After their warm up session,lvy herd the group of exhausted trainees back inside the main building for their main training section,barely giving them enough rest to calm their racing heart.
"Ah right!I forgot to introduce myself.I am Amelia !What is your name?"The cheerful Amelia asked and peered at the silver haired child walking ahead of them expectantly.
"I am Layla Albrecht,nice to meet you."The silver hair girl in question answered Amelia and with a polite nod and smiles as she turn her head back to the front,leaving a awkward Amelia who wanted to continue the conversation.
"Sighs,I guess kids these days aren't all rainbow and sunshine…"Amelia sighs and muttered her disappointment,Layla was also very adorable in her opinion and reminded her of her younger siblings just as much as Liam does.
"Hahah…Sorry Amelia,Layla doesn't trust other she met at first ,but I am sure it will change over time like she did with me."Liam explained and tried to cheered her up.
"I see…wait !you two have known each other before you came here?"Amelia questioned as she squinted her eyes and even Gareth perked his ear up to listened to the story of their meeting.
Liam nodded and describle their encounter and experiences during the few days of traveling together without mentioning the lich of course,it was not his place to tell.
Gasp!
"That is so sweet!A fated encountered under the starry night between two strangers who turned into traveling companion and slowly becoming something mu－"Amelia yelped in pain before finishing her fantasized version of Liam tales.
"Stop teasing Liam,it is rude..."Gareth gave his lecture while patting the whimpering Amelia with the same hand he used to smack her head ,his eyes soften as he tried comfort her.
Liam suddenly felt as if it is best to leave the two alone for their own good and with a knowing smiles towards them ,he walked towards Layla instead.
"Layla,why don't you try talking with others as well?"Liam inquired after catching up to her.
"I don't want to,simple as that."Layla sighed inward while showing her usual indifferent expression outside.She can barely looked at the people behind them with her emotion and mind in turmoil.
She knows she is feeling guilty about all the possible mess she will left behind to them once her role here is done so befriending these people is the last thing she will do.
As the memories of her father and siblings surface,she was reminded of the importance of her mission."I can't mess this up..."she clench her fist tighter to steel her resolve.
"I see...well just relaxed a little bit,no need to hold it all it by yourself if there is something wrong."Layla glance at Liam,who was smiling and encouraging her without a care in the world.
She let a small smile form on her face,even if what he said was ignorant for her situation.It was still nice to see that carefree smile and hear his words of encouragement.As little effect as it seems they will have on the course of their future.
Soon they arrived at a indoor facility on the fifth floor,the entire floor was made for the sole purpose of training them just like the backyard.
But unlike the yard,the walls were lined with benches, metal barbells ,racks and various metallic plates.
Some of the trainnee can't help but groan at the sight of the equipment even after a week of the same training.Most of the normal cadet were either commoners teenager with bare minimum trainings in their physique from farming and running errands or were less wealthy merchant's children that doesn't have the backing of a noble to save their children from enlistment.
The latter obviously complained and groan much more often than the former,but even the commoners still frowned at the heavy equipment used for training.They have barely began their careers in farming and there is a vast difference in training as a solider for combat than as a farmer.
"Make a pair of two and start your sets of upper body training I assigned to you before,spot each other in rotation and do your stretches!!Don't make me hear a soul screaming about a sprained elbow again!"Ivy clapped her hands and urge them to start their session.
"And you!No handy breathing techniques this time!" Liam winced at her mentions,they both knew it was for a emergency but liam guessed for her role she still have to show that his action was improper.
Afterwards,Liam and Layla received their personal training regiments and was grouped together for convenience of instructing the new Comers together later.
"Let's go pretty boy"Layla smirked and tapped his shoulder and walked to a set of benches and racks of heavy plates.
Liam groaned her teasing,he can't be that frail looking right?Liam thought as he glanced back and forth between Layla and his physiques while removing a few plates to attached on the barbells later.
But soon he sighs in defeat as she remove her black officer jacket and revealed a body toned and refined with years worth of training as a warrior.
Her well defined physiques made other boys widen their eyes in utter disbelief,but a glare from Ivy made them returned their senses to continue their training.But the dreamy image of a cute,frail and soft maiden was shattered into dust in their mind.
Liam does the same with his jacket and start their training together.And as expected without spells and knowledge about weight lifting with these equipment,Liam can barely lift half of what she does and she did so seemingly with ease as well.
After a dozen minutes of struggling and groaning, Layla and ivy came together to teach him the basics and different forms of lifting before he manage to injury himself.In the process of that Liam swiftly learnt and implemented the techniques they taught and soon gotten the hang of it.
lvy and layla nodded in satisfaction,although he is far from satisfactory for a officer's physical poweress.Ivy believed it will only takes a year or two before he manage to catch up in strength with his talents and some patience.
"Good work Liam."Liam smiles at the compliments,he stretches his limbs with layla after the session,his body were sore and he is sure it will be aching for a good few days.But for him the satisfaction of finishing a hard training was nice without a doubt.
"I learnt from the best,toughest girl there is after all."Liam couldn't help but tease her back for all the time she called him a pretty boy during the training and smirked in satisfaction.
pffft!
Instead of a retort as he would expected,a clean melodious laugher full of spirit danced their way into his eardrum.Liam puffed his cheeks as he gaze toward her in confusion and frustration.
Layla laughs as she leaned on a heavy barbell rack next to them,droplets of sweat formed on her forehead glinted from the smoothing afternoon sunlight pierced through the thin glass panels.
Her long streaks of silver hair shakes in rhythm with her laughter,it seems to shines brilliantly at this moment as if sensing her joyful mood and spirit.Her laughter which rang like the clean melody from a small,well crafted welcome bell along with the look she have at the moment kept him in a daze.
"Alrite! break time is over!We don't have all day let's move!"Liam snapped out of his daze from the loud shouts of ivy,he quickly shook his head to clear out his clouding thoughts and calm his rapidly beating heart.
"Liam?you okay?"Layla calmed down soon after the shout and finally took noticed of his odd behaviors and the small tinge of pink that swell on his face.It made her frown in worry,so she lay her hand on his forehead to see if something was wrong.
"I am fin-ne,let's go Layla."Liam gently took her hands off his forehand for fear of loosing his cool if this continues on,he let go of her hand but took notice of how warm it felt in that split moment.
Layla nodded even if she still felt as if something doesn't seems right.Afterward,Every pair group back up and start being leaded outside of the building again,many were dragging their feet in exhaustion and trying their hardest to swallow their complaint.
Soon,they arrived back at the backyard of their school and made their way towards a clearing with mutiple rings of the same size contained in it.Each was the size of a fighting ring in a stadium big enough for a group of participants to fight in it.
The edge of the rings was covered in a encirclment of curved white stone,a number of carved runes on them showed that they were artifact with some form of function.
"For today,we will only let the officer cadet fight each other inorder to give you guys some references to improved upon and get you spoiled brats to get used to the idea of fighting with your life on the line."Ivy paused and looked at her student to make sure they understand her instructions.
"The officers will form a pair and fight with this artifact that will protect their bodies and show the damage they receive from each attack,each section of the body part that received sufficient damaged will glow progressively from green to red.Any critical body part that grew red will signal their sparrinng partner's defeats,other parts will instead be put out of commission temporarily by a implemented paralysis spell."Ivy grabs a black collar from her storage ring and tossed it up and down for everyone to see.
"Remember what a Sparring is meant for ,so don't go crazy to injury your opponents during the sections.Or the offender will be punished accordingly."After that last warning, ivy arrange the group of offcier cadet into two different rings and also have them the collared shape artifact to put on.
"This seems fun!Gareth let's go for a round,I will be gentle!"Gareth visibly paled at the overly excited amelia's suggestion.For a few different reasons he would rather avoid a fight against the cheerful battlemage that can pummel her opponent in a rain of spells and heavy sword strikes.
"Any volunteers for the first round?"Ivy looks at the group of officers cadet who is still arguing among themselves for a simple Sparring match and sighed in frustration.
"If not I wil-"
"I will do it,captain ivy."Colin who was silent during the whole session until this moment suggested,his gaze lingered on Liam for a good few seconds.
"I would like cadet Liam Massoutré to be my first opponent as well if it is acceptable."Gareth and Amelia frown at his choice of opponents,they understand what he is trying to do.To humiliated Liam who was the only pure range fighter in this fight by defeating him utterly.
Liam shrugged at his petty behaviors,it was just a simple Sparring match.Even if colin decided to go hard on him during the fight,Ivy will always stepped in to stop him.
"Is that okay for you cadet liam?"Ivy squinted her large round eyes at Colin suspiciously and turned her gaze towards Liam.She is far from stupid and understood that everytime someone like colin would picked a specific opponet would be if his opponent were a range fighter.And it would be dangerous for Liam who were much younger and undeveloped to fight against a out of control Colin who was a excellent swordsmen in this small stadium."
"I am okay with it,captain ivy."Liam answered without hesitation which made Ivy sighed in defeat.She would just have to stop it at the right moment before anything goes wrong.The artifact isn't invulnerable by any mean and would break with continuous powerful attacks.
"Liam, be careful"Just as he was about to stepped into the stage,Layla grabbed his arm and reminded him in concern.She can tell the brute were not an easy opponent even for her in a head on confrontation.
"I will be fine Layla,relaxed and enjoy the show."Liam smiles and winked at her,a multitude of plans were already brewed in his mind.
Soon,both Liam and Colin had their respective weapon drawn out from their storage device.Other than a his bow and a quiver equiped on his back,a sheathed sword was also strapped to his belt as a sidearm.
Colin were equipped with a one handed sword that were longer than it should be,resembling a shorter claymore that a knight would use in two hand.In his other hand were a medium steel shield with the crest of the Echela on it.The golden stag shone brilliantly under the blinding ray of sun.
"Ready!"Ivy shouted and watches as the both of them raised their weapon,ready for the coming battle at anytime.A blue aura mana shield stretched out from the thin collar on their neck and surronded their body.
"Go!"At the shout of her signal,They both dashed into action.Colin raised his shield infront of him as he dashed after Liam at the other side.
"Agility boost"Liam created the spell's specific formation in his mind as a magic circle flickered to life in the mid section of his thigh and calve and activate it in a mental commend
Simple spells below B rank ,like this D ranked utility spell doesn't require any incantation and can be activated as long as the castor knows how to create the magic formation that decide the spell's usage,size,power and shapes etc in his mind along with a mental commend.
He can feel his thighs and calve empowered by the spells as he swiftly moved across the rings.
Picking a few arrow out of his quiver,liam start his own assault by using infusing the flame arrow spell into them and firing them at the charging knight.
Colin raises his shield to block the incoming valley of arrows,unable to imagine that they will do much harm even if they are infused with spells.
Boom!!!
A series of explosion covered Colin's figure after the arrow made contact with his shield.Everyone including Layla who haven't seen him uses spells before was shocked at the power of his attacks.
Ivy stare in disbelief at the erupting flame,she recongized the spell,it was almost exactly the same C ranked flame arrow spells that the mage she have seen used except that it was unleashed by arrows and not spawn from it's magic formation.
Just as she was about to stop the bout in fear of Colin's artifact losing its function from the barrage of heavy explosion.Colin figure charged through the cloud of smoke and flame straight at Liam,his shield was marked by the explosion and the aura on his torso,legs and arm turned green from the damage they received.
"Just as I thought"Liam grimace at the lack of damage his spell caused as he kept firing arrows after arrows at his pursuer in hope of stalling him and giving him more space to escape to.
Ivy and the officers were surprised by the lack of damage colin received but soon saw the thin layer of aura that spread out from his steel shield.Understanding that he must have used the swordsmen's exclusive aura ability to minimize the effect of liam's spell.
"Stop running away,you little shit!"Colin cursed in his mind as he was led around the ring like a enraged bull being toyed with. Everytime he manage to close the distance somewhat,Liam would blast him with flame arrows which cover his view completely in smokes and flames.
And everytime he run through the wall of explosion,Liam would already be at a great distance again in another direction.
Veins soon popped on his head as the same scenario plays out mutiple time.He was fuming with anger and frustration,his goal of humiliating Liam completely backfired on him.Now even if he defeat Liam,everyone will remember these moments of him being lead around like a dumb beast.
"Nice!!Way to go Liam !"Amelia cheered and wave her little fists in celebration while Gareth were appreciating his strategic and fluid positioning and spell poweress.
Layla smiles at the scene, reliefed that Liam isn't in danger and amazed that he was hiding such abundance of skills and power.The way he position himself and escape with excellent footwork and his strategy was sound as well.
But layla and the others including the two combatant noticed one big problem at this point,after a few minutes of battering Colin with his spells.Liam's movement became more sluggish,a sign of mana exhaustion.
No matter how talented he is for his age,his mana core storage simple cant have enough mana to keep this strategy up before Colin's were recognized by the artifact to be dead.Most of his body section was still only colored green with a hue of yellow.At worst his leg is almost a full yellow colour but it will not be long before he register too much damage to move.
Grin!
After a few moment,Colin grinned as he managed to cut liam's retreat off with superior speed and was about to landed a decisive blow at Liam neck with a clean swing of his sword.Liam swiftly threw his bow back into his storage space and pull out his sword to intercept the attack.
It was a curved blade with a single sharp edge,a scimitar to be exact.And Liam blocked the incoming strike,trying to deflect it by absorbing as much momentum of the heavy strike as possible with his footwork.
"I got you now, you little rat!"Colin shout as his heavy sword strikes blowed Liam comparatively frail and small body away like he was swating a fly.Liam's swordsmanship was by no mean bad with years of training to use it as his sidearm when the situation calls for it.
But as a much younger boy with much weaker strength and body mass,his ability at close combat was incomparable to people like colin who trained with a sword all their life.
Coughed!
Liam's body slammed into the wall behind him as most of his body section except his head turned almost completely red.His right leg and arms took the most damage and turned completely red.His breath were knocked out of him from the impact.
Liam felt the paralysis slowly took hold of his two limbs and turned completely numb without any ability to move.He grimace as the brute walked towards him slowly as if enjoying the moment of glory.
"I guess that is all you have got,can't even block one proper strike from a swordsmen.And they let you became an officer."Colin smirked at the fallen boy who were staring at him in indifference.
Layla became furious at his words and attitude towards liam,if the situation allowed she would have already jumped in and bashed his ugly face in already.And she groan I'm fruition as she can't gain too much attention to herself during her stay here for her mission.
"Gareth don't hold me back when I sliced that ugly orc into pieces"Amelia squint her eyes at the scene beyond the barricade,as she slowly moved her hand towards her storage device.
Gareth of course felt conflicted,he felt it wasn't right to let Liam suffered anymore harm but a glance at his teacher tell him that none of them will be allowed in until she stopped the match themselves.So letting Amelia go in there would definitely gotten her Into a lot of trouble.
Smirk!
"I see,I must have been very mistaken then.For I just saw a proud and powerful proper knight of the Kingsley family were lead around like a dumb bull by it's handler and failed to finish off a weak 13 years old boy in one strike."Liam smiles innocently at Colin whose gaze darken considerablely at his words.
"I see that you didn't have your lesson yet,don't worry I will fix that soon."with that Colin closed their distance quickly as he threw his shield down and raise his sword casually .He planned to dragged the final few strikes out to caused as much humiliation and pain to Liam as possible.
At the forth step he took,the ground below Colin's foots glowed bright red as steams and mana erupt from it and before he can react to the situation,everything in his sight turned bright white."surge!"That was the last thing he heard before the fight ended
Boom!!
The ground shoke as if a minor earth quake was ocurring,the explosion covered half of the rings and reached the top of the dome,threatening to shatter it as cracks spread across it.
But soon the Cracks were repaired and disappeared as if it weren never there.The erupting flame and cloud of dust slowly die down,leaving the area of the rings covered in a curtain of thick smoke.