Tre furrowed his eyes, squinting while facing the blinding ehite light Guac was currently projecting onto the glass ball atop the small table.
"Incredible, as always, Guac."
'That kid was that good with ki? Being able to control it to that extent, even a weak ki technique could get manipulated to be devastatingly strong; and thats if it's weak. That's.. interesting. Who is this guy?'
Continuing his walk towards the young men and women still waiting for the spars to commence, Guac and the instructor soon followed behind.
The kids were still slightly shocked at the sight of both the worse ki control and one of the best one after another.
They continued to stare holes into Tre and Guac until the spars finally continued upon the instructors command.
"Begin"
Upon hearing this, the fighter on Tre's left began an onslaught of aggressive thrusts and swings, attempting to throw their opponent off with a style resembling that of a rapier, while mixing in standard sword techniques. Comparatively standard to what Tre is used to, at the very least.
The fighter to the right already formed a defensive stance, parrying most of the swings and deflecting the thrusts in vain attempts for swift counter-attacks.
At this point, both fighters have already adapted to their previous fighting style, in which they had used before Tre and Guac had walked in, so constantly changing is the only way to keep up.
The most valuable thing on a battlefield, after all, isn't strength, your ki technique, or even how well you can control said techniques. Its adaptability. How well you can adapt to the constantly changing opponent in front of you, and the battlefield you're fighting on.
Tre, witnessing this bout of vicious swordplay and skillful display of strength and ki control, could only think of one word to describe it.
'They're.. sloppy. Incredibly so.'
This exchange of blows continued, until the fighter in the defensive position failed to adapt to the aggressive fighting style, eventually succumbing to the many attacks.
One by one, Tre watched and analysed these fights, none of them particularly standing out to him. They were just using standard styles most likely taught to them by a tutor or learnt through their lineage. They styles themselves weren't bad by any means, but lacked something vital for any fight.
The lacked the fluidity most fighting styles needed to stay atop, most of them too rigid to mold into anything usable. Teaching people these styles would only hinder their future progress; these fundamentals would cause them to be unable to switch into anything else that could suit them. Or maybe their roles have been designated upon birth? Born to defend, die for defending? Tre didn't know, nor did he have the time to ponder on the stange workings of the elite children's fighting styles.
After all, he was next up.
The instructor furrowed his brows, looking over at Tre.
"Tre, Guac. You're up. Don't go too hard, this is a spar, don't forget that."
The instructor hadn't said this for any of the other duels Tre had seen, but he had a feeling he wasn't talking about Tre.
"Wait, wait. Why us? Tre can't even control his ki properly, yet you want us to fight? Get someone else to fight me, you don't need to assess Tre. He has no access to his ki technique!
Guac tried persuading the unmoving instructor.
"You two are the only ones who have yet to fight. Don't be ridiculous. Unless he has a recommendation that confirms your abilities, you must fight.
Suddenly the instructor's face slighty changed. It was as if.. he was forgetting something.
"You have no recommendation, correct, Tre?"
He had forgotton to ask this important question, immediately getting Tre ready for the fight. Although Tre could easily get out of this by bring up his recommendation by Lloyd, which effectively got him in the school in the first place and initially got him out of tests like this.. he really wanted to see what Guac was capable of. That type of ki control was extremely rare, after all.
"No, I don't have a recommendation letter."
The instructor cleared his face of any emotion quickly, returning to his old stoic self.
"Of course you don't. It wasnt an actual question, I knew beforehand, I'm not irresponsible enough to force someone who has orders of not getting assessed to fight."
He did, in fact, not know
"3. 2. 1. Begin!"
Facing Tre, Guac hesitated slightly.
The young man in front of him looking at him, his brown eyes showing no sign of unwavering. Infact.. the pressure he exerted was almost overpowered. Guac's knees almost buckled under this insane feeling of nausea upon staring too deep in his eyes.
Its said they are a reflection of the soul, after all.
Tre looked onwards at the boy with green hair and warm rosy skin, his face slightly sweating, gripping his sword slighty.
'This kid.. he's withstanding this pretty well. Most people would be on their knees by now. He's better than I thought.'
Guac rushed forward, swallowing this feeling of oppression under the gaze of a giant watching over ant an under the foot. Swinging downwards, he imbued his ki into his sword slighty, but enough so that it's speed would be almost unreactable.
Side-stepping this attack before it had even fell above his head, Tre shoved the pommel of his wooden sword into the young man's liver, before leaning back into a back kick, sending the young man, still winded from the liver shot, across the designated fighting area, sliding backwards when landing.
The instructor looked on with surprise, interest, and.. a tinge of fear.
Everyone else hadn't even caught what happened, with everything happening in under a second.
The instructor tried to analyse what had happened, but he too, was at a loss for words. A fearsome counter-attack, so fast, coordinated, and against an opponent with far superior ki control than him. Scariest of all..
'Without any ki?.. This kid.. what the hell?!'