Chapter 52 Conflict

"Heh, you didn't chicken out." Nel grinned.

"I'm going to beat you to a pulp." Felix retorted with suppressed anger.

"Put your money where your mouth is, motherfucker." Nel emphasized the barb.

Felix gritted his teeth, choosing to remain silent.

A referee soon had both fighters take their positions, bow and take their stance.

"Interesting..." Rui murmured as he saw Felix's stance. Felix had brought his left leg forward and raised hands to shoulder height, squatting low until his head dipped to chest level.

"He's a wrestler." Rui immediately concluded. This was a very common wrestling stance, for good reason too. This stance allowed wrestlers to launch takedowns and shoots to close the distance and turn it into a full-contact grappling match. The squat allowed them to rush at their opponent's lower abdomen, this was known as a shoot, and the arms were positioned to be able to grab their opponents to prevent them from opening up distance or maintain their balance.

Fae nodded. "If he succeeds in turning the fight into a full contact fight, then he might win."

Nel's stance was a bit strange, he squatted just a bit and left his arms loose, dangling above the ground. His demeanor was relaxed, he had an expression of lazy confidence.

"Ready... And start!" The referee began the match.

Immediately Felix leapt at Nel, with his arms open; a common shoot maneuver. Just as Felix was about to grab the stationary Nel, he jumped and landed on Felix's head, balancing on one foot nonchalantly, hands in his pocket.

Felix immediately lashed at Nel's legs, hoping to throw him down, but not before Nel effortlessly summersaulted off landing behind him. The force of that maneuver had pushed Felix to his knees, while Nel glanced at him with lazy boredom.

"Is that the best you could do?" He yawned.

Felix snarled in rage throwing all his momentum into a fast, powerful lunge. To his surprise, he actually caught Nel with ease, the latter had not moved. Merely staring him in the eye with boredom.

('Letting me get a hold on you? I'll make you regret your arrogance.')

Felix vowed, humiliated. He had decided to go all-out. He'd decided to use the strongest Apprentice level finisher move he'd learnt thus far.

The Reverse Whip.

He grabbed Nel from the back, lifted his body and swung him all the way behind his back, landing Nel on his head.

BOOM

A huge noise was born from the impact, there was even a gust of wind with the sheer amount of power Felix had generated.

('That was clean! I got him!') Felix was ecstatic.

The Reverse Whip was a German Suplex, however its power was greatly amplified. The technique directed, accumulated and converged power from every muscle in the body. It was quite similar to Outer Convergence; the technique that Fae had used against Rui. The same principle, different application.

Felix got up with an elated expression, he had defended his mother's honour!

"Not bad... That hurt way more than I expected, you know." Felix froze as a voice behind said.

('There's no way...') He turned around with fear in his eyes.

Nel cracked his neck, getting up.

"Yeah..." He continued. "You're way fucking better than I thought you'd be, not gonna lie."

He got back into his loose squat stance. "Since you showed me that awesome move, it's only fair that I return that favour" He grinned, growing more excited. "Wouldn't you agree.?

,m Felix stared at him with a horrified expression. "You-!"

BAM

One moment Nel was three meters away from Felix. The next moment his arm had already burrowed itself in Felix's abdomen, contorting his guts.

"Fast!" Kane exclaimed. He could achieve that speed himself, but only after combining Parallel Walk and a few other Apprentice level techniques. Nel on the other hand just ran to Felix without using any techniques.

Felix crumbled like a broken puppet, unable to breathe. Nel had struck his diaphragm, momentarily incapacitating him. He gasped for air like a fish out of water, a trail of blood trickling out of his mouth amidst the saliva.

Nel sighed, his demeanor grew lethargic and he lost all his excitement at the sight. "We were having so much fun. You just had to go and cut it short, oh well."

He shrugged, before throwing a glance at the dumbstruck referee, who immediately ended the match upon the prompt.

Nel walked out of the ring, ignoring the crowd that split to make way for him, heading to the door.

"Ah... You." He recognized Fae. "You're the one from the Entrance Exam, you were awesome." His eyes lit up through his long messy silvery hair. "You wanna continue what we couldn't back then?"

"My, enthusiastic aren't you?" Fae giggled. "I was free back then. I don't have the time to play around with yet another cocky brat." she said, playfully rubbing Kane's green hair, which Kane promptly swatted off, glaring at her.

Nel stared at her listlessly, meeting Kane's and Rui's eyes before retorting. "Hmph, you scared bitch?"

"Bold words from a boy who hasn't even reached Martial Apprentice." She returned his hostility. "You're not worth my time anymore, I'm the heir of the Dullahan Family, my time is more important than you realize." Her eyes and smile turned icier by the second.

The tension was high.

"If you're that busy, then stop harassing us every time you see us!" Kane grumbled, causing Fae to burst into laughter

Nel watched the two bickering expressionlessly, before leaving wordlessly. "You and I will fight, whether you like it or not." Before leaving the facility

Rui had been silent the entire time, staring off into space with an intense expression.

"He's a jerk, isn't he?" Kane poked at him.

Rui didn't respond.

"...You good bro?" Kane jabbed him in the ribs.

"Ow! What is your problem dude?" Rui jerked out of his reverie, glaring at Kane.

"Are you thinking about what Nel said?" He asked, probing Rui.

"What did Nel say?"

"..." Kane stared at him.

"Wait a second." Rui turned towards the ring in confusion. "Felix and Nel were just on the ring a moment ago! Where did they go?"

"..."

"Was that also an Apprentice level technique? The fight was amazing, but this is even moreso!" Rui's expression intensified.

"Were you zoned out this whole time thinking about the fight?" Fae asked hesitatingly.

"Forget about him, he's a weirdo." Kane shook his head.

"Hey, that's mean." Rui protested. "I was just thinking about it for half a second!"

Kane facepalmed himself while Fae burst out laughing.

"What just happened?" Rui murmured at that scene, scratching his head.