Icarus arrived early at the Royal Tea Academy with bandages patched to some bruises in his body. Twelve rounds of fighting against his mother alongside his friends were nothing short of a nightmare. Unlike Claude and Violetta, he retained most of his damages due to being a Husk. Most Essences were able to enhance their users which included power, defence, and speed.
In the class, Violetta greeted Icarus like usual. Sure enough, most of her injuries were already non-existent, a perk of having an SS-rank Essence. Icarus fervently prayed for the unfortunate person who had to face against her.
Finally, the school bell and Mr. Zi directed everyone to exit the building. It seemed that the joint class fight was going to be held outside on the school park
The children walked out of the school onto a circular arena beside the vibrant soccer field. The circle which was as wide as the soccer field right beside it was an elevated barren ground with lines clearly indicating the bounds.
The school could be seen from a distance, resembling a brick castle. It's exterior may have given the sense of antiquity due to its old appearance, however, the inside was completely different. It looked like a "school" from within. Royal Tea Academy was provided with state-of-the-art equipment to give the best education to its students which made it appear more like a high-tech facility. It taught the Grades 1-9, then afterwards, the student had graduated from the middle school academy and had to enroll at high school academy.
The two classes met up on the two opposite sides of the circle, headed by their respective instructors. Mr. Zi hopped onto the middle of the sun-baked ring and began the explanation for the joint class.
"Class Chamomile and Jade have been working hard for the past week grasping the idea of what it truly means to be a Vessel. Now, it is time to put that knowledge into the test. Vessel Training will become a part of the curriculum from now on, especially the last three grades."
Mr. Zi presented a ballot box.
"Both classes shall now demonstrate their mettle and prove superiority by engaging each other in duels. Yesterday, the matchups had been decided in order to give you children the time to have a better insight into your foes. The order of matches will be determined by the means of a ballot."
"In order to win, one must land 10 clean hits on their opponent first or remove them from the ring. If you knock one out before 10 hits, that is a victory. If the opponent surrenders, that is a victory. We will now begin."
Mr. Zi reached into the box and swiped out a piece of paper to which he unfolded to reveal the participants of the first match. The two classes glared at each other, eager to rumble.
"Oh...dear, Icarus Vermillion of Class Chamomile vs Zeke Malek of Class Jasmine."
"Huh?" gulped Icarus. "Wow."
Out of the 25 matches, Icarus had to be chosen for the first one. First or last was never a nice thing in his book. Both places attracted nothing but attention. Now, everyone was about to find out how useless he was.
"Ike, you can do—
"IKE, GO BEAT HIM UP!"
Violetta was whispering words of encouragement when she was interrupted by Claude's sudden outburst from the other side.
"The hell, Claude? Which class are you on?" sighed Icarus as he waved to Violetta.
Icarus leapt into the stage and met eyes with his opponent, Zeke. The tanned boy with wavy, hazel hair was waiting for the countdown on the other side. His casual clothing indicated that he didn't take the match quite seriously unlike Icarus whose clothes were composed of stretchy black shirt and pants.
Everything Claude said about Zeke seemed correct. The boy had firmly placed his dominant food behind as he struck a martial pose. Icarus confirmed that it was definitely Taekwondo. The foot has been placed behind to gain more power when it the time came to kick.
Icarus quickly reviewed everything he learned about Sobek when he studied after the gruelling practice. On the Essence Databook, it stated that Sobek was the god of crocodiles and water, representing the Egyptian pantheon. B-rank. Essences with beast-like characteristics such as Sobek usually enabled their users to transform to some degree. Icarus wondered how the Taekwondo and Sobek would fare well with each other.
"3, 2, 1, start the match!"
"Sobek! Partial transformation(20%)!" Zeke started off the duel by activating his essence.
A large, reptilian tail suddenly sprouted from Zeke's lower backside and claws protruded off his mossy, scaly arms. The boy's tail whipped the ground with intense power, using it to propel himself towards Icarus.
"Shit, that's one way to use a crocodile's tail!" exclaimed Icarus as he quickly moved to the side.
Zeke quickly tagged Icarus and chambered his leg in, and performed a reverse roundhouse kick aimed towards Icarus head.
Icarus ducked down, narrowly missing his foot. However, there was more to the move than he expected. The moment he lowered himself, a secondary assault hit him squarely on the side. Zeke had used his tail as a near follow-up roundhouse kick when he spun.
The husk found himself rolling twice before getting up with stinging pain on his. "That was one clean hit" Icarus reminded himself.
It seemed that Zeke had the reach advantage with his kicks and long tail. Icarus knew he had to get on the inside to render both of his arsenals useless. Bajiquan could easily close the distance, however, its evasion techniques involved parrying the opponent and using their attacks against them. This was something Icarus couldn't afford to do especially with Zeke's whip-like tail. However, there was a solution to his problem: Boxing.
A flaw he found in Zeke's style was that the transformation slowed him down to some degree. Taekwondo kicks were usually fast and they still were but it was decelerated enough for Icarus to react to it. He fathomed that he could weave his way into Zeke and stand a bit of chance. Then, he remembered his nasty claws.
"Oh, well. It's worth a try..." Icarus smiled to himself.
"Why don't you bring out your Essence, already?" Zeke wondered. The boy was tired of having the obvious advantage.
"Heh," Icarus' voice shook as he gambled on a lie, "I don't need to bring out my Essence against the likes of you!"
"Fine, then!" Zeke exclaimed, angered by Icarus' remark.
Icarus' gamble worked and frustrated Zeke. The crocodile boy charged towards Icarus and bent down, letting his tail go wild in front of him.
Icarus swerved, ducked, and jump from the tail as he made his way to Zeke. It wasn't long until he found himself right in front of his opponent. Now, all that was left was the claws.
"How?!"
"My mother is much faster compared to you!" smirked Icarus as he bent down for an orthodox boxing stance.
Startled by Icarus' sudden advance, Zeke flailed with claws out. His long claws rendered punching ineffective so he had to resort to swipes.
"I see everything!"
Icarus dodged the swipes as he jabbed at Zeke's face. One, two, three, duck. Four, five, six, then he was caught off guard by a scratch to his arm. He endured it and continued. Seven, eight, then, weave. His punches were only doing light damage but that didn't matter. He wasn't aiming for damage.
"8 hits!" Icarus reminded himself.
"Screw you!" Zeke focused his soul force into his arms and jabbed with intense speed.
However, Icarus anticipated it and initiated a split-second counter, making use of his vulnerability when he let his arms go. His counter hook connected with Zeke's jaw, temporarily stunning him.
"Not good..."
Zeke instinctively backed off to regain his range and his balance. After that, he didn't plan to give Icarus another chance to expose him.
"Oh, no you don't!" Icarus chased after his opponent, disregarding the danger.
"Dumbass." Zeke smiled as Icarus fell into his trap.
The crocodile boy lunged his leg forward for a surprise front kick towards Icarus' torso. Much to his surprise, Icarus did the same thing. Both kicks connected, hitting each other on the stomach. However, Zeke's kick came out on top and proved deadly as Icarus knocked and rolled back. He began to cough out blood.
"That's what you get, you showoff," smirked Zeke as he held his stomach. "Instructor, this match is obviously over."
"He...he... that's... right," panted Icarus as he strugglingly stood his ground.
"The match is over..." Mr. Zi waved his hand towards Icarus. "The winner of the first match is Icarus Vermillion. One point for Class Chamomile!"