'Bang!'
"Stop sparring stop sparring!" Yells the teacher as a middle class student puts one knee on the ground, clearly wobbled by the punch that hit his face moments ago.
"Cor wins again! Who is the next challenger!"
This is combat training. 5 teachers overseeing 5 different arenas in which 2 students spar hard with each other. Every time a student is beaten the winner takes on another student. This keeps going for a total of 3 hours and every time one loses they have to do either 100 punches, 100 kicks, 100 elbows or 100 knees depending on the way they lost. If the loss was grappling related they student has to do 100 push ups and 100 squats as such a loss is more stength based on this level.
At the end of the day, the amount or 'arena defenses' are added and the student with the most gets 3 points followed by 2 for the second place and 1 for the third place.
Cor is now on his fourth 'arena defense'. His opponent is a student of average height with toned muscles. Unfortunately Cor is starting to tire. If he wins this round he will apply for rest (rest means only 50 push ups and squats and can only be applied for after winning 3 rounds back to back).
The best way for him to go about the coming fight would be to use his weight to overwhelm the opponent via grappling. Unfortunately his opponent is a pretty good grappler for the middle class and Cor is tired so he does not feel confident in that approach. Thus, he tries punching.
'Whoosh whoosh'
Both punches miss. They where too easily predictable and too slow.
'Boom!'
A front kick in the stomach from the student! Cor bends over slightly. Although not too hurt because of his abs taking the kick pretty well he is momentarily out of breath because of his lungs getting slightly compressed by the kick, forcing the air out.
'Whoosh'
Another wild punch from Cor misses and opens him up to be caught by a takedown.
And the student does attempt the takedown, but Cor's sheer size and strength make the student hesitate at the last moment.
'Boom!'
A knee! Cor knees the student in the face while he was attempting the takedown and stuns him heavily.
'Boom!'
And a heavy punch finishes the job. The coach immediately takes action. "Stop sparring! See Cor, if you focus on your stand up more, you could really start competing with the upper class! Your punches are too heavy and slow. Those big punches are needed to finish the match but when you are still feeling the enemy out, snappy and quick punches are better. Also, for the love of god, keep your shoulders down and hands up! I know nobody here can easily reach your face but this will be different in the upper class and it will be different in nature as well! Alright next match!"
Of course, saying he could compete in the higher classes after only focussing stand up a bit more is a stretch. However, it does hold some truth.
"Teacher, I apply for rest" says Cor. "Granted" answers the teacher before randomly pointing at two students to get into the arena.
Cor takes a health drink. This is a beverage creater by scientist almost 30 years ago already. It speeds up cell regeneration and helps a lot against concussions. The perfect drink to give students while sparring hard! This is also one of the reasons even common nature survivalists are like monsters compared to common people. 'Health drink', while having a extremely ordinary name, is quite expensive and extremely hard to get for common people. The regular use while training at the NSC makes it so that graduates have far stronger physiques than normal.
After doing the push ups and squats, Cor sits down on the bench. He wants to rest for 5 minutes at most so that he has enough time to gather the necessary arena defenses for the points.
He just hopes it will be enough to get the better of that guy.