Ashe looked at Nico. "Another 5 manacores."

"What!? Why another 5?" Asked Nico.

"Jack is learning too, so the fees are doubled."

"Why are you looking at me then?" Nico asked.

Jack wasn't as loaded with manacores like Nico.

"Do you accept an I owe you note?" Jack looked to Ashe. "And Polar will be slave for a week."

Polar heard his name and turned his head to look at the roommates. These humans want to be my slave?

Polar nodded happily and went back to his nap.

Ashe reluctantly agreed. Jack was going to annoy him if he didn't accept it.

"The force barrier is a cultivation method used to strengthen the skin," Ashe reiterated. "However, the Body Aura uses aura to create a magical barrier outside of the skin. It's not all that different, except Body Aura has better protection against magical attacks."

Nico and Jack had been studying the past three days with Ashe, but it was easier for Nico to grasp the concept with of his Avatar Box and Minko's vision.

After Professor Quin went over the rules for the mini tournament, he took out two pairs of black Barrier Indicator Cuffs.

"These barrier indicator cuffs will turn white once a barrier is broken," Professor Quin handed first two combatants each a black Barrier Indicator Cuff. "You will fight until the first barrier is broken."

Nico watched the first match between a short kid and a tall kid.

The two students charged recklessly with their bamboo sticks.

Clunk! Clunk!

The bamboo sticks clashed with one another. The tall kid student powered through the other and slashed the opponent stick away. Without a weapon, the short kid ran off. The tall kid used his height to his advantage and continuously attacked until the short kid's cuff turned white.

The other five matches followed a similar routine.

Most matches ended within 5 minutes. The students relied too much on their power and attacks. The students simply charged at each other, blindly attacking without much thought. They had some combat training and knew basic combat strategies, but in actual combat, most were unable to think clearly. Real combat was easier said than done.

The 7th match was between Nico and a baby-face little boy named Lutchu. He was the same height as Nico, so it was weird seeing him with a round baby face.

"How do you think the newbie will do?" The students asked each other.

"Against Lutchu? I don't know, Lutchu isn't the strongest fighter, but his defense and force barrier are quite strong. This might be a long match."

In the center of the courtyard, Nico stood facing Lutchu.

Professor Quin gave the signal.

Nico waited for Lutchu to attack first. Students, unlike professors and manabeasts, were the impatient sorts who would rush in to attack first. Attacking first had many advantages, but only if the opponent was unprepared.

Lutchu charged directly into Nico with a high guard. Waiting for an opponent to attack allowed Nico to plan ways to counter. Nico lifted the bamboo stick to block and counter.

Good, he's planning to take the hit straight on and then counter. Lutchu gained more confident and continued his charge.

Nico sidestepped right before impact and tripped Lutchu.

Lutchu fell forward as Nico thrust the stick backward toward Lutchu's a.s.s, a move Nico had frequently used in Lindan Peak.

The surrounding students laughed. "Lutchu is an idiot! Tripping to a blue robe like that."

"Lutchu is too rash and overconfident. He should have went with a low guard."

"He can still counter quickly and hit the new kid back!"

Despite what the majority were thinking, the cuff had already turned white.

"What the?" The students were shocked.

"How did it end so quickly!?"

Force barrier was strong, but it was unevenly distributed. Most people automatically placed extra buffer to protect their vital parts and limbs. The back and b.u.t.t were easily neglected and the most vulnerable. In a normal fight, it would be fine, but in a match-up where the purpose was to destroy the force barrier, the back and b.u.t.ts were the biggest targets and the weakest.

Nico won his second and third match-up.

There were three students remaining at the end.

Corby and Badan were strong fighters in the Rank A cla.s.s, but they were both arrogant. Raised as clan members, they had more combat experiences than their peers and naturally looked down on others.

"The new kid is strong, do you think he can beat Corby and Badan?"

Most said no.

"Badan normally uses a sword, so a bamboo stick isn't that different. He should win easily. I don't know about Corby."

"Corby likes to use throwing knives, so he's going to be at a disadvantage."

"Yeah, the new kid have a bit of a shot against Corby, but not Badan."

"The new kid looks pretty proficient with thrusting, a spear user?"

"Probably, he has been thrusting in the a.s.s, and using the same move. I bet he doesn't know any attack."

"He's probably a one trick pony like most spear users."

"Yeah, he'll probably lose, unless he gets a free pa.s.s."

Professor Quin wasn't planning to allow a free pa.s.s for the final three. He had planned to have a round-robin compet.i.tion between the three. However, after looking at how Nico had quickly dismantled the opponents, he was sure Nico could easily defeat Corby and Badan.

"The kid has the force barrier manual for a week and he is already thinking about its weakness," thought Professor Quin.

Force barrier was one of the most basis cultivation skill and most people could use it after a month. He needed another way to test Nico.

"Next round, a 3-way match-up," Professor Quin said wickedly. He threw away his original plan. This was quick and more interesting.

"This is going to be fun to watch!" The students all re-evaluated their prediction.

"There has always been rivalry between Corby and Badan, so it will be interesting to see how having a third party will change this."

"They will probably try to take out the new kid and then duke it out afterward."

The three combatants stood in a triangle position to start.

Professor Quin gave the signal.

Corby and Badan both looked at each other, and quickly charged toward Nico, but Nico was already charging at Corby.

He's going to sidestep and attack the back, thought Corby. If he sidestep, I can reposition the bamboo stick to hit his a.s.s like he usually do first.

Corby prepared to reverse the grip on the bamboo sword.

Nico noticed the slight change in his wrist, and continued to thrust the stick directly toward Corby's stomach. Nico leaned to the left, still pointing the stick toward Corby's stomach.

Corby watched carefully and quickly leaned to the right to evade. Corby reversed his sword grip and was about to strike. However, he saw Nico's sword continuing its path toward his stomach.

S***! He's attacking the front! Corby immediately tried to slash the thrust away.

Nico pulled back his thrust swiftly and thrust again in quick succession toward the stomach area.

One thrust, two thrust! The force barrier broke apart.

Nico immediately used galeforce to launch his bamboo stick toward the incoming Badan.

Badan noticed the charging stick and prepared his defensive technique, Sword Turbine. The Sword Turbine created a vortex-like shape with the bamboo stick and defected the flying bamboo stick.

"Ha!" Badan smirked.

Whack!

Another bamboo stick hit Badan's stomach. By the time he recovered, he was punched right in the stomach again and flew back.

The Barrier Indicator Cuff turned white.

All the students stared at Nico in disbelief.

"What the f*** just happened!?" Asked the students.

"That didn't even last 3 minutes."

"Rah ha ha ha ha!" Professor Quin laughed for the first time.

Nico's previous battles had influenced Corby and Badan to focus their force barrier on their backs and b.u.t.ts, causing the front stomach area to weaken.

"Professor Clemson wanted a berserker, but this is even better than a berserker," Professor Quin said to himself.

Berserker's primary role in battle was to completely dominate the opponents with pure strength and end the battle quickly, neglecting any battle strategies.

Nico didn't even feel exhausted after he won. He shouldn't feel proud after beating up a bunch of kids, but he did.