"What's the meaning of this?!" He shouts with a paper firmly gripped in his right hand, his schedule of classes.

The people being angrily questioned by Kayrus are Stefan and Emma. Currently, the three of them are inside one of the empty rooms of the Academy Complex's Dojo. Mattresses are being laid around in the center of the room.

“Ah, Kayrus, take off your shoes. It’s the rules here,” says Emma before Kayrus steps inside the room.

“Tch, Fine…” he grumbles while still dutifully removing his shoes. “Do you mind explaining this now?”

“Why not? What do you want to ask?” asks Emma while sitting on top of a pile of mattresses.

“My classes, how come I have fourteen different classes? There’s no way I can take all of them. And why are all of the classes so different from each other? Transportation Magic, Alchemy, Combat Magic, you’re pretty much signing me to about half of the available classes!”

“Relax, Kayrus, your schedule has been carefully planned by Charleone and Iriinna so you can still have some free time for rest. Besides, your number is nothing compared to the one whose courses are copied for you.”

“Who, Max? How many did he actually take?”

“At least double that,” answers Stefan, who is removing his military jacket and folding up the sleeves of his shirt.

“That’s…insane. And the Academy allowed that?”

“He had reason, Kayrus, he had a reason.” Emma nods her head melancholically before sighing. “But that's enough for now. Besides, you didn’t find us here just to ask about your classes, right?”

Kayrus lets out a very heavy sigh.

“Yeah, of course.” He raises his schedule paper again. “Why does today's class have Stefan as the teacher, the Close Quarter Combat?”

“That’s because I am the teacher.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever been in a fight before, Kayrus?” asks Emma.

“What? Sure I have. Why?”

“Good, then you can begin Stefan.”

“Affirmative…”

Immediately after saying that, the Gardes leaps at the student with a flying kick from Kayrus’ left. Kayrus narrowly dodges the attack by leaning and jumping back.

“Oh, nice reaction. Good, good…”

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! You almost hit my head!!!” Kayrus yells at the Gardes.

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you Charleone asked not to hit him in the face. It attracts unwanted attention, he said.” Says Emma to Stefan, ignoring Kayrus.

“Roger that.”

“Hwy, I’m asking here?!”

Emma sighs at Kayrus’ complaint.

“Kayrus, what is the name of the class?”

“W-What?” The young man is perplexed.

“The class, what does it say there?”

“It’s…Close Quarter Combat?” He then realizes where this is going. “Are you telling me-”

A grin is formed on Emma’s brown face.

“Yup, that’s right, this is your class. Charleone specifically asked Irinna to have Stefan as the instructor. The objective is simple, score clean hits against him. Pretty easy right?”

“Easy? He’s a Gardes! There’s no way I can fight against him!”

“What's the matter Kayrus, scared? From now on your enemies on Zennardi will be as tough as Stefan, if not tougher. You’re going to need to get stronger faster than humanly possible if you still want to survive.”

“Shit…” he curses, not because he’s angry, but because of how true Emma’s words are. Just yesterday he almost died if not for Edgar’s help. He has to get stronger.

“Fine,” says Kayrus, “But at least let me remove my jacket first.” he removes and throws his jacket to the side.

“The enemies won’t give you the luxury of waiting, Kayrus,” says Stefan in a cold and harsh tone. “Begin!”

He runs up to Kayrus again and throws a one-two jab at the former thief. Kayrus manages to dodge both of them and counters with a straight punch, but the Gardes then crouches down and catches his arm. In the next second, Kayrus’ world is already upside down as Stefan does a shoulder throw at him.

"Gah…" Kayrus groans in pain after his body slams the mattress on the floor.

"Get up."

"Wait, let me-"

But Stefan is already stomping at him before he even has a chance to dodge.

"Urrgh…"

"I said get up."

"You're one cruel man, aren't you Stefan?" Emma smirks.

"It's what the job requires, I'm just preparing the boy."

"DAMMIT!" Shouts Kayrus as he gets up in pain. "If it's a fight you want, you're going to get it!"

Kayrus runs at Stefan, arm ready to swing a punch at him.

But Stefan already predicts this move. He steps aside, and at the same time, kicks at Kayrus' foot. That attack on his balance, combined with Kayrus' own momentum, makes the young man fall to the mattress again.

"I expected better from you, Kayrus, always keep an eye on your surroundings."

But then,

"Oh?"

Kayrus, while still lying on the mattress, quickly and silently makes a sweeping kick at Stefan. Unfortunately for him, however, he is still too slow for Stefan who successfully manages to jump away. That said, however, the Gardes certainly has a look of amusement on his face.

"As expected of a thief." He comments.

Kayrus, meanwhile, is wiping the sweat off his face while getting up. He takes a few steps back from his enemy.

"Emma, all I need is a clean hit, right?"

"That is correct."

"Fine…"

The young man takes a low stance, with his left leg being bent low while he pulls his right one far behind.

Seeing that, the Gardes Stefan counters that with a high stance, one that gives his legs more freedom of movement.

Without wasting any moment, Kayrus sprints at Stefan as fast as he can. Stefan, anticipating an attack, then kicks his right foot to the front to intercept Kayrus' path of movement.

Just before the attack connects, however, the young man uses his entire muscle strength to abruptly stop his movement and leaps back to avoid Stefan's kick. Compressing the resulting momentum with his leg, Kayrus then leaps forward and delivers a flying kick to Stefan.

Alas, the Gardes is two steps ahead of the former thief, for he plants his right foot on the ground and immediately takes a stance to receive Kayrus’ actual attack. Leaning his torso to the side to dodge, he catches Kayrus’ leg with his left hand and pushes him down with the other hand. It doesn’t end there just yet, for the Gardes then stomps at Kayrus with his left three times, all are only barely avoided by Kayrus who rolls over to the side. The former thief then quickly gets up by using both hands as a spring to push himself off the mattress.

“You think you can fool me? I’ve killed many better and smarter fighters than you.”

‘Wasn’t expecting much from it, honestly…” Kayrus lies while taking a boxing stance, he’s going to aim up close from now on.

“Good,” Stefan takes a boxing stance as well, “Then show me the best of your abilities, Kayrus!”

Kayrus rushes at Stefan as closely as possible. He goes for jabs and punches, but every time Stefan manages to either dodge them or block using his forearms.

“Dammit!’

Kayrus throws a right straight, but in a split second, so does Stefan. Their fists hit each other, hard.

“Gah!” Kayrus steps back and shakes his right hand. It hurts like hell. Stefan’s fist is as hard as a block of steel.

“Giving up?”

“Tch, as if!”

Both men continue to duke it out at a very close range, fist to fist, punch by punch. Meanwhile, the other person in that room, Emma, is busy observing their fight. With her chin resting on her right hand, her eyes are staring intensely at them, like trying to record each and all of their movements with her eyes.

“Just as I suspected,” she mutters in a hushed tone, “he doesn’t have that much of a bloodlust. Creative, for sure, but fangless. I guess we can only use him as a thief for now. He’s going to need more time to be used as a combat asset.”

The Magus then lets out a long sigh.

“It’s going to take a lot of work, isn’t it…We’re going to be busy.”

Back to the “lesson”, Kayrus is still trying to hit Stefan from up close, but the Gardes have by now learned all of Kayru’s moves and it’s getting easier now for Stefan to dodge and block all of his attacks. Soon enough, Kayrus is getting tired from all, and his movements are getting sluggish. He’s getting desperate now.

Kayrus does a one-two punch again, but the result is the same with Stefan slapping them away.

“Shit..”

Kayrus doesn’t give up and unleashes several rapid punches with everything he has left. Stefan dodges them all by crouching and weaving around. But then, as Stefan has himself crouching down to dodge Kayrus’ left hook, Kayrus rises his right knee to strike at the gardes.

It’s over-

“Wait, Stefan, don’t!” shouts Emma when she realizes what Stefan is about to do.

Finding himself unable to dodge, Stefan uses his left elbow to put away Kayrus’ knee strike. But either it’s because of the heat of the moment, or a habit of fighting as a Gardes, Stefan follows it up with an uppercut, hitting Kayrus right on his chin, unintentionally breaking the rule of not hitting the young man’s face.

And with just that one good-placed hit from the elite soldier, Kayrus is out cold.