Chapter 47: Fluke?

Words : 1302 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 47: Fluke? Falco clapped to get everyone’s attention, interrupting the student’s rest. "Today, we are training reflexes." Muscle memory and reflexes can be the difference between staying alive and dying when the brain cannot keep up with new information. And with manual mecha piloting, this was even more important. Unlike combination piloting, where the brain could at least override frozen limbs, that was impossible to do for manual mecha pilots. It’s your limbs or nothing. "You all know that while buttons can be used to operate the mecha, most soldiers would prefer to capture their movements. In this way, we want you to have options, but regardless of what you pick, all pilots rely on their reflexes." "So, today, we’ll start with sparring exercises." "Everyone, start forming pairs for sparring." Usually, he would group people according to their abilities, but this was Section A, where the best people were gathered. His only responsibility now was to tell that student to sit out the sparring exercises. That would give him a handicap that would not benefit his partner. A unilateral beating because of illness would just make his sparring partner unnecessarily arrogant for winning easily. But Falco didn’t arrive on time. As he approached, another student, far taller and clearly in better shape, locked in on the Kyros kid. "You, show me you deserve that rank of yours." Luca didn’t realize this person was talking to him until everyone else looked at them. This boy wasn’t exactly keeping it in. He wanted everyone to hear. "..." How arrogant. Falco was going over when the student, Noah Emory, asked a perfunctory question, "You’re not planning on protecting this student by exempting him, right, Instructor?" Well, Falco was really going to do that, but not because of favoritism; after all, he knew about the kids’ strengths. But these other students don’t. He was privy to the murmured doubts as well as the comments even they were getting for Luca’s rank, so he had to think of something. "If the infirmary permitted him, then I have no problems with it. I was going over to ask." Falco responded. If he didn’t do it this way, that kid’s social status would sink even further as if it wasn’t buried under, to begin with. "I should be fine to participate, Sir." Luca smiled a rather sunny one, which was ironic since someone was talking big about beating him up. "The idea is to spar for five minutes for the first sparring session." Luca did not like fighting. In fact, he tried to avoid it in his past life. It was difficult to always deal with multiple enemies. He had to get creative to ensure the least amount of damage to his body, especially when those people were venting their anger at him. He had been bullied for so long that he could feel intentions to harm him long before it happened. And this guy that clearly had it out for him was emanating just that. Some of the other students who had been watching were snickering, telling Noah that he could be merciful. "You’re sure to win, so go easy on him." "Maybe try avoiding his face so the girls won’t come to hate you so much." They joked, and Noah just shrugged it off in amusement. Ideally, the students should be doing this simultaneously, but the crowd sensed blood in the water and gathered themselves into a loose circle. Falco let them be because this class would remain this divided unless they saw something with their own eyes. And all he could hope for was for this student to hold up to the expectation. Then, Instructor Falco announced the start of the match. Noah lunged first, his fist slicing through the air like a battering ram aimed at Luca’s face. But he wasn’t there. He sidestepped so smoothly he looked like he flashed for a moment. Noah was stunned for a second. That punch had explosive power and speed, intending to finish all this in one hit, only to catch no one. On the sidelines, Xavier watched with an eyebrow up, noticing how Luca moved decidedly. That was intentional. And the next dodge proved it wasn’t a fluke. Luca looked like he was playing with Noah, who was coming at him with a boxing style that was common to the bullies he encountered back at Tesseris. He used to be a punching bag and could easily predict this guy’s movements, especially when his face was giving it away. Noah was aggressive, and his eyes flashed every time he missed. But he had no intention to let Luca go easily. He turned around, aiming for Luca’s forehead with a solid kick. Luca avoided it but was now faced with a sweeping motion intended to get him to lose his balance. But instead of jumping back as Noah expected, Luca lunged forward, closing in on him as his chest was exposed from the kick’s follow-through. He launched an uppercut that landed squarely on Noah’s jaw. It was a sudden movement, as if Luca had just flitted in before retreating back. Noah’s eyes widened at the impact. Not because it was insanely strong but because he was open and unguarded, and he felt his brain clatter for a moment. This opening allowed Luca to use his elbow against Noah’s chest. He wanted to go for the nose, but Noah was just too tall. "Ow—" Noah cried out in pain, his disbelief evident in his expression. Luca’s fighting style had no finesse. What he had was fit for a street brawl, as his references weren’t strictly defensive. He just copied the moves people would typically exact on him, which allowed him to know which parts would hurt worse once they were hit. The crowd watching collectively fell into a frozen state. Two solid hits. The first one could be considered a fluke, but the second one immediately followed, effectively silencing the jeering crowd. "That Luca just hit Noah, right?" "Yeah, it seems like it..." "That must’ve hurt." Noah realized the people were looking at him differently after Luca landed clean hits on him. He felt extremely embarrassed and made an excuse, "I was being careless!" He resumed taking a fighting stance, but that move earlier left him a psychological shadow that affected him for the rest of the fight. Noah decided to use endurance to win. He knew this kid was fresh from the hospital, and being defeated by him in this state would look even worse for him. He decided to build pressure, but Luca conserved his energy well. This was just one guy, and Luca was used to taking hits from at least trios. He wasn’t at the same level as before he was imprisoned, but the manuals helped greatly. Luca could take this much. And he really did. By the time the timer rang, Noah was still attempting to go after Luca, as if he couldn’t accept that he hadn’t gotten to catch the fleeting bastard at all. He was sure everyone thought of him as a joke now because even he felt the same. "Enough!" Instructor Falco called, annoyed that this student didn’t even respect the timer. "Sir, I..." "I don’t know what you’re playing at, but fighting even when the timer is over isn’t a sign of good sportsmanship." "And your method of continuing the same attacks despite them being ineffective would translate to a battered mecha." Noah’s face flushed red instantly. While Luca just listened, thankful that he survived. He may have had a better constitution now, but he couldn’t keep it up for longer. Noah expected Luca to gloat. But all he got was a slight bow. He didn’t know what to feel, but that might have hurt more than being sucker punched.

Chapter 47: Fluke?

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