The moment the referee's hand dropped to signal the start of the match, Leo immediately exploded forward, a menacing glare in his eyes.

WOOOSH—

Jiang Gu barely had time to react before Leo was already on him.

Leo didn't use any fancy techniques for this fight, not because he did not have confidence in performing them, but simply because he did not need to.

His combat knowledge and experience ran deeper than just skill moves and weapons mastery, as his battle IQ was quite high too.

At his best, he did not need to rely on any fancy moves to defeat his opponent, as more likely than not, he could usually read them like an open book.

"Not today—" Jiang Gu declared as he saw Leo descending upon him from the top, as he swung his sword in a quick, practiced arc, activating a mana-infused slash aimed straight at Leo's ribs—

But Leo read it like an open book.

He didn't dodge. He didn't flinch.

Instead, he leaned back while in mid-air, and calmly stepped on his opponent's sword, mid slash, to perform a back-flip.

"What?" Jiang Gu mouthed in disbelief, as his brain could not comprehend the sheer reflexes needed to time a backflip off an ongoing sword slash, however, that momentary distraction became his undoing, as Leo landed a blow to the top of his head before landing.

"Guh—"

Jiang Gu said dazedly, as his vision doubled and his balance became shaky.

"Where?" He mouthed in confusion, swinging his sword wildly, as he could not locate Leo in his dazed state.

"I'm right here you bum!" Leo said, as he tapped on his shoulders lightly, only for Jiang Gu to turn with a panic, as Leo punched him square on the nose.

*BAM*

Jiang Gu staggered back, his nose bone broken by the blow, as a steady stream of blood began trickling down his face.

"Ouch…. Ouch….Ahhhh—" He screamed, clutching his nose with his free hand, as once again he took his eyes off Leo, giving him the chance to go on the offensive yet again.

His next strike came instantly—a sweeping backhand across Jiang Gu's jaw, as he floored him to the ground.

THUD!

Jiang Gu laid flat on the ground, his brain a concusted mess, as he simply could not make sense of the world around him anymore.

STOMP!

Stomping ruthlessly on his face, Leo kicked his broken nose again and again, disfiguring it completely, until the referee forcibly stepped in to stop the fight and protect cadet safety.

"Fight over…. Winner, Cadet number one!... +2 points!" He declared, as it was only then that Leo walked away from Jiang Gu, but not before spitting on the ground beside his face.

"New number one, my ass."

Leo scoffed, turning his back on Jiang Gu and walking away, making sure the humiliation of this defeat would burn itself into his opponent's memory.

In a way Jiang Gu was extremely lucky.

Lucky that the academy had rules. Lucky that Leo had been forced to hold himself back, for if it weren't for the academy's restrictions, Leo knew in his heart that Jiang Gu would not have walked away from this fight—he would have crawled.

And the worst part?

Leo understood now, that he would not have felt a shred of guilt, even if he did go that far.

For all his earlier doubts about himself—about his true nature, about who he was before he lost his memory—the answer was now becoming clearer to him with every passing moment.

Deep down, Leo knew the truth.

It was like a reflection that had been staring back at him from the start. However, he was just not ready back then to acknowledge it.

However, he felt like he was ready to embrace it now.

He wasn't a hero. He wasn't some noble warrior.

At his core, he was a killer—cold, calculating, and merciless toward anything that annoyed him.

But he wasn't a mindless murderer.

He did not kill simply for pleasure, nor did he crave destruction for its own sake.

But patience? Mercy?

He had very little of that to spare. Especially against people that he disliked or had no attachment to.

And it was surprising how hard it was for him to be attached to anyone, as although Mu Ryan was a sort of friend for him now, whose company he did not dislike.

He still had no question in his mind that if tomorrow, he somehow found himself facing Mu Ryan in a fight where only one of them could walk away, he would kill her without hesitation, and he wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it.

He simply did not care for her enough to care about her life or death, and although the very thought of killing an acquaintance should have unsettled him, if he were frank to himself, it didn't.

If anything, it comforted him instead, as a dark corner of his brain told him to be proud of this non-attachment, for it made him a harder target to go after.

However, on the other hand—-

The logical part of him recognized that this level of detachment, this raw, unwavering ruthlessness, was probably not a good thing.

Sympathy, compassion, and empathy—those were the things that made a human… human.

They were what separated men from monsters, what differentiated warriors from beasts.

But the more Leo thought about it, the harder it became to convince himself that he should care.

Because the truth was, he didn't.

There was no guilt. No hesitation about his nature in his head anymore and Instead of questioning it, he embraced it.

Why should he feel apologetic for his nature?

He was a hunter, not prey.

A predator, not some weak, bleeding-heart fool pretending to be something he wasn't.

And the more he came to terms with that…

The more he liked it.

He wasn't even back to his peak yet.

He had no grand achievements to boast about, no towering reputation to lean on.

Yet, still—he found his natural arrogance slowly creeping back.

Not because of what he had done and accomplished already in the academy but because of what he knew he could do.

"Damn…. I guess I finally understand why Muiyan Faye called my previous self impossibly arrogant.

'TheBoss'? That name sounded cringe to me when I first heard it, but I lowkey like it now….

I definitely feel like The Boss, with my combat instincts back, and if I feel this better with just my combat memories back? Just how would I really feel when I had all my memories back?" Leo wondered, as he clutched his palm into a fist and stared at it with passion.

*Thump* *Thump*

The thumping pulse in his veins, was demanding that he fight more.

The joy of humiliating his opponents…. He wanted to feel it more.

The elation of stomping an opponent's nose out!

HE WANTED TO FEEL IT MORE.

"God Damn it…. How long before the next fight starts? I'm already tired of looking at this bums face–" Leo said impatiently, as the referee kept looking at his clock, waiting for the timer to hit 0, before he gave the command to "Switch—"