Raff would have whooped with joy if he wasn’t keeping his breathing perfect for this. There was no holding back now. Zak was too fast for him, he had to strain to focus on the little tells. Twitches of the shoulder, the shift of weight that was in the muscles before boy committed to a punch. And because he was dodging the predicted window of Zak’s punches and kicks, he often had to throw himself to the side in wide awkward movements. That made it hard, but not impossible to strike back.

Every three dodges, Raff managed to get one strike in. After a flurry of twelve missed blows and four returned one, Zak steps back from the fight, and Raff eyed his opponent, thinking on what he had observed. The barefooted boy knew it would be easier the next time Zak went at him. Yes, Zak was still fast, but the window of possibilities of how he could strike was now more apparent. After every two punches, Raff figured he should be able to get in a strike, and his fingers burned in a good way from the blows he had landed.

Zak then drew his wooden practice sword and motioned for Raff to pick up the staff that now lay on the ground. Ignoring the suggestion Raff lunged forward barehanded, Zak braced. Raff let his foot sweep with his movement and kick up the staff off the ground and toward Zak, his body closely following behind it. The unexpected nature of the attack worked like Raff planned, and their bodies collided. The staff pinned between them Raff’s hand holding the Zak’s hand as it gripped his sword.

For three glorious seconds Raff used their entanglement to slowly bend Zak into a position he could dominate him. He could tell Zak was stronger, but leverage, weight, and how bodies worked were all to his advantage. He heard Zak mutter a word under his breath, “Repel.”

It was like an alien force grabbed his body and flung him back away, and Raff couldn’t even get his foot down to stop himself from tumbling out of the ring. He knew he should be angry, but his eyes lit up at the use of what he knew could only be magic.

Rian selected the bandoleer of six wooden knives from the bunch of weapons and one long dagger to hold in her left hand. Though wood, they were perfectly balanced. Felicia smiled from the center of the ring. The green dressed student had her bow and quiver, yet hadn’t needed to use it yet. Nobody passes this test. She knew it was meant as a lesson of humility. But the worst thing you could do is not try, unlike with the other tests the academy actually seemed to care about combat.

The moment Rian stepped into the ring, her right hand deftly pulled three knives from the bandoleer and flicked them at Felicia. The bow twirled, knocking every thrown knife askew. The girl wondered if making her opponent use that bow will get her any points because, until this point, she had only used her feet. If Rian had thrown one, she knew Felicia would have just kicked it out of the air like she did when someone tried that with a hatchet. A single powerful kick has either knocked out or pushed out all of the previous opponents forcing them out of the ring.

A straight-up fight like this was not what Rian liked. Fighting like this is what you convinced others to do and was as far away from reality for her as being able to fly. Rian couldn’t convince herself this was a battle she could win, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have other goals. She raced forward.

It helped to know that healers were already on the sidelines, putting other’s injuries right. Rian knew she couldn’t stop the kick. Even those who used weapons and shields to try to block it failed. She took it in her side, and pain exploded. Knowing what to expect, lets her latch on with her left arm. A situation she knew would only delay her defeat for a few seconds. She dropped the knife from her left hand and caught it with her right-hand mid-air from under Felicia’s thigh.

Positioned like this gave Rian a few tender spots that she could strike, maybe scoring her a point or two, but causing no real damage. Instead, she hooked up with the wooden blade knowing she would have one shot at this. All that green leather was fastened on well, but Rian knew all the weak spots to clothes. Where a simple cut could trip someone up, open a hidden pocket, release their coin purse. She hit the stitching at the seam; it was already strained by how tight Felicia liked to wear her leathers, even the dull practice knife cut through them, and then the blade hooked on the belt wrenching it lose.

Whatever pride Rian felt was momentary as pain rocked her back, and she tumbled tot he ground her left hand gripping the edge of Felicia’s now split and loosened pants bringing them down to the ground with her. She might not be able to damage the girl in a fight, but at least she could maybe hurt her pride. Rian didn’t see the blow that took her consciousness.

As dirt and gravel got into Asper’s mouth, all he could think about was how much this day has sucked. That didn’t mean we as giving up. He shoved his had down hard into the ground and give away. He had been surprised at how soft it was when his flailing recovery from the first blow had nearly knocked him out had only been managed by him digging into the earth to halt his momentum then as well. Now several gouges scarred the ring. His opponent, an older student named Mallick, was no longer standing back and watching as Asper performed his feat of staying inside the circle.

Asper rolled his aching body to the side moments before a foot slammed down on the spot that he had stopped at. To start the match, he had selected a buckler and a sword. It is not that there were feelings of aptitude for them in any of his training, but being the classics, they had been what he was most familiar with when trying to train skills with other kids. Now he was weaponless. The sword had flown from his hands on the first impact, and the shield lay in pieces. Mallick’s calf was close enough to his face that Asper decided to use his more natural weapons. He bit him.

A kick shook him off and sprayed some of the loose dirt up Asper’s nose. But it got Mallick to jump back. “You bit me! You fucking bit me!”

Asper rolled over and got up into a crouch, spitting some blood out. “I couldn’t think of a better idea. You’re just playing with me anyway.”

The glare Asper received was more annoyed than angry. “How stupid are you if you think I’m playing with you? I’m trying to beat you out of this ring. I’ve got ten more students to go through you dense Zero. I’ll take my demerit for this one.”

Asper readied himself as Mallick rushed forward again. He braced himself, and they crashed into each other at the edge of the ring. They strained, gripping each other. Asper heard Mallick say, “Shocking Grasp.” under his breath and the other boy’s hands got hot for a second and then tickled. Whatever it was that happened, Mallick looked confused. Tired but enough for one more burst of energy, Asper jerked him around, so Mallick was facing the outer ring and pushed him forward, so they both fell out of the ring at close to the same time. Asper hoped it would at least count as a tie, and then the exhaustion of everything caused him to fade out as he gave into it.