[POV: Cedric Hel]
"Yahoo no more boring classes" I could hear Shino say out loud when we were on our way to the changing room to change into training clothes.
"We still have a combat class after this," I said to him.
"Oww come on Ceddie. Aren't combat classes more fun than regular classes"
"This isn't even our first combat class so what're you excited about?" I asked curiously when seeing him feeling excited.
"Arman said that we might have a chance to spar with a senior today" Shino answered directly. Arman Kiba is Shino's cousin, who is currently a fourth-year student.
"So?"
"Aren't you excited Ceddie? We can see how strong our classmates are" he asked me.
"Not really," I said uninterested.
"Don't you feel curious? Most of our classmates are not from Hargan Intermediary Academy like us and we know almost nothing about them. Don't you want to see if you're really the strongest one in our class" Shino said with a hint to taunt me.
What Shino said was true since HGA was an elite academy where its students came from all over the empire.
"What do you mean?" I still asked.
"I've said it before, that our current ranking is meaningless. It's just HGA's estimation of us based on many factors. Those who were homeschooled have different evaluation tests from HGA and they have never been tested physically so how can you be so sure you're the strongest, especially someone from a family like Zanuki is in our class. That prince also cannot be underestimated" Shino said reminding me to not be conceited.
"Fine. We'll see" I said agreeing with him.
"Ok let's go Ceddie" he quickly dragged me towards the first-year training ground.
A few minutes later, we arrived at the training ground where all the partitions that were usually there were put away. Before, there were dozens of partitions making smaller training spaces on the training ground where each student enter one of the partitions and started combat training using a visual reality system. There's also a metal combat dummy inside each partition that students can use as a punching bag or sparring object. This way the student can practice any arts they knew or have learnt without worrying about people around them.
Because of that, each student didn't know what their other classmates' training looked like and the instructors would not leak their information. The instructors would also check on the students one by one before giving them some guidance and tips while correcting the students' mistakes. However, today seems a little bit different without those partitions.
"Damn it's really today. Arman said that he knew about this from Sir Mayulu since Sir Mayulu is his club advisor" Shino said to me while looking around the training ground. It seems like most of our classmates have arrived.
"So who is that senior?" I asked.
"I have also asked that to Arman but Sir Mayulu didn't want to tell him the name. He just said that seniors have to help Sir Mayulu in one of his combat classes as a punishment for breaking the floor of the second year training ground" Shino replied nonchalantly.
"He sounds strong if he was able to break the training floor," I said while tapping my foot on the training ground floor.
The training floor was made up of strong coarse marble stones that aren't aesthetically pretty to be produced as decorations or pieces of jewellery. Even though those marbles stones looked dull and ugly, their hardness wasn't something to be scoffed at.
Some said, to break the marble floor in the training room, you have to use both mana and aura, condensing them in one point and using the force to break the floor. Someone capable of doing that clearly was strong but this method never proved to be effective.
"Yeah I think so but I don't think Sir Mayulu will be that cruel to us and maybe he will put some restriction on that senior" Shino commented while looking towards the training ground entrance where Sir Mayulu and Sir Danim, our combat class instructors walked in with a tall red hair guy wearing dark maroon training clothes.
"Guys, let's move to the arena first before I explain today's lesson plan," Sir Mayulu said before walking towards the arena area situated not far from the training ground.
The arena looked like a mini-amphitheatre or colosseum with a stage or arena in the middle with viewers' seats surrounding the stage in a circle shape. The students sit down and wait for Sir Mayulu or Sir Danim to talk.
"Today, we planned to have you have a friendly spar with your second year senior for you to feel the real fighting" Sir Mayulu said after seeing us all have sat down properly.
"Damn, he's a Zanuki. We're screwed"
"Why must it be him when there are so many other students to choose from?"
"Can I just watch?"
The students started to murmur among themselves after hearing what Sir Mayulu have said. The red hair guy didn't look bothered at all by the students' talking about him but Sir Danim was the one who seem pissed off.
Seeing the tall red hair guy, I instinctively glanced toward another red hair guy as if comparing the two of them. I wasn't the only one who did that since a few other students also did the same thing.
"Oh, now I know why they said Ares is a Zanuki *bastard. He looks a bit different than his cousin" Shino said lightly.
*(bastard = illegitimate child)
Comparing the red hair guy who was standing beside Sir Danim with Ares, the only similarities between them were the colour of their hair if you ignored Ares's silver hair. That red hair that looked like blood, was said to be the symbol of Zanuki descendants.
However when you looked at their body stature then they didn't look related to each other at all. Ares was considered tall but he was only around 1.8m tall with slender body stature whereas the other guy was obviously around 2m tall with a huge body built like a hunk with obvious muscle underneath his cloth.
"How do you know that is his cousin?" I asked curiously. Even though both of them are Zanuki, that didn't mean they were family.
"A lot of people have been talking about Ares since he came to HGA and it has been confirmed that he is the current Zanuki matriarch's youngest grandson and another male Zanuki whose still studying in HGA is also the grandson of that matriarch. Which means Ares and that guy are cousins." Shino explained clearly.
Other than Shino, the other students also seemed to be discussing among themselves and made the surrounding area a bit noisy.
"Shut up. Stop babbling like cowards since they won't be anyone who will die today. To make it fair, your senior will not attack you and will focus mainly on defence, no weapon will be used and he only has three chances to counter-attack" Sir Danim said clearly in a loud voice and all the murmuring quieted down.
"We do this for you to reflect and think properly about your way of attacking, making use of pure physical strength and your defensive capability. Those who can use aura may use aura but those who can't, don't worry since your senior will not be using his aura at all. He will also be restricted on not being able to use mana. Those who use mana, just use it to strengthen or improve your physical abilities such as agility and dexterity. Please don't use any offensive or defensive spells since your senior's mana has been restricted by this mana restriction bracelet" Sir Mayulu explained and show us a black thick metal bracelet worn by the red-haired guy.
"So now we will choose a few of you to spar with him for five minutes each person. I want at least 10 people to spar with him today" Sir Danim said sternly.
While I was listening to Sir Danim, suddenly I felt someone lift my arm and before I managed to say anything I heard Sir Mayulu say, "Ok first volunteer is Cedric and Shino. So who else? You will take the number of your turn randomly later."
"What?" I asked Shino feeling dumbfounded.
"What what? Isn't this our purpose for today's combat class? We fight that guy ourselves and then we compare it to our classmates based on their performances when fighting that guy. Since we've experienced him first hand, we can kind of estimate the others' strength better right" Shino explained to me.
"You're quite quick on this kind of thing aren't you?"
"Of course"
Later the class spend almost 20 minutes filling all the 10 slots to spar with the senior. However, to Shino's disappointment, both Ares and Prince Theo didn't participate in the spar and just sit quietly like bystanders.
"So what is your turn?" I asked Shino after we got our numbers. Currently, the first student has gone down towards the stage.
"I'm number 9. You?"
"I'm number 8 and who is that lucky last person?" I said while gazing around trying to take a peek at other students' numbers.
"Who cares. I just wanted to see our classmates' strength so whatever the sequence is doesn't matter" he said focusing on only a single thing.
"Fine" I replied before glancing at two figures sitting quietly not far away from my seat.
The two persons that I felt most curious about since the other students kept on mentioning their names, didn't get the chance to spar with the senior thus I felt a bit disappointed.
"Now start!"
The first spar started and the male student started to attack him head-on and the red hair guy easily defended. Seeing that the guy doesn't seem to counter-attack, the male student quickly attacked with more confidence and after a few more attacks, without a warning, the red-haired guy suddenly punched that student's gut and kicked him out of the arena.
"2 minutes 30 seconds. Gerald can you stand up?" asked Sir Danim while he didn't seem worried at all.
"Yes sure," Gerald answered weakly while trying to stand up before he was helped by two healers on standby.
"Ok while Gerald is being treated, I will comment on Gerald's performance. First, he hesitated on his attack, second, he doesn't even care about his defence and just focuses on attacking and lastly no planning whatsoever but just a bunch of mindless attacks. That's why, when attacking, you also have to take care of the gaps around your body lest your opponent will take the opportunity on those gaps to give you a surprise attack like just now. Gerald has a lot of gaps when he's attacking thus it's easy to counter-attack. Do you hear me, Gerald? Reflect more later" Sir Danim explained clearly.
"Next student," Sir Mayulu said.
The performance of each student didn't seem too shocking to me since most of them were intimidated by the red hair guy and they had never faced real combat until now thus I could see Shino yawning a few times while watching the spar.
"Alright now student number 8"
Finally, it was my turn.
"Good luck Ceddie," Shino said to me while patting my shoulder and watching me walk towards the arena.
Currently, the red hair guy was drinking mineral water but not even a drop of sweat could be seen on him and he didn't even look tired after facing 7 people straight.
"Start!"
I didn't quickly attack but assessed my opponent for a few seconds before I sprinted to close the gaps between us and kicked his right gut which he quickly defended with his hand.
Unlike when fighting monsters where I could just use brute strength without strategizing much, fighting humans was different. Human's ability to adapt and assimilate, made humans the top predators in the world since humans could kill creatures that were bigger and stronger than them.
Not wasting any time, I tried to punch his chin, and jaw before kicking his leg which almost made him stumbled. For the first time, the red hair guy didn't manage to stay still like with the previous students where he is like an unmovable mountain.
Seeing that his head is lowered a little bit, I tried to kick his head but failed since my leg was almost got caught. I decided to continue the same tactic and quickly retreat when the red hair guy showed a hint to counterattack.
From his previous fights, he didn't bother to counterattack much and focused mostly on defence.
I used a bit of holy power and mana in each of my attacks to amplify the strength of the attacks and it seemed to be working.
When its already the fourth minute, I jumped a bit and try to elbow the red guy's neck, but unfortunately, my hand was caught before I managed to retreat and was thrown out of the arena.
Bang!! Crack
Fweet!!!!
I crashed into one of the seats below the arena and there was a loud cracking sound due to t the impact. Sir Mayulu quickly blew his whistle signalling the end of the spar before quickly going to take a look at me.
"Tsk, he purposely throw him here" I heard a voice said in a flat tone.
A slight chuckle also came from the same direction.
While still twitching in pain, I glanced towards the seat not far from where I was thrown and saw two guys, one red-haired and one silver grey-haired looking at me indifferently.
"Hey Ceddie, are you ok?" Before I knew it, Shino already arrived beside me.
"Yeah I'm ok" I answered seemingly in pain. There were bruises on my body due to the impact. I looked like a mess.
"Here drink this potion and later we will give you some creams and lotion for you to apply on when you're resting in your room," said the healer who was currently treating me.
The bruises on my body vanished in an instant but some of my bones might have broken.
"Your bone will be fine in a few days. Go to the infirmary if you want to check if you've fully recovered" the healer said before leaving us and going to take a look at the red hair guy since my attack seems to have some effect on him.