Azemo was not in the first bout of the tournament so he had plenty of time to get anxious. Most people who had signed up for the competition actually knew how to use a spear and the ones who had made it this far seemed quite skilled.
Azemo could probably overpower them with sheer strength but he thought that doing so would get him the wrong type of teacher. He didn't want to learn a strength based style of spear fighting so he needed to show he was compatible with other types.
At the moment two trainees were fighting and Azemo decided to observe them for a bit. One was wearing green and the other yellow so they were easy to tell apart. Neither of them were moving very much to Azemo's surprise. They were just standing still trading spear thrusts. It was like they thought if they moved their feet they would lose.
The reason for their fighting style at the moment was probably exhaustion. The two fighting were the last to exit the maze and they had needed to use up all their energy just to quality.
This fight calmed down Azemo a bit, maybe the first few fights wouldn't be that difficult. After all he was confident in out performing the two currently fighting. After a while green actually took a step and was able to push yellow off balance winning the fight.
The next bout was between numbers 203 and 31, and this fight was at a much higher level. 203 was on the smallish side so he was dancing around thrusting his spear with quick bursts of speed. On the other side 31 was blocking attacks and going for wide swings with his spear. The two were pretty evenly matched until 31 used a skill to trip 203.
In the tournament skills were not banned, luckily for Azemo because he needed his tome to cast (skill) Incognito, but they were frowned upon. Using a skill might raise one's ranking but ruin one's chance to get a top tier teacher.
Next up it was Azemo's turn. His first opponent was a tall scrawny girl with auburn hair. As the match started Azemo quickly realized it would be a contest of speed as the girl quickly thrust towards him.
Azemo nimbly dodged but couldn't think of a way to use his spear as he jumped away. The spears they were using were heavy wooden training spears so Azemo was not very able with them.
The girl noticed Azemo's lack of attacks and took it to mean that she had Azemo on the back foot. She continued to unleash stab after stab but Azemo nimbly dodged every single strike like he was having a picnic. Azemo's problem was that he could not figure out how to dodge and attack with the spear effectively and he didn't want to look foolish if he attacked weirdly.
As Azemo dodged attack after attack the girl started to get frustrated and her once precise attacks became wild and erratic.
'Just a little bit more.' Thanks to his lack of training Azemo had decided to try and tire out the girl and finish the fight that way.
The more Azemo dodged the angrier the girl got and slowly but surely her stamina started to fade. Finally Azemo saw his chance after a particularly wide, slow swing. He ducked under the strike and shoved the point of the wooden spear against the girls throat ending the duel.
In a new vantage point the young looking girl was chuckling to herself. "He has no idea how to use a spear so he was forced to only dodge. What a riot. Still he showed a good base if he only knew how to swing a spear."
Even though Azemo had shown himself to be rather bad with a spear, his strategy still managed to impress the girl a little. "Now I just have to hope he doesn't pick up any bad habits from one of those idiots." The girl muttered to herself before going back to watch the competition.
At the moment number 101 was demolishing number 274. 101 was obviously skilled with the spear as he was throwing out quick thrusts, opening 274's defense before going for more killer attacks. 274 never had the chance to throw out an attack of her own because she was eliminated after thirty seconds.
For the last fight of the first round a large young man was faced off with a tall lad. The tall competitor was landing attack after attack but the large man refused to go down. He just took every hit and waited for an opening. After a while he found the perfect time to attack and won the fight with one blow. While it took a little longer than 101 the big man was able to win through brute strength alone.
After the first round was over the imposing female instructor spoke up again. "Number 101 you get a buy for the second round since you won in the quickest and most convincing manner."
She paused glancing over the remaining contestants before pointing at green. "12 you will fight 31 and 301 you got 214."
Of course Azemo was paired up with the walking mountain.
The fight between 31 and 12 went just as expected. 12 was too tired to move much so 31 exploited this quickly winning the fight. It wasn't very interesting to watch and Azemo noticed a lot of spectators yawning.
However the spectators woke up when they saw the pairing for the next match, they wanted to see Azemo get torn apart.
Azemo had some semblance of a plan after watching 214's last duel. As soon as the match started Azemo went on the offensive, using limited footwork he unleashed a great many stabs.
Like last time 214 did not try to block but instead allowed the strikes to hit him. But different from last time 214 began to feel some pain. Azemo's stabs were all directed at weak points all over 214's body and 214 began to stumble. Using his knowledge from (technique) Puncture, Azemo knew all the soft spots to attack. After a couple of nasty thrusts to the knee caps 214 was brought down and Azemo won the fight.
"Okay you were slightly faster than 31 so you can sit out for the next round." The instructor yelled at Azemo before setting up the fight between 31 and 101.
As for the young girl she couldn't help but admire Azemo's precise targeting. "If only he could properly thrust with a spear."
Azemo watched the fight between 31 and 101 with interest. Both sides seemed pretty strong but Azemo could tell that 101 had the upper hand. Even though 31 was using a skill that sent attacks at 101's back they never hit. 101 twirled his spear blocking attacks in front and behind of him.
31 was not the worst spearman, so seeing that his skill wasn't working he began to attack ferociously with his spear. 101 still managed to block these more formidable attacks and even got in a couple attacks of his own.
While this fight was not as decisive as 101's first battle it was plain to see that he was slowly whittling down his opponent. Anyone who was paying close attention could tell that 101 was conserving his strength and that was why the fight was taking so long. 101 wanted to be at one hundred percent for his fight with Azemo.
After a couple more trades 101 was ready to end the fight. He kept twirling his spear before swung it so that it carved a line from 31's stomach to his neck.
"Ok 101 I will give you ten minutes to rest, so be sure to make the finals interesting."
The instructor obviously thought that 101 would win the last fight but she wanted to see a wider variety of his skills. If she was going to be his teacher she wanted to know more of his arsenal of attacks.
The implication of her words was not lost on Azemo but he didn't really care. He didn't want that super scary lady to be his teacher anyways. He would later regret this thought because his future teacher made this instructor look like a mewling kitten.