At 7:45 AM, the crowd's roars hit Leon like a wall of jeers and mocking laughter.
"What's that sick boy coming to do at the platform?"
"He's dead, not sick. I'm even sure his family has rejected him. If not, he wouldn't come here seeking death."
"I thought he was just among the cleaners; how come he's walking toward the death pit? Let's see how his body gets torn apart mercilessly."
"Guys, can't you smell the scent following him? Damn, the boy must be so broke that everything rejects him."
The audience's voices echoed so loudly that Leon became highly confused about what he was actually about to do.
He doubted himself the moment he neared the platform itself, causing his legs to hang in the air for a while before he placed them down, one after the other.
'Should I just quit?' A cold and tempting thought lanced through his head. Leon looked at the ground, then shook his head. 'No. Running never saved anyone in Dusthollow. Today I must win.'
He exhaled sharply, placed his foot on the ground, then raised a hand. Not because he knew how to win. He chose to try.
Silver lines streaked across the ground and hummed in sync with the energy dwelling in Leon as he walked on the platform.
Two seconds after he stepped away from the platform's wall, a shimmering light welled around and sealed him in.
'Why does the platform itself feel pressurized?' Leon thought as he whirled around.
His stomach lurched as he saw Daro, the same guy he had helped before entering the gate, also walking onto the platform from the other side.
'Is he my first opponent?' Leon screamed in his head as he watched the shimmering light also seal the boy in with him.
Daro looked at Leon and smiled while pointing a finger at him.
"You're too generous and I like that." He said and shook his head. "But I am not you."
Daro brushed his left palm across his face while the smile turned into a grim grin. "I will make sure you feel gratitude when I'm done with you."
The words were soft and calm, but their weight was different in Leon's ear. Not the kind that is used to promise peace, but the one used to lure someone into something deadly.
Daro moved two slow steps forward then rested his palms on his waist.
"Leon, right?" he asked with a confused expression then brushed it off with a spit. "What level are you?"
Leon didn't answer; he simply kept moving back while focusing on the boy's orange blazing eyes.
"Wait a second," Daro said in an unemotional voice, then squinted at Leon. "Are you not at any level?"
He watched Leon's eyes for a moment then saddened his face. "I thought you were at least an awakened. But don't worry, I will make it simple and quick for you."
Daro's thirty-two white teeth gleamed as he smiled widely. "Just kneel and beg me so I can do it fast forward."
The crowd began to cheer Daro while they laughed at Leon's trembling self. In Leon's head he wasn't afraid of winning, losing, or even doing what Daro had requested. His sole reason was not to become a victim of the platform's automatic killing mechanism.
'Should I do as he says? But wait, if I do that, it means I will be taken out of the trial, through death.' Leon's thoughts echoed so hard that sweat began to bead on his face.
Daro's chest heaved in laughter as he watched Leon turn toward the sealed barrier. "Why do you wish to run? Just do as I said and you'll be free."
When the start signal sounded, Daro snapped his finger. And right there, a spark of orange fire erupted and hovered on his fingertip, similar to the one Leon had managed to control but stronger and hotter.
"When you came to me at first, I saw something in you. Why are you running? Or was it just death that I saw in you?" Daro said and flipped his finger. The force hurled the spark toward Leon like a meteorite.
Leon's heart pounded hard against his chest as he clung to the barrier, staring dead at the rushing light.
The more the orange fire neared him, the more something began to take shape in both Leon and the fire itself.
Leon's veins glowed when the light reached two feet away from him.
Daro turned back to the crowd and raised his hands for praise but got shocked by the crowd's reaction.
In the crowd's eyes, when the fire touched Leon's skin, it vanished as if it wasn't even there at all.
They hurled insults and taunts at both Leon and Daro, the tier-2 awakened student.
"I never imagined Daro would ever think of using the power he just knew how to summon. He should have used techniques he showed us earlier. How stupid of him to do such a thing."
"Bro, apart from Daro, did you see the look in that boy's eyes? He sucks so I don't want to even mention his name out loud."
"I'm sure he pooped himself seeing that tiny fire coming to crush him on the wall."
Their words erupted so loudly that it made Leon regret even accepting the envelope in the first place.
Daro didn't stop hurling the orange fire even after hearing his own walking pals join the crowd in mocking him. He threw countless and stronger ones, but they all vanished the moment they reached Leon.
Before each one of them would vanish, Leon's veins glowed as if they were absorbing the light instead of letting him burn.
"Why are you still running away? Why don't you fight back?" the boy screamed after failing to land a single spark on Leon.
The platform blazed as the fire kept pulsing. But through it all, Leon only ran. The countdown came in.
[5 minutes]
When the countdown came with allocated points at its side, Leon's heart skipped when he saw Daro's own.
In a flash, Mr. Lee's final words echoed in his head. 'Even if you won't fight, make sure the points are equal.'
Then, while Daro awaited for his energy to regenerate so he could hurl another spark, Leon dashed toward him.
Leon's fist clenched while he slid under a pointed spark, then drove a dirty punch into Daro's stomach.
The force following the frail punch sent Daro flying and crashing into the barrier.
One-third of the audience saw it and called it a weak attack while the very few who actually knew how strong Daro was became shocked.
"That's just child's play. Fight like a man next time."
"If that's your strength, then I suggest you just vanish, because you'd be dead before you move to your third opponent."
"Yeah. Vanish from the platform, and from Alchemania."
"Your presence alone is like a pill that doesn't cure any disease."
"Make sure you're fully prepared and stronger than what you just showed. Else, I will crunch you like snacks."
As Leon whirled around trying to catch their faces, Daro surged toward him with full force and a reddened face. But the moment the boy's fist touched Leon's jaw, the message came.
[Timeout]
[Draw Match]
The strike shook Leon's bones, caused him to lose a tooth and sent him against the now opened barrier's floor with a boom sound.
Daro gave Leon a quick look as he walked past him with tears welling from his eyes.
'Did that punch really hurt him that bad?' Leon said low in his head as he pushed himself up. He wiped the dust from his trousers and shirt, cleaned the blood from his lips, then exited following Daro's direction.
The crowd's cheers muffled behind Leon when he entered the active participants' waiting room and closed the door.
He leaned against the doorframe, placed his hand on his chest where Daro's punch had landed, and closed his eyes.
'I didn't win,' he said low in his head while exhaling sharply. 'But I didn't break either.'
Leon cracked his eyes open when footsteps echoed from a few feet away from him. He saw only the back of a white-skinned tattooed boy walking away from the door opposite him when the next fighters were called.
A faint smile tore on Leon's lips when the frustration and exhaustion all turned into a placid calm.
When the crowd's cheers rose from outside the door, Leon raised his right fist, clenched it, then smiled. "One fight at a time. That's all I have to do."
Immediately Leon lowered his fist, Mr. Lee appeared with a tense face.