VINCENT MILES: AND THE FIST OF FIRE

CHAPTER 9:A FIGHT ERUPTS

A month has passed since Vincent started his life in the Academy. And the insults he’s been receiving never ends. The good thing for Vincent is that he isn’t involved in any fights in a month and that’s good since he can’t fight properly anymore in his current condition. He has been weakening with no reason at all. His body can’t take 3 punches and his stamina also depleted, he is easily exhausted. And another is that his body is releasing unexplained heat and sometimes steam. But at the mean time, Vincent is focused in his self-defense class. His opponent is obviously Norman. He can’t hit his teacher no matter how hard he tried. Vincent tried to use children’s tricks but all of those were just blocked and countered. When Vincent is about to make a plan inside his head to figure this thing out, a kick suddenly landed straight to his face and it made him lay down on the ground groaning.

“Mr. Miles! We are in the middle of a self-defense class, do not daydream! ” yelled their funky looking but strong teacher who is Norman.

This past month has been hell for them, students have been brutalized by their teachers and their Power Teacher kept on pushing all of her students’ powers to the limits, and Vincent is no exception.

“The Tournament Draft is coming; you need to get strong before the real training starts! ” that’s what they all say.

But the thing is, there’s still 4 months before the real training starts.

Other subjects continue to make students suffer as they give difficult and tons of homework. Vincent on the other hand has low grades in all normal subjects except for literature and history.

Another week has passed and Vincent is back at the grounds fighting his teacher which is impossible to beat.

“How can I attack you when I can’t even see you, ” complained Vincent to his teacher “stop your invisibility and I’ll learn to defend properly.” he added.

The teacher laughed.

“Invisibility? Who told you I have that power? I only use speed, brat. Speed. ” his teacher bragged.

He then clapped his hands and ordered the students to take a break. Then he walked up to Vincent and faced him.

“You are quite skilled in skin hardening, and it is very impressive that you managed to master that in your age. But you also need to learn the other skill for combat.” Norman explained and drank the bottle of water besides him.

Another skill? Vincent’s grandfather never told him that there’s another one so he was left confused. Questions just keeps on piling up in Vincent’s head and is about to explode.

“What do you mean, another skill?” Vincent asked.

Norman patted his student on his head.

“You’ll need to find that out yourself. You’re a swordsman, that skill is going to be useful alongside your hardening.” says his teacher.

He then went back to the middle and clapped as a signal of resuming his lesson. Vincent walked up to him.

“Can you teach me? You’re a self-defense teacher, right?” he asked.

Norman laughed at him again and began to attack him consecutively and Vincent miraculously managed to evade and block all of it. He and his teacher has made up from their fights and somehow became buddies. Since Vincent has landed a solid punch to the face of Norman, his teacher then respected Vincent’s growth as a fighter. In his mind, he called him a prodigy.

“Unfortunately, I don’t teach those things. I only teach the ones that are in the school requirements and nothing else. If you want to learn that skill then wait for the Trainings, if you are lucky enough, someone might offer private training.” he explained then continued on attacking Vincent who keeps on blocking his attacks.

Their class ended with all of them utterly exhausted. All of them went straight to their lockers, sweating, filthy and bruised. Vincent’s class has improved their combat capabilities, Champ can now successfully evade an attack and counter it with a choke, Jamie has learned a deadly roundhouse kick and Faye a superman punch. Still needs improvement but still impressive. Vincent’s skill with a sword is becoming dull, he can only practice with wooden staffs and sometimes broken brooms. Margarita, their school doctor /nurse is now 90% done in researching Vincent’s Rapid Healing Power.

Sophia and Vincent have stopped communicating for a while since both of them are busy with their personal stuffs. Their Father, comes by every first day of the month to bring their allowance. Violet and Victor always calls when they have spare times. The locker room right now reeks sweat. Vincent’s tracksuits are all worn out and he needs to buy new ones. When all of them finished taking a short shower and changing their clothes, they all headed to their tenth-floor classroom. Exhausted from climbing ten floors, they stopped temporarily on every two floors. Vincent does not feel exhausted at all, it’s just that his face throbs because of the attacks that his teacher has given him. After twenty minutes of climbing, they finally arrived at their floor. Upon arriving the tenth floor they met the first year first class students standing near their classroom and laughing. They stopped. Vincent was confused on why did they stopped, especially when they are only a few more footsteps away from their classroom. The boy in the middle of the first-class herd has noticed the tenth-class and shot them a smirking glare. He then called his classmates and now they are all looking at the first year tenth-class students. Vincent shot back a daring look at them and stood in front of his class. “This isn’t going to end well. ” Vincent thought. The first-class students began approaching Vincent and the others, and doors from each room suddenly shut closed. And now, both the blond boy and Vincent are standing in front of each other, giving threatening stares to one another. The blond boy is none other than Emanuel Gold himself. Emanuel has become a big of a bully in just one month. No one dared to defy them, and once you do, he will definitely crush you. Vincent has seen the Gold brat fight, he is strong and he has a strong power. Vincent then forcibly admitted to himself that if he would be to fight these guys, he will just be defeated because of his current state. And as Emanuel and Vincent stood face to face with only 2 inches away from each other, Vincent immediately felt something bad is about to happen.

“Hey, Miles weakling.” Mocked Emanuel then he and his classmates began to laugh.

The tenth-class are now gathered in one corner except for the class president, Champ, Jamie and Faye and of course, Vincent.

“Can you please let us pass? We’re tired because of our class, please?” asked Vincent.

Emanuel and his classmates laughed again. And then, Emanuel slapped Vincent on his left cheek. The 4 behind Vincent immediately prepared for battle, but Vincent quickly stopped them. With his left cheek all red, Emanuel laughed with his classmates.

“Don’t you dare order me around. We are both nobles, but please bare in mind that our powers and levels aren’t the same. Get that, weakling?” taunted Emanuel.

He looked back into his classmates then slapped Vincent again, now on his right cheek. They all laughed at Vincent again. But Champ was impressed by the fact that Vincent is maintaining his cool and being calm even though he is being humiliated. However, Champ also knows the personality his friend has. Vincent won’t fight unless there’s a deep reason. Right now, Vincent won’t fight back as he does not find any reasons to, so he is just maintaining his cool and get out of this situation as calmly as possible.

Vincent then looked back to his classmates. “Let’s go guys.” Vincent says calmly.

He was about to pass through Emanuel when he suddenly was grabbed by the arm and all of them suddenly activated their powers and targeted Vincent’s classmates.

“You dare defy me?” angrily whispered by Emanuel.

Vincent smirked a little. “You’re no ruler nor king. We won’t follow your orders. Amd besides, you didn’t give one, your trashesty.” Whispered Vincent.

Emanuel was fumed with anger and tried to squeeze Vincent’s arm but failed, as Vincent hopped backwards.

“How dare you speak to me like that! I’m a child of the number one noble household! I’m one of the most powerful in this Academy! And you are just a weakling who is also a disgrace in his own household!” yelled Emanuel out of frustration.

Vincent laughed at what Emanuel had said. His grandfather was right, there’s a lot of people like this. Those who boast everything they can from money, power and influence in order to get anyone’s attention and loyalty. Those kinds of people would even squeeze and take away others freedom just for fun. And this is when Vincent found a reason to fight Emanuel. As Emanuel is always stripping away the freedom of the students he bullies, and Vincent hates people who takes away freedom.

Vincent looked back at Champ and the class president. “Champ, Newt. Take care of our class, please.” Calmly ordered by Vincent and looked at the ones in front of him.

He quickly counted them and they were about 21 in total and he is all alone and his condition will just drag him down but that doesn’t matter to him now. What matters to him at this moment is to put the arrogant noble in his place. Vincent wants to make Emanuel realize that no matter how powerful, rich, influential and famous you are, there will always be people who will fight you if you’re in the wrong and correct you. And in order to correct that person, Vincent needs to defeat this one to make him think that he will not be high and mighty forever. But 21 is too much for Vincent to handle, and because of his current state, Vincent might be defeated in this battle. But that doesn’t mind him at all, he just wants to fight Emanuel on behalf of the bullied students.

“Your opponent is a powerless guy; won’t you go easy on me?” taunted Vincent and he smirked.

Emanuel laughed. “It’s fine this way. So, it’s a bonus if we kill you.” Menacingly said by him.

Vincent found it funny and giggled.

Emanuel asked him why is he laughing and Vincent answered “It is just, those aren’t words of a hero.”

And that line of Vincent absolutely angered Emanuel. He then ordered his classmates to attack Vincent all at once and they followed. Vincent ordered Champ himself and some of his classmates that can create a wall to block them so they won’t be hit by the zooming bullets of water, wind and rocks. Vincent evaded all bullets and attacks whistling past his ears. The other tenth-class who is Vincent’s upperclassmen are all watching through their slightly opened door, avoiding to be caught so they won’t be involved. Vincent can’t blame them because they themselves have suffered the cruelty of upper-number classes. Vincent dodged all of the attacks swiftly like he can’t evade any attacks from his teacher for a month.

It might be unbelievable, but Vincent has brought down 15 students already. Emanuel kept on shouting at his classmates to attack Vincent, but it only put off their rhythm. Vincent took out another 5 as he slammed them hard on walls. To all of those who is watching, they all realized that this fight is not a fight at all. It is a one-sided massacre and Vincent is dominating the first-class students easily. But that is not the case for Vincent. He is now exhausted and he can feel his body weaken. And after a few more attacks and dodges, Vincent finally knocked out 20 first-class students. Emanuel stood there and can’t believe he just saw that happened. The first-class students are carefully picked by the headmaster himself since all first-class students needs to be either powerful and strong that is above other classes. And now, he just witnessed a one-sided massacre and the victor is a tenth-class student which is considered as the weakest class there is, and the other thing is, that student has no powers at all and was bodied by the strongest student in this Academy before.

Since he can’t believe it and it was fueling up his anger, he yelled at the top of his lungs

“You’re a cheat! You used some dirty tricks to defeat them! Okay, let me fight you and let us see if you really defeated them!” Emanuel yelled out of frustration.

He then ripped off his sleeves and he shouted once more. Vincent’s eyes narrowed as Emanuel’s arms have become steel. Then Vincent remembered that the powers of Emanuel is he can turn every part of his body into solid steel. Vincent smirked and he balled his fists. Emanuel then noticed that Vincent’s fists are being enveloped by a gray matter.

He laughed. “Skin Hardening won’t work on me, idiot! I’m steel itself! Now, prepare to be defeated again!” yelled Emanuel and launched at Vincent.

Vincent once again smirked. And despite being awfully exhausted, he is about to find out which one is stronger. Is the power of steel of Emanuel or his skin hardening? Curious of the answer, Vincent also ran towards Emanuel with his fist at a ready.

“Show me what you got, fellow noble!” Vincent yelled as their fists collided and created a small but powerful shockwave.

The battle between nobles has begun.