Chapter 10 ***Stronger Opponent***

• “Who was that boy”
• “I know him…” A boy who was shorter than his age stated
• “I heard it was because of him, his family died and their house got burnt” The boy continued
• “That’s not possible, who would kill their own family” the scratchy voice came from a boy who looked like a round ball.
• “That’s not what I said, rumours said the boy is cursed, how will a whole family die and leave him alone” the short boy furrowed his eyebrows, he hated when people would twist his words.
• “He was pretty strong” one of the boys said with a low voice.
• “He wasn’t that strong, look at the way he struggled during the fight” One of the bigger boys scoffed
• “No…look at his last move, he must have been holding back” The round boy said, he believed Roshan was a lot stronger than he showed them.
• “He must be a lot stronger than Bahr” he continued
• “WHO SAID THAT!!!!!!!” A loud voice boomed scattering the whole gathering. Loud footsteps could be heard walking confidently to the area of the gathering.
• The short boy immediately pointed to his nemesis ready to get revenge for arguing with him.
• A tall boy with broad shoulders came into view. He had no shirt on and his muscles were seen glistening with sweat which indicated that he had been going through a lot of training.
• He came forward and looked at the round ball below him.
• “Repeat what you said, who is this boy?” His dark eyes shined as he examined the chubby boy.
• “Uhhmmm…. I didn’t mean it like that Bahr. The boy was a little bit stronger but he is definitely not stronger than you” The round boy shook as he spoke, his fear was written in his eyes.
• “I know, how can he be stronger than Bahr” The tall boy smiled proudly as he hit his chest.
• “Now everyone should go back to their training centre and I don’t want to hear any commotion” He turned around and left
• The crowd immediately separated.
• But the lingering thought on everyone’s mind was
• ‘Who was that boy?’
• *****************
• Roshan lay on his bed as he thought of the events of the day.
• It was better because he had gotten a new experience from fighting that dummy. What if he could get his own personal fighting dummy.
• He wouldn’t have to visit the training ground anymore.
• He looked at his status again.
• *HOST LEVEL: Level 12
• *HOST RACE: Greater Human
• *CURRENT ABILITY: None
• *STRENGTH: 23
• *AGILITY: 23
• *SPEED: 23
• *STAMINA: 22
• ‹Mage Status›
• *Mage Level: 1
• *Mage Abilities Activated
• *Poison Element: 6
• *Mana Control: 0
• HP: [250/250]
• EXP: [0/250]
• *Skills Unlocked*
• *Energy Absorption: Level 3
• *Refill: Level 3
• *Crystal Iris: Level 3
• *SP: [250/250]
• He was a mage
• Noone must find out.
• He closed his eyes and fell into the Land of Zs
• ------------
• Some where in another planet.
• “It starts in two weeks time, are you ready” Emerald eyes shone in the dim area.
• “Yes Father, I am ready” Another pair of Emerald eyes stared back.
• “Good…Make sure you let them know the true meaning of fear” A faint smile was seen
• “Now…. Dismiss” The body turned around and stared at the cold night
• The younger pair of eyes walked out
• ‘urggggghh….he doesn’t even care’
• “I will prove to him that I am indeed worthy” He said and clenched his fists.
• ‘No matter what..’
• **************
• *Quest Received*
• *Stronger Opponent Detected*
• *Quest: Defeat the Opponent*
• *Quest Reward: Overall Level Up*
• Roshan arrived at the training ground in the late noon and had decided to set the training dummy at an higher level.
• Right now, he was facing a Level 13 opponent. He was too fearful too put it at a much higher Level.
• He took a fighting stance and got his sword ready.
• He leapt from his position raising his sword up to strike the dummy. This time he didn’t hold back as he poured his strength into the attack.
• In a fraction of second, he landed in front of the dummy. The attack was blocked by the dummy’s own sword but it was pushed a step back, showing no sign of emotions.
• The android dummy raised it’s head at the person that pushed it back and ran forward closing the distance between them in mere seconds before swinging it’s sword down at the surprised boy.
• Roshan raised his sword in time and blocked it, it seems he underestimated this robot.
• The robot didn’t give him a space to breathe before slashing it’s sword on the boy again. He raised his hands above his head to block the upcoming attack but it was obvious that even an opponent one level higher was far stronger than him as he was brought down on his knees from that attack.
• His hands became numb due to the aching pain from blocking that attack.
• A tingling sensation was felt and he jumped back and in the place he left, a huge cloud of dust flew from the impact of the dummy’s sword on the ground
• “Shit…….I could have died” He muttered as he looked at the place he stood before and a small crater was seen at that area.
• “It’s time to be more serious” he said as he slowly stood up and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter.
• “Hey, can you see what’s going on” A boy asked the person by his side as he tried to understand what was seen in front of him.
• “ I can’t...they are moving so fast” His companion answered as he rubbed his temples.
• Unknown to Roshan, his match had gathered a crowd. Everyone had stopped what they were doing just to watch the match
• “What is going on here!!” A tall shirtless boy could be seen marching his way to the front of the crowd and noone tried to obstruct him because he was Bahr and he was well feared.
• Bahr walked to the front of the crowd as he saw a skinny figure fighting a training robot. He could not understand what was so special in it. He had trained with a lot of robots but no one came to watch him.
• “Hey you” his cold voice barked at the boy next to him.
• The pale looking boy flinched and replied
• “Y…y….yes”
• “At what level is the robot” Bahr asked as he faced the fight again to see the boy getting pounded by the robot.
• ‘Pathetic’ He thought.
• “Uhhmmmm..H…. he’s fighting a Level 13” The boy said as he shrunk into a corner trying to get far away from this monster.
• Bahr’s eyes widened for a little bit
• ‘A level 13….’ He thought but after seeing the way the skinny boy was being thrown around by the dummy.
• ‘He bit more than he could chew then’ Bahr thought as he chuckled.
• On the field, Roshan could be seen struggling for his life. He bit his lips as he swung his sword but that was easily blocked. He was getting dizzy and his vision blurred but he didn’t lose his focus.
• He jumped a few metres backward as he tried to regain a bit of his strength.
• The dummy leapt forward and brought it’s sword down at an incredibly quick rate. An attack that would definitely knock a grown man cold was directed towards Roshan.
• However he steadied his feet and received the blow. The impact shook his right forearm muscles and pushed him back. Blood flowed out from his mouth, his vision blurred, his legs shook but he didn’t give up. He had to win this fight.
• The annoying thing was that during the fight, he had been hearing annoying sounds in his head
• *HP is being depleted*
• *HP: [150/250]*
• *HP is being depleted*
• *HP: [100/250]*
• *HOST IS IN CRITICAL STATE*
• Roshan didn’t even want to think about what would happen if his HP reached 0.
• He needed to finish this
• He stood up straight and pointed his sword at the dummy.
• It was just a stone he needed to jump over to reach his goal.
• *Host is weak*
• *All stats will be halved*
• The annoying sound echoed in his head again as he spat a mouthful of blood on the floor.
• He took a step forward only to fall back down on his knees but nonetheless a smile could be seen on his face
• ‘Why is he smiling, he should be crying right now’ A Shirtless boy with broad shoulders thought as he furrowed his brows.
• While others thought
• ‘He’s smiling like before again'
• ‘It’s that creepy smile’
• Roshan wiped the blood from his mouth as he gripped the hilt of the sword with both his hands.
• He ran but he was rather slow.
• He pick up his pace as he sped to where the dummy stood.
• “I will defeat you” He shouted as he leapt into the sky and brought the sword down, the robot raised it’s sword to block it but immediately another attack came to it’s side. It blocked it again.
• Then the attacks poured as Roshan squeezed out all his strength
• *Warning: Host is in critical condition*
• *HP: [50/250]*
• “Damn..it” He cursed as he kept swinging his sword, his muscles ached him as if he carried the weight of the world.
• The dummy was getting inflicted with a lot attacks and it’s body could be filled with scratches but the attack power was still little.
• *HP: [20/250]*
• Then it clicked…
• “Refill!!” He said and tightened the grib on his sword.
• *Refill: Level 2 activated*
• A refreshing feeling came upon him. The blood in his mouth stopped flowing and his limbs became lighter.
• He jumped back to absorb the effect of that skill.
• *HP: [250/250]*
• He looked at the dummy and everything flowed in place.
• With a kick to the ground, he rose up
• With his hands high, he raised his sword.
• With his full strength, he brought his sword and slammed it down on the robot’s body.
• «CLANGGGGGG»
• And a huge mushroom dust cloud covered the scene
• “What happened?” A guy from the middle of the crowd broke the silence
• Then,
• “Let me through, I can’t see” those from the back pushed their way to the front.
• As the dust dispersed, a boy could be seen on his left knee as he supported his weight with his sword stuck to the ground and in his front was the standing dummy whose sword was up and ready to slash the fainting boy