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As I walked toward Oswald, he was getting ready to charge me again. The moment he took off in my direction, I ready myself. Instead of having my sword in front of me, I had it in a low ready position while my left hand was up at the ready as if I were going to catch the blade, which was not far from the truth.

I already know where he is aiming, so now it is all down to timing. When Oswald closed in and started his swing for my head, I jumped forward into his swing before it had great momentum and caught his wrist.

From there, I did to Oswald what I did to my first opponent, I threw him, but I was not as gentle.

With a swift movement, I pulled Oswald forward with my left hand while getting low and slide-kicked his foot that was currently pushing off the ground, this made Oswald airborne directly over me, and that was when I brought my right fist that was gripping my sword right into his gut with an uppercut while pulling him toward the ground with my left.

This maneuver slammed Oswald on the ground, hard, knocking the air out of him, and before he could get up, I walked past him and swung my sword at the side of his knees, which made him cry out in pain.

“You may have aura protecting your body, but that just makes them tougher, not invincible, now get up, your beating is far from done.” I said in a volume just loud enough for only Oswald to hear.

This time, as Oswald hobbled to his feet with the help of his sword, I could see fear and hesitation in his eyes, which made me wonder, why is he so persistent, is it some warped sense of noble’s pride? Or is it this older brother that Finrod told me about?

Before I could ponder any further, Oswald was on his feet, limped a few steps toward me, and started swinging. Now that he is not throwing around his body at superhuman speeds, I can handle this without using my aura, and I am not going to be gentle this time.

Since he has his aura on, that makes him sturdier than normal, but that is not that big of an issue, I just need to hit him in the weak or sensitive areas of the human body.

As Oswald attacks me, it turns out it is not much different from before, sure, the swings were faster and I had to dodge a lot more than blocking or parrying compared to before, but it was manageable due to Oswald’s attacks falling into somewhat of a pattern.

After giving Oswald a few free strikes to confirm his pattern, I made my move. My first counterattack was when he raised his sword high to strike me down, this revealed his armpits, which were all so full of nerves, which made it such a juicy target.

As Oswald brought his sword down, my sword came from below and jabbed into his left armpit. This made him flinch back in pain and opened him up for me to rain blows on him, I targeted his joints and any weak points I could hit, but I avoided his temples, neck, and groin.

After half a minute of relentless beating on Oswald, he crumpled and curled up into a sobbing ball. Seeing this, I no longer had the heart to continue. And when I looked up, I could see the other students around looking at me with fear in their eyes.

“Fuck… not again.” I whispered to myself as I finally noticed Instructor Greyham looking at me from the back of the crowd of students, when our eyes met, he started making his way to me with a healer in tow, “Fuck…”

When Instructor Greyham came in front of me, he looked me up and down as the healer carried Oswald away. “What is your name boy?”

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I straightened up and replied, “I am Luke Ironcrest, Instructor Greyham.”

After studying me for a few seconds more, he announced, “Luke Ironcrest, has passed the test, this stage will now be vacant for others to duel.” then he turned to me and said, “Follow me.” and walked off stage.

He led me to the main stage, turned, and asked, “Was it necessary to go that far?”

After reflecting for a bit, I may have gone a tiny bit too far… ok fine, I was being vindictive and immature for my mental age and went way too far. I could have given him a few light smacks, flex on him, and thrown him off the stage. “No… I went overboard, I could have just ended it by throwing him off the stage.”

“Good, at least you still have some sense in you. Now, do you know why I did not step in to stop the match?” he asked.

I gave him a questioning look, not knowing where this was going. “No?...”

Instructor Greyham huffed and said, “Because if you did not beat him up, I would have done it for disobeying my instructions about using aura.”

At his declaration, my eyes widened in surprise as I asked, “How did you know he was using aura? I barely felt him using it and I was just next to him.”

Instructor Greyham snorted at my question, “Ha!... Boy, I have been using aura decades before you were born, I did not need to feel it, I knew it from how he was moving and taking hits that would have incapacitated him. If he had beaten you I would have broken a few of his bones and reported him to the disciplinary department, but I will settle with you beating him into a crying mess.”

So he does know about Oswald concealing his aura, maybe he can give me a hint on how it's done, “How did he even do that? When my father and his knights manifest their aura, it is always visible.”

He smirks at me as he says, “Greedy little shit aren't you, that just means your family is still using the standard way of using aura, there are a few families that know how to do it, and a few different ways to go about doing it, in fact, I just did it right now.” he said as he pulled out a copper coin and folded it with two fingers as easy as if it were paper.

I am currently closer to the instructor than I was to Oswald and I did not feel anything. “How? I did not sense any change.”

Instructor Greyham waved off my question and replied with mock outrage, “Don’t compare me to that young Berkeley boy, he had at most been practicing aura for a year and could not conceal it properly. But that is enough small talk.”

Then Instructor Greyham went back to being stone-faced, “From what I can see of your swordsmanship and unarmed combat, you do not fight like a noble or knight, who taught you how to fight like that?”

Fuck, I did not think of a cover story on how I know the techniques I know, orthodox armed combat in this world did not have much in the way of punches, kicks, or takedowns, how am I going to explain this away?

It was then that Zhang Jun’s journal came to mind and an idea started to form.

“Err… Not to brag, but when I noticed the other students were not as skilled, I thought I had some leeway and tried to mix Kingdom’s basic sword forms with techniques from an unarmed combat manual in a foreign language that I found.” I lied while looking sheepish.

He stared at me for a good few seconds and from the look in his eyes, I could tell he did not buy my bullshit for a second but decided to let it go, “From now on, any form of sparing for you will be done only with an instructor. If I have you sparring with the other students, they will end up demoralized.”

He then called over one of the assistant instructors and said he would be my partner until the sparring session ended and walked off.

When the last grain of the hourglass fell, I was dripping with sweat, throughout the remaining time, the assistant instructor kept me on my toes. With his advantage in strength, speed, height, and reach, he slowly ramped up the intensity until I started taking small hits from him and stayed at that level until the time was up.

Soon we were dismissed and I drained a few cups from the watering station before I dragged my aching body back to my dorm to rest before night class, I just hoped I had enough energy to concentrate in class.

***

After dismissing the students and saying goodbye to his assistant instructors, Instructor Matthias Greyham went to the Administration office and requested information on Luke Ironcrest.

What he saw in the file made him grin from ear to ear, “How fun.”