Chapter 3 - Sparring among comrades

Maria and Marco are the first to clash with their opponents. Marco is breathing wildly with a terrifying smile on his face while Maria giggled were wild. Maria used her exceptional sword skills to "play" with her enemy. In other words, she did not take this battle seriously. While Maria is playing around, Rona decides to go for more evasive tactics and always dodges her opponent before they get too close. While Rona is fighting Dai, Hikari decides to fight Mako, the leader of the enemy squad. Mako, Joseph, Dai, and Mimi always form the same group when fighting in squads. They had good synergy and always were efficient in their business. Hikari readies himself and slightly draws his blade, ready to cut down Mako at the slightest movement. Unlike the other people in his training squad, he couldn't underestimate Mako, he had skill with the blade and was not to be taken lightly. Mako runs forward Hikari, drawing his kodachi and slashes at Hikari. He stays in close, not letting Hikari get a single moment to rest. "Hikari!" Mako yells. "Is running all that you can do? Fight me!" Mako shouts as he slashes at Hikari's body. Hikari unsheathes his sword to block the oncoming assault and knocks back Mako having his boots create dust clouds as he skirted backward. "It's kinda hard to attack when the enemy is so fast," Hikari says as he re-sheathes his blade "but now it is my turn to strike back." Hikari runs forward and slashes at him from his side. Mako blocks the attack and returns with a spinning kick. Hikari bends backward to dodge the attack and uses the momentum to backflip out of the way. Hikari looks up to find Maria flying towards his face. Maria crashes into him and they tumble backward in the dust. Hikari gets up and helps Maria stand as well. "Maria, I need you to help me fight Mako," Hikari says tiredly. "Not gonna lie, he is really fast and we need to take him down to beat his team". Maria looks at Hikari and gives a determined smile. "Let's go-" Just then Mimi seems to appear out of nowhere and punches Maria in the face with a nasty hook and tries to jab Hikari in the face. "Did you think that we would let you gang up on Mako? Now that is just stupid." Mimi says condescendingly. Maria gets up and her face looks to be unscathed. "Nah. that would be too easy. But two-on-two should be fair." Maria readies her backsword and takes the position of a fencer while Hikari put his hand on his hilt. Mimi puts up her guard while Mako slightly takes out his kodachi. Someone from the bleachers shouts "Just fight already!" and Hikari shoots a dirty look at the person who shouted at them. At that exact moment, Mako rushes forward but Maria intercepts him with a parry. Hikari focused again fully draws his katana moves to fight Mimi. Mimi flies towards Hikari and a barrage of punches are thrown at his body, each one closer to hitting its mark. Forced to play defensive, Hikari blocks or dodges each one of her punches while moving all around the arena. "God damn it Hikari, use that blade of yours already. This is a fight!" Mimi shouts. Mimi begins to pant as she was using a lot of energy to keep up the pressure. "Fine, you asked for it." Hikari whispers and jumps back. He focuses his eyes and rushes forward. "Weapon art one, Light Step!" As he uttered those words he disappeared in a burst of light and next thing Mimi knew everything was upside down. It was like she was suspended in the air in slow motion. She utters the words "What the-" and then at that moment Hikari crashed the butt of his hilt into her stomach, chest, and head. She fell back onto the ground and passed out. "Alright, one down, three more to go" Sheathing his sword Hikari runs over to Rona and cuts her fight with Dai short by kicking Dai right in the side of his head. The force of the kick sends him flying into a wall. Dai slumped down the wall into the sand face first knocked out cold. "Why'd you do that Hikari, I had him right where I wanted him." Hikari smirks and says " Oh yeah, of course, you did and I'm the strongest person in the kingdom." Rona blushes a little and gives a loud hmph. Hikari looks at Rona and says "Oh, Rona sorry in advance." He picks up Rona and throws her like a spear into the fight between Maria and Mako. "Well, that settles that. Time to help Marco." As he turned to go help Marco, his opponent Joseph was sent crashing into the wall. There are a few cracks left in the wall after the impact. Joseph can barely stand as Marco practically tackles him onto the sand begins to beat the ever-loving shit out of Joseph's face. By the time Marco was finished Joseph is completely knocked out. The only movement Joseph was making were caused by the continuous body shots Marco kept giving him. Hikari backs away a little from Marco as he rises off of Joseph's bloody and bruised body. "Where is Mako?" he quietly asks with a smile on his face. "Um...over there. With Maria and Rona." He cracks his neck and runs over to the last fight yelling, "Time to have a little more fun!". Hikari sighs and under his breath mutters "That is one crazy bastard. He of all people needs Juna's blessings and teachings." On the other side of things, Mako isn't doing so well. He is backed into a corner and can only play defensively now which isn't his strong suit. Between Maria's almost perfect aim and having to dodge Rona's daggers and throwing knives, he didn't have a lot of room for error. Marco joining in made this fight made things three times worse than when it began. The first thing Marco did when he arrived was dropkick Mako in his chest and send him sprawling in the sand. When he went to grab his Kodachi he realized it was five feet away by Marco's foot. "Well, I'll be damned." Mako sighs. Hikari stands above him and says "Damned indeed." before striking him in the head with his hilt and knocking him out. Berlin jumps down from the box and lands in front of Rona. "The obvious winners of the match is team A!". The other students in the stands cheer for the winners and get ready to be called to the arena. After Hikari and the rest of them leave the arena Mako and his team is taken to the infirmary for treatment, especially after what happened to Joseph. The nurse drags Marco into the back room and you can hear her practically screaming at him. Something along the lines of "This is the fifth time this week you've put somebody's child in critical condition Hikari sits in the stands to watch the rest of the fights. He analyzes their fighting styles and what he can do different. After the last match concludes, they are dismissed Hikari went home and ate dinner with his mother. " So, Hikari, how did practice go today? I'm expecting that you did well today as well." Sylvia says while after chewing and swallowing some chicken. "Practice went well." Hikari says back. His mom notices that Hikari doesn't touch his food. "Hikari is there something wrong? You're not usually like this, you're so quiet." Hikari raises his head and looks into his mom's eyes. "Ma, they're pulling us early. Tomorrow after class to be exact. Things are worse than we thought so will have to join now." What he said lingers in the air. Only silence remains. After dinner is finished Hikari washes the dishes and heads upstairs to sleep. As he passes by his mother's room he can hear her soft tears as she cries quietly. As Hikari lays down, he takes off the glove on his right hand. There the symbol of heroes is glowing softly. "Looks like I am special." he says quietly and tiredly. "Who would have thought?" He thinks to himself as looks up at the ceiling. "Well, as long as no one knows, I'm safe." says Hikari. He turns over and closes his eyes. Little did he know he was being watched by a spy of a powerful demoness. After seeing everything the spy needed to see she disappeared into the night to give her report.