--
"...wait! You sensed it?"
Chrissy exclaid in surprise after learning about Cedric's comnts during her match.
It had been known that aside from hanging out and having a good ti, Chrissy and Erica don't really involve him in their training, much less talk about it. This ant that Cedric learned that much just from sheer observation because they didn't tell him anything about their prowess.
Sure, Cedric could've done so research about them. After all, they have public profiles that give out certain, but not all, information about them. However, with the ti they've spent with him, they know that Cedric isn't like that.
He's focused on his personal growth and would only do that towards an opponent, the girls aren't one so he wouldn't do sothing like that.
Which essentially ant that Cedric really did discern all of this just by observing the match.
"I could've sworn that the concoction was invisible to the senses. Even I have to be careful of handling it. Turns out that it wasn't..." Chrissy pouted.
"It actually was, you know?" Francis interjected. "Hell, if he didn't point it out, we would never know. And that's saying a lot since our Tier level's fairly even and he's just Tier 3...no offense, by the way."
His last words were for Cedric who just waved his hand. Cedric then turned to Chirssy and said:
"He's right. It's barely noticeable."
"But you still sensed it, though?"
"More like slled it, actually." Cedric replied sheepishly.
"Slled it?" Chrissy was gobsmacked. "From all the way here?"
"Mn. I told you my senses are sharper than most." Cedric shrugged.
"You sure have..." Chrissy humd, "That's fairly obvious from how you perford during the Entrance Exam. I just wasn't expecting it to be that sharp. I thought you were saying that on the basis of your Tier...like your senses are sharper than most Tier 3s out there, that's how I understood it. I didn't expect that you were actually referring to people in general, regardless of Tiers."
Cedric just smiled and refused to comnt. Inwardly, he thought that this wasn't really a place to discuss this because he wanted to keep low-profiled. That's why he isn't saying anything.
Chrissy may or may not have sensed this, but she did change the subject: "What did it sll like then? My concoction, I an."
"Sharp mint." He said, scrunching his nose a bit. "Like, really sharp mint, the kind that hurts your nose."
Chrissy blinked upon hearing his words. Thoughts flashed into her mind, more specifically about the formula she used for her concoction, she was trying to think of the possible reasons why he would sll sothing like that when there wasn't any ingredient that slled even remotely close to mint.
"Don't stress your pretty head over it. It's not a big deal right now." Cedric snapped her out of her thoughts. "Like we said, the poison's already invisible to the senses. I'm different so I don't count."
Chrissy snorted at that and said: "Yeah, that sounds about right. Whatever, then."
She says this but inwardly, she's still bothered and Cedric could tell.
'I guess she's really serious about her craft.' He thought to himself. 'That's admirable. She'll probably try her best to improve the formula until I can no longer sense it, which is a good thing but not right now since we're supposed to be relaxing.'
He used the word 'relaxing' here very loosely because of the Ranking Matches, but given how short the battles have been, none of the participants so far have been tired. Besides, he does plan on spending ti with the girls later so he wasn't exactly lying when he said 'relaxation'.
A match occurred right after Chrissy's. According to Erica, this was between the 10th place against the 2nd. Sufficed to say, that didn't take long at all. 2 minutes was all it took for the 10th place to dispiritedly walk down the stage in defeat.
Once the match concluded, he noticed Elric making his way down the stage whilst the 2nd place, who was also the winner of the previous match, didn't even bother stepping out and just waited for him.
"Oh yeah, here we go." Darwin excitedly muttered.
"Shit, I can already sense the tension between them. When was the last ti they clashed anyway?" Floyd asked.
"...six months, I think? Not particularly, sure. We've been busy with missions and Claudio entered seclusion since. Now that I say that, hey! This is actually the first ti I've seen him in a while. Did he spend that long in seclusion?" Francis comnted.
"He might have." Chrissy humd, "I an, he's always been like that anyway. Going into long-term seclusions to increase his strength, I don't know why he does it and I don't particularly care."
"Yeah, he does seclude himself pretty often. I heard that that's how his Teacher wants him to train or whatever." Darwin chid in.
"But hey, at least their schedules matched now. And once again, we're about the see them clash. Hoo, I'm excited." Francis exclaid.
Cedric blinked as he heard their conversation, he looked towards Erica - who saw his inquisitive gaze, she sighed and explained the situation shortly.
"You see, Captain Elric and that guy - Claudio Skylark, are also rivals like Chrissy and Miranda." She stated, "They're both Tier 9s and have been competing for the top spot since we were freshn. In addition, just like us, Claudio is also the leader of an OWET, and in extension, he brings his mbers into this rivalry. Hell, even their Teachers are rivals as well."
"They fight as if they want to kill each other every ti, that's why the boys are looking forward to it." Erica rolled her eyes at this.
Chrissy who's been listening to this, leaned in and whispered to him.
"You know, I actually think that this their way of showing their love for each other, like, a courting of so sorts." She said, causing Cedric's eyebrow to raise.
"You see, Claudio's socially inept. He was raised by extre traditionalists from what I heard, you know, the toxic patriarchy shit? That one. I heard fought his way to adulthood and had no ti to develop social skills. It's only when he's about to get enrolled here that he learned so, even during our freshn year, he had to take a course that teaches him how to act like a human."
Cedric blinked upon hearing that. He knows that Chrissy is trapping him in this gossip but makes no effort to resist it. It's not that harmful, anyway.
"Since fighting is all he knows, Claudio uses it to convey his feelings to Captain. Like a unique way of courting, if you catch my drift. Unfortunately for him, Captain was raised normally so he doesn't get it. In his mind, Captain Elric thinks that this dude was just nuts, and if it weren't for the resources, he wouldn't get close, much less talk, to Claudio." Chrissy giggled after saying this.
"And you didn't bother informing your captain of this...assumption of yours?" Cedric asked her.
"Why would I?" Chrissy laughed crisply at his question. "If I did, I would lose so source of gossip and entertainnt. How do you expect to live without that?"
"..."
"I actually think it's cute, you know?" She said softly, "It's like I'm witnessing a budding romance. Like a live-action 'enemies-to-lovers' trope. Seriously, it's so good."
Cedric shook his head in exasperation and placed his attention back on the arena. He decided to leave Chrissy to her imagination since it had nothing to do with him plus it's harmless.
At the stage, Elric and Claudio glared at each other. Their competitive spirits rousing from slumber.
Elric was clad in his heavy armor. He held a hamr on his right hand and a shield on the left. anwhile, Claudio was wearing animal leather as his armor, his headgear was the skinned remains of a bear that looked alive. His massive club rested on his shoulders as he matched Elric's energy.
As the countdown ca close to ending, their fighting spirit rose.
Elric's aura was like a mountain; tall, intimidating, and extrely heavy. Even as he rely stood there, he could feel the sheer montum he had and his immovable stance.
Claudio's on the other hand felt uncontrolled and wild. Like an awakened beast from the very depths of the forest leaving its nest to hunt so prey. Claudio's entire body was doused with killing intent that was almost manifesting in reality. It slled like blood and death.
'3...2...1! Fight!'
BOOOM!
Both of them disappeared from Cedric's view with how fast they moved. He only saw their weapons making contact briefly before a shockwave caused the arena to cave in. They clashed nurous tis within a second and Cedric's senses couldn't keep up at all.
He could, however, feel the aftermath of their clash because even with the many formations protecting the audience, the aftershocks of their clash still seep out.
Cedric's eyes widened and his heart lurched. He knew that if he were to receive at least one of those blows, he'd be dead. Yet even with that in mind, he could feel excitent and thrill watching the fight, even though he couldn't keep up for the most part.
'Huh, so this is what a Tier 9 fight looks like.'
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