10 Revenge

"Vicente... Rory!" Darek recognized who were the ones here to bother them and shouted their names, his voice taking a deeper tone when he addressed the brown-haired boy.

"Rory, are you challenging us?" The only fat boy put aside the fleeing bird and glared at Rory.

The rest of their group frowned, witnessing for the first time that the boy they had played with for over a year was now standing up against them.

"Rory, have you forgotten what we know about you?" Darek snapped at him as he advanced a few steps while snapping his fingers before declaring, "Come here. Your punishment will be loosing four teeth!"

Rory clenched his fists, refusing to speak anything.

This time, Vicente didn't want to engage in a talk and merely ran towards them after hearing these taunting words from his enemies.

Seeing that black-haired boy, who was just a few inches shorter than the tallest among their group, running with closed fists toward them, the four assumed their fighting stances.

They gathered the mana into their fists and legs, preparing for the impending combat.

All of them were aware that Vicente was the most talented student in the academy when it came to martial arts, so they had no intention of wanting to take him easy just because the two boys were outnumbered.

"Alright, Rory, the whole academy will soon know that your mother is a whore!" one of them shouted, expressing hatred for the clown who didn't recognize his place and dared to challenge them.

"You little shits, I'll make you swallow every bit of torment you've put me through!" Rory finally surged ahead to confront his enemies, channeling what little mana he had into his fists and feet.

The amount of mana a magician had could increase throughout their life. 

However, the most rapid growth in a magician's mana would be before their awakening, than at any other time in their life.

Not just that, the children would not even have to work hard to make it happen!

Their inherent talent would work during childhood and adolescence to help them gather as much mana as possible, which could significantly boost their mana reserve, thus having a profound impact on their later magical awakening.

As a result, children would have more and more mana as they grew up, and some of that mana could be used. 

While the mana would not be enough for them to conjure spells, it could be utilized by their body to strengthen itself, expedite their recovery rate, and provide various other advantages.

With a single fluid motion, Rory leaped towards one of the two weaker boys, driving his powerful fist right into the middle of the red-haired boy's face.

Meanwhile, Vice launched himself at Darek, performing an acrobatic maneuver in mid-air to land a devastating blow on this troublesome brat who had long been bothering him.

"Darek, die!" He yelled as he spun his right leg toward Darek's chest.

Darek was also equally committed to attacking Vice the same and doubted that this boy could withstand his kick.

Since he was the strongest in class 4, he could even compete with some class 5 boys. This recent status made him disregard his past clashes with Vice, and he attacked him with great force, intent on seriously hurting this annoying brat.

"I will soon become the strongest person in the academy, and you will be my new minion!" He boasted just before their blows collided.

When their blows struck, the air surrounding the two shifted, generating stronger gusts of wind in the opposite direction.

At the same time, a subtle pulse spread from the point of impact between their shins, something imperceptible yet capable of causing a disturbance in the free mana in the atmosphere up to a few meters away from them.

"Aaaagh!"

Then, a cry of pain erupted from one of them as both of them tumbled in the direction into the direction from which they had leaped.

Vice gritted his teeth but didn't show any signs of pain, even feeling as if he had kicked a wall.

However, Darek was not strong-minded and bellowed in anger and agony as he fell to the ground, limped, and clutched his leg due to the pain.

"Damn it! Vicente! I will destroy you!" He roared as the fat boy attacked in the direction of this black-haired boy.

Vicente moved faster, narrowly evading the opponents' incoming attack by leaping backward.

Then, as the fat boy missed his blow, the body of one of the other two was sent hurtling in his direction after Rory landed a solid blow on the first opponent.

"Aaagh!"

With those first blows, Rory and Vice stood side by side, demonstrating a remarkable growth in their strength to their four opponents.

"Good, good! We'll settle this today!" the fat boy declared. "But, Rory, you're finished. You won't be able to go to the academy tomorrow anymore! We'll tell everyone, regardless of how it ends today."

"I'll rip your tongue out if you do that, you piglet!" Rory brandished in the face of these adversaries, maintaining his fighting stance.

Then, once again, one side jumped against the other, with the two boys deftly taking on their four enemies with skills but obviously without much of an advantage.

However, every time one of them landed a blow on their opponent, the latter would suffer and wince in pain.

But in the meantime, the other two would also have the opportunity to strike them back.

At this rate, even though Rory and Vice could give their opponents a hard time and hurt them significantly, they would still suffer in this fight in the long run.

Soon, blood had started to trickle from their noses, and many purple bruises had started to appear on different parts of their bodies. Till now, both of them were covered in sweat and were breathing heavily.

The opposing group, however, fared no better, and one of them even passed out before the confrontation could come to a conclusion.

"Say what you want about me," Rory proclaimed as he gazed at the blurry figures in front of him. "But know that I will challenge you weekly from then on. Even when we graduate, I will keep coming after you as long as we live in the same village!"

"Rory!"

"I'll do the same!" Vice shouted. "If you dare to talk about Rory more than you should, you will have me as an eternal enemy!"

With that, their skirmish didn't last much longer once the adults realized what was happening and rushed over to stop them from continuing any further.

Children had powers strong enough to get seriously injured, so usually, their parents discouraged them from engaging in fights like these.

Both the groups ran when they noticed the adults, each filled with frustrations after having this standoff.

...

Later that night...

"Vicente!" A man's deep voice echoed through the boy's room as he lay there.

Hearing his father's voice, Vicente immediately came down from his room, going to the first floor of his home.

"Vicente! What have you done? I heard that you were involved in a fight today. Is that true?" Vice's father asked, despite the fact that he could clearly see the injuries on his son's face.

The wounds on Vicente's face had already improved significantly over the last few hours. His mana could speed up the regeneration of his tissues even though he didn't know how to do it.

Nonetheless, Andrew could still see the wounds on his son's face and yet had asked this because he wanted to hear from his son as to what was the reason for him to disregard his orders.

"I fought to defend a friend, Dad. I had no other choice," Vicente replied, getting straight to the point. His mother who observed the scene from upstairs with Nina in her arms, and Lauren hurried down the stairs.

"Dad, can't you forgive Vice? He didn't mean any harm," Lauren tried to speak on behalf of her brother, while her feminine face displayed a worried expression.

Andrew didn't even pay any attention to his daughter and kept his focus on Vicente. "Very well, your motive is not bad. However, you will still face punishment.

Remember, Vicente, regardless of your intentions, you have to be prepared to accept the consequences when you break a rule!"

"I understand."

Then that towering, 2-meter-tall man took off the belt of his clothes and began to educate his son!

For the next 15 minutes, Vice endured one of the longest and the most painful beating of his two lives, suffering at the hands of his father.

Yet, he shed no tears, nor did he make any cry of pain, bearing all that he had to without uttering a single word of complaint. He was aware that there was no alternative.

His sisters and mother turned away to avoid watching all this, and their hearts weighed down due to the sight, but completely aware of the father's responsibility of raising a child, none of them interfered with Vicente's education.

"From now on, you will have no more free time. You will go from home to the academy and back. The rest of the time, you will be accompanying me.

Do you hear me, boy?" Andrew asked, as his son trembled in pain, still without voicing a word or sound of complaint.

"Yes."