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32 – Spar

Shirt of the uniform, especially necklines, was sweated. I opened my eyes slowly to see I was lying on ground under the hot sun. “At last, the joker has woken up!”, I heard teacher saying.

I think I slept over after she knocked me out. I was squeezing my eyelids to force wake up from somber sleep. “Halt... Line up”, she shouted. I heard fast footsteps.

“Little princess wants to sleep more?”, she said again lowering her to look at me. Our eyes were connected, neither her nor me blinking at all. I stood up supporting my body with both arms. My head was still hurting, pain concentrating over my left eye as if I was slammed with a warhammer.

“I’m Kain”, I said in sweet tone to introduce myself and ease the intense air. Other students were lined up, their eyes filled up with terror. “She has to be a rough and crazy”, passed my mind.

“Today’s last sparring will be between Klytea and Kain”, teacher said and winked at Klytea. She made so that I could see. She was doing it intentionally. “It’s to check your abilities”, she said and continued looking at my katana “no weapons and magic spells”.

Others dispersed right and left to make way for me. We were in the middle of big arena. The ground was solid but I saw wind blowing sands. “You start when I say so”, teacher said. “I have potions so don’t worry about breaking him into pieces”, she added smiling at Klytea.

Sweats were flowing down from my forehead as if the rivers were streaming down from top of mountains at spring. There were few meters in between Klytea and me. She stood in a stance which resembled a panther or tiger. A wild cat. I had never seen something like that before, so that got my interest.

In comparison to her I was just casually standing. “Begin”, teacher shouted. Next moment, Klytea disappeared and loomed in front of me. “Fas”, I couldn’t even finish when she made the first blow. It looked like a normal kick to the leg. Her right foot slammed to my left leg, just beneath the joint.

She showed amazing power in comparison to her small body. I lost my balance and my body went down. As I was falling, I felt her left arm move. A swift punch was coming to my face. Thrusting my body using its own weight backwards to fall down rather than pushing forward or retaliating. Because I thought if I attacked I would be knocked out.

Everything happened in matter of seconds in two or three seconds, but no more than that. I was on ground and saw surprised look on Klytea’s face. Her punch had missed and she was not pleased.

She made few steps back and made a hand movement for me to rise. I stood up. My brain was shocked. She couldn’t have teleported, so it had to be speed. Her was fast for eyes not to detect her movement. Blood circulation speed in my body had increased triple fold. My heart was bumping faster than rats.

I knew I had to come up with a solution in matter of seconds, or some part of my body was going to be broken into pieces. “Klytea”, I whispered.

“Don’t go easy on him”, teacher shouted.

There was no wind and sunrays were heating up the ground. It was too hot. I could see steam going off from ground in a distance. I stood still to wait for Klytea’s next attack. There was a determined look on her face. She was going to take me down properly this time.

She disappeared from my vision again. I knew she was going to ‘appear’ somewhere and hit me but the question was where. Moreover the problem was how could I detect her position.

It felt like a revelation from god to prophet when I felt the movement in air. I sensed a breeze from my right side. I detected small movement in the composure of the air surrounding me. It had to be Klytea.

She really came into sight from same location as the movement in air. She raised her left hand to attack. I made a step forward and her punch missed.

However this time, while moving forward I grabbed her arm and tried to push her body for Klytea to lose balance. Instead we tangled up and both of us fell down; Klytea positioned under me. Her white face blushed like a strawberry. I released arm lock, and both of us moved back to initial positions.

I knew that my hand-to-hand combat skills were lacking in contrast to Klytea, so to win I had to use some sneaky method.

Again, everything happened in matters of seconds.

“Enough”, teacher shouted. If we went for another round most probably I would be crippled so I prayed. I prayed to god to put mercy into teacher’s soul. Which god you ask? Any, any of them which could reply to my earnest request.

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“Line”, teacher said again. We run fast to line up on a straight row. “Results are alright. It’s good to know that I’m not going to teach degenerates!”, she said. Later she looked at me and turned to face Klytea.

“Klytea, why do you think on second try, you couldn’t hit him?”, she asked Klytea. “I’m not sure, Ms. Vossen. Luck, maybe?”, Klytea answered. “Just call me Maera”, teacher said.

“Anyone else?”, Maera asked. “Enlighten us Kain!”, Maera ordered. I didn’t want to hurt Klytea’s feelings so I said “I was lucky, Maera”.

“Klytea, he couldn’t follow your movement but at the last moment he detected your position... Kain’s eyes were focused on location where you stopped to hit him. You gotta improve!”, Maera said.

“We are finishing our class for today... We will continue next week at same time, same place!”, Maera said and disappeared with a swoosh in the blink of an eye.

“I’m Cali! You are brave, Kain!”, a student came up to me and greeted. Others circled around me and looked with longing eyes to question. “Haven’t you heard about Ms Vossen?”, another girl asked. “He is really dumb”, another boy mentioned. “Yeah”, others agreed while Klytea was just standing and looking at me dumbfound.

“Imagine a big scale... you know very big!”, I said and opened my arms for them to visualize. “On the pan to the right, there is an iron ore weighs a kilogram”, I told and observed them. “On the second pan... The one to the left there are, a kilogram, of coffee seeds”, I waited for them to render the mental image in their heads. “Question is, which one would pull heavier?”, I asked.

Few of them said iron ore. Others said coffee seeds. I just took off and left.

I went to my house instead of wasting time in the campus. We had an outdoors hot tub which I used to clean of sweat and dirt form my body. Moreover my body and mind relaxed. I changed my uniform and went to cafeteria for lunch.

On my way back, I was thinking about how far our house was from everything else and what my chances were to change the situation I was in by next year. Looking closely I saw two people standing by our house from far away.

As I closed the distance, my eyes recognized Klytea and Ralf. I greeted them and invited them for a cup of tea. To tell the truth, I was surprised, as I didn’t expect anybody to come as a guest to my house.

We were sitting in guest room as I had served them coffee and tea.

[Klytea]: Was it really luck?

[Me]: What?

[Klytea]: You avoiding my punch.

[Ralf]: Did you sense it?

I always thought Ralf was an old guy to attend Klytea’s needs and keep her away from trouble.

[Me]: Excuse me?

[Klytea]: Ralf is a martial artist and he is at 6th rank of Origin Realm.

[Me]: What realm?

[Ralf]: Let’s put it this way, are you able to cast magic?

[Me]: Yes, of course…

[Ralf]: Which rank have you reached?

[Me]: I’m 3rd rank…

[Ralf]: 3rd rank that you are talking about is your cultivation level in Origin Realm. You don’t have a clue, do you?

[Me]: No, first time somebody explains this to me.. By the way, are you a warrior to?

Klytea cut in…

[Klytea]: Ralf is not a mere warrior. He is a martial artist from Moon Bao Sect, and right now he has cultivated up to 6th level of Origin Realm…

[Ralf]: Actually there is a misunderstanding all over the continent regarding the difference between mages and warriors.

[Me]: Do you mean sir Destrian is not a warrior?

[Ralf]: Yes, he is a mage. Magus who was never educated and didn’t have proper magic studies. Nevertheless, he can project mana through the weapons. You know, it’s the blunt way…

[Me]: Are you a warrior then?

[Ralf]: We, in martial arts world, don’t like to be called warriors. We refer to ourselves as martial artists. Trivial matters. Let’s go back to the original topic. The main difference between a mage and a martial artist is the use of mana. Most of the time, mages use it externally to project through words, spells, wands, or weapons while martial artists focus on internal cultivation.

He stopped to sip tea.

[Ralf]: I can crack a big rock with my index finger. Mages and so-called warriors have to use spells or weapons to do so.

[Me]: I’m confused.

[Ralf]: No need to mix your head with this. I was watching your spar with Klytea. Tell me, how did you detect her presence?

It was clear that Ralf was no servant but acted so. The vibe he gave was positive so I told him everything that happened. “Insight… You are blessed with insight”, he said out loud. “Would you like to learn ways of Moon Bao Sect under my supervision?”, he asked.