As people surrounded Alex and started asking questions.
"Everyone... Stop!", a strong voice came from a corner, everyone surrounding Alex turned in the direction of the sound from where it came, and they looked displeased like, "Who the fu*k are you? Asking us to stop...".
They were all dumbstruck when they turned to see the person and were ready to beat that person to a pulp, their mouths were left agape.
"Oh..., when did you arrive? We didn't know, please forgive us... everyone make way for the gym master", a middle-aged man with a small beard spoke hastily upon noticing the gym master. That man seemed like a lackey who sucked on whenever got the chance.
The gym master approached the ring and with a hand gesture he told everyone to clear out the ring. Everyone quickly emptied the ring as soon as they saw it.
This middle aged master was very fond of these students from two years ago.
The moment those five the middle aged man, they rushed towards him and bowed in respect. They didn't expected him to be there, because when entering the gym they asked around about him and the answer they got was that their master is away for a while, they were not happy after hearing it, but they are now.
The middle aged man who was in his forties now is the one who inspired these young friends to learn sword art.
At first they saw him showing his skills in a sparring match which was organized by a company for entertainment purposes where Alex's father worked before.
The time when the event was organized, Alex brought his friends along with him to watch the match and they all ended up becoming his students.
Initially, they requested him to teach them out of curiosity, but when they started they liked it and slowly they loved the art of swords and later it became a part of their daily life, their day to day routine, they practice it everyday now.
"Great fight... You two have improved a lot in last two years", said the master with no hesitation, he was not even a bit stingy in his praises.
Alex and Chris were delighted after hearing his praise, their eyes lit up. Even though he didn't say much, they knew that the master was a man of few words.
Next up the middle aged man turned to the other three and said, "I have seen how much these two have improved, now it's your turn... Let's see what is the progress of you three."
Tom, Jared and Kyle's faces turned into a serious one. They all three said at the same time, "Master".
"But who will be their opponents?", a man asked who was standing near them and was listening the conversation without interrupting them.
Everyone around heard the question and their eyes lit up in excitement and anticipation. "We are going to see some more high level sword fighting... ", people started to talk among each other and turned their gazes towards the middle aged man who was the master of the gymnasium.
After hearing the question from the people of the gym, the middle aged man closed his eyes and smiled a bit and the corners of his lips curved upwards and this smile almost looked sinister, because he was the one with the most anticipation for their fights than the ones present and saw the first match, which highly increased their enthusiasm.
Though Tom, Jared, and Kyle were not as strong as Alex and Chris, but still they had better skills than any other sword practitioner present in the gym other than the master. And, there was also the factor that they came back after two years in the gym and they still practiced and honed their moves everyday, so it was quite obvious that they have gotten stronger as well by a considerable amount.
The middle aged man, master of the gym was not in a hurry to choose the opponents for the three.
He simply stood on a platform which was slightly higher than the floor on which everyone was standing, and said in a loud and clear voice, "The first match will be between Kyle and Jared".
A slight shock spread across the audience and everyone became silent.
"Woah, this is going to be either a very good match or a very bad match", a spectator listening to the announcement made by the master commented and chuckled slightly.
"Hmm... Interesting... It is quite a match making by master", another comment just came after the first from the audience.
"Of course, in this match the two fighters are Jared and Kyle and they both have a physique exactly opposite to each other"
"Yes, Kyle is slim and quick while Jared is strong and quite slow"
Comments kept coming one after the other as people started showing their observation skills and started stating one fact after the other regarding the match jast made by the middle aged man standing on the platform.
"Yes, this match will be between Kyle and Jared, and these two competitors are completely opposite if their body types and skills are considered", the middle aged man from the platform started explaining the reason he chose them.
Furthermore, "if we talk about Kyle then he is slim but agile and is quick while attacking but he lacks in strength which is required to defend properly."
"And the opponent of Kyle, Jared is a fighter who has a huge amount of strength, his attacks are sure to make great impact due to which a can be ended immediately, but he lacks in speed, due to bulky body and muscles, he attack speed is slower. There is also a defence factor in Jared, due to his lack in speed, he has developed a good endurance, he can many attacks, but still they are limited."
"In this way we will be able to see a spectacular match between two fighters with opposite compatibility", this was the last sentence the middle aged man said and moved onto Tom.
The middle aged man looked at Tom and pointed to couple to guys from the audience and said, "You two... come over here...".
When master the two youths from the rest of the people from the gym, Tom thought that master will ask him to choose between the two to fight.
But little did he know...
Master had other plans for his match. He pointed at both the youths and told Tom that he will be fighting both of them simultaneously. Master's eyes were sparkling when he announced this match.
Tom looked towards the two youths, they were standing stiffly, without moving even an inch of their bodies, anyone can tell that they were very disciplined and by their stance they looked strong too.
After making these two announcements, the middle aged man came down from the platform and indicated everyone to start the matches one after the other and stood beside Alex and Chris to watch their performance.
"Woah!!! We are the luckiest bunch today, because we already saw a spectator match between Alex and Chris, and now we will get to see the rest of the group to perform as well".
"Yes, we have to give credit to the master to make such matches just to test their abilities when pushed to extreme".
"Hmm... I get it what you are trying to say, first Kyle and Jared, they will surely have to come up with plans to defeat each other and on the other hand master made a handicap match between Tom and those two, because Tom is tall and has a natural adavantage in reach, so, by having two opponents, his abilities will be tested quite well..."
After the match making was over, people around gave very thoughtful comments and were very thorough with their observation while giving the comment.
"It is going to be a good evening", another comment came from the audience.