--

There were no warm-ups again or anything that allowed him to start his chakra production and flow.

When the fight began, it began in earnest immediately.

Fortunately, Ren did some early stretches, which should ease up his chakra production.

The moment the spar began, Ren immediately saw Kaycee sniping him from afar. He immediately judged it as a miss, so he didn’t bother dodging. It was more of a warning shot.

Ren could see Derek running behind him, almost using him as a cover to hide himself. He didn’t mind; that’s what his fighting style calls for.

He picked up his speed, which also accelerated his motion and the production of his chakra. His speed increase made Jules nervous because he was meant to intercept him, and Ren doesn’t look like he even sees him as a stumbling block.

Jen told him that she’d help out, obviously, and Kaycee would put some distance to shoot the enemies from afar, but somehow, even with two allies by his side, Jules felt uneasy.

He felt like this wasn’t going to be an easy fight for them.

And Jules immediately confirmed that the moment Ren arrived in front of him and landed a straight punch to his shield.

Jules’ pupils constricted as he felt the impact. It’s like somebody threw a boulder directly at him. He skidded back and was forced to resist the incoming force with his raw physical strength. He even had to stick his sword to the ground to help him not go too far.

What’s worse is that, after throwing that punch, Ren didn’t stay with Jules; he shifted and began running towards Kaycee after sending him away.

Ren just literally punched him aside so he could get him out of the way. A direct dismissal of his presence.

Jen was there, and she saw what happened. Her gaze darkened at what she saw, but she didn’t say a word. Instead, she prepared herself to confront Ren again.

Now, she’s wary of this guy’s elusiveness. This one’s more slippery than Derek, so she had to be on the lookout for that. Her goal was not to directly defeat Ren, just slow him down so all three of them could whittle him down eventually.

But Ren didn’t play along with their plans. He’s got something else in mind.

Seeing Jen appear before him, he suddenly retreated with a surprising speed. Suddenly, Derek was up front instead of Ren. The heavily tattooed guy then changed directions and chased Kaycee instead.

"Heh..." Derek was shocked, but he recovered pretty quickly.

He knew what Ren was trying to tell him by doing this. He wanted him to keep Jen occupied while he dealt with Kaycee.

Derek did say that he’s going to follow Ren’s lead, so who was he to refuse? And thus, he directly engaged Jen.

"Tch. Great, another cunning guy. As if we needed another one like you in this team," Jen snorted as her sword clashed with Derek’s daggers.

"I prefer intelligent, but whatever you say, Jen," Derek smugly retorted.

Meanwhile, Kaycee was feeling the heat.

She had never seen this kind of intimidating presence before, not even from Travis himself.

Ren’s eyes were locked in him, and he looked very determined to bring her down and shackle her so that she’d stop firing her arrows.

What’s worse is that he’s no slower than her. In fact, he’s breaching the distance slowly but surely. Even her accurate shots were barely slowing him down.

Jules was trying to keep up.

He wants to help Kaycee, but he’s too slow. Speed was never his forte. Furthermore, Ren and Kaycee were just too fast. Ren was actually faster than Kaycee. He’s slowly closing down the remaining distance between them as time passes.

As the team’s designated front liner, it’s his duty to be at the very front of the threat. He’s used to Kaycee and the others behind him; he was to protect the team’s damage dealers so that they could clear dungeons.

He didn’t expect Ren’s first strike to be that heavy, though. Which is absurd considering that the guy hasn’t even used chakra on that one. That was pure raw physical strength.

And Jules’ arms still feel numb from taking that head-on.

But he also can’t just stand here and do nothing. His team needs him.

So, since he couldn’t catch up with Kaycee and Ren, he instead turned his attention to Jen, who’s locked in a heated clash with Derek.

He thought to himself that Ren wouldn’t leave Derek alone. They’re a pair, and this is a test for their teamwork. Ren would fail if he left his only ally to deal with the pressure.

’That should take him out of Kaycee’s hair,’ Jules thought to himself. And so he didn’t waste time and immediately inserted himself in between Jen’s and Derek’s fight.

But before he arrived in between them, they heard a loud sound that was practically impossible to ignore.

Boom!

The others didn’t see how it happened, but Kaycee did.

Ren’s body glows with chakra, white and untainted. Then, he delivered a punch to the ground, but instead of causing cracks, his punch caused a huge boulder to jut out of the ground.

How exactly he did that, others can’t say. But they could all see it now, and they knew it was he who did it.

Kaycee was suspicious, though. Ren made it look like he responded that way to defend against a volley of arrows she just sent his way. And while the boulder did block them all, Kaycee felt that his actions were quite excessive.

He dodged the volleys before just fine. His footwork was good, and he’s not even using that much chakra. So why did he suddenly...?

Before Kaycee could finish the question in her mind, she was surprised.

Ren let out a grunt and punched that boulder to smithereens. Some larger chunks flew out towards her, forcing her to evade. The rest fell to the ground and was then scattered all over the battlefield when Ren punched them again.

Nobody could understand why he did this. To make it worse, Ren went back to chasing Kaycee again after he did it.

It’s like he just threw some random temper tantrum in the middle of the fight and returned to his plans right away. It’s so weird.

Some scattered rocks landed near where Jen, Derek, and Jules were fighting. They saw what happened, but although they’re shocked, they didn’t have much time to think about it.

Jen and Derek went back to their confrontation with Jules now approaching closely.

Phew!

It wasn’t until Kaycee heard that sound that she finally realized why Ren did his previous actions.

He’s using the rocks as his projectile. Yes, he’s throwing rocks at her now. And his accuracy was frankly a bit fearsome.

Ren was shooting Kaycee’s arrows mid-flight. Each stone was thrown with just enough strength to kill the momentum of the arrows, not destroy them, all so that the arrows would fall limp to the ground as if the strings guiding their flight were suddenly cut.

That’s scary, because this tells her that he had completely figured out her accuracy rate. He wasn’t matching her volleys with a 1:1 ratio; he was just throwing stones at the ones that were meant to hit him. As for the others that will be missed, he directly ignored them.

This meant that he knew which of her arrows would hit and which ones would miss the moment she released them.

And to a sniper like her, this was incredibly terrifying.

The worst part is that it doesn’t end here.

Kaycee wasn’t the only one at the receiving end of his stones. Jules, who’s practically at the opposite side of the training grounds, was one of his targets too.

Yes, it was incredibly shocking.

Just as he was about to add pressure to Derek to lift some burden for Jen, a stone flew his way out of nowhere, forcing him to halt and raise his shield.

The rock shattered upon impact with his shield. Jules wasn’t harmed since he reacted on time, but inwardly, he’s still terrified.

’How the hell is he doing this? ’ Jules screamed inwardly.

He wanted to think that this was a coincidence. That the rock just now hit him due to a fluke, a lucky shot, if you will.

But then, that notion was instantly disproven the moment he tried to approach again. Another rock came flying his way. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

This time, it hit him on the calves. He tried to block it, but unexpectedly, the rock swerved at the last moment, seemingly magically changing directions and hitting him at an impossible angle.

The impact caused Jules to take a knee. The sight was so shocking that even Jen and Derek had to pause their fight out of shock.

And it wasn’t just Jules.

Kaycee got hit too, around the same time that Jules got hit, actually.

The rock landed on Kaycee’s left shoulder, the one she uses to draw the string of her bow. She winced in pain because even she failed to calculate the trajectory of that stone.

And just like that, two out of the three were injured. Only Jen was relatively unharmed.