...…

Leonard Fireheart vs Simone Bartolomeo

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The moment everyone saw that a single thought immediately entered their minds. – A battle between absolute strengths.

These two were now regarded as the guys who had the highest strength among all of them. And from the look of it, they were immediately going to see which of them was stronger right off the bat.

"Alright! Time to bet some points for Leo!" said Arthur as he was ready to put half of his points for Leonard.

But before he could even do that, Shin immediately stopped him. "Idiot! Didn't you hear that we can't just blindly bet on our friends even though we are confident that they are going to win?"

Arthur's fingers suddenly halted when he heard those words and looked at Shin. "Then how about enlightening me, Mr. Know-it-all?"

"Just like what that professor has said earlier, he wants us to have proper reasoning before making a gamble with our points," said Shin with a sneer.

"And we are going to answer based on what?" asked Arthur while frowning.

Hearing that, Shin couldn't help but release a helpless sigh before answering. "Are you paying any attention to what is happening? We already have enough information to give some reasonable assumptions."

"Earlier, each of us underwent a physical assessment exam in front of everyone. And the real reason why the academy let us have those exams along with the others is to purposely give us enough information to have some proper assessments of our own."

"Given that, we now have no reason to just blindly pick the people who are close to us," he added in the end before gambling his own points.

Curious, Arthur looked on Shin's virtual screen and saw that he was betting his points on Leonard. "F*ck! Look at this guy acting cool and all yet also come up with the same conclusion as choosing a friend!"

But despite hearing those criticizing comments, Shin kept his cool and looked at Arthur skeptically. "Don't put me on the same level as you. I at least came up with this conclusion after seeing the assessments that we have from Leo and that muscleman."

"When it comes to strength and body toughness, both of them are practically equal. But Leonard has a slight edge in terms of explosive speed while that bulk guy has more body mass. So, none of them have the absolute advantage in this battle, just a slight edge."

Ding!

Right after Shin said those words, both him and Arthur suddenly heard a ring from his virtual screen. And when they quickly looked at it, they saw an additional 100 points added to Shin's total accumulated points.

Seeing that, Shin looked at Arthur sneeringly while pointing his thumb on his virtual screen. It was as if he was saying – "See? I've told you." –

...

In the meantime, Leonard and Simone were already standing at the center of the gymnasium where their battle was going to take place.

"Looks like the academy is favoring me this time. To think that we are going to face each other right at the first match? I can't help but feel a little excited," said Simone while cracking his knuckles.

"You know, I'm really quite curious why are you acting so familiar with me. We don't even know each other that well," replied Leonard as he put on a pair of metal gauntlets alongside a pair of steel combat boots that seemed to be on the same set as the metal gauntlets.

Seeing those actions, Simone suddenly raised his eyebrows for a moment before smirking. "Looks like you want to take this a little seriously, huh?"

Then he put on a pair of steel knuckles before continuing. "As for your question earlier, I will remind you of the resentment that I have for you, Crimson Devil!"

After that, both of them put up their respective battle stance while waiting for the referee to tell them the start of the match.

Not long after, Professor Michael suddenly appeared in the battle stage before giving the two a quick look, making sure that both of them were ready.

"What an interesting batch of youngsters, their battle intents are already reaching the level of some veteran warriors," muttered the professor to himself before quickly swinging his hand downwards, giving out the single to start the duel. "Start!"

Bang!

Right after he announced the start of the battle, Leonard quickly kicked the ground beneath his feet and lunged forward.

'Demonic Blood Sutra: Devil's Footprints'

Unlike before, Leonard didn't leave any footprint on the spot where he was previously standing, signifying how hard the floor of the gymnasium was. But just like always, his body completely disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Old tricks don't always succeed," shouted Simone as he clenched his fist tightly before taking a deep breath. And without further ado, he suddenly punched his fist in the air in front of him which immediately created a powerful shockwave.

Boom!

But unlike what he was expecting, no one was hit by the shockwave that he was sent forward. Though, he suddenly heard Leonard's voice from below. "Haven't heard the old quote saying that 'Old is gold'?"

Lowering his head, Simone saw Leonard ducking in front of him and was currently in the middle of throwing a punch towards his abdomen.

Bang!

Then another shockwave was created right after he threw that punch. And based on the much stronger shockwave that was released, this punch was obviously more powerful compared to the one that Simone had thrown earlier.

But despite that being the case, Simone didn't seem to be affected by it nor got sent flying by that particular punch.

"Not bad to be a decent attack, but it is not strong enough to hurt me, so you better work harder if you want to defeat me," said Simone as his left hand tightly held on the fist that he just caught earlier.

"But if that is all you have, then I suggest you surrender now before you embarrass yourself," he added as he suddenly pulled Leonard a little closer to him while using his other arm to wrap around the latter.

But to his surprise, he suddenly saw Leonard refused to budge; it was as if his feet were fixed on the ground. Moreover, he also discovered the wrist of his other hand was being grabbed by Leonard and prevented it from moving.

"You talk too much for someone of your size," said Leonard before lifting one of his feet and kicking it straight forward.

Bang!

And this time, he got Simone clean and sent the guy fly towards the direction of his kick, parallel to the ground.

Bang! Swoosh!

During his flight, Simone heard the sharp sound of the air being ripped apart by something. And when he was forced to slightly lower his head midair, he saw Leonard chasing after him with great speed.

Not long after Leonard caught up with him and quickly spun midair before borrowing the momentum of that spin to throw a downward punch at Simone.

Bang!

Simone managed to cross his arms in front of his face to block that punch in time. But given that he was not in a position to properly block that attack, he was still smashed on the ground after being hit by it.

Leonard was about to follow his attack with a downward kick but he quickly abandoned the idea when he suddenly sensed a threat coming from below.

During those critical moments, Simone still managed to find a small window to counterattack and managed to grab it perfectly.

Right after he hit the ground, he took advantage of the force from Leonard's previous attack that was pressing on his upper body downwards to lift his legs in the air and threw a kick at Leonard.

At the same time, Leonard bent his body in the air and quickly rolled to the side midair, barely dodging the kick that was coming after him.

Ta-ta!

Then he quickly jumped away right after his feet touched the ground because he saw Simone was planning to stumble him with a quick sweep kick right after getting back on his feet.

But immediately after that, Leonard leaped forward once again while Simone was still in the middle of standing up from his previous actions.

When he got near, he quickly raised his right knee, trying to strike Simone's face with it. But the latter seemed to be expecting that already since he managed to block the sudden attack with his arm.

After that, the two paused their actions as they maintained their current positions for a brief moment before quickly engaging in an intense melee battle.

Their exchanges were too intense especially that they were putting a lot of strength into each of their attacks. And every time their fists collided with each other, a powerful shockwave would always spread outwards and make the whole area shake a little.

In their fight, Leonard seemed to have a slight advantage since he was the one who was landing more punches. Well, that was to be expected since he had a nimbler body and could easily do more complex maneuvers during the battle.

But even if that was the case, Simone seemed to be unaffected by any of the attacks that Leonard threw as he was there were no visible injuries on his body; not even a scratch.

"Tsk! His 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' is quite troublesome," muttered Leonard before disengaging from the battle.

After that, he quickly took another battle stance which was a little different from what he had previously before releasing a much denser Internal Qi.

Seeing that, Simone immediately understood what Leonard was planning to do and immediately did the same. "So, are we now done with the warm-up? Then I guess it is finally time for the real deal."

...…