On the plains of Delano in the kingdom of Antrim there is an orphanage for children who have lost their families to war. However this is no ordinary orphanage as the caretakers are all trained warriors. Though they are not trained for the sake of protecting the children but to train them into becoming future warriors, knights, and soldiers.

Though this is an orphanage it’s structured as if it is a school. A school to train children who have lost their loved one to become strong enough to protect others loved ones in the future.

The children will grow up training and in turn have the choice of becoming an officer in the kingdom’s army once they become strong enough.

Currently a group of children of this orphanage are on a field with one of the caretakers. They are awaiting what exercise the caretakers have in store for them today. All in the group are at the age of 7 and about to have a taste of their first fight.

“A’ight now kids it’s about time you felt how it is to fight for real. Today we gonna have ‘ur first sparring lesson”, yelled the caretaker, a slim man but tall man.  

All the children in the group looked up to the man in awe as if they couldn’t believe what they just heard.

“Finally something real!”, “Yes no more drill training!”, “Woho! Don’t have to run laps today!”, All kinds of excited shouts came from the little crowd as they heard the words of the slim man.

“Now kids don’t get to excited, there will be a punishment exercise for those who lose more matches than they win in today’s session so don’t think you can get away from the hard work”, laughs the slim man in a cheerful manner.

“Yes teacher Romano!”, the children called out in unison.

“Okay, now first start with one lap around the campus as warmup”, Romano said smiling at the boy who earlier exclaimed his happiness over not having to run laps. The boys former ecstatic grin disappeared and was replaced by sadness, only sadness.

……..

As the children ran around the vast campus grounds it became clear who the most driven for victor in the group are. Twenty of the children are running at a fast pace that would put most adults to shame but they don’t look like they will ever run out of energy. However they are far from where those who are competing for first place are as they had gained a distance another three hundred meters ahead after only running for five minutes.

This little group of try-hards is filled with 6 children who are all running at a blistering pace. On their faces you can tell none of them can allow the other to win. Or to be exact none of them can allow a certain someone to win. However it is fruitless as this certain someone has been running 5 meters in front of them since the race started. And no matter how much energy and spirit they put into it none of them can get any closer to him. He is Aias Geno a wellbuilt boy with rough hair and a tough looking face.

“Damnit Aias I’m going to win this time you’ll see”, screams a burly boy behind Aias.

“Don’t think you’re the only one aiming for number one”, shouts a girl with dreadlocks and a tall frame next to the burly boy.

All the other children in the group mustered more power into their steps trying to get closer to Aias however he only put another step into it and remained 5 meters in front of them.

Aias was running with a wide smile on his face as if without a care or worry in the world, he knew he wasn’t going to lose. He was the child with the fastest and toughest body in the group, it would be impossible for the others to match his speed if he was to run with all he had. However he enjoyed the others competition so he always kept at a certain distance from who was second in place. Making them strive further to beat him, to win!

Aias and the other children had grown up together for many years, some had come to the orphanage earlier than others and Aias was one of the first in this group. He had always been in the orphanage training and learning, he had always been there to meet the new kids when they were registered. He was everyone's friend, and rival in training.

……...

The perimeter of the orphanage is roughly two kilometers which goes to show how big of a facility it really is. And it has to be as it is a large institute that has over a thousand children training in it, the youngest being less than a year old and the eldest being under eighteen year olds.

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It took Aias and the group in first place only ten minutes to run a whole lap around the circumsphere of the orphanage then the next group of children who weren’t as fast around twelve minutes or longer.

“Damn it! Why can’t I be in the limelight for once?”, cried out the bulky kid who had just finished in third place.

“Ha! Jérémie i told you i would win in the end”, said the girl in dreadlocks proudly as she had just finished the race in second place.

All the other children after getting through the goal went up and congratulated her as if she had won the whole race and Aias wasn’t apart of the group. To this all Aias could do was pout as he was used to this treatment by now, during all competitions they had gone through till now he had always been the winner and now everyone else in the year instead congratulated the second place winner for being the best of the other five exceptionally talented kids.

“Well then children gather ‘round i’m about ta explain the rules of the sparring session”, Romano yelled looking at the children's routine of congratulations with a smile.

“The rules are simple, you will try to grapple down the opponent and make their stomach touch the ground, then ya win. I repeat, once your stomach touches the ground you lose. Now you are not allowed to use punches, kicks, tackles, or any other method to knock the opponent down. Only through grappling will you be given a point, violate the rules and there will be a deduction of points”, Romano explains to the group gathering in front of him.

“You will all have a match with one another at some point to make it fair, the loser of the most matches will have to finish one hundred handstand pushups before they can eat breakfast. And the winner of the most matches get to go into town with uncle Laue and help him with an errand three days from now”, Romano exclaimed with clear enthusiasm in his voice. Hearing this causes the eyes of the kids around him to light up in expectation.

Normally helping with errands with an uncle may not be much fun for a seven year old. However this meant they didn’t have to attend the lessons of that day, which happens to be war history, something no one in the class enjoys. And whatsmore uncle Laue is a very kind old man. He is known to spoil the kids when he can with candies and other fun things, so going on an errand with him could mean they would get something great.

“Alright then this will be the matchup list”, Romano tells the class as he takes out a large sheet of paper with 26 names written above and to the side of a grid.

As all the kids look at the grid they see who their first opponent is going to be. Suddenly Jérémie yelled out “Yes i will fight Aias first!!!”, and all the other kids looked at the large sheet of paper in front of them with expectation in their eyes hoping for it to be true, they had all wondered what would happen if the two ever fought.

Who would win in a fight between the kids is the one thing that couldn’t be discovered before as they had been forbidden to ever hurt one another or even so much as test combat skills with each other.

This had caused a great question to spark in the minds of the whole group “who is truly the strongest?”, this question was especially important to the six top students as they all know that their physical strength means nothing if they don’t have the aptitude for combat. Even for Aias who had always been winning their different competitions was wondering if he could actually beat the others in a real fight.

“Haha, well you have all been taught the grappling basics, and tricks from your caretakers so you should be able to handle yourselfs. But i think a particular match should be held first to show everyone how it should be done is best. So the two who have the best record at the moment will come up and demonstrate how it’s done”, Romano said with a hopeful smile on his face towards Jérémie.

It was obvious that Romano was cheering for Jérémie to win against Aias, who wouldn’t cheer for the underdog. Jérémie had been working long and hard to win against Aias and everyone wanted him to succeed. Obviously they also knew Aias was working just as hard in order to not lose to anyone but he had already showed everyone his strength so they were hoping for a new star to be born, one that would succeed against Aias.

……..

The two were standing on the stage looking fiercely at each-other, their battle intent was bursting out of their eyes like two wild beasts. Neither dared to make the first move as they didn’t know what the other had to counter them.

In truth neither really had anything in mind, all they knew were some grappling techniques, and holds. They didn’t have any experience with how to utilize them in combat other than training they had done on dummies. They couldn't size up the opponent's form, or anything a real fighter is capable of. All they could rely on was their combat prowess in hopes for a victory.

The first to make a move was Jérémie. He charged forward with his hands close to his body in a style resembling peekaboo from boxing, he did this so his neck or clothes wouldn’t be grabbed and used to make him fall. He was hoping to get close to and use his large body to hold onto and drag Aias down to the ground.

For a moment Aias was dazed at the sight of Jérémie charging at him in the way he was. Right before he started charging Aias had thought he would do something like that.

As Jérémie got closer Aias was still standing there motionless as if he hadn’t noticed Jérémie running towards him.

Suddenly when Jérémie was but a leap from Aias, a movement as quick as lightning came from Aias. He lunged forward, reached his hand into the small gap between Jérémie’s arms, grabbing the forearm from the inside. At the same time he used his other hand to grab onto the humerus. Then using his full body strength he pulled Jérémie in a sideways motion down to the ground.

However Jérémie wasn’t weak, he managed to stay on his feet. However his upper body was lowered far too much compared to his legs which were pushing up making his body's angle obtuse.

Aias pulled away his arms but instead grabbing at the back of Jérémies neck. He then jumped back with his legs causing his body to be in a horizontal line to the ground, putting all of his bodyweight on Jérémies poorly balanced abdomen and neck.

They fell to the ground together and there was nothing Jérémie could do to stop it, he was about to lose. But at least Aias was going to slam into the ground after him.

Then suddenly in the last moment before Jérémie hit the ground Aias tucked in his legs and landed with his feet on the ground while Jérémie could only cough as his stomach and chest hit the ground. He did try to stop the fall with his arms but the momentum from falling together with Aias was far too much. And so ended the first match of the day.

Everyone was awestruck, whether it was the children in the group or the caretakers who were standing by watching. They couldn’t believe something like that happened in the first fight of these kids lifetime.

Even Jérémie who would usually say something about getting back at him in the next challenge was too shaken to say a word. He couldn’t comprehend what had just happened to him even though he saw it all with his own eyes.

“W, winner Aias!”, after a few moments of intense staring from the viewers Romano finally got his bearings together and announced Aias as the winner.

……..

The day contained six hundred and fifty matches, which took about an hour as several matches were held at a time. In the end the result was unimaginable by all who had been viewing and participating. Aias had achieved 25 consecutive victories, beating the whole class, something no other child had ever done since the founding of the orphanage.

No one could deny that this child was a genius.