Fraser Lennox laughed. It was a loud obnoxious sound that echoed across the sandy arena and carried up to the VIP viewing boxes.

"You want to duel me?" Fraser asked wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. "A porter with nothing but stolen swords wants to duel a B Rank Pyromancer? Did the toxic fumes in the slums finally rot your brain Mcdonald?"

The crowd of elite students surrounding the arena joined in the laughter. They pointed at Glen mocking him and the sheer audacity of an F Rank Mimic challenging one of the top students in the academy.

Glen did not draw his swords. He kept his hands casually stuffed in the pockets of his black combat jacket. He tilted his head looking at Fraser with an expression of profound boredom.

"Are you going to talk all day or are you going to cast a spell?" Glen asked his voice carrying perfectly over the laughter. "I have places to be Fraser. Some of us actually work for a living."

Fraser stopped laughing. His handsome face twisted into an ugly scowl, he hated being dismissed. He hated being looked down upon especially by someone from Sector Nine.

"Fine" Fraser spat raising his hands. "If you want to die in front of the recruiters I will happily oblige. Medical team get a stretcher ready for the slum rat."

Fraser channeled his mana. The air around him grew incredibly hot. Bright orange flames erupted from his palms swirling into two massive spheres of condensed fire. He was a B Rank Pyromancer and his offensive power was genuinely impressive for a student.

"Fireball" Fraser shouted thrusting his hands forward.

The two spheres of flame shot across the arena leaving a trail of scorched sand in their wake. They moved fast aiming directly for Glen’s chest. A direct hit would cause severe third degree burns to a normal human.

Glen did not use Lightning Movement. He did not need to. His Level 6 Agility stat was currently sitting at sixty points. To his enhanced senses the fireballs looked like they were moving through thick molasses.

Glen simply took one step to the right.

The fireballs sailed past him missing his shoulder by a fraction of an inch. They crashed into the reinforced magical barrier surrounding the arena exploding in a shower of harmless sparks.

The crowd gasped.

Fraser blinked his eyes widening in confusion. "Lucky dodge trash. Let us see you dodge this."

Fraser raised his hands again this time summoning a continuous stream of fire. He whipped his arms in a wide arc creating a massive wave of flames designed to cover the entire width of the arena. It was a crowd control spell meant to trap agile opponents.

"Flame Whip" Fraser yelled.

The wall of fire rushed toward Glen. There was no room to step to the side.

Glen sighed dramatically. He pulled his right hand out of his pocket. He did not cast a spell. He simply channeled a tiny fraction of his Level 6 Strength stat into his arm and swung his fist in a brutal horizontal backhand.

The sheer kinetic force of his physical strike created a vacuum in the air. The shockwave slammed into the incoming wall of fire splitting the flames perfectly down the middle. The fire parted around Glen like water flowing around a stone leaving him completely untouched.

Absolute silence fell over the testing grounds. The elite students stopped laughing. Up in the VIP boxes the guild recruiters leaned forward in their seats their eyes glued to the boy in the black jacket.

"What was that?" a recruiter from the Astra Guild whispered. "He did not use mana. He just punched the fire away with raw physical strength. An F Rank cannot do that, their base stats are way too low."

Down in the arena Fraser was breathing heavily. Panic began to set in. His spells were doing nothing. The boy standing across from him was not acting like a victim. He was acting like a bored adult playing with a toddler.

"Is that it?" Glen asked brushing a speck of ash from his jacket. "I thought you were a B Rank genius Fraser. My mother hits harder than that and shis bedridden."

"Shut up" Fraser screamed his pride completely shattered. "I will burn you to ash."

Fraser raised both hands toward the sky. He began drawing on every ounce of mana in his spiritual core. The sand beneath his feet began to melt turning into glass from the intense heat. A massive swirling vortex of orange and red fire formed above his head growing larger and larger until it resembled a miniature sun.

"Inferno Wave" Fraser roared his voice cracking from the strain.

He threw his hands down launching the massive sphere of condensed fire directly at Glen. The heat was so intense that the magical barriers around the arena began to crackle and whine under the pressure.

Glen looked at the incoming inferno. He could dodge it. He could easily use Lightning Movement to appear behind Fraser and end the fight. But dodging would not send the right message. Dodging would not break the arrogant hierarchy of the academy.

He needed to make a statement.

Glen focused on his dark spiritual core. He activated his merged B Rank skill.

"Thunder Phantom Step" Glen whispered.

Deep purple lightning erupted from his body. The air around him distorted cracking with the pressure of compressed kinetic energy. The sheer density of the purple mana created a protective aura around his skin.

Glen did not dodge. He walked forward.

He stepped directly into the massive sphere of fire.

The crowd screamed expecting the boy to be incinerated instantly. But the flames did not touch him. The purple lightning surrounding Glen acted like a violent repulsor shield tearing the fire apart at the molecular level.

Glen walked right through the ultimate B Rank spell. He emerged from the flames completely unharmed his dark eyes locked onto Fraser.

Fraser fell to his knees his mana completely drained. He looked up at the boy wreathed in purple lightning his face pale with absolute terror.

"What are you?" Fraser whispered his voice trembling.

Glen stopped right in front of the kneeling Pyromancer. The purple lightning faded from his body. He looked down at Fraser with a cold mocking smile.

"An F rank Mimic and a part-time porter" Glen said.

Glen pulled his fist back channeling a fraction of Savage Strike into his knuckles. He did not use full power. Full power would have taken Fraser’s head off. He just used enough to make a point.

He punched Fraser squarely in the stomach.

The impact sounded like a cannon firing. Fraser folded completely in half all the air rushing out of his lungs in a violent gasp. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed face first into the melted sand completely unconscious.

Glen stood over the defeated bully. He casually stretched his neck and then looked up at the VIP viewing boxes where the most powerful recruiters in the city were sitting in stunned silence.

Glen smiled and gave them a lazy two finger salute.

The face slapping was complete. The F Rank Mimic had just dismantled a B Rank genius without even drawing his swords.