The next day I felt energized for the simple reason that tomorrow will be the weekend. In other words, I will get to humiliate that Samuel guy. As for my uniform that got torn yesterday, yeah, there is no saving the poor thing. At least they give us multiple sets so no problem here. I just got to ask for a replacement later.

I am actually a bit surprised the thing didn’t get vaporized by the explosion. In the end those defensive enchantments are something else. These uniforms aren’t meant for combat and they still have a pretty high defensive capability. Goes to show this academy doesn’t play around.

Anyway, since today will be combat training I hope the thing can handle it. Wouldn’t want another wardrobe malfunction. Also, from the class description, no external magic is allowed while practicing. I guess it makes sense.

After a bath I began walking around with the capus map on hand. As stated before, this place is enormous and feels like a labyrinth. If not for the map getting anywhere would be a pain. Alas there is no use complaining so after a few wrong turns and asking here and there I got to the training area.

As expected from the rank ten class everyone here looks tough and from the looks of it most are from the later years. There are few newbies like myself, one of which is a familiar face. Yup, you guess it, it’s Tiffany and that black haired guy too. No surprise there, the two were amazing in the exam.

“Listen up! As you are all in the rank ten class I won’t tolerate any slacking. Any slackers will be instantly demoted to rank nine class. So unless I see you bleeding out of every pore in your bodys from the effort I will consider you slackers! With that said, this first class will consist of one on one mock duels. With this I will be able to determine your strengths and weaknesses and develop a proper training program for you lot”

A large man stood in front of all of us shouting that. His body was enormous, about two and a half meters high. Not to mention his bulging muscles that threatened to reap his shirt. His face held a nasty scar on the left cheek. His hair is gray with black showing his old age. Finally his eyes met a cold cyan that held a ferocious look.

“With that said take a stick. You will fight with your matching colour”

Saying that the mane took out a bunch of small sticks and every one of us took one. At the bottom, which he had covered with his hand, there was a coloured mark. Mine is a brownish-red. Looking around I held it up so whoever would be my duel partner could see it easily.

In a minute or so I saw a guy approaching me, in his hand a small stick with the same coloured mark as mine. He is covered with metal armour which somehow doesn’t look that heavy. Short brown hair and brown eyes. As those eyes looked at me I could see a tinge of worry from them.

“Hello my name is Henry, it looks like we will be fighting each other”

With that said he held his arm out for a hand shake. A wry smile that betrayed how nervous he was. I saw no ill intent in his actions so I shook his hand with a calm smile, before introducing myself.

“Amelia, let's have a good duel. By the way, could you tell me what your strength value is? Mine is eight-hundred ninety-two”

The reason behind me asking is not to earn an edge in combat. On the contrary, I want to contain my strength and make it the same as him. Why? simple really, I may possess brute force but my feral way of combat can only carry me so far. Learning some proper swordsmanship will go a long way in polishing my own feral sword style.

“A, well, last I checked it was on three-hundred sixty-eight”

No wonder he is nervous. His reaction to my large number seems rather calm, meaning he likely heard it before. Rumors do fly fast. He is quite skilled for having a number higher than Tiffany. Then again, he isn’t a first year so there is that.

After some small talk the duels began. From the small talk I learned he aspires to become a great knight. This is good, since as someone that wishes to become a knight his swordsmanship should be really good. I am looking forward to our battle. I also told him about my plan to restrict my strength and he looked relieved. I think we could become good friends.

The battles were interesting. Some people took the brute strength approach and tried to over power their enemies. Others fought in an agile manner with quick low power attacks. Either way their skills were amazing. But above all battles so far tiffany’s was the most amazing.

Somehow she got paired against the black haired guy. Their battle styles were similar focusing on speed. Because of this the battle developed into a fast pace. In the end the ten minutes accommodation per battle went by and it ended in a draw.

Next was my turn. I went to the weapon rack and took a pair of swords. The weight was too light in comparison to Naru and Pyrka. The edge was dull since this was only a mock duel. Henry on the other hand held a somewhat large shield and sword. He reminded me somewhat of Dan.

“Begin!”

With the shout of the teacher I dashed at Henry. However, since I was containing myself I felt really slow. As we collided he easily blocked my first attack and then did his own. I dodged and striked again. We went like this for the first minute or so but I was learning. Normally, I wouldn’t use feints since I could just brute force my way through my opponents defence.

I began doing faints in an attempt to go past that shield. However, my amateurish attempts were seen through. In the end we were locked in a stalemate. I would block all my attacks and I would dodge all of his. Nonetheless I was having fun. I could feel how I improved with each exchange.

Because of that I didn’t realize my feral style of fighting showing. I was constantly lowering my center of gravity. As my instincts integrated with what I was learning. My bizarre way of fighting took Henry by surprise as he began dedicating all of his efforts into defence.

With a low center of gravity, I could move in odd ways. Twisting my body to dodge an attack I placed my hand on the ground and kicked Henry’s sword. He didn’t drop it but the force opened a big gap. At this point neither of us should be able to exploit each other’s gap. However, my style of fighting shone in this aspect.

I twisted my body getting on all fours. With animalistic moves I managed to throw a slash at the gap. However, Henry somehow managed to get his shield in the way. The only downside to his action was that a new even bigger gap appeared in his defense. His side is now completely exposed and there is no way he can move his shield on time.

With a swift jab the sword on my left hit the gap in his armour. Of Course I contained myself so I wouldn’t hurt him. Despite that he gave a pained groan since the hit still held a bit of power. If this was a real sword or if I had used all my strength the sword would have gone through his ribs and killed him.

“That’s enough”

With those words from the teacher the mock duel ended. It was my win but Henry didn’t seem bothered by it. On the contrary, a large smile adorned his face while walking towards me. A hand on the side where I had stabbed him.

“You look happy”

“Of course I am. That was a great duel. However, I must say I never saw anyone fighting like that before. Nonetheless it was a great learning experience for me. How about you?”

“I also enjoyed it, I learned a lot. Thank you”

With that said a small blush appeared on his cheeks. After a few more words we continued watching the rest of the duels. Tiffany also came and the three of use commented on our peers fighting styles strengths and weaknesses.

At some point I ended up telling them about the duel with Samuel and their faces were pure comedy gold. They went from surprise to worried to calm to worried again. Surprised since I would be fighting that Samuel, the noble. Worried since he is a noble and a supposedly strong one. Calm because well, it's me we are talking about. Then worried again since I might over do it against Samuel.

In the end, I do plan to over do it. I will humiliate him to the point he will become the laughing stock of the entire academy, or at least that is the plan. Either way, I decided to take a bath before going to the next class. I didn’t sweat that much but I don’t want to smell either.

The next few classes were both boring and interesting at the same time. First we have history and then geography. It was useful since I didn’t know pretty much anything about this world. For starters, there are three four continents.

The northernmost is called the Arnoundr. The elven empire as well as the dwarven one coexist there. The southernmost one is Kriven where Giants and goblins live. Then there is the westmost continent Omamen in which humans and beast-kin coexist, I am currently on this one. Finally we have Perdomo, the continent of Dragonewts and Demons.

Of course you may find people of the other races in other continents. There are even whole Kingdoms of elves and dwarves in Omamen but that is only a minority. This also applies to the other races as long as they are in the same alliance.