Why is she staring here longer?

After arriving in the mansion, he headed for his room which was somewhat difficult as he had to avoid being sighted because of his state.

He somehow managed to pull it off before cleaning himself up and bandaging some of his wounds.

The materials of the bandages had some healing properties. So it just didn't serve as a cover for the injuries.

He put on a new set of clothes including a long-sleeved hoody, so most of the bandages were concealed.

After sitting aimlessly for some time, he decided to check out the underground training arena.

He had gone there several times in the past two weeks even having the luxury to complete level 4 and now he wanted to see how much he could fare against level 5.

The hallway was quiet, well, it wasn't as though it was usually noisy. Most of them were still learning how to use and control their true weapons better.

They had all done the weapon-sealing ritual with their true weapons which would finalize the bond between them.

It wasn't hard as they just needed to make a cut and allow some of their blood to drop on the weapon so he was in no hurry to do his.

It was already getting late so he decided to do that and many more tomorrow.

On his way going there, he sighted JV and Chucky approaching him. He's been avoiding them for now but he couldn't change his direction because of them so he continued walking forward and as expected, they weren't just going to walk past him quietly.

"Huh? And where are you headed to twerp?" JV sneered.

"Don't tell me you're going underground," Chucky added but Art passed them as though they didn't exist.

JV wanted to react but Chucky stopped him.

"Let him be, we'll get him some other time."

They also began walking away but JV wasn't satisfied so he turned around and spat at Art who noticed this and tilted his head dodging most of the spittle. Yes, a few particles landed on him.

Even though this was enough reason for him to react, he wasn't someone to let emotions get in the way of his plan so he just cleaned his face and walked away with his eyes filled with sinister thoughts.

Arriving in front of the door to the underground arena, the same thing happened with it opening itself but the staircase was already lightened up, indicating that there was already someone inside.

He proceeded to walk down and when he got there, he sighted several people seated with two people sparring in an open space.

Some noticed his presence and shifted their gazes at him still finding it hard to believe how he transformed during the past 4 weeks.

Art was no longer skinny in any way. His body was lean and a bit muscular with his formerly pale skin now ruddy. His facial features were now more defined with his golden eyes even having a dim glow and his gaze now sharp and slightly cold.

Even though he wasn't still the most handsome among the boys, he wasn't too far behind and his features which were different than them, making him seem weird in the past now made him look special.

Not paying attention to their gazes, he took a seat away from the others while focusing on the fight in front of him.

With a competition between them happening it would be normal if they avoided fighting in order not to get their skills and their trump cards exposed, so he was a little bit surprised that they were going at it much more in front of several people.

Maybe they believed that they couldn't win and saw no reason in concealing things that would still end up as a failure.

The names of the two people fighting were Roy and Domit. According to his ranking, they were at 11 and 12.

Roy was using gauntlets while Domit wielded a staff. They weren't making any action for now only catching their breath while staring at each other with smiles on their faces.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Domit was the first to charge forward with a speed that Art considered quite fast.

He couldn't help but chuckle internally as this was a speed which he could only wish for four weeks ago.

If you're wondering where he currently was in the ranking, ease yourself, you would be finding out soon enough.

As he got close, Domit leaped into the air while twirling and spinning the staff around at different areas of Roy's body but he was able to counter most of them before punching forward.

Domit was fast enough to evade the punch even though his legs were barely touching the ground and when he completely landed, he swiped his legs at Roy's feet to take them off the ground which turned out successful.

Roy fell with his back on the ground and using this opportunity, Domit slashed the staff towards his chest. Quickly forming an x with his hands he blocked the staff using the gauntlets before rolling away and getting up only to see Domit swinging it once more from above.

Rather than trying to block it, he sent out a punch to his stomach instead, surprising Domit.

When both attacks connected, Domit skidded backwards with blood trickling from his mouth. He suffered more as the sheer strength behind their attacks was on a different level.

But Roy didn't go unscathed because Domit had hit him really hard on his right trapezius.

Art who was watching this fight heard footsteps approaching his position but he didn't look towards the person.

He didn't expect it but the person took a seat next to him. It was then he shifted his gaze slightly sideways to see a boy with short silver hair tied in a ponytail and blue eyes. He wondered if his pony-tailed hair was an imitation of Lord Gajeel as he looked up at him.

The person beside him was Charles and he focused his gaze on the fight. Art did the same and it didn't take long before he voiced out.

"Who do you think is going to win?"

Art stayed quiet for some time before answering. "I'm sure you already know."

Charles stared at him before slightly smiling.

"I guess you've truly changed." He brought his attention back to the duo in the arena. "I think it's time this fight finally came to an end."

Domit was breathing heavily. It was probably due to moving a lot that he was feeling exhausted and he had failed to bring down his enemy but he wasn't still going to give up.

He kept skillfully spinning the staff around while sending it at Roy who kept blocking sometimes receiving hits, and with good timing, finally grabbed onto the staff and pulled with great force while punching out with one even greater.

Once it connected, he let go of his staff with a spurt of blood while falling to the ground. He wanted to get up but a fist was already right in front of his face so he fell back to the ground in defeat.

"I guess you win this one," Domit muttered.

"You'll never know, you might win someday," Roy chuckled with his tone making it sound like both an encouragement and bragging.

Domit looked up to see a figure walking into the arena.

"Bro I think we should go," he said helping Roy to stand up as they both walked out.

"Hmmm?" Charles stared at the person in the arena in slight surprise as the person wielded two swords.

"This is rare, does she plan on sparring?"

Art was also interested in what was going to happen as he also longed to see this person fight.

The gaze of everyone was fixed on this person. Her blue eyes glazed across everyone in the room.

This person was obviously Iris and she seemed to have found who she was looking for.

'Why is she staring towards here longer? Maybe she's lost in thought.' Art wondered.

Iris suddenly threw one of the swords and everyone's eyes followed it as it landed on Art's lap causing him to blink several times.

"Huh?"