Martin felt rage when he saw Jon walking towards him with that mocking smile on his face. John was the grandson of the strongest general and was part of the inner court like Martin. The clan is made of the inner and outer court, the children of inner court members are automatically part of the inner court, and new recruits like Clara who join because of their talents are part of the outer court. Only the strongest outer court members who have proven themselves by outstanding service have a chance to join the inner court. That’s why the inner court members treat each other like family, this was decided by the clan lord to make sure that every new inner court member has the chance to prove themselves and give everyone the same chance to prove themselves.

The clan lord had seen a lot of clans lose their position because of how they spoiled their children which made their new members lazy and weak minded, and that’s why everyone was equal and the only way to climb the ladder was with proving yourself. The Hooper Clan was also the only clan that had experimented with equality for every new member but that didn’t work because the clan was infiltrated by a lot of spies and traitors, that’s why every new member has to prove themselves before they have the chance to become part of the inner court.

George had seen the look on Martin’s face before and knew that he wasn’t the type to hold his punches, that’s why he tried to find a peaceful way out of the situation they were in. These people were nobles and people like George were just insects to them. George's instincts told him to just keep quiet and wait but he didn’t trust Martin and didn't think he could handle the situation peacefully.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you, we are looking for a friend of ours who lives here, we can leave if it’s not a good time to visit.” Said George taking a small courtesy bow, it wasn’t a rule in the village to bow to the nobles but it was a something that started a long time ago and everyone was just doing to not to stand out.

Martin broke eyes contact with John and looked at George understanding what he was thinking, Martin was a hot head but he wasn’t stupid, he knew that he had to be careful around John.

But the boy behind John didn’t give George the chance to finish and closed the distance between them with high speed. George didn’t see him coming and felt a sharp pain before he fell on the ground bleeding, he almost passed out from the direct hit on his head but the pain was manageable, it was nothing compared to the pain he had experienced the past couple of days activating the memories.

“You really need to teach your slave to know his place, how dare he talk to me without my permission.” Said John with the same smile on his face, he knew that there was no rule that George could not talk to him but he wanted to make Martin angry.

Martin got his sword and wanted to attack the boy but George stopped him with one hand while he used the other trying to stop the bleeding. George had been treated like this his whole life and a little pain didn’t matter to him, the only thing he knew was that he had to get out of here before the situation got out of control.

John clearly not happy with George stopping him gave the sign to the boy to keep attacking. He couldn’t attack Martin unless it was self-defense and he wanted to make Martin angry enough to attack them. that way he had the perfect excuse to defend himself, how would Martin explain attacking members of his own family just to protect a commoner.

The boy took his staff and started hitting George multiple times on different places on his body, he didn’t want him to pass out so he didn't attack him on the head. He expected George to scream from the pain but George was just looking at him with a cold look in his eyes not making a sound which creeped him out a little.

Martin couldn’t take it anymore and with full speed attacked the boy, but before he had the chance to stop him John intervened and stopped him.

John had a look of surprise on his face when their swords connected which turned into happiness. The reason he hated Martin was that he was one of the few who had a real chance to become a general or even the next clan lord, so he saw him as competition. Just because he was a support type didn’t mean he couldn’t become a general, some clans had even support types as their clan lord. The truth was that every class was useful and that if you trained hard enough you could become a strong member of the clan no matter that class you possessed. Martin's cleric class, for example, was a strong class and a lot of people would gladly change theirs to have it, but it was Martin who didn’t want to be a support type and had to become a warrior like his father.

“To think you put your characteristics on strength for some early advantage, your future is finished.” Said, John, not able to hold his laughter, it didn’t matter anymore if he could defeat Martin today, Martin’s was finished.

George was still receiving a beating and he didn’t know what to do, it didn’t look like there was a way out anymore, why did he always have to get caught in other people’s problems.

George was swinging his staff around trying to block the hits and was able to block a couple of them, but the boy in front of him was clearly messing around with him.

Martin at the same time was clearly winning his fight and had almost gotten the upper hand. Martin was one of the hardest working students and it wasn’t that hard to overpower John now that he had the strength to block his sword.

Most students including John had a nine to five mentality, but Martin lived for the sword and would not waste a second of his time on unimportant things like John did visiting the brothels drinking and playing around with the woman.

The girl that was standing there watching saw how Martin had the upper hand and got her wand to help John. Most outer members like her needed support from inner court members if they wanted the chance to gain influence and these two had decided to serve John and in return gain some power for themselves.

With the girl helping, Martin lost the upper hand but was still able to fight to a standstill. He was a little surprised at how talented the girl was and how she used lightning attacks to block Martin's sword from attacking John’s weak spots. Lightning is known as the strongest offensive element and is also known as the hardest to control, but the girl was using the right amount of power with every attack.

It is true that it’s easier for mages to use elemental power but it was still incredible how she was making sure that every attack was only hitting Martin's sword and not hitting him directly. Martin knew that she was properly strong enough to fight him on one on but she was only helping John defensively, how talented she may be if the clan found out that she tried to attack the son of a general it would mean the end of her and even John wouldn’t be able to save her. Attacking a high ranked member of the clan was punishable by enslavement to make sure it wouldn’t happen again and they would use their power to make an example of her.

But Martin knew he had a problem, George was not able to hold on for much longer and he knew that they could kill him without facing any consequences. The contract didn’t say anything about saving his life but that didn’t matter to Martin, he had brought George to the mansion as his guest, what would it say about him if others found out that he let George die without at least trying to stop them.

George was trying to block the boy's attack with his wooden staff but wasn’t too successful, the boy was using a real bō staff but George was still using the practice staff he had received as a gift from master Keven. The other problem was that the boy had clearly more fighting experience than George.

‘Show vitality.’

When the vitality hits zero the person would pass out if the attack was not critical, they could also die if they were hit by a killing blow like the puncture of an organ or an attack strong enough to cause severe internal bleeding. George had read about this in the skill manual and it was one of the tools people used to see how strong the opponents attack was and how much longer they could go on.

But something strange was going on, the boy was too relaxed and wasn’t concentrating on what he was doing. George had a good memory and could still remember the movements of the bō skill and the attacks the boy was using were flawed. At one point, it looked like the boy was so overconfident that he stopped using skills and was just swinging his sword.

If others found out that George was still able to remember the moves after such a long time their mouths would hit the ground. Skills were like books stored in your brain that you could activate to read anytime you want, but a lot of people needed to activate it multiple times to memorize it and even then, they would not be able to memorize it completely. But George could memorize most of the moves after only activating it once.

George didn’t like to fight but he didn’t have a choice, he had to defend himself or accept that he was going to die. The longer he waited the more careless the boy became; he was clearly not in a hurry to kill him and was only randomly hitting him. One good hit to the head could have ended this a long time ago and one clean hit was the only chance George had to win the fight. Usually, it would not be possible but the boy was too confident and wasn’t even taking a defensive stand after his offensive attacks which is one of the most basic rules of the bō skill.

‘Show vitality.’

George knowing that he didn’t have much longer closed his eyes for a second trying to visualize the attack stance and tried to mimic it to the best of his ability. It wasn’t something you could master at your first try but he wouldn't have a second chance and had to do his best to not make any big mistakes.

When the boy made a wide horizontal swing George saw his chance and dodged the attack for the first time in a while. He had not dodged the last couple of hits to let the boy become more carefree and make even more mistakes. George dodged the wide attack from underneath and tried to close the gap between them as fast as he could, he closed his eyes and tried to attack him with all the strength he had left.

The boy clearly not expecting the move was looking at the attack coming towards him without being able to do anything. The wide swing made sure he didn’t have the time to stop George and the attack was coming right toward his head.

Direct hits to the head were almost always effective, and even if they didn’t kill the person, it would make sure he wouldn’t be able to move for a long time.

When George tried to use the move something surprising happened, he stopped thinking for a second and his body moved on its own, he felt like he was one with the image. His speed increased and before he knew that had happened the staff hit the boy on the side of the head so hard that the staff shattered in his hands.

When George opened his eyes the boy was on the ground unconscious and bleeding from the side of his head. George was also bleeding and was completely exhausted, he was barely able to stand.