The days rolled by with Arthur continuing the melee training with his class. He was relatively confident that they would pull the most wins judging by the benefits of his system. Everyone in the class should be higher level and they also got personal training of the weapon of their choice since Arthur had a basic understanding of anything he picked up to use as a weapon.
3 weeks passed and Strong hit his level ten and was out of commission for three days. His wins in the underground fighting ring had propelled him quite a bit above his classmates and gave him the experience needed to break the barrier and ultimately pass out from the extraordinary pain of his body adapting after training class was over.
The tournament was scheduled to take place in three days time, knowing that they only had twenty-eight competitors now, every fight counted as they could not afford to lose more than a few to still take first place.
On the day of the tournament, Arthur gathered his classmates and prepared a speech he hoped would pump them up for the tournament and secure the victories they needed.
"Class, I wanted to remind you how much you've learned and progressed from here. Each and every one of you are at level nine which should put you at least one to two levels above your opponents. Not only that, but each of you have received personal combat experience in the weapon of your choice. Use these things to your advantage, but more importantly, never underestimate your opponent no matter how big or small. Use the knowledge you have gained in these classes and prove to everyone you are the warriors that I know every single one of you are. Go out there and fight!" Yelled Arthur to his classmates.
With a round of cheering and thunderous applause, they marched into the indoor training ground in sync with a heavy right foot. Everyone turned to see what the commotion was and saw a company of twenty-nine cadets being led by one of their own. Arthur marched them over to their place on the tournament floor and put them at parade rest awaiting further instructions.
The instructors came over and confirmed that another in the company had hit level 10 making their total count of 28 participants. Arthur called the cadets to attention and dismissed them from formation telling them to sit down in the stand and wait.
The Academy commander walked out onto the stage to make an official announcement and kick the tournament off.
"Cadets, it's my honor to host our first year melee tournament. I hope everyone is ready for a show. But first I want to make another announcement. The academy has been called on to supply the empire with troops. Cadets from 4th through 7th year will be mobilized and given a rank within the Imperial Defense Force. The attack on Boros took us completely by surprise and the "Dominion", what we now call the enemy, has appeared in mass and has used Boros as a staging point to push further into the Imperium. The Emperor has called on all units battle ready to mobilize so we can put an end to this threat once and for all. We will be streamlining our training and combining classes to shorten training and supply the Empire with more capable officers and, for those who wash out, recruits to the infantry and other ground based forces. We are leaving a few competent officers and instructors behind to facilitate the training, but the majority will be deployed with myself to the front lines."
"I know every single one of you will do our Academy and the Imperium proud. The winning company of this contest will be fast tracked through training of their choice. With the majority of our cadets being deployed, we will have quite a few openings in most departments including aerial combat and the mecha piloting program. This win is not a guarantee that you will finish the course, it's merely a guarantee that you will get the opportunity to do your best. With all that being said, let the tournament begin!" Shouted the Academy commander as he walked off stage.
The tournament was scheduled to last for a few days and from the look of it, Arthurs cadets would not get to fight today. There was a bracket system in place for each company. Each company would send fighters one by one and the company with the most wins would progress to the next bracket. Simple in concept, but it would take quite a while. There were 8 rings to help speed up the contest, so 16 different company's would be duking it out today. Arthurs was not one of them so they decided to stick around and watch where everyone else's skills had progressed. over the two months of melee training.
Arthur was surprised as it looked like a lot of fighters chose to fight with nothing but their hands. It's possible they already had system skills that made that type of fighting more suitable, but Arthur also suspected that some of the trainers weren't very capable in as many weapons as himself. Arthur also noticed the distinct over abundance of people fighting with swords and shields. It made sense and most of the infantry would be equipped with these items and most mecha pilots also chose the classic combination being the easiest to train and carry around. It made for a more uniform training regime with the different companies if each soldier used the same weapon combination. This didn't make them less effective, it just made them more predictable if you knew they all knew the same fighting style.
Arthur knew that a lot of the cadets in his class would excel against unarmed opponents and opponents with strictly sword and shield. Arthur had drilled into them the weaknesses of that particular weapon combination, and an unarmed opponent without any skills using just imperial karate wouldn't stand a chance against one of Arthurs classmates with a weapon. He was starting to look forward to his class fight so he could see the shock and awe on the other classes face in front of such skill that was taught in two months time.