--

Justin didn’t actually leave.

He made it look like he was leaving, but in truth, he stayed nearby to watch as Ren interacted with the party.

His eyes darkened when Jen, once again, showed her bitchy side. She took one look at Ren and immediately judged him as a delinquent and a waste. She certainly didn’t waste time wanting to prove her point.

He could tell that Derek warned her ahead of time. Jen implied that she knew someone new was coming and might’ve said that she would try to behave, but upon seeing Ren’s physical appearance, her words flew out of the window.

Ren, on the other hand, didn’t look surprised by her outburst. If anything, from his bland expression, Justin could even say that Ren might be expecting it.

The poor kid is probably used to being judged for something that’s out of his control.

Derek tried to stop Jen, but before he could say anything, Ren agreed to her challenge.

And what followed that was a dismantling that completely toppled Jen’s belief about skill and talent. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Because not even once during their five-minute ’spar’—if you can even call it that—was she able to touch the hem of Ren’s clothes. A feat that not even Derek was able to do as cleanly as Ren has done it.

Derek, Jules, and Kaycee couldn’t understand it completely, but he, as an experienced party manager himself and a Pulse Awakening martial artist, could.

**

The fight began with Jen not even bothering to hide her disdain and dismissal of Ren’s abilities. The moment she saw him, she immediately declared to herself that he does not belong to this team, and she planned on proving that by beating him so hard to the point where he’d be in tears when she’s done with him.

She had done it before; it shouldn’t be any different now.

Jen was 17 years old at the peak of the Bone Forging Stage. She possesses the rare grade martial physique called the Flame Core Martial Body, which allows her chakra to inherently possess the fire attribute and makes it easier for her to understand and practice techniques of the fire attributes.

She was a young prodigy, one of the best Quaint City had to offer. Alas, as hot as her chakra was, so was her temper. It’s a little downside, but one that should be manageable as she grows up.

Only Travis was able to handle the flairs of her temper. And she liked him. That’s what made it so hard for her to handle his death.

Anyone who attempts to stain the legacy that Travis left would suffer her fearsome temper and flames; she swore this to his grave.

And Ren, even though he’s yet to say a word to him, was no different.

The moment she saw him, she immediately disliked him. She doesn’t understand what Sir Justin and Derek were thinking, allowing some random gangster from a faraway city to join the party this easily.

They said that he should be a good guy who works diligently, but which part of this person looked diligent and ’good’?

How can he be compared to the gentle, kind, and handsome Travis? How dare they allow someone like him into this sanctuary!

This is what she thought. And this is why she’s going to beat him up so hard so that he will fuck off to where he came from and never return.

That’s why as soon as the match began, she came out swinging.

She didn’t bother warming up her chakra; she deemed it unnecessary. It shouldn’t take her a couple of swings to corner this good-for-nothing guy and chase him out of this place.

But while fantasies are cool and all, reality has a way of reminding people that not everything they believed to be true was true.

Jen thought that she’d beat him so easily, but after a couple of slashes and stabs, she realized that she was wrong. This was not going to be as easy as she thought it’d be because this guy was even more slippery than Derek.

At least Derek had to adjust to her aggressiveness. It took him a couple of spars to get used to her fighting style before being able to handle her. Travis was the same.

But this guy, somebody whom she had never seen or fought before, wasn’t even trying.

He was bored, even. She saw him staring at her sword’s edge as if he were waiting impatiently for it to arrive so that he could move.

But how is that possible? This guy shouldn’t be any stronger than her! They wouldn’t invite anybody who’s a stage higher than the team since that would complicate the arrangement.

After a minute straight of attacking without any success, Jen’s chakra warmed up from all the movement she did. Although she was reluctant to prove her point, she used it to defeat her opponent.

So, her swings came out faster and fiercer. More importantly, her chakra possessed high temperature, something that both Travis and Derek took seriously. She didn’t believe that this guy would continue to remain unfazed by the heat.

But oh, he did. He most certainly did.

Seeing her chakra flare out with temperatures rising quickly, Ren remained unmoved. If anything, the only change was that now he looked amused instead of bored.

Jen didn’t like that. She had this feeling that he was mocking her or belittling her. So, she used her real strength to force him out.

But again, fantasies are fantasies. They’re different from reality.

Jen imagined that, now that she had gone all out, she’d easily be able to deal with this guy. But reality proved her wrong in the most embarrassing way.

Ren began tripping her.

She stabs; Ren swerves to the side and trips her.

She swings, and Ren tilts his body to avoid it at the last second before tripping her again.

She gets angry and stabs and slashes? No difference. Ren would still trip her.

Then she heard him say, "Hmm, still haven’t caught on, huh? A shame. I’ve been exploiting the same weakness over and over again."

Jen’s mind shook. That’s when she realized that Ren was indeed trying to tell her something.

The way he trips her, it’s always on her left foot, never the right. And she knows why. But her temper and stubbornness blinded her to her weakness she had unknowingly exposed to a stranger.

Not even Derek and Travis could easily spot this. It’s Justin who exposed this since he’s an expert, and she’d be trying to fix it all this time to no avail.

But this stranger saw it and took advantage of it.

Jen then became afraid, so she lashed out. Her instinct was to silence him immediately because she could not afford for this matter to be exposed, especially to a stranger like him.

Flames erupted from her hands, which then crept to her sword, a sight that alarmed everybody, especially Derek and Justin. They were scared because they thought Jen had completely lost it.

This technique is the strongest she could muster at her current level. It’s something that she uses only when she’s driven to a corner. Yet now, she’s using it against a stranger who has done nothing wrong to her.

Simply put, Jen was trying to kill Ren. And that’s not something that they’d allow to happen.

Alas, they were too late. Both Derek and Justin were too far away to reach Jen in time to stop her.

However, it turns out that they didn’t need to.

Ren had it covered.

As Jen brought down her flaming sword upon her, Ren spun and delivered a well-timed kick to her wrist.

It happened so fast that not even Jen had the time to react. Before she knew it, she could only feel pain on her wrist, and only after that did she realize that she had lost her sword.

Her sword flew up for a bit before coming down edge-first. It’s going to fall directly on top of Ren, but before anybody could warn him, Ren moved again.

He stepped to the side and slapped the sword away, causing it to fly and embed itself directly in the nearest wall. He then spun and tripped Jen again, which caused her to fall to her buttocks.

Ren never lost that irritatingly amused look on his face as he crouched down in front of her and asked:

"So? Am I in?"

All of this happened within five minutes. Jen went out swinging, but Ren dealt with her so easily that it didn’t even look like he tried at all.

Jen was sweating, panting, and spent, but Ren was still as fresh as a daisy; the heat of Jen’s sword failed to even make him sweat.

He dismantled her so easily that it’s unbelievable, and he did it unarmed and unharmed. Jen’s killing technique just fueled his amusement even more; it did not scare him whatsoever.

Jen was defeated. Everybody with a functioning brain could see that. Even Jen, through all her explosive temper and unwillingness, knew that she lost.

And as the one who made the stipulation herself, it would be a disgrace to her if she turned back on her word.