"So, do you think that all of the freshmen are going to win?" Alex asked the instructors.
"The odds are in their favor. Two on one without any magic is a difficult task for anyone to succeed in." Daniel answered.
"But even with the odds stacked against them, they will try their hardest. The victors get a free upgrade on their weapons from the smithing club." Michael added in.
"Does that mean we do too?" Taylor asked.
The two instructors nodded.
"While the freshmen have an advantage of numbers, the captains and Daniel have the advantage of experience. By the way, if he had used a more lethal weapon, you guys would have been done for." Michael told the students.
"I wouldn't doubt it he moved so much faster than he did in our first spar. I'm sure he would have beaten us if he had just used nunchucks again." Taylor replied.
Daniel just smiled and rubbed his head in response. He knew he could have easily chosen a more effective weapon, he just didn't care he wanted a fight that would push all of them to their limits.
"Be careful, don't want him growing a big ego." Michael said teasing Daniel.
Dylan and Derek took the stage as the captain that they were sparring against also hopped up.
Dylan took a bo staff while Derek had two one-handed swords. One of the swords looked like it was meant for attacking while the other had a wide handguard and looked like it was meant for defense.
"That is Smith he is the captain of the weight lifting club. He is stronger than me, and he isn't even a light mage." Taylor spoke up as he saw the captain appear on the stage.
Smith was over a foot taller than Taylor and he was incredibly well built. Looking at him gave Alex the impression of looking at a human tank.
He called out to the side before catching a pair of gauntlets and equipping them.
He smiled as he pressed his fists together commencing the duel.
Alex snacked while watching the captain bullied the students. Every attack he threw had a hefty weight behind it. The two students were only able to get in an attack after that split up and attacked him from different angles.
Smith took them splitting up to his advantage, he began circling Derek and delivering a few blows.
Dylan had to chase him and get closer because the captain was stepping out of his range by the time he attacked where he previously was.
Derek was forced to attempt to block with one hand and try to attack his arms with the free one, but Smith's attack would push him back, making his attacks miss.
"They need to keep him busy." Taylor spoke up.
Alex nodded. "But they can't contest his strength, so any confrontation just means they would be pummeled."
"They need to fake him out, go in for an attack, and bail at the last moment. If he falls for it he will be defenseless for a short moment." Alex said in between sips of water.
"Oh! I think Dylan has realized what he needs to do."
Dylan's attacks, when they were on course, got deflected by the backhand of the gauntlet. Smith was barely paying any attention to him. He knew he had to use this against him.
Dylan threw out a jab with the bo staff but pulled it back at the end.
Smith's hand went out and attempted to block the staff that was heading in his direction. He paused as he didn't feel the connection he waved his hand for a moment to see if he had miscalculated the positioning of it.
When that didn't work he turned to see Dylan was already spinning. The bo staff was mere inches away from the back of his knee.
Smith charged forward hoping to mitigate the damage. Only to get slashed a few times by Derek who had taken advantage of the situation.
He had managed to protect his legs but now his arms were weakened. Smith dashed back to gain some distance. The pair didn't let up and charged towards the weakened captain. Smith attacked Derek directly knocking him back while catching Dylan's weapon in one hand. He pulled Dylan towards him and delivered a punch to his stomach.
Dylan immediately crumpled to the ground as his breath was forced out of his lungs.
"Is he out?" Taylor asked as he saw him fall.
"I don't know I can't hear the tone from this far away." Alex answered as he watched the fight.
Smith smirked and dropped the weapon that was still in his hand. He then turned to Derek who was charging towards him.
"Oooooh!" Alex couldn't help but exclaim as he watched Dylan, who had taken a full blow from Smith and gotten weakened, stood up with the bo staff in his grasp. He had pretended to be in a bad state.
He charged towards Smith with light steps and delivered a heavy blow to his side. Smith didn't know what had happened, all he knew was that the kid he had just punched with full force had gotten up immediately and knocked him down with a direct attack.
The two students immediately charged towards the captain swiftly taking him out. The crowd went into an uproar as they witnessed what had happened. Dylan smiled as his name was cheered by those who knew him. The two helped the captain back onto his feet.
"Wait a second, he defeated his hologram during the club tryouts, right?" Alex said as he realized something was up.
"That's what they said." Taylor answered.
Alex looked over to the two instructors who were holding back smiles.
"You guys know something we don't?" Alex asked seeing their expressions.
"No where did you get that idea?" Michael answered.
"Your face says it all." Alex replied not buying the answer.
"Okay fine, Dylan doesn't have an earth affinity as we had originally suspected. Well, he does but he has a merged form. We believe he has an earth and light merged affinity, what others call the wood affinity. Dylan is a nature mage." Michael confessed.
"This explains his insanely good defense and recovery time, and the reason on why his training of the earth affinity was going by so slowly." Daniel finished.
Alex looked at Dylan a look of understanding filling his face. 'He had his affinity long before I had mine. He is already very good at meditation meaning something was indeed wrong with his methods.'
"So what do you plan to do? You haven't told anyone else yet so does this mean you plan on giving him a manual for the wood affinity?" Alex asked the two.
"Yup, if word gets out he will be poached into a private school, so we provide him with everything that they can. Hopefully, you two can have a strong ally by the time it comes for you to join the tournaments." Daniel answered Alex.
"I can't wait to see how strong he will be." Taylor said before turning to look at Dylan.
The next group of students took the stage. They were going up against James.
"Well, it looks like they are gonna have a hard time." Taylor said as he saw the captain they were up against.
Alex nodded. "What's a nature mage like?" He asked as the thought crossed his mind.
"Well, they have a bit of control over both earth and light, but that control is so weak, that when they were first discovered, they were considered failures. They soon afterward discovered that they had strong control over plants. They can even speak with some, how do I saw this, 'more sentient' plants." Michael told Alex.
"Those are some really good trade-offs." Alex replied.
"Indeed, and they are some very useful abilities, but we still don't know the extent of their abilities. We only know what has been made public." Michaels said.
"As public as a twenty thousand dollar diary can get." Daniel said with a scoff.
Michael only laughed in response.
"That was too quick." Taylor said. "James must really want that free upgrade." Taylor said as the fight on the stage finished.
Alex turned back to the stage. The two students were disarmed and just now getting back up.
The four continued to watch the fights as they went on. It wasn't long until Tom was up to bat.
His opponents were none other than Ana and Janet.
"This doesn't look good for those two." Taylor said as he turned two Alex. "Who do you think will win?"
"I'm not sure it will be close, They both use swords and shields like James. It should be a natural counter to daggers but Tom has more than likely fought against James a lot, making it less effective against him." Alex replied.
Tom started the fight and the two teams charged towards each other. At first, the two were holding Tom at bay easily, but soon after he displayed his dexterity and agility to the fullest, managing to land blows around the shields that impeded him. Alex watched as Tom's arm curved around their shields and his body bent at an unnatural angle as their attacks missed his body by a hair's breadth.
"I would have pulled so many muscles trying to pull off what he just did." Alex said.
"Oh yeah, no one can do what he can without proper training." Michael replied. "I would suggest that you two work on your flexibility two. You could never know when being able to dodge like that would save your life."
Alex and Taylor nodded as they looked back at the fight. Tom was already finishing up. He had managed to win while barely taking any hits.
In the end, only three teams out of the ten freshmen were able to defeat their competitors.
"Come on let's go meet up with the rest." Michael said as the last fight was finished.
The four returned to the rest as Duncan began his final announcement. "With that said, I would like for the winners of today's fights to come with me."
"We'll see you two." Daniel said as the two students followed the rest to go collect their rewards.
Alex and Taylor threw their trash away as they entered the building.
Five of the captains headed their way.
"Hey you two, congratulations on beating the unbeatable." James said while walking over.
"We're you two snacking the whole time without us?" Tom said as he saw them throwing their trash away.
"Thanks." Alex replied to James.
"Of course not, we had a full meal we even had hamburgers without you." Taylor said trying to rile Tom up.
"I don't think a few bags of chips and candy bars are the same thing as hamburgers." Paul said as he recognized the wrappers.
"Of course they aren't, but Tom probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Who are these two?" Taylor asked to change the subject.
"I'm Henry, the head of the archery club. It's nice to meet you too I've heard a lot but have never had the chance to say hi."
Alex remembered the two, Henry used a saber stabbing through his enemy's defenses. The other captain used a halberd and was able to easily win his fight.
"I'm Charles, the captain of the armed martial arts club."
The four shook hands after introducing themselves. Alex recognized the two captains, they were present last night when he had made it to the secret base.
The other four freshmen and the last two captains grouped up with them as they followed Duncan to the forging club.
Alex felt the temperature rise as they entered a large hallway in the building. He also took notice of all of the runes on the battle outfits that the captains wore. The frost rune was being powered as a temperature-sensitive rune sensed the heat, flipping a rune switch and powering the frost rune, cooling the captains down.
'Those are really too cool.' Alex thought as he began to think about creating his own.
The group came up to a door. Duncan pulled out a key and opened the door. The students were in awe as they saw the room. Several furnaces were scattered throughout the room. Loud clanking noises were heard as students slammed hammers on burning lumps of metal. The metal was then soaked in a vat of liquids as sizzling sounds were heard.
On a table, Alex could see the weapon that he had used on his first day here. He also saw Taylor's and what he could guess were the rest of the student's weapons.
Alex went quiet as he thought about what he would like to change about his chain blades while the rest of the freshmen were wondering why their weapons were lying there.
The captains smiled as they began to imagine how cool they were going to look as they held their new and improved weapons.
The anticipation rising as they got closer and closer to the center of the room.