DAMIAN SIMMONS

After the blow of his amped physique and the subsequent shot of lightning, my body was in a bit of a frenzy.

Dean had not only increased his strength with all six of his rings, but he also used his lightning to enhance his physique and added a layer of it on his body.

Controlling lightning to increase your muscles is absolutely crazy; you would require quite a bit of training and you would even have to know how the brain sends neural stimulation, and to try and succeed, you would have to be an outright genius

The word ‘genius’ caused my mind to drift back to an old memory of mine, I shut my eyes and thought.

Back in elementary school, on a particularly sunny day, I was stuck in what I remember to be a boring math class.

I had a few friends back then, or at least I think I had, but they were actually pretty focused; as such, I was sleeping uncomfortably at the back. 

My teacher came a while later and hit my head with a little ruler. I looked up at the grumpy old man and spoke, “Good morning, sir”.

“Luke? Sleeping in my class??”.

“Uhm…”.

“You know what, if you can answer what’s on the board, I won’t give you detention”.

I looked at the whiteboard where there were calculations about long division, which was most likely the topic of the day, and there was a word problem at the top right corner. 

“I should answer a division question?”

“No”, he said flatly. “Answer the word problem; since you can sleep in my class, you ought to have quite the ability in math”.

I looked back at the board and read it.

‘Find the smallest positive whole number that leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 2, a remainder of 2 when divided by 3, a remainder of 3 when divided by 4, and a remainder of 4 when divided by 5’.

What kind of question is this??

I calmed myself, wiped my eyes and began to think.

“59?”.

The grumpy man’s expression contorted, then his face eased and formed a smile, “Correct”.

He began whipping the question of the board and murmured something, but all I could catch was the last word.

“Genius…”.

I glared at Dean as lightning began coursing through my body. The flow wasn’t nearly as smooth as Dean’s, it was crude and required quite a bit of effort, but I had done it.

My mana was beginning to run down, so I had to finish this fight quickly.

It had been a very difficult battle; I had less mana, proper training and versatility, yet my Eon eyes, experience and natural battle IQ had allowed me to fight at near equal strength.

I looked up at my Sir Juhai Home; while his face was mainly deadpan, I noticed a slight grin.

Then I looked at my parents and Lucia, their faces were etched with worry and confusion, yet there was something glimmering in their eyes: belief.

Was it possible for me to have this kind of situation in my past life? I wonder.

We dashed at each other again; I faked out a clash and went for his leg. However, he easily stepped out of my strike and swung his elbow, which I ducked.

Then I landed a blow of mine on his liver; perhaps if his body wasn’t so fortified, then it would have done some real damage.

He merely winced a bit, but the reason for my blow wasn’t for that but for the heavy discharge of lightning that came out of it.

The surge of lightning caused him to spazz a bit; this simple opening allowed me to land strikes at various points on his body.

One at his side, then his ankle and the back of his knee. He quickly dropped to his only knee, using his sword as an anchor.

All I have to do is bring my staff to his neck, and this battle was mine.

Before I could do that, though, balls of fire came between us and headed for me.

I jumped baxk and evaded the flames, which gave him the opportunity to get back on his feet.

The ground under my feet quickly stretched and enveloped my feet, keeping me in placd. I expected Dean to rush at me but he merely stared at me with a grin.

“My antagonist is quite something; how many times in tge story shall we battle?”

“Because you're one very annoying fucker”.

Antagonist? Is this guy crazy?? Wait, did he just say fuck??

In all my seven years here, I don’t remember anyone ever saying that. Not to mention the fact that he’s calling me an antagonist, like we’re in a movie or game.

Why would anyone in this world speak that way?

That’s when my mind began to rush, perhaps he knew how to enhance his body not because of training but because…

He’s been reincarnated.

He had been reincarnated from my world!

I looked back up at Sir Home, this bastard probably figured this out a long time ago. He must not have said anything since he was the Sapphire Star.

I looked back at Dean and spoke convincingly, “Dean…can we talk?”

“Hah! We all know villains only say that to form a trap; I’m just gonna blow you to smithereens”.

“Alright then, I forfeit!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

I saw mana swirling around his core; it was quick far too quick. This bastard was about to release a mad attack!

I kicked my legs free from the earth-shaking, but before I could, pain exploded inside my brain.

I looked back to see an earth spear pierced into the back of my calf. I quickly squatted down and broke it before dragging it out with a wince.

I looked up at my foe, fear finally creeping into my heart.

A giant ball of fire began to appear, the biggest one he had conjured this far. It was bigger than even him, with streaks of lightning coming from it.

I watched as the particles of mana flared and compressed onto itself, streaks of storm and wind magic fueling this bomb.

This giant ball then got compressed until it became smaller and smaller, hotter and hotter, and the subtle orange flames turned to a dark magenta, then a bright blue.

I am almost out of mana, and I don’t have the time to sidestep this blast, and my wound has reduced my mobility so I'm even slower.

I could hear ruckus coming from the stands, but I couldn’t properly hear it and couldn’t afford to listen closer.

A lot of things happened at once: the inferno flew towards me with terrifying speed while my brain began thinking and my mentalia began to burst with movement.

My eyes scanned around the arena, and at the same time mana seeped from my core as a familiar pain resonated from it.

Then I saw a man with silky white hair jump in front of me, but as I blinked, he vanished or moved.

Rather, I had instantaneously moved.

Sir Home was standing in front of where I was, a double-edged blade in his grasp. The flaming ball was gone, or almost gone, forming sparks of floating blue sparks, almost like it was disintegrating.

Did he cut the fireball?? Wait, where am I?

I was crouched at the far right corner of the arena, more than ten metres away from where they were.

Sir Home and Dean slowly turned to look at me, confusion evident in their eyes. The audience went silent, and all the important men and women gazed down at me with surprise.

My eyes began to way heavy and my limbs weakened as I crashed onto the floor, my core still hurting. 

As my vision darkened, I felt two strong hands lift me gently, and the faces of my father and Lucia came into view before it all went dark.

END OF CHAPTER 18.