Taking the opportunity to take Carin by surprise, I rushed at her while she had her back turned to me. Sadly my efforts were in vain, as Carin is a seasoned veteran, and she noticed my presence as soon as I started moving. While holding Luna by her head like a toy, Carin quickly pivoted her feet and caught my fist with her free hand.
"I was wondering what was taking you so long to join the fun," Carin said with a grin. Her slightly crazy eyes, along with the wide smile on her face, confirmed my earlier suspicions about her being somewhat of a battle maniac.
I continued my attack the best I could, but whether it was because of my inexperience or just the sheer gap in our abilities, Carin effortlessly dodged and blocked my attacks with her one free hand. Noticing my struggle, Luna gave up on freeing herself. She used her core to raise her body and grapple onto Carin's arm in an attempt to limit her movements while at the same time reactivating her enhancement magic to ensure her hold.
"You really. . . don't learn, do you?" Having gotten fed up with the unruly cat girl, Carin raised her arm and slammed Luna into the pavement. The latter, gasping and coughing for air as her eyes widened at having the wind knocked out of her.
Carin had turned her back to me again, and during that brief moment, I tried locking my arms around her neck in a chokehold, only to have her reverse the situation on me again.
"Lesson one," Carin said as she reached her arms behind her shoulders to grab my own.
"While taking advantage of an opening can be good, it could also be used against you as a fake-out." She then shifted her weight and threw me over her shoulder. I slammed into the pavement next to my partner and found myself similarly trying to regain my breath.
As the two of us struggled back to our feet, Carin took that as a sign that we still had some fight left and slowly approached us to continue what we had started.
"Lesson two," she said, grabbing us by our throats before we were able to recover fully.
"A strong opponent will look for ways to separate your group and fracture your teamwork."
Carin then took a running start as we struggled to free ourselves. She leaped into the air with a spin and threw us in opposite directions. I felt my body skip across the courtyard like a ragdoll from the sheer force at which I was thrown, and as the world spun around me, I saw the same happen to Luna before she slammed into a wall. It seems Carin hadn't held back with that one and even used her body activation. My eyesight was wavering, and I felt my consciousness slipping, but the worry I felt at seeing the blood dripping from Luna's mouth allowed me to keep my last bit of clarity.
The girl was in a worse state than I was, but her rage kept her from succumbing to her wounds.
"Don't look down on me!" Back on her feet now, Luna unsheathed her dagger from her back. She fixed a glare at the target of her rage, but before she could act, Carin had already disappeared from her sight.
"Lesson 3. . ." She said, reappearing behind Luna.
"Always maintain control. Emotions can be powerful but don't let them dictate your actions." With one hand on Luna's shoulder, Carin used her free arm to lock the girl's weapon-wielding arm behind her back.
"Unhand me!"
"Let me go!"
Carin ignored her protests and forced the girl down to the ground. She tightened her grip, causing Luna to drop the knife in pain.
"Aaaaah! please."
In a panic, she began pouring as much mana as she could into her enhancement magic in an attempt to free herself. But all this served to do was earn her more pain. Carin tightened her grip and began slowly twisting the girl's arm upwards as she screamed in pain until. . .
*snap*
Luna's cries faded out as she lost consciousness. Carin got up and looked down at the motionless girl as she voiced her disappointment.
"Lu. .na. ." As I watched the shocking scene unfold, a familiar feeling welled up in my body as my mind blanked.
*sigh*
"She has potential. If only I could reel in her temper. Not to mention. . ."
*bang*
"What?!" As an explosive sound rang out behind her, Carin was pulled out of her musings. She turned around to see the ground caved in and a dust cloud hanging in the air. Realizing the danger of this situation, she immediately reactivated her body activation and met the pursuing force in an attempt to restrain it.
"Rune, get ahold of yourself!" Carin had him pinned to the ground, but her words weren't reaching him. She felt his muscles begin to expand as the ground exploded beneath them.
Carin bit her lip in frustration. "I guess there is no other choice."
"Rune. I'm sorry, I'll have to get a little rough with you, but this is for your own good."
Carin poured more power into her body activation technique. She began drilling a series of calculated blows into his limbs and back before she slammed his face into the ground and rendered him unconscious.
*whistle*
"No matter how often I see it, it's still impressive. Your knowledge of pressure points never ceases to amaze me." Carin looked over to see Vivienne descend from the sky to her side.
"Don't you think you took things a little too far with them?"
"I didn't intend to at first. . ." Carin said, looking over at her friend. "But the situation called for it."
"I wasn't expecting these two to have so many problems."
"They're quite alike, though, don't you think?"
"Yes. both talented yet inexperienced, both tend to lose control, and both. . ."
"Have trouble being honest with themselves. They are two of a kind, huh?" Vivienne said, finishing her friend's sentence for her.
"Not exactly what I was going to say, but you aren't wrong. I'm guessing you noticed why this one is so stressed and angry, then?"
"You read in her file. She's upset that-"
"I'm not talking about her family issues."
"Oh, that. Yeah, I noticed. It's not at a point where it will affect her too seriously yet, though it's only a matter of time. I suspect the boy has also noticed and will likely come to me asking for advice soon."
"I'll leave that matter to you then. You know, you could have warned me that he could use body activation subconsciously. His affinity for the art is extremely high. If he wasn't so inexperienced, I might not have been able to stop him."
"I had full confidence you could handle the situation. You were chosen precisely because I know how capable you are, after all."
Carin clicked her tongue at the response.
"Apply emergency first aid to these two and carry them to the infirmary."
"Right away, ma'am." At her command, the two healing mages that were on standby, appeared from hiding and began working on the two students.
"I had more things planned for these two today, but I guess they will need to spend the remainder of the time before their next class resting."
"Oh, what's this? The famous Carin, known for never taking on disciples, is invested in teaching?"
"AHAHA. I have to admit that even though I was initially skeptical, the more I heard about them, the more interested I became. And I'm not just talking about these two. All four of them have a lot of promise."
"That's good. I'm looking forward to seeing you bring out their full potential."
"Oh, you can count on it."
Rune and Luna had long since been carried off to the infirmary to rest at this point, so after chatting for a bit longer, Carin and Vivienne went their separate ways.