Ziegler stood there, frozen, and looking from Dan's raised sword to the students' faces.
Then he pushed the sword aside and stood up, mad as a hornet.
"I lowered my guard because I thought Dan had lost. It was clear he couldn't stand it. This isn't a real victory!"
Dan slowly raised his head, spoke to Ziegler for the first time, and spoke in a calm voice, tinged with pain, but clear and sharp as a blade:
"How naive you are..."
He paused for a second, then added, looking into his opponent's eyes:
"Do you think your opponent in a real fight would stop because you lowered your guard? After all that talk, it turns out you're just a big mouth."
Everyone fell silent, but the tension in the room suddenly shot up like a spark about to ignite a fire.
Ziegler's face got all red and angry, and he shouted:
"You dare?!"
He raised his wooden sword again and lunged at Dan, but this time, his sword was ablaze. Flames were dancing on it, portending real danger.
At that moment, before he could get any closer, Professor Jack reached out and grabbed his arm firmly.
He said in a low but firm voice:
"Ziegler. You've already lost."
Ziegler tried to wriggle free, shouting:
"But he took advantage of the fact that I stopped for a second! That's cheating!"
But Jack didn't give him a chance to finish. He cut him off, saying:
"Ziegler, you've already lost. When you're on the battlefield, no one's going to show you mercy. If you lose because you stopped, it's your fault. Learn to accept defeat without making excuses."
Then he added coldly:
"And using the element here... another foolish act."
Ziegler pulled his arm back as hard as he could, turned his face away quickly, and left the arena as the fire from his sword faded.
Some students looked at him with displeasure, while others looked at Dan with different eyes... this time, not just curiosity, but something like respect... or caution.
Dan stayed kneeling, breathing slowly, and muttering something bitter.
"Great... I haven't been out of the hospital in a while, and it looks like I'll be going back again."
Professor Jack came up to him and stood in front of him, saying in a calm but clearly appreciative tone:
"Good job, Dan. You can go get treatment."
Dan nodded slowly, got up slowly, pressing his injured rib, and left the field with shaky steps toward the hospital.
On the way, he muttered to himself, clearly upset.
"I won by pure luck... If it had been a real fight, I wouldn't have had a chance against him. If I hadn't seized that chance when he let his guard down... I would have lost without a doubt."
Dan walked into the hospital building, his steps heavy. The pale white walls of the corridors and the smell of cleaning products brought back a familiar feeling... but it wasn't necessarily a comfortable one.
At the end of the corridor, there was a middle-aged guy of medium height with slightly hunched shoulders sitting behind a simple desk. His light, unkempt beard indicated that he hadn't shaved in days, if not weeks. When he saw the visitor, his face instantly went dark.
"Boy... what brings you here this time?"
Dan smiled despite the pain and slowly approached, saying sarcastically:
"Actually... I liked my stay here, so I said to myself: Why not come back again? A kind of nostalgia, you know."
The doctor furrowed his brow and looked at him sharply:
"Can't you take better care of yourself? You were discharged two days ago, and you're back already?"
Dan replied, sitting quietly on the bed:
"I was going to try... but it seems someone didn't want that."
The doctor approached him and began to examine him without responding, placing his hand gently over the painful area on the right side of his chest and pressing lightly with his expert fingers.
Dan gasped and held his breath, then muttered through clenched teeth:
"Oh... that hurts more than last time."
The doctor furrowed his brow and let out a long sigh:
"Great... this time you've broken a rib."
Dan looked at him slowly, as if the pain became more apparent as soon as he heard the words.
The doctor continued in a stern tone:
"You spent a month in the hospital with a life-threatening injury, and now you have... a broken rib. What did you use in fight?"
Dan replied, breathing heavily, his face pale:
"Wooden swords... but I think the other student is sleeping among the thorns."
The doctor shook his head and exhaled angrily:
"This is no time for jokes, Dan. A broken rib can cause damage to the lung if you move around too much. You'll be banned from any training for at least two weeks... that is, if you want to heal without complications."
Dan groaned as he slowly stretched his back on the bed, then said sarcastically:
"Two weeks? ... That's officially the longest I've ever gone without an accident.
The doctor couldn't suppress a slight smile, but it quickly faded, and he said:
"I'll give you a dose to ease the pain, but don't dream of returning to training anytime soon. You need complete rest... understood?"
Dan let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling.
"A week... for a two-minute fight."
The doctor scribbled something in his notebook, then said:
"Two minutes was enough to convince you to come back to the hospital?"
Dan gave a half-smile and replied.
"Actually... no. But at least I'm alive."
The doctor paused, looked at him for a moment, and then in a serious tone said:
"Just make sure you stay on track, Dan. You can't afford to gamble."
Dan was lying quietly on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a bit of a pallor, and then he said jokingly:
"Hey, Doc, how come a broken rib takes a week to heal, while a hole in my body took only a month and I came back the same. If it weren't for the big scar on my body, I would have been sure that I wasn't injured.
The doctor looked up from his notes and stared at him, annoyed, saying:
"You are one of the Awakened. It takes a normal person six weeks to recover from a broken rib, but the medication I am going to give you will speed up the process considerably, reducing it to about a week."
Dan nodded slowly, then sighed and said:
"That's convincing... but I still can't understand my first injury. Surviving it was impossible..."
He took a second to collect himself, then said in a more serious tone:
"Why didn't I die then?"
The doctor paused for a second, then put a small bottle back on the shelf.
"That's because of the artifact Ilaris used."
Oma Dan knew about the artifact the director had used to save him.
"What is the nature of this artifact?"
The doctor nodded as he sat down on a chair nearby, speaking in a calmer tone:
"A rare artifact that can stop time... and he used it on your body for a reason. It froze your whole body for like an hour, but that was enough to save you. Without it, nothing would have worked."
Dan looked at the doctor and muttered:
"Stop time?"
The doctor replied, putting his hand on his forehead, his voice starting to sound tense:
"Do you have any idea how much money and resources the Academy and the Noctain family spent to save your life? And let's not forget the use of a rare and valuable artifact. All this... for a boy who can't even keep his ribs from breaking."
The corners of Dan's mouth lifted into a slight smile, and he said sarcastically:
"It seems I've become a costly investment... I'd better not die anytime soon."
The doctor replied sarcastically, putting his papers back into the medical file:
"Great idea... Why don't you stick with it this time?"