Drax laughed louder, his laugh slowly turning deep and sinister. He opened his mouth to throw out an insult, but Damion just walked in the direction of the stage without even giving him the chance to speak.
"Meet me on stage, I don't have time," Damion said coolly.
Drax's face twisted into one of anger and pain. This lowly, abilityless, degenerate dared to ignore him? He would teach him a lesson!
He slowly followed Damion with a blank expression to save face, but before anything could happen, Damion and Drax were stopped by an old man who walked into the building a second later.
The old man, bent and using a wooden stick to move, had a head with sparse white hair, a long beard that almost touched the floor, and wore long black robes with a Geta to match.
His face was hidden underneath the conical hat he wore, and the faint shimmer of a necklace hanging from his neck was seen.
The sound of his sandals hitting the ground brought another wave of silence to the rowdy students, and everyone immediately maintained decorum, settling down.
Drax gave Damion a ridiculing gaze, but Damion didn't even spare him a glance and found a place to sit.
The old man who had just walked in was, surprisingly, their Martial Arts instructor. They had seen him in action and knew that the weakness he showed was only a front to make his enemies underestimate him.
No one dared to ever disobey him for just two reasons… he cared about nothing, and detested disobedience.
He didn't care? Well, if you were weak and got bullied right in front of him... He didn't care.
If you weren't able to attend his classes for one reason or the other. He didn't care.
If you died during a spar with another student. He didn't care.
However, when he ordered someone to do something, and it wasn't done, his true colors were shown.
There was a situation where a student with a wealthy background tried to flaunt his riches and ignore his orders. In the end, this student got beaten into a vegetative state.
The parents were livid when they heard about this, and they came for him. However, the same thing repeated itself, and the whole family, including the bodyguards, became bedridden retards.
A horrifying end of a bloodline.
Since then, no one, not even teachers, dared to question him. Reports had been filed to the higher-ups for them to do something, but the results came back negative. No one could afford to mess with him.
The old man had chosen to be an instructor in the academy, and he refused to leave no matter what was told to him. He was a great instructor nonetheless, but everyone felt uneasy in his presence.
This old man was known as Hakuro Nekanji.
"Damion Darkblade, Drax Cottin, come forward," the old man spoke lightly.
Damion and Drax immediately walked forward, not lagging for a moment. They didn't want to get on old man Hakuro's bad side.
"I heard you two wanted to duel," He said in a barely audible, raspy voice.
Drax looked at Damion, expecting him to do the same. However, Damion didn't bother to do so and nodded at the old man instead.
"Good. I wanted to teach you all new technique, so I'll use you both as examples," the old man voiced out.
Damion felt a hint of dread creep into him, but he calmed himself and prepared his mind. He already knew this was going to happen, in fact everyone knew.
The old man had a habit of using any random person to explain a technique to them, no matter how dangerous or complex the technique was.
"Get on stage," Hakuro said.
Damion and Drax were asked to take off their shirts, and their impressive physique was displayed for everyone to see.
Damion had trained hard to be strong enough to protect himself, but his lack of an ability just couldn't breach that gap. This led to a situation where Damion was physically fit but still lacked strength, quite ironic.
He had some secret admirers, but they couldn't let out that secret for fear of what would be done to them by their peers.
Old man Hakuro took a step forward, then paused, his gaze sweeping over the students. "As most of you know, defence is a very hard thing to maintain when you have no idea or information on who you're facing,"
"If your opponents fighting style is different from what you regularly see, you would have trouble keeping up,"
"What I'm about to show you is something I created myself," Hakuro walked up to the exalted platform where Damion and Drax stood, and he raised a palm to Drax.
"Punch it as hard as you can without holding back," Hakuro said.
Damion paid close attention to the palm as Drax prepared to strike. He wasn't sure, but he could faintly see something surrounding the palm and making it shift subtly but rapidly.
[Dragon Skill Detected]
Drax exhaled deeply, his fist rocketing forward as he threw out a fierce punch. His palm streaked through the air like a bullet, landing on the palm solidly, and causing a loud bang to echo in the building.
Everyone recoiled as they heard thunderous sound, and they felt he must have injured Hakuro.
Damion, who was the closest to the duo had his eyes wide open in disbelief as he watched Drax collapse to his knees, his arm bent awkwardly in the wrong direction.
"ARGHHHHH!" Drax let out a screech with reddened eyes, tears almost pouring out of them.
He had made use of his super speed ability to punch as fast and hard as he could, yet he was the one injured.
The old man turned to Damion with his palm still raised, and he said blankly, ignoring the screaming Drax, "Your turn."
Damion's mind spun as he stared from the palm pointing towards him to the system screen.
'A dragon skill?' He thought. 'How does he know a Dragon skill?'
[Would you like to learn the skill, Dragon's Reflective Skin?]
Damion locked eyes with Hakuro, and he felt a shiver run down his spine. The danger Hakuro radiated doubled, silently warning Damion to do as he had demanded.
Damion looked at the system one last time and accepted the skill. He raised his fist and drew it back, poising himself for the impending technique.
__________
[Dragon's Reflective Skin- Lvl 1]
[Skill Description: A Dragon's defence is Supreme and second to none other.
Rebuff 10% of any damage dealt to you]
[Cost: 1 MP]
__________
Damion grunted, torqued his torso and twisted his hip, activating his new skill in the same moment.
His arm almost snapped from the amount of pressure pushing him as he punched with his full power, but it was worth it.
The student's smug grins cracked as they watched in surprise at what occured next. Instead of the anticipated demolition of Damion's arm, his fist connected with the palm with a solid thud, yet he seemed completely unscathed.
There was an obvious stalemate for a second, before Hakuro's arm suddenly jerked back forcefully, he also taking a step back from the shocking momentum.