Parallel Memory

[ "Okay then let's start!" ]

Professor William shouted and the match began.

Lucas and Rowan were both Rank-E +, so they had pretty much the same skill sets with Lucas being a little stronger in terms of strength.

I can see that Lucas and Rowan both smirk at me. They already think that they will emerge victorious. They weren't even worried about the fight.

On the other hand, Hiro was very calm and didn't show much of his emotion.

After Professor William announced the beginning of the duel, Lucas charged at Hiro with his sword like a blazing lightning strike. Lucas's cuts have been fast and fierce.

His sword slashed right into Hiro's chest and would have caused critical damage had it hit the target. However, Hiro didn't move and Lucas's sword only scrapped Hiro's clothes.

Then Rowan sprang into action. He used the Art, [Quick Step], to move quickly forward and slash Hiro from behind. His sword slashed the place where Hiro's throat was.

[ "Hm." ]

Hiro swiftly moved backward and dodged the attack. Hiro decided to move forward to close the distance between them. Thus, Hiro used his movement Art.

[ "Star Swift" ]

His movement speed accelerated at an incredible rate. It was almost impossible for the average person to see his movement.

-CLANK! -CLANK!

Hiro's speed is incredible. If I am fighting Hiro, it may be impossible for me to block all those attacks. Even when fighting with two opponents, Hiro was in no way disadvantaged.

Lucas and Rowan were shocked by Hiro's speed. Their skills couldn't keep up with Hiro's speed, they were at a loss on how to fight him.

[ "Damn. That's some impressive speed." ]

Lucas was the first to recover and parried the attack. Lucas rushed towards Hiro with his sword. Lucas wanted to end the fight quickly, he wanted to get all the attention. Lucas didn't want to drag this out.

[ "Double Dash" ]

Lucas's speed increased, and he was able to respond to Hiro's attack. Rowan, on the other hand, was using his quickstep.

[ "You are still too slow." ]

Hiro's movement speed was faster than Lucas's. Lucas could not match Hiro's speed and the attack was easily deflected. Hiro's movement speed was way faster than Lucas and Rowan's.

[ "Damn. What is his movement speed?" ]

[ "I-I don't know." ]

Lucas and Rowan were shocked at this observation. They were easily overpowered by Hiro. Their sword skills are great and they are both Rank-E + fighters. How could they be defeated so easily by Hiro?

[ "You little shit." ]

Lucas fully released his fury and attacked furiously. He unleashed all his mana and attacked Hiro with various Sword skills.

[ "Is that all you got?" ]

Lucas's sword skill and speed increased dramatically. He was trying to end this fight quickly. Lucas used his full-powered attack to strike Hiro down.

He used all his might to attack Hiro with his sword.

-CLANK! -CLANK! -CLANK!

The sword strike was blocked by Hiro's sword. The attack wasn't strong enough to hurt Hiro. Hiro's sword moved to counter-attack Lucas.

-CLANK!

Hiro's attack was blocked by Rowan. Rowan used his sword to counter-attack.

[ "Damn. This is not looking good." ]

As expected of a senior but even the two of them could not keep up with Hiro. Even though they were both Second-Year students, they were both weaker than Hiro. The power gap was too vast between them.

-CLANG! ZZZZT!

[ "Ugh." ]

Rowan couldn't dodge the attack and he received a light wound on his arm. Lucas and Rowan were at a loss of what to do.

There was no way they could defeat him. Their strength was not enough to beat him. They would have to work together to defeat him.

Otherwise, Hiro would defeat them one by one.

They both decided to attack at the same time. They wanted to take Hiro out as soon as possible. Lucas and Rowan used their Movement Art to increase their speed and attacked using their attack skill.

[ "Fortunate Sword Style: Dividing Stab" ]

[ "Crimson Sword Style: Crimson Sword Strike" ]

They both released their mana and used their strength and speed to attack Hiro.

-CLANG! -CLANG! -CLANG! -CLANG! -CLANG!

Their attack was parried easily by Hiro. Hiro was able to see the attacks and could easily counter them.

[ "I can't believe he can dodge all these attacks." ]

Lucas and Rowan's attacks were blocked. Lucas and Rowan thought their attacks were easy to block because they went easy on him. They didn't expect him to easily dodge their attacks and a look of fear appeared on their faces.

[ "Damn. His movement speed is too fast." ]

[ "Damn. His reaction speed is fast too." ]

They couldn't see Hiro's movements and his defense was too strong.

[ "His attacks are strong too." ]

They had to understand how strong his attacks were. They wanted to avoid unnecessary injury. Lucas and Rowan were shocked by his strength. Hiro's strength was way above their league.

*****

( Oh. Just as I predicted, Hiro is way beyond them. Although two seniors are at the same rank as Hiro however, Hiro's stats were similar to a Rank-D human. )

Though Hiro's strength didn't surprise me. I didn't think Hiro would be able to overpower two Top-10 seniors by just using his Movement Art.

I was just standing on the stage like the fight in front of me had nothing to do with me. I thought they might have a plan since they were harassing Hiro for this duel.

But turns out they simply overestimated their own strength. Professor William must have thought it will be easy for experienced seniors to exploit our weakness in team cooperation but Hiro didn't even need my help to beat them.

The other students watched the battle with shock in their eyes. Especially second-year students who have never seen Hiro fight.

[ "Damn. This First-Year student is too powerful." ]

[ "We can't even defeat one of them and he is able to easily suppress both of them. He is too much of a monster." ]

[ "I think only Dreyar can match his strength."]

While Second-year students gossiped and were terrified of Hiro's strength, First-year students were delighted. As one of the strongest First-year students, Hiro was somehow like a representative for all First-year students.

So seeing him win was good news for us. However, not everyone was overjoyed.

[ "Dammit. His strength has increased again." ]

Zion clenched his hand. He thought his strength was catching up to Hiro especially after he had reached Rank-E +.

When he saw the battle, he knew he was not powerful enough. He trained twice as hard as in the past after the incident at BloodyWolf Forest but he was still far from being able to defeat Hiro.

While he was feeling frustrated, the girls beside him were overjoyed.

Lisa and Sylvia were delighted watching Hiro win. They know how senior students always annoy Hiro since they spend most of the time with him.

[ "I didn't think Hiro was this strong." ]

Sylvia said to Lisa.

[ "Hiro was always strong but I think he became stronger than before." ]

Lisa, who saw Hiro's strength, analyzed Hiro's growth. He was able to fight Rank-D - Devil Contractor in the past, but his strength and speed were lower than what is displayed right now.

[ "Still what is Zero doing? They would have already won if he had helped." ]

With a disgruntled tone, Lisa asked Sylvia. She remembered Zero who used to chase after her, though for almost a month, he didn't talk to her at all.

Lisa thought something might have happened at the BloodyWolf Forest for him to change his attitude. She didn't ask Zero as she was not close to him and it was great that Zero was focusing on training instead of courting her.

[ "Did something happen to him in the Bloody Wolf Forest? I heard you were with him at that time. Was he traumatized by what happened in the forest?" ]

[ "H-He… I don't know why he is not helping Hiro. Maybe he is waiting for a chance." ]

( Traumatized? Ha. It would be his enemy who would be traumatized by Zero though all of them are dead now. )

[ "Sylvia, don't you think Zero is acting weird." ]

[ "Weird? How?" ]

[ "W-well, he has not talked to me after that incident." ]

[ "Not talked? Hehe, ~Are you lonely that Zero is not talking to you?" ]

Sylvia teased her by saying 'lonely'. Lisa didn't let this pass, she elbowed Sylvia, telling her to answer her seriously.

[ "It's okay. Nothing dangerous happened to him. Though I am curious why he won't approach you anymore." ]

[ "I am curious too. I think he was really traumatized." ]

[ "Maybe, I don't know. I also want to know why Zero is not helping Hiro." ]

The girls looked carefully and saw Zero was not helping. He was standing on the ground as if he was just watching the battle. Lucas and Rowan were already tired from deflecting Hiro's attack.

Lucas and Rowan were on the verge of losing. Lisa who didn't know the situation thought Zero wasn't helping because he was scared of the seniors. She thought Zero was a scaredy-cat.