The lower floors of the school served as a sparring center with heavy enchantments to make most battles non lethal, mostly. No magic has ever been perfect enough to make them completely safe, so there are referees normally on standby to make sure nothing could get out of hand.
The crowd somewhat dispersed and gather back at the school a few blocks down the stone street.
All forms of martial art facilities were near one side of the school, meanwhile the magic research facilities were closer toward the other side. The hastened growth of Teramore over a century ago resulted in a lot of the kingdom's buildings being clustered in random spots along cityscape.
The Count did the best he could to reform the city to have some kind of organization to the buildings. A big joke that always went around the city was the Count would remodel the entire city structure if given the chance.
Once Galahad, James, and Tekko arrived to the lower floor of the school, they quickly found an empty room that was not scheduled for that afternoon. Galahad signed his name on the magic screen on the wall and so did Tekko, only the three of them walked in.
James, Galahad, and Tekko went inside the room, while the group of spectators waited outside. The sparring rooms did not have room for an audience; it only fit five people on the benches and around four in the fighting ring. Everyone else just waited outside with anticipation and bets on the outcome.
The bets ranged on how quickly Tekko would be walking out the room, the bets placed were not even above fifteen minutes.
This was the second time Galahad had been in the sparring room. The first time was to watch Heath and Mycroft practice back when he first met them at school. Inside was a yellow matted floor with a red ring painted in the center.
On the wall were framed photos of the teachers with some students standing beside them. Some of the kids seemed happy and proud, others were clearly less joyous about being there.
Galahad wasn't concerned about the surrounding memories, he found exactly what he was looking for across the room. A little metal balancing scale was nailed into the wall; it was a betting piece for fighters in the ring. Each opponent put mana orbs or credits in their own basin to put an equal bet for who would win.
Galahad knew that if he went to the city guards, they'd be able to sort the situation with Tekko getting into to trouble. After all, Galahad rightfully claimed the job through the legal process and not with threats or intimidation. He only instigated the idea of a sparring match for only two reason; experience more fighting, and bet to win himself more mana orbs.
'Not exactly the most honorable thing to put in a sparring room, but hey, who am I to argue with the motivators for trying to win?' Galahad thought as he pulled the mana orb pouch out of his jacket pocket.
Tekko watched Galahad put an apple sized mana orb in the teetering scale and only laughed at the boy.
'He honestly thinks we are fighting for the job, I just assumed he didn't want everyone to watch me beat the living tar out of him.' He started sniggering in the corner, thinking about the profit he was gonna make with that bigger orb being waged.
The thought of such a big prize had him pulling out his own bag of mana orbs. He walked over to the balancing scale and poured a handful of little orbs into the scale, expecting the whole thing to balance right out.
"Huh?" Tekko poured nearly half the bag into his basin, but it didn't budge. 'What the fuck is with that orb? I would have thought it was at least level twenty, is it denser? That would mean he managed to get a level thirty something monster or higher.'
Galahad only grinned at his opponent, waiting for the man to react in some way to the surprisingly high bet being placed.
Tekko stared at him until the reasoning clicked inside his slow turning gears. "I see how it is, you know about the Rule of Defoe."
Indeed Galahad knew about the Rule of Defoe, named after a man who stupidly placed bet after bet each time he lost a match. The man racked himself up a debt so massive, he still works in the mines near the capital of the kingdom to pay it all off to this day. Now if anyone fights in any official sparring dojo, they'd have to match their opponent's wager or be disqualified with a loss.
"Nice try smartass, but I'm not a weakling who can only put their one big orb on the line." He sneered and poured more from his bag into the mix. Only a few medium sized orbs remained in his pouch, leaving everything else to finally balance.
James watched the exchanges from a safe distance next to door, also making him jump and yelp a little when the door swung open very rapidly. Entering the room was referee for the fight.
He looked to be twice as old as Galahad or James with his hair shave led to only leave a stubble across his head. When he walked in, his face told them that he already knew the situation; a higher level adventurer was attempting to take a transport job from a weaker one and now a potentially dangerous fight was about to ensue.
As Galahad walked over to a corner and started taking off his unnecessary gear. While rolling his jacket into his bag, the referee came to him and grabbed his good arm.
In a hush tone, he tried talking Galahad out of the fight. "From what I heard, that man was causing a disturbance at the pavilion. I wouldn't be able to get him jailed, but with the guards stopping him, the two of you could leave. You don't have to do this."
Galahad only gave the referee a friendly smile and began untying his boots. "I appreciate your concern, but I am the one who suggested a match to deal with the situation. Thank you."
Galahad left only his shirt and pants on, leaving his boots and gear on the bench. 'I'm down to two jackets, I can't afford to ruin what few decent clothes I have left.'
The referee only nodded relucantly and silently moved to the side wall and as he stood quietly waiting for the two fighters to enter the ring.
Tekko and Galahad stood at opposite ends of the ring and awaited the signal to begin. As soon as the referee put his arm up, Galahad's body erupted in red flames. Cracks grew across his skin with orange light peaking through, stupefying the entire room about his magician class abilities.
The first one to shake it off was Tekko, who only laughed at Galahad once again.
In a snide remark, Tekko said, "Hey shit for brains, you aren't allowed to use magic in a spar. Or is your head as nasty as your face and you can't understand that."
"It's not mana, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to use in here, now would it?"
"The hell you talking about?"
Galahad only smiled and put himself in the fighting stance he saw Trista perform when she was anticipating a lunge from the enemy.
"Maybe your brain is a little more rotted than mine." He retorted with his smile growing more mischievous by the second.
The mocking face Tekko made had disappeared at the insult. 'It's one thing to act as an idiot,' he thought, 'but now you receive no mercy.'
The referee regrettably dropped his arm to signify the start of the battle. The massacre was about to begin.
Tekko put on a scrunched up face of rage and charge forward with an arm winded back to clothesline Galahad across the midsection.
'When facing an agile enemy or smaller target; expand your hit. Be cautious at the risk of opening yourself up to more counter attacks and wider swings can lose momentum. Assess the enemy before determining the balance of power and area of attack.'
Words of his mentor had always popped up in Tekko's head when he fought in matches or sometimes against humanoid monsters. The man who mentored Tekko was a very verbal in his teachings on fighting, even when they went fist-to-fist, he would always have words to say between their hits.
Galahad didn't move an inch when Tekko charged at him. He stood there with the small cracks of fire leaking from his arms and legs. His breathing and heart rate didn't even seem to change either.
James looked away as he wasn't a fan of violence or confrontation of any kind. Only the referee was watching, making sure all hits were legal. Although he truly planned to end the match after the first hit. He wasn't going to give Tekko a chance to pulversize the small and weaker adventure just because he was insane enough to be asking for it.
The strange cracks of fire on Galahad's body didn't matter to the referee, they could have been something indirectly mana related that the room couldn't completely erase. The sparring dojo was not omnipotent in safety protocols, small details or risks were not accounted for, in a sense that someone won't ever get hurt fighting here, hence the referee's job to monitor and subdue if need be.
Tekko was now three steps away from Galahad and started bringing his shoulder forward to side sweep his arm into Galahad, but he was no longer standing in place.
Galahad fell backwards and laid flat on his back. It almost looked like he fell right before Tekko's clothesline was gonna make contact. He was confusing the whole room with his idea of 'sparring.'
'This kid has truly lost his mind.' Thought the referee, he was about to signal the end of the fight, but then the scene seemed to slow down in time.
Galahad had let his backward rolling momentum carry into his legs, which were now in the air. Like a tightly wound coil, Galahad unfurled and kicked his feet straight into Tekko's armpit.
A visible shift was made and audible crunch could be heard from Tekko's shoulder. His arm was now dislocated from the socket and hanging loosely from his side. He stumbled back from the surprise hit and grew wide-eyes after realizing what happened.
The entire room was shocked silent, especially Tekko. He looked at his dangling arm for a moment before getting even more red in the face. No pain showed on his face, only fury. Then he looked back at Galahad who was rolling back up to a standing position.
Galahad kept his smile the whole time until he pretended to gasp out of shock.
"I apologize, I'm not too familiar in the sparring rules. Referee, does this clarify as a disqualifying hit or no?" Galahad asked without changing his almost customer service like tone from before.
The referee took a moment before putting his hand down to not signal the end of the match. It seemed he was going to be watching a fight that didn't end in a massacre.
"The hit was deemed a legal counter, you may proceed." He said while straightening his spine. 'I hope I don't regret letting this continue.'
Galahad turned back kept his fists raised at the now nearly blue-faced opponent.
"You are gonna regret the day you came out of your scrawny mother." He spat heavily with each word spewing globs of spit out of his mouth.
Tekko grabbed his arm and shoved his back into place with wet suction like noise. His eyes burned into Galahad's direction with newfound anger. His body began to swell with rage, literally swelling. His berserker skills were enhancing his body due to the emotional aura he was applying to the output of his Chi.
James looked out of hands at the scene at first with confusion, and then immediately shut them when he saw Tekko growing into a bigger monster than before.
Tekko brought his fists up close to his chest. He walked with a bit of a side step in his approach, clearly watching Galahad's reaction to his more expert like movement.
Tekko made his approach until he was only arms length away. He looked like he was about to jab with the arm that wasn't dislocated into Galahad's stomach, but he actually faked the swing and brought the other hand out to chop towards Galahad's neck. His intent was a lot more severe than just winning, he was attempting to take Galahad down permanently.
If he connected with the intent of lethal contact to the neck, then Tekko would have to be disqualified. The problem with that ruling was Galahad would be left dead at the end of that scenario. The referee was freaking out at how the situation was unfurling, he wished he had taken the chance to be teaching the young first years this morning instead.
Galahad was ignoring everyone's worry and Tekko's rage; he focused his thought completely on working around the attacks coming at his least defended points.
'It's nice to be in a controlled environment with nothing to worry about except this asshole. I can focus on just the motion of his attacks, like this fake. I only need to step back and his chop is useless.'
Galahad's body moved under the most precise commands of his mind thinking of only the most minute movements as possible. His footwork and tiny dodges were rather rough and not perfect, but matching that with Tekko's rage made his mistakes cancelled out.
Galahad's eyes always watched the positioning of Tekko's chest to see where he wanted to project his next attack over and over again, infuriating his opponent exponentially as time went on.
Tekko swiped, punched, jabbed, and even attempted to kick at Galahad's frail looking frame, but nothing ever made a connection.
'I don't understand, he's supposed to be a push over magician. Where the fuck did he learn to fight?' Tekko's mind was going numb with each hit that missed, nothing was making sense to him.
Galahad was watching everything without losing his smile the whole time. After a full minute of fighting, the scene started to change and transform into something even stranger.
The flames on Galahad's limbs shimmered violently at his command and his whole stature seemed to change into something much more aggressive, hinting he was moving to the offensive. When the referee saw the dynamic change, he could no longer keep a straight face. His mouth fell open at Galahad's next move of insanity.
Galahad grabbed one of swings by Tekko's wrist and pulled forward, yanking the raging man off balance. Galahad jumped up using the force of his pull to bring his bandage elbow across his body and straight into Tekko's nose.
The hit caused dozens of fractures to spread across Tekko's upper teeth and the cartilage in his nose was compressed into breaking beyond just a few pieces. Blood splurted from his nose and mouth, dousing Galahad bandages. First blood was drawn in the match.
After managing to get in a hit, Galahad left no time to spare. He dropped down to a kneeling position and rolled behind the blinded Tekko.
It was a good thing the instincts of his skill made him move. Tekko swept his massive frame across the position Galahad was just in, barely missing him with his heavy limbs.
Tekko was infuriated since the beginning, now his face was roaring in pain to the point he was blinded by the tears and blood spewing out. When he turned to swipe at Galahad, his couldn't make sense of why he missed.
'This isn't the same fucker that night, this is something else entirely.' Fear was starting to make noise in his ears now. Tekko took a step back and tried to find Galahad, who somehow disappeared from his field of blurred vision.
He had no idea Galahad was crouched and quietly moving behind him, using the pain as a distraction to seem hidden behind his opponent. Once the giant man retreat a few steps back in fear, Galahad knew he had gotten into the simpleton's head.
'Gotta end this, not much time left.' He thought as he brought up a heel and slammed it into the back of Tekko's right knee.
The berserker collapsed onto one knee. Even from the disadvantaged position, he tried to whip around and raise his forearms to defend. Galahad didn't give him a chance and gave a drop kick into his rib cage midpivot.
The fight had ended after just three of Galahad's offensive moves.
Tekko tumbled to his side, broken and beaten at the ingenuity of his opponent. Somehow he lost to Galahad, who wasn't faster or stronger than him, Tekko unrealistically lost with a class that outdid his opponent's physique in every way. His defeat came from something he never truly mastered after obtaining such brute strength as a child; merciless timing.
Galahad had beaten him by taking every available opening in vulnerable spacing with each attack he made, all in one short instant. That was the last thing Tekko would remember before blacking our from the pain of a broken nose, shattered teeth, dislocated kneecap, and several fractures across his rib cage.
The internal bleeding and shattered nose would take Tekko a long time to fully recover and heal from, even with a healer class. This left the Referee to shout for the end of a the match and called from a medical team from the little crystal sewed into his sleeve.
Once the fight had ended, Galahad shut his eyes and the red flames extinguished themselves as quickly as they appeared. All the cracks with magma glowing beneath the skin had sealed themselves up again, leaving no trace to his strange skill.
The timer in his bottom view flashed three times before disappearing.
[ 0:27 ]
Had Galahad waited any longer, he would certainly have died at just one of Tekko's strikes if Backlash starts to kick in.
He let out a quiet sigh of relief, realizing the fight was practically life and death for him. Then he realized the battle would've kept going without the Referee stepping in.
'Huh, I was gonna kill him. I should have felt some reason to stop. Was that the skill or am I truly broken from all supposive trauma?' Galahad pondered these things while looting the contents of the balancing scale into his pockets.
'Oh well, I got that little bonus I wanted before leaving. Decent haul after a rather useful experience in human combat.'
He put his jacket and boots back on and patted James across the shoulder. "I guess your stuck with me this week. Let's go have some fun."
The still stunned James was not sure how to interpret what he had seen just yet, he didn't snap out of his daze until Galahad shouted for him from the exit.
The two of them walked out the door, moving around the crowd that standing outside the door with timers running. They assumed Galahad chickened out as he walked away from the building, since they didn't get the full picture.
It wasn't until a medical team came rushing into the room with a stretcher that their assumptions started to change.
"Excuse me bud." Galahad dodged around a little kid who was running across the halls to meet his father.
It was not until a few moments later that they all watched Tekko's unconscious body be carried to the medical center for immediate assistance.
The little boy looked up at his father. "Why is he the winner? I thought he couldn't fight with his injuries, did he cheat and use magic?"
"He cannot cheat in a spar room, it's impossible to manipulate mana in a physical form in a sparring room like these ones. It is filled with enchanted mats on the floor."
"The mats are enchanted?" The boy turned and stared at the floor like it suddenly held secrets he wanted to uncover. The curiosity of children knows no bounds.
"Yeah, the cushions on the mats are filled with mystic wool from some very special sheep. Your uncle owns a few at the farm up North. Though it's your aunt Martha that can do stuff like magic to make the wool do cool things like drain mana or change the feelings of hits."
"Woah," the boy was fascinated at the idea of using magic. "I wanna be like aunt Martha. When can I do magic?
"You have to get to level eight first; don't worry, I'm sure you be a magician class when you are old enough."
Everyone else in the lobby was at a lost for words, all of them were thinking the same question when Galahad walked out completely unscathed.
'What the fuck!?!'
Galahad didn't care for even a moment. He walked out with a mischievous smile and a hungry glint in his eyes.
"Oh, before I forget." He turned to the jittery James and spoke in a creepy tone of attempted friendship. "I just have one thing I need to do as we leave."