The Messenger of Death

Chapter 63: combat and tactics training ii

"Begin!"

As soon as these words reached Katherine's ears she wasted no time in charging at Alex. She planned to beat Alex way before Drake would have a chance to do anything. She had a smile on her face as she charged at him.

Alex had a wicked grin on his face when he saw her eagerness. He intended to show no mercy and make sure they bleed.

Katherine pitched a good punch at Alex.

['Good form, at least she practice. But it's still not enough to faze me.'] He thought.

-Whoosh!

Alex dodges her punch without moving his legs from where he was standing.

-Whoosh! Whoosh!

Katherine threw more blows at him and he dodges them skillfully without moving from his initial position. The way Alex dodged her blows infuriated her the more. He had been dodging without moving from where he had been standing and that was chipping at her ego.

"Ahh!!" She gave a short battle cry and switched her attack pattern.

'If he dodges blows like that then I'll surprise him with a sweet kick to the head.' Katherine forecasted in her mind. She pitched some more blows at him.

After Alex dodge her last blow, she jumped and attacked with a roundhouse kick aiming for the head.

-Whoosh!

Alex bent his knees and dodge the kick like he had been expecting it. He smirked at her mediocre tactics. Alex didn't know that Drake had been waiting for a chance like this.

Just a second after he bent his knees to dodge Katherine's roundhouse kick, Drake took that chance to quickly run to where Alex was. With the force and momentum of his speed, he slid on the ground and made a scissors-like movement with his legs aiming for Alex's head too.

-Whoosh!

Although Alex wasn't expecting it nor did he notice him till Drake's kick was inches away from him. He jumped to dodge the kick and twisted his body in the air, maneuvering himself away from his opponents. He landed with his hands first then made a backflip.

-Pap! Pap!

Most of the people spectating clapped at his quick acrobatics.

'That was close.' Camron who was watching the fight sighed in relief and smiled in awe at Alex's flexibility and speed of reaction without the help of QI.

Drake hissed when he saw that Alex had dodged his kick, while Katherine was happy that Drake wasn't able to land his kick. She attacked first, so she felt like she should land the first hit.

She charged at Alex once more. This time she had no intentions of throwing blows, only kicks.

-Whoosh!

She tossed a kick as soon as Alex was within her range of attack.

-Thud!

Katherine smiled, she finally made Alex block instead of dodging, and that was progress to her. She attacked with more kicks and Alex blocked them skillfully. The only thing that still annoyed Katherine was that he blocked her kicks without moving from where he stood.

She decided to attack his legs.

-Whoosh!

She hurled a kick aiming for his left knees first. Alex raised his left leg and stepped back to dodge her attack, then she proceeded by attacking with a sweep kick aiming for his right ankle. Alex raised his leg once more and stepped back in order to dodge her improving attacks.

It was at that moment Drake decided to Attack once more, this time he wasn't sneaky. He charged at Alex and used his long legs to attack Alex's ribs.

-Thud!

Alex blocked the Attack that was aiming at his ribs. And at the same time, he had to dodge Katherine's kicks that were coming from below. Unintentionally, Drake, and Katherine's attacks were starting to sync and put a lot of pressure on Alex as they connected.

-Thud!!

Drake sent a heavy at Alex and it pushed him back a few yards. He was proud of the kick he just threw and a smile that had been absent from his face since the beginning of the spar, appeared.

Even Katherine was satisfied with the kick that Drake gave Alex, she too had a victorious smile on her face.

"Hahaha, Cute." Alex laughed when he saw their expressions.

"Why are you laughing when you just started losing?" Katherine's smile disappeared due to Alex's reaction after the heavy kick.

"The two of you are happy because that last attack almost connected, right? But here's the funny thing, you two have been attacking whilst I have been dodging and blocking. I haven't even started attacking yet." Alex flashed a wicked grin at the two of them.

"If you could attack then you would have done it. The pressure is too much for you to do that, stop trying to hide behind a bluff." Drake concluded.

"As you wish," Alex said and made a battle stance. "Come to me." He smirked.

Drake charged at Alex and hurled another heavy kick at him.

-Whoosh!

Alex ducked under the kick and sidestepped bringing himself behind Drake. Before drake could recover from launching that attack, he felt a hand on his shoulder that forcefully turned him 180 degrees. The next thing he knew he was gasping for air. Alex used the side of his palm to hit his throat. Drakes pale head had turned red.

-Slap! Slap! Slap!

Alex slapped his cheeks multiple times till his nose started to bleed, he held one of Drake's huge ears and smashed the other side of his face that was free, with a slap, to the ground.

-Shoosh!

On instincts, Alex twirled his body with the same elegance a professional ball dancer would, dodging an attack from Katherine. This made the audience cheer in respect for his showmanship.

He successfully dodges an attack that he couldn't see from behind. This scene even earned a reaction from Tsukishima. He smiled at the scene and bobbed his head.

After dodging that unexpected attack, Alex stretched his hand and grabbed Katherine's short black hair and dragged her closer to him.

"Argh!!" She cried in pain from the way Alex had grabbed her hair.

-Bam! Bam!

While she was still processing the pain she was feeling from her hair, Alex punched her nose twice. Katherine, at this moment, was too confused to do anything.

By the time she got her sanity back, the only thing she could see were white clouds and the blue sky, spinning.

"Huh?" She uttered, not sure if she was completely sane now.

-Bang!!

The entire backside of her body greeted the ground forcefully. Alex had carried and placed her on his shoulders then slammed her to the ground.

"Argh!!"

She screamed again in agony. The pain being worse than the previous ones she felt a few seconds ago.

The whole place was silent now, the way Alex showed no mercy to Katherine stunned the spectators around. From their perspective, the attacks he gave Drake was lighter than that of Katherine's.

"1, 2, 3" Alex counted to three and none of his opponents had gotten up. "I guess I'm the winner. Shame." He smirked at his opponents that were wailing in pain on the ground.

'That merciless side of Alex.' Camron thought as he recalled the bandits that Alex man-handled gruesomely. 'It's a relief that they weren't fighting with weapons, they might have gotten it worse than this.' He sighed.

Tsukishima went ahead and did the same thing he did to the rank-6 cultivator to them. He healed them and gave them a pill to swallow.

"The two of you lost. Against one person, considering that you lasted longer than a minute I should commend the two of you." Tsukishima stated.

"What!?" Drake and Katherine uttered at the same time.

"Well the two of you only lasted more than a minute because your opponent chose to play cat and mouse with you, if he had attacked from the get-go you would have been put to the ground easily."

"Why?" Drake asked.

"You still haven't figured it out? Despite him being this young with a cultivation of the origin realm, he is this good in combat. He is also an anomaly, a talented individual, a person with the natural aesthetics of combat." He replied Drake.

"Who can tell me what they did wrong? Even if they had no chance of defeating their opponent." Tsukishima asked the 30-some students that were present.

Adrian raised his hand and said; "At first they were attacking one at a time then, later on, they synchronized their attacks. But when they thought they had started to pressure their opponent they regressed to attacking one at a time."

"Correct, they got intoxicated by their short-lived victory. Remember this too, real combat is a fight to the death. Do not get intoxicated by short-lived victories. You are only victorious when your opponent is down or dead." Go back and stand in line with the rest of your classmates. Tsukishima said to the three of them.

"You, what's your name?" He asked Alex.

"Alexander," Alex replied.

"Hand me your badge." Alex did as he ordered. This time he didn't throw it, he walked to where Tsukishima was and gave it to him.

"I just awarded you a thousand MP. You can join the rest now. And those of you that are in the same group as Alexander, you should all treasure this rare gem you have." He advised Katherine and Drake.

Alex smiled and said;

"Thanks."

"Back to the main class. The rest of you that haven't spared should get a partner to spar with while I oversee your fight. The old rules apply, no punches or kicks, the same criteria to win. Get to it now"