Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 54: Mission

Stanley moved his head to the side, dodging the incoming blow while sending a punch of his own. The punch slid off the shoulders of Johan, too shallow of a hit to count.

Stanley felt the adrenaline that came with fear, which was helping him in a positive way during the fight.

With how fast Johan was, he needed to move just as quickly as him as well.

Stanley dodged the incoming kick and dashed to the side. He threw a jab at Johan’s chest, who easily blocked it with his two arms without being pushed back at all.

Another kick came for Stanley’s ribs from the side. Stanley turned around and grabbed the incoming leg. He used the momentum to fully turn around and throw Johan onto the ground.

Johan managed to balance himself as he fell such that he landed on his two arms and quickly flipped back to stand upright.

Stanley lunged back in action, going for a punch to the gut. Johan dodged to the side and sent a jab of his own.

Stanley blocked it with the side of his arm only to see another kick coming at him from below.

He moved his own feet at the same time to hit it aside as it came. Just then, the danger warning came again.

Stanley barely reacted in time to dodge the incoming jab from Johan’s left arm. Had it not been for the warning, he wouldn’t have known to look for an attack at all.

Johan was imbalanced as a result of hitting nothing, which gave Stanley the opportunity he so desperately required.

He weaved underneath the attack and gave a good punch to Johan’s chest.

Johan was sent tumbling backward, rolling a few times before he stopped.

"I... won," Stanley thought to himself before looking at Johan. "Are you alright?" he asked as he put out his arm to help Johan. As he did, he realized that his arm was trembling noticeably.

The fear was still affecting him even though he had definitely ignored it. Thankfully, Johan didn’t notice it and grabbed his hand to pull himself up.

"Agh, you hit me a bit too strongly," he said while rubbing his chest. He obviously wasn’t hurt and was only acting that way. "Congratulations. This is your first victory in a while, right?"

Stanley nodded.

"Good work!" the teacher said from the side. "That took quite some time to be over, but you guys did it in the end."

Stanley and Johan got off the stage and someone else replaced them for their battle.

Stanley sat by the side, watching the others fight. After their fight was over, their training for the day was over too.

Stanley returned to his quarters to reflect on the training he had done that day. More importantly, he reflected upon the fight at the end of the day.

’I did good,’ he thought. ’But I’m still not completely able to ignore that danger warning. Even when I’m not remembering mom, I’m still left breathless and with a fast heartbeat.’

He wondered why that was. Was he unconsciously remembering her somehow?

Unable to come up with an answer, he simply gave up.

The next two weeks went by without anything noteworthy. Stanley and Freddy continued following different Defenders throughout the weeks, learning more and more about what to do as a Defender in the city.

While most days were spent doing the census, which was happening decently quickly, the rest of the days involved normal Defenders activities, such as helping with a conflict between two neighbors or helping safeguard the food as it was hauled up to the mansion.

There were also days when they simply walked around, doing nothing as their presence itself was all that was required.

In their time together, Stanley and Freddy formed a friendly bond with each other as they were stuck with each other each day.

The two of them learned more and more about each other as each day passed.

Freddy lived with his mother, father, and a little sister who was only 3 years younger than him.

His father was originally a stone mason that worked at the stone mill on the right side of the town. However, after an accident where he lost his right hand, he was forced to no longer work any laborious jobs.

Fortunately, they had gathered enough money in the period that they didn’t have to worry about feeding themselves or a place to live at. They now survived by selling milk they got from 3 cows they owned.

Still, they needed another good source of income as soon as possible, and their son, Freddy was their best chance at it.

So, Freddy had every reason to try his best to become a Defender, and despite having one of the worst records among his peers, he still worked hard and deserved where he was currently.

He was going to become a Defender no matter what.

Stanley arrived in the training area to get assigned to whoever the new Defender was going to be that he had to follow.

Due to the mayor’s work, he had no chance of getting Bradley. So, he could only hope he didn’t get George again. Given how angry he was that Bradley was going to be the next mayor, he would be angry at him all the time.

Stanley walked up to the teacher to see who it was going to be, only to find out there was no one he was assigned to at all.

"Today’s task is a test to see how much you’ve learned during your past few weeks of following a Defender," the teacher said to Stanley and Freddy.

"Go to the front to get your mission for the day," the teacher said. "Perform the mission to the best of your ability and don’t worry about failing. This is just a test that won’t mean much more than just that for now."

The two trainees nodded and walked outside to where the Defenders got their daily missions.

"Two newbie trainees huh?" the person that handled the mission looked around. "Ah! This one should be easy. This mission just came in."