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...
Awakened Rock was the first one to recover from shock. He looked at Gilgamesh, impressed at the dynamic entry and said:
"Uh no, you're not that late, we were just about to start."
That seemed to break everyone out of their stupor and they started to form a line infront of the machine with the plate that was supposed to measure their striking power.
Since he had arrived a little late, he didn't get the opportunity to wear the white dobak like the other Sleepers.
He got in line all the way at the back of it with along with Caster.
The Sleepers still threw impressed glances at his way, even Nephis looked at him with a curious expression.
He glanced appreciatingly at Caster understanding his tactic of aura farming.
By being the last one in the line and knowing he had the most amount of striking power his Aspect, he would have gained the most aura by getting surprised reactions from everybody and by building suspense at what his score will be.
Unfortunately for Caster, Gilgamesh was here.
'As long as I am here, I won't let anybody farm more aura than me.'
Patiently waiting in line while ignoring the scores of the NPCs, he thought about what his own score would be.
'While my Aspect doesn't directly allow me to increase my strength, I think, because I can't figure out what my Innate Ability [King of Kings] does, however I should be able to get a decent score with [Demigod]. Then again, I haven't really tested my own strength till now but I think I'm pretty confident that I can get more than Caster.'
While thinking that, a sudden thought emerged in his mind.
Looking around and seeing nothing out of the extraordinary he closed his eyes.
'Since [Demigod] is supposed to enchance all the senses then surely..'
Gilgamesh started by focusing only on his breath, ignoring all the other stimuli from his surroundings, even his own thoughts.
...
...
...
'There.'
Snapping his head around he stared at the unassuming right corner of the dojo.
Gilgamesh looked at the shadow in that corner with an intense look in his eyes.
For a moment nothing happened, then the shadow wiggled slightly, scared and disappeared from that corner.
Stealthily, it tried to slink away to another corner.
His lips curled up in a smile as he waved at the shadow.
Gilgamesh turned away from it, but for some reason he could still feel the shadow over there even though he was not trying to find it.
Trying to ignore it, Gilgamesh saw that it was finally Nephis' turn to strike the plate.
He admired her form, noticing some minor mistakes that could be fixed.
Her hand moved swiftly through the air and struck it.
Sixteen, same as the original.
Few people gasped and praised Nephis, since she had gotten that score without using her aspect.
Next was Caster's turn, using his Aspect he struck the plate and got the impressive score of twenty one.
Even more people gasped and praised him, especially his clique of Legacies.
'Interesting, even though he was using his Aspect which is supposed to make him fast enough that he becomes difficult to track, yet for some reason, I could see all his movements clearly and normally, is it due to [Demigod]?'
Or maybe he was just built different.
Since he was the only one left, he moved forward.
Studying the plate for a moment, Gilgamesh widened his stance.
He adopted a solid, balanced stance, in which his feet were shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, and weight evenly distributed between both feet.
Getting into the stance was fluid and came easily, after all he had trained with it and used it thousands of times.
One hand gaurding his face, he pulled his other fist back.
Generating power from his legs first, he twisted his right leg slightly, then rotating his hips with his right fist cocked back, he struck.
The fist travelled through the air with a crisp snap.
The plate of metal let a dull groan and vibrated for a few seconds.
Taking his first back and relaxing his stance he looked at the machine which was still calculating the power, with anticipation.
Everyone watched the machine with bated breathes, afterall they had high expectations from him.
The machine finally landed on the number,
Fifty four.
"N-no way."
"The machine is definitely broke for sure, definitely."
"Are you stupid, your dumbass wouldn't have gotten a score as pathetic as nine if it was broken."
"Y-you!"
"I doubt that even our teacher could get that much, this guy is so lucky that he got such a powerful Aspect."
"Is this guy even human?!"
While all this was happening, Gilgamesh just stood there is hands in his pocket looking at the score. After a while he nodded and walked away.
Awakened Rock looked at the score with an unsure look on his face.
Most people avoided Gilgamesh as he went back towards the sidelines, out of fear of annoying or angering, while he answered the stupid questions of the few who had the courage to approach him.
Awakened Rock smiled slightly and said, "Now, we will move to sparring and evaluate your general level of training. I need two volunteers to begin."
Immediately, Gilgamesh started striding towards the ring.
At the same time, Nephis too, moved towards the ring.
Seeing that he had got his two volunteers, Awakened Rock continued:
"The rules are simple. Make your opponent's back touch the floor or throw them out of the ring. Use whatever abilities and techniques you find appropriate."
Gilgamesh walked towards the other side of the ring, standing across from Nephis.
He stood there casually, with his hands in his pockets along with a laid-back smirk on his face.
Nephis on the other tightened her stance, ready to move even at the smallest movement, staring at him suspiciously.
'Does she think that I'm an assassin or something. Schizophrenic ah lady. I mean I guess it makes sense from her perspective. A person as perfect, amazing, strong and handsome as me would be quite suspicious.'
Gilgamesh chuckled at his own arrogant thoughts.
From his peripheral vision, he saw the shadow at the corner wiggling in excitement and throwing him a thumbs up.
Perhaps Nephis took it as a sign to attack, since he was still standing there relaxedly without doing anything.
She launched herself at him, her palm extended to strike right at his solar plexus.
Gilgamesh waited and waited some more, watching her palms inch closer and closer towards his chest. Just as it was almost about to hit him, he shifted his weight, turning towards the left side fluidly. Her hand slipped past his chest, grazing the fabric of his clothes. Nephis having expected this, shifted her centre of gravity, preparing to put her left leg forward to balance herself and getting ready to use the momentum of the palm strike to rotate.
But, she tripped.
She used her hands to prevent herself from falling flat on her face, but unfortunately, her hands were already out of the ring.
Sitting on the ground, Nephis stared at Gilgamesh's extended foot blankly.
He boredly offered her a hand to get up.
"Eh, I can't lie and say that you faught well but... I guess you get A+ for the effort?"
Nephis stared at his hand blankly for a few seconds before taking it and using it to pick herself up.
She walked back towards the sidelines mechanically, lost in thought.
Watching her go, Gilgamesh turned his attention to the other Sleepers on the sidelines who were watching with gaping mouths.
"Who's next."
With a lazy smirk, he looked at each one of them.
No one moved forward, instead they all tried to shrink into themselves.
Getting annoyed Gilgamesh pointed his finger at Caster.
"You, Craster or whatever, shall fight me next."
Mispronouncing his name on purpose, he waited for Caster to come forward.
Gritting his teeth and sweating, Caster started walking towards the other side of the ring.
Putting on his best prince-charming smile Caster started to say to Gilgamesh:
"I would like to apolog-."
"Shut up and fight."
Annoyed at being interrupted, Caster activated his Aspect.
While to most people it would have looked like he had disappeared, to Gilgamesh he was moving at a normal speed.
Not impressed by his speed, Gilgamesh waited for him to arrive closer without removing his hands from his pocket.
'You are unlucky that you aren't a pretty girl.'
Watching the fist travel near his face, Gilgamesh didn't waste anymore time.
First deflecting Caster's fist with his left hand, he grabbed both his shoulders before he could run away. Slightly rotating his leg, his knee struck up, digging itself right into Caster's abdomen.
As Caster's spit flew past his face with his eyes bulging, Gilgamesh released him.
He watched Caster walk back while clutching his stomach and wincing.
Gilgamesh was not done yet.
Launching himself forward, he threw a upper cut at Caster. His head snapped, blood flying out back while floating slightly above the ground.
Gilgamesh moved back admiring his handiwork.
Caster laid on the ground on his back, his arms and legs spread out, a large bruise starting to form on his chin, his clothes and hair completely disheveled. His mouth of slightly ajar with blood pouring out of the corner of his mouth with his eyes closed.
He was completely knocked out.
Awakened Rock walked up towards Caster to check up on him. Since it was a combat class and there were bound to be injuries, there were normal nurses to take care of the injured person.
After handing Caster over to these nurses, he looked at Gilgamesh approvingly with an impressed look on his face and moved out of the ring.
If before the Sleepers were hesitant to fight him, now they were completely terrified.
After seeing the fight which happened under 4 seconds, with most of them barely if not completely, not being able to keep up with what even happened, no one wanted to face him anymore.
He started walking out of the ring.
As he walked, the Sleepers shrank away from him.
Reaching the door of the dojo, Gilgamesh walked outside.
His whole purpose of coming here to thai class was to test himself against Caster and Nephis, since that was done he had nothing else to do.
Gilgamesh doubted that these mongrels could teach him anything worthwhile anyways.
Before walking out, he threw a glance back at Nephis.
...
At night he was at the cafeteria eating his dinner while engaging in idle chatter with Cassie.
"So, what do you plan to do when you become an Awakened."
Cassie looked morosely at her tray.
"I haven't thought that far afterall the chances of me surviving the Dream Realm are basically zero."
Gilgamesh placed the spoon on his tray, turning towards Cassie, he held her palm in his hands gently.
"Cassie, as long as I am alive, no matter where I am, I will make sure that you survive the Dream Realm. That is a promise Cassie, and I don't break my promises."
Cassie looked startled, a blush spreading on her face at his words.
"I know it sounds pretentious, but I will prove it to you when we reach the Dream Realm."
With her unseeing blue eyes glistening with tears and a tearful smile on her, she said to Gilgamesh.
"Than-thank you, Gil. I...don't think I have the words to explain you how much that means to me."
Gilgamesh almost felt bad manipulating her like that.
'I mean, I wasn't lying about that, even if I land far away from her, I'd still help her because she's too useful. It's not like all of these things are going to harm her anyways.' He convinced himself.
Gently kissing her hand, Gilgamesh placed it on the table and turned back towards his food.
Sunny walked towards the left of his seat, placing down her meal, which was as big as always.
Without speaking and trying to avoid his attention, she started to eat.
"Why were spying on me?"
Sunny spat out the water that she was drinking.
"Wait! Don't tell me...were you spying on me when I was bathing too."
He gave her a fake scandalous look, covering his body. Before her flaw could make her start speaking, he added with a sinister grin:
"Why didn't you tell me, I wouldn't have minded if you would have come straight to me and asked me to bath to bath with you,"
Gilgamesh moved his head closer to her ear, his lips almost touching her earlobe. He exhaled on her neck, watching as goosebumps started to erupt in that area,
"You would like that wouldn't you?" He whispered.
A horrified expression overcame Sunny's face.
She was blushing so hard that Gilgamesh would almost see steam being released from her ears.
Sunny tried futilely to muffle and stop her voice from being heard by bringing her hands near her mouth.
Gilgamesh still heard her voice loudly and clearly.
"Yes...I would love to bath with you."
...
Word Count: 2184.