Free Web NovelChapter 7: Core improving Pill
"That’s him? The one who took down Roman?"
"He’s really fighting again? Didn’t he collapse this morning?"
"What a lunatic."
"Hundred says he’s out in thirty seconds. Water against an F-Rank warrior? It’s a clean-up job."
Lena was already on the opposite side of the arena, stretching her shoulders, water curling around her wrists in lazy ribbons.
Her three friends sat in the front row, leaning over the railing, saying things I couldn’t quite hear but could guess at.
I caught a glimpse of dark hair high up in the stands.
’Kira...’
The referee stepped between us. He was a stocky man in academy black, with a patient expression.
"Standard rules. No lethal intent. No strikes after surrender or unconsciousness. Match ends when one party yields or can’t continue." He looked at Lena, then at me. "Both fighters. Acknowledge."
"Acknowledged," Lena said.
"Acknowledged."
"Then begin." He stepped back.
Lena’s hands came up immediately.
I wasn’t afraid of her casting. I have a D-rank core now.
I moved.
The sand kicked behind me as I crossed the arena in three strides, low and fast.
Lena’s eyes widened. Her hands jerked up, water gathering into a forward arc.
I slapped the cast aside. My palm hit her forearm and the water spell collapsed into a harmless splash across the floor since she had lost concentration.
I grabbed a handful of her ponytail.
"I told you."
I yanked her forward, off balance, and my other hand came across her cheek with a flat open slap that echoed off the air.
"I told you I wouldn’t be merciful just because you’re a lady."
I let her stumble back. She raised her hands again, water gathering, panicking, the confidence she had earlier no longer present.
Closing the distance before the spell formed, I hooked a foot behind her ankle, and dropped her into the floor.
Thud!
I crouched, grabbed her hair again, and dragged her up to her knees.
"You were saying something earlier. About F-ranks."
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Her cheek bloomed red. "About how I got lucky."
Slap!
She tried to cast a water attack with her trembling hands, but the spell sputtered and fell before it was completed.
I let go of her hair and stepped back.
Above us, the stands had not started breathing again.
"What the hell," someone whispered. The mic on the referee’s collar picked it up and broadcast it across the arena. "What the hell."
"He’s an F-rank."
"His badge says F-rank."
"How is he that fast?"
Lena was on her hands and knees in the sand. Blood ran from her lip in a thin line.
Her three friends in the front row weren’t smirking any more.
Cropped Hair had a hand over her mouth.
I looked down at Lena.
"Don’t bother Kira anymore or I’ll make your life a living hell."
She didn’t answer but I could see her shoulders shudder for a moment.
I planted my foot in her ribs and kicked her out of the boundary.
She rolled across the white line and stopped in the sand on the other side. The referee raised his hand.
"Winner: Ash Rowan."
My ranking remained at #320. Lena hadn’t been ranked high enough to bump me.
I walked off the arena without looking back.
I found Kira in an empty corridor waiting, like she’d been expecting me to follow her.
I grinned and walked toward her.
"Where’s my ki-" Her hand caught my collar before I finished the word.
She turned and pressed me against the wall in one smooth motion, gentle but firm.
Then her soft ample limps were on mine. She kissed me slow.
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Her free hand came up to rest against my face, and I felt her delicate porcelain skin caressing me.
She pulled back after a few seconds. Her dark eyes still staring into my own.
"That’s the only one you get," she said.
She let go of my collar, smoothed the front of my uniform with one hand, and walked past me down the corridor.
I stayed against the wall for a moment longer.
[Reward delivered: Core Improving Pill]
I watched her walk away, smiling to myself.
She was bolder than I’d thought. I’d figured I needed more work, more groundwork laid before something like that happened. But she’d given in faster than expected.
I pulled up the status screen and tapped on the item.
[Core Improving Pill]
[Details: Strengthens an F-Rank Core to an E-Rank Core.]
My brows raised.
Useless to me. I’d been hoping to push toward C-rank today, maybe higher with the right choices. Wishful thinking, apparently. The System wasn’t handing out shortcuts that big.
I glanced back down the empty corridor where Kira had disappeared.
’She could use it.’
The pill could help raise her core rank to E Rank. Since kissing her, I had already decided that Kira was now my woman.
Naturally, my woman was going to only get the good things. I couldn’t keep her staying at F-Rank.
I closed the screen.
I pulled up my schedule. Next lesson was physical combat, third floor, training hall B. I rolled my shoulders, checked the time, and started walking.
