Sophia approached Rocky with a cocky smile on her face, her eyes glinting with the thrill of the anticipated duel.


    She thought that while Rocky making short work of the rest of the students was expected, the two of them would have an epic battle as she considered herself to be equally as good, if not better than Rocky.


    "Hope you saved some energy for me, Rocky. This won''t be as easy as the others," she teased, twirling her sword with practiced ir.


    "I don''t want you to make the excuse that you were tired from fighting these loserster. This is a fair fight…." She said, as she continued with her mockery of the crowd.


    Rocky simply nodded, his expression unreadable while his stance remained loose yet undeniably confident. "We''ll see," he replied, his voice low and steady.


    As the match began, Sophiaunched a series of aggressive strikes aimed to test Rocky''s defense.


    [ Barrage Thrust ]


    Making over 16 sword thrusts in just under three seconds, sheunched a flurry of attacks towards Rocky with each thrust and jab being  executed with precise skill, intended to push Rocky to his limits.


    In her mind, she crafted a narrative of a battle hard-fought and won, as she nned on finding the weakness in Rocky''s defenses with her high paced strikes and then exploiting them to burst his jacket.


    With her victory to help determine her position as his equal or better.


    But to her shock, Rocky countered with minimal effort, his movements sharp and decisive as his de met hers not with force, but with a precision that redirected her momentum, throwing her off bnce.


    *OOOH*


    The crowd gasped, as Sophia stumbled a few steps to regain her bnce, while Rocky did not finish her off despite her having an exposed back.


    Sophia''s smile faltered as confusion and a spike of fear pierced her confidence. ''He''s not even trying... How?'' she thought frantically, her internal monologue racing as she struggled toprehend the ease with which Rocky handled her fast moves.


    It wasn''t like he was swinging his sword frantically, or matching her pace of attacks with equally fast defensive maneuvers, but was rather fighting so leisurely that Sophia could not evenprehend how he blocked her moves?


    Regaining her footing, she attacked again, this time with a mix of feints and powerful strikes, hoping to overwhelm him. "Don''t underestimate me!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the silent swordsmanship arena.


    Rocky''s only response was a slight arch of his eyebrow as he sidestepped her fiercest blow, the skill move [ Piercing Sword Thrust ], with his counter being a mere flick of his wrist that sent a shock through Sophia''s sword, numbing her arms.


    "It''s not about underestimating, you''re just not on my level-" Rocky said calmly, almost conversationally, as he effortlessly tapped her shoulder with the t of his de, marking a ssh of color from her red jacket.


    "Better luck next time" he said, as he utterly humiliated her in front of the whole ss.


    Shocked! Sophia''s breath heaved as she stepped back, her mind reeling. Each move she made, Rocky seemed to have anticipated in advance and countered as if he had scripted the entire fight.


    The realization that she was not the protagonist of this epic battle, but rather an outmatched challenger in Rocky''s story, dawned on her, chilling her previously heated ambition.


    "Sophia, you''re out, move to the side-" shouted Professor Mae, as Sophia was forced to disgracefully leave the fighters arena, amongst snickers and jeers of her ssmates.


    While nobody really liked Rocky dominating the entire ss solo, nobody appreciated Sophia''s increasingly narcissistic attitude either, where she referred to herself as someone superior than the rest of them.


    "Guys, but if even Sophia could not stop this beast, who else can?" One of the students said, as although they hadn''t realized it, after watching the fight between Sophia and Rocky unfold, the initially 15 meters long circle around Rocky had now unconsciously expanded to 20.


    "We have to admit, that one on one, none of us have a chance to beat him, so our only chance is to take him out together!


    Let''s all rush towards him … whatever happens happens-" one blue team member suggested, as everyone around him agreed and nodded.


    *GAHHHHH*


    As a second wave of students charged towards him, Rocky decided to stop holding back anymore as he began using sword projection mixed with sword intent to its fullest potential.


    With his wooden sword beginning to glow and be covered with sword intent, Rocky unleashed very powerful sword projections that burst through the jackets of several enemies approaching him.


    If before, Rocky was picking his fights strategically and was fighting sensibly, now, he resorted to indiscriminate ughter as he eliminated students by the dozens.


    16 seconds!


    That was all that it took him to eliminate the remaining 46 students who had all charged towards him at once, as once everything was said and done, the single man in ck jacket eliminated the entire swordsmanship batch without breaking a sweat.


    Shock and disbelief was etched into the faces of all candidates.


    Everyone who had made it to the university for nourishment of young talents considered themselves to be one of the elite prodigies of the universe, yet today, they once again received a unfortunate reality check, that while all of them were geniuses on their ons, in front of freaks like Rocky, they were simply nobodies.


    "How could one guy eliminate the entire batch? Did anyone even manage to force him to take a step back?" asked a student in a busted yellow jacket, as not a single student could even seem to im that they had forced Rocky to take a step back.


    "Winner of this training event - from ck team! Rocky!" Professor Mae said enthusiastically as she pped wholeheartedly for Rocky, appreciating the beautiful swordsmanship talent he had just disyed.


    "Hahaha, feels good to be back" Rocky said, as he dropped his swords and exhaled some air, epting his victory almost as nonchntly as he picked the ck jacket before the fight.


    It was as if winning was as natural as breathing for him and even after this dominant disy, he couldn''t really care about gloating about his own victory.