Lincoln roared loudly while Michael got up from the ground.

Lincoln had yet to sustain a serious injury, but something about him seemed to have changed.

Michael recalled having heard Zeke shouting loudly, something about "Stop, Lincoln!", but he wasn't too sure about that.

Right now, Michael's mind was in a mess. His mental power and origin energy had been drained to the last drop, and he could barely stand on his feet.

On the other hand, Lincoln's body kept expanding. He was already four meters tall and looked like a tiny Stone Giant. Inertia weighing down on Michael kept increasing as well, trying to force him down on his knees.

However, Michael didn't want to give up. He couldn't give up after coming so far.

Fighting a Tier-2 Lord, who had a 6-Star Soultrait, might be a level above Michael's current prowess. Nonetheless, he wanted to show everyone that he wasn't to be taken lightly. He wanted to win and would continue to strive toward his goal, no matter who his opponent was!

A huge earthen wall shot out of the ground a few meters on Michael's left and right sides. Michael's body tensed upon noticing an upcoming attack. But he didn't expect two humongous stone fists to manifest out of thin air.

Lincoln didn't require several seconds to manifest a stone fist like before. No, he could immediately condense two eight-meter-tall stone fists. The stone fists shot toward Michael as Lincoln issued another roar. The roar reverberated through Michael's ears, dulling the sound of his own raging heartbeat. No other sound reached him after that.

His mind was on the verge of blanking out as he prepared to use his entire strength to jump high up in the air. After all, the sky was the only direction he could go. Yet, even before he jumped, a huge stone foot smashed down, taking away Michael's last path of escape.

Michael narrowed his eyes, and he felt as if he heard Zeke's voice once again.

"Lincoln!!!"

Just as the stone fists and the foot were about to crash down on Michael, time slowed down. Various thoughts flashed through Michael's mind. He was trying to find a way out of his predicament, but he quickly noticed that it was not possible.

There was no way out of this situation. He was not strong enough to crush the attacks, forget about blocking them with his body. Michael couldn't even evade them.

Maybe it was possible with a Soultrait such as Jeffrey's short-distance teleportation. However, Michael wasn't in possession of such a Soultrait. He had Lesser Enhancement, Eagle Eyes, and Spirit Whip at his disposal, but not enough energy to use them.

Michael could try to use Extraction on the stone wall to extract the entire wall or all components that ensured the wall's stability. However, Michael didn't have enough time to use Extraction for a long period nor was he in possession of the necessary energy to use Extraction.

Just as Michael realized that there was no way out for him, a loud snap rang through the surroundings. The referee chose to intervene, crushing Lincoln's attack with a snap of his fingers. The stone fists crumbled, and the stone fist turned into countless tiny particles.

Then the referee appeared in front of Michael. He landed lightly on the ground and looked at Michael, whose heart was beating wildly.

'Did he just crush the attack as if it was nothing worth mentioning?' Michael looked up at him in disbelief.

The referee, a young-looking man with short silver hair, looked at Michael.

"Are you okay, kiddo?" He asked aloud on a whim.

The referee merely wanted to check if Michael's spirit had been crushed after losing miserably against Lincoln Piedra. But what the referee didn't expect to see was Michael's eyes that burned fiercely as he looked straight into the referee's eyes. Even in a helpless situation, Michael's fighting spirit never crumbled. He was a warrior through and through.

"I couldn't feel better!" Michael answered in a dry tone.

His eyes moved to Lincoln, whose Soultrait had been forcefully suppressed by the referee. Lincoln's eyes shot wide open, and he looked down at his body, which slowly returned to normal. Then he looked at Michael, who smiled lightly.

"What the hell was that mental attack?!" Lincoln asked, still unable to control the mess of emotions within him.

Michael shrugged at Lincoln's question, which hurt much more than he expected.

The adrenaline that helped him suppress the pain had dispersed, leaving nothing but the pain in Michael's heart.

However, the pain was not worth focusing on. Medics were already rushing over to tend to his wounds.

The only thing of importance in Michael's mind was that he had lost.

Michael gave his all to win, but he couldn't. He didn't have a chance at all.

Not even exposing Spirit Whip changed the course of the battle. It enraged Lincoln and forced him to move, but that was it.

Others might say that it was only obvious that he had lost. He fought a descendant of a High Noble, someone who was a few months older, had awakened a 6-Star Soultrait, and possessed custom techniques related to his Soultrait, which he had been practicing for several months even before Michael had entered the Origin Expanse, but none of that mattered.

It didn't even matter that Lincoln had a family, who was willing to invest greatly into their descendants. It was not important.

At the end, the only thing that mattered was that Michael lost the fight.

He wasn't even interested in the prideful part of coming out victorious.

Of course, it felt great to win. It boosted his ego and gave him a satisfactory feeling. Nonetheless, the loss made him realize something far more important; That he would have lost and died if the battle had been against an enemy in the Origin Expanse.

He knew that he had to improve a lot, but he didn't expect to be that helpless against the descendants of a High Noble.

At this moment, Michael realized one thing for sure; his combat prowess was insignificant.

It may be enough to fight Tier-2 Monsters to a certain extent, but that was already it. In the future, his individual combat prowess wouldn't be high enough to fight Monsters of a higher Tier either. Once he attempted to fight Tier-4 Monsters, Michael would be crushed. Existences that advanced to the 4th Tier were on a whole different level as beings at Tier-3. They were higher lifeforms that broke through the first barrier.

At his current level, Michael would never be able to rival the descendants of High Nobles, Great Clans, and Supreme Families.

He wouldn't even have a chance against the prodigies of other races.

Secretly, Michael knew that Kaleb Zenovia was highly likely to leave him behind as well. After today's battle, Michael realized the true power of high-ranked Soultraits, and the difference the techniques that had been prepared by the ancestors of the Piedra family made.

Most of the influential families with a foothold in the Origin Expanse had such techniques.

Kaleb had yet to awaken his War Rune, but he was already strong enough to rival the strength of an Awakened Tier-0 Lord. He wouldn't have an issue defeating someone like Niklas Liekhoven.

Michael didn't even want to imagine how fast Kaleb's strength would increase after he became an Awakened. Using his ancestor's heritage and techniques, Kaleb was bound to reach Michael's level in the blink of an eye.

Even Frederik Kolbenheim and Jacqueline would soon become much stronger.

Frederik told him before that his Soultrait might only be 3-Star, but that his ancestors spent more than a century to find a way to amplify wind elemental affinities using a Hybrid technique that refined both the Mind and the Body in a complex way. It was a Hybrid Refining technique with which Frederik wanted to defeat Michael once he completed the first stage.

At this moment, Michael felt like a fool. It was like the world crashed down on him.

He had lectured Frederik to never feel arrogant and not to take others lightly, but that was exactly what he had done.

He totally overestimated his own combat prowess and lost miserably as a result.

'Why did I ever consider it important to keep Spirit Whip a secret? Why should I hold back? Can I even afford to hold back, in the first place?'

Michael felt like he was a big joke.

'How am I going to become strong if I'm holding back while fighting people, who're far stronger, in the first place?'

After his battle against Lincoln Piedra, Michael realized some of his stupid mistakes. He began to understand that he should never hold back and that he had to give his all to become stronger, otherwise, his peers and everyone else would become much stronger while he would stay back and miserably watch the gap between them widen.

So far, he merely fought fellow humans in the Academy. However, what would happen once war broke out in the extraterrestrial? What if his territory was under attack, and he was too weak to protect his subordinates and territory because he didn't give his best all this while? Would holding back help him become stronger? No, it would just hold him back from attaining the best results and more resources!

Oddly enough, this realization caused Michael to smile foolishly.

Going all out against stronger opponents was an intense feeling. It was exciting and somewhat addictive.

Michael didn't want to care about hiding his secrets anymore. He wanted to improve his strength and become powerful enough to fight on even grounds against someone like Lincoln.

Of course, fighting against someone like Lincoln on even grounds was only the beginning.

Nonetheless, it was a goal worth fighting for.