I shifted sideways, dodging a kick from Asare, but it seems I was out of luck as a leg sweep from Teluna deposited me straight to the ground. The impact was jarring, but the pain only lasted for a second. I looked up in time to see Asare whip his leg sideways, sending it straight to the chest of Teluna. The boy was thrown off his feet, moving backwards through the air for almost fifteen meters, before the wall of the tower brought an end to his flight.
I had to take advantage of Asare's lapse in concentration, so I shot upwards, making sure to drive my shoulders into his midsection as I brought him crashing down hard to the ground.
The air was driven out of his lungs, but Asare was only stunned for a second as he wrapped his hands around my neck and started to choke me.
Since my head was under his armpit, and we were still on the ground, I didn't have enough strength to get myself free, I was forced to take huge gulps of air, but that just seemed to make the matter worse as I lost even more air. I spread my legs, making sure both of my feet were planted on the ground as I wrapped my hands around Asare's midsection.
Then I heaved with all of my strength, putting pressure on my awkwardly bent neck. Then I threw him over head in a modification of a belly to belly suplex.
Asare landed hard enough that he was forced to let go of my neck, giving me access back to those sweet precious wisps of air that had been denied me for the past four seconds.
But before I could savor my recently restored ability to breath, I looked up to see Teluna coming down, feet first to my stomach. There was a dull thump when he landed as my body folded in on itself and around both of his feet that were now planted on my stomach. The air I just painstakingly fought for escaped out of my lungs with a few globs of blood.
Asare had already flipped to his feet as he sent a straight punch for Teluna's nose. The young vampire crossed his hands over his face to block the punch, but he was less than successful as the punch threw him away and straight into the pool of water in the middle of the tower.
I took advantage of my position on the ground and shot up with my fist, delivering an upper cut to Asare that threw him of his feet and caused him make a full rotation in the air, but then he landed back on his feet, as if he just made a simple back flip. I couldn't help the shocked look on my face as I pointed at Asare with indignation as I shouted at him.
"That's cheating, you're not supposed to use skills or strength above the tenth circle." I shouted at him. But a glint in his eyes, and the fact that I could see Teluna rapidly approaching within his eyes with a drop kick, warned me of my impending introduction to those two small feet of his.
I dropped to my stomach, grinning as Teluna flew over me to slam both his feet on Asare's chest blasting him away like a rapidly deflating balloon. While Asare went on his impromptu journey, Teluna fell on his back with a thump, just in time for him to feel my feet come stomping down on his shoulder. While I was not as strong as either Teluna and surprisingly Asare who was human, I could still make someone hurt. After stomping on his shoulder I took a few steps backward to Reorient myself and catch a breath. But Teluna did not like my previous move as he turned and ran straight at me with a speed I could barely keep up with.
He was coming in fast like a missile, and since he was half my size, he had all the advantages. He was smaller than me, but he was also faster and stronger. But I was not going to stand there and wait for him, I also started to run towards him, picking up speed with every step I took. And I when I had gotten to my topmost speed, I leaped forward, making sure my right knee was pushed forward in a running knee strike that hit Teluna straight in the face.
But the knee strike was not enough to get rid of Teluna, as he used the momentum from the knee strike to perform a back flip, making sure his foot kissed the under of my chin in what I could only describe as the most fearsome uppercut I have ever experienced.
I was thrown backwards into the air, and came down so hard I could have sworn I saw stars, either way, I was not sure I was getting up from my spot on the ground, I was much too spent. As I laid down on the ground, I could hear Teluna and Asare continue their battles to the awe of every other person in the tower. Extreme as this fight was, it was only an exhibition for the others in the tower.
I had suggested this path in training them, it would take too much time to teach them how to fight step by step, and they had all the tools needed. Speed, strength and resilience. And not to mention vampires had a higher learning capacity than most races, so they only had to watch us fight and ultimately use their imagination.
Since there was an urgency, it was preferable if they learnt from experience, which would actually give them an edge over some of the forces in the pit. While there are rival gangs and covens, and even the guards themselves who went about torturing the vampires, there's hardly any conflict. And even when there's one, it's usually settled in a "your champion versus my champion" kind of scenario.
So not many people get to experience a fight and grow from it. So we might give simple pointers, like how to direct and redirect your opponent's own force and use it against him. Or how to punch harder and where to punch that would disable your opponent faster and end the fight in your favor.
But besides that, a few defensive moves and attacking stances helped.
I had a few books about training around, while I kept anything that had to do with runes and weaving aside, apart from the book about training mental energy. Learning from my books regardless of how few they were had been a great help in teaching them and they had shown great progress, and the funny part about this whole thing was that it has only been four hours.
"My Lord I think we should stop here." Asare spoke up as he showed up standing over me with Teluna by his side. I stifly nodded my head as I made my way back up to my feet. Then I turned to Gus and his siblings and cousins and asked them.
"what did you learn from our fight?"
Kodak was the one who answered first.
"Lord Kael, from the way you people fought, it seems to me that master Asare is not used to fighting with his fists. He was good enough to put an untrained person in their place, however against you, he was mainly just relying on his superior strength, speed and physique to keep up with the both of you."
I nodded my head in acceptance. Before I gave an explanation.
"That's to be expected, because Asare is an arch mage of the fire element, not a fighter. But he had trained his body and close combat technique to make up for the main weakness of all mages and most spell caster classes. So it's expected that he would not be able to keep up against experienced fighters, so the only advantage he would have would be his superior strength and speed. Okay what else?" after I finished explaining I turned to Gus hoping he could add something else.
Even though His couldn't speak, the discovery of his class had left open new avenues of communication for him, so he was no longer limited by his burnt and twisted vocal cords to speak. A soft teenaged voice broke out in my mind, although Gus was a telepath, his abilities had not grown strong enough that he would be able to share his thoughts with multiple people at the same time. Due to this limit, Gus could only project his thoughts to one person at the moment.
"Teluna is a fast learner, but it's obvious he's in the same boat as us and is not at all familiar with fighting techniques. Not to mention he's a reckless fighter and does not understand the true essence of his class. He's an assassin, but he's fighting like a drunk brawler. Unlike Asare who's at least a little trained in the art of combat and knows how to utilize his superior strength, Teluna fights with instinct rather than the meticulous planning and no wasted movements assassin's are known for. He's stronger and faster than the both of you, but he lacks experience and proper knowledge of battle strategy."
To be honest I felt like laughing. Gus was brutal with his honesty, breaking down every facet of our fight and explaining Teluna's shortcomings down to the tiniest mistake. Gus had developed well, due to not being able to speak, all his life Gus would have probably have been relegated to the sidelines when other children were speaking or playing, so all he had could do was watch and observe, giving him an astute power of observation.
"You're right about Teluna, Gus. He's not supposed to fight head to head with any of his opponents even with his great strength. Of course that doesn't mean he should not take advantage of it either when the situation calls for it. But as an Assassin. Teluna you're supposed to go for the kill every time. Hit your opponent in the place it would hurt the most, and make sure he or she dies with your first strike. Your second and third strike, would be for you to confirm your kill.
As a Shadower, I heard with training you would be able to travel through and fro the shadow realm, gaining the abilities to manipulate, control and hide within any shadow in existence. With skills like that, the pit was made to be your playground. The first rule of any assassin is that your opponents should never see you coming, even if you're in a straight out fight. Every move you make should be an illusion in the eyes of your enemy, twisting, turning, deflecting and striking out of the darkness like a snake. All of you should keep that in mind, especially you Teluna, you have to learn how to fight like a true assassin, while the rest of you have to come up with ways to counter one. Okay anyone else?"
I asked. My deduction of the fight might also not be a hundred percent accurate. But as far as fighting goes, I was better trained than any body in the tower due to my foray into martial arts in my past life.
So I was able to see things that they couldn't, however martial arts skills did not just come from just knowing how to attack, counter and defend. Experience was a huge factor, and unfortunately I did not have much of that in both my lives combined, but that would be because some of my memories were still missing.
"well the next person would be you." I heard a voice say behind me.
I turned to see Asha, Xaseah and Varsessa coming into the tower. They must be back from their errand. I took a breath and watched as three year old Lynn completely disregarded everyone else and ran to her mother babbling about what had happened while she was away. Her description about our fights were colorful to say the least, but we were still having a lesson, so I turned to Asha and asked.
"You were saying something love?"
"Indeed I was. As far as fighting goes, anyone can see you're better trained than both Teluna and Asare, you have more awareness of your environment and your opponent than they both do. It's why you've been able to keep up with them, because even if they subdued their strength it still won't be easy to match up with them. But you lack experience when fighting, however you make up for that by being ingenious with your moves and coming up with variations that catch your opponent of guard, that's not enough though. You can't read your opponents, but that could also be attributed to your lack of experience, if you can learn to anticipate their moves before they make it, you could end the fight faster and with less damage to yourself. And finally you lack conviction, for some reason you're holding back, even when they brought their abilities down multiple ranks to fight with you. So the question is, why are you scared to let loose your killer instinct."