I edited the past chapters and made some writing changes as well as gave Reinhard a new attribute permanently. Just read it yourself lol; I won't spoil it here.
Generally, twenty was an amazing score for a sleeper.
However, Reinhard, seeing himself in first place earlier, had somehow reached the conclusion that he was the strongest sleeper in this year's batch.
Reality didn't take long to beat down his illusion, though.
As for the Sleepers who were watching him, the reactions were mixed. Some were expecting him to do better than Caster; Reinhard even heard some sleepers being suspicious about whether he had used his aspect at all.
'Hey, hey, hey, Why do you have so much faith in my strength in the first place?'
Thankfully, Awakened Rock didn't let the discussion go on for long.
"Enough. Now, we will move to sparring and evaluate your general level of training. I need two volunteers to begin."
Nephis was the first to step forward and walk to the center of the ring. The one who followed right after was Reinhard.
He needed combat experience. Going first meant a lot more opportunities to fight, so there was no reason to stay back and watch.
"The rules are simple. Make your opponent's back touch the floor or throw them out of the ring. Use whatever abilities and techniques you find appropriate."
Reinhard decided to attack first. The gap in their physical capabilities was significant enough that he expected a quick victory, though that did not mean he took her lightly.
He surged forward, driving a punch straight toward her chest. Nephis slipped past it with ease, her body already moving as the strike passed by.
She closed the distance in the same motion, lifting her knee toward his midsection. Reinhard anticipated that and dodged her knee. Before she could reset, his left leg snapped out in a sharp kick.
Nephis brought her arms up to shield herself. The block held, but the force behind it still pushed her back several steps.
Reinhard followed immediately, stepping in with a short combination that forced her guard high and compressed her stance. Nephis responded by springing upward, bringing her leg down in a forceful overhead kick.
Reinhard raised his arm and absorbed the impact without yielding. As she dropped back toward the ground, he stepped forward instead of retreating, seized her ankle mid-descent, and drove it upwards.
Her balance broke instantly. Nephis hit the ground flat on her back.
It was a disgusting move; he admitted that, but it worked.
He wasn't too excited by the victory since he expected that this would happen.
Another good thing was that he now finally knew how his [Battle Master] attribute worked! The whole battle he instinctively knew what to do as long as he was analyzing and watching Nephis properly.
Well, talking about that—
Nephis was still on her back; Reinhard approached her and gave her a hand.
She took it and stood up.
"Good fight," he said.
She nodded and left the ring.
Instructor Rock grinned cheerfully at Reinhard, then said.
"Next."
'Holy shit, This guy can smile?'
What followed was basically a massacre. Apart from Nephis, every fight was like a breeze through the park.
There was a huge guy who had gotten a score of 17 in the strength test, and Reinhard was able to beat him in a single move.
As for the gossip among the Sleepers, they were going crazy. At the start they discussed his strength and then stopped to watch the match and then repeated, but when the same pattern repeated four times, they could only look at him as if he were a monster.
'Isn't this too easy?' Reinhard thought as another one of his matches ended.
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute Name: Titan's Corpus.]
Attributes: [Radiant Presence] [Calm Mind] [Battle Master] [Favored of Spell] [Titan's Corpus]
Somewhere between the fights, since they were too easy, he had decided to check out more of the new attributes he could create. As well as test them in the midst of battle.
So in every fight he had been continuously switching between [Titan's Corpus] and a new attribute he had created [Motion Sense]. Motion sense, as the name suggested, allowed him to notice fast-moving objects and be able to perceive and react to them at abnormally fast speeds.
Along with [Titan's corpus] and [Battle Master], it practically made him unbeatable in spars, especially in fights like this.
Now the only thing he was really looking forward to was fighting Caster.
After a few more beatdowns, it was time for the most expected match of the whole session. As Caster approached the ring, the sleepers looked on in anticipation to see if Caster would join them and lose or defeat Reinhard instead.
Reinhard, having been beaten by Caster in the strength test, had no intention of holding back or going easy.
'Vengeance will be mine.'
Even though that was only a joke, a small part of him did want to win this fight to establish his own prowess.
After the instructor gave the signal, there was no movement from either of them for a few seconds.
"Good luck, Reinhard." Caster said with a nod. The tone was normal; it couldn't really be considered a jab.
"Good luck to you as well." Reinhard replied.
A few seconds passed as both of them readied themselves. And in the next moment it was as if Caster ceased to exist.
In a fraction of a second, Caster covered the distance between him and Reinhard and delivered a devastating blow.
With the help of [Motion Sense] and a quick switch to [Titan's Corpus], Reinhard dodged the blow at the last possible moment.
Reinhard punched at him; however, Caster had no qualms about exploiting his speed to its fullest. He disappeared once again.
Reinhard did not turn immediately. Instead, he grounded his stance, switching to [Motion Sense] for a split second before switching back. That small timing was enough for him to track Caster.
Caster reappeared behind him, shifting his weight and putting all the force into his fist.
At the last possible moment, Reinhard shifted.
Rather than evading fully, he stepped into the attack, catching Caster's arm near the elbow. The impact jolted through him, but he softened the momentum with a slight turn of his torso, redirecting the force instead of resisting it.
Caster's speed worked against him. His body moved faster than his balance could correct. There was a slight lag in his perception, and Reinhard was going to take advantage of that.
Reinhard rolled his shoulder under the trapped arm and pulled, pivoting sharply. Using Caster's own forward drive, he lifted and turned in one fluid motion.
The world inverted.
Caster was thrown cleanly over Reinhard's shoulder, and he hit the ground on his back, the ring shuddering beneath him.
He groaned in pain.
Collective gasps of shock travelled through the room. The fight was too fast for most of them to observe, but the end result remained the same.
Reinhard won.
___
Thanks for reading the chapter.
Hehe, long time no see, I guess? Well, I kind of lost motivation. Though now I am back.
Another thing though, I find doing this kind of thing a little awkward, but I guess a thanks is in order. Like, what the hell? At first I didn't think much of it, but then I saw a pattern in my webnovel notifications. A reader named 'Daoist' has been sending me three power stones continuously since, like, twenty days ago lol. Thanks for that. (Were you actually trying to get first place in fandom rankings bro? 😭🙏) And thanks to everyone else for supporting the fic too.
Anyways, I am pretty bad at writing fight scenes, so I hope the fights with Nephis and Caster were satisfactory.
Bye.