The electronic *DING* of the starting bell echoed in the arena, sharp and final.
My heart was a drum solo in my chest, but on the outside, I hoped I looked cool and collected. *Be mysterious. Be untouchable.* I settled into a loose stance, my hands casually at my sides. I wouldn't make the first move. My entire strategy was based on reaction and control, not aggression.
Across from me, Snow Menikins didn't even change her expression. Her icy eyes assessed me for half a second, then she moved. With a flick of her wrist, the moisture in the air coalesced into a long, gleaming sword made of solid ice. She didn't charge; she *glided* across the arena floor, her movement eerily silent and precise.
She was fast. Faster than I expected. In a blink, she was within striking distance, the frosty blade slicing a silent arc towards my shoulder.
But I was ready. While I'd been "looking" calm, I'd been frantically weaving a defensive web. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of my thinnest, nearly invisible [Monofilament Slash] wires were already crisscrossing the space between us, creating a chaotic, razor-sharp net.
She didn't see them. How could she? They were thinner than spider silk and just as transparent.
Her sword never reached me. It stopped about a foot from my body with a sharp *TING!* as it met the resistant network of my strings. To her, and to everyone watching, it must have looked like her blow had been stopped by an invisible, telekinetic forcefield. She recoiled, a flicker of genuine surprise finally breaking through her cold mask. She took a defensive step back, her eyes narrowing.
"Not bad," she murmured, her breath forming a small cloud in the chilled air she was generating.
Then she got serious. She raised both hands, and the temperature in the arena plummeted. A massive block of ice, the size of a small car, began to form above her head, sharpening into a giant, jagged spike.
"This might be overkill for a first match, Menikins," Instructor Borin rumbled, but he didn't stop it.
With a grunt of effort, she thrust her hands forward. The giant ice spear shot toward me with terrifying speed.
This was the moment. I couldn't just block it; I had to dismantle it.
I didn't wave my arms. I just *flexed* my will. The web of strings in front of me tightened and shifted. As the massive ice projectile hit my network, I didn't try to stop it dead. I guided it. I used the strings to deflect its force, to slice into its structure.
The result was spectacular. The giant ice spear didn't shatter; it *disintegrated*. It exploded into a thousand harmless, glittering shards just a few feet from my face, as if it had hit an industrial woodchipper. A fine, cool mist washed over me.
The crowd gasped. Snow's eyes went wide with shock.
Now. While she was off-balance.
I moved my fingers in a tiny, intricate motion. Several strings I'd laid on the ground near her feet snapped upward, wrapping around her wrists, her ankles, the hilt of her ice sword. They weren't tight enough to cut, but they were unbreakable by her strength.
She froze, quite literally. She tried to move, to summon more ice, but my strings held her fast. She was my puppet, and I had cut her strings. She could only stand there, trapped in a pose of attack, her eyes burning with a mixture of fury and utter confusion. She couldn't even see what was holding her.
The silence in the arena was absolute.
Instructor Borin's voice broke it, loud and clear. "Match! Winner, Ron Sanchez."
I released the strings instantly. Snow stumbled forward a step, catching herself. She stared at her own limbs, then at me, her expression unreadable. The ice sword clattered to the floor and melted into a puddle.
The crowd erupted.
"Did you see that?!"
"He didn't even move!"
"He waved his hand and stopped her sword!"
"He disintegrated that ice lance! What is his power? Telekinesis? Force Fields?"
"That was so fast! He didn't even break a sweat!"
I didn't acknowledge any of it. I just turned, walked out of the arena, and found my spot back in the seating area. I sat down and stared straight ahead, ignoring the stares and the whispers burning into the side of my head. Inside, I was doing cartwheels. *It worked! It actually worked!*
But one stare was more intense than the others. Snow didn't go back to her friends. She just stood at the edge of the mats, her icy blue eyes locked on me. It wasn't a look of anger anymore. It was a look of pure, intense calculation. She was trying to solve me. To figure out the trick. *Bro, I'm sorry you lost, but please stop staring. You're making my skin crawl.*
The rest of the matches were a blur. A [Hydro-Surger] versus a [Pyro-Kinetic] filled the arena with steam, making everything damp and smelling like a wet dog. It was like a low-budget avatar fight. I smirked but kept my amusement to myself.
The moment the final bell rang, I was up and moving. I didn't wait around to chat or receive backhanded compliments from the B-Rank snobs. I had more important things to do. My performance had holes. I needed to train my stamina, refine my control.
But as I left, I didn't see the huddle my classmates formed.
"No way he's only C-Rank. The system must be wrong."
"Did Instructor Borin say anything? He knows, right?"
"He just sat there after! Like it was nothing!"
"He's so arrogant! But... damn, that was strong."
Unknowingly, I had achieved exactly what I wanted. I was no longer the weird Unique kid. I was an enigma. A problem. A guy who had taken down the famous Snow Menikins without seeming to try.
And all with a power everyone had mistaken for something else. It was the perfect disguise. Now I just had to keep up the act. And maybe figure out how to do it without draining my entire stamina bar in one fight.