Keeping a steady pace, Kay stayed near the front of the group. As time went on, the group slowly broke into two, a faster one and a slower one. The frantic sounds of footsteps echoed through the gym as the coach quickened his pace, gaining on the slower group. He gradually closed the distance, inching closer and closer to the slowest runner.
"Come on! I'm catching up. You better speed up if you don't want to do push-ups!"
Hearing the coach's intimating voice, everyone quickened their speed. The average speed of everyone in the gym increased quite noticeably after the coach's call. However, even with their added motivation, some of the slower students just weren't able to keep up with the coach's pace.
Upon being overtaken, they held their knees and frantically gasped for air.
"Just because you got overtaken doesn't mean you can stop. You get an extra push-up for every second you finish after me!"
With that, the students raised their heads and began running once again. The fatigue was obviously building up, which was especially noticeable on their faces. However, faced with the embarrassment of being last and the added punishment, they continued to push through.
Shiina and Kay were comfortable jogging at the front, keeping a decent amount of distance between them and the coach. Eventually, they finished their last lap and crossed the line.
"Ah, that wasn't too bad, was it~?"
"I guess not."
The two of them were hardly even puffed upon finishing. Wiping some sweat off and drinking some water, they waited for the rest of the class to catch up.
In the end, around half of the students got overtaken by the coach. It seemed that he wasn't going easy on them. Once they finished, they weren't even given any time to rest.
"I don't care how fast you do them, but every single push-up needs to be done."
Watching from the side, Kay and Shiina waited for the students to complete their punishment. The students were completely exhausted, slowly bringing their bodies up and down. Their arms were wobbling, like they were made out of jelly, trying as hard as they could to carry the weight of their bodies.
It took a significant amount of time, but eventually, every single student was able to complete their push-ups.
"Good job, everyone. That's your warm-up."
There was a groan amongst some of the students as they felt as if they'd just done an entire workout, finding out that it was just the warm-up. The coach brought out a large container with a large number of training swords made out of wood.
"Um, some of us don't use swords. Can we use our actual weapons?" one of the students queried.
"No. The point of this exercise is to train your battle sense and muscles. Everyone will use these training swords regardless of what weapon you usually use."
With that, everyone grabbed a sword from the tub.
"Everyone, find a partner that's around the same skill level as yourself."
Suddenly, a boy approached Kay.
"Hey, you're ranked #29, aren't you? I'm ranked #30. Do you think we could group up? I don't think anyone else would want to work with me..."
"Sure, sounds fine to me."
"Yes! I'm Callum. By the way, um, I didn't see you last period. Where were you?"
"I was doing some training by myself."
"Ah... I see. Well, I should probably do some training as well. I'm honestly surprised I managed to get into class A."
The two of them stood opposite each other with their swords raised.
"Alright, I want you to focus on not only attacking but blocking your opponent's attacks. Anyways, let's get started."
Suddenly, the entire gym was filled with the sound of swords clattering. Kay approached Callum, using some feints against him. Callum fell for the fake movements, leaving his body wide open. Seeing his unguarded side, Kay swung his sword, smashing him in the rib. Callum held his side in pain as he gasped for air.
"Geh..."
Giving him a second to recover, Kay waited for a little before swinging again. Callum misjudged the direction of Kay's movement, causing him to fail to block the attack. Kay's sword poked right into Callum's stomach, sending him falling to the ground. Callum tried to get up, but he felt another pain in his side.
Kay hadn't given him any breathing space, smacking him with the wooden sword once again.
"H-hold on... just give me a se—"
Another pain ran through Callum's body. His face began to sting as he noticed that Kay's sword had hit him again. A dark red bruise began forming at the site of the contact.
"You're the one who wanted to spar with me, yet you're so weak."
"H-hey... don't you think you're going a little overboard?! You're being a little bit of a bitch."
Suddenly, a clang echoed through the noisy room as Kay's sword smashed against Callum's nose. A bright red liquid began flowing out as he held his face in pain.
"Gah! Y-you prick... why did you hit me again?!"
Another clang echoed through the gym as Kay's sword smacked into Callum's head.
"Come on, stand up and fight me."
Callum curled up into a ball, hiding his face in his legs. He rolled around the ground, covering his clothes with the dust that littered the floor.
"...stop! I told you to stop...!"
"Ah, I mustn't have heard you."
Coach Eastwood rushed over. Quite a few students also turned around, observing the scene that was unfolding on the ground.
"That's enough. You can have a break."
The coach picked Callum up from the ground, holding a towel over his bleeding nose. As the coach consoled the injured student, Kay walked over to Shiina and watched her spar with another girl in the class.
The two girls were both extremely talented. Their swords danced around, clattering and clanging as they clashed with each other. Both of them were carefully adjusting their feet position, trying to find an opening. Again and again, the other girl tried to attack, but Shiina easily blocked the attacks.
Out of nowhere, Kay swung his sword at Shiina from behind.
Despite the fact that he was completely out of her view, she quickly spun around and blocked his attack. In the following movement, Shiina hit Kay's sword out of the way before swiftly landing several attacks on his body.
Kay bent down, catching his breath.
"What were you thinking, swinging at me out of the blue like that?" she asked.
"I knew something felt weird. I've got an idea about what your ability is now."
Shiina seemed shocked.
"You can see in every direction. That's one of your abilities."