Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

"Isn't it obvious? I want a spar, you can't say no!"

Kieran stared at the blue-haired girl whose height only reached his chest, he wasn't foolish enough to just accept her challenge because she said so. He never interacted with her past that day, that was enough for him to notice that her background wasn't normal even among the nobles.

The table they sat was occupied only by them and no one tried to approach, that wasn't because of the two guys beside her.

They all turned back the moment they spotted her blue-hair that had a faint shine to it like they were scared of approaching her without an invite, lest they enraged her.

Ignoring her words and trying once more to side step her, the bore instructor who had caught sight of this by chance decide to butt in then,

"Oh, I forgot to say! You can't refuse a challenge. If the challenger is stronger than you, you'd have no choice but to take a trashing then."

The instructor added, you could tell through his voice which was void of its usual laziness that he was anticipating the fight.

"You heard him! You can't ignore me now!"

Sabrina said excitedly, she was at a loss when he just ignored her like the first time they met. She didn't think he was that antisocial.

Pausing in his steps, Kieran stared at the instructor who looked back at him, not bothering to hide the fact that he was targeting him, with unknown thoughts.

Looking back to Sabrina's excited face, he finally consented, he couldn't go against the instructor's orders anyway.

"Alright then."

He said moving into position.

He knew he wasn't capable of winning. Just like the instructor said, if the opponent was stronger they would just get trashed around, that statement was clearly directed towards him.

'I might as well see how much progress I made today' Kieran thought, looking at the impossible opponent in front of him only as a tool for him to see how far off he was.

"Great!"

Sabrina exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly before moving a few steps back also getting into position.

"It looks like you're a starter, so I'll go easy on you."

Her voice now serious, her eyes still shining like earlier though.

'What's up with the people here?'

Kieran thought, starting to notice how weird the people he had came across in the camp were, even the head chef had a weird habit of locking himself in the pantry, switching off the lights.

All Kieran knew could be seen as just a move, the starting position as the standard stance and the second as a method for increasing his reach while targeting the lower body of the opponent.

This could help him increase the reach of the weapon, but even without it, it was still applicable in close combats.

This was exactly what Kieran had in mind, it was the only way he could fight with his current skills.

Not bothering to give a signal, Kieran rushed out aiming to surprise, if he had learnt anything, it was to never give the enemy the chance to make the first move. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work as planned as Sabrina easily moved back a few paces maintain the distance between them.

She was already on her guard since she proposed the fight to him. Not wanting to make this an endless chase where she constantly retreated, she stood in place as he moved forward throwing his fist from his side towards her face with the same indifferent expression.

Raising her left hand, she calmly pushed the fist to the side deflecting the blow, tapping him lightly on the neck.

'Too soft!'

She thought feeling the strength behind the blow.

Unbothered by her move, Kieran naturally switched into the second stance directing his second fist to her stomach, holding nothing back this time.

'Not bad.'

Sabrina praised in her mind taking notice of the move he had just pulled. The first punch was just a feint, his attempt of throwing her off, trying to prevent her from his actual attack.

It wasn't a bad strategy, but Kieran had really underestimated her if he thought that was all it was going to take to land a hit on her.

Smiling, she moved gently to the side, deflecting the blow in the same manner she did with the first one, pushing his arm to the floor.

Having anticipated something like this, Kieran pulled off one more move. Using his left arm which had been pushed to the floor as support, he twisted his body, raising his feet from the ground throwing a kick to her face.

Feeling surprised, Sabrina's eyes sparkled a little before she did something Kieran didn't expect. Dropping to the ground she did a wide sweep, hitting his hands and knocking him off balance causing him to fall face flat.

"Nice."

The instructor though. He had noticed the amount of fun he got when watching Kieran suffer, so he was always looking for ways to put him in tough positions for the sake of entertainment without breaking any rules.

Sabrina had no intention going after him while he was still down, so she patiently waited him to get back up.

On his feet again, Kieran didn't get back into position but instead looked towards the instructor who you could tell was currently enjoying this through the smile in his eyes and looked back at Sabrina who looked curiously, wandering what he was going to do next.

"My loss, I died the moment you touched my neck."

Seeing that she was about to refute him and find an excuse to keep him in the fight, Kieran added,

"You win. I didn't go against his words either. You won and I lost. The spar is over which means I can leave."

He said not giving her the chance to recover from her surprise as he walked past her. She really hadn't expected him to do something like that!

'Disappointing'

The instructor thought as he watched Kieran walk away despite not culling his boredom, he had only started to het interested in the fight when he saw him get trashed.

This disappointment didn't last long as he quickly went back to his previous lazy self, ignoring the other recruits that were currently in a spar with each other.

Outside the dojo, Kieran walked with his head facing down in contemplation. He knew he could never win against her even if he managed to think of something else to try based on the two stances he currently knew.

Nevertheless, he had achieved his goal. He got a look at how far he was off he was compared the actual nobles and others who had been practicing for years before now, some of them since their childhood.

'I'd just have to work harder then!'

Kieran thought, already thinking of ways he could create more in his schedule to train more. There was no way he was just going to sleep peacefully after having his assed whopped by someone who claimed that she had gone 'easy on him'.

But before any of that, he made his way to the kitchen. He couldn't be late to work, after all he still needed his only generous source of CP.

Back in the dojo, Sarina was still standing in the same spot sighing dejectedly.

'Did I go too hard on him? That was as low as I could go.'

Although the gap between her and Kieran was huge, she tried her best to spar with him like she would with a child which was why she didn't really go on the offensive. Despite already knowing that the win would be hers, he still managed to surprise her with the last move he had pulled.

Compared to the other recruits and children of noble descent excluding people like her, Jake and some others which could be considered as geniuses or at least extremely outstanding, Kieran showed lot of potential. She was even surprised someone like him was out there.

As far as she was aware, commoners and low-level citizens weren't really useful and most had poor talent when it came to martial arts, but this view of hers which she had gained due to her upbringing was soon to be shattered by not only Kieran but others.

"Why don't I keep you company? At least I know how to fight compared to that kid you just toyed with If that what you want though, I can be your toy for a price, that is…."

Ethan, popping out of nowhere said, his lips at the back of her ear, his breath brushing her neck. Jumping forward in fright, Sabrina turned around to stare with an expression that showed her anger and disgust at his actions.

Ethan who had a satisfied expression on his face seeing her get flustered felt more elated seeing the emotions written all over her face. Sabrina was like a block of ice, just a little more and she'd be as cold as Kieran.

Every one of his teases and taunts were ignored and brushed away like air. The moment her saw her guard down he saw a golden opportunity, and he definitely didn't miss. What left a sour taste in his mouth though, was that he only got the chance because of that commoner that dared to call him a guard.

Not waiting for him to finish thinking about his little win, Sabrina made her way out od the dojo, Liam who had been watching silently from the side following behind her.