Infernal Entity: Evolving With My Demonic System-Chapter 36: Performance Issue

Axel’s heart thumped loudly beneath his ribs. His veins pulsed, his fingers twitched every now and then, and his eyes... they were almost hollow. The fight had come to a standstill, and everyone was wondering what had happened.

"Oi!" Nile snapped at Axel. "What are you doing?" she asked, flexing her fingers slightly as static electricity escaped from her fingertips.

"Is he okay?" Rick, on the sidelines, asked with worry written all over his face.

To everyone else, Axel looked like he was stuck in a trance-like state, but to him, he wasn’t. He was in the middle of making a tough decision. The room was tense, and everyone waited in anticipation for what would happen next, until—

"I yield!" Axel declared finally. The system message followed right after.

[Mission failed: Defeat the Electrokinetic Queen known as Nile Reed]

The others gasped at the reveal. Some were disappointed; some were indifferent about Axel giving up while others half expected it. It wasn’t surprising considering he was a Lumina 2 going against a Spectra 2.

Still, Nile wasn’t happy about him yielding.

"What?!" she barked. "Why did you yield?"

"Winner, Nile Reed," Marc stated. He glanced at Axel, also wondering why he had yielded. He looked somewhat disappointed, but it wasn’t his job to be disappointed.

Axel had already decided that fifty EXP wasn’t worth his life. He was just starting to understand what it meant to possess an ability. What was the point of gaining a few EXP if he was just going to die afterward? Although the system never confirmed that using Infernal Overload would kill him, it was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.

After yielding, Axel’s body seemed to calm down. His heart was no longer pounding, and the blurry vision faded. He felt a bit better now, a relief on his end. Whatever that was... it wasn’t good.

Marc pushed a button on the terminal, and the glass dome opened. Nile and Axel walked out and joined the other students.

Ares wrapped an arm around Axel’s shoulder as he stood beside him and Rick.

"You good?" Ares asked, his voice laced with concern. "What happened back there?"

"Uh... I don’t know. I guess I figured I couldn’t defeat her," Axel lied.

"Is that so...?"

Axel remained quiet.

Marc stepped forward. "Nile Reed has successfully accumulated ten points for this exercise. Your points will determine how well you perform and will later be used to grade your assessments," Marc explained.

"I would advise you to do better."

Those last words were directed at Axel, but he didn’t mind. No one knew what almost happened to him.

"Well, since you lots refused to pick a sparring partner, I’ll do the picking."

"You there," Marc said, pointing at a student with dark hair falling down his back. He glanced around, scanning everyone’s faces as he decided who to pick next. Then his gaze landed on a certain someone.

"You. Step forward."

"M-Me?"

It was none other than Rick. He had been picked by Marc himself to spar with someone else.

Rick nervously stepped forward to face his opponent. Marc proceeded to explain the same set of rules he had given Axel and Nile once more and asked them to take their positions.

"Ready? Begin!"

Rick was a special case of "performance issues." Having never been able to tap into his mutant genes and access his abilities since the age of five, he never saw powers as something interesting. He always relied on intellect rather than muscle.

What he had was knowledge. He was well-versed in history, the study of the mutant gene itself, and Mythic Beasts. He had been top of his class in his old school when it came to academics, but where he faltered was abilities.

He was a Lumina 1 with a dormant ability. His opponent was a Lumina 2 with an awakened ability. It wasn’t surprising to anyone when Rick was knocked cold with a single punch to the head from his opponent.

He only lasted a few seconds before he was defeated. Marc announced the winner.

"Dorne Drake, winner."

The student who defeated Rick cheered victoriously as he stood over Rick’s unconscious body like an MMA fighter.

"Pathetic," Nile commented from the side. "You defeated a weakling and you feel on top of the universe."

Dorne’s smile immediately faded at Nile’s scornful comment.

As for Rick, he was later revived by one of the healers and returned to Ares and Axel. Disappointment was written all over his face.

"Should’ve used a weapon," Rick muttered softly.

Ares shook his head. "Come on, you did your best. Tell you what, after class, I’ll kick that guy’s ass for knocking you out. Deal?"

Rick couldn’t help but chuckle. Having a friend like Ares was really good for someone like him. It made people think twice before messing with him. Being friends with a Spectra 3 came with a lot of perks.

"That sword..." Rick said, glancing at Axel. "It made your powers stronger. You never told me you awakened," he pointed out.

"I’m sorry, Rick. Just a lot on my mind, you know... being accused of being a terrorist and all that," Axel said apologetically.

"Tell me something, ginger," Ares said, turning to Axel. "Your ability is a strange one. What is it exactly?"

Axel hesitated before finally replying.

"It’s related to pyrokinesis, but it’s more condensed, almost like it has a liquid form," he revealed.

Axel was right. Infernal Slash did have similar attributes to fire, just closer to lava in a way.

"You know it’s infernal, right?" Ares said casually.

Axel froze in place for a moment. Did he just say infernal? How the hell does he know?

"You must be wondering how I know it’s infernal," Ares laughed.

"Hahaha. You’re funny but don’t worry about it. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, though."

That unsettled Axel in ways he couldn’t explain. Was that a threat, or just a friend showing concern? Axel decided not to think too much about it.

The sparring session carried on. Students of different levels took turns sparring with one another. Over two hours had passed at this point, and it was almost afternoon.

"This will be the end of today’s exercise. We will pick up from where we left off tomorrow," Marc announced.

"Train if you must. Hone your combat skills, increase your ability potency, and knock your opponent out! That’s the only way forward."

All the students slowly began leaving the weapons chamber.

"Axel Vaelon!" Marc called out all of a sudden. "A word?"