Chapter 9: First Showdown!

I followed her to the store, it was the same one where we bought our lunches the day before.

We just bought some sandwiches and ate them while we went back to school. That time we didn't have time to go to the park due to the time we had take in our previous talk.

…

The day continued as usual, nothing out of the ordinary.

When the bell rang, I took my things quickly and went to the exit to wait for Julia, who arrived after a few minutes and we started the trip to the gym for the third consecutive time that week.

We separated when we arrived, but instead of trying to sell some crafts, I decided to stay and see the practice of Taekwondo taught by the idiot.

I settled in a place where I could clearly see all the training arena. There were about 50 students there, which, compared to Professor Kim's class, was already a surprising difference.

'Those traitors' I cursed them internally, remembering that many of them were previously from Master Kim's class, but they left him to join that of Carter's bastard.

They were all arranged in 5 rows of 10 students each and were repeating again and again each kick or blow that the teacher named.

They all seemed pretty coordinated, except for some in the back row who were apparently new recruits.

'Bored' I thought. 'I hope classes with Kim aren't this way or I will turn crazy'.

When the first part of the class had already passed, with an order from Carter, they all formed in a large circle around a battle platform and sat cross-legged on the floor.

In that instant, the bastard shouted two names. At the same time two young men climbed to the center of the arena and assumed combat positions.

With a single order, the fight started.

Instantly it became unilateral. One of the practitioners was apparently quite experienced, but the other one, on the other hand, had all the appearance of having started recently.

At some point, the new one fell to the floor battered. At that moment I thought that Carter was going to end the fight and call two new students to climb the arena. But this didn't happened.

"Get up!" The condemned man shouted. "Receiving a beating from your superiors, you will learn quickly, if you surrender so easily you don't deserve to be in my class" he concluded.

'That moron!' I thought. But then I could see how that young man got up and went back to face his superior.

I was surprised. That young man didn't have an expression of determination or struggle on his face, instead, a look of fear was drawn on his face.

"Stop" I exclaimed from the stands. "Enough, he already lost, there's no reason for him to continue the fight" I said indignantly.

"You again? This is because I didn't let you participate in the class? Do you want to come and cause trouble for me? Get out of here, go away. Here, the weak are not allowed and the fastest way to strengthen is getting a beating" said Carter when he saw that it was me who had screamed before, to stop the fight.

"What a shitty teacher you are to have such a mindset!" I said as I started to walk towards the area where they were training. "Come" I said to the new one. "You don't have to be in this practice if they're going to treat you like that. Join with me to Master Kim's class. He will not treat you like this second-grade teacher" i made use of all my courage to say those words. I didn't know why or how, I had achieved such a feat given my shy personality, but seeing that attitude of the stupid teacher from before, i couldn't help doing something about it.

Maybe I felt familiarity in that other guy who was getting beated up. The fear on his face reminded me of my eternal cowardice.

'Calm down' I thought, 'what has already been done can't be undone. It only remains to accept the consequences and move forward'

I stood firmly under the arena. With my hand extended towards the new student, who looked at me with stupefaction.

'They're going to beat him to death' was all that boy seemed to think at that moment.

"Who the fuck do you think you are to come here and interrupt my clases!?" Carter shouted. But the expression on his face changed from fury to calm only a second later. His lips curved in a cold smile.

"Okay, you want to take one of my students? Alright, but first you must earn that right. 'Morgan'" he called "Go up to the arena. Fight with this guy".

This Morgan was a tall young man, with a thin build, but you could see from the muscles of his arms that he wasn't a weakling. He looked at me indifferently while he carried out his teacher's orders.

"Come up if you have the guts!" Carter shouted. "It is impossible for someone like you to beat him, but if you hold 5 minutes, it will be considered your victory"

A single thought crossed my mind at that moment. 'run'. But I ignored it. I shook my head hard, trying to erase those cowardly thoughts, and determination started to filled my face.

'I'm not the same as before, never again' I encouraged in my mind.

I jumped up to the area where Morgan was waiting for me. There was no expression on his face. Only a slight disdain that could be seen in his eyes but was barely noticable.

Once I prepare myself mentally. I looked at the stupid Carter, indicating that he could start if he wanted to.

"Ready, Start," he said.

Morgan jump at me at the same time the last word came from the idiot's mouth.

'Calm down, use your new skills'. As I think about this, I reassure myself, and devote my full attention to the opponent in front of me. 'First let's see how strong this Morgan guy is' To do this, i had to get in touch with him in some way, either verbally or physically. But clearly he wasn't a man of words. So I went for the second one.

I received the first kick he threw, directed to my side, and I redirected it to the left using my hands in a soft movement.

At the time we made contact, his statistics appeared in my mind thanks to the system.

'TaeKownDo Lvl 3, that's not so much' I thought. But then I remembered that at this moment, even though my ability was much higher than his. I still couldn't use Its 100% due to my lack of body training. So I calculated that, currently, my TaeKownDo skill would be approximately close to level 3 or 4, but even so, it was enough for me now. I only had to endure 5 minutes and i would win.