AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

“So, who wants to be first?!” Instructor Greyham asked in a booming voice.

And just like that, half the class was on their feet and raising their hands, my teammates included.

Instructor Greyham looked around for a moment, then pointed at the dog boy I fought yesterday and asked his team to get down there. He and melee focused part of his team fist-pumped as they ran to The Pit, their mage counterparts lagged behind, obviously not as excited as the muscle heads.

What was dog boy’s name again?... oh right, Bonos.

Soon, Bonos’s team entered the Pit, this time wearing metal armor with real weapons in hand, and the portcullis behind them closed. As they got into formation, Instructor Greyham was giving them last-minute instructions loud enough for everyone to hear, it boiled down to do whatever he says the moment he says it and not to start the fight until he says so.

On the opposite end of the Pit, the portcullis opened, and a bunch of Arena staff came out dragging five unconscious goblins along with some wooden clubs. And like last time, they dumped the goblins on the ground along with their weapons and all but one staff stayed behind to blow some powder at the goblins before retreating behind the closing portcullis.

Soon after, the goblins stirred agitatedly like someone shot a nasty fart up their noses and got up to look around, and like last time the goblins mainly noticed three things, they had no chance of escape, there were weapons near them, and there were others in the Pit with them that were not goblins, and that was good enough reason to kill.

When I shifted my focus to the team facing the goblins, I noticed that besides Bonos, the rest of the team was having small ticks, whether they were nervous or excited ticks, I could not tell from where I was seated.

The moment the goblins got up and grabbed their clubs, Instructor Greyham’s voice boomed out, “Fight!”

As the goblins got closer and closer, Bonos’s team stood their ground, but I could sense there was something off. It was only when the goblins were halfway across that I noticed it. While the team was holding their ground, I saw the grin on Bonos’s face get wider and wider while his chest heaved.

The moment the goblins took a few steps past the halfway line, Bonos literally growled and then released a battle cry before breaking formation and charging the goblins. It took Bonos getting a few steps ahead before his team comprehended what just happened and shouted at Bonos to get back in formation, but he was clearly not listening.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

This forced the rest of his team to make a snap decision and chase after Bonos to back him up.

When Bonos made contact with the goblins, I got to say, I was rather impressed. The goblin at the head of the group seemed to be a better runner than the rest of its kin and thus would make contact with Bonos first, but the only contact the goblin made was a savage overhead strike.

It was lacking in all grace, but I could not question its power, with the pure strength of his arms Bonos cut down the goblin despite it bringing its wooden club up to defend itself, but the wooden club killed enough momentum to have the normal steel sword provided by the Arena embed itself in the skull of the goblin, and when Bonos tried to pull his sword out, he realized that it was stuck, and before he could kick the corpse off his blade, he was accosted by two goblins that caught up, forcing him to abandon his sword in the skull of his kill.

But just as Bonos was confident in his getaway, although without his weapon, one of the goblins hurled its club at him, clocking him I think the chin before he could raise his hands up to defend himself.

Bonos took a few more steps back, but I could see the club to the chin taking effect as his legs lost coordination and hit the floor like a boxer does when they had their brain rattled.

As the goblins closed in on him, Bonos could see them coming, but his body was not responding as it should, and as a goblin was almost on top of Bonos, it got zapped by a Spark spell that made it seize up, followed by an air bullet that knocked it back.

That was when the other two fighters stepped in front of Bonos to engage the goblins while one of the mages provided fire support, and the last mage dragged Bonos further back.

By the time Bonos got his feet to listen to him again, the fight was over and Bonos was looking at the floor in shame at his performance.

It was then that Instructor Greyham jumped into the pit and shouted, “What is the verdict?” to which the four Arena staff raised huge placards. It was a unanimous decision, Bonos’ team had one major and four minor penalties.

Then Instructor Greyham turned to Bonos and said, “As for you… I am sure I taught you better.” while drawing a meter-long wooden rod from his belt that the whole academy dubbed as ‘The Stick of Love’.

Seeing Instructor Greyham draw the rod, Bonos’ teammates quickly stepped away from him, and soon Bonos was running toward the exit, only to be smacked down not five steps into his run and proceeded to receive a minute lecture of his stupidity while receiving the tender administrations of ‘The Stick of Love’.

After that sideshow was over, Instructor Greyham called down the next team as the Arena staff cleaned the goblin corpses.

As the matches went on, I noticed that most of the teams were pretty standard and playing it safe, while some of the other teams were taking risks to get a chance of getting the best time, one team was daring enough to follow the example of the goblin that knocked Bonos down and tried throwing their weapons at the goblins to maybe score a hit on the surprised goblins and shave off a few seconds, when they finished the match with three out of five team members needing the instructors to step in to rescue them, the whole team got a taste of ‘The Stick of Love’ for their stupidity.

But other than those who were playing it safe or those who were taking big risks to make best time, there were a few groups that were truly competent, and Oswald’s group was one of those groups.