The Fighting Teacher

Alex had no way to refuse and could only accept Emma’s appointment, becoming Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters’ combat training teacher and an auditing student.

Early the next morning, Emma dragged Alex into the school.

"Was there really any need to rush?" Alex shuffled along reluctantly, turning to look at Emma behind him. "I haven’t even prepared the teaching materials yet!"

Emma did not believe Alex’s nonsense at all. She shot him a glare and said with a strange grin, "What teaching materials would you need for a combat training class?"

Alex rolled his eyes helplessly. When he turned around and saw the gates of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, he straightened up, adjusted his posture, and walked inside. As he walked, he did not forget to mutter, "Emma, if something goes wrong, don’t blame me!"

"Don’t worry, I definitely won’t blame you!" Emma had never imagined Alex could be this long-winded. She quickly passed him and headed for Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters’ training room. "Come with me. I’ll take you to the training room right now."

As they walked, Alex suddenly stopped. He turned to look at the students coming and going around the school, his expression becoming slightly strange.

After taking a few steps without hearing footsteps behind her, Emma turned around and found Alex standing still. She could not help mocking him. "What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re backing out?"

"Do you know that student?" Ignoring Emma’s provocation, Alex pointed at a girl walking down the corridor with several books in her arms and asked urgently.

Emma followed his finger, and her expression turned odd. "Don’t tell me you’ve taken a fancy to her?" Emma knew the girl. Not only was she beautiful, but she was also gentle and sweet, making her very popular. Many people in the school liked her. It was said that she received hundreds of love letters every day, so it was no wonder Emma misunderstood.

"I’m talking about something serious!" Alex grew even more anxious. He grabbed Emma’s hands, unknowingly using a little force. "What is her Mutant Ability?"

"Her? Her eyes can turn silver-white and have a powerful hypnotic effect." Emma had poured all her heart and effort into Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and she knew every student there inside and out.

Alex’s expression changed again, and he pointed at another tall boy nearby. "What about him?"

"Super strength." Emma’s expression became even stranger.

"What about this one?"

"His fingers can grow longer."

"What about this one?"

After asking about five in a row, Emma finally could not take it anymore and interrupted Alex. "What exactly is going on?"

"Would you believe me if I said I can sense their Mutant Abilities?" Unable to contain his excitement, Alex grabbed Emma’s shoulders and pointed at the students he had just indicated. "I sensed them before you told me."

Emma stared at Alex in shock. After hesitating for a moment, she pointed at a little boy who had just entered through the school gates. "Can you sense his ability?"

"Electricity manipulation." Alex swept his gaze over the boy, and a new piece of information instantly appeared in his mind—information about the little boy’s Mutant Ability.

Emma looked at Alex in disbelief, then pointed at another student.

After sensing that student’s ability, Alex said enviously, "This one’s amazing. He can actually shapeshift!"

"You really can sense other people’s abilities? How do you do that?" Emma covered her mouth and cried out. Then she suddenly seemed to realize something and looked at Alex suspiciously. "Don’t tell me you copied The Sage’s ability?" Emma not only knew the students in the school thoroughly, but also everyone in the observation room.

"The Sage? Copy?" Alex froze, thinking of the black-haired woman in the observation room. Then he shook his head. "But I’d already copied three kinds before…"

"Could it be? I broke through!" Alex quickly thought of one possibility and became even more excited.

Emma was completely lost. Pulling Alex along, she asked speechlessly, "What exactly are you talking about?"

Alex told her everything that had happened yesterday without leaving out a single detail, and the smile never left his face.

"What a pity it wasn’t an extension of the copying time." After hearing Alex’s account, Emma instead calmed down and said regretfully, "It would be perfect if you could copy them completely."

Alex could not help rolling his eyes at Emma. He had had that idea a long, long time ago, but unfortunately, he had never found a way to make it happen.

"A breakthrough in your ability is certainly a good thing, but you can’t forget your teaching assignment!" Without waiting for Alex to speak, Emma tugged him along again and hurried toward the training room. "Class is about to start."

When Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was first built, Emma had considered everything very carefully and deliberately set aside several spacious training rooms. Their furnishings resembled those of a martial arts gym—no, they were more like a combination of a fitness center and a martial arts gym, with one side for fitness and the other for fighting.

The first time Alex entered the training room, he was instantly stunned by the sight before him. More than a thousand students were spread throughout the enormous room. Some worked out on fitness equipment, some punched and kicked sandbags, and others sparred back and forth on the fighting platforms. It was lively without being noisy, and everyone was training themselves.

Just as Alex stood there dazed, Emma’s soft laugh suddenly sounded beside his ear. "Are you ready?"

"Huh?!"

Before Alex could understand what was happening, Emma had already clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention in the training room. Pointing at Alex, she introduced him loudly, "This is Alex. From now on, he will be your combat training teacher."

As soon as Emma finished speaking, thunderous applause rang out through the vast training room. After all, Alex was the benefactor of all mutants.

"It’s your turn!" Emma whispered into Alex’s ear once more, then stepped aside and handed the training room entirely over to him.

Alex looked awkwardly at the bright-eyed students in front of him. With a dry laugh, he forced himself to walk onto the open fighting platform in the middle of the training room, while all the students consciously gathered around.

After clearing his throat, Alex said, "Does anyone know what combat is?"

The room fell silent for half a minute, then answers began ringing out one after another, all of them wildly different.

"Wrestling!"

"Free fighting!"

Listening to the students’ answers, Alex shook his head mysteriously. "None of them."

Everyone was stunned. They stared blankly at Alex, waiting for his answer.

"Combat, put simply, is fighting." Alex smiled slightly and shrugged as though it were nothing. "Fighting—I assume you all know how to do that, right?"

Seventy percent of the students nodded, twenty percent shook their heads, and the remaining ten percent were still thinking over Alex’s answer.

"Since you all know how to fight, who would be willing to come up here and have a fight?" The smile on Alex’s face turned sly, like that of a little fox. "You can choose to fight me, of course, or you can fight someone else. It’s up to you."

The students below erupted. After making a racket for quite a while, they finally confirmed that the new teacher was not joking. A tall student was the first to step onto the fighting platform.

The tall student glanced at Alex, then quickly turned his head and pointed at another student below the platform. "Teacher, I want to fight him!"

"Okay, no problem." Alex nodded, then looked at the student who had been called out. "Would you be willing to accept the challenge?"

The student who had been called out was about the same build as the tall student, only slightly shorter. He glanced at the tall student standing beside Alex, gave a soft snort, and stepped out as well.

"Very good. Now I’ll explain the rules." Alex positioned the two youngsters at opposite ends of the fighting platform and pointed at them. "There is only one rule: no using Mutant Abilities."

The two youngsters stared at Alex in shock. Only after confirming that he was not joking did they turn to look at their opponents. The fury in their eyes made it easy to imagine that they were usually rivals.

In a corner of the training room, several teachers from the school had hurried over after hearing the news. Watching the two students trade blows on the fighting platform and Alex calmly observing from the side, they felt somewhat worried.

"Principal, is this really all right?"

Emma chuckled, utterly unconcerned. "It’s just children fighting. What’s the big deal?"