"Next."
Alan's voice hung in the air for moments too long.
Gavin didn't say anything, he understood and supported Alan's rage.
Seeing no one answering his call, Alan raised his finger and pointed towards a young man in the crowd.
Alan recognised him as the first to laugh when Edward insulted his mother.
Then he calmly said.
"Step up."
Eyes poured towards the young soldier, making him feel uncomfortable, then finally as if making a big decision he walked towards Alan.
"Fluke." He started. "There is no way a sheltered bastard can do this."
Even the soldier didn't believe his own words, he clearly saw the precision and quick level thinking behind Alan's moves.
He was saying nonsense to boost his own confidence, which didn't work at all.
Alan didn't respond, instead he once again looked at Gavin.
Gavin gave a nod. "Start!"
This time Alan didn't rush out, instead he adopted a Muay Thai stance, with his who hand raised in front of him.
'What is that stance?' Naturally, Gavin failed to recognise what he was even looking at.
In his life as Leon, he practically mastered all sorts of martial arts, though he never stuck to one, which was what made him dangerous, solely due to how unpredictable his fighting style was.
One moment he may be adopting a boxing stance, the next second he pulls out a roundhouse kick.
In fact, Leon never fought with calculation, he relied entirely on his instincts, and that same instincts won him numerous battles.
Once again, he surrendered his body to his instincts as his mind fell into a sort of trance.
Faced with Alan's blank gaze, the soldier decided to have the first move and lunged towards Alan.
He closed the distance in a blur, throwing a heavy straight punch intending to end the fight instantly.
Alan's expression didn't even flicker.
As the fist whistled toward him, Alan's left hand shot out, snapping around the soldier's wrist.
With a sharp yank, he used the man's own momentum against him, pulling him off-balance and dragging him into his personal space.
The soldier stumbled, his boots scuffing the dirt as he scrambled to regain his footing.
But he was too slow. Alan was already in motion.
Alan's right fist drove forward in a straight punch, meeting the soldier's face mid-stumble
Crunch
The sound of a breaking nose echoed across the training ground.
But Alan wasn't finished, still gripping the man's wrist, he pivoted his hips, using his entire body weight to whip the soldier over and slam him into the solid concrete.
"Gah!" The soldier let out a gasp, but before he could even blink through the blood, Alan loomed over him, without of hesitation, Alan brought his heel down.
CRACK
The brutal stomp didn't just break bone, the sheer force of the mana-enhanced blow drove the soldier's head into the ground, caving in the concrete and leaving a jagged crater where the man's consciousness used to be.
Alan pulled his foot out of the crater, and turned towards Gavin with a frown.
"Your soldiers are too weak." Alan stated, his voice carried no mockery, only a pure calm as if stating a mere fact.
This, however, hurt the soldier's ego far worse than any mockery ever would, but they didn't lash out.
Everyone saw what just happened to two of their fellow soldiers, even if his match with Edward was a fluke, his second match proved Alan wasn't normal.
The moved was precise and on point, he moved as if he has profound experience with combat, which makes no sense as a sheltered boy.
"I didn't even get to use my affinity..." Alan grumbled to himself.
'His what?' Gavin's and every soldier's thoughts froze for a moment.
Alan didn't know but unlocking an affinity when you just awakened was not ordinary, normally people achieve their affinity in core rank 2 or 3 when their core becomes strong enough to hold a unique mana signature.
Just the fact Alan even has an affinity at rank 1, tells everyone his core is absurdly strong.
At that moment everyone, even Gavin, shared the same thought.
'A monster.'
The Zevril clan produced a monster.
"Haha... what's with this generation?" But even more absurd was the fact Alan wasn't the first of this generation to be a monster of this level.
Julia Von Valenheart, the fourth princess of the Northern continent, awakened four years ago, at age 6 with an affinity.
Iris Wyn Caelis, daughter of one of the three grand duke clans, the grand ducal of Caelis, awakened three years ago at age 8 with an affinity.
Both of them would now be 10 and 11, placing them within the same generation as Alan.
But unknown to the world, there was another monster that was in the same generation.
"Lucian, come forth." Gavin called out.
At his call, someone's footsteps echoed.
Alan turned his head to evaluate the figure approaching him.
Young, someone around the same age as Alan, with equal height.
Pure white hair long enough to cover his ears and a pair of beautiful teal eyes.
The very air around him seemed chilly as he walked forward.
Once in front of him, Alan got a good look at his face.
The boy had appealing features which made it obvious he would grow up to be handsome, yet his face was expressionless.
"Alan, this is Lucian, he is 11 years old." Gavin introduced him.
Alan stared at Lucian, he could already tell Lucian was quite something.
'Awakened at 11 is impressive, but I can tell he was awakened long before that.'
He silently accessed Lucian in his mind.
He seemed to be quiet, but Alan already had a favourable impression on Lucian, he noticed him before, and he also saw how he didn't laugh or talk behind his back.
"Let's start." Alan spoke up and Lucian nodded.
"Start."
The air suddenly shifted and became cold like winter.
Alan paused, his gaze narrowing on Lucian.
The boy's teal eyes were no longer calm, they were burning stars, shining in a blinding teal light.
Lucian reached into the empty air, a violent vortex of frost gathered in his palm, swirling rapidly until a pure white shaft materialised, a massive, curved scythe and Alan knew it wasn't simply ice mana.
"A soul weapon? What the...?" A curse left his mouth before he even realised.
A soul weapon was something truly something uncommon, most people live their entire life without gaining one.
A one-in-a-million talent was standing right in front of him.
"Heh." Alan smirked. "To think there was someone like this so nearby."
Lucian was a child Gavin found during a mission three years back, and he decided to bring the child along on a whim.
But Gavin could've never predicted that same child would awaken at age 9 with not only an affinity but a soul weapon.
Alan didn't hesitate, he raised his two hands and his two fists ignited into azure flames.
The past three years Alan had been practicing to utilise his affinity in combat and use it for long durations, now was the time to see the fruit of his training.
Alan stomped, sending a tidal wave of blue fire surging across the floor, the heat so intense it turned the air into a shimmering haze.
Lucian didn't flinch, with a single, elegant sweep of the scythe, he cleaved the wall of fire in two.
But the moment the flames parted, Alan was already there in a blur of shadow.
Caught off guard, Lucian slammed his hand down, and a jagged glacier erupted from the floor to wall him off.
But Alan's momentum didn't stop, he pulled back his right hand, the blue flames deepening into a violet, his fist connected with the ice like a meteor.
And.
CRASH
The glacier shattered into dust and melted from the flames.
Alan burst through the debris, his fist already whistling toward Lucian's ribs
Lucian's eyes widened for a moment before he quickly regained his composure.
He coated his left forearm in a thick layer of frost to catch the burning punch, he caught Alan's right fist while his scythe was already swinging in an arc meant for Alan's neck.
Alan's smirk widened.
He extinguished the fire in his right hand instantly, shifting his mana into his left, the flames turned a vivid violet.
He swatted the scythe's blade aside with a heavy, flaming palm, dragging the weapon into the concrete.
With his right-hand, Alan forcefully gripped Lucian's left arm and yanked him towards him.
Again pulled along by the force, and both of his arms stuck, his stomach was wide open.
Alan pulled his left fist back once more and ignited his fist with a bright violet flames.
And launched a devastating left hook towards the unguarded torso.
BANG
A massive explosion of violet fire swallowed them both.
Lucian was launched like a cannonball, tumbling through the air before slamming his scythe into the ground to anchor himself, he skidded for meters, leaving a trail of frost.
"Hah...hah..." Lucian panted, yet for some reason his previous expressionless face was gone, instead he was grinning.
His shirt was burnt away, at that last moment Lucian covered his upper body entirely in ice to stop it, but even that wasn't enough to stop the flames from burning his clothes.
Lucian looked up and saw a figure approaching him through the smoke.
Alan stepped out of the haze, his violet eyes glowing with amusement.
"You blocked that, huh?" Alan spoke. "Hmm? Would you look at that, what happened to that cold face from before."
Alan smirked. "You some kind of battle junkie?"
Lucian didn't answer with words, he lunged.
Alan dodged the slash by shifting to the side, but that didn't stop the ground from erupting into glacial spikes.
Bending his knees, Alan launched himself skyward, using bursts of blue flame from his boots to clear the ice, in mid-air, he flipped, his leg extending like a descending hammer and violet flames spiralled around his heel.
Below, Lucian planted his feet, the ground beneath him freezing solid as he channelled every drop of his mana into the scythe, the white blade began to hum with a pale blue aura.
Alan rapidly descended, accelerated by the explosions trailing behind him.
The next moment, Alan's violet flame infused axe-kick met with Lucian's freezing scythe.
BAANNGG
Another explosion devastated the place far worse than before.
A shockwave of freezing wind and searing fire collided, creating a chaotic vortex that tore the training ground apart, before fading into a flickering blue blaze.
The majority of the soldiers were fine, after all most of them were stronger than Alan and Lucian, but those who were just awakened, they didn't fair well at all.
But one thing was for sure, the pure firepower of the two were beyond what an awakened should be capable of.
"Hey... Let's try getting along with that guy instead..."
"...Agreed."
Even those who were mocking Alan previously, were now sweating profusely, having fully realised just who they were making enemies of.
Before long, the smoke cleared, and the soldiers were surprised to see the results.
Alan was standing upright with edges of his elegant clothing torn, while in front of him Lucian knelt without any upper clothing.
"My mom got me this clothes..." Alan silently sulked to himself.
"Hey..." Lucian's low voice called out to Alan.
"Yeah?"
"Want to be friends?" Lucian asked.
"Yeah, why not."
With that, Lucian smiled before collapsing face first.
Alan's legs buckled for a moment, but he quickly straightened himself, he couldn't allow himself to show any weakness.
'Mana exhaustion, bloody hell.' In fact, the fight took everything he had, and he couldn't move at all.
He was standing stiffly while rapidly utilising mana breath to recover mana, but to others he looked incredibly intimidating.
Alan turned his head towards Gavin. "Did you measure my level?"
"Heh, Indeed I did." Gavin smiled.
'This is the sheltered bastard of the Zevril family? How does that even make sense.' while entertaining such thoughts.
Alan nodded with a pleasant smile before turning to the soldiers.
"Now you guys, we got some stuff to do."
Everyone who previously laughed at Alan froze.