Chapter 18 Han Jones

Harry slightly smiled when he saw the system's notification, due to his increased speed and agility, everything around him seemed to slow down. His eyes were now able to follow the water ball's movements as it was no longer too fast for him.

He shifted to the left, causing the water ball to miss him by a few centimetres. His eyes followed the water ball as it moved past him, it shot forwards and then crashed into the lecture hallway door.

Despite the power with which it struck the door, the door was not damaged in any way. This was due to the academy's extensive use of artefact reinforcement, particularly in the element halls.

The academy wasn't constructed with regular bricks and blocks; instead, it was constructed using sturdy materials that had been reinforced with mana. Even without the artefacts being activated, the building was capable of withstanding the entire force of a stage four Elementalist attack.

Since the academy was home to many talented youths and future powerhouses of the world, the matter of security wasn't taken lightly. It was also to curb the damage caused when students lose control of their spells.

'If not for accelerate… things might have ended badly for me.' Harry thought. He faced the approaching figures of Nell and Ace, since the effect of accelerate was still active, they were extremely slow to him. A strange expression flashed through his eyes as he thought, 'Are these the same people who I used to be so afraid of? They are so slow… and weak.'

Harry was not even taking this fight seriously because he found it to be so simple. He didn't have to concentrate on avoiding their blows or subject his mind to unimaginable strain while attempting to keep up with their movements.

Back then, when he was without the system, their attacks usually seem very fast to him… but now it was too slow—mainly due to the effect of accelerate. Simply put, he was having the time of his life.

If Nell and Ace knew what Harry's thoughts were, they would probably cough out blood in anger and embarrassment. They were still thinking they had him cornered, but what they didn't know was that it was the other way around.

Nell's eyes widened when he saw his water ball spell miss Harry. What surprised him the most was that he was unable to notice Harry's movement, all he saw was a slight blur and his water ball spell was missed.

He suddenly saw Harry's figure blur once more, closing the distance between them.

He only saw a fist moving quickly in his direction; with his fist still extended, there was no way he could avoid it. It was too late for him to correct his stance; even if his hands were free, he would still not be able to evade Harry's punch because it was simply too fast for him to even react to.

BANG!!

Harry's fist hit his jaw with huge force, before his mind could even register the pain, Nell felt his body move upwards by at least two meters before sliding across the floors of the academy.

He spat out some blood and also a few pieces of broken teeth before finally losing consciousness.

Harry didn't even spare Nell's unconscious body a glance before immediately moving to his next target. He bent slightly to avoid Ace's stone fist, before clenching his right hand into a fist. Without wasting any more time he threw a punch towards Ace's abdomen.

"Wait! St—"

POW!!

Ace was forced to swallow his words when he felt Harry's fist collide with his stomach. His eyes widened in agony, and blood gushed from his mouth. The force behind Harry's punch sent him sliding for a few seconds before he finally dropped to the ground and then lost consciousness.

Everyone stared at the spectacle in disbelief, their mouths hanging open as they saw what ought to have been impossible.

Ace was someone with an affinity to the earth element and though he was only a stage one Elementalist, he should still be stronger than average humans.

Elementalists with earth elements were known to have sturdier bodies and better defence due to the nature of their element. Yet, He had only taken one punch from the academy-designated "trash" before passing out.

Harry looked at his fists for a few seconds before smiling to himself. He felt a kind of rush and also a sense of gratification when hitting those who had bullied him in the academy.

He knew Ace was about to surrender but how could he let him? He also begged when they bullied him, but none of them listened to his pleas. They only kept on hitting him harder, it was only fair that he repaid the 'favour' sevenfold.

He turned around and continued his journey to the lecture hall, he had already completed the system's quest, but still, the usual notification of quest completion hadn't popped up. Harry didn't put much thought into this, since this was the first time he received this type of quest, he felt the system was perhaps… calculating the rewards.

Meanwhile, Han watched Harry's figure walk towards the lecture hall with a strange expression, He then glanced back at the unconscious bodies of his friends.

He felt humiliated, the fact that he was defeated by the trash of the academy didn't settle well with him and his mind chose not to accept this.

Han Jones; he was one of the most talented students in the academy. He had a high-grade fire affinity and a medium-grade earth affinity.

Due to the rarity of people with high-grade affinities, coupled with the fact that he had a dual affinity, he was placed in high hopes by everyone.

He was also one of the few students that managed to reach the second mana core stage early—he was even close to breaking through to the third stage.

He wasn't just one of the most talented students but also one of the top academy students.

However, Han used his position in the academy to bully those weaker than him, even Elementalists didn't escape from him. Students who weren't powerful enough to stand up to him or weren't from a strong background would always be bullied by Han.

Although the academy seemed like an institution that supported equality, that was only on the surface.

In the current world, power and background/backing was all that mattered. It was the same in the academy, strong students preyed on weaker ones and weak students preyed on even weaker ones.

Harry had always been on the receiving end of all the bullying since his first year in the academy. Han was the worst of all his bullies, he made sure to bully Harry day in and day out.

Although his defeat stemmed from the fact that he underestimated Harry and simply rushed at him without casting any spells—which was a very stupid thing for an Elementalist to do—he still felt humiliated.

More so, his hand was broken in front of a crowd of students, just the thought of how much mockery he would have to face made him furious.

'He's just trash, I'm still better than him. There's no way I would let him defeat me.' He thought. Although, it seemed like he was trying to reassure himself that he was better than Harry.

He immediately pulled a high-grade healing pill from his pocket. A strange expression flashed through his eyes as he downed the pill.

Almost immediately, his broken hand started to heal. It only took a few seconds for his hand to heal completely.

He quickly clasped his hands and decided to deploy the most potent weapon he had at his disposal—a tier two spell—against Harry, except he planned on topping it up by a notch…

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