"What do you say, young man? Do you want to have a mock battle?" the director asked after listening to Lee. "You don't have to agree, but I would appreciate it if you did. I will have to make the decision on whether or not to send you to the dungeon and it will honestly make it easier for me."
Ning sighed. "It's okay. I can fight," he said. "But would it be alright if I fight him instead?"
Lee looked surprised at Ning picking him. "Huh? Why me?" he asked.
"Since you kept suggesting it, I think it would be better if we fought. It doesn't look like brother Park is that excited about our fight, so we should fight instead," Ning said as he gave a smug smile towards Lee.
Park started laughing after hearing that and kept saying that Lee was getting called out by a newbie. Lee looked uncomfortable and tried to find a way out of his current situation.
"I'm sorry, you can't fight me. My strength is too high and you might get hurt," the man said.
"Oh, don't worry brother Lee, it's a mock battle anyway. The chances of us getting hurt is non-existent, right? Besides, we can have brother Bak here stop us with his magic if we get too into it," Ning said. "You will help us at least with that, right?"
"Of course," the middle-aged man named Bak said. "Go on, Lee. You have nothing to worry about."
Lee was starting to silently get angry as he had been pulled into a situation he hadn't expected to get into.
"Fine, fine," he said as he resigned to fate. "But don't go crying if I end up hurting you by mistake. As I said, I find it hard to control my strength."
"It's alright, brother Lee. I'm sure you will subconsciously keep it in mind not to hurt me even by accident," Ning said as he slowly walked into the center of the gymnasium.
"I will need you to have a mock battle with young Ning after this. Since his Speed is said to be rather good, I want to see just how good it is when compared to an Apostle," the director said.
"Sure thing, director," Park said. He was more than happy to fight Ning so long as it was Lee who had to go at it first.
Ning stood in front of Lee with his hands behind his back and waited for the man to start.
"You better get in a stance, we will be starting," Lee said.
"I'm already in stance," Ning said while remaining straight with his hands behind his back.
"That's no stance. That's full of openings," the man said.
"Then I dare you to make use of the openings," Ning said.
"Arrogance huh? That's not a bad feature to have as a hunter. Unfortunately, that is also the downfall of many," Lee said.
"So, when are we going to fight exactly?" Ning asked. "You just keep stalling."
"Hmph, here I come then."
Lee dashed forward with a relatively swift movement as he arrived in front of Ning. He punched Ning, targeting his chest.
Ning could feel the force behind the attack, and while Lee was holding back, this was certainly enough to fracture the ribs of any normal SSS-ranked fighters. In fact, with the current force, Lee could break his own ribs as well.
Still, Ning stood there, remaining nonchalant. He brought his left hand from behind him which was already turned into a fist and punched Lee's fist with his own. The force behind his punch was barely stronger than Lee's, so when the first exchange was done, Ning appeared to have won by a hair's margin.
Once the exchange was done, Ning's hand went back behind his back as he waited for Lee to attack again.
Lee's ego had been hurt. He had always thought of himself as one of the strongest people in the entire world in terms of strength. His physical capabilities were, in some parts, a reason why South Korea was considered to be the country that was doing the best in the apocalypse.
Certainly, the other countries might have more Apostles and hunters, but he doubted he could lose against anyone in a one-on-one fight.
So, when Ning won while he was holding back and was smug about it, Lee started getting angry.
Now that he knew Ning was strong, he was going to hold back even less. He dashed forward again and punched once more. This time, the strength was about a third more than the last time.
Just as he was about to land, Ning's hands came from behind him and stopped him. He even took a step back from the force.
'How?' Lee couldn't understand. It wasn't just that Ning had barely better strength than him that surprised him. It was the fact that Ning was pulling out so much strength from a stance and attack posture that gave him no advantage.
Lee started worrying. 'Is he stronger than me?'
He held back no longer and went at Ning with his full strength. The other 5 in the room recognized that as well as they heard the thump beneath his feet.
"Lee, stop!" The director shouted.
Kim Min-Soo started her summoning process, Bak and Soo-Yun started casting skills to stop Lee, and Park moved so that he could divert Lee's attack.
However, none of them were fast enough, and from the looks of it, neither was Ning.
Lee's punch landed on Ning's chest as the sound of the clash sent the air rumbling with reverberance. Everyone was forced to close their ears as it sounded like a lightning bolt had struck right next to them.
A moment later, however, there was nothing but silence in the room.
All eyes fell on the blood on the ground, and the crumbled-up Lee who cried in a fetal position because his hands had been mangled.
Ning looked at the man that groveled in pain beneath him and said, "My bad, I blocked too hard."
