Chapter 9: A Little Payback

Uzman returned to the Academy on the evening of the seventh day. His training with his master had been more beneficial than he had dared to hope. He was now convinced that his martial prowess was at par with that of the other students and was eager to test himself. He knew he would still be at a disadvantage since most of them had been training from a young age. However, his training had been more focused, brutal, and practical.

The next day he woke at first bell, prepared himself, and went to the kitchen area. When he entered, he found most of the other students already taking breakfast. Some of them seemed surprised to see him. He guessed that Prazard may have continued the expulsion rumors.

Lady Tameria waved him over to her table. “Meet, Vinko. He is the son of my father’s war general," She introduced them.

“Well met Vinko, I have not had the pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Uzman answered formally.

“Cut out the formality, Vinko is good people for a noble,” Fatima said sliding next to him on the table. As always she was accompanied by Jurdur.

“Man, you have been gone forever; I thought you had decided to run,” Jurdur boomed. His voice was always a loud rumble that did justice to his earth affinity.

“I was just gone for individual training. By the way, I managed to form my core.”

“Congratulations, what affinity did you awaken,” Lady Tameria asked excitedly.

“I am an eagle, ready to soar,” Uzman answered jokingly.

Fatima and Jurdur looked at Uzman dubiously. He had informed them of his Dragon Fire roots and they had expected him to be a fire practitioner.

During the morning run, Uzman found it easy to keep in the middle of the park. He could easily channel earth or air to increase strength and resilience. By the time they finished the race, he was not even winded.

“I see that you have returned to training. No one can fault the gods for whom they bestow their blessings,” Master Jones said sarcastically. “Today is our last time training without weapons. Therefore, each of you will engage in four rounds of sparring to consolidate all you have learned. Points will be awarded for hits, the winner is the first to attain three hits, force submission, or throw the opponent out of the ring. To ensure fairness the first fights will be arranged based on the room occupied. The first fight will be Ishraq and Lady Vesta followed by Prazard and Zubiya and so on. I have requested the presence of two healers who will be here shortly. Each fight is worth 100 points. So fight hard and no killing blows.”

The first 3 fights were anticlimactic with the scions of the great houses asserting their superiority. They were stronger and faster than their opponents. The fourth fight was more intense and evenly matched where Ayyub battled Divash; water against earth. The fight took a long time as Ayyub in typical water fashion continually used the strength of Divash against himself. The powerful blows were either redirected or dodged. Finally, Ayyub made a mistake when Divash faked a stumble. He stepped forward intent on finishing the fight with a combination of a gut straight punch and a right hook to the head. Divash absorbed the gut punch and stumbled forward embracing Ayyub. He then used his superior strength to throw Ayyub to the ground and straddle him. A series of powerful blows on the hapless Ayyub forced submission.

The next fight pitted Kenzo against Ginger. Ginger stepped into the ring smiling using his right hand to punch his left palm making a loud ‘thwack’ in an attempt at intimidation.

“I have been looking forward to this,” He rumbled.

Kenzo just stood there taking the forward air form. Silent and still.

“Begin!” Master Jones ordered.

As Ginger moved forward swinging his huge hands, Kenzo moved like a blur. She ducked under the wild swing and punched Ginger in the nose spraying blood. The punch was precise but lacked the power to fell Ginger. However, he staggered giving Kenzo the time to string together a combination of moves that Uzman recognized from the Raven forms.

She stepped to the left anchored the back leg and spun into a backfist that connected solidly with Ginger's temple. This was followed by a flying kick to the face. The big man staggered and thudded to the ground, unconscious. The execution of the entire sequence had taken less than a minute. Uzman looked at Kenzo in awe and realized he still had a lot to learn. Ginger was carted from the ring and a cleaning lady was called to mop up the blood from the ring.

The fight between Fatima and Lady Pinto was a dance between water practitioners. Fatima was clearly the better fighter. As Uzman watched he could identify aspects of the Martial Forms that improved Chi manipulation. Fatima scored three hits easily and won the contest without suffering a single hit.

The fight between Jurdur and Vinko was also short and decisive. The fights had shown Uzman that the Northerners were as good as the scions of the great duchies and better than the retainers. Finally, Uzman faced Khalaf in the ring. He remembered the humiliation by Prazard as he faced the smirking Khalaf.

When the fight started Khalaf moved quickly augmenting himself with air to increase speed. However, Uzman easily dodged the wild swing and stepped back. He wanted to take his time to understand his opponent and investigate his new capabilities. He stilled his mind allowing his focus to sharpen. He used fire to dodge and weave out of reach. As the fight progressed, Khalaf started getting frustrated since he failed to land a hit even though his opponent had been entirely defensive. Uzman realized that Khalaf was not very skilled. He could move fast, but his attacks did not have any cohesion or plan. He thus decided to finish the fight quickly. He waited for Khalaf to punch and moved inside the punch deflecting using his forearm. This left khalif wide open. Uzman put all his frustration and anger into a right hook to the jaw. The punch connected with a jarring impact. Khalif was thrown across the ring, spraying blood through his mouth with a broken jaw. Uzman had knocked out his opponent with one punch and without taking a hit.

Stolen novel; please report.

The second round involved all winners fighting against each other while the losers fought in their bracket. Ishraq faced Fatima, Prazard fought Kenzo, Tameria fought Jurdur, and Uzman faced Divash. Uzman mused that the fights could be classified as nobles vs Northerners while the two commoners battled it out.

Uzman faced Divash in the ring wary of the strength of the earth practitioner. To have the best chance at victory, Uzman augmented himself using fire to increase speed and power. He realized the current arrangement of the fights did not favor earth fighters since their main strength was resilience. A fighter using air augmentation could easily strike an earth augmenter but the hits would not have a lot of impact. Uzman feinted with his left hand at Divash’s head forcing him to use an upward block leaving his left side exposed. Before connecting, Uzman pulled his hand back and smashed his left knee into the exposed midriff scoring a solid hit. Divash bellowed in anger and rushed forward blindly hoping to grapple and use his superior strength. Uzman used his superior speed to dodge right and pivot ending up behind his opponent. He then kicked Divash behind the knees savagely felling him. As Divash fell, Uzman kicked him in the back ending the match.

The fight between Jurdur and Lady Tameria highlighted the different aspects of Earth and Air between the two skilled fighters. Tameria flitted like a bee striking and dodging out of reach. Jurdur was getting frustrated as the fight progressed from an accumulation of small hits. Jurdur used the bear stance and did not have much maneuverability. However, he was as solid as an old oak tree. Tameria had managed to achieve two points and it was only a matter of time before she was successful in getting a final hit.

The end of the fight was comedic. As Tameria moved in with a front snap kick, Jurdur moved his left leg back angling his body. Before Tameria could dodge back, Jurdur exploded forward and latched onto the front leg that was in the air. Tameria spun and tried to use her other leg in an acrobatic hit to free herself. However, Jurdur managed to snag the other leg too, and bodily threw Tameria out of the ring. Master Jones looked at Jurdur sourly before announcing him as the winner even though he had not managed to land a hit on Lady Tameria.

The fight between Ishraq and Fatima did not last long. Ishraq was faster, stronger, and very skilled. Fatima fought fiercely, deflecting strikes and countering when an opportunity arose. However, each hit from Ishraq was well-timed and included the destructive element of fire. Fatima was a defensive fighter who relied on flexibility. Where Fatima was flexible, Ishraq was a whirlwind. The fight came to a conclusion when Fatima tired and was knocked down in short order from a combination of a straight punch to the gut and a snap kick to the face.

When Prazard faced Kenzo, you could feel the rage and anger emanating from him in waves. The Northerners had managed to humiliate all of his minions.

“I will make you pay for your insult on my family and duchy. I will make this slow but painful,” Prazard said to Kenzo.

When Master Jones allowed the fight to begin, Prazard moved fast to attack, bunching his fists like a boxer. Even though he was raging, it was apparent that he was an experienced fighter not allowing anger to dictate his actions. Kenzo was his equal and moved to counter his every move. They both had air affinities and were matched in speed. They danced quickly around each other, each move precisely countered exchanging attacks and blocks. They were both trained from a young age. However, their experiences were vastly different; one was brought up in the unforgiving north constantly battling demon spawn for training while the other spent that better part of their training ensconced within the walls of a castle.

Kenzo led with a round kick forcing Prazard to parry low leaving his head exposed. She followed with a chop to the neck that failed to connect as Prazard leaned back and threw a wild left in retaliation. As they continued dancing, Prazard was forced back gradually to stay ahead of the primal flurry of attacks. Something had to finally give. Prazard missed his footing ducking from a falling lunging punch and staggered. That was all the time Kenzo needed. She danced forward and kneed him in the groin savagely. Prazard doubled over grunting in pain. He moved his hands to cover his groin wheezing in pain. Not letting up, Kenzo elbowed him in his chin as he bent down in pain knocking him down.

“Stop,” Master Jones shouted stopping Kenzo in her tracks. “Kenzo wins.”

After two rounds, only Uzman, Jurdur, Kenzo, and Ishraq had not lost. Master Jones looked at Uzman quizzically as if wondering how he was still in the fight. The next fights will be between Ishraq and Uzman while Jurdur faces Kenzo. Uzman entered the ring in trepidation. He had already seen Ishraq fight. He was exceptional. Uzman considered him to be one of the best fighters in their cohort. However, he was also excited to face him as a learning opportunity.

“Fight,” Master Jones ordered.

Ishraq started circling forcing Uzman to reorient to face him. Ishraq continued testing Uzman probing one side and then shifting to the other. Uzman let his instincts take over as he had done with the golem. He realized that he could anticipate the attacks from Ishraq and counter them appropriately. However, Ishraq was faster, even using air Uzman could barely keep up as Ishraq sped up. It seemed that Ishraq was more advanced in his cultivation from the strength and speed of his blows.

Before long Uzman was panting, trying to keep up with the furious onslaught of attacks. Finally, he faltered allowing Ishraq to win with a brutal combination of kicks and punches. Kenzo won easily against Jurdur making Master Jones raise his eyebrows as he had put only a token fight. These results left only Kenzo and Ishraq unbeaten and would fight for first place while Uzman and Jurdur would fight for the third position.

“I am happy to exchange pointers with you cousin. You have come far in a short time,” Jurdur said standing across from him in the ring.

“I will happily accept your lessons. Right on my face,” Uzman answered smiling.

When the fight began, Uzman knew that his only chance of success was using fire to augment his strength and remain fast enough to dodge and evade the raw power of Jurdur. He fell deeply into the fire forms, and let instinct take over. He flowed over the attacks, dodged strong attacks, and deflected the less powerful hits. As the dance continued, Uzman started glimpsing other forms that he did not know existed, he could augment his fire with earth and hit harder but slower. As he started thinking about the possibilities, he lost concentration and failed to dodge a kick to his thigh. It connected painfully staggering him. Before he could recover, Jurdur pounced on him throwing him to the ground and forcing Uzman to submit.

The fight between Ishraq and Kenzo was fierce and brutal. Ishraq barely emerged victorious scoring three hits against two and was declared the champion of the cohort by Master Jones. The ranking of the top eight spots after each student had finished their four fights was as follows: Ishraq, Kenzo, Jurdur, Uzman, Tameria, Prazard, Fatima, and Divash. There was a lot of grumbling as the student tokens were updated with the points that had been worn or lost. Uzman realized that his positioning may have been fortuitous. He had not faced Prazard or Tameria even though he finished ahead of them. He knew that he may not have been their match but vowed that in the coming month before the quarterly ranking fights for their houses he would be worthy.