Silas, after the strength tests, preferred not to show up for the others: the sprint and jump ones. —And, Silas, how did you do in the tests? —Jean asked him.

  —Truth be told, not as well as I wanted, but maybe next year I can improve —Silas replied.

  Jean suggested they go watch the fights, which were always very entertaining. He explained that matches were organized by cycles, meaning you could face older opponents. That's why first-year students rarely signed up, due to the noticeable strength difference. The rules of combat were simple: you lost if you couldn't keep fighting or if you were thrown out of the combat zone.

  They watched several matches, all very spectacular, until Silas spotted a girl who looked familiar in the combat zone. It was Jazmin, number 89. Jazmin had to face a second-year student, Jorge, a young man of 1.50 meters with black hair and bluish glints, a characteristic of some family lines whose ancestors lived near foreign tribes.

  The fight began, and Jazmin's face showed no emotion, neither fear nor happiness; a perfect poker face. Jorge lunged with a fist attack. Jazmin dodged it, almost giving the illusion of not having moved, all thanks to her great speed and flexibility. Quickly, she got close and, from a position uncomfortable for others but normal for her, struck with three kicks. Jorge blocked two and took one in the ribs. Jorge tried to counterattack with a sweeping kick that made Jazmin fall. While Jorge went straight to finish her off, before landing, Jazmin balanced on one hand and connected a kick to Jorge that knocked him out, ending the match.

  Jean and Silas looked at each other. —What moves! —both said at the same time.

  From a loudspeaker, the final call for number 147 in the combat zone sounded. Jean, seeing Silas had that number, yelled at him: —Silas, you have to report! If you don't go, they'll sanction you.

  Silas quickly thought that he had already missed two tests, believing those were the only ones left, but if he didn't show up for three, he'd be in trouble. Silas diligently headed to the combat zone. His opponent was a second-year student, almost the same size as Silas.

  Upon starting, the student's attack stance wasn't bad, but he was somewhat unbalanced when attacking. Silas only had to perform the takedown Andros had taught him, but unlike the time with Jormun, this student went out of the combat area. Silas won his first fight without effort, even without needing to channel Cognis. This dynamic kept repeating until reaching the semifinal. Silas, who initially wanted to let himself lose due to the bad feeling from the strength tests, ended up changing his mind, decided to win this championship.

  Silas's opponent was a boy he already knew very well, León, a boy who in no way looked the age he claimed to be. León greeted him: —Hi, Silas, I didn't think you'd sign up for this, but have a good fight.

  Upon starting the fight, León adopted a very compact stance and didn't attack, since he had already seen Silas fight several times. Silas, seeing this, decided to go on the attack, something he hadn't done lately, as he had won by counterattacks. Andros had only taught him to defend himself, but Silas had vague memories of the fight against the Mana beasts; his fighting style was a combination of punches and kicks, each strike chained with the previous one, increasing the power of the subsequent blow.

  Silas launched himself with the combination he had seen Andros use. León blocked the attacks and counterattacked in Silas's pauses. Many things were going through León's mind: ?It seems Silas has gotten quite a bit stronger. These blows feel quite heavy, as if a bear were hitting me, but I also fight like a wild beast?.

  León was already getting used to Silas's combination, which he had been repeating quite a bit. Then, León decided to fight blow for blow. He let himself take a hit to return another to Silas, and they went on like that for a few blows until Silas backed away. Silas thought: ?Damn León, he doesn't get tired with anything, and if I take more hits, I'll end up losing consciousness!?.

  Silas dedicated himself to dodging, and León began a violent attack of corkscrew punches, as if he were the claw of a great predator. Silas began to dodge them with increasing skill, letting his body move by instinct. ?Why did Silas change his fighting style? Just now he was like a heavy vanguard legionary, but now he's different, he looks more like my Uncle Gacel...? —thought León while Silas's rapid movements cut the air and dodged León's blows. ?I just have to hit him once and it will be enough?, he thought while preparing to execute a high-impact attack, similar to the one he had shown Silas when they met, a strike in opposite directions that simulated a beast's jaw.

  Silas dodged an attack and walked away, while León remained sitting on his knees, unconscious. Silas, who had let himself be carried away by his instincts, felt that his hand had hit León before he fell unconscious. Silas was left with some doubts, but he would meditate on what had happened later.

  Now remained the other semifinal: Martin, a third-year student, against Jazmin. Martin came from the prestigious Crociato family, which cradled the largest amount of dual Ether-Ichor knights in the kingdom's history, although Martin was not from the main line, given that those of that lineage do not leave the capital, Gavriel, and are in Academy Jared I. Martin stood 1.60 meters tall, had the red hair characteristic of that family, and a worked physique.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  After starting the combat, neither moved, trying to analyze their opponent. Slowly, Jazmin's face began to show signs of doubt. In that instant, Martin took a quick step toward Jazmin. She dodged it, but Martin followed Jazmin's movement fluidly, interfering with her posture using elbows, knees, shoulders, and torso, as if channeling and controlling the fluidity of Jazmin's movements. Until Jazmin realized she was at the edge of the arena; if she went out, she would be disqualified. But it was too late: Martin had given her a short blow to the pit of the stomach that knocked the wind out of her, and then a front kick to push her out of the arena. She had lost without landing a hit, in a totally unilateral defeat.

  Silas, seeing the fight and knowing Martin would be his opponent in the final, had to plan something to avoid losing. So he decided to meditate for a few minutes before the final. He channeled Cognis to try to analyze how he could beat Martin. Unfortunately, there was no possibility with his current combat skills, maybe in a few more years. He forced all the Cognis he could to bring back all available combat training memories. He began to remember all the training sessions with Professor Richard.

  Silas transported himself to the time when he was in the general school, in the professor's classes. He taught him what he liked most and what just happened to match Silas's physiognomy: the speedster fighting style, a style of few but very precise strikes, all focused on taking down and knocking out the opponent in the least amount of time. It was all based on using leg strength to make rapid displacements and hit sensitive points like pressure points to paralyze the opponent, or strikes in areas where the subject loses consciousness, like short blows to the heart, liver, pit of the stomach, neck, or chin, in addition to receiving classes with swords and short weapons.

  Although in the last year of general school Professor Richard no longer taught classes, Silas visited him after school at the town base. The professor had gained some weight and dedicated himself to more administrative tasks. On a guard shift, he had to face a mid-level Mana beast that had torn off his foot, and for him, it was impossible to pay the Church the cost of regenerating a body part. But he never lacked time to give Silas a tip or two, who was one of the few who shared the taste for the speedster fighting style.

  Silas, who had already managed to access all memories of the times he trained with Professor Richard up to age 15, felt more secure. Additionally, he obtained a skill or trick he had developed thanks to the school of scholars. Of the few subjects that had been useful in those years was about how the brain controls the entire nervous system, which is a projection of the brain itself into the body, and by giving a discharge of Cognis to the nervous system to increase muscular reaction times and reflexes, giving him between 15 and 20 minutes of an optimal state of consciousness for fighting.

  Silas was already positioned in the arena when they signaled the start. He adopted a looser stance, with knees slightly flexed, left leg back and right forward, and torso leaning forward. Martin analyzed Silas: ?I don't know this one, he must be a beginner, but he doesn't look like it. Well, I don't know how he got here, but I'll finish him quickly?.

  Martin lashed out with a kick. Silas saw Martin's movement as if in slow motion, just like in the fight with Jormun, but now his body could move at the required speed. Martin was almost punching the air with Silas's speed in dodging. Martin backed away and adopted a defensive stance while rethinking his combat plan. Silas took advantage of this and began launching high-speed attacks. In every attack, he struck with clenched fists but with thumbs protruding, aiming at pressure points to paralyze Martin, although strangely they didn't have much effect.

  Then, he changed his plan and started striking joints to leave vital points exposed and deliver short blows to them, until connecting one on his chin and seeing in Martin's eyes that he lost orientation. But this didn't last long, and Martin counterattacked with an open hand, sending Silas flying. Martin opted for a stance with a lower center of gravity and joined his palms, bringing them to the center of his body as if praying. This didn't matter to Silas; he continued with his attacks, but Martin dodged some and deflected others with his forearms, to then counterattack with his palms. However, Martin was accumulating a lot of damage in his arms, so he decided to deal the final blow. In a counterattack with his palm to Silas's solar plexus, he knocked him out instantly. The judge declared Martin the winner.

  With Silas on the ground, Martin stood up and took a step to head out of the combat zone, but fell forward, losing consciousness. No professor paid attention to Silas's blows because they were watching the open-palm holy combat style Martin was performing, so they didn't notice that when Silas lost consciousness, his body moved so fast that he had delivered a precise blow to Martin's carotid sinus. If his hands had held a sword, he would have decapitated Martin in an instant, but being only his hands, it caused him a fainting spell and an overload of the nervous system.

  When Silas regained consciousness, he was near the competition zone. A devotee of Grace was checking his vital signs and channeling Ichor to wake him up. Silas believed he had lost everything he participated in, but what was his surprise when told he had won first place in weightlifting, in squat, bench press, and deadlift. He was the legionary who had lifted the most weight in the entire first cycle of the academy.

  Foolishly, Silas had only focused on breaking Andros's record, but later learned that those records corresponded to cadets in their third year of the basic legionary cycle; in this case, Andros's records were from when he was fifteen. So Silas was able to opt for taking three prizes, although only one would be for him: the Dark Judgment sword he had liked so much. The other two prizes were a pair of knight boots optimized for speedsters, of high hardness but very light, and a belt that was pre-charged with Ether and, when activated, generated a thin Ether armor capable of resisting attacks from low and mid-caliber beasts for five minutes. These last two would be gifts for Professor Richard, for, even if he didn't know who Silas was, for Silas he had been important in the other timeline, and this was payment for his private lessons during those three years.