"For those of you who couldn't finish, you will focus on your physical fitness until I decide you are ready. 10 laps around the arena. Go," Gilroy commanded, and fearing him, the students complied, withholding their groans as they began their run.
The training arena had a circumference of about 500 meters as multiple fights were often held at once, so the already exhausted students had to do another 5km of running.
Watching them struggle, Delta realised that the system hadn't given him a stat point for doing the swings, so he reasoned that since he had ranked up, increasing his stats would become much more difficult than before.
"As for those of you who remain, pick yourselves up and line up on the line. We'll begin with some classic King of the Court sparring matches. Starting with you two," he said, pointing at a pair of boys on the far end.
Of the 40 or so students taking this Close Combat class, 12 had succeeded, and the other's had failed to swing their weapons 500 times.
The duo stepped forwards, standing in front of each other awkwardly whilst waiting for further orders.
"What are you waiting for? FIGHT!"
Burst into action by the sudden yell, both boys sprung into action, beginning the battle with the dull clang of weapons clashing awkwardly. Whilst both boys had gotten relatively used to using the weapons, neither of them were proficient enough with their swords to provide even a half-decent fight, and soon enough, the battle simply descended to cheap blows, jabs and low kicks at whatever opportunity presented itself.
Gilroy sighed as the boys grappled each other to the ground, their weapons left strewn on the floor as they fought to pin the other one, and after what felt like an age of cheap wrestling, the taller one finally won, jumping up in triumph as he looked to Gilroy in glee.
"You even call that a fight? I've seen bar brawls better than that, and those guys were blacking out from the alcohol! Both of you, go join the running group. You'll join them in their basic training too."
The boy who had won moved to say something, but seeing the sharp glare of Gilroy, he quickly shut himself up, resigning himself to his fate.
"Now can we have the next two. And actually, fight this time, will you?"
Delta had been standing 6th from the first boy, but now he was 4th, meaning he would be fighting soon.
The next two fighters seemed slightly more mature than their predecessors, gripping their swords with slightly more confidence as they stood before each other.
The one on the left was tall and quite tanned, but he didn't seem too confident with the greatsword in his hands.
Opposite him, however, stood a much shorter girl with her hair tied back and 2 wooden daggers in her hands.
Judging solely from how perfectly balanced she was poised, Delta could already tell that she would win the fight.
Showing their respect, both of them bowed to each other before preparing themselves for the fight.
"Begin!"
And with that, the fight began.
Jumping forwards as soon as the command was given, the girl quickly ran forwards, her eyes flicking around as she chose her target.
The large boy responded by bringing his sword up and swinging it towards her, slashing out horizontally as he tried to swat her to the ground, but she anticipated this.
Not losing her momentum, she slid underneath the great sword, sliding through her opponent's legs before flipping onto her feet and leaping onto the boy's back, her weapon poised towards the boy's throat.
Gilroy and the Sword King began clapping, and the students who were running around were chatting excitedly with each other, stopping their run to watch.
Seeing this, Gilroy turned around and yelled, "the hell are you looking at? Get running or I'll drag you for 10 laps!"
After that, everyone got back to their assignments, and the larger boy stepped out of the arena, massaging his shoulder where the girl had grabbed on.
From watching the fight, Delta could tell the girl was either talented or put in a lot of effort, or maybe even both, so her next adversary shouldn't be too hard.
Just as Delta had predicted, the next boy quickly tapped out of the fight after being pinned to the floor, and the girl remained King of the Arena.
"Sorry I'm late, Sir. I got held up by Vergum's training," a familiar voice came from the doorway.
"Ah, Arthur, you're here. Come join the class," the Sword King said, smiling warmly.
Looking at the students in the row, Arthur walked over to Delta, standing besides him.
"Ready for me to wipe the floor with you?"
"I'm ready to see you try." Delta replied.
"Well you better get up there then."
Looking at Arthur carefully, Delta saw that he seemed to have had a great start into the Initiate I rank, and he'd probably rank up within the next few months.
"Well, boy, hurry up and get onto the arena, or I'll disqualify you now," Gilroy said.
"It's fine, wonder boy, I wouldn't want to fight me either," the girl said, pulling a face.
Smiling, Delta stepped onto the field, brandishing the heavy longsword he had chosen and preparing himself for battle.
The girl crouched down a little, preparing to end the battle quickly.
"Fight!"
Taking the initiative, the girl jumped forwards, pressuring Delta as much as she could.
"You're quicker than I thought," Delta said, ducking and weaving between attacks with ease as he avoided every attack that came towards him.
"How is the School Genius being overwhelmed by a little girl?" She trash talked, beginning to sweat as Delta continued to evade her attacks.
"Your minute grace period is up now, little girl. Prepare to lose."
As the next attack came in, Delta took the hilt of his sword and smashed it into the side of her elbow, diverting her attack to miss Delta whilst turning her back towards him.
Moving smoothly, Delta swiped his leg out and knocked her over, pressing the blade of the sword to her head.
"Fantastic battle, both of you. Delta wins this match. Lee, go stand on the side."
Lee glared at Delta for a second before turning and walking off the arena.
"Arthur. You now. Give Delta here a run for his money."
"Trust me sir, I plan on doing nothing less," Arthur replied, grinning at Delta.
"Oh? Do your worst."
With that, the pair stood in front of each other again, readying themselves for a fight. Delta decided to limit his own strength to the same as Arthur as he already knew he was physically stronger, but he needed to refine his skill instead.
"Fight!"
Controlling his strength, Delta leapt forwards, meeting Arthur in the middle of the battlefield and clashing swords with him.
Arthur pushed forwards, trying to gain ground, but Delta was completely unmovable, so he changed tact, bringing his sword back and darting it around Delta's defence, aiming for his sides.
Delta read this, bringing his own sword up to block it before kicking out towards Arthur's stomach, forcing him to retreat.
"You're better than you look, Delta."
"Enough with the talk."
Delta rushed forwards, bringing the weapon down towards Arthur's head before turning it slightly, aiming for his leg instead.
In response, Arthur leapt up, jumping onto Delta's sword before leaping round to kick him in the face.
Delta barely managed to duck the blow, falling back a little as Arthur began his onslaught.
At first, Delta was tempted to drop the sword and dominate the fight with his hand to hand combat, but he chose against it. There was no point in these lessons if he didn't practise his sword skills, even if it meant he struggled.
Arthur slashed out repeatedly, aiming for any hit he could land on the defensive Delta, landing a few nicks every once in a while, but nothing he hit was damaging enough to end the fight.
Delta didn't really have any actual idea as to how to fight with a sword, and was currently running on pure instincts, trying to focus on minimising the amount of movement in each attack.
The battle raged on as both Delta and Arthur pressed forwards, landing nicks and blows against each other and slowly wearing each other out. At this rate, Delta knew he would win, as he had a higher [Endurance] stat than Arthur did, unless Arthur did something special. Which he did.
Arthur leapt up into the air, swinging the weapon down to take Delta out in a single blow, but Delta sidestepped it, bringing his sword up to meet Arthur's side. Instead of getting hit, however, Arthur swivelled his body in the air, turning his boy 360 degrees and bringing the sword round to hit Delta.
Seeing that he couldn't avoid the would-be lethal blow, Delta released the constraints he had put on his stats, grabbing the sword out of the air and ripping it downwards, kneeing Arthur in the stomach as he fell and putting his blade to Arthur's throat, forcing him to concede.
"An impressive battle, both of you," Gilroy said, clapping as he spoke. Most of the students running had stopped to watch, and even the Sword King seemed to be enjoying it.
"Delta wins." Gilroy announced.
Whilst Delta had officially won the battle, inside he knew that it was his loss. He had needed to rely on superior stats to win the fight, meaning Arthur's swordsmanship was stronger than his. If that had been a real battle, and Delta hadn't been so much stronger, his head would have been rolling across the floor.
Fuelled with a newfound respect for Arthur, Delta walked over and helped him up, saying, "You fought well, Side Character. I nearly lost that battle."
"How the hell did you even get that strong?"
"A lot of training?"
"..."
A short silence graced the room before Arthur said as he pointed at the other students, "I'll step off now. It appears you have some eager challengers."
"Let's begin the next battle, shall we?" Gilroy said.