Seeing their opponent come at her so aggressively, Yu Yang and the others all tensed up, even more nervous than if they were fighting themselves.
Lu Cheng had gone down so quickly that, just like the autumn class, they had barely processed it. Though they were on Wen Jing's side, rationally, they still believed it was mainly because her opponent had underestimated her and wasn't strong.
But the other side certainly wouldn't make that mistake again. Kevin, who had stepped forward, was clearly one of the class's top students. Having come from School District Planet, they could never mistake that air.
"Let me see what this former genius can do."
Unlike Lu Cheng, Kevin didn't have so much going on in his head. Before he had even finished speaking, he took the initiative, stepping forward as his exceptionally muscular upper body bore down on Wen Jing with the force of a landslide.
His build alone made it clear that fist techniques had been Kevin's specialty even before awakening. After awakening, he had also taken an elective combat technique, Energy-Charging Fist.
"Whoosh-"
His fist, the size of a clay pot, whistled sharply through the air. Even without a combat technique, an ordinary punch from him now delivered over 1,000 kg of impact force. A single basic attack could overturn a car.
Kevin intended to defeat Wen Jing in one move, just as she had done to Lu Cheng.
But when they actually met, Wen Jing leaned backward. His fist swept past two centimeters from the tip of her nose, the wind stirring a lock of hair over her forehead.
Using the same backward lean, she simultaneously kicked toward Kevin's jaw.
Kevin immediately brought his fist across to block, only for Wen Jing to abruptly change moves again. As though she had regretted her attack the moment she launched it, she feinted, slid back, then pushed off the ground and landed a kick to his side.
"Bang!"
That seemingly spontaneous kick was enhanced with energy. It struck Kevin precisely in a weak spot, sending him staggering several steps sideways.
"Ugh..." Kevin merely grunted before immediately swinging both fists to meet Wen Jing as she closed in.
Before awakening, this would have affected his movements, but his endurance and recovery speed were now dozens of times what they had been.
"Swish!"
They clashed again, and Kevin's attack missed once more. Yet instead of feeling frustrated, he curled his lips into a smile.
Wen Jing could hit him many times and he would be fine. He only needed to hit her once to seriously injure her!
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The two figures crossed and clashed in the ring. After only a few dozen exchanges, Kevin could no longer keep smiling.
He hadn't hit Wen Jing even once, while she really had hit him many times.
Was it too late to take back what I thought? No matter how thick my health bar is, I can't take it dropping nonstop!
Meanwhile, the smiles on Tan Wenshan and the other spectators gradually turned to exasperation.
"Wait, what's going on?"
"How did that even miss?!"
"Use your combat technique! Did you learn Energy-Charging Fist just for the credits?"
From their perspective on the sidelines, Wen Jing surpassed Kevin in neither speed nor strength. Yet fighting her made Kevin look like a complete meathead. Every move looked so clumsy that he might as well have been serving himself up as her sparring dummy.
Wen Jing's moves weren't anything earth-shattering, either. They were all just fighting techniques from School District Planet's textbooks. Watching from the sidelines, they couldn't help thinking, I'd have finished this ages ago.
Being outclassed in hand-to-hand combat was one thing. After all, Wen Jing had been known as a genius and had built a solid foundation before awakening. What was truly absurd was that Kevin, an awakened fighter who had learned a combat technique, kept refusing to use it, insisting on matching close-combat skills with a new student who only knew one secret energy amplification technique. What was that if not something wrong with his brain?
Listening to his companions' insults, his face bruised and swollen, Kevin felt so furious his lungs might burst.
Do you think I don't want to use my combat technique?
During another gap between attacks, Kevin adjusted his stance and mobilized the energy inside him, beginning to charge his arms-
The next instant, Wen Jing, who had been retreating, suddenly changed her movement. She turned and swung a fist at his face with lightning speed.
Caught off guard, Kevin had both his physical movement and the circulation of his internal energy interrupted at once.
"You idiot! Why are you spacing out?!"
Again! It's like this every time!
He began charging again-
"Bang!"
Wen Jing was back!
"Aaaaaah..."
What do you backseat fighters know about having your skill forcibly interrupted every single time you try to use it?!
Kevin's head throbbed. Roaring in fury, he threw wild punches, all of which Wen Jing easily dodged.
With a back kick, Kevin felt himself launched into the air.
In that instant, he inexplicably felt a sense of release...
"Useless!"
No one felt regret or caution over Kevin's defeat. The next challenger was Wan Qi, ranked eighth in the autumn class and a specialist in kicks.
A short while later...
"What are you doing?!"
"Are you acting? How can you be this bad!"
Seventh place, sixth place, fifth place...
"Are you throwing these matches?!"
By the time Tan Wenshan came to his senses, he discovered that the autumn class's top students had fed themselves to her one after another, leaving only one chance.
Before entering the ring, every one of them had been certain they could do it. Once inside, they seemed to suddenly lose coordination in all four limbs and give away a free kill at light speed.
When Tan Wenshan accused them of throwing matches at the end, it was no longer mere mockery. His brain, recently filled with all the political maneuvering and conspiracy theories he had learned from his older cousin, genuinely began to wonder whether Wen Jing or someone else had bribed these people specifically to mess with him.
Then he looked toward Charles, who stood beside him and was closest to him. Charles ranked first in the autumn class.
Arms folded, Charles met Tan Wenshan's gaze without looking away. "I won't be going in. You know I specialize in saber techniques."
Hearing Charles's explanation, Tan Wenshan's furrowed brow relaxed.
That was true. Charles specialized in saber techniques, and naturally, weapons couldn't be used on an occasion like this. Otherwise, it would become a different matter altogether.
If it escalated to the academy level, even the student council, which handled punishments for fights between students, wouldn't be able to cover for them.
Besides, Charles was still first in their class even without using his saber techniques. Losing to Wen Jing because of that would be truly embarrassing.
Seeing that Tan Wenshan's suspicions had faded, Charles discreetly glanced at his classmates in the pool and inwardly sighed in relief.
Their exchange had taken a little time, and Wen Jing looked over from the other side.
"Anyone left?"
There was no particular mockery in her voice. Her tone was casual, as though she would leave as soon as they said no.
The simpler her words were, the more they enraged Tan Wenshan, who was already seething.
"Who says there isn't? I'll take you on myself!" He stared at Wen Jing with a sinister expression.
Tan Wenshan ranked third in his class. He felt that if he hadn't devoted some of his attention to the student council, taking first place would have been easy.
He had actually wanted to enter the ring earlier. He had kept holding back because he remembered his older cousin's teachings about maintaining his status, not doing everything personally, and how the people under him were there to be used.
Now Charles, ranked first, couldn't conveniently fight, while the second-ranked student was making a breakthrough and hadn't attended the welcome party. With Wen Jing provoking him like this, Tan Wenshan finally reached the limit of his patience.
He hadn't completely lost his head. During Wen Jing's last fight against the fourth-ranked student, he had spotted openings in her defenses repeatedly. He couldn't understand why the person fighting her couldn't see them.
Besides, Wen Jing had traded blows back and forth in all five previous fights, so she must have expended considerable energy. From any perspective, entering now meant Tan Wenshan would be picking up an easy kill.
Seeing Tan Wenshan personally enter the ring stirred up the spectators again.
The autumn class's senior students naturally regained their confidence, while the winter class's new students sweated nervously, silently praying that Wen Jing would hold on.
Although she had won five matches in a row, watching each one had given them the same impression as Tan Wenshan: with just a little less luck, Wen Jing would have been the loser.
Of course, not everyone in the winter class thought that way. Some were also praying for Wen Jing to lose: the children of financial conglomerates who had joined the student council directly, along with the new students who had taken its assessment and were working here as servers.
The servers felt this most strongly. It was precisely because they were stronger than the others in their class that they could get through the welcome party at such a relatively small cost. If Wen Jing won and the others didn't have to jump into the pool, they would end up looking like complete clowns instead.
"It's over."
Tan Wenshan slowly stepped into the dueling ring. His energy had begun circulating the moment he moved his legs, and by the time he spoke, it had already finished gathering in his hand.
Combat technique: Concealed Bomb!
He wasn't stupid. Even if he looked down on the classmates Wen Jing had defeated, he didn't want to suffer an unexpected defeat himself.
Since Wen Jing won every time in close combat, couldn't he simply use ranged attacks?
Concealed Bomb was a combat technique worth 60 points. Its principle was to compress energy into bombs with extremely faint fluctuations that were difficult to detect, then throw them. Upon contact with an object, they would trigger a series of unstable explosions.
It wasn't an academy elective, but a private course he had bought from the points shop.
Only conglomerate heirs like them could completely disregard maximizing their credit returns and have enough points to learn additional combat techniques.
Three fully charged bombs flicked from his fingertips. One headed straight toward her, while the other two blocked off her escape routes to the left and right. They would continue exploding after hitting the ground.
But the next instant, Tan Wenshan saw the corners of Wen Jing's mouth rise.
Her figure flashed. Rather than moving left or right, she leaped straight forward, precisely avoiding their trajectories as though she could clearly see the three bombs that even Tan Wenshan himself couldn't see.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
The three bombs hit the ground, blasting fragments from the alloy glass flooring into the air. The spectators hurriedly backed away and scattered.