The next day, in the Martial Arts Club.
Everyone from Martial Arts Club was currently standing in the hall close to the center arena where Lucas and I fought.
We were here because Lucas had something to announce, which is probably about the incoming tournament.
*Murmur* *murmur*
People were whispering to each other waiting for Lucas to show up.
Then after 5min waiting. Lucas arrived with a teacher who is in charge of the Martial Arts Club.
"Everyone, quiet please!" Lucas said after walking towards the center arena.
"I have an announcement to make! It is about upcoming Middle School tournament."
After Lucas said that everyone went quiet, waiting for his next words.
"I have decided which students will be on the team and which ones will be on the bench as backup fighters."
"Main fighters will be me, Kurogami Ichiro and Liam Taylor.
and backup fighters will be Mirk, Ryan, and Maria."
*murmur*
Everyone started whispering loudly after hearing the fighters and many took glimpses towards me, some with envy, some with approval, and some with anger.
"Quiet! The tournament will be held in 3 weeks in the City of Ramu and we will be fighting to decide who will represent the country of Gensa in the upcoming Continental fight where every country has one school to represent them.
We have got only top 14 as our best result, but this year we will try to win and become our country's representative and bring glory to our school!" Lucas said with enthusiasm
*Clap* *clap*
Students started to clap and excited for the upcoming tournament, but some were shaking their heads, thinking that this team won't stand a chance with only 1 Martial Leader.
and it seems that this upcoming tournament will decide which city will represent the country of Gensa against other countries located in the Continent of Arya.
and there are over 100 cities in the country of Gensa competing.
and over 200 countries located in Arya.
So that says a lot about how competitive it is.
…
Meeting went for another 30 minutes and I met our third member Liam as well.
He looked quite ordinary with brown hair and brown eyes with a slim build and an ordinary face.
Lucas told us that teams who place around 16-30 usually have only 1 Martial Leader and few Martial Soldiers.
But then teams in 1-16 usually have more than few Martial Leaders and last year the school which won had 3 Martial Leaders, but they had one 7th grader so that means it was his first year in Middle School and he was already at Martial Leader.
Lucas said that his strength could already be at Peak of Martial Leader or already close to Martial Captain which is truly terrifying.
My strength currently is Peak Martial Soldier or low Martial Leader if counted with physical level alone.
But with my martial arts skills alone, I can fight people stronger than my physical level.
Not sure where Lucas places, but it might be in the middle of Martial Leader.
It is about 3 weeks until the tournament and I was planning to improve my body as much as I can before the tournament.
When I fought Lucas, I was quite slow and sluggish, I was obviously not very comfortable with my current body.
I have to fix that before I try to get any stronger.
If my basics are bad from start, then it just gets harder to get stronger when I get older.
So for next week, I simply plan to fight as much as I can against other club members, to get this uncomfortable feeling away.
and it seems that my reflexes seem slightly better than in my previous life.
In my previous life, I was able to dodge any move, because I was able to analyze what kind of move my opponent would do, I didn't count on my reflexes at all, because I always felt like it was lacking.
But in the fight against Lucas, I used my reflexes on instinct to dodge some of the moves, which probably would have knocked me out.
And to use analyze ability, I needed to have decades of practice, before I could utilize it in my previous life.
But my current body is way too slow to perfectly use it yet.
I tried to use it against the fight against Lucas, but Lucas was way too fast for me to do it.
So I only used analyze with my Ironic Edge, which is perfect for it.
…
"Ichiro, what was the move you used against me to parry my attacks?" Lucas asked while we were walking towards the school canteen.
"Oh, it was one of my own techniques," I told him with a smile because there is no reason to really lie
"You have already made your own technique?!" Lucas asked with shock on his face
"Yes, but it still can be improved," I said with a smile, and what I said wasn't a lie. With the system, I can improve all my moves to perfection.
"I see… Not many can make their own techniques in middle school." He told me
"Lucas, how much strength you used against me?" I asked Lucas after we arrived at the school canteen to wait in line for food
"Hmm… about 60%."
'I see.. he is stronger than I thought.' I thought to myself with a wry smile
"Are you planning to register for the rank test?" He asked me after we took our food and went to one of the tables
"Yes, it is good that rank test is after the tournament so I can see where my strength is."
"Indeed, but don't risk it, test for Martial Leader is quite tricky."
"Oh, what kind of test it is?" I asked while looking towards Lucas who had a solemn expression
"Test for Martial Leader is to survive fighting against Savage Beast for 3 minutes," Lucas said with a grim face
"What?!" I said with shock on my face
"Yeah.. Savage Beasts strength is around the peak of Martial Leader
that is why you don't need to defeat it, but only to survive for 3 minutes
and since the fight is in one of the arena's, you can't hide or escape to anywhere." Lucas told me and it made me think of ways to complete that test.
if the fight is in one of the arena's, then it's around a 75×75 meter arena radius.
It's not much, but it's not little either.
and it depends also on which kind of Savage Beast you need to fight.
If it's one of the strength types, then it would be way easier than fighting against agility type.
"I barely survived, if it was another 5 seconds to survive, I would have probably failed," Lucas told while shrugging his shoulders, he continued eating.
…
"Ichiro, congratulations on being on the team!" Mark told me while we were sitting in the class waiting for class to start
"Thanks," I said with a smile while facing Mark
"I wasn't aware you being so strong and I didn't know you trained at all!" Mark said while looking at me in wonder
"Hehe.." I laughed it off while scratching the back of my head
"Well everyone has their own secrets~ but good luck man," Mark said and started concentrating on class because the teacher arrived.
…
After school, I was again at the Martial Arts club sparring against Ryan one of the backup fighters in the incoming tournament.
Ryan rushed with quick steps and did leg-sweep towards Ichiro, but Ichiro simply put his leg up to dodge the leg-sweep.
Ryan did a follow-up attack and did a fast kick towards the body of Ichiro.
but Ichiro crossed his arms in front of him to block the kick and did that successfully and completely stopped the kick.
"Tsk." Ryan clicked his tongue and took an ordinary fighting stance and started doing few ordinary punches trying to stay in the offensive.
[Ironic Edge]
But then Ichiro parried all the punches with Ironic Edge and that resulted in Ryan's posture being slightly off, but that was all Ichiro needed and did a quick step forwards and did body punch, successfully making Ryan grimace in pain
"Ugh.." Ryan grimaced in pain while holding his stomach in pain.
Ichiro didn't let that chance go by and rushed towards Ryan with both hands in front of his body in a boxing stance.
Ryan quickly stood up in pain, but it was too late.
Ichiro seeing that Ryan's posture is a mess, quickly did a quick sidekick towards the ribs of Ryan making his posture even worse and making Ryan grimace more in pain.
Ichiro then quick straight punch towards Ryan's body, but Ryan quickly managed to barely block it with his shaky hand, but his hand was now in bruises because the block wasn't perfect, it was quite shabby.
But Ichiro didn't plan that punch to hit his body,
Instead, he planned for this follow-up attack.
Ichiro quickly did a quick left hook and it went towards Ryan's jaw and it successfully hit it making Ryan fall down on the ground in pain while holding his jaw.
"Spar over! Winner Ichiro!" The teacher announced and quickly took Ryan towards the infirmary.
"Nice job Ichiro," Lucas told me while giving me a water bottle.
"Thanks." I took the water bottle.
"It seems you have improved."
"Could still be better.. some moves are quite sluggish."
"I have noticed that too, your flexibility isn't good enough for taekwondo," Lucas said while having thinking posture
"Yeah… need to improve that, it hurts to make some moves which need better flexibility…"
"Yeah, but your speed is increasing," Lucas said with a smile
'I didn't go all out against Ryan, it would look weird if I became twice as strong after overnight.' I thought to myself and I decided to hide my full strength before the tournament because those improvement pills made me way stronger than I was before and it would be just strange if I overnight became a Martial Leader fighter.
After training at martial arts club for another hour, I left for my house and after I was about 5min from my home, I heard a familiar beeping sound.
*Beep*
[New Quest!]
[Defeat Infamous Serial Killer One Arm Irkum!]
[Difficulty Level: Martial Leader]
[Quest Rewards: 100 EXP, 300 Coins, 10 Stat Points!]
[Quest Penalty: You get one of your arm cut off]
[Quest Failure leads to Irkum escaping and continuing his murdering spree!]
[Quest Time Limit: 30 Minutes!]
"Well, shit." I cursed aloud while looking at the Quest Penalty…
And after seeing the time limit I went in panic and started running trying to find One Arm Irkum.
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