As soon as the fight started, Alexandre rushed towards Chetan with a burst of speed and aimed a savage punch at Chetan's chest, hoping to end the fight in its first moments.
While Chetan was surprised and didn't have time to dodge, he was still a Hunter with a bit of combat experience. He decided that he'd take the attack full-on, but use the opportunity to deal a vicious double blade strike to Alexandre once his opponent was in range.
Unfortunately for Chetan, he didn't know who or what he was dealing with.
Alexandre's gauntleted fist smashed into Chetan's armored torso, instantly shattering his collarbone. Without that armour, Alexandre's fist would've gone right through his body.
Chetan fell on his back, spitting blood with a horrified gasp. He'd never felt such a powerful blow in his life! It became immediately clear that this stranger was much more powerful than he'd imagined. Even though his body screamed in pain, Chetan forced himself to get back up as Alexandre charged him again.
This time, Chetan was able to effectively use his training. Every time Alexandre threw a gauntleted punch, Chetan parried and turned the attack aside.
There was a problem—with each attack, Alexandre's body was taking damage. He'd damaged his left fist with the initial attack, and each blocked attack ruptured blood vessels and split the skin in his attacking hand from the tremendous force of two Hunters' attacks meeting one another.
If things kept going, Alexandre would be forced to use his [Steel Bones], but he wasn't certain that this would completely protect him from a Hunter's strength. Little by little, he was losing the battle of attrition… unless he could get another attack through his enemy's defenses.
On Chetan's side, it wasn't much better. His parries didn't cause him any injuries, but the impact of each blow sent shuddering vibrations through his hands and arms that were incredibly painful. He tried to put on a brave face, but he knew that he couldn't keep this up for much longer than two minutes.
Nonetheless, the two men remained resolute, exchanging blow after blow.
All this time, the spectators were quite excited! The first moment with Alexandre's decisive blow had resulted in an immediate cheer of excitement at the rookie killer being laid on his back so easily. Dozens of students were immediately sorry that they hadn't placed bets on the newcomer, while those who had done so felt their blood pressure rise with every moment of the stalemate's continuation. It was like watching two chess masters—the match wouldn't be decided based on one of the two dominating the other, but based on which of the two was the first to make the slightest mistake and give the other an opening.
The two minutes of Chetan's estimation passed. He saw his opponent bleeding heavily from under his gauntlets, but there wasn't even a hint of emotion visible in the hooded figure's body language. It was as if this unknown monster couldn't even feel pain, despite his horrible injuries!
"Come on," Chetan gasped aloud, urging his body to keep fighting. The muscles in his shoulders and upper arms were on fire, while his wrists and forearms were numb from the repeated impacts. His hands were cramped shut—Chetan didn't know if he could even let go of his weapons if he tried. Every moment was absolute torture. Somehow, he had to break the stalemate.
There was only one way Chetan could get out of this situation: He had to use his [Berserk] skill and hope that Alexandre didn't have a technique to counter it. There was a saying among Hunters that, in a duel, you won if you forced the other man to use his trump card first. The wisdom behind this pointed to a truth that Chetan was now facing, that Hunters often used their abilities to pull themselves out of situations where they were already on the back foot!
Nonetheless, he didn't have any choice. [Berserk] was indeed a sort of last-ditch skill for hand-to-hand classes. Once activated, it immediately consumed the user's remaining Hunter energy, converting it to a few scarce seconds of drastically boosted strength, agility, and dexterity. In short, it gave one brief chance to defeat your opponent… or lose.
Chetan activated [Berserk].
A beam of energy immediately coalesced around Chetan, and Alexandre gasped as his opponent suddenly moved much master. Alexandre shifted his attack into a defensive stance—
It was too little, too late. Chetan swung his blades savagely from either side, as though he were wielding a giant pair of shears. Alexandre deflected the blows from cutting his throat open, but they slid downward and there was no stopping Chetan from ripping two horrific cuts into Alexandre's abdomen, like a butcher chopping up a cut of tender meat.
Alexandre fell onto his back, staring up at the night sky as blood and shit poured from his stomach.
The crowd went wild.