VILLAIN'S RISING

“Begin!”

At that moment, Lucas, who was floating a few feet above the ground, blinked out of existence and appeared right in front of Anthony.

“Is he going to fight him head-on?!”

“Is he stupid? Anthony would crush him in a physical fight!”

“He was so cocky I thought he would be a little smart!”

“Did he teleport?!”

A few dumb questions fell into Sam’s ears, making him sigh in disappointment.

‘If these were the future heroes, then society is doomed,’ he thought.

Sam knew fighting Anthony head-on would be Lucas’ best bet, since he can’t be hurt physically due to his Vector Control ability.

As soon as Lucas appeared in front of Anthony, he threw a straight punch that broke the sound barrier in an instant.

-Boom!

A loud blast sound occurred when Lucas’ hand hit ‘the invincible boy’ with his fist, shockwaves arose sending all the students who were present there in the field a few steps back to their feet.

“Is that all, Lucas?” Anthony’s cold voice rang through everyone’s ears. “I thought you said you were the strongest.”

‘Dayum!’ Smirking, Sam remarked in his mind._.

(Chills bro! Chills!)

“Arghhh!” Lucas roared and pulled back his arm, intending to throw another punch.

However, before he could do so, Anthony, whose eyes were still glowing due to the activation of his [Heat Vision], shot a pair of lasers at the light red-haired boy in front of him.

Lucas momentarily widened his eyes in shock. He wasn’t expecting Anthony to use [Heat Vision] this early.

Heat Vision was one of Starboy’s signature attacks. It is said that Starboy has the most powerful laser eyes in the whole world.

That power however comes at a sacrifice, the sacrifice being his vision.

During the time Anthony is using his [Heat Vision], he would basically be blind.

Lucas recovered from his shock in a nanosecond and computed the necessary calculations in his mind before redirecting the incoming pair of laser beams.

As he had intended, the lasers couldn’t even hit him before bending and hitting the ground like a beam of light hitting a mirror.

-Gasp!

The crowd gasped in amazement. Some of them had expected the red-haired to fall in defeat.

Even Anthony wasn’t an exception to the shock that filled the arena.

Although Anthony downplayed his [Heat Vision] but he didn’t expect it to do absolutely any damage!

‘See! That’s what I’m talking about! That guy has the perfect defense!’ Sam exclaimed in his mind.

Sam had his eyes on Lucas Redwing since the day he heard of his ability. And now in this duel, Lucas was only making Sam intrigue even more.

Anthony wasn’t shocked for too long though, he recovered soon after.

After all, being a young superhero and all, he has faced many unexpected situations, and this one isn’t even life-threatening.

If his superhero days have taught him anything, it was to always expect your plan to fail.

So Anthony had already prepared for this scenario in the back of his mind.

As soon as his [Heat Vision] failed, Anthony went ahead to use brute force.

He instantly activated his [Super Strength] and in a flash, his fist hit Lucas in the abdomen, right around his solar plexus.

Anthony had planned to knock out the red-haired boy and end the fight as soon as possible.

His plan however failed when the force he had hit Lucas with was reflected back at him.

-Crack!

A loud cracking noise was heard throughout the field instantly after the arm that Anthony had used to punch Lucas bent in an uncomfortable position.

“Arghh!” A muffled scream escaped Anthony’s mouth before he dashed a few meters back from Lucas to create some distance.

“Did…Did his arm break?!”

“But how? No way…”

Everyone present there in the training field was left speechless at the turn of events.

How can a boy, who no one knew until a few days ago, not only go head to head with the Starboy but also break his arm?!

Many students, who weren’t recording before, took out their phones and started taking pictures now.

This was headline material! They can submit it to blogs and newspapers!

“A no-name boy broke Starboy’s arm in a duel?“

Sam was no exception either. Even he took out his phone and started taking pictures.

His reasoning however was different from others.

‘I will make this my wallpaper you cape-wearing fucker! I’ll laugh at this for the days to come! Muahahahaha!’

His emotions were somewhere along those lines.

“I thought you were ‘invincible’ Anthony,” Lucas smirked, his eyes glimmering with a tint of madness.

“But you broke~! You’re not invincible! You’re just like others!”

(I don’t think this guy is mentally stable either!) The voice in Sam’s mind remarked.

‘Yeah, no shit Sherlock!’ Sam replied in a ‘isn’t that obvious tone’.

‘But the question is, how come they admitted him to this prestigious academy meant for Heroes’.

“You’re done…” Anthony whispered while gritting his teeth. He activated his [Regeneration] ability and healed his broken arm.

Lucas only arched his eyebrows and perked his ears in mockery, “Hmm? What did you say? Did I by mistake break your mouth too? Or per-“

Although, before Lucas could continue his mockery, Anthony disappeared from sight and appeared right in front of Lucas, startling him as a result.

“Whaa-!” Lucas widened his eyes, the display of Anthony’s speed was far greater than his own.

“Now, sleep time!” Anthony spoke and pulled back his arm to throw another punch at Lucas.

Seeing that, Sam frowned.

He couldn’t understand why Anthony would go for the same tactic?

If Anthony chooses to throw another one of his superhuman punches, Lucas would just redirect the force and hit Anthony with his own attack.

Lucas’ thought process was the same as Sam too. But not thinking much of it, Lucas activated his ability and did the necessary calculations again.

However, before Anthony’s fist was about to hit Lucas, he spoke something.

“[Divine Sight],” he muttered in an inaudibly low voice.

Everyone expected to witness a repeat of what happened before but contrary to their expectations, Anthony’s fist hit Lucas this time without any resistance.

-Thud!

The force of the punch sent Lucas flying a few meters back before skidding on the ground a few times and coming to a halt.

Everyone was… confused, to say the least.

No one understood why Lucas didn’t redirect the force.

But after a few seconds of dread silence, Karma came back to reality and announced the results.

“T-The winner is Anthony Willburn!” She announced.

“Anthony, you can go back to your place, and medics come and get this young man.” She said while looking at the skinny red-haired boy lying on the ground unconscious.

(Why didn’t he redirect the force like earlier?) The voice in Sam’s mind asked the same obvious question that was on everyone’s mind.

‘I don’t know… I think he used it but our Starboy here nullified it,’ Sam replied, shaking his head slightly.

(Like White Walker?)

‘…I don’t know.’ He replied and looked at Rebekkah, who was standing there scrolling through her holographic phone, not even bothering to look at the duels.

‘But they are seriously getting on my nerves…’

Before Sam could think anything else, Karma spoke up, announcing the next participants for the duel.

“Next up, Kiara Vikterovna and Samael Gracefell!”