Chapter 17: An official ranked Duel
"Woah, this technique is very awesome! Just by using it, my punch has become quite powerful." Jake said.
After some minutes, Jake decided to go to his dorm room. He got to the room, saw his friends and he decided to get some rest. After waking up from his nap, he saw that most of his friends were not in the room. It was only him and Peter in the room while the rest were no where to be found.
"Where's the rest of the gang?" Jake asked Peter who was just reading a book.
"I don't know. I think they are off doing their own thing." Peter answered.
"Peter, can I ask you a question?" Jake asked.
"Sure. Go on." Peter replied now looking up from his book to listen to Jake.
Jake's curiosity got the better of him. "Hey, Peter, can I ask you something?" he said. "What drives you to be so strong? You are not just fighting for yourself are you?"
Peter's expression turned solemn. "I'm fighting for my family. I want to avenge my parents' death, just like you are fighting for yours. And about strength, I don't really know. I only trained physically when I was in the orphanage."
Jake's eyes narrowed his mind consumed by doubt. "Do you really think it's possible for humanity to win this war?" he asked Peter.
Peter's expression turned resolute. "I do. With the academy and the Big three on our side, i believe we have a fighting chance. We just need to stay strong and united." Peter replied.
Jake sighed and then was about to lay back on his bed when Peter decided to ask his own question.
"Why were you asking all those questions?" Peter asked.
"Nothing, I was just curious." Jake replied and then the room door swung wide open with so much force it nearly broke off its hinges and then Jack could be seen coming in quickly.
"Woah, what is wrong? Do you wanna destroy the door?" Peter asked now standing up from his bed.
Jack tried to catch his breath and quickly replied. "It's Vynn. He's badly beaten up and he his In the school clinic."
"What!??" Jake and Peter asked while quickly getting out of bed and following Jack out of the room.
After a few minutes of running, they finally got to the clinic and they could see Kate and Sophia beside Vynn's bed.
Vynn didn't look to be in a good shape. His nose looked broken with his face all bruised up and worst of all, his hand was bandaged.
Looking at Vynn's body, Jake's body was shaking furiously and he was grinding his teeth back and forth with such anger that it felt like his teeth was going to break.
Through gritted teeth, Jake asked. "Who.. who did this to you?"
"It's Sebastian. He beat up Vynn because he was jealous of Vynn getting all of Lee's attention because of learning 'The Triple Threat' technique faster out of all of us." Sophia answered with her hands all trembling from holding her anger back.
This was the first time they saw Sophia react like this.
Peter's face reddened with anger. "How could Sebastian do this to Vynn without anyone stopping him?"
Kate's expression turned grim. "It was an official ranked battle, Peter. The military personnel couldn't intervene."
"He is gonna pay for this." Jake said.
"There is nothing you can do." Kate quickly said. "He is currently ranked number 20 and you are ranked 180. How do you want to do it."
"I don't care. Look at what he did to Vynn. Didn't you say we are family? Well I'm not going to allow someone or something take another family from me." Jake said storming off.
"Is he crazy? Does he think that just because he beat up Blade that he is going to be able to do anything to Sebastian?" Sophia asked furiously.
"Someone better go after him before he does something that he is going to regret." Kate said to which Peter and Jack were about going.
"No. You stay here with them. Let me go after Jake." Peter said already on his way out.
Meanwhile after storming out, Jake was on his way looking for Sebastian. But he didn't know how to find him. So he decided to ask around for Sebastian until he finally got his location.
"Are you sure of what you wanna do?" Zee asked. "You heard your roommates, the guy is currently ranked number 20 and you're number 180. How do you want to do this?"
"I don't know. I will think of something later, for now I need to take care of Sebastian." Jake replied and finally he got to Sebastian's location.
"I heard there was someone looking for me? Are you the one?" Sebastian a guy who stood 5ft tall with a bandana wrapped around his head and his hair dyed spikey brown.
"You are Sebastian right?" Jake asked.
"Yes. The one and only." Sebastian answered moving forward away from his friends.
"I want to challenge you to a ranked battle." Jake declared.
To which Sebastian laughed so hard that he almost fell down. "You wanna challenge me? Are you for real? Do you know my rank?" Sebastian asked showing his watch that was displaying the number 20.
"Yes I know you and your rank." Jake answered.
"And you still want to challenge me to a ranked battle? Are you nuts?" Sebastian asked.
"I'm perfectly alright but I think you are scared or something." Jake said smiling.
Sebastian laughed again and then replied. "Ohh, I know you now. You are friends with Vynn. So you wanna take revenge on me." Sebastian laughed again. "Forget it. I'm not interested since there's nothing in it for me." Sebastian said walking off.
"Wait!" Jake called out. "If you win, you will have all of my credits."
Credits were the world's currency and the academy provides 30 credits per day to the students and since Jake had nothing to do with credits, it just accumulated in his watch. Currently Jake had over 400 credits.
Sebastian stopped in his tracks and then looked at Jake. "Are you sure about that?"
Jake smiled because he knew that this might work. "Yes, I'm very sure." Jake replied.
"Fine. I agree but on one condition, I want the fight to be in front of everyone after combat training tomorrow so that people won't think I stole the credits off of you." Sebastian said.
"I agree." Jake said shaking Sebastian hand and that was when Peter arrived.
Sebastian left with his friends for somewhere else and then Peter looked at Jake annoyed.
"Are you nuts? You just challenged Sebastian who is ranked number 20 to a duel." Peter scolded. "Do you even realize what you have done?"
"Yes I do. And I don't regret it one bit." Jake said already walking off to his dorm.
Peter chased after Jake trying to convince him to back down but he didn't. Jake stood his ground of not backing down. After a few hours, news spread around the academy among the students of a duel between Jake and Sebastian.
This got the whole academy excited and after so many hours, it was finally the start of a new day. The day of Jake's duel with Sebastian.
Jake woke up as usual for his early morning exercises. And after the exercise, Jake decided to check his status. His current status after completing his exercise was.
<Status>
<User: Jake Lucas>
<Level: 4>
<Combat level: Novice>
<Skill level: Untrained>
<XP level: 30/200>
<HP: 20/20>
<Strength: 22>
<Agility:17>
<Endurance: 26>
<Free stat point: 1>
Jake sighed and was wondering if he could win this battle with his current strength.
"Whatever. I'm going to win this for Vynn no matter what." Jake said leaving the gym room to his dorm room.
After taking their breakfast without Vynn they all went for their homeroom class but the whole class where currently unfocused because of the duel that was going to take place today.
After long hours of lecture in the homeroom class, it was finally time for combat training. After the physical training, they all practiced 'The Triple Threat' technique over and over for some hours before Lee dismissed them and he also left.
But the students didn't leave because they were all waiting for the duel happening today. The students all formed a ring around Jake and Sebastian with Jake's roommate in front watching the fight that was going to take place.
And with that, the duel was underway.