“Nice fight, Kale. I, your big brother, am proud of you. Maybe one day, you will be as great as me,” Simon confidently said.

“Ahem...” Sergeant Layla cleared her throat while Kale only nodded at Simon.

Arthur, on the other hand, could only scratch his cheek, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at Simon’s shamelessness.

“Alright, before we continue to the next pair, we will review Simon and Kale’s fight. Let’s start with their weapon choices and what went right for them,” the stern woman commanded.

“Aroon, you start with Simon’s weapon choice,” Layla ordered.

“Yes, ma'am. Simon used a spear to overcome his short stature and reach. It also worked well to leverage his physical strength using momentum as a force multiplier. Simon also chose to hold his ground so he could follow Kale’s movement. He even held back some of his strength to catch Kale by surprise,” Aroon's observation was spot on. While he actually had a lot of criticism for both Kale and Simon, he held himself from talking beyond what was asked by his superior.

Layla nodded before turning toward Stevan, “You, explain about Kale's weapon choice and what went right for him.”

“Kale used a sword, which is probably related to his trait. He also seems to have trained in sword art, so he chose the weapon he is most comfortable with. Kale took the initiative, utilizing his superior mobility to attack from odd angles, trying to catch Simon off guard. It would have succeeded if not for Simon dedicating his focus on defense.”

“Kale did not hesitate to let go of his weapon to slip beyond Simon’s longer reach. He used his body to attack, since his sword is not the only means to cause harm to his opponent,” Stevan explained.

“That's right. A weapon can be a force multiplier, but by no means should you depend too much on it. There are times when your weapon might be a liability or need to be sacrificed to win a fight,” Layla looked at each of them, her drill sergeant demeanor turning into a teacherly demeanor.

“But don’t sacrifice your weapon lightly. If you must do that, then make sure it counts. And remember, in a real fight, you might need to continue fighting even after your opponent dies. There can be other enemies or ambush waiting for you. The moment you let go of your weapon, you lose some of your leverage, and it takes precious seconds to pick up another weapon, which can be the difference between life and death!”

Arthur nodded. This was his first lesson about fighting, so anything said by his fellow recruits and superior was a precious source of knowledge to him.

“Now, what do you think about what Simon and Kale did wrong? Private Tamara, can you explain what Simon did wrong or what he can do better?” Layla turned toward Ives family’s little princess.

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“Simon was too focused on leveraging his superior strength. He barely did any thrusting with his spear. He also used too much strength even while holding back. If I were him, I would use just enough strength to swipe Kale’s sword aside, then using a simple thrust to hit him.”

“Kale should still be able to use his mobility to dodge the thrust, but it should take some initiative back from him, and then Simon can do some follow-ups. I think Simon's biggest mistake was that he did not try to take the initiative from Kale, thus allowing Kale to come up with a winning strategy,” Tamara explained.

Layla nodded, she was satisfied with Tamara’s explanation, even though she did not like the little princess. Precisely, she liked no one in her squad! Each of them might be a spy, either from the family or from outside!

Yet, Layla focused on the person she disliked the most, “Arthur, tell me what went wrong with what Kale did!”

“Ughh...” Arthur felt troubled. He barely knew anything about fighting, and finding fault from the winner was harder than finding fault from the loser!

“He didn't use enough speed to win?” He guessed, as he did not know what went wrong for Kale, which earned him a vicious glare from Layla.

He could practically hear her gritting her teeth together while she bore a hole in his head with her glare, as if she was saying, ‘Don't play stupid with me!’ or ‘Quit acting, you asshole!’

After a few intense seconds, she finally exhaled before correcting him for the benefit of others.

“No! Kale revealed too much of his speed at the beginning, allowing Simon to time his defense correctly. Kale should have held back before accelerating when he attacked to throw off Simon’s timing. He also was too focused on utilizing his speed, and he ended up running out of stamina, which led him to the final confrontation.”

“Kale should have used his stamina wisely. He just needed to be a little bit faster than Simon rather than using it all. Also, he used his speed only to attack faster while, actually, there is more than that in utilizing speed!”

“Decelerating right before impact is one way to utilize speed; that way, you can throw off your opponent's attack or counter's timing. If you have superior speed, you can play with timing and control it to your advantage,” Layla sagely explained.

It struck Arthur with the realization of the complexity of a fight. As he looked around, it seemed that the others also had a lot to digest from Layla’s explanation.

“Now, with that last bit out of the way, let's start our next fight!” Layla announced, letting Arthur go from his previous affront.

“Let’s see whether you learned something from our discussion. This is going to be another fight between strength and speed!” she added, which gave Arthur an idea of who the next fighters might be.

“Tamara, Stevan, get in position,” she ordered.

Stevan took the wooden sword prepared by Layla, while Tamara turned to the sergeant.

“Sergeant, can I use my own training weapon?” she asked.

“You may use your own equipment, as long as they are made of safe material and do not have any edge,” the sergeant supplied.

Tamara nodded with a smile before she took out a pair of wooden knuckles out of nowhere.

“Is it me, or do people keep materializing weapons out of thin air?” Arthur wondered.

“Tamara, are you sure you are fighting me with those? It's no secret that I'm faster than you since my bond is an eagle, and I will have further reach than you with my sword if you use those knuckles, you know?” Stevan frowned at Tamara.

“I am sure. I don't have a talent for the sword, but I'm pretty good with my hands, you know?” She winked at him with a smile.

With both of them ready, they just needed Layla to give them the command before starting their duel!

“START!”