Currency, the first year students were going off against the second years as a means of training to help them improve on their training. Meanwhile, the instructors would watch the matches from one corner, and would give them advice and corrections on what they were doing wrong once the matches were over.
Although a lot of what the instructors would say would be hard for the students to grasp. Things such as their form, movements, and even the way they punched or swung their weapons were hard for the students to take corrections of. To them, they were already doing the best they could, but with the instructors constantly hounding them, it would constantly affect the way they fight.
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be affecting Kayden at this point, as he was thinking of a way to land a blow on his current opponent. Dodging multiple sword strikes, a lot of which were delivered seemingly out of the blue, was making it difficult for Kayden to even think properly about a way to create an offense.
Moreover, in the midst of all his thinking and calculations, Joseph, his opponent, had closed the distance between them, and had swung his sword downward, the sharp side of the blade slashing against Kayden's right arm, drawing out blood.
"Focus," Joseph said, as he swung down his sword again, but this time Kayden was able to evade the strike.
'Fuck! I let my guard down. Now he was able to land a hit on me!' He screamed in his mind, staring at the open wound through the torn sleeve of his academy uniform. 'I wanted to be able to go throughout the fight without him landing a hit on me, but I guess that's over now,' as the sword came down swinging towards his feet, he jumped slightly upwards, but had lost his balance in the process.
Before he could get back up, he felt a sharp pain in his right leg, causing him to yell out in pain. Forcing himself to look, he could see the sword's blade standing perpendicular to his right leg, the lower part of the blade within his flesh and bone.
Seeing this, the instructors then decided to declare the match between the both of them over and done with, as one of the students had basically impaled the other's leg with his sword. Although Kayden could simply heal himself using his Mana, the instructors didn't want the situation to escalate out of control, similar to what had been going on so far.
'To think that after all that over thinking I still ended up losing,' Kayden thought, staring at Joseph, who had his eyes focused on the other matches taking place, not bothering to spare his former sparring partner even a glance. 'I guess I have a long way to improve before I even become a second year student.'
Similar to Kayden, the other first years were having troubles in their respective matches. Indeed, the second years held power incomparable with the first years, and now, they were showing how much the academy had invested into their overall training over the past year.
After all of that, the other matches had come to an end, and the second years were allowed to head back to their own building, while the first years, who were still conscious thanks to the instructors' restraint on the matches, were made to continue training with each other until the class had come to an end.
While everyone was ready to call it a day and head back to their dorm rooms, Kayden wasn't. There was that one thing that had kept his mind busy during the majority of the day, and that was regarding Paul's well being. He decided to head towards the infirmary immediately after the class had ended to see how it was doing.
In the first place, he wasn't supposed to spend so much time over there, and should have been out already and been a part of the other classes during the day, but since that wasn't the case, Kayden was worried as to what might have happened to him.
Stepping into the infirmary, Kayden greeted the woman who was stationed there, who merely gave him a brief glance before starting back at her device.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Miss, but I want to see that student I brought in here earlier, Paul, I want to know if he's alright," Kayden said.
The woman took a couple moments before raising her head once again. Upon taking a closer look at her face, Kayden could see eyebags supporting her eyeballs, and lines going across her cheeks and the side of her head. Looking at her, he could tell that he hadn't been getting quite enough sleep.
"Sure thing, go ahead. He's right where you left him," she said, before shifting her gaze once again.
"Thanks," Kayden replied, before walking towards the hospital bed where he had placed Paul's unconscious body early during the morning. "I hope he's alright," he said, getting closer to where he was meant to be.
The academy's infirmary was made up of a reception area where one would first see the nurse doing whatever it was she would usually do on her electronic device. Then, through a set of doors, would lead to a room where three beds would be kept, and at the end of that room, there would be another door that would lead to another room having the same arrangements.
This pattern would continue till one would reach the very end of the infirmary, where from there they would encounter a room that oy the nurse herself and other academy staff were allowed to enter.
After going through there set of doors, Kayden had finally made it to the room where Paul was being kept. Staring down at his unconscious body, he could see that all his injuries had disappeared, and he looked to be sound asleep if not anything else.
Since he had Mana coursing through his veins, he had a far better chance of healing than humans without powers. Still, Kayden was wondering why he hadn't woken up after all this time.
'Maybe he had woken up, but then decided not to come out and attend the other classes, then eventually fell asleep again. I wouldn't blame him. I mean… I would've done the same if I was in his shoes,' Kayden thought to himself, remembering the training he had to go through today.
'It wouldn't be too bad to just take a single day off. Well, there's that punishment of a thing that the students would have to serve if they are ever caught intentionally skipping classes.
'Plus, that nurse, I don't think she's quite serious with her job from how she acted. I think that if Paul's actually fine, then she might actually just be a depressed woman who hates her job so much that she's stopped paying attention to certain things,' Kayden imagined.
'But seriously, is he okay?' Kayden then got closer to Paul's face, thinking that if he was actually just asleep, then he could simply just wake him up. 'Let's see if this'll work,' the next second, he held onto the latter's nose with his thump and index finger, then pressed hard against his nose, but he showed no reaction to it.
'He must be a deep sleeper. Lemme try something else,' Kayden then tightened his fist, before punching him right across the cheek, pushing his head hard against the bed, causing it to creak loudly and shake. 'Man, I hope I didn't just break the bed with that punch,' his heart began to pound rapidly as he imagined the possibilities.
Fortunately, after a couple minutes, it seemed like the nurse hadn't come to investigate the sourse of the loud noise, causing Kayden to breathe out a sigh of relief, but despite the blow, Paul still wasn't waking up.
'Could it be that there's more than what happened to his face when I saw him outside the room this more? You know, now that I think about it, this whole situation's been feeling strange. But even if he's not gonna wake up anytime now, then when?' Kayden was worried because Paul would be missing out on important training, and if he spends too much time in here, then it might not be long before some of the lowerranked students grow stronger enough to take his rank and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it then.
Eventually, Kayden decided to head back to his dorm room to call it a night. On his way there, he had stumbled across Kayla once again, and just like before, she wished for him to assist her with something she planned on doing.
__________
Mike's brain was going back and forth as to what to do in his current situation. He was currently at the mercy of Gary and Mary Ven, the parents of Henry and Kayla. Worried for their son's safety, they felt like the academy was to blame for what happened to him, and now, they were venting all that anger out on who was right in front of them.
'I need to think of a solution. Fast!' He thought, feeling the pressure around his neck increase.
_________
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
I will see if I can post another one today again.