Demon Legacy

The bet with Raphael was set in stone, but there were still a few more written tests to go before the combat tournament would begin.

After the dreadful experience at the physics test, Kaden began studying for his other tests. It wouldn't make a big difference, but it would be worth it if he could get just a few more questions right.

During this time before the combat tournament, Kaden was sought out by Chet multiple times. He wanted to spar with Kaden so that he could improve and further his chances of winning his battle against Raphael.

Even if Kaden was confident that Chet would win, Chet wasn't comfortable leaving it at that. It was best to train and keep improving his skills.

With this routine, Kaden completely stopped playing virtual games for a while. His entire day was dedicated to studying, training and sparring with Chet.

It proved to be worth it when the academic results were released.

Out of the 400 first years, he placed 270 on the academic ranking. It was still bad, but a lot better than what he would've gotten without studying.

In comparison, Chet ended up at 103, a good result that he could attribute to his early efforts.

Damien on the other hand was even lower, because he spent all his time on virtual games his academic rank was a paltry 396. Of all the first years at the academy, there were only 4 who did worse than him.

With the academic rankings finalized, it marked the end of all the written tests. Finally it was time for the combat tournament to begin, this was what Kaden had been looking forward to.

…

On the first day of the combat tournament, all the first year students were gathered inside one of the academy's three big training rooms. Despite the 400 people, it wasn't very crowded inside.

A teacher stood on one of the temporary arenas that had been set up, explaining the rules and progression of the tournament.

Because it was the first combat tournament for the first year students, no one could skip any fights. Every single student would have to fight from the beginning of the tournament. Even with his number 1 rank on the martial arts ranking, Kaden still had to fight from the start.

The fights were going to be determined by using an elimination bracket. The first and second ranked would be seeded on opposite sides of the bracket, and the top 10 would be evenly split among both brackets.

This was how Kaden knew he would be fighting Raphael in the final, and that Chet would end up on his side of the bracket.

Finishing his explanation, the teacher announced the start of the combat tournament and left the stage.

At the same time, Kaden felt a vibration coming from his wrist, indicating that he had received a message.

The teacher had already told them about this, explaining that it was a message containing the arena and match number for their battle.

Kaden took a look at his com and saw that he was up for the first fight on the fifth arena.

Damien and Chet beside him were also busy finding out the time and location of their own matches.

He wanted to stay and chat for a while, but the teacher had already announced the start of the tournament. Since his fight was the first, he didn't have any time to hang around.

"Damn I'm up first, I guess I have to hurry." Kaden had wanted to take a look around before having to go up on stage.

"What arena? I'm not fighting until the third match, so I can take a look." Chet asked, since he didn't have to fight yet he would come along and cheer for his friend.

"I'll come too, mine is the 10th match so I don't have anything going on for a while." Damien said. In total there were 20 arenas. 200 battles would be fought on the first day, meaning Damien's was the last.

"Sure it's the 5th arena, but we can just go together."

Kaden led the way as they made their way to the arena.

He felt like they had gotten there somewhat quick, but his opponent was already up on stage. The referee was looking impatient, checking his com for the time.

"I'm here!" Kaden called as he went up on the stage.

"Kaden Arkatal, five more seconds and I would've disqualified you." The referee

"Well I made it didn't I? Besides, this is the first match, it's not like I could've prepared for it." Kaden explained himself. Sure he stuck around to talk with Chet and Damien, but it had been very brief. Right off the bat, he had an impression that the referee didn't like him very much.

The referee just frowned and got ready to start the match.

Kaden also began to get ready, getting into his stance and taking a look at the other boy on stage.

From the information he recieved on his com, Kaden already knew that his opponent was a student from one of the special classes.

The student's martial arts ranking let him know that the gap between their strength was enormous. He was at the 8th level of Body Tempering, meaning the force he could exert was only somewhere between 700 to 800 kg.

Kaden however was at the 13th level, able to exert 1347 kg of force. It was likely that there was at least a 600 kg difference between them, despite only being 5 levels apart. The gap in strength was hard to make up for with mere techniques.

The reason the difference was so large, was because of the jump in strength from the 9th to the 10th level. Unlike every other level in the Body Tempering realm, one had to go from 800 kg to 1000 kg in their force output to reach the 10th level. Instead of the usual 100 kg increase, it was a 200 kg increase, effectively making it count as two levels.

It was obvious that the opponent was also nervous to be fighting Kaden. He cursed his luck for running into Kaden in his first battle. He was doomed no matter what now, it was impossible for him to rank higher than 201.

Even in the best case scenario where he lost this fight and won against all the other first round losers afterwards, he still couldn't enter the top 200. The academy's dumb system that only seeded the top 10 was to blame for this terrible outcome.

But before the fight could begin, both Kaden and his opponent were struck dumb by the commotion beneath the stage.

"Go Kaden!"

"Beat his ass Kaden!"

A group of mostly girls had gathered beneath the stage, screaming Kaden's name and encouraging him.

Kaden didn't understand what he was seeing, since when did he have a fan club? He couldn't help but give his opponent an apologetic look, if he had been demoralized before, it was only even worse now.

The referee ignored the crowd and started the match, getting ready to step in if there was a problem, but before he could even get ready, the match was already over.

In a shocking turn of events, Kaden's opponent had been sent bouncing off of the stage just as soon as the match began, he didn't even have a chance to make a move of his own.

Kaden felt a bit bad. This student was already having a bad day, and now he was defeated before he could even take a step. Still, Kaden had to follow his plan. If he didn't show overwhelming dominance in the tournament, the academy wouldn't make an exception and let him stay in the elite class.

"Uhhh." The referee was at a loss, he hadn't seen something like this happen before. He forgot what he was supposed to do.

"I won right?" Kaden asked.

"Oh… I suppose you did." Remembering his duty, the referee declared Kaden the winner and let him leave the stage.

"Wahhhh Kaden you're so cool!"

The girls in the fan club were squealing with excitement as Kaden came down from the stage. They began swarming him, blocking his path.

It was Kaden's turn to be at a loss now. Fortunately Chet and Damien were there, with their presence it was a lot easier to move through the crowd. They acted as a deterrant, deterring the girls from getting too close.