"You’ve got good reaction ti and your moves are natural and consistent. You must have practiced a lot."
Lake spoke as he held Kate’s bow in one hand.
In response to his praise, Kate remained silent and raised her sword.
Right now she was soaked in sweat and on high alert. Lake’s last two attacks had made her feel like she wasn’t sparring but in a life or death battle.
Lake’s attacks were swift and precise, all aiming at her vital points without even the slightest hesitation. They may look light on the surface but the force behind them could definitely leave her heavily injured if not dead if they were to hit her... at least, that was what Kate thought after barely surviving Lake’s last attack.
Although she maintained a calm appearance on the outside, she was actually panicking deeply on the inside.
"What did I do to make him so mad at ? Why does he want to kill ? Did he figure out I was investigating him? Is this why dad told not to investigate him?"
"Hmm? If you’re not going to make the first move, I’ll just take it as my sign to start attacking then."
Lake suddenly spoke as he smiled lightly.
That smile sent chills down Kate’s spine as Lake suddenly transford into a living devil in her eyes.
This is way too scary!
Whoosh!
Lake dashed forward, leaving his feet planted in front of Kate in an instant as he jabbed his hand forward in a knife-like motion, aiming straight for her throat.
Clang!
Spark flew as Kate barely blocked Lake’s attack with her sword.
However Lake didn’t give Kate any chance to rest as he ca at her again.
What followed next was a series of attacks that made Kate doubt her own skills.
Strike, Swipe, Kick, Straight Punch, Uppercut, Left Cross, Right Hook, Feint.
Lake would use a series of different attacks, chaining them together one after the other giving Kate no chance to rest and barely a tenth of a second to breath.
He would create a rhythm with his attacks in a constant flow but the mont Kate barely adjusted to the rhythm, he would stop his attacks and pause in space for a mont, throwing her completely off guard before coming at her with a completely new rhythm.
Since all of the attacks ca at her with lethal intentions she didn’t dare to let down her guard, in case the next attack left her seriously injured or dead.
The worst part about it all was that Lake was just barely faster than her. At first, they were at a level where she could keep up with but the speed had kept increasing until now where she could barely respond to even a single attack. Once it had reached that point, the attack speed would stop increasing but whenever she found herself sohow barely adapting to it, Lake would increase it by another level again, constantly keeping her on edge.
He maintained it at a pace that she could respond to but would have to give her all to do it, constantly pushing her to her limits.
This process of constantly being on alert and having to force her body to move in order to barely save her life was hell to Kate and almost made her want to cry.
But this wasn’t the first ti she was fighting soone stronger than her. Back at ho, her father would hire hunters from the guild with Low Rank Martial Apprentice strength for her to spar with.
In those fights she could often hold her own despite being at a severe disadvantage when it ca to Fitness Index. Of course, she knew that those hunters were also holding back as they didn’t dare to injure her, but when it ca to responding and reacting to attacks from that level of Fitness Index, Kate was confident that she could hold out evenly against a Low Rank Martial Apprentice for at least an hour.
However, Lake’s attacks were on a completely different level. Kate felt that Lake’s Fitness Index had already surpassed a Low Rank Martial Apprentice!
At this point she had long forgotten that they were only sparring and even had the illusion she was in a life or death battle with a dangerous beast.
No, even a beast wouldn’t be as deadly as this. This was more like fighting the grim reaper who had co to claim her life!
Sparks continued to fly on the sparring stage.
While Kate and Lake were sparring, the other students were also sparring.
So of them engaged in light spars with each other to get a feel for their new weapons while others engaged in more serious spars in order to test themselves.
However, at the mont everyone was distracted from the sounds of tal clashing ringing out from Lake’s stage.
The stage Lake was using was one used for duels and spars involving ranged weapons so the constant sound of tal clashing had caught the interest of a lot of students.
What was most surprising was that the sounds were more frequent than the stages where both students were using blades.
Since the stage was enclosed by a wall to prevent stray arrows from hitting other students, what was happening inside could only be seen through a large screen on the outside wall of the stage.
At this mont, a few of the students had stopped their duel to take a curious glance at the screen but what they saw had left them absolutely stunned.
Bullying.
That was the first term that ca to the mind of anyone that looked at the screen showing the spar between Lake and Kate.
It was a complete suppression of both mind and body. The constant attacks that were being launched gave no chance for the opposing party to fight back and forced them to stay on the defensive.
The reason why the word bullying ca to their mind instead of anything else was due to the difference in state between the two fighters.
On one end was Kate who was desperately trying to defend every single attack. By looking closely one could see the stress and strain that she was under as she frantically moved her sword to defend the endless incoming attacks with a both fearful and desperate look on her face.
On the other hand, there was Lake, who was on the offensive with a relaxed expression on his face. It didn’t even look like he was trying as he effortlessly drilled into the helpless Kate’s ek defense.
The spar between the two reminded students of a villain’s using their overbearing power to play with the heroine. After all, Kate was one of the best looking girls in their school year paired with her background as the daughter of a high ranking guild, calling her a heroine wouldn’t be exactly wrong, but unlike those from the movies, it didn’t look like she was going to co back from the assault with any amazing show of power.
A lot of the male students actually wanted to stop their own spar and run up to fight Lake themselves to prove themselves as the protagonist and save the damsel in distress. However, whenever they took another glance at the screen they felt a deep sense of inferiority well up inside them.
So of the students who saw the spar wondered whether they would be able to hold on under Lake’s dreadfully oppressive assaults if they were in her shoes and found that it would be extrely difficult for them to even survive for ten seconds, much less ten minutes.
This realization made them feel sha as they helplessly gritted their teeth, however, it did give rise to a greater feeling of admiration for Kate. At this point, she had been under this constant pressure for more than five minutes, once again proving her talent as Rank Three in this year’s batch to everyone.
On one stage in particular, Bradford and Allen had temporarily stopped their own duel to look at the screen as well.
"Terrible, absolutely terrible. How can a man be so cruel to a woman? More importantly, how can he be that much stronger than ?"
Allen spoke as he shook his head.
"This is an academy for martial arts. There is no difference between the two genders, only difference in strength."
Bradford spoke out as if to answer Allen’s question.
"And as for the matter of how he could be so strong, I’m also curious. If my analysis isn’t wrong, his Fitness Index should be sowhere around Mid Rank Martial Apprentice, possibly higher."
Hearing this, Allen’s eyes widened as he looked at Bradford with disbelief.
"Is that even possible? I myself am still struggling to reach the Low Rank yet you tell he has already reached the Mid Rank or higher? It’s only been three months since the entrance exam. My growth rate could already be described as astonishing if compared to the older generations, yet Lake has surpassed it by leaps and bounds."
"Definitely possible, after all, you already know that I’m at the beginning of Mid Rank myself."
"Ugh- That’s different. You’re a monster, so it makes sense for you to be like that."
"What can I say, this year’s generation is just filled with monsters."
As they spoke Bradford never once took his eyes off the screen, an amused look in his eyes.
"Besides, what Lake’s doing is actually quite beneficial for Kate."
"I’m sorry, my ears must be playing tricks on . Did you say that he’s helping her?"
Allen spoke with a face as if trying to say ’are you questioning my intelligence?’.
Bradford ignored Allen’s look and continued to speak.
"Look closely. Tell , how long do you think you could survive under Lake’s assault."
This ti Allen frowned as he looked at the screen. He felt annoyed that Bradford spoke as if he couldn’t win but still decided to take a look.
"Hmm... Maybe 15 minutes... no, 14, no that’s not it either..."
As Allen took the ti to look closely at the screen his expression slowly changed from annoyed to shock as he realized what was going on.
"T-that’s impossible. There is no way a student should be able to do sothing like that..."
"There’s nothing impossible in this world, rember that."
Bradford spoke as he smiled.
When he looked at the screen he had already noticed what Lake was doing.
Although Bradford didn’t see the start of the battle, he could roughly guess what was happening from what he was seeing.
To put it in simple terms, Lake was pushing Kate to her limits.
He would spend ti dealing with her in the early stage to adjust to her power level before raising the pressure of his assault until the opponent could barely handle it.
Once the opponent starts to adjust to your assault, you increase the difficulty by another level to keep them on their toes.
In this way, the opponent would be forced to constantly push themselves beyond their limit.
This constant state of peak performance, while draining, is actually extrely beneficial to a practitioner.
Besides the physical training one earns from pushing their body beyond its limit, it helps the practitioner to develop a rich combat experience when it cos to fighting opponents stronger than them.
Through this thod, it isn’t uncommon for soone to be able to fight against people with higher Fitness Index than them if they’re able to constantly push themselves.
This type of limit training, while not common, is occasionally seen every now and then so Allen was able to recognize it after looking closely.
However, what shocked him wasn’t the fact that the two were doing limit training, but the fact that Lake was the one limit training Kate!
It is known that the requirents for the trainer to perform limit training are extrely strict. Besides the requirent that the trainer must be greatly stronger than the trainee, they must also have incredible control over their strength.
They need to be able to control their strength with great precision to such an extent wherein they can basically manipulate their Fitness Index.
This is needed because the trainers need to be able to constantly increase their strength in incrents small enough so as to not overwhelm the trainee, but large enough to not underwhelm them. If they used too much strength, they would defeat the trainee and end the training early. If they were to use too little strength, then the opponent wouldn’t need to adapt to a large enough extent and would not fall into that state of pushing themselves over their limit and as such would not benefit from the training.
This kind of control is sothing that could only be trained by years of practice. That’s why Allen was so shocked when he realized that Lake was performing such a high difficulty maneuver.
However, it wasn’t only Allen that realized what was going on. Many others had co to the realization of what Lake was doing including Instructor Bane who was looking at the screen with a slightly stunned expression.
"B-but this type of training has its limits, there is no way that Kate could maintain it for this long. It’s already been more than ten minutes yet Kate is still pushing herself."
Allen suddenly spoke and Bradford nodded thoughtfully.
He knew what Allen was talking about. Although limit training was extrely useful, it requires a highly competent trainer in order for it to be effective, however, that is sothing that can be easily solved with money, although rare, there are still a lot of martial artists that et the requirents in the world.
But even with a good trainer, all of that is useless if the practitioner themselves can’t grit their teeth and continue to push themselves past their limits.
After all, the average human body isn’t built for the kind of stress that limit training brings. After a certain point, it’s impossible for a person to continue to push themselves and they eventually collapse from exhaustion.
However, limit training can also be described as a form of ntal and physical torture and most people stop before even reaching the point of collapse.
Even though the benefits of limit training are extrely useful, the process of limit training itself is extrely tortuous and since it is only training, there is no need to push yourself to collapse.
After all, it isn’t a life or death matter so there isn’t any need to push yourself that hard.
That’s why most people only tend to reach three to five minutes under the pressure of limit training before giving out.
"That’s why I said this year is filled with monsters."
Bradford suddenly spoke as he sighed.
Kate, who has already passed the ten minute mark seed to be one of the rare few that had the willpower to push herself past her limits, earning her another wave of respect from the observing crowd including Bradford.
However, if everyone were to actually hear what was going through Kate’s mind right now, they wouldn’t think the sa.
In Kate’s mind, she had already subconsciously fallen into the belief that Lake was trying to kill her with the lethality she sensed in each of his attacks.
If any of them were to connect she feared that she would actually die and it was this fear that allowed her to push herself to this point.
After all, no one wants to die and the human body is only capable of pushing itself beyond the limit when it senses that its life is in danger.
And right now, in both mind and body, Kate was already considering Lake to be a threat to her life.
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