THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

For the next one hour, following Elora's demonstration and constant repetition, the trainees were made to practice a set of four moves which included a move for, approaching, blocking, dodging/retreat, and striking.

It went in a sequence of:

Approach

Attack

Block

And then dodge or retreat.

For one hour, the trainee tirelessly repeated these actions while Elora patrolled the place and corrected those who were doing unknown actions.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

Step step step!

At one side of the room, Ivan could be seen swinging his hands while moving his legs in a coordinated movement set as he went forth and back. His tracksuit was once again soaked and he had optioned to go Sommy's style by tying the jacket around his waist and revealing his slim figure that exhibited the unfamiliar movements.

Since his awakening, unknown to Ivan. His body had been slowly repairing itself in ways that he would not notice such as fixing his malnourished structure. He no longer looked sickly and skinny like he used to, he now looked a lot more healthier and his skinny frame was now replaced with a slim one.

"Ha!"

Ivan voiced out as he through a full powered strike before moving his legs again like he had been doing for the past one hour, his white hair stuck to his scalp due to all the sweating and his body was feeling sore but Ivan did not slow down or stop to rest; he made sure to put as much force into every move he made.

Thirty minutes passed slowly for the trainees, they had been repeating these movements for over one hour thirty minutes and some were already so tired that their movements had become very sluggish and strained as they gasped for air.

They had not fully recovered from the results of the morning run, adding this amount of stress made them feel like giving up.

"Stop, that's enough for now" Elora's soft voice was like the sweetest of melodies at this moment as a few trainees directly slumped to the ground while others supported their upper bodies by placing their hands on their knees.

Elora looked at them with expressionless faces before returning to stand in front of the trainees.

"Now that you have at least familiarized yourselves with these basic movements, it's time you try it out against others. Everyone pair up into a group of two, you can pick anyone to be your partner" Elora said.

The eyes of a certain someone flashed immediately after hearing this and he sneaked away from where he was standing previously.

" Hey, want to team up?" A voice sounded from behind Ivan, almost startling him. He turned around and saw that Luke was standing behind him with a faint smile on his face but one could easily see the evil grin that smile was hiding.

He was definitely targeting Ivan but did Ivan care?

" Alright " Ivan simply said in response and Luke's smile widened.

Sommy appeared at this moment.

"Sorry but I already planned to pair up with Luke. Why don't you find another trainee?" She said to Ivan with a small smile.

Luke stared at her with his lips bent to one side in irritation.

"Who wants to pair up with you? Go away!" He spat at her.

"You can't force him to pair up with you, you just want to bully him* Sommy shot back with a small but the looks in her eyes were cold.

"Don't slander me! I didn't force him, he agreed willingly" Luke retorted angrily, Elora beating him had been disgraceful enough but now Sommy was coming to bother him again.

Sommy's face changed into one of surprise confusion upon hearing this, he looked at Ivan with a doubtful look.

"Is that true?" She asked and Ivan nodded, she stared at him in disbelief like she was looking at an idiot.

"Are you crazy? He's clearly targeting you. Why don't you pair with me? I'm stronger than him" she proposed but Ivan responded with a shake of his head.

He knew that unlike Luke, Sommy would go easy on him which he did not want. He wanted to get stronger quickly, getting special treatment wouldn't help much.

(Just to be clear, Ivan isn't a masochist! He just isn't scared of pain like other people after what he went through)

Sommy stared at him, clearly unable to understand why Ivan was doing this. She didn't know him but she knew Luke and was aware of what he was capable of doing, Ivan was just going to get wrecked by pairing with Luke.

"You heard him, now get lost!" Luke chimed in before Sommy could say anything else to dissuade Ivan.

Sommy was still unwilling to give up but before she could say anything else, Miss Elora's voice sounded through the air. She was asking every duo to make distance from the others as they were about to start.

Sommy could only walk away after shooting Luke a "don't you try anything stupid" glare.

Ivan saw Ralph and Glen looking at him worriedly while standing with their duo, he gave them a reassuring nod before turning away to look at Miss Elora.

"Since everyone has paired up, you all will have to fight your partners using only the four moves you've learned today. Any other moves aside those four and two won't like the consequence, now start" Miss Elora ordered.

The trainees immediately began to attack each other.

"Ha!"

"Yaa"

"Uhaa"

They advanced, hit, and pulled away from each other using the set of movements that they had been training for the past one hour and thirty minutes.

At one glance, one could tell that these trainees were still not very familiar with the movements. Their steps were clumsy and their strikes were funny to look at despite how serious they tried to make it look.

Same could not be said for the repeaters though, their sparing was on a whole other level as they moved with efficiency and precision. Sommy was facing off against the petite girl while the bald guy and the scary looking boy danced around each other with these sets of movements.

One would think that they were doing something entirely different if they didn't pay close attention.

Glen and Ralph were training with other trainees and their exchanges were no different from the other trainees, clumsy and slow.

Ivan, on the other hand, was currently getting a fine beating.

Elora could not help but frown upon seeing this but she didn't say anything.

Ivan raised both hands in front of his face with his fingers balled into fists, his face had a few bruises and the same on his arms too. Standing opposite him was Luke in a similar stance and a devious smirk on his face.

"Get ready" he said with a slight chuckle before approaching Ivan quickly.

Ivan immediately tried to use the dodge movement to distance himself from Luke but the red haired boy was faster and was already right in front of him with his fist coming for Ivan's face.

Ivan immediately gave up on dodging and tried to block but Luke seemed to have expected this, he stopped his punch midway before sending his other fist towards Ivan's stomach.

Bang!!

A powerful force landed on Ivan's stomach, sending a wave of pain across his body and knocking the air out of his lungs.

It took all of Ivan's mental defense toward bullying to prevent himself from passing out, he gritted his teeth and used the chance to send a punch toward Luke's head.

Sadly, Luke was more proficient in fighting than Ivan and he had pulled away by the time Ivan's punch arrived.

"Huff, Huff" Ivan huffed and puffed while staring at Luke who was smirking at him. The latter felt very pleased being able to use Ivan as a punching bag, what was even better was that Ivan wasn't giving up.

He waited for a few seconds for Ivan to steady himself before attacking him again. For the next minute, Ivan was constantly being beaten up by Luke while he tried to keep up with Luke's movements.

Many minutes later, Ivan was now covered in many more bruises and was panting more heavily. He felt pain all over his body but he still held himself up, prepared to fight Luke for another round.

"Everyone stop, that's enough for today!" Miss Elora's voice echoed in the room.

Ivan immediately fell on his butt upon hearing her voice, he supported his weight with his arms while gasping for air. He felt sour all over but his face showed a slight smile while dripping with sweat.

He was very satisfied with the level of practice with Luke even though he had been receiving hits the whole time, he believed that he would be able to improve faster this way.

The trainees were left to rest for a bit in the combat classroom before leaving for the rest of their next lesson. It was a theory class where they thought about Nexus energy for the next hour.

They learned the history of Nexus energy, uses and phenomenons brought about by the appearance of Nexus energy. They were also thought about level of strength that one could attain by training their Nexus energy and increasing their A/P(assimilation progress)

They learned that those who were able to raise their A/p to 10% were known as Known as Mortal kings and they were the weakest among the ranks of Nexulytes, above the Mortal king rank was the True king rank which would require a Nexulyte to had an A/P of at least 20%; trainees would have to reach the Mortal king rank to successfully pass the six months training which meant that they had to reach an A/P of 10% and above within six months!