When the sputtering aura of hatred Jake Smithson had returned in force, this time covering his swords in a layer of magic, the entire audience watching their match were spellbound by the sight.

"What's that?"

"He's no joke!"

"He was holding back all this time?"

The audience could not hold their surprise as Jake revealed his true power.

"Where are those chains coming from?"

The chains from Jake's armor coiled around his wrists and ankles.

"What's that smell? Cherry blossoms?"

The audience was also surprised by a scent coming from the arena floor.

"His sword... no, his swords are glowing!"

Someone in the audience noticed that Jake didn't have that one huge weapon, he had another one around his waist.

All the skills he put into play had gained in power during the lull between the defeat of the Skeleritter and his arrival at Kingsville.

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In the upper boxes, the scouts and division personnel were likewise sent into a frenzy by this appearance.

"Change those lists now!"

"He's definitely the top tier."

"Do whatever you can to scout him!"

At that moment, all the divisions tossed away the old scouting reports they had on Jake Smithson: as of this moment, he was their number one target.

He became the one awakener every division had to get, even if they have to give up on every other novice awakener available.

'What's going on?' Damian asked himself, taken off guard by the sudden development. 'I thought that was nothing but a normal set of chain mail..'

It was only now that he found out that Jake's armor had a special effect.

'Also, his weapons.. does he know how to use aura?'

He also found out that Jake was starting to use an aura as well – these skills, such as Weapon Enchant or Blazing Wrath, are skills that novice awakeners rarely acquire.

If you had that when you began your new life in Nohas, you had a head start on nearly everyone.

'I thought he only depended on his strength, but he was hiding all those skills too, huh?' Damian thought, revising his previous assessment that his opponent only used his stats and those weapons of his in battle.

That was a huge miscalculation on my part. But when all is said and done, I'm still winning this.

If you're going to go all out.. then so will I.'

Damian began to reveal his own power as well.

***

Jake has one very big difference from the average awakener.

Most awakeners are used to fighting in groups – as a party, as a team, as a duo.

Early on, within the tutorial area, awakeners learn about the buddy system, and as such, form groups to fight monsters.

Jake is an exception: he excels at fighting alone.

His inexperience in fighting as a part of a group was due to him fighting by himself ever since his arrival at Brino.

Even against calamity-class enemies, he has always fought alone – the first calamity-class enemy was the only enemy he fought with a group.

As a result, his experience in fighting one-on-one was comparable to that of Damian, despite their gap in experience.

Jake extended his hand forward, and from it, the chains sprang forth, as he began his counterattack by unleashing the chains from the Griefen.

Chains went towards Damian from all sides simultaneously, and their target yelled before beginning to step back rapidly.

'So much for plan A -- at least he's not trying to hit me anymore.'

Jake's plan to bind his opponent with the Grienfen's chains quickly went sideways, as even with the enchanted chains, Damian's movements were fast enough that the Griefen could not keep up.

'All right then, if we can't do it with quality, we'll do it with quantity! Have some more!'

Thanks to the massive boost to mana Jake gained from the rings and necklaces he wore; he was able to summon several more chain lengths aimed towards his enemy.

Each time Damian dodged; Jake threw more chains out.

'What's this? Is it ever going to end?' Damian thought as he continued backpedaling – although he was yet to be caught by one of those chains, it was only a matter of time before he would be cornered.

'I'm going to have to fight my way out of this!'

He decided to face the music, and when the chains moved in, he defended instead of evaded.

Which suited Jake just fine, because the time you spend defending and evading is time you don't spend attacking the other guy.

'Dammit!' Damian thought, embarrassed at his display. 'Is some fresh-off-the-tutorial newbie going to make me look bad?'

Just like Jake, Damian also had a skill he was hiding, but he had no intention of using it on a novice awakener, he thought he could win the evaluation tournament without resorting to it, and he was also told not to use it.

Still, if he would not use it, then his defeat is certain.

As the chains continued to batter away at his defenses, the frustration within him began to boil over – he had been forbidden to use his own hidden skills, but..

'When I finished the tutorial, I was outclassed by the awakeners from the divisions, Damian thought as he was slowly pushed to a corner. I can't just keep stepping back. I'll use the aura too!'

And then he heard someone yell at him.

"You did not just put a scratch on it, you piece of shit!"

Damian recalled an old saying as he heard Jake shout at him. Some get angry at others for their own mistakes.. what the hell is this guy talking about? Damian told himself, dumbfounded at how this guy suddenly grew angrier even when he was at this guy's mercy.

"You fucking scratched my armor!" Jake shouted again, and in between waves of chains, Jake emerged, swinging the Swiftstone down at his opponent.

Defeating Liam was fine.

Being in the way of the Gold Label wasn't personal; this was just business.

Damaging the armor of someone who values his things more than himself? That fanned the fire of Jake's anger into a white-hot inferno of fury.

'OH, IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG, NOW. THIS SHIT IS PERSONAL.'

Jake quickly understood: he had to take down the enemy before him – no other options.

"I can't lose like this," Damian said, thinking roughly the same thing as a white aura began to glow from his sword. "I didn't want to go this far, but.. let's see how it ends."

***

In one of the private viewing boxes, two scouts were surprised.

"Is Damian using the 'Force of Heaven'?"

"Damn it, I told him not to use that!"

In one fell swoop, Damian had revealed to the audience and scouts that he was no ordinary novice awakener – he was one of the ringers, placed there by the Cheon-Ji-In division, thanks to his use of one of the division's famous skills, the "Force of Heaven".

The three core units within Cheon-Ji-In use three different styles to differentiate themselves: The Force of Heaven, Force of Earth, and Force of Man.

For awakeners who have been around Nohas, a white aura is proof of both the Force of Heaven and affiliation with Cheon-Ji-In.

"Well, Damian is as competitive as they come," Timothy explained. "These types of things can happen. I want to see how this matter ends; where Damian's competitive spirit will take him."

Director Lee was unconvinced, because one, using this technique was akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut open; and two, it was simply bad optics for the division for resorting to such measures.

It was this line of thought that led him to instruct Damian to not use this skill during the evaluation.

If Damian did end up using it in a trivial manner, yes, it would lead to the loss of face of his division.

But in the end, Damian used his powers; of course, it is understandable, since Jake is not a regular awakener and this is not a regular match.

Director Lee and Timothy both had no idea that such a strong awakener would show up during the evaluation.

It was an unexpected series of events that led them to admit that they had miscalculated somewhere.

"Yes, sir," Director Lee replied, "I see."

"Still, though..."

"Yes?"

"I think we need to intervene and stop the duel now."

"Why, sir? "Lee asked Timothy incredulously, as Damian already revealed his powers.

He could understand if his boss wanted the duel stopped before his powers were revealed.. but why would he want the duel stopped when the cat's out of the bag?

Wouldn't it be better for everyone to see Damian overpowering Jake using the "Force of Heaven"?

"Imagine what it would do to our division if someone used the Force of Heaven and still lost an evaluation tournament."

Director Lee's aghast expression was all the answer Timothy needed to see.

***

When Jake's enchanted Swiftstone clashed with Damian's sword empowered with the Force of Heaven, the impact caused a wave of force to radiate outward from the arena into the stands.

Even then, Jake wasn't done.

'I was banking on you doing that.'

The resulting explosion from the two weapons colliding hid the fact that Jake only swung it with one hand – all the while, he had his right hand ready to grab the hilt of his other weapon.

The Swiftstone was a diversion: he needed to get close to score a hit with the Stinger Stiletto.

While the two weapons were still locked, Jake grabbed the smaller weapon, and using his Omni-pierce skill, thrust forward at Damian.

'This is bad!' Damian thought as he saw the smaller sword coming in to stab him in the gut. 'Since my sword is still holding the big one at bay, I can't use it to block the other weapon. I'll have to divert all of my Force of Heaven to defend against it!'

One of the elementary concepts Damian was taught regarding the use of the Force of Heaven was that he could use his aura as defense – it wasn't the best way to defend from oncoming attacks, but could work in a pinch, if your opponent was a beginner who wasn't trained in the use of his aura properly.

Unfortunately, Damian learned the hard way that Jake's aura was a lot more potent than he first thought.

"I got this for a special occasion! Jackpot, asshole!" Jake yelled as the thrust hit straight and true – the Force of Heaven diverted the strike, but not enough to keep his body unscathed.

Damian's roar of pain echoed throughout the audience as the enchanted stiletto left a large gash in his midsection, and the audience cheered at the brutality of the attack.

"Holy crap! I think this is the first time this guy got hurt!" an awakener watching shouted, and the cheering began, as the audience's excitement began to further increase as they saw Damian getting injured for the first time since the start of the evaluation.

"Come on, Jake! Knock that overrated try-hard down a notch!" someone who may or may not have been Liam cheered from the sideline, the other audience members joining in as they felt that Jake was now in control of the match.

Damian wouldn't let the match go so easily though, and sent the Swiftstone back, aiming for Jake's unprotected shoulder with a thrust of his own, disregarding his wound.

A sound that was a lot like thunder reverberated across the arena, as the size of the white aura on Damian's sword began to grow larger, even more than Jake's weapons – proof that Damian also had his own share of mana to work with.

Jake ignored the other injuries he had and met Damian's resolute expression with a bloodthirsty grin of his own. 'Oh, you still look like you can keep going. Okay, let's make this bloodbath one to remember!'

Despite Damian's strength, Jake had no intention of backing down.

He had too much at stake, he could not back down. If he faltered for a moment, the Gold Label would be lost to him.

'I'm going to sacrifice my shoulder. If I move back, he'll take the fight to me. I'm going to have to meet him head-on if I am to win this...!'

Despite Jake's vast array of equipment, Damian's strength meant that his victory wouldn't be assured.

The white aura on his sword was proof of that.

This wasn't an opponent he could beat by technique or skill – for him to win, Jake decided to try improvising for the chance to take Damian off guard.

The counterattack would be worth the effort, unlike evading what was coming at him.

'Griefen!'

The sword continued to come at him.

'Shield me!'

Jake mentally commanded the Griefen to form a shield to protect his shoulder, and the sound of enchanted armor meeting enchanted weapon caused a high-pitched whine to fill the air around the arena, and all the while, his other hand had the Swiftstone, aiming to cut Damian open from shoulder to hip..

And it was then that another figure made his appearance.

"Enough."

He held both Jake and Damian by the wrists, and stopped both their attacks cold.

"Continuing the fight further would not benefit anyone, especially the both of you. I think all of us have seen what we need to for this evaluation."

"Director?" Damian asked, as he snapped out of his battle hunger first.

"You've done a good job, too. That's enough."

"Why are you stopping it? I can still win!" Damian bit back miserably. He was this close to defeating an awakener who just finished the tutorial.

What was going on here? If the match ends like this, in his loss, what would that mean for Cheon-Ji-In's reputation? He even used the division's own skill!

"I said, enough," Director Lee said, gently but firmly.

A few moments later, Damian's aura receded, and he grudgingly returned his sword to his sheath.

However, there was still a tempest of bloodlust swirling close by, and that tempest spoke.

"What did you just do? Who are you to end this match?" the voice spoke, its sheer hatred choking the air in the arena, even reaching up to the stands.

Director Lee turned to see Jake Smithson wearing an expression that diamonds could be broken on.

"You think I'm a freaking toy or something that stops when you tell me to stop?" he said between gritted teeth as his resentment exploded.