Erie is too focused on Gojo to realize that other students are watching him; they aren't paying attention to their fighters and are curious about how Erie would fare against the teacher.
But Lilly didn't even fight her sparing partner. She was paying close attention to Erie.
"Focus on the basics, Erie!" she yelled.
"Your boyfriend is a cheater; he cheats, and now Gojo is giving him more special privileges." Malik began to speak, also watching Erie.
"What makes you think that?" Lilly replied. "And he's not my boyfriend."
"Come on, Lilly. He's a Triple F-ranked and has a bronze ribbon. The brown stands for... well, it stands for trash."
His face grew red as Erie and Gojo began exchanging blows. "Come on, whoever heard of a bronze ribbon defeating a silver ribbon?"
Lily rolled her eyes and walked away from Malik to watch Erie continue his fight with Gojo. She then began to coach him while he was sparring. "Left! Right! It's a three-step combo! Come on, Erie!" she yelled louder.
Before the fight, Erie received a notification from his system. Aside from completing his daily workout routine, which has become his habit, this was his first time getting a system quest in weeks.
"Wow, I haven't gotten a quest in a while. Even while sparing Lilly under gravity."
"New Quest: Under gravity, defeat the opponent for an instant level up."
Erie smiled. He needed this to reach level five and didn't want to waste this opportunity to level up. He also didn't want to relinquish his strength in the open. "NO, I can't waste an opportunity like this one." He thought, "I'll go all out anyway." He mumbled to himself.
Every time Erie seemed to level up, he noticed that his experience points doubled, making it harder for him to advance to the next level. So this was a good opportunity that Erie didn't want to waste.
"Wow, your heart is beating so fast I can hear it from here," Gojo joked.
"I'm just excited that all," Erie said with a smile.
Great! I started the timer! You can all begin!" he yelled. "Your move, Erie! Show me what you got."
At that moment, fighting and yelling began clashing around the room. Still, a few people close to Erie and Gojo decided to stay quiet to watch the fights. A couple of students didn't spar at all.
As soon as Erie closed in on Gojo, he heard a voice yelling three-step combo, and his body immediately reacted to the voice. He was so used to repeatedly hearing the same response that he unintentionally began acting out the combo.
He threw two jabs at Gojo, who dodged the punches easily. Erie then charged in with a left hook. Gojo used his palm to block Erie's attack.
"Good speed, good reflexes. I can tell you've trained." GOjo began to notice that Erie was coming for a subsequent attack. He thought it was a right hook. Gojo used his hand to block his next attack. And Erie's body dropped. Gojo noticed that Erie flipped forward towards him.
"A heel kick?" He laughed and questioned.
Gojo stepped out back and kicked Erie in the stomach as he landed his move. Eris slid a few feet back and decided to activate his 'concentration' skill.
After all, it was a skill, not an ability; he saw Gojo close in on him. He grinned from ear to ear. he readied himself as Gojo pulled back, preparing for a strike. Erie could see his movements, but despite his skill and concentration, Gojo moved faster than others. Erie blocked Gojo's attacks, and he began to get more attention from the students around him.
"Great defense, too!" Gojo yelled excitedly. "Now, are you ready for the next level, Eri?!"
Not a moment later, Gojo's attacks began to speed up. Erie did the best he could to dodge and block his attacks. Even with the skill concentration active, he was moving slightly too fast for Erie to keep up.
'Concentration has ended.'
He shattered Erie's focus, knocking him out of his Concentration skill, but somehow, Erie still managed the fight. His movements were slower now, reactive instead of deliberate, and the strikes began landing one after another. Even with his boosted stats from days of relentless training, Erie couldn't keep up anymore. His stamina was thinning, his breathing uneven, and it became painfully clear that his teacher wasn't just stronger—he was more refined, more experienced. Erie had pushed his limits, but Gojo had long since mastered his.
Before the bell rang for the next fight, Gojo smiled. He lifted his leg and disappeared from Erie's view. he appeared behind Erie and placed his hand on Erie's head. He was too fast for Erie to keep up with.
"DING! DING! DING!"
Gojo ruffled Erie's hair as he passed by, a faint grin tugging at the corner of his mouth before he turned and walked back toward his desk. "You're gonna be a fast one, Erie," he said with a hint of amusement. "By the way you fight, you should be a Rank C." He dropped into his chair, leaning back with a relaxed confidence.
"That's very strong for a first-year fighter!"
Erie stared at Gojo, studying him quietly. He was strict; that much was clear. Usually, when a teacher demonstrated to him, it felt like they were trying to embarrass him in front of the class, but he hadn't done that. Instead, he pushed Erie without mocking him and challenged him without cruelty. Over the past few weeks, Gojo had been harder on him than anyone else, but Erie was starting to understand why. It didn't feel personal—it felt like his teacher wanted him to improve. For the first time, Erie found himself liking a teacher.
Just by how Gojo moved, Erie knew the teacher could have ended the fight. He had been holding back—not to humiliate him but to test him, to see how far Erie had come. And in that test, Erie realized something important: having stronger stats wasn't enough. Power meant nothing without control. If he wanted to grow, he needed more than raw strength—proper technique, precision, and the kind of discipline that only came from real combat experience.
After watching the spar, Malik clinched his fist, walked over to Rolling, and whispered something in his ear.
"You're free to spar with your girlfriend, Erie," Gojo began to smile. He leaned back in his chair and opened his hologram, displaying a bird 's-eye view of the class.
He watched as the students began to scatter around the classroom and fight with each other. Still, he noticed that Maki whispered a few words into Rollin's ear and decided to take note of it.
"But she's not my," Erie said, but before he could finish, Rollin walked up and stood before him. "Hey, bro, can we spar for a bit?" he asked Erie.
"Sure, we're a good matchup," Erie said.
"Good match up?Really?" Rollin began to laugh inwardly. "Um, yeah, sure."
Erie did not mind the match; it seemed like every time he sparred, whether he won or lost, the system would grant him Experience points. Since he was in combat class, this was the best way for him to level up faster, especially considering that the students were at a higher level than he was.
Before Gojo began the spar, Lilly saw Rollin approaching Erie. She shook her head and began to approach Erie anyway. "Where are you going, pretty lady?" Malik stood before her, "You still owe me a spar. Remember, we didn't spar because you were too busy watching your boyfriend get special privileges."
Gojo saw that all the students finally had a partner, so he readied the timer. "Ready! Begin!" Gojo yelled.
Erie's mind constantly flashed back to his last spar with Gojo; he saw that he had complete control, and the experience showed in his fights. So Erie wanted to focus on learning how technique rather than strength and speed alone.
He saw that Rollin was skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but Erie could keep up with him just fine. Rollin rolled through his punches while Erie dodged and blocked them. Once Erie threw his punch, he could connect, but while blocking Rollin's attack, he felt Rollin's punches begin to heat up.
While Erie looked visibly flustered, breath ragged and stance uneven, Lilly's sharp eyes locked onto Malik. Something was off. He wasn't pressing the advantage—he was holding back. His steps were slow, deliberate, almost... retreating.
Curious and cautious, Lilly closed the gap and launched the first strike.
But in the blink of an eye, Malik vanished.
A breeze brushed the back of her neck. Then—clink.
She looked down. A kunai lay at her feet, glinting at an angle that told her exactly where he'd been—and how close he'd gotten.
She saw Rollin's hand flare red, a flicker of flame dancing across his knuckles. Before Erie could react, Malik appeared behind him—silent as smoke—and drove his heel into the back of Erie's head, launching him forward like a broken ragdoll. The assault didn't stop there. As Erie stumbled through the air, Rollin's fist met his chin with a burst of fire, sending a sharp arc of embers through the air as Erie's body twisted and crashed to the ground.
"What... the... fu—" Erie's words choked on his tongue as his knees buckled. He hit the ground hard. Everything went dark.