Arriving at the new training area for sparring, a pavilion area being set up for all the equipment and extraneous people who need to be able to be kept cool throughout the day. While the area did not quite look like what a gladiator pit would appear to be, it certainly was giving off the “high tech workout set up” vibe. I saw more of the “I am a sadist” pills, along with a few other types of pills. At this rate I am expecting to see small jars of pills popping up everywhere for when they decide to randomly break a bone. My two sadistic trainers and I walk up to the training pavilion, where we are greeted by Sheshou and the new people I would be training with. Sheshou himself did not do much more than a quick up and down my body, as if he was just sizing me up and making sure he had a mental image of my body. There was no lust, no emotion tied to his gaze, just the necessity of the gaze so he knew what I looked like.

Sheshou’s gaze may have seemed off to me, but the three young adults I would be sparring with? Their gazes were weird for how intense their emotions were portrayed. The most obvious one was a lithe, but crazy looking guy. He was clearly looking to break something, whether that was bones, someone’s fighting spirit, or just their body with his fists and feet. Nonetheless, this guy was as close as one could get to an incarnation of destruction as you would ever see.

Next was the young girl, who was maybe my age. At first, she had the look of innocence, of purity. She looked like she may have been the “confidence” booster of the three, who was meant to be easy enough of a challenge that I could truly test things out on her without fear of failure. Once I looked at her long enough, especially out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the subtle markers of some true Joker villainy. This girl would make even the kinkiest “shy librarian” trope seem tame. Her hands would shake, not with anxiety or fear, but as if she has been starved of her favorite drug, death. When I looked away for a second, I saw a shank suddenly appear in her hand, where her hands immediately calmed down.

The last of the three was by far the tamest, but arguably the worst. In his eyes there was nothing but contempt. Not the sexist, “women can’t fight” contempt, but the type of contempt that shows he knows he has fought and slaughtered opponents way stronger and way more dangerous than I. There was no murderous rage, no carefully hidden psychopathic tendencies, just pure unadulterated complete disregard for my martial abilities. Nothing about his body suggested anything differently either, plenty of muscle on him, the height and weight needed to make any physical battle become pointless. Beyond his body, his equipment and clothes indicated he took care of himself, meticulously maintained and looked after. Not to say any of it was unblemished and overtly shiny, an indicator of a lack of real use. There were plenty of dents and other markers of wear and tear, but you could tell where things had been fixed or replaced, where new straps were gotten, where things were oiled and cleaned. No squeaks, no rust, no tight fits, nothing.

Well, it seems like my sparring partners are Mr. battle boner, Ms. Sexy slice and dice, and Mr.” You will never be my equal”. Sheshou, the man seemingly of few words, simply said “You have a minute to stretch, then sparring begins”. Once I did some last-minute stretches, he pointed to the battle hungry boy and said “Zhandou, you are first”. He stepped first, an eager look plastered all over his face. I took this to likely mean he was a straightforward, if ruthless fighter, All I would need is a good enough feint, and then a surprise strike to take him down. Oh boy how I was wrong.

My first attempt at a feint, a slight shaking of my right wrist, a slightly visible muscle clench, what would’ve been a precursor to a right hook, was completely ignored. Instead, he came in with his own right hook, which I did my best to push his fist away with my left hand, just barely succeeding. I wasn’t sure if this guy was just so focused on his own objective, he was not paying attention. I decided I would try one more time, but that I would be a bit more obvious with the feint.

I committed a bit more to the feint this time, even slightly getting out of my stance in order to make it look real. When I switched back into my stance, intending to send a [Force Palm] into his unprotected side, he simply reached to his side, and gorilla gripped my wrist, holding it into place. At some extent, this guy was aware I used some Technique in that palm strike, very aware he shouldn’t let my palm touch him. When Zhandou continued on with his assault, aiming a piercing strike with his hand towards me. I ducked to the side, one arm touching to the ground a I leaned back, and I did a single sided upper kick to his chest. Due to the fact he was so committed to this attack, and was still holding my other wrist, he had no choice but to take this kick. This kick understandable knocked him back a couple feet, but he stayed on his feet, as he managed to just slide back a couple feet.

When I went to follow up with another force palm, all I heard was a [Cobra Strike] and my left arm fell limp, as Zhandou managed to get a lightning-fast strike into my left armpit. I took a second to begin flexing and adjusted everything in my left arm, hoping to recover some strength from it before things were too late. When he decided to follow up this time, I counter-attacked, launching a [Phantom Strike] of my own. My original strike, which became my phantasmal strike, was headed for his armpit, making it appear like a retaliatory strike, but my true strike went to the inside of his right knee. As he wasn’t aware of the Techniques details, the strike went off cleanly, with Zhandou “blocking” the phantom strike. My strike immediately hobbled his right knee, forcing him to let off some pressure on the leg. I followed it up with a leg sweep to his left leg, pretty sure he would have to jump away, as he would not be able to adjust his weight to his hobbled right leg to bypass it. Instead of jumping away, he balanced his weight back on both legs, subjecting himself to a bit of pain, before paying me back with a quick [Cobra Strike] right knee. While his attack didn’t affect me as much, the recent pain training, combined with the quickened nature of the Technique limiting some of the power from the strike, there was not as much pain there. It also helped that Zhandou seemed not to know the exact positioning for where his strike needed to go to inflict maximum damage, since it hit slightly off of the sweet spot for hobbling.

As a result, my leg sweep was effectively stopped in its tracks, with some minor pain to my knee, that likely would go away on its own soon enough. Things continued like this for a few more exchanges, where we both exchanged blows, but my blows did slightly more lasting damage, while his were largely mitigated. The problem being that there was still some relevant damage being done to me, which was stacking up on me. The damage racked up to a point where Zhandou seemed like he was on his last legs, and while I was not in great shape either, I was in good enough shape to be able to end things.

When Zhandou seemingly left himself open to a strike to his weak side, his hobbled right leg appearing to give away beneath him, I went for [Force Palm] to his center of his stomach, hoping the strike would be enough to put him down long enough to end the battle. It was at this moment I learn Zhandou could do a feint, even if he seemingly didn’t notice them himself. As soon as my left palm went blazing towards his stomach, he stopped on a dime, grabbed ahold of my arm on both sides of by elbow, where he slide across my now unprotected side, and promptly broke my left elbow on his knee.

I fell to my knees, gripping my arm like I was dying, but holding back enough to not scream or cry. I did this for a second before I realized a second attack might be coming. But when I looked up Zhandou was clearly out of breath and barely holding himself up.

It was at this moment when we were seemingly at a stalemate, too critically injured to provide a serious threat to Zhandou, but he was also too overall tired and injured to take advantage of his recent success. Jiannan decided it was time to call the match, declaring it a draw. We were both taken aside, I was given a couple different pills to help fix my injuries very quickly. It took all of five minutes for the medicine to come into effect, at which point I was given some sort of Gatorade like drink that meant to re-energize me and give me enough energy for another fight. Additionally, some targeted ice to injured areas, as well as massages to tired muscles to quickly get her back into shape.

Not even twenty minutes after the first spar ended, was I proclaimed fit enough for a second fight. Once Jiannan gave me a once over to be sure, my next opponent was told to step up. I looked up while I did a couple arm and leg stretches to see the girl. Sheshou had said her name was Fengkuang, and right away I could see that crazed look. Right before Fengkuang could meet me on the sparring match, Jiannan stopped her and held his hand out.

“No blades for these matches Fengkuang”

She proceeds to take out a few sharp butcher knives and placed them in Jiannan hands, then begins to walk to the sparring matt. Jiannan says “All of them Fengkuang”, which causes her to pout and hand a couple kunai knives out of her socks, a couple needle knives from her thighs, and one more butcher knife out, placing them in Jiannan knives. He mutters something about a crazy obsession before letting Fengkuang onto the sparring matt.

Things finally gotten in order, we both are now on the matt, staring at each other, waiting to be told we can start fighting. Sheshou gives each of us a look, nodding to each of us in order, then waves his arm downward, saying “Fight”.