‘Try to concentrate the mana more towards your legs. Use your breathing for smoother flow of mana.’ Miracle explained as Alex tried to keep a distance between himself and Blake. He was able to maintain a distance of 15 meters for a minute or so, before Blake’s speed began to exponentially increase. Alex was trying his best to control his speed and not to knock over other students.

He was getting the hang of it with each passing second but Blake was coming that much closer. ‘Shit he’s going to catch up to me at this rate.’ Alex thought to himself as Blake closed the 1-meter distance, his hand stretched out to touch him.

But just before the hand could make contact Alex stopped in his place and ducked down causing Blake’s hand to go over him. As the latter stopped a few steps away from Alex due to him being in motion, Alex took the opportunity to run in the opposite direction.

‘Hmph… sneaky little bastard.’ Blake thought to himself as he again began chasing him. Not much later, he quickly caught up to him and reached out his hand to grab Alex. This time around midway he jumped to the side just barely avoiding it. Blake reacted better than the last time but quickly became puzzled as he saw that Alex wasn’t running away. Instead, he mocked him by gesturing him to come and catch him.

‘Oi! Brat! What are you doing? He is still hiding his strength. You need to push him m—

‘That’s what I am doing, I don’t think with my current control I can keep outrunning him for long but I used to be pretty flexible at dodgeball. Maybe I can outrun his reaction time.’

‘Oh… seems like you can use your head.’

“Of course, I can!” Alex scowled out loud without thinking.

Blake blinked in confusion. “You, that stone that you have hidden in your pocket, hand it over.”

“If I give it to you, you’ll leave me alone?” Alex asked narrowing his eyes. It would be a good riddance for him.

“Leave you alone? I’ll leave this school itself.” Blake said in a stern manner. Alex felt that it was an honest response. That’s it. He seemed to be telling the truth. If he gives it away, he wouldn’t have to face any trouble unlike before. It was a win-win.

But before he agreed to give it up, Miracle’s voice interrupted him. ‘Don’t.’

‘Huh, but why?’

‘I didn’t notice it before but that stone… it seems to have a soul signature attached to it. Not to mention the plethora of mana inside is rather uniquely purified.’

‘Soul signature? Purified? What are you saying?’

‘All you need to understand is that this thing is definitely involved with people whom you are not ready to tackle with. That said the brat in front of you is nothing but a small fry. If you give it away here, someone or the other might blame you and you’ll have to pay the consequences. You are nowhere near ready to face that situation.’

‘Then what should we do?’

‘At the moment keep it safe from him.’

“What’s the matter? Aren’t you going to hand over the stone to me?” Blake asked as he stretched out his hand.

“I won’t or rather I suppose I can’t give it to you.” Alex said as he slightly backed away.

“I see then-”

Blake closed his eyes and opened with a look of determination filled in it.

“I’ll just have to take it by force!”

The next moment he bolted in Alex’s direction with speed he had never seen before. Alex also rigorously circulated the mana in his body and side stepped to avoid Blake’s hand. The latter quickly turned towards him and tried to grab his face but it was a feint. Instead, he ducked down and swiped his hand at Alex’s legs.

Alex quickly jumped up avoiding them but this was Blake’s intention as he tried to grab Alex in mid-air who can’t avoid him.

‘Kick him!’

 Miracle’s voice sounded in his head as his kick reflexively pushed Blake by his chest and put some distance between them. Alex fell on his back but immediately got up with a kip up.

“Woah… how did I do those?” Alex asked himself surprised he could do a kip up and kick mid-air with accuracy.

‘It’s the effect of the mana you’re continuously circulating in your body. I had doubts about it but your body adapting pretty quickly to it. Now don’t lose focus, he’s coming!’ Miracle warned.

Blake charged at him and jumped midway aiming his knees towards him. Alex quickly stepped back. Blake in response to that shifted his position mid-air and fell to the ground on his hands while using the long reach of his legs to kick Alex off balance. The latter was a second late in avoiding the quick sweep as his left leg took a hit near his knee.

Alex avoided injury but fell to the ground on one knee. Blake quickly got up to grab the fallen Alex but instead he rolled back on the ground avoiding him. As the seconds ticked away both Blake and Alex’s movements quickened up with neither side letting up and using the flexibility of their body as best as possible.

It of course attracted the attention of the students nearby and everyone had seemingly stopped to look at them.

“Damn… just what are these kids eating these days…” The coach muttered to himself as he looked at them carefully.

Though Alex was adapting quite quickly to using mana, the difference between him and Blake was becoming more and more apparent as he was starting to sweat profusely and could feel his body getting tired too. Not to mention Blake came close to catching him as much as 5 times in the last two minutes. It was like a game of cat and mouse but the cat coming closer and closer to its prey each time.

Alex feinted to dash towards the right and quickly moved towards the left. Blake although fell for the feint quickly moved in front of Alex. Blake then swiped his hands left and right to catch Alex who was constantly moving backwards. He touched his loosened-out t-shirt each time but not his body. Dust was kicked up in front of Blake by Alex trying to make his vision blurry.

But Blake quickly jumped in the air in by spinning sideways and landed behind Alex. ‘Behind you!’ Miracle warned as Alex quickly squatted and dashed in the front. The already wild crowd of students got even crazier as almost everyone began to cheer for Blake. Most of the boys and all the girls were cheering for him, oblivious of his intentions.