Asif and Ray continued the intense bout with each other, inflicting all kinds of wounds. After a few minutes, they were quavering due to exhaustion. From observing the two, Asif felt that he could still go on for a few more rounds but Ray was feeling extremely drained and battered.
Observing their situation, Bryan came forward and said, "Alright you two, that's enough. I'm sure you both had fun but right now, you two need some rest to recover your energy, especially you, Ray."
*Huff huff*
Ray couldn't respond as he was breathing heavily, he slumped and sat down on the ground, indicating that he's done for now.
"Alright, Bryan. We'll stop." Asif wearily said. He then looked at Ray and said, "That was a good fight. I look forward to more."
At this time, Ray grinned and said between breaths, "Fuck *huff* off!"
"Come let's go in." Asif came near Ray and helped him up. They both then entered the house to cultivate and recover.
"These two are literally mad!" Ash uttered.
"Well, Ray always wants to prove himself even though he doesn't need to and Asif encourages his behaviour and complies with him." Bryan said.
"Aren't you two supposed to fight?" Algo chimed in from between.
"..."
"..."
Ash and Bryan looked at Algo with a deadpan stare before joining Ray and Asif in the house.
"What...??" Algo complained.
-At night-
"Say Ray, if you met a female alien with purple skin, would you go after her?" Ash casually asked. He and the rest were relaxing at the couch area and watching some anime on the television.
"Is that even a question? You know I love the color purple and combine that with a female alien? I'd be over the moon." Ray said as a matter of fact.
"Weirdos." Bryan mocked.
"You call us weirdos, but I know for a fact, that you have some hidden fantasies that you wanna explore. You're just too shy to tell us." Ash ridiculed him.
"Whatever you say. Right now, my eyes are on Melissa." Bryan said.
"Melissa eh..." Ray pondered.
"You sure you wanna be stuck with a human?" Ash asked.
"Are you listening to yourself?" Asif butted in.
"It's fine if you want to be part of the normies but I want and need something exotic." Ash said with his eyes closed, clearly fantasizing about something.
"He's kinda got a point." Ray said while munching on some snacks.
"You're even weirder." Bryan shook his head.
"I want to explore, what can I say." Ray shrugged.
"You're too shy for that." Asif bluntly stated.
"..."
"Hahaha, he's right." Bryan agreed.
"What about you, Asif?" Ray asked, trying to change their point of attention.
"Me? I never thought about it." Asif replied.
"Oh please! I'm pretty sure you fantasized about boning some chocolate caramel goddess or a fairy princess or an alien with thre-" Asif clapped Ash's mouth shut before he continued any further.
"You will be practicing with me tomorrow." Asif said while Ash groaned in annoyance.
"Algo, what about you?" Ray turned away from the two and curiously asked.
"Hmm, as long as she makes me happy and delicious food, I'll be content." Algo simply stated.
"So you don't have a type?" Bryan asked.
"A type?" Algo questioned.
"Yes, a type. Someone with distinct qualities that you find attractive, like say, the height, their hair color, eye color, ears and so on, you should get what I mean now." Ash explained.
"Ohhhh..." Algo said, "Yeah, no. I don't care about all that."
"Ooo, very commendable, Algo." Ash complimented him.
"You should learn from him." Bryan didn't miss the opportunity.
"Watch me! As soon as we make contact with any aliens, I'll be up all in that jelly." Ash confidently said.
"..." Bryan just ignored him and hopped on to his bed to sleep.
"You're one of a kind, Ash." Ray smiled and went to sleep as well.
"Huehue..." Ash giggled lightly. Asif and Algo switched off the television and entered dreamland.
"I hope someone can tolerate me like these guys..." Ash lightly smiled before leaving to bed.
-The next day-
Instead of attending Instructor Issa's class, the students of Class 10 were informed to assemble at the Combat hall. The students were excited and dreadful at the same time due to a certain someone.
In the Combat hall, Instructor Mariah saw the students and waited for them to come.
"Good morning, kiddos. Yesterday was fun but today is going to be even more fun, especially for you, kiddos." Instructor Mariah smiled devilishly. Most of the students whined at her.
"Today we're going to do a group fight. But instead of a group fighting against another group, you students will form a group of five and fight against me." Instructor Mariah briefed.
"Interesting..." Ray deeply said.
"Why is it interesting?" Bryan asked.
"Because it is." Ray replied.
"But why?"
"Cuz it's interesting?" Ray looked at him dumbly.
"..." Bryan shut his mouth.
"I know there's only 39 of you, so one group will have only four students. Don't fret, I will match my power level accordingly. Now, hurry up and form your groups." Instructor Mariah said and the students scrambled, trying to form groups.
After a few minutes, 8 groups could be seen evenly spread out in front of Instructor Mariah.
"What a surprise that the five geniuses are in one group." Instructor Mariah excitedly said. Without wasting any time, the group of four were called out first.
The group of four tried their best to land a blow but ultimately they were thrashed until they were beaten black and blue. They were quickly escorted out of the Combat hall to recover.
"That was fun!" Instructor Mariah excitedly smiled.
"She's definitely a psycho..." Ray mumbled.
"A hot psycho." Ash commented.
"She's married." Bryan looked at him weirdly.
"Yeah, if only she wasn't." Ash said dejectedly.
After the first group got demolished, 5 more groups joined the unfortunate predictable result of getting your body tumbled back and forth with a fist made of metal.
Now there were only 2 groups left to fight. The five brothers made up one group and the other group contained Zachary Fry, Sabina Soja, Isaac Colina, Melissa Chaney, and Cristina Rosa.
The latter group were called out by the Instructor and they all prepared themselves with their combat stances.
"Remember what we planned?" Melissa asked.
"Yep yep." Cristina nodded along with the others.
"It's literally a do or die plan." Isaac muttered.
"You got any better one?" Melissa questioned.
"Tsk."
'I hope this group will do something.' Instructor Mariah thought.
Cristina was in the front, with Melissa and Isaac accompanying her. Zachary and Sabina were lurking about ready to support the vanguard.
Cristina launched forward and made a low sweep kick to try knocking off Instructor Mariah's balance. Melissa and Isaac didn't delay and quickly followed up and threw a punch at both sides of Instructor Mariah's body.
'Not bad...' Instructor Mariah thought before she stomped on Cristina's leg, stopping her move, and grabbed both Melissa's and Isaac's punch and flinging them away. As if she noticed something, she ducked, dodging Zachary's flying kick from behind and sprinted towards Sabina who was ready to make a move and punched her stomach, sending her flying away into Zachary.
"You kiddos are not bad but too predictable." Instructor Mariah smiled and observed.
"Come at me, again!"
After a few minutes, the group couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed on the ground.
"No problem, guys. We did our best!" Cristina tried to cheer them up.
"Yeah yeah, we're not sad or anything." Isaac said, tying to sit up with difficulty.
"At least, we did better than the others." Melissa said between deep breaths.
"True." Zachary nodded. At this point, the other first six groups came back into the Combat hall with renewed vigor.
"You kiddos want to stay or leave and get treated?" Instructor Mariah asked.
"I want to stay." Cristina immediately said.
"Who wants to miss them fighting you?" Melissa rhetorically asked before they huddled up together and joined the other groups.
Instructor Mariah nodded and turned towards the last group, "Are you 5 geniuses ready?"
"Ready as ever." Asif said and they walked up and stood before her.
"I expect a lot from you." Instructor Mariah smiled with expectations.
They evenly spread out and got into their combat stances while Instructor Mariah just casually stood straight.
Both parties were waiting for each other to make a move. Algo ran forwards with his huge figure and before he got close to Instructor Mariah, he jumped and turned his back towards her, propelling himself with the momentum.
Ray dashed forwards and ran to Instructor Mariah's right side and threw a punch at her face. Ash bolted right behind and came sliding down below Algo, performing a sliding kick up towards her chest.
Instructor Mariah used her palm to stop from Algo bashing into her and grabbed him, throwing him into Ash interrupting his attack. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Ray's incoming punch.
She quickly put up her right hand to block the punch but Ray pulled a feint and and threw a spinning roundhouse kick towards her back. The hand that was going to block the intended punch suddenly maneuvered and grabbed the oncoming leg. She smiled and threw Ray at Ash who was currently smashed with Algo on top of him.
Asif suddenly delivered a flying kick from the left side aiming at her left shoulder. Instructor Mariah quickly noticing this, spun her body and met the flying kick with her own kick, tumbling Asif a few metres back.
"C'mon Ash, let's do this!" Ray muttered. Ash nodded and they both ran towards her. Using Ash as a boost, Ray rapidly sped up and threw a punch at Instructor Mariah's stomach. She blocked it with her left hand but Ray predicted the outcome and quickly latched onto her arm, trying to refrain her from using it.
Ash was right behind and used his legs to interlock her other arm while gripping her wrist tightly towards the ground. Without wasting a second, Algo launched himself right after her intending to cause a collision.
Using her right leg, Instructor Mariah stopped the collision from happening but Asif came in low, aiming to once again knock her balance off with a double leg sweep. With her hands being tied down annoyingly, she had no choice but to jump to avoid the leg sweep.
*Bam*
A leg approached heavily from above and landed on Instructor Mariah's head, successfully landing a hit while she was occupied with blocking their attacks. It was Bryan who performed the sneak attack. He was lying in wait for the right opportunistic moment to deliver the sneak attack and he found one.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Instructor Mariah laughed out loud. "Very good!"
"Uh-oh..." Ash said in dismay. Instructor Mariah flung her arms strongly, sending Ash and Ray flying away, crashing into the wall. She threw a hard kick at Algo and with lightning speed, swept Asif away from her. She grabbed Bryan's leg and spun him a few times before wildly chucking him away.
The observing groups were gob smacked that someone actually landed a hit on Instructor Mariah.
"They do have the guts to do that!" Cristina cheerily said, happy for them.
"Admirable!" Isaac nodded. Melissa on the other hand, just looked at Bryan with twinkling eyes.
"Ugh..." Ray moaned in pain.
"Why can't she be light handed?!" Ash groaned.
"I think she already was." Algo rubbed his hurting back.
"Good job, Bryan." Asif said.
"Same to you." They both smiled. The five walked over and stood next to each other, ready to continue to fighting.
Seeing that they are eager to continue, Instructor Mariah shook her head and said, "Alright, that's enough for today."
"You five did not let me down. In fact, you exceeded my expectations. Now leave and get some rest." Instructor Mariah briefed before leaving the hall.
"Yoo guyss, that was amazing!" Cristina approached and complimented them.
"Haha, I know right." Ray proudly smiled.
"We're just too smart!" Ash said with his head up.
"Mostly lucky." Bryan chimed in.
"Hey Bryan, are you free this evening?" Melissa popped up abruptly and asked him.
"Yeah, I am." Bryan answered.
"Want to come hang out with me?"
"Sure, I'd love to." Bryan happily agreed.
"Meet me at the crossroads at 6. I'll see you there." Melissa smiled and left the hall gracefully.
""Oooooooooooo"" Ash and the others teased.
"Shut up!" Bryan blushed.