Just as Takeshi threw a punch, Shin dodged out of the way with a quick, effortless sidestep.
Takeshi was instantly startled. He hadn't expected the guy in front of him to be so agile, let alone able to accurately predict his attacks.
This kid wasn't simple. Did Ryuta set him up? That didn't make sense—why would Ryuta spend his own money just to have him get humiliated? Was this kid just incredibly lucky?
In that split second, a flurry of doubts flashed through Takeshi's mind, but his hands didn't stop. He pivoted, throwing a rapid combination of ten heavy hooks.
Watching Takeshi's wide, reckless swings, Shin could tell this guy fought with a death wish—a brawler willing to trade blow for blow. He just wondered if this was his usual fighting style in the Reincarnation Worlds.
Shin simply sidestepped again, easily evading Takeshi's onslaught. After all, the gap in their combat skills was astronomical.
Even without activating any special forms or buffs, Shin could toy with Takeshi using nothing but his base physical stats and combat experience. There wasn't an ounce of difficulty here. A grunt of this caliber wouldn't even measure up to a Genin.
If Shin actually wanted to go on the offensive, a single large-scale AoE skill would be enough to wipe out a whole horde of fighters at Takeshi's level. Turning them to ash wouldn't take any effort at all.
However, he wasn't going to do that.
First of all, this was the Main God Dimension; casually murdering someone in a spar was frowned upon. Second, he needed to conceal his true strength. He couldn't let others figure out his real combat power—it had to remain his trump card, unleashed only when it truly mattered.
He looked at Takeshi with a hint of exasperation. The big guy was still swinging wildly, showing no signs of stopping. Yet, Shin effortlessly neutralized every single attack without breaking a sweat.
Down in the audience, Ryuta's group looked on in absolute shock. After all, Takeshi was a rookie they had just recruited. His strength was obvious to everyone—he was by no means a total amateur.
Takeshi's level of combat prowess took at least a decade of hard training to forge. He was naturally gifted to begin with, having studied boxing before dropping out of the professional circuit to work as a fitness coach.
Although he hadn't participated in any high-level, life-or-death battles before, his physical conditioning had always been top-notch. At twenty-seven, he was a solid fighter. In an ordinary street brawl, three or five typical thugs wouldn't even be able to get near him.
It was precisely because of this background that Ryuta recognized his formidable combat power and agreed to take him in.
After all, most of the time, rookie Reincarnators had a high probability of being rejected by every squad—unless a team was truly desperate and willing to grab anyone available.
Because nine times out of ten, rookie Reincarnators weren't assets to a team; they were dead weight. There had even been cases where a rookie's sheer negligence led to the total annihilation of a seasoned, elite Reincarnator squad. Such tragedies were highly probable. Because of this, veteran squads were extremely reluctant to accept rookies.
In reality, these were bloody lessons passed down by countless Reincarnator predecessors. If it weren't for these inherited experiences, and these Reincarnators were left to operate without guidance, many would have died needlessly by repeating the same fatal mistakes that had already paved the ground with blood.
Ryuta actually knew that since Sakamoto Kenji's squad was willing to recruit a rookie, this guy definitely had some real skills. However, when he looked at him, Shin didn't appear physically intimidating. Therefore, he assumed Kenji was simply planning to groom him into a support role or a mage.
But he never in a million years expected that the "rookie" Kenji brought out wasn't someone in need of nurturing. He was a full-fledged DPS core for the team—one capable of dealing both massive physical and magical damage.
So, watching Shin play Takeshi like a total fool up in the ring, Ryuta's expression turned incredibly grim. He looked as if he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Unfortunately, the polished arena floor offered no such escape.
Meanwhile, Kenji and his team all sported beaming smiles. After all, it was clear as day that victory was already in the bag.
Sure enough, after missing several attacks in the ring, Takeshi's boxing technique completely fell apart, devolving into wild, desperate haymakers.
Seeing this, Shin stopped dodging. With a swift sidestep and a targeted kick to Takeshi's back, he launched the massive man straight out of the ring.
Takeshi was kicked completely out of bounds. Fortunately, he was still relatively agile; bracing himself with both hands, he executed a quick kip-up and immediately got to his feet.
The spectating crowd immediately erupted into cheers.
Even though the power level of this fight was a bit too low for their tastes, it was still highly entertaining. Both fighters had seemingly given it their all.
Plus, for many onlookers, this duel wasn't just about two rookies. Even though Kenji and Ryuta hadn't stepped into the ring themselves, it effectively served as a proxy war between the two captains.
Many people in the crowd held grudges against Ryuta. In the ZXC Reincarnator Town, Ryuta's squad was arguably the strongest. Because of that, he threw his weight around and acted incredibly arrogant, showing absolutely no respect for anyone else or their squads.
Consequently, many people secretly despised him.
Kenji and Ryuta had clashed multiple times in the past. Even though Kenji's team usually lost more than they won, those few matches where Domon Kyouji stepped up to fight Ryuta were legendary. They were absolute bloodbaths—Kyouji had quite literally pinned Ryuta to the ground and beaten the living daylights out of him, leaving the arrogant captain completely powerless to resist.
So, seeing Kenji deliver another public slap to Ryuta's face, completely dragging his reputation through the mud, made a lot of people extremely happy.
To his credit, Ryuta was someone who honored his bets. He immediately transferred the three thousand Reward Points to Kenji on the spot.
At this point, Shin still hadn't stepped down from the arena.
Seeing the transaction, he decided to rub salt in the wound and figure out a way to piss Ryuta off even more. If he played his cards right, the guy might come back to personally deliver another pile of points in a few days.
In Shin's eyes, Ryuta was acting exactly like those braindead villains from fantasy novels—the ones who endlessly sent their underlings to deliver free experience and money to the protagonist. With their generous "help," Shin could rapidly level up and become a heavy hitter in the Main God Dimension in record time.
Just thinking about such a wonderful, profitable setup made him incredibly excited.
Thus, standing tall in the ring, he gave a polite, exaggerated bow toward Ryuta. "Thank you so much for the generous gift of Reward Points, Captain Ryuta."
"In the future, we'll definitely work hard to secure even more 'collaborations' with you. Let's do our best to make the relationship between our two squads even more harmonious."
--------------------------------------------------
~ Every 300 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ 70 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!
https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)