Arthur expected Strong to say something about what was going on but all he got was a "I'll be back a little bit later" response. Fraternization between cadets wasn't necessarily looked down on, but it was discouraged as cadets didn't need distractions from their training and studies.
Arthur couldn't say he blamed Strong though. Strong was built like a mountain. With blonde hair, blue eyes, and a well defined chiseled face, any young female cadet would probably fall for him if he wanted them to. He just had the look and build that every woman dreamed about. Coming in at 6 foot 8 inches he was almost too tall for the mecha program, just barely coming in below the max height. If he grew 2 more inches between now and then he would be forced out as he would be too big for the cockpit.
Asura on the other hand was the complete opposite. She had an extremely toned and lithe figure, olive skin, and nothing but muscle underneath her uniform. Her face had perfect symmetry with full lips and slightly angled hazel eyes framed by wavy jet black hair that was usually pulled back in a ponytail. At 5 foot 2 inches she looked like a child next to strong until you saw the the steely determination in her eyes. Her eyes told the story of a life and experience beyond her years. It was probably her most attractive feature.
They made a good match once Arthur thought about it some more. There was a slight pang in his heart as he realized that he had purposely put companionship on the back burner to his ultimate goal. He felt like he owed himself and his past life's mother that. He couldn't help but feel lonely for a second as he thought of Mackenzie and how attracted he really was to her. He wondered If strong had asked Asura out at some point or if Asura was the one to initiate. "Honestly, either one of those scenario's wouldn't surprise me knowing those two" thought Arthur.
Arthur made up his mind right then that if Mackenzie asked him out or wanted to go do something alone, he would take her up on the offer. But he refused to make the first move since his purpose was forefront in his mind and the most important thing to him at the moment. Anything else was merely a distraction.
Being alone with nothing to do and still being fairly early in the evening, Arthur logged onto the forum to check and see what everyone was talking about. To his great surprise, someone had made a thread about the 1st year master martial artist that defeated the instructor in 30 seconds and then took over the class. Arthur groaned as he didn't want the extra attention and read some of the comments;
"If me and that first year fought, he'd be running home crying to his parents"
"I wish he was a little older so he could show me how he would 'conquer' me"
"This is fake! No way a first year took out an instructor. If this happened I'll eat my boot in front of the academy"
The comments continued on and on and were pretty entertaining. The truth was, he only won by surprise. If he hadn't used the cat stance and surprised the instructor for a brief second, he would have eventually lost. He was outmatched in strength and speed in the fight and was barely holding on before he took a risk and went on the offensive.
Arthur got up and set the room alarm on the terminal and then lay down and close his eyes to go to sleep.
The next morning, Arthur awoke to the blaring alarm. Strong had come in at some point and woke up rubbing his eyes from what looked like a lack of sleep.
"What time did you get back?" asked Arthur
"2300, it's the latest I could stay out since we are required to be in our rooms by that time" replied Strong.
Arthur nodded and left it at that. "Let's hurry up, we don't want to miss PT. I can't wait to take private Brick and the pole up Easy Hill again."
When they exited the building they caught up with Mackenzie and Asura. Mackenzie shared a look with Arthur as they both still had no idea what was going on between the other two, but they smiled and continued walking to formation where Payne was waiting for 0530 to start his morning routine.
The cadets grabbed their poles and ran the same route they had been running since day one. Once they were finished they stacked the poles up and proceeded to limp to breakfast after their run through the gates of Hell.
After their filling breakfast of nutrient gruel, they went on to the indoor training area and formed up waiting for Arthur to begin the class.
"Class, Attention!" yelled Arthur. After getting them into the proper PT formation, he took them through the forward stance again. The cadets would be implementing kicks, strikes and blocks today now that their forward stance was pretty solid.
"Everybody fall out and grab a partner" said Arthur to the class. Since he was technically part of the class, he grabbed Mackenzie and brought her up front to help with his demonstrations. Arthur wasn't sure how Asura and Strong would effectively learn anything partnered together, but then he remembered the instructors words about not underestimating an opponent no matter how big or small they were.
Mackenzie was a good partner as she already had a good starting base in Imperial Karate. Arthur showed the cadets a few examples of basic kicks and strikes, and how to block those kicks and strikes and then proceeded to walk between the cadets and correct any wrong forms or help where it was required. Arthur was careful to not work through lunch today and made sure to finish up and send everyone off for a 30 minute break to grab lunch and come back.
[30,000 EXP gained]
[47,000/200,00 EXP]
"At this rate, I'll have another level by the end of tomorrow" thought Arthur excitedly as he glanced over his stats again waiting for the cadets to come back for the second half of training.