Chapter 20: Hurt

Chapter 20: Hurt

The temporary alliance they formed to eliminate George disintegrated immediately, with the humans and elves eliminated a second after it happened.

Against the united barbarians, they stood no chance.

"Ah!" Heigderr shouted as he felt a kick on his back, jumping away and facing his sister, who was accompanied by both her assistants.

Madrath, beside him, kept quiet to avoid drawing any attention that the barbarian girls gave to Heigderr.

"Maybe you should have brought your own assistance." Stulgra mocked Heigderr, knowing that none of his assistants would follow his orders but the Princess's, following the royal hierarchy.

"I... concede." Heigderr said as he walked away with his fist tightened up, leaving Madrath alone with the girls.

He took a deep breath before tearing his shirt and wrapping them around his hands as makeshift hand wraps to avoid his knuckles from taking maximum damage and getting crushed to pieces.

Rhelkas ran towards him first, jumping into the air to deliver a flying kick, maximizing the weight delivered if she hit him successfully.

Pah!

She smiled, feeling her legs connecting to the attack, but all of a sudden, her whole body spun.

Madrath, with his inherited strength, swung her by the legs she kicked before throwing her down to the ground where she lay, passed out, from hitting her back against the solid ground.

"Rhelkas eliminated." The instructor said as he made sure that Rhelkas had been knocked out cold.

Shal nearly jumped at him to deliver her revenge, but seeing how strong he was, doing so would be a foolish move.

"You are a bad sister, you wont even take revenge for your own sister because you're too scared." Madrath commented.

Hearing this, Shal rushed towards Madrath with her arms swinging wide towards Madrath, ticked off by what Madrath had said.

Pah!

Madrath delivered a punch towards Shal's face, driving it to the ground, nearly crushing her jaw.

"Shal eliminated."

Madrath was visibly tired to even lift both of his hands to guard his torso, but even so, the Princess walked towards Gideon Cross, "I give up."

Hearing this, the instructor ran towards Madrath, lifting his hands, "Winner, Madrath!"

Madrath smiled, and with his hands lifted up, he could see a large shadow cast upon him, "I guess you're my student now." Gideon Cross said with his hands crossed, "Keep it up." He continued before walking out of the tent.

The rest of the students rested as their body was so tired that they couldn't move. But they couldn't help but turn to George, who had been lying on the floor ever since he passed the test by a thin margin.

'Could it be... the reason he did what he did, was to avoid showing what he was capable of?' The Empire Prince thought.

It wasn't unusual for knights and other fighters to avoid fighting and running away from the majority of fights even though they could win it, and the reason why some of them did that was to avoid people learning too much about their style and finding the weakness in it.

It was a similar method to how one of the world's greatest chess grandmasters, Bobby Fischer, maintained his championship status. And that was he didn't spend time playing chess against anyone who challenged him but only fought in big competitions to avoid too many of his tricks being exposed.

The rest of the other students thought the same, misunderstanding everything George did.

#

"So what do you think?" Mason asked as he and Donovan strolled right behind Gideon.

"I can see why they might be targets. Among them, you have the Prince of the Empire. And the rest of them are among nobleties and royals. And even the ones that are not are undoubtedly talented. Although I am not sure about the guy named George."

Mason stopped to turn back and stare and the tent; even though George presented himself with a strong aura, his movements when fighting looked too plain, as if he had never practiced a single martial art in his life.

But when George was relaxing, he suddenly turned from a person who didn't know anything about martial art to a seasoned veteran.

"Something is strange about him..." Mason whispered to himself as he raised his copy of the protected student's list before marking George's name with a red pencil,

#

George laid his head on the door in one of the Class-C Residence Halls while searching his pocket for the key given to him by the instructor.

He took out the bronze key, which had the logo of the academy embedded in it, before putting it in the keyhole, turning it, and opening the door.

As the door opened, he dropped on his shoulders, landing on the floor, and using his legs, he kicked the door close while holding his broken ribs.

He might have looked fine from the outside, but underneath the illusion that the Persona Ring offered, his face was pale white, with his lips covered with blood.

All of the injuries that he sustained were the result of slightly getting hit by the other students, even Bryne, who was supposed to be the weakest in the group, was far stronger than he was.

If George were to receive even a punch from one of the Barbarians, he would have surely died.

He took all the layers of his shirt while looking at the mirror, 'Oh God....' He saw purple bruises on his skin. 'Internal bleeding...' He thought. He knew that this wasn't something that could be healed with a bandage.

If he rested, his body might heal itself... In a few months. It was time that he didn't have.

He looked at the bed, it was thin, probably not the best for recovery, but it was still something, and a bed was certainly better than no bed.

As soon as he neared it, his body was swallowed into it; the thin bed, thanks to his strained body, felt like the best bed in the world. n-)o((V--e-)l)(b--I)(n

And quickly, his mind drifted into a distant pass.