Derek Watson
[1252 Words]
----------------------
(3rd Person's POV)
Hearing Victor's speech gave Felix goosebumps all over his arms.
Victor's expression, body language and tone of voice was enough reference for any person who had any fighting experience to get a feel of how hard the path of fighting is.
After the speech, for a few moments, no one moved and the place came to a standstill.
Step...
Step...
Step...
But soon, footsteps resounded in front of the gym.
Many people were turning back to where they came from, they had many hopes of being able to achieve their goal under the leadership of one of the best fighters in the country. But they soon got a hold of what is the gym really about. They could understand their reality that at present, they weren't meant to enter this new realm.
After five or so minutes, the people who wanted to leave had mostly left. There were now around 1/6th of the people left.
Looking at them, you could feel a different vibe coming off them. The vibe of an experienced fighter...
Victor looked down below at the people who were left and said through his megaphone, "Looks like more people are left than I expected. All of you won't be able to clear the entrance test anyway. Well, the gates are opened now and you are free to enter the premises."
After he said that, people clamoured through the gate into the gym - "The Ring Of Life".
-----------------
The gym was incredibly huge and well-lit. It had many fighting rings in the middle, lockers for personal stuff near the walls, and many pieces of equipment that Felix hadn't even heard of were lined up in great amounts.
Anyone would be able to see that this was a well-funded gym which was doing considerably well.
As they entered the gym, the only human they could see in front of them was a blonde-haired man. Felix could recognise that man's visage anywhere since he was one of the most famous fighters in the history of Korea, Derek Watson.
[Image of Derek Watson]
He had a handsome face with well-defined features and eyes which were judging the fighting ability of the fighters.
He did not have an insane muscle build, strength, endurance or speed. He was a fighter who was the jack of all trades in these common aspects of a fighter, but he excelled in other not-so-usual aspects like tenacity, fighting awareness and fighting instinct. He was said to have an animal-like instinct, having the ability to even dodge hits coming out of his vision.
His fighting awareness and tenacity were said to have been developed in street fighting where he fought in his youth.
Felix was stoked to meet him because he had seen Derek's fighting matches and he was blown away by it. He expected this world's power level to be peak human but the strength shown in professional fighting matches was a notch above the peak human. The average human remained at the same level but the limit of the strength of humans was increased.
Like the fastest time for a 100m dash was 5 seconds which is half the time in his previous world. The fastest speed a human was able to achieve in the previous world was 37.5 km/h (23.3 miles/h) but in this world, the fastest speed was 51 km/h (31.7 miles/h).
He felt chills down his back when he saw the top boxers in the world and their fights. Even after being behind a screen, he could see how dangerous those fighters were. Even though, Felix was really strong for his age and had incredible talent. He still didn't stand up to them because of several reasons. First was the difference between the time they had for refining their fighting skills. Compared to them, Felix had given only a small amount of time to fighting.
Second was experience. Felix had attained a lot of experience in fighting in the streets but it was unrefined. He had fought untrained people, albeit talented. His experience didn't amount to the same as the experience of the fighters who had been fighting trained fighters for a much larger amount of time.
And the third was Training. Felix had not received any professional training, and even though he was able to improve himself on his own, he could achieve much more if he had a proper trainer.
That's why he chose to go under Derek Watson who was a talented breed like him.
After all the applicants had entered the gym, Victor came from behind them and closed the door. He said in his booming tone, "All the applicants which were left after what I said, are all here, Sir. You can go ahead with your test for them." And then he stood at the sidelines while looking at the applicants with an expectant expression.
Derek Watson strolled towards them lazily as he ordered in a sharp tone, " Stand straight in front of me in a horizontal line."
While Felix and almost all applicants followed his order, there was one man who didn't. He was a young man in his 20s who had a serious, expressionless face as he walked up to him. He said, "Sir. My name is Yujin Park. I believe I should be inducted into this gym without any need for a test because I have qualified for the national championships in Korea which should be more than enough for this gym.
...
...
...
The atmosphere became tense all of a sudden. The young man was 6'2, which was the same height as Derek Watson. Derek looked straight into Yujin's eyes and sighed out of frustration.
He took a step back from Yujin and entered a standard boxing stance, then did a gesture to Yujin to try to attack him. Yujin was a bit confused about this action of Derek but complied with him nonetheless.
Yujin took a similar stance and tried to attack the other person but as soon as he moved his feet, a jab hit him straight in the chin. Before even realising what had happened, Yujin lost his consciousness and flopped on the floor. Victor walked to Yujin and dragged him to the sidelines without even reacting. It felt like he was used to the occurrence of an event.
Derek addressed all the other people in a much louder tone, "All of you must have seen what just happened. What happened here was something that people usually try to pull off. Believing that they would be able to enter my gym based on their accolades. In reality, I don't give a shit about that. You could be the world champion and even then I wouldn't allow you to be a part of my gym unless you prove yourself."
"Anyway, let's not focus much on that idiot. What matters at this moment is the test for all of you. It will be a physical test. I am giving you 5 minutes to warm up yourself for it."
While Derek said that, Felix was blown away by the speed of Derek's jab. Felix was only able to see the jab with the help of his enhanced vision, only then he could realise how much that jab was trained. In that single jab, Felix could see how much hard work was put into that single strike. It was several notches above Felix's jab which was very inefficient and energy-wasting in comparison. This was enough for Felix to decide that he would learn to become a fighter from this man.
----------------------
(End Of The Chapter)
Fun Fact - If I didn't get the idea of doing a crossover for Wind Breaker and The Boxer, the love interest for Felix in The Boxer would have been the sister of the Santorino Brothers.
If you liked the story, drop some power stones. Write a review and some comments. Add this story to your library.
A bonus Chapter for 500 Power stones.
Join my Discord server - https://discord.gg/qDVsxP3CAg