The Copy Mage

Damian had reached LVL 33, which was nearly halfway into the 3rd rank, while he could sense his first opponent had reached roughly LVL 35, which meant that he should be stronger than Damian by 20% of his body's original strength.

However Damian wasn't fazed in the slightest by the small gap in cultivation, and despite his opponent not being as talented as himself, Damian could still appreciate his strength that was average or slightly above average.

As Damian had a powerful Pyro Soul Spirit, to make sure that the battle was fair, the Combat Hall chose 3 students that had Soul Spirits.

However, they had purposefully chosen rank 3 cultivators as his opponents, believing that his strength would be bellow that, in order to remove him as the residence owner.

There was no bias in the decision that the Combat Hall, but the academy was survival of the fittest and the strongest and most talented received the best treatment and most respect, so only the strongest deserved the best White Ranked Residence.

Damian however had surpassed all estimations of strength that the academy had and his cultivation speed was incredibly fast.

Activating his Soul Spirit, Damian's opponent dashed towards him while Damian communicated to Utsusu to activate the Maxwell Fire Soul Spirit.

He could sense that his opponent was an External Cultivator and he seemed to only have a Body Augmentation Soul Spirit, but his talent was F:1 graded and with his hard work, he was able to increase his strength to a good level.

Damian's opponent was tall and had broad shoulders with a deep scar on his face, and everything about him was intimidating and warrior-like.

However, Damian saw past his appearance and was more focused on the strength level that his opponent could display as he activated his Flame Reinforcement.

Dashing towards each other, Damian's opponent was the first to attack Damian and used an attack skill.

Rhino Charge

It was an F:2 graded skill that allowed the user to charge forwards with incredible power and speed in a direct attack and instead of a rhino horn, the user would charge in shoulder first to deal as much damage to their opponent as they could.

Damian, who had made sure to research about different skills and also made Utsusu copy information about as many skills as he could find in the Knowledge section of the library, recognised the skill and knew how to counter it.

Dashing towards his opponent, Lex had a slight smile on his face and was enjoying the battle, after not fighting somebody for such a long time.

He knew combat was important and this was a good opportunity to use the skills that he trained in, in battle.

The adrenaline rush and heat of battle was something that Damian enjoyed as he seemed to be planning to directly clash with his opponent.

Matilda, Julia, Cole and Milo all watched closely wanting to gauge Damian's power and ability as they felt confident in his capability to defeat his opponent.

Flame Burst

Just as his opponent was about to strike him with his Rhino Charge, Damian launched himself upwards using his Flame Burst Skill, and while jumping upwards he struck the charging opponent with his knee.

Damian's upwards momentum and the opponent's forwards momentum increased the power of Damian's attack as he kneed him in the face and launched him flying backwards.

The Rhino Charge Skill was a powerful skill if used in the right way, however, it was easily countered or avoided as Damian's exploited his opponent's momentum against him.

Rushing over to the student, the academy helper acting as a judge checked his pulse to see that he was still alive, but his jaw seemed to be broken as well as a few of his teeth as he lay there unconscious.

Damian didn't feel any remorse or guilt in the slightest, and if somebody was willing to go against him or those that he cared about, he was also ready to reciprocate the animosity.

The crowd of a few hundred students were silent as they were all shocked by Damian's ability, who after being in the academy for slightly over a month, was able to defeat a mid-rank 3 student that was quite talented and powerful.

Even his friends and the academy helper were shocked by his power and skill as he seemingly defeated a mid-rank 3 with ease.

"Why don't you get the other two to face me as well" stated Damian, wanting to test out his power some more and also get the 3 battles he had to do over and done with.

"Do you need some time to recover" asked the academy helper after calling over nurses to take the student to the infirmary.

"Nah, just bring them up" declined Damian confidently.

His energy density and the size of his energy storages were much greater in comparison to those at the same cultivation level and with Damian training and practising his skills for an entire month, his efficiency in the use of his energy had also increased.

"Which one would you like to battle next" asked the academy helper.

Damian looked at both of them and he could see that they were both stronger than the opponent he had just faced slightly and also could sense that they didn't have Body Augmentation Soul Spirits.

Damian's senses were continuously being sharpened as his affinity and sensitivity to energy made it so that he could gauge what element a cultivator used and estimate their strength, while he could also sense if a cultivator had a Body Augemntaion Soul Spirit from their attributeless energy and their body's instant strengthening capacity.

"Get them both to face me at the same time" decided Damian.

He wasn't being arrogant or disrespecting his opponents, and merely wanted to test out his ability and push himself in a tight battle against two strong opponents.

However, the crowd, students and academy helper didn't see it like that and thought that Damian was being too arrogant and not respecting the two students as worthy opponents.

"Are you sure?" asked the academy helper.

"Yes" answered Damian as he felt his adrenaline rise along with his desire to battle.