028 THE WAGER
The boy who had interrupted the orientation strode confidently toward the stage. Even Principal Misk stepped aside for him respectfully.
He was definitely a VIP student.
The crowd buzzed with whispers. Most of them were new students, confused as to why the principal would show deference to another student.
"Lukas Veyran," Principal Misk said sternly. "Why are you disrupting my orientation speech?"
"I'm here to challenge Damen Dark—the bastard who injured my cousin Kalem!" Lukas roared, jabbing a finger in Damen's direction.
"He's calling you out," Zairgid muttered beside Damen.
Zairgid had no real reason to attend the orientation—he was not a freshman, and he had long since gone through this ritual. He was only there to scope out the new girls.
"Who's this idiot?" Damen asked casually.
Zairgid smirked. "Idiot? No. He's from the Veyran family. Unlike the bastard you fought yesterday, this one's not so easy to deal with."
Damen wasn't impressed. He pulled out his phone and casually aimed it at Lukas. A quick scan displayed his stats:
Name: Lukas Veyran
Rank: G
Strength: 13 | Charm: 6 | Meta: 12 | Command: 11
Damen was stunned. "This guy's stats are higher than mine," he muttered.
"Of course," Zairgid replied. "He's been here two years. His stats have grown, and with family training, he probably has powerful meta skills too."
"Noted," Damen said calmly.
"But this isn't the time for a challenge," Principal Misk protested. Even the principal seemed to bend beneath Lukas' demands.
"A fight might be unavoidable", Damen thought.
Damen knew what he had to do. He pulled out his list, his favorite list and began Acquiring.
Normally, he avoided draining from the patrons at Heroes' Gym, where he mined for coins. But this time, he had no choice.
"Acquire." "Acquire." "Acquire." "Acquire."
Meanwhile in the Heroes' Gym, many patrons suffered severe migraines for no apparent reason. They don't feel the effects of Damen's acquiring as mental attacks because their Ranks are much higher than Damen.
But they feel some pain nonetheless.
On the other hand, Damen's stats shifted before his eyes:
Strength: 20 | Charm: 10 | Meta: 16 | Command: 16
Damen smiled. "Let's see who can beat me in this school now with my new stats."
"Hey you! Answer me!" Lukas roared across the field.
Students scattered at once, leaving only Zairgid standing at Damen's side.
Damen shouted back, "I'll fight you… but only with a wager. Otherwise, it's pointless."
The demand stunned Lukas. Few dared to negotiate with him, let alone make conditions. But he wasn't about to back down.
"What do you want to wager?" he asked.
Damen raised several Aur cards into the air. "Fifty thousand Aurs."
Zairgid's jaw dropped. He knew he was a genius, but he hadn't expected his neighbor to be so wealthy. "You have so much money?..."
Damen had scraped it together—twenty thousand won at the MMA Betting Station, the rest stolen from Big Boss and his thugs. Less living and gym expenses, this was everything he had left but it was still an astronomical sum for a student.
Lukas faltered. He hadn't brought that kind of money with him to school.
"I'm the challenger. There's no rule that says I must pay a wager!" he shouted back, red-faced.
"The great heir of the Veyran family is unable to cover a bet against a new student", the crowd murmured.
"No money, no fight," Damen said flatly while Zairgid laughs.
Humiliation twisted Lukas' face.
He challenged Damen publicly.
Backing out now would destroy his pride. He gestured angrily at a group of lackeys. They scrambled forward, gathering Aur cards from their pockets until Lukas held a bundle roughly equal to Damen's offer.
Damen passed his own cards to Zairgid for safekeeping. "He'll hold the wager," Damen said.
Lukas hesitated—fifty thousand Aurs was his allowance for the year.
"Don't you trust the Arkuoma family?" Damen asked smoothly.
Grinding his teeth, Lukas gave up the cards. The Arkuomas were respected. Zairgid wouldn't dare cheat and steal the money.
----
With the wager set, the students cleared the seats in front of the stage, forming a makeshift arena. Principal Misk and Zairgid remained seated on the platform to oversee the duel.
Damen and Lukas stepped into the ring.
Damen recalled his fight with Kalem yesterday.
If Kalem was any clue, Lukas must be a kinetic user. Family skills are never arbitrary or unfocused—they are always refined into a single theme.
His family's theme must be kinetic force. Damen has seen most of these kinds of skills being practiced in Heroes' Gym and understood them.
Sure enough, Lukas charged forward.
"If he's running… closing the distance, his power must have a range limit", Damen reasoned.
At ten meters, Lukas skidded to a halt, waving his hands to unleash a kinetic blast.
A powerful surge of force thundered outward. The crowd gasped, certain Damen would be hurled away.
But when the dust cleared, Damen stood untouched—several meters to the side. He had dashed clear of the attack at the exact moment Lukas cast it.
Principal Misk's eyes widened. "That's… Flash Dash. But how is he controlling it so precisely? Even graduates can't shorten the distance like that."
Flash Dash was an escape technique, normally hurling its user far away. To control its distance—to blink just a few meters with such accuracy—was almost unheard of.
Zairgid chuckled beside the principal. "Well, this neighbor of mine never stops surprising me."
"Nobody escapes my Kinetic Blast!" Lukas roared.
"Don't mistake me for the scarecrow in your backyard, idiot," Damen shot back.
It was true—Lukas had honed his skill against stationary targets in training grounds, not against someone who could move with Damen's speed and precision.
Damen had trained for months fighting against wind tunnels and all kinds of obstacle machines and sometimes live fights with peers… he was good enough to deal with any inexperienced fighter.
"He's too fast… what do I do?" Lukas thought, sweat beading on his forehead.
The crowd began to jeer, their voices cutting into his pride. Missing again and again was humiliating. Panic threatened to take hold—until he remembered.
"I still have one skill left."
Winds surged around Lukas, swirling faster and faster until they spun into a cyclone. The roaring vortex expanded outward, threatening to swallow the entire arena. Damen had been able to dodge individual blasts, but now the cyclone covered everything.
There was nowhere left to run.
"Damn it… this cyclone will tear me apart," Damen muttered as the gale closed in.
The wind whipped violently, pulling at him, dragging him toward the storm's center. Just before it struck, Damen felt the strange pull of the air gathering around his body with an instant of recognition.
And then, instead of panic, he smiled.