BOOOOOM!


    An explosively loud sound was heard as Nn stopped defending, allowing the punch to crash straight into his face.


    He was sent reeling twice in mid-air.


    His face sped toward the battle stage, but the instant it touched the ground, Nn revolved twice in mid-air andnded on his feet instead.


    Blood streamed down from his left nostril, so he pressed his right nostril, blowing it to the side.


    He might have suffered an injury, but he got exactly what he wanted—the ten meters of distance between him and his opponent.


    "Are you running away?" Adrian said with a grin of mockery, having noticed what Nn was up to.


    He raised an eyebrow as he saw Nn''s dagger disappear, and then Nn got into a strange stance with one of his hands clenched into a fist and ced on his bent waist, while the other was wide open, his palm facing Adrian.


    "Tch, cheap tricks..." Adrian called out with disdain as he shot forward once more, appearing before Nn and punching forth.


    In the next instant, Nn''s outstretched hand moved, and using the back of his hand, he gently pped the punch to the side.


    Adrian punched again with his left hand, and once more, Nn''s outstretched palm gently pped his fist away.


    BAAANG!


    BAAANG!


    BAAANG!


    The sound of multiple punches rang out through the battle stage, yet none of them reached Nn, who gently deflected them away, without as much as a change in his expression.


    As the relentless punches continued, confusion set in for Adrian.


    Wasn''t he punching just as fast and strong as before?


    And yet, Nn was using only a single hand to redirect his punches, pping them away as if they contained no power at all.


    "DIIIIIIEEE!"


    Finally, anger took over as Adrian stopped punching and mmed a kick toward Nn''s ribs.


    Surprisingly, Nn didn''t bother dodging, allowing the kick to inch closer to his ribs.


    But as it was about to connect, Nn''s clenched hand, which had been resting on his waist, seemed to swell up to twice its normal size.


    Incredibly powerful veins covered every inch of it, bulging underneath Nn''s clothes and then...


    BAAANG!


    BAAAAAAAAAAAAANGGGGGG!


    The sound of two explosions rang out, with one so powerful it simply overshadowed the other.


    In the next instant, a figure was sent flying off the battle stage, mming hard into the ground four times before finally reaching the end of the training room and crashing into the wall, carving a man-made hole and remaining unmoving.


    Slowly, Nn''s outstretched fist saw the veins recede, and he retracted it before rising to his feet.


    If one observed closely, they would notice slight sweat dripping down the back of Nn''s neck, revealing his own exhaustion.


    Yet his face was as indifferent as ever.


    Slowly, he turned his back and jumped down from the battle stage, heading out of the training area.


    [Congrattions onpleting the quest!]


    [You have been rewarded with 1000 EXP!]


    The system spoke to Nn as he moved out of the training area, quickly passing through the lobby after giving his usual nod to the staff.


    Then, he headed out of the building towards his dorm room.


    [How do you do that?]


    The notification panel suddenly blinked out of existence before Nn''s eyes, causing him to raise an eyebrow.


    "Do what?" Nn asked in return, confused.


    [You just knocked out one of the Godly Ten, cold, with a single punch! How do you do that!?]


    The system asked, and Nn thought back to his fight and shrugged.


    "He is stronger, and surprising for me to say, he is actually stronger than I am. He has four abilities, and he only showed two of them."


    "At least he tried showing the another one, but it was toote, and he got knocked out..." Nn mused.


    When he had been fighting Adrian, at thest moment when Nn had punched forward, he could feel the aura around Adrian change, almost as if he was channeling a new energy and was about to call forth a third ability.


    But before he could do so, Nn''s punch connected, and he was knocked out cold.


    [If he is so strong, then how did you manage to defeat him with a single punch?]


    "He is strong, but young, and I didn''t defeat him with a single punch," Nn said.


    [What do you mean?]


    "I started defeating him the instant I put away my dagger."


    "He is a prideful genius, and such a thing rattled his confidence a bit, making him hot-tempered, and his will to dominate me increased even more."


    "My easy pping away of his fists isn''t as easy as it looks."


    "In essence, I was simply redirecting his fist''s energy away from myself, and to do that, I needed to be not only physically stronger than him but also have more stamina than him."


    "When I increased his desire to win the battle, and then I made blocking his moves seem so effortless, he got aggravated."


    "Finally, he decided to stop punching and kick instead. That was what killed him and what I''ve been waiting for."


    [While you were blocking his moves, you were also gathering every bit of physical energy within you into your clenched hand.]


    [That... that was why you never used it at all. You were waiting for the perfect moment!!"]


    The system screamed out in realization, and Nn grinned.


    "Yeah, that was what I was doing. It seems like I was being overconfident, but I was only gathering energy and waiting for the time when he finally lost it."


    "Then I chose to exchange an injury for an injury."


    "He kicked at my ribs, cracking three of them, but then, I had the opportunity to use every single bit of energy for that I''d been gathering for three minutes straight on his unblocked and undefended face."


    "The power was enough to rattle his brain, and he was knocked out instantly..."


    "He is strong and might be strong enough to defeat me, but unfortunately, he is still young. Very young..."