A Hero's Return

Jiang's fight can be summed up in 2 words. Complete annihilation. Bad compatibility, plus refusal to cooperate resulted in complete and utter defeat.

Jiang's opponents pelted their team with punches and kicks coming from almost everywhere. Both Jiang and his teammate have terrible mobility, and besides unarmed and magic-less combat is way beyond Jiang's expertise.

'They were really overwhelmed. How unfortunate.'

"What a bunch of losers," Freyja said with unmasked disdain in her voice. "They can't even put up a fight. Both of them should be expelled."

'Is this girl serious?!' Ye Han exclaimed inwardly. Ye Han couldn't help but slightly twitch his right eyebrow. The girl's ability to analyze the battle left him frothing.

"What's with the eyepatch, noob?" She said pointing at his covered left eye. "You blind or something? Got some eye defects?"

Ye Han shrugged off her question. "No comment."

Hearing his offhanded remark annoyed her. "You dare to ignore me?!" She balled her fist in anger. "I'll just take that thing off then!"

She furiously lunged at him, with the full intention of ripping the eyepatch off his eyes. "Haaaaa-"

'Easy.'

"Whoops. My shoelaces were untied." Ye Han pretended to tie his shoelace. And easily dodge the approaching girl. His sudden movement made Freyja miss her mark by a mile. "Huh?!"

'You think you could get a piece of me? Try again in another thousand years.'

"Tch, consider yourself lucky this time noob."

"Huh? What happened?" He asked cluelessly. 'But seriously, no one's going to stop this blatant bullying? I knew it! Those movies were a bunch of lies.'

"Next group." Called the instructor.

Ye Han yawned in boredom. 'Boring. This is going to be a long day huh?' He stripped his jacket off, leaving him with only a black tank top. Then he folded it neatly and went to a nearby wall. 'This is a good napping place. And besides, we're the last to fight, better take advantage of this.' And in no time, Ye Han's consciousness drifted to wonderland.

Freyja observed her sleeping teammate and let out a snort. "Trash." She paid no mind how he was able to dodge her attack back there previously. Her only goal is to destroy each of her opponents. 'He better not drag me down.'

***

Ye Han is having a bad dream.

Ye Han opened his eyes to the sounds of clattering. What greeted him was the sight of a dimly lit room. His limbs bound to a chair and his mouth gagged. He surveyed the place he is held at and found no clue to tell him where he is currently.

He thrashed around to in an attempt to loosen his binding but it proved to be a futile act. He never felt this powerless since he was a child.

'Where is this?'

"I'm glad that you're awake." The voice came from a shadowy figure who suddenly materialized in front of him. His features are indiscernible due to the cloak covering him. But by the sound of his voice, Ye Han judged the voice to belong to a man.

"Now take a look at this." The cloaked man presented an item that looks like Ye Han's 3rd hand laptop.

"….."

The laptop was already old so the startup took almost 10 minutes to finish.

"Good, it's on." The man opened the files. "Now behold."

"…."

Opening an app also took almost 3 minutes.

"By the divine, you should probably buy a new laptop man." The man said in an exasperated voice.

"Now, despair!" The man selected a folder named "Best Girl" and clicked delete. What's inside the folder were files related to Ye Han's favorite character, Suzuka-chan. Seeing the man destroy his life right before his eyes brought immense anguish within him.

"Muahahahah!" The man laughed nefariously.

Ye Han can only shout in despair as the loading bar inch closer to completion. "Suzuka-chan!"

***

"Suzuka-chan!"

Ye Han woke up with his back drenched in sweat. His eyes are bloodshot and his breathing shallow. He searched around for any sign of the cloaked man but found nothing. He only found everyone inside the gym staring at him. 'That was a bad nightmare. Never had one of those since I was a kid. Don't worry Suzuka-chan I'll always protect you.' He reassured himself and his "waifu."

"Dude, who's Suzuka?" Asked a curious Jin.

"Nothing. Don't mind me." He shrugged.

"Oh. If you say so."

Ye Han stood up from where he was lying down and groggily went towards Freyja.

"Good timing, punk." The instructor called.

"We're next?" He asked.

This only earned him a hit to the head courtesy of Freyja. "Move your b.u.t.t noob."

'Annoying as always.' Concocting a mischievous plan, he stepped inside the ring.

"On my marks. Go!"

Freyja, the aggressive one started off with an unsurprising opening, going against 2 opponents at once.

'Typical. Let's just set me up.'

"You're not going to have him help you?" A man asked Freyja as he threw a punch intended for her head.

Freyja responded with a kick to block the punch. Then suddenly, she ducked to dodge a blow from the other opponent. "Heh. I don't need that noob. I could beat up the 2 of you with just me alone.

The 2 growled because of her arrogant response. Suddenly, her opponent went for a tackle. She already saw this a mile away and easily sidestepped. But she did not notice the other one who was waiting for an ambush. A clean elbow to the gut sent her skidding away.

Ye Han roamed the stage in search of a spot for himself. He settled himself near the borders of the stage, where he calculated that the fight would not take place. "This should be a good place- ack!"

In his reverie, he was hit by a skidding Freyja. Unwilling to be knocked off the stage, he unconsciously threw away Freyja. "That was… not part of the plan."

"Eh?" Questioned a bewildered Freyja. She noticed that almost everyone was stifling their laughter. Then she found that she was a meter away from the boundary line and most importantly, out from it.

"Sup there Big D." Ye Han whispered.