it exploded, shattering the wall and the student who was following behind the orb swung his sword towards Milo once he had reduced the distance between them.

Milo chose to just bring Ghoul's Bane with him, he didn't think that he would need to use the rest of his equipment, and for the most part it was still in tatters from the attack in New York. He'd have to visit Avery sometime to get it repaired. When the student moved in close, he made a vertical slash with his sword. Milo easily blocked the onslaught of sword attacks and after exchanging blows for a short time he created some distance, throwing another wall up in the way of the student to stop his advance.

"Quit being a coward and come at me!" the student shouted in frustration. Up until this point Milo chose only to defend, he didn't want to attack and completely ruin the student's pride. The student then shouted something that caused Milo to change his mind. "You must not be attacking cause you're too weak, all you can do is defend, you coward."

Hearing the student say this, Milo felt that maybe he should show off a bit of his power. He wasn't weak, he had heard that his entire life and now that he wasn't, he felt that he should make it known. Along with this if he didn't, the other new X ranked students might get too overconfident and send him an endless number of challenges which would be quite the hassle.

The student was going to say more, but he suddenly felt an immense amount of pressure coming from Milo. Milo had activated the Disaster ability, and the student could feel a sense of dread as the Magic Power given off by Milo hit him in waves. Milo chose to try something he hadn't done yet. He knew he couldn't combine all the elements into one, but if he tried to use all 6 in their own separate forms maybe he'd be successful.

Chunks of ice and rock began to orbit around Milo. Following the ice and rock, lightning and fire began to course around Milo as well, finally water was added as a hard wind gusted around him. Milo was successfully using all 6 elements simultaneously but it was putting an extreme strain on his concentration. Milo threw his arms forward and the student he was challenged by was subjected to a barrage of all 6 elements.

Watching from the stands, the other X rated students had the same thought of the challenger at the beginning of the match, "why wasn't Milo attacking?" All of the returning X ranked students knew of Milo's strength so why didn't he just end it right away? Then Milo began to let out an immense Magic Power. Even the headmaster's eyes widened in shock from feeling the waves of Magic Power Milo was giving off. Then he gathered all 6 elements around him and the jaws of the other students dropped. Ice was all he could control previously and now he had summoned all 5 other elements, no other awakened in existence could do this that they knew of.

Milo's friends were also flabbergasted that Milo was using all 6 elemental attributes, he had only shown Chris and Mark that he had gained control of the lightning attribute. Maria in particular was shaking from seeing the immense power that Milo had at his fingertips. She had seen a similar power one other time before, when watching her brother in action. For reference, her brother was an X ranked gatecrasher in one of the big 4. He was an extremely powerful person, and while she didn't have the best relationship with her brother or the rest of her family for that matter, she acknowledged his strength. Milo was giving off a similar level of Magic Power to him during the fight.

The student wasn't able to avoid the elemental punishment as he was burned, slashed, electrocuted and smashed by the attack. The student was down for the count from one attack and Milo himself was left standing, he staggered a bit from letting loose, but it wasn't enough to knock him over. He felt more tired than he was expecting as using all 6 attributes at once had taken a lot out of him. He stood there huffing for air as the student laid unconscious opposite him.

The referees, Mr. O'Neal, and the other students were shocked into silence from the attack. The referees finally shook off their shock and checked the students status, he was sent to the infirmary and they then announced Milo as the winner. The fight had lasted a total of 60 seconds, that was all it took for the student to be incapacitated, even though Milo chose to only used defense at the start. Had he attacked from the start, the fight may have ended in just one second

After Milo showed off the power he had gained, the rest of the students who were considering challenging him immediately changed their minds. Milo had essentially secured the number one spot, at least when considering challengers as Mr. O'Neal would soon explain the other ways to increase their rank.

After the challenge was complete, the students all returned to their class to continue their lesson. No other challenges were issued as Milo had essentially shown the new students that they shouldn't let being put in the X rated class get to their head. Mr. O'Neal began by saying that the Academy had chosen to change a bit of the curriculum to better prepare students to be able to fight not only against beasts, but against the Fellowship as well. The recent attack on New York caused the GAA, as well as the board in charge of deciding how the Academy was run, to decide that they needed to help students to be better prepared for dangerous situations.

For this reason, they added an option for second year students to get more experience fighting beasts. This would be in the form of weekly in-field experiences. Unlike the previous year where students had one opportunity to enter dimensional doors, they would be allowed to go every week to test their skills against the beasts. This would allow students to grow at a much faster rate.

Hearing this, Milo knew who his group would be, the others also turned to him as if knowing exactly what he was thinking. With his experience from the summer under his belt, Milo would help his friends become the most efficient gatecrashers in the Academy.