"Sword fight training immediately after deer meat. How obvious", Declan whined .

It was late morning the following day .The wolves had assembled by the large circles at the front for the school because Tajih and Kijad had arranged for them to practice swordfighting.

Sword training is compulsory for everyone. Its imperative that all cultivators know how to cultivate using atleast two weapons. So the skills they learn from their options plus the use of the sword should be enough.

However Kijad had not yet authorized the learning of sword cultivation. The reason being that the students should have atleast two years training with the skills they choose in their options before they can advance to the use of swords

The wolves are just randomly chosen to train swords.

They start of whereby everyone faces an opponent . Everyone has to fight at the same time sort of like a battlefield. later if time permits, the students would be sectioned into pairs, where each pair will fight alone.

" Aghh ,do we have to do this?", Claudia asked nagging Valian.

" You are welcome to leave. It's not like you are helping anyone ", Herim told her and when she chased him to slap him, Valian left to walk towards Adrian who was already with Syin .

Adrian had his hair up and looked very sharp. The same went for Syin.. When next to each other they looked like a squad .

" Should we go and train?", Adrian turned and asked Syin.

Syin knodded half pleased. Of course he enjoys sword training but he really dreads the idea when he has to fight with Adrian.

Adrian is so unpredictable and he uses the knife like a spear. At times dodging his attacks can cause one to sprain himself. And attacking him is boring because his skills never improve . But maybe it seems this way because Syin is more experienced at the sword than Adrian.

" Where is Joln?", Valian asked the two making them turn to him. Syin and Adrian shook their head .

" Maybe he slept in", Claudia answered and Valian just said that it's more likely for Claudia to become married than that..

She had stopped pursuing Herim when she noticed Valian walking away and thus trailed him.

"Let's go train", Claudia got angry and she pulled Valian away who submitted into that.

Joln usually challenges Claudia or Adrian. But since Adrian is fighting Syin, Claudia turned to Valian.

"Val ,can you..", Declan spoke emerging out of nowhere and pulling Valian away .

Claudia sulked and she spotted Joln standing in the middle of the crowd. He looked lost and out of place.

She snuck out to him but he long heard her coming and told her that her footsteps are like drums.

" Mind your tongue. These feet will be the death of you", He asked her and he kept quiet.

She pulled him. And they went and they picked up some wooden swords.

He didn't want to fight .. yet.

After yesterday , Ryle promised to always be close to him. But right now he can't see him anywhere. He is kind of hoping that he suddenly emerges from nowhere and surprises him but that feels like a fantasy

He picked out the sword and he turned to the swarm of youngsters that were already fighting each other with wood like headless horseman

He walked a few steps and he found Claudia full of sass again. She was complaining non-stop and was starting to annoy him.

He exhaled and he charged at her.

She quickly blocked the sword but he moved his leg to between hers and bent them causing her to fall to her knees .

He let her go and she demanded another round .

She charged first with her sword aimed to the ground. That's a improvement from last time.

Immediately then she jumped upwards and sort of tried to slay Joln. He blocked her sword and tackled his hand up and around her neck and brought her downwards, kicked the back of her knees and brought her down again. Consecutively he pushed her away.

" Do you want dead?",. He softly scolded her feeling like she is not trying ..

" You know I only know how to command a whip.", She barked

He could not care less , he threw his wooden sword to the ground and he charged at her.

She did the same thing and used her body as a weapon.

Joln raised his fist her and she skillfully moved to the side, dodging it. But instead she caught it and pulled in his arm and he tried to grab her throat but she used her other other hand to block the hand.

She forced his hands over his head and brought the them backwards as well as flipping over him and landing behind him.

She chuckled because she was convinced she had him constrained.

He once again kicked her knee and when she hissed at that, she lost balance and Joln gained advantage .

He twisted his body and faced to her and further more kicked her , releasing himself from her claws. .

Immediately then she pounced off the ground and started delivering power pouches to him.

One after the other ,she sent them and he did his absolute best to block and attack her at the same time.

She delivered one fist to his face and then he pushed her arm to the side pirouetting and then kicking her on the back sending her stumbling towards the floor

Immediately she slithered and caught his leg but he used his other to kick her, but she didn't let go and caused Joln to fall by instead he landed on his hands , raised his leg again then launched a lot of strength on his muscles to completely send her off.

He jumped up quickly, picked up the wooden sword and pressed it to her throat .

" I yield.", She spoke panting. Though she ceremoniously challenges Joln, she seldom wins nor learns anything from him. However if they allowed her to use the whip, she would probably skin Joln alive. For some reason her body and skills become one with the whip and the combination is very deadly.

Anyway, after her yielding, Joln must go and choose another partner to fight until the leaders arrive in about four to five hours time . The reason being they have been super busy and had to delay their arrival with two hours .

Joln walked towards the shade to await anyone who wants to challenge him or anyone who finished fighting or anyone else who just received or pledged a yield

As he took steps there, he checked if he would see a certain someone but they were still not there. Why does he bother even though it's highly unlikely that he would show up?

A couple of seconds later, Savir caught up to him and aggressively suggested he fights with her .

Honestly he'd rather Savir was Eryka or Sonashi because this girl is only nice to Joln because he is Adrian s roommate. Her seeing Syin with Adrian pushed her to the next best alternative .

She would never challenge Adrian in front of everyone because she would be adamant on something else other than fighting. She could try to fight Syin but Syin shows no mercy and would embarrass her in front of Adrian.

" You are a horrid fighter", he pushed her away but she didn't seem to care. Her confidence in her beauty has primed her overall esteem in herself.

" Come on , please. The other boys won't fight me", she pretended to sulk.

Joln boredly scoffed but it looked like he was chocking a blush.

Savir continued with acting cute and Joln placed his hands on his waist in disbelief.

Savir is beautiful , sort of like the native female version of Adrian if he was sick. No matter what face she makes , she looks stunning and her personality is like sprinkles on dessert.

Anyway despite all this , one thing that beyond irritates Joln about Savir, is that she thinks everyone should and does favor her for her appearance... She is some way programmed to think that if she looks better than someone, that someone should be her slave. And if not she will charm them into doing anything.

It's really a bad representation and a perfect excuse to build a stereotype about beautiful individuals. But Adrian is not like her.

Adrian is just really sassy and melodramatic. If you advice, reprimand or instruct him for something , he overreads it and takes offense, resulting in him he rolling his eyes , walking away and slamming the door. It's brutally rude but it's not completely because of his face but rather his age.

" Savir, I want an opponent not a waste of time", he spoke and immediately Savir stopped her games. She keeps forgetting that Joln is the worst of the five wolves that doesn't tolerate nonsense but now she feels insulted.

She stormed away and immediately then Malia arrived. Without a word he agreed to challenge her.

This was already boring him to have to have an argument with girls like this.

He walked to the the circle and he agreed to challenge her. But as soon as he got there , Malia and Savir both bombarded him.

He fought with them for over an hour as they were a formidable team of bad fighters.

Their duel was stopped by the arrival of the sect masters . They acted like they were winning by telling Joln that they went easy on him. That would have been impressive if it wasn't the other way around and they were not so out of breath.

The wolves moved out of the space and Tajih officially welcome them and told them he hopes that they had done a great job practicing and warming up.

The wolves murmured among each other.

Tajih further told them that they would be just training martial arts today. They may or may not use wooden swords but whatever props they need to use to win their opponent is highly recommended.

" A list has been compiled. The first batch will fight today and the remaining tomorrow",Ova spoke next to Tajih.

The students assembled on the orbit of the first pair of circles because every thirty minutes a pair of wolves were called.Fifteen to twenty pairs may fight today so it's imperative to be tentative to time .

After the successful matches, Adrian losing to Savir because she cheated. Syin beating Eryka , Joln defeating Declan, the fourteenth pain was called.

" Qiu Herim and Wang Valian", Nalem summoned the names as she had been assigned the name caller.

Valian is a great fighter and has good command of all weapons and Herim is exceptional at martial arts. Though they are both an unmatched pair, their fight would be very interesting to watch.

Herim was standing at the far back of the crowd, ' annoying ' Adrian. He wasn't really paying attention nor was he expecting his name to be called.

When the crowd shifted to reveal him, he was pushing Adrian s hair behind his ear while he acted like he hated his warm hands.

Adrian jumped a little after realizing everyone s eyes were on him , thus he slapped away Herim s hand. Herim noticed his reaction and guessed that he must be in the spotlight, so he gave a bow to the crowd .

Soon after Savir, who was next to Herim and Adrian, pushed him towards the center of the crowd. He skipped gleefully like he is five years old and when he got to the center of the circle he opened his arms and made another bow before elevating.

" The creators are generous. Val, you look ravishing.", He complimented Valian as he slowly walked towards the center.

The way Herim smiled and gestured his made it seem like he is trying to get Valian to smile. But Valian was too icy.

" Choose your weapon", he ordered him and Herim raised and wiggled his fingers meaning that he is using his body .

Valian threw the wooden weapon to the floor and he assumed panther pose attack.

Herim exhaled kind of bored and he jumped to the sky and towards Valian

Valian pirouette and tried to kick away Herim but Herim caught his leg and kicked him on the chest pushing him to the side before letting him go this making Valian fall backwards. At the same period, Herim landed down.

Quickly then he propped off the floor and he raised his leg to kick Herim again but his time Herim punched away his leg and twisted then kicked Valian on the neck causing him to fall to the side.

It's clear that Valian was getting dangerously angry.

He moved from the floor again and he wanted to punch Herim everywhere but Herim blocked close punches. Herim swifted behind Valian , used his arm to throttle him and then kicked the back of Valian s leg and brought him to his knees.

Herim let go of him . Immediately then he stood over the initial side

" Are you okay?", Herim annoyed Valian with his voice.

" Choose your weapon", he spoke while Valian partially struggled to get up but eventually did and dusted his clothes

This time Herim picked the wooden sword and threw it. The wood stabbed in front of Valian, but he instead kept his eyes on him

" Am sure", he answered as if he could read Valian s mind.

He picked it up, whisked his hand and ran two fingers in the blade and soon after he lagged it to the side and ran towards Herim to slice him.

Herim kicked his own weapon to the sky , caught it and used it to block Valian s slice but Valian brought his sword to the lower ribcage and Herim pushed Valian s hand . Valian grabbed Herim s hand, pirouetted him, kicked the back of his knees, and Herim kneeled in front of Valian. Furthermore he pressed the knife to his throat

" Good job , V..", Claudia applauded and the other wolves clapped for Valian..

Herim smirked to himself and he brought his hand slowly to Valian s hand as if to trace his veins.

Out of the blue, he yanked the hand, intertwined his leg between Valian s legs, making him fall flat onto the floor and quickly Herim jumped on top of him and raised his own fist to the hair in preparation for pounding Valian s face.

The action was so sudden that literally everyone stood on the feet and was shocked.

Herim smiled softly but them , Valian raised his legs , locked them over and onto Herim s neck. Soon after he lowered them , forcefully bringing Herim s throat and torso downwards.

Valian won an advantage over Herim. he swirled over Herim.

Herim pulled and reversed over Valian but before he completely flipped over him the time-keeper announced that it was time up.

Herim let go of Valian and he the same. He stood up and dusted his clothes. When he offered his hand to Valian, he simply stood up and he walked away while dusting his clothes ..

" V, you did great. Your swordsmanship is ..", Claudia tried to compliment him but Valian simply walked past her and he headed for his chambers.

" That fight was unfair. Valian was going to defeat him if he had more time", the other wolves spoke and agreed with each other. Some started saying that Herim probably used unfair methods.

Herim looked to the crowd and they were supporting the motion of a rematch.

"A rematch? What for?", Declan spoke lowerly by Joln heard him.

Joln turned to head towards Valian to console him but Syin pulled his arm.

" Let him run first", Syin commanded Joln and he agreed. Valian isn't the type to ' talk' .

Herim felt different so he went towards the kitchen.