"As for today, we'll be doing a combat training session. Each of you can choose whoever you want as your sparring partner. I'll be giving everyone 2 minutes to choose, and all of you must have a partner by then—" Bernadette takes out a small digital timer and adjusted it to have a 2-minute count down, "—time starts... now."
Then everyone in the 3rd Platoon begins to choose their partners. Claire glanced from all four sides and everyone around her already happened to have a sparring partner. "How sad." She said to herself.
For Claire, she can understand why no one's taking interest in choosing her as a sparring partner. She barely knows anyone from this platoon, and most of the people there choose to pick someone they are already acquainted with. It was more like being out of place as a newcomer, though she's not much affected by it.
Out of 41 people in the platoon, Claire already knows that there's 1 person bound to have no sparring partner. If she happens to be alone after the time limit is done, then their platoon commander Bernadette might take her on. Claire is way more interested in fighting her than anyone else in this place right now.
It also happens that Bernadette already has her eyes set on Claire.
Despite of Claire's assumption of not getting picked by others, there were a few that also had their eyes on her. Three guys that ranked from the lines of 80s were talking on who'll challenge the new girl. "She looks pretty weak for someone whose on the 90s rank." Said Horris, ranking as the 89th.
"It'll be a piece of cake." Lewin, ranking 85th, commented. The two glances at their third pal, Lewin asked him to make a decision. "What about you Weng? Which one of us should challenge her first?"
Ranking on the 82nd, Weng seemed way more confident than the other two. "Horris. You should go." He smirked.
"Ahaha!" Horris and Lewin shared a quick high five before Horris approached Claire.
"Oh?... what do we have here?" Claire noticed a guy coming over to her side and asked. "Hey, do you have a sparring partner yet?"
She really thought she'll get to spar with Bernadette, but it isn't a bad idea to have a warm up first. "Not yet, how about you?" She gave a friendly smile.
"Ohh, so do I."
"Then would you like to be my sparring partner?"
"I'd be glad to. The name's Horris by the way, I'm ranked 89th. And you are?"
"Claire, with a rank of 98th. The pleasure's all mine."
"Heh, sure." Behind their forced smiles, the two were actually sizing one another, underestimating each other both on strength and intellect.
When the 2-minute limit was done, the person who got Bernadette as their sparring partner is the vice platoon commander that ranked 81st, Terrence Flecher. Claire didn't expected that she already had a partner.
"What a lucky guy." She pouted.
After that, Bernadette ordered everyone to form two lines with everyone aligned with their sparring partners. Then some people were quite worried when they noticed the partner that Claire have gotten.
"That's the chick who joined the 3rd Platoon not long ago, right?"
"Yeah, she's got bad luck to have that jerk as a sparring partner. Horris plays dirty and gets carried away sometimes."
"She doesn't have much choice anyway, most people here doesn't like her 'cause they say she's kinda arrogant."
"I know, but to be partnered up with one of the scumbag trio is a pain. I don't think I can watch a woman get beaten up later. Do you think that chick can handle that guy?"
"We'll see about that."
After hearing that conversation, Claire was glad to know a little information about her sparring partner. Apparently, Horris is a part of what they call a scumbag trio. The three guys gets along for having a common sadistic trait in their fighting style, enemies that gets in their way are doomed to be tortured to death in their hands. Allies aren't exempted from their twisted ways either, whenever there are training sessions, they would always go all out and brutal.
"Seeing that everyone already has a partner, I'll set up a few conditions that you all should follow before we start. The first condition is that each pair would only have 5 minutes to spar, and the one that admits defeat first is going be the loser and will receive a punishment." Bernadette continues.
"For the second condition, we can't have a draw, if neither declares defeat then both receives punishment." Her second condition has alarmed some of the pairs that were planning to make a draw.
"Then the third condition, losers will have to pair up and spar again with the first 2 conditions in effect. This will go on until we get the loser of losers here!" She chuckled. "And the loser of losers will be lucky enough to get a chance to fight me." Claire took great interest on Bernadette's last condition.
A great plan have instantly crossed her mind.
"Now are my conditions all clear!?"
"Ma'am yes, ma'am!!" Everyone answered in unison.
"Then let's proceed to the first pair!" Now that the actual training begins, the first pair steps to the given space and start sparring on Bernadette's command.
Being a pair that's 11th in line, Claire made sure to focus and observe all those who sparred before them. Horris glanced at Claire from time to time and misunderstood her behavior. He snickered thinking that she's getting cold feet after seeing how the loser is punished.
"W-W-Wait!! I-I just r-recovered—AAAH!!" By the time the loser is determined, their punishment will be three rough whips from the platoon commander herself.
The scumbag trio takes pleasure at the sight of the faces of their allies in pain. Horris leans over to Claire, providing her some fake comfort. "Don't worry Claire, I'll be sure not to go rough on you. If you want, I'll be the one to receive the punishment for you." He expects her to tremble in fear and look at him with hopeful eyes, but what he got was different from what he expected.
"Oh, you'll receive the punishment for me?" His sparring partner looked at him with excitement in her eyes. "But why do you assume that I'll be the one to get punished?"
Horris got uncomfortable with Claire's attitude, rather than affecting her, he was the one getting affected. "H-Huh? Well, first off we differ in rank—" she cuts him off.
"You see Horris, these lowly ranks doesn't define us at all. Don't let it get to your head.—"
"W-What the hell are you—" He got upset with her words, but she wasn't done talking yet.
"—And just because you surpassed a few others make you anything special, it doesn't mean shit unless you've reached the top with nobody else to compete with." She then gave him a forced smile. "But I appreciate your offer in receiving my punishment in case I lose. If you'd like, when you lose I'll take your punishment for you."
Her words meant to be kind, but Horris found it infuriating. "W-Whatever, fucking weird bitch." He decided to ignore Claire and swore to make her eat her words at their spar later.
She just smirks, knowing that nothing will disturb her while observing how the others engage in close range combat.
[ THE 4 CONDITIONS ]
1.) Each pair have exactly 5 minutes to spar. If one of the pair admits defeat, they will be considered as the loser. Losers will receive punishment by being whipped 3 times by the platoon commander.
2.) There are no draws. If neither surrenders, both will receive punishment.
3.) The losers from the first round will pair up and spar again. The process will repeat while there are losers remaining. The first two conditions still takes effect.
4.) The last remaining loser a.k.a. 'The Loser of Losers' will receive punishment by sparring with the platoon commander.