Despite the boys' pleading, Lawrence remained firm in his decision for both groups to begin the group battle. With a simple wave of his hand, the two teams standing in the spacious opening of the vast hall surged forward, clashing against each other with the training weapons of their choice.

Group one members were all sword users, so each of them had a wooden sword, unlike Marlon's group who were far more versatile.

Except Lyra, who held two blunt daggers, and Theresa, who clenched a wooden sword, Ashton and Marlon did not hold any weapons since they were close-combat fighters who relied on their bodies more than tools.

Understanding the vast difference in strength, Marlon had already decided to let his teammates take care of group one.

Standing behind, he watched quietly as the clash began.

Lyra was swift and quiet, slipping behind the tallest and strongest member of group one before he could even get a fighting chance.

Her movement drew gasps and whispers from the spectating students, and even Lawrence nodded as he was mildly impressed.

Theresa, on the other hand, met her opponent head-on. Their strength was on the same level, so they exchanged strikes without gaining the upper hand.

As for Ashton, he was subdued almost immediately. He fell to the ground, and the tip of his opponent's wooden sword pressed lightly against his neck.

The fourth member of group one remained still as he watched Marlon and waited for him to make the first move. But since Marlon had no intention of fighting, the boy let out a quiet sigh of relief and silently prayed for Lawrence to call for the end of the first group battle.

And thankfully, after observing the exchange for a short while, the cold voice of the combat instructor called them to a halt.

"That is enough."

Stepping into their midst, Lawrence observed all of them briefly.

He equipped a big black journal from his inventory and began to jot down his observations on the exchange.

The room went silent as the students watched him.

After he finished, he stored the journal away and turned to them.

He turned to Theresa first.

"You have mastered most of the basic sword control, but your anxiety is your weak point."

Theresa nodded, her head lowered in self-loathing. Even though she had not lost, since she and her opponent were on equal footing before the match was called off, she still felt disappointed in herself.

"You, your form is still weak. You fight without considering your own body. That is the dumbest fighting style for someone who dreams of becoming a great hunter one day."

Pointing at another student, Lawrence listed his flaws.

He told each participant in the first exchange their weaknesses without giving a single correction.

After he was done, he turned to Marlon.

Seeing his gaze on him, Marlon's lips curved into a small smile as he waited for his verdict.

"You have a big ego."

A single sentence.

Marlon had no response. It was not as if Lawrence was lying. Still, he only refused to take part because he felt it was beneath him, and his opponent had been too scared to challenge him in the first place.

Honestly, he was already considering skipping classes and using all his time to grind in danger-zones.

Lawrence picked two new groups to contest and just like he did with the first set, he revealed their flaws to them.

The following one hour was occupied with such activities until finally he was done noting the areas for improvement of each and every one of the one hundred and fifty students in his combat class.

He had only planned to take care of this today, so he ended the class afterward.

While the others hurried out of the hall, he called Marlon aside.

"What is your talent?" he asked curiously.

"Warrior," Marlon replied with a smile.

"Hmm," Lawrence hummed, "Tell me more about your talents."

He requested, and Marlon responded with his usual half-truths.

Nonetheless, he managed to convince Lawrence about what talent he possessed.

"Not bad. Since your ego is too big to fight your fellow classmates, I will be bringing one of my old disciples to our next class. Hope you're up for the challenge?"

"Sure thing."

Marlon shrugged.

"Good."

Lawrence nodded.

"Possessing such an ego for your age is not bad, but remember the world doesn't revolve around you. There are a lot of young stars whose futures have been destroyed by ego like yours. It would be better to take precautions now."

"I will consider your wise words."

Marlon listened and responded gently.

He felt it would be futile to refute what Lawrence was saying judging by his persona, so he did his best to end the conversation.

Lawrence simply nodded and left.

If he was to be honest with himself, he was the one whose ego was hurt.

He had wanted to see the famous superstar in action, and as he had refused to fight, he was pretty annoyed.

He even wanted to suggest a duel with him afterward to beat respect into him, but the academy was against it.

Hence, he had decided to bring a contender, someone he had trained himself.

"Let me see how he manages to stand his ground against my disciple," he muttered to himself.

On the other hand, Marlon met with Ashton outside.

Logan's class was still ongoing, so the two of them decided to wait.

His class was pretty lengthy; the two had to wait for about an hour and a half before the class ended.

At that time, it was already a few minutes past five.

"How was class, Mira-bear?"

Marlon spotted Miranda and approached her with a smile on his face.

Miranda was startled by his sudden appearance. She quickly scanned the surroundings to see if there was anyone present to hear the embarrassing name she was addressed with, and fortunately, there were none.

"Please stop calling me that name in public, it's embarrassing," she said in a low tone.

"Only in public? Then I'll save 'Mira-bear' for when it's just you and me."

Miranda did not respond and simply sighed.

"Aether analysis was boring," she sighed and responded to his initial question. "How about combat class? It should be more interesting."

"All classes are boring in my opinion," Marlon responded with a shrug.

"Likewise," Miranda commented.

Marlon was pretty surprised. Miranda was more like a model student to others; it was surprising that she too found classes boring.

The two of them chatted for a few minutes before Miranda excused herself.

Marlon returned to his two friends who stared at him with dumbfounded expressions.

"How the heck did you get to speak with Miranda so casually?"

They asked once he arrived.

Marlon shrugged. "I am the golden child, after all."

Ashton and Logan stared at him in disbelief despite already knowing how arrogant he actually was.

The two of them smiled later on.

It was great to see Marlon returning to his old self.

They left the classroom block together and returned to the hostel.

Marlon prayer seemed to have been answered as when he returned home, he received a mail from the hunter association requesting his presence in the morning.

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