When the students entered the arena, Gaharad looked surprised. “I thought only one or two of you would be done this quickly, but it seems I was mistaken. But for you all to finish at the same time, that’s quite impressive. May I ask who completed the task first?” Orochi raised his hand, he was trying to act nonchalantly, but there was an underlying emotion mixed in with his motions.

“I was the one who completed it first.” Gaharad raised his eyebrows and hummed in interest. He squinted slightly as he inspected Orochi. Yes I can see that he was the first. His eyes contain traces of madness and anger. But at what? I wonder if he will be of use or not… Heedless of Gaharad’s inner thoughts, Orochi was having an internal monologue of his own. I was first, and I did it best as well. So why is it that that bastard took a bigger role than me. He shouldn’t be the main character, I should! Why does he have the harem when I’m here?! I know I’m better than him! Wait, that’s the problem! They don’t know that I’m better than him! If they realized that, I would become the main character! Yes! That’s it!

“Alright, well, let’s get started on combat training then. First, I need you all to spar with some instructors to gauge your strength and technique. Don’t worry, they won't hurt you too badly. Just do your best and the instructors and I will create a regiment to make you stronger as fast as possible.” Gaharad addressed all of the students in a militant way. “Now then, let’s assign you instructors. First up, Orochi, Gorou, and Minori you are with Squad Leader Harrison.” He gestured to the side, the man who stood there was lanky and seemed out of place in full military garbs, but the look on his face made the students retract that thought. He had a very serious expression, one that made the three boys' faces pale slightly. But they still obediently nodded their heads and moved towards their instructor. “Next up, Akane, Yuriko, and Emiko, you are with Private Jessup.” He gestured to a different man. This man was familiar to Noboru. It was the one who had ambushed him earlier today. Noboru’s face scrunched up slightly but he quickly dismissed his feelings, after all, the Private had just been acting on Gaharad’s order. “Naoko, Kei, and Mika, you all have Sargent Kim as your instructor.” Gaharad motioned to the only woman in the arena aside from the students. She had a smile on her face as she looked over the students under her instruction. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Nice to meet you.” Kim was the only one to offer any sort of greeting to her group.

Just as the students were about to split up, Akane raised her hand. “What about Noboru?” The students all realized that she was correct. Noboru wasn’t assigned to any of the groups. Gaharad simply smiled. “Noboru will be sparring with me, I want to check his skills personally.” The smile on Gaharad’s face didn’t disappear, instead it got much bigger. However the feeling behind the smile changed. It was no longer a simple smile, it was the smile of a predator, looking towards his prey. The students gulped unconsciously, and were about to ask if Noboru would be okay, but they were herded towards different parts of the arena by their instructors before they could speak up. Finally, Gaharad turned to Noboru. “Shall we begin?”

Orochi looked on as Noboru reached towards the sword rack to get a suitable weapon. His mind was racing, thoughts of how to show off his superiority filled his head. Before he could act on any, Instructor Harrison called out to him. “You said you were the first to kill the Silver Wolf, right?” Orochi turned towards him. “Silver Wolf? Is that what those monsters are called? If so, then yes I am the one who was first.” Harrison nodded his head. “Alright, then you’ll be first to spar. Grab a weapon.” He gestured towards a rack similar to the one that Noboru was just reaching towards. Orochi walked up to the rack and inspected the weapons. They were all either wood or blunted metal, so none of them were lethal, however their weights and grips were as accurate as possible to the real thing. Orochi briefly pondered his weapon choices. Should I go for a greatsword? But those are too slow, I’ve never liked that play style in games. Maybe a long sword? Yeah let’s go with that. Having decided quickly, Orochi picked up a suitable sword and swung it around a little bit before walking towards the instructor.

“Alright, you lot back up. You, “ Harrison pointed at Orochi, “what’s your name?”

“Orochi.”

“Right, Orochi, back up three steps then take your stance.”

Orochi followed his commands then took a stance that he learned from a video game. He put his legs shoulder width apart and kept the sword in two hands in front of him angled towards Harrison. It was a poor copy of the basic kendo stance, but it still was better than nothing. Harrison hummed lightly as he inspected Orochi’s stance then shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, come at me however you want. I want to see what you can do.” This surprised Orochi. He figured that Harrison was skilled, but he hadn’t even taken a stance nor equipped a weapon. Besides, when compared to the rest of the instructors, he was quite lanky and seemed awkward on his feet.

“Come on then, I don’t have all day.” Harrison spoke up in slight annoyance when Orochi still hesitated to attack. Orochi clicked his tongue in anger. He’s looking down on me. He thought. Well, I’ll show him exactly what I’m made of. Orochi rushed forward, his speed was far faster than he had ever run when on earth. While Orochi had quite a few subpar stats when compared to other heroes, his agility was one of the highest which made him faster than almost anyone else in the group. However, this speed didn’t surprise Orochi like it had surprised Noboru in his first fight. Orochi had messed around with his new abilities on the first chance he could, testing his speed and stealth to the extremes while he was in the palace. Because of this he had good control over his body even with the increased acceleration. He rushed towards the instructor and began a wide swing towards Harrison’s midsection, almost like he was trying to cut him in half. Orochi watched as his sword got closer and closer and began to smile in satisfaction when he saw that Harrison hadn’t even reacted. Ha! That’s what you get for looking down on me! I’m even faster than an instructor. Just as his grin was reaching his ears something unexpected happened. The instructor disappeared. Orochi stopped all motion and stared at the spot where Harrison was in shock.

“Hmm, your speed isn’t bad, the technique could use some work but you show some promise. Alright, next.”

“Wha-” Orochi sputtered. He was dumbfounded, not only had he not been able to even see Harrison move, he was also evaluated as if he was merely average. Harrison hadn’t been amazed at his speed or shocked at his technique, he had called him average. Orochi dropped his head and walked off, anger burning in his eyes. Minori was next, but Orochi didn’t even watch the match, instead he turned towards where Noboru was sparring. If that was my evaluation, then surely his is even worse, right? However, when he looked towards Noboru and saw the spar, he realized that he was wrong.

At around the same time that Orochi began to spar, Noboru had also begun sparring. His opponent was Gaharad himself. Both of them had already picked their weapons from the rack, Noboru had the same one and a half handed sword that he used during the match with Prince Harold, but Gaharad had a greatsword that was about as tall as him. Noboru adopted his same central kendo stance, while Gaharad had adopted an ox guard, with the sword raised parallel to his ear and pointed towards Noboru.

“Come.” Gaharad spoke one word and the match began. Noboru sprinted forwards, he wanted to get into the guard of Gaharad as quick as possible, because he had shorter reach he was at a disadvantage in a distanced battle, but if he got close the fight would become hard for Gaharad as it would be hard to move that large sword around in close quarters. But, of course, Gaharad was an experienced warrior, he wasn’t going to just allow Noboru to close the distance like that. Just as Noboru got in range of his greatsword, Gaharad thrust forward, looking to catch Noboru off guard with his speed. Noboru twisted sideways, spinning before recovering his basic stance and beginning his push forwards once more. Before he could even take one more step, Gaharad twisted his sword and swung sideways, drawing a wide sweep towards Noboru. Noboru had no choice but to backstep away from the sword. He rushed forwards into the opening made because of Gaharad’s wide swing, and quickly stepped into his guard. Noboru swung his sword towards Gaharad’s shoulder, looking to bring him to his knees, however Gaharad stepped towards Noboru, letting go of his greatsword with one hand and jabbing forward quickly. This caught Noboru off guard, and he was forced to abandon his swing and instead backstep and try to get his guard up against Gaharad’s fist.

He was able to get his guard up in time, but his stance was in ruins and Gaharad was quick to take advantage of it. Holding the greatsword by its ricasso, he swung the grip of the sword like a hammer, looking to rip the sword from Noboru’s hands. Noboru wavered before quickly making a decision. He let Gaharad rip the sword from his hands and instead used the momentary shock that overtook Gaharad and got up close with him, throwing a jab at Gaharad’s exposed midsection. Gaharad let out a sharp gasp and stumbled back, but Noboru did not let him gain any distance. In a situation where one side has a weapon and the other doesn’t, you cannot allow them any time to to think or get in their weapon’s ideal range. Noboru grabbed the hilt of Gaharad’s greatswords and pulled while he kicked out his legs, attempting to force Gaharad to either fall over or let go of his weapon. Gaharad chose the latter, letting go of the greatsword before throwing a punch of his own at Noboru’s exposed stomach. Noboru twisted sideways at the last second and dodged the fist before jabbing forwards with the hilt of the greatsword in an impromptu Iaijutsu strike to his midsection. Gaharad yelped in pain and grit his teeth but didn’t stop his movements. He used the momentum from the hit he just took to spin and sweep Noboru’s legs from under him. Noboru was forced to use the greatsword to keep on his feet, but it was firmly stuck in the ground and would take some effort to pull out. So instead of pulling it out Noboru used the sword as an anchor point to perform a monkey staff hook kick. Both of his feet impacted on Gaharad’s chest and launched him backwards.

Noboru landed on his feet, panting in exhaustion. He had the upper hand for now, but Gaharad was a hard opponent, and Noboru still felt like Gaharad was holding back on him. Gaharad got to his feet but didn’t adopt any stance. “That’s more than enough. You really are incredible when it comes to combat, Noboru.” Gaharad shook his head in self depreciation. “Honestly, I don’t have anything to teach you. When it comes to pure technique, you're just as good, no, maybe even better than me.” Noboru bowed his head.

“Thank you for your kind words, but you were holding back on me, no?” Noboru decided to ask the biggest question on his mind. Gaharad chuckled, “So you picked up on that, huh? Yeah, I limited myself to your stats only. It’s an ability of mine called Instructor’s Limits that lets me reduce my stats for a small period of time. If I had used my full power, it wouldn’t really have been a spar.” Gaharad shrugged his shoulders. “But, with time, you will probably eclipse even my stats.”

Noboru bowed his head once more, a satisfied smile on his face danced on his face. Noboru didn’t realize that while he was sparring, the students who weren’t in combat themselves all had their eyes on him. Most of their gazes were filled with awe, but one looked on in pure jealousy. Unknowing of the views of the heroes around him, Noboru put his sword back on the rack and began to rest on a bench.