The events that lined up for Noah following the Promotion Battle were -

The Adventurer Guild mission requested by Solomon Glass in 6 months.

The Grand Fighting Tournament, held in Athena City in 9 months.

Noah had assured Marty that he would make it to the participating candidates this year. So in about 8 months, he will have to return and fight for the position.

But that's all in the future, things Noah will have to eventually attain. Right now, he has set his complete focus on training for the Promotion Battle. This battle was not like previous battle simulations. The Promotion Battle will be an actual combat with weapons in an enclosed arena.

The participants will be wearing the Battle Suits that record all health statistics along with the HP. The weapons used can only affect the HP and other factors, it will not cause any damage to the student wearing the Battle Suit. Only an EQ-30 above can destroy this type of Battle Suits used in the Promotion Battle. But since all students were way below that threshold, there would be no harm done to the ones wearing them. Each candidate had an overall HP of 2000.

The Professors would also be monitoring the Suit statistics from outside. Anything over danger level would prompt immediate action. Also as a Battle Suit HP goes down to 0, it will prompt immediately with an alert and the enclosing shield of the arena will also open marking the end of the match. Another way to end a match is to surrender or if the participant faints.

Other than these 2 scenarios, it was prohibited for anyone to interfere with the match. The rules were relayed via the Holo devices to each challenger during these 3 days of break.

Noah concentrated fully on training. He even raised his G-Tek device to 4x gravity. It was tough initially but he adjusted to it in half a day. His strength training with Marty was yielding great results after raising the gravity. Marty was also quite happy with the performance Noah has shown in the exams and increased the intensity of training by folds.

Marty had seen a glimmer of hope in Noah. This guy could achieve something that they had only dreamed of. So he spared no effort to train Noah.

“Now now. How much are you gonna enjoy with such lightweight lifting? Increase the weight...” Marty scolded Noah and at the same time smiled in his heart.

Thus went the training with Marty, involving hard effort, energy and exertion.

On the other side, training with Angelika had come to a halt. She didn’t want to train with Noah these 3 days.

“I am not getting why you are saying this?” asked Noah.

“If it's about what Melv said, it was just a joke on his part. Please don’t be mad.”

“Who said I am mad?”

“You are not? Okay.”

“No, I mean I am mad about that...that thing. Not the training.”

Noah was clueless. “What is she saying?”

“Let me make it clear for you.” Angelika took a deep breath and explained calmly.

“What is your weapon of choice for this Promotion Battle?”

“Umm...I don’t have much expertise in other weapons but I can use a dagger.”

“Okay. So what is the opponent’s weapon?” asked Angelika. Noah scratched his head.

“Okay. Then what is the opponent’s ability?” Noah was clueless this time as well.

“You overlooked the basic thing. Study your opponent first. His weapon, his fighting styles, his reaction speed. You need to account for all those things in a melee combat battle.”

Noah was quite disappointed in himself. This was the very thing that helped him win several battles in the past, be it with Ton or the Underground Battle Arena. “How could I forget to study my opponents?” Noah was so engrossed in training that he forgot the basics in any battle.

“Are you getting it now? Why I refused to fight you today?” Angelika could feel the frustration of Noah from his reactions. “You did great in the exams. Beyond the expectations of many. But don’t let that get to your head. That is not you, right?”

“You are right Angelika. I should plan first and then proceed. I was just training blindly.”

“Good, now that you realize the problem. Let’s think of the solution.”

“Check this..” Angelika opened the Holo Device statistics for Daimonjji.

Name: Daimonjji

EQ - 20

Ability Power - Mandrill

Strengths - Brute Strength

Weapons - Hammer

Noah and Angelika started to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Daimonjji. After a while, they had planned a proper strategy to utilize in the match.

“The hammer he will be using should be the Energion Hammer. So most likely he would utilize his ability to jump high and deliver Ground Stomp tactics. Beware of that, because it has the Knockdown effect for 5 seconds. Enough time for him to deal heavy damage...” stated Angelika.

“Hmm. This will be troublesome.”

“Naah, that isn’t the least of your troubles. The main trouble is that you are not even aware of your own ability. Colliding with a strength type EVO without any ability is just suicide.” Angelika shook her head.

“You sure you still don’t know?”

“Nope.” Noah raised his shoulders to confirm.

“It is what it is. But I do know that my muscle memory is sharp at times and it reacts on its own.”

“Whatever!! So what weapon are you choosing?”

“Dagger. That is what I am quite proficient at for now. No time to learn something new.”

“Then let me create an AI Strength type warrior similar to your opponent. You should train with it to polish your skills.” Angelika suggested.

“You can do that? That would be great Angelika. Thanks!”

“Enough with the pleasantries. You are gonna repay me by getting into Beta Class. I want you to win both matches. Then someday I can fight you in the Arena.” Angelika had the devilish idea.

Noah’s face turned pale at the thought of facing Angelika once again. “Can we skip that part and focus on this please.” Noah replied in a shivering voice.

Noah began training with the AI warrior.

...

Three days passed at a rapid pace. Then came the day of the Promotion battle.

The Arena had been remodified to suit the Battle. There was a huge crowd in the stands as the students of all classes were present to witness the Promotion Battle.

“Greetings Students. Today we will be commencing the Promotion Battle for the Classes of the Freshman year. The matches have been set up and displayed on the screen. We will start with the Delta Class match and gradually move towards Alpha Class. So let the battle begin.” Principal Beck concluded his speech.

The Promotion battle was a closed event. So people outside the academy were not invited this time. But students from upper grades came to observe the matches. Among them was Marty as well. Angelika also came as the Top of Alpha Class.

The screen lit up and the first match contestants were announced.

Gamma Class 3rd Last Stefanie vs Delta Class 3rd Top Kaisha.

“Wait shouldn’t that be Melv?” the students started questioning.

“What? You did not know?” another student replied.

“What is it? Tell us fast?” other students enquired.

“After the events of the Battle Simulation, it was heard that Ton left the academy. His father has sent him to study abroad. So the others moved up. Kaisha was declared 3rd and Melv 2nd.”

“No way. Something like that happened.”

“Ton is saving face this way. Serves him right. He was getting way too arrogant.”

“Shh. Don’t say it loud. He still has followers here.”

“So what about it? He is not in the academy anymore. We should have rooted for Noah.”

All the students of Delta Class started to whisper their thoughts. The other classes didn’t even bother with what’s going on though.

The change was notified to the participants a day prior to battle. Kaisha didn’t get much time to prepare as a result. As Stefanie and Kaisha approached the ring, loud cheers were heard for both of them. As the two contestants entered the ring, a protective shield covered the entire arena. It was to safeguard the spectators. Prof. Sawyer acted as the Chief Referee for the battle, as she monitored everything from the outside.

Match 1 - Statistics

Name - Stefanie (Original - Stefanie Vox)

Name - Kaisha (Original - Kaisha Wise)

Age - 16

Gender - F

Class - Gamma

EQ - 18

Weapon - Shield

Ability Power - Impatiens Capensis

Strengths - Sonic Boom

Age - 16

Gender - F

Class - Delta

EQ - 17

Weapon - Whip

Ability Power - Pink Charm Mountain Laurel

Strengths - Poison

The match started as the announcement was made, “Let the match begin!”

The Promotion Battle contestants were free to choose their weapons prior to the match. Stefanie was not much of an attacker. So she chose a defensive weapon as she took a stance. She had removed the gloves in her right hand.

Kaisha had chosen a whip. For a while, she has been practicing hard with the whip and somewhat got the grasp of it. Also, she found a special whip technique matching her ability. She kept it as a trump card for the match.

Stefanie did not move from her position. She was guarding herself with the Shield. The Shield had an Energion component added to it. Energion is a composite mineral developed and used for the last 5 years. With its addition, the Shield will electrocute the opponent when dashed with it. So Kaisha was also carefully measuring her opponent before making a move.

Kaisha swung her whip at Stefanie who diligently used her shield to guard against the attack. Kaisha continued to attack for some time and the same parry was seen every time. Kaisha was only studying the reaction from Stefanie. There was no real intent in the attacks. Stefanie on the other side only guarded and did not use special moves as well.

The match was going through a stalemate.

“What do ya think bro? Who will win?” Melv impatiently asked Noah.

“No one has made any specific attacks. So it's quite early to predict anything.” replied Noah.

They continued to observe the match.

Kaisha was closing in bit by bit as she could not deal any relevant damage. Kaisha swung her whip hard at Stefanie, but she dodged it. At a glance, it would have looked like it missed Stefanie, but in actuality, it was a feint. The whip circled around behind Stefanie’s back and hit her from the blindside. Utilizing the momentum of the whip, Kaisha pulled herself towards Stefanie and spread pollen to poison her.

Stefanie immediately realized the situation and used her shield to dash at Kaisha. As the shield hit Kaisha, she instantly got electrocuted and thrown back. Taking this effect into account, Stefanie charged at Kaisha.

The plant Impatiens Capensis, when being touched, the seed pods burst into tiny blasts. Using the same principle, Stefanie could create a sonic boom at any and everything she touches with her hand. Stefanie aimed her punch at Kaisha, which hit her face with a Sonic Boom, the special attack of Stefanie. She constantly hit Kaisha as her HP kept getting down. It was almost 100 HP left when Stefanie realized something was wrong.

“Bro. Kaisha will lose. Only a few HP left...” Melv stated anxiously.

“Quite the opposite. Look carefully...” replied Noah.

All this time Kaisha was not resisting. She was taking every blow head-on. Stefanie, who could see her victory up close, forgot to check on her own HP. It was going down as well, slowly.

Stefanie finally realized it and fell back. But it was too late by then.

“What just happened? How did Stefanie’s HP go down?” Melv questioned.

“Do you remember the whip that hit her earlier?”

“What about it?”

“What is Kaisha’s ability?”

“Poison. But why?”

“Answer it yourself.”

“Ohhh. She poisoned her that time?”

“Exactly. Kaisha laced her whip with the poison pollens. So when it hit Stefanie in the back, it poisoned her. Kaisha pretended to get hit and fell back for 2 reasons. ”

“What’s that bro?”

“First one was to seek Stefanie out of that defensive position and secondly to make her indulge in dealing damage so as to overlook her own HP.” Noah presented his analysis.

“Ah. So that's what happened. Kaisha is good in battle if not working with that dipshit Ton.”

“Now. Now. Watch carefully. She should be finishing the battle anytime.”

Just as Noah predicted, Kaisha was preparing her final move.

Stefanie had fallen back as her HP was constantly going down. She was confused as to whether to defend or attack. Finally, she chose to attack Kaisha who had 100 HP left.

But Kaisha had planned everything for this very moment. The special move Kaisha had created with the whip, Pollen Vortex. She rotated her whip in a clockwise manner creating a vortex laced with poison pollens. The Pollen Vortex was unleashed at the attacking Stefanie.

Stefanie could not dodge this one and got sucked in towards the vortex. The intense damage left Stefanie lying on the floor unconscious as her HP went down to 0. The protective shield of the Arena went down.

“The winner of this match is Kaisha. She moves on to Gamma Class.”

Kaisha fell down as she was also exhausted. The Professors helped her out of the Arena and put her in the doctor's care along with Stefanie.

“Moving on to the next match.”

Gamma Class 2nd Last Dusky vs Delta Class 2nd Top Melv.

Match 2 - Statistics

Name - Dusky (Original - Dusky McHarris)

Name - Melv (Original - Melvin Barret)

Age - 16

Gender - M

Class - Gamma

EQ - 18

Weapon - Crossbow

Ability Power - Bullfrog

Strengths - Frog Jump

Age - 16

Gender - M

Class - Delta

EQ - 12

Weapon - Shield

Ability Power - Dung Beetle

Strengths - Heavyweight

“Watch your bro beat the crap out of that punk”, proclaimed Melv as he approached the arena.

“Good Luck and stick to the plan...” Noah replied.

As the contestants entered the arena, the announcement was made.

“Let the match begin!”

...