Zack entered the combat training room with a wistful expression. Inside the classroom there was a burly old man with large muscles and gray white hair.
The man was dressed in a black exoskeleton suit that fitted his body perfectly.
This was instructor Rollo, the only teacher in the academy who taught combat class.
Beside the instructor, there were a few number of students inside, that amounted to eighteen, excluding Zack.
Entering the training room, Zack grumbled inwardly,
"l really don't get why the academy still insist on combat class, when its goal is to train us to become sorcorers and scientists.
Although the academy of research was mainly focused on knowledge,science and sorcery it still did not discard certain aspects like combat training and physical exercise. This was so because in this day and age, physical strength and combat knowledge was the essence of being successful in life, especially when it came to everyday carriers. Other aspects like science and sorcery were usually discriminated and only applied on few carriers.
Instructor Rollo a man with a fierce expression stared at Zack with a feral and menacing gaze.
His loud voice boomed throughout the entire training room.
"Okay! you lazy pricks, you know the drill, everyone in their armours. Today you will sparing against each other"
After the order was given the students jumped straight into action and started wearing their armours.
The student's armour were placed inside their personal lockers which were located on the end corner of the room. The armours themselves were dark metallic bodysuits that covered their body from the neck to the toes.
Zack did not need to trouble himself when it came to wearing his armour. In a swift motion, the young teenager pressed a button on his briefcase and from the silver briefcase, silver arcs of electricity began to appear.
The sound of small gears churning sounded as the silver briefcase disintegrated into small nanobytes items.
The small components of the silver metal briefcase moved towards Zack and settled on his body, as they began to form a dark silver exoskeleton on him.
In a split moment later, the young Mason was now cover from neck to his toes with a dark thin exoskeleton with parts of silver on it.
His golden rimmed glasses seemed to flash with a faint subtle golden light at this moment.
The instructor of the combat class, instructor Rollo stared at Zack with an unimpressed gaze.
His tone was stern as he spoke.
"Impressive armour you got there kiddo, l hope your fighting skills are as impressive for there is no use in wearing such an impressive suit if you don't know how to use it.
Looking at the menacing instructor, Zack thought inwardly.
'Not everyone is a stupid savage like you'
Ofcourse he did not say anything out aloud, which would have been suicide since the instructor was well known for his bad temper and savagery.
After the students were done gearing up their armor, they went towards the training ring that was situated at the center of the room.
Once the students were all grouped together, the instructor then released an excited smile,
"Okay now let the show begin. l need two volunteers for the first sparing match"
From the crowd of the students, a young boy of average height was the first to step out. The boy had brown messy hair, gloomy brown eyes and a slender body structure with no developed muscles. His combat armour was poorly crafted and patched up on different spots with a thin cheap fabric.
As the boy stepped out from the crowd, countless whispers began to swirl among the students.
Zack leaned closely to the other kids, as he began to listen to what they were saying.
"Hey its that new regular boy who is on scholarship, gods what in the world is he thinking by volunteering himself first on the match"
Another random student then voiced out.
"Look at his armour, its all made up of a thin layer of cheap fabric, how does he expect to defend himself from an full amored exoskeleton while wearing that piece of junk"
As Zack listened to these comments he couldn't help but shake his head at his fellow student's ignorance.
From what he gleaned from their conversation this young boy was from a very poor background and was able attend the academy through a scholarship.
And according to what Zack knew about the academy, it only handed out scholarships to the most extremely skilled, talented and unique individuals it could find.
Since this fellow was given a scholarship he either had to be extremely talented in sorcery surpassing even the likes of Cassie, Zack himself and the gloomy girl who were one of the greatest geniuses of their generation ,or he had to be extremely skilled in combat and possessing a certain physical augmentation that passed him off as a capable candidate for genetic enhancement, or the boy was uniquely gifted with the mystical abilities of an awakened .
And from all these three possibilities Zack was leaning on the most possible outcome, which was the second possibility.
As for why Zack was sure that the second speculation was the most possible outcome, was because of a certain uniqueness contained by his specs, that granted him an inconceivable ability to glint on the power of possibility.
Also he knew how dreadful the kids raised from the slums could be when it came to combat training, after all these kids had survived the most harrowing life conditions and adapted to it be able to live.
After the regular boy, another student stepped out of the crowd emerging as the second volunteer. This student had a gold armoured exoskeleton that shone with a golden luster, his body was robust, his hair was dark red and short, and his eyes were of golden color.
Zack knew who this boy was, infact everyone was well aware of who he was. This boy was the strongest student of the academy of research. This boy was also a scholarship student but unlike the previous boy, he came from a well known family with great riches. Ray Relmond was the only son of Vincent Relmond, the leader of the Institute of Law Enforcement.
Ray was a talented individual, someone who was well versed in sorcery, science and combat. He also had survived the genetic enhancement process emerging as a superior human when it came to all physicall attributes, which was essentially the reason he was given the title of the strongest student in the entire academy.
Stepping out of the crowd with his hands inside his pockets, the grouped students cheered in his favor, throwing all sorts of comments.
As Zack watched the boy enter the training ring, a sudden thought instantly flashed in his mind.
'The battle of the scholars'
After Ray entered the ring, the brown haired boy with gloomy eyes did not appear to be perturbed by the sudden appearance of this strong student. He gave a low bow to Ray and then shifted to a fighting stance, Ray inturn returned a low bow to show his goodwill.
The loud, unpleasant voice of the instructor, sounded loudly inside the training room.
"Okay, the rules are simple, no killing, no holding back and no crying. Use whatever techniques you see fit, all l want is to see is a good fight. Now let the fight begin, oh and the first one to step out of the ring looses.
Ray was the first to attack. His muscles bulged, and his exoskeleton followed their rhythm, with incredible speed, the red headed boy charged like an unstoppable mountain towards the regular boy.
In a fraction of a second, Ray covered the distant between him and the regular boy and delivered a devastating blow towards his chest.
When the punch connected, the brown haired boy was sent flying in the air.
And just when it looked like he was about to be thrown out of the ring, the regular boy suddenly summersaulted in the air landing back on his feet once again at the edge of the ring.
Ray did not stand on the ceremony, once he saw that his attack was unsuccessful, he moved once again with startling speed, not giving the regular kid any time to react, at least that's what Zack thought. Before Ray could deliver another blow, the brown haired kid, despite all odds was somehow able to react in time, slightly turning his body to his right he was able to deflect the strike and counter attacked by striking at Ray's left leg, making the genetically enhanced human stumble and fall outside the training ring.
In just mere seconds, the fight had ended with the regular brown haired boy emerging as the victor.