Thea moved imdiately, launching forward at a speed I could barely track from my spot on the sidelines. She struck low, a sharp kick aid right behind her opponent’s knees.
The guy collapsed with an annoyed grunt, forced down for only a second before Thea doubled down, driving a brutal kick into his side.
"Rng!" A sharp exhale, frustration clear in his voice.
My excitent shot up just watching her.
It was the first ti I actually really looked at Thea.
She had an athletic yet lean build that hinted at a life spent in disciplined training. She wasn’t overly muscular, but her posture carried an air of confidence and control that made her presence hard to ignore.
Her hair was a deep chestnut brown, cascading just past her shoulders in loose, slightly uneven waves, as if she trimd it herself with a small blade. A few rebellious strands always seed to fall over her forehead.
But it was her eyes that stood out the most. Sharp, almond-shaped, and an intense shade of stormy gray.
She felt the success of her attack. She moved again, putting everything into a follow-up punch straight for his jaw.
A barely perceptible, but unmistakable flicker. For the briefest second, a pulse of brown energy shimred over his skin just before her fist connected.
And… nothing. No reaction. No stagger. No struggle.
He just… stood effortlessly.
The realization hit Thea first. Her eyes widened slightly, muscles tensing, a split-second hesitation the kind even I knew you can’t afford in a fight.
She tried to take a couple steps back.
"Sorry." His voice carried hints of a mixture of frustration and sha. "I’m not letting you go after that."
Thea barely managed to shift her weight back before his hand lashed out, gripping her arm.
No one in the crowd made a sound.
She twisted, feet bracing, trying to wrench free, but it was pointless. His grip completely unshakable.
Then, without warning, he sent out a single punch.
No dramatic wind-up or crazy display of power. Just a solid, controlled strike straight into her abdon.
Thud.
Thea… just collapsed.
Her body went completely slack, like a ragdoll.
He let her go, stepping back as she crumpled onto the mat.
He had no words or expression for her. After a brief pause, he simply turned and walked away.
Without thinking, I ran in and crouched beside her. Her eyes were shut, her breathing erratic.
"Thea? Are you ok—"
"No." Her arms curled tighter around her stomach.
"You want to do anything—"
"No talking." She interrupted.
I hesitated, glancing up at the instructor, running a hand through my hair. "Uhhh. I don’t think she wants to move."
He scratched the back of his head, looking… guilty? Regretful?
Without addressing her condition, he turned to the others. "Everyone, move over there. We will continue until everyone has fought."
The group shifted, following him to another section of the room, not as open as the center, but maybe he actually did feel bad enough to deal with the inconvenience.
A few monts passed and Thea’s breathing steadied, but she still didn’t say anything. So, I broke the silence first.
"So… this is what we gotta deal with until we get our systems?" If I even get one.
"...Yep."
I frowned, replaying the fight in my head. Her complete dominance at first, and then… the sudden reversal after that weird flicker of light.
"Thea, what happened? What did that guy do?"
She groaned. "Ughhh. Do you not know what no talking ans?" But despite her protest, she sat up.
I t her tired gaze and answered, completely deadpan. "No."
She sighed. "Cultivation is slow, Peter, or at least, slower than systems. On top of that, we can’t raise our stats permanently, only temporarily by diffusing energy into them."
My brain latched onto the word slow, dragging up my earlier question. "Is it normal for the World Force to not fully convert?"
She nodded. "It’ll get easier, but it’ll never be much more than a fraction of what you absorb."
She shifted to a more comfortable position before continuing. "And as for what happened? That…" she exhaled, "is sothing else we can only look forward to. Skills."
Of course. The system would give you skills.
Sothing we probably couldn’t use without one.
I leaned forward slightly. "How do you get them?"
Thea gave what had to be her fourth or fifth odd look today. "What do you an? Completing missions, obviously."
…Right. I was not doing a great job of convincing her I belonged here, but I brushed it off.
"So," I gestured toward the group still brawling in the distance, "they get to follow a guide that gives them skills, increases their stats, and so on. While we…?"
She sighed. "We have to train, gather energy, and get beat up."
I nodded. "Great."
She ignored my sarcasm and crossed her arms. "You should consolidate your gains. It’s not strictly necessary," she continued, slipping effortlessly into teacher mode, "but it’s also good practice for diffusion."
I smirked. "Got it, Grandmaster Thea."
Her entire expression told just how much she hated my bestowal of her new title.
"Just practice moving your Internal Strength," she huffed, clearly deciding she was too mature to argue. She went silent after that, probably sinking into her own cultivation considering the closed eyes.
anwhile, my mind drifted back to what she had said earlier, words that still hung heavy in the air, right alongside the mory of her fight.
If she wasn’t strong enough to stand against them… where did that leave ?
Even if I trained relentlessly, if Thea, who was so much more skilled and experienced, couldn’t keep up with system users… How fast could they really progress?
And how slow would I be?
A gnawing sense of dread settled in my stomach, but at the sa ti, sothing else stirred. A stubborn ember of determination flickered to life.
I focused inward again.
What was once a re spark was now a thin stream of power. Still small and weak, but larger than before.
However, to my dismay, the World Force had already fully dispersed. Off to wherever it disappeared to. Just… not in .
I honed in on my stream, trying to will it to move.
It resisted at first, stubborn and slow, refusing to follow my lead, but eventually it flowed.
Separating from my Nexus, I guided it downward. As it moved, I could feel the power spreading, if only just.
I pushed it further, forcing it further until I could begin, with great focus, to circle it from leg to leg. It was incredibly difficult to force it away from the Nexus, and the further I got, the more resistance I t with.
I felt the energy in my body pulse, a limited surge of power spreading through . If I had to guess, I could probably move faster than I could even a second ago.
But another thought hit . How the heck was I supposed to do this while fighting?
This was going to be hard. Like, really hard. but I wasn’t about to quit now. Not much of a choice anyway. At least for now, I felt like I had a direction, a path forward.
I opened my eyes after so practice, and almost as if we had planned it, Thea opened hers at the sa ti.
I glanced toward the other group. They were struggling with the limited space they had, their movents growing more awkward as they tried to adjust.
"Maybe we should go back to where we were?"
Thea followed my gaze. "Hmmm… Fine, I guess."
Sothing about her tone told she wasn’t exactly excited about making things easier for them. And honestly? I wasn’t sure I blad her.
The guy she and I fought were complete jerks, but the rest? They were just training like we were. They didn't have to suffer just to spite a couple bad eggs.
We both stood and walked back to our previous, more isolated spot.
It didn’t take long for the others to return to theirs, and I even caught a brief nod from the instructor as we sat.
Thea stretched her arms casually before turning to , a mocking glint in her eye.
"Let’s work on so more drills." She placed a hand over her heart dramatically. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a sad loss in my entire life."
Ouch.
I opened my mouth to fire back, but… yeah. It was a pretty bad debut match for my fighting career, so instead, I just sighed and got to work.
As we moved, mimicking the earlier drills and adding a few new ones, the silence stretched between us.
I got tired of it quickly. "So, we’re not gonna match them in speed or power, right?"
Thea effortlessly dodged a punch I threw at full speed, barely sparing a glance. "Yep."
For , the answer was simple. It was smarter to train using the system. My solution? "Then we just have to train harder, not smarter."
She shot a sideways glance, her lips twitching, dangerously close to forming a smile.
"Exactly.” She paused and spoke terrifying words. “We should practice so real sparring.”
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