After a week and a half of training outside Phoenix city, the day finally came for the teens to take on the third exam. They were confident in their abilities and determined to do whatever it took. Following a hearty breakfast and a short meditation, they walked over to the academy’s gates and wished each other good luck.
Tommy and Natalie entered the building and walked all the way to the second floor. There was an office there with a longsword strapped to the door as decoration.
The two knocked on the door and walked in. However, there wasn’t a normal room on the other side. As if they had been teleported outside the city, the two teens found themselves in a large field with short grass. There was not a single tree in sight, and the field ended where a purple forcefield began. This forcefield contained the entire field inside a bubble of sorts, sometimes twisting and moving as if it were alive.
“I want one,” Tommy muttered. When Natalie gave him a look, he added “to train soldiers… for the good of the Empire.”
“Sure.”
There were three large squares within the field, where the grass was removed or at least covered with sand. In the second of these squares, people were repeating moves in large formations at the command of a teacher. In the last one, they were sparring.
Natalie and Tommy approached the first square that was filled with training dummies stuck on wooden posts. Around 30 students were scattered between these dummies, hitting them with wooden sticks while sweating profusely.
Their teacher, a tall man wearing a neat, black suit, was sitting in a fancy chair while slowly and carefully sipping hot tea. His long mustache would sometimes curve upwards into a smirk. Other times, it would go down and he would shout at the students.
Natalie saw a longsword resting on the side of the chair and sighed. ‘Can you even wield that?’
Despite this thought, she and Tommy followed the etiquette taught to them by Mr. Griffin and took a knee in front of him.
“Teacher, please allow us to train under you,” said Tommy.
“We will do whatever it takes,” added Natalie.
Andrei Bailey did not address them immediately but instead finished his tea. He then grabbed a kettle from a small table to his left and poured himself another cup. After taking another sip he finally spoke:
“You two look strong. To be frank, I do not like that. I cannot pour my knowledge into a cup that is already full.”
“Our cups are empty and will always be empty.” Natalie bowed a bit lower.
“Hmm, good answer. Your master must have been good, which I also do not like. But alas, as a teacher I cannot deny you the opportunity to study. So, grab a stick, choose a training dummy and start swinging. If either the stick or the dummy breaks, then you’ll have passed the test. If you give up beforehand, then your resolve must be weaker than this cup.”
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Andrei pressed the handle of the cup and it exploded in a million pieces as if a firecracker went off inside it. After removing a couple of shards from his mustache, he tapped the table and another cup appeared out of nowhere.
“Thank you for the opportunity.” Tommy and Natalie bowed once more and left for the training area. Wooden swords were gathered in a pile, so they picked one at random and chose two training dummies that were next to each other.
“Should we hold back a little?” asked Tommy while taking a deep breath in.
“No. If he is intimidated by a couple of students, then we have nothing to learn from him.”
Suddenly, both teens' muscles bulged and veins began popping throughout their bodies. Their eyes became slightly bloodshot and their skin took on a slightly red tint. The two lifted their wooden swords, and with a thunderous battle cry, they struck their targets.
The sound was so loud students from the second sand pit thought a third year was trying to mess with the newbies. The teens that were practicing in the first square around the two let out audible gasps and stared as if they were monsters.
“No breaks!” shouted Andrei while spilling some of his tea. “Never lose focus! Even if a demon spawns next to you, do not lose sight of the initial opponent.”
The man got up from his chair, grabbed a wooden stick and started smacking the rookies with it.
“Your stance is too wide.” [Smack.] “Your stance is too narrow.” [Smack.] “What are you looking at?” [Smack.]
Upon reaching Tommy and Natalie, he only smirked and moved on. The teens had struck their straw dummies with all of their force, but they did not leave even a tiny dent. The dummies were intact and so were the wooden swords.
Tommy let go of some of the tension inside his body. “There’s magic at play. I think we should pace ourselves better.”
“Why?” Natalie breathed in for five seconds, kept the air for 10, and let go for five. “This is a wet dream come true with Michael on top. Hold back? Are you kidding me? Teacher or no teacher, this... this is Heaven.”
A shiver of excitement ran through Natalie’s back before she hit the dummy again with everything she had. The boom made the other students turn their heads and made Andrei yell even louder.
Seeing that the stick and dummy did not break even now, Natalie grinned widely and continued striking. “I bet I can do 1000 downwards strikes before you. The loser pays one gold coin.”
She was already counting her hits and was racking up numbers fast. Seeing this, Tommy chuckled and took a tall stance.
“I agree to your bet.” He took a deep breath and activated his senses to the maximum. “Moreso, if either of us breaks the dummy first, the other must pay 10 gold.”
“Deal.”
The two of them raised their weapons high above their heads. They hit the dummies at the same time, holding absolutely nothing back with each and every strike.
The booming noises distracted the other rookies, ruining their form. They had been hitting the straw dummies for hours, some of them for days.
However, seeing these demons posing as students, their arms suddenly felt weak. After an hour of ear-splitting noise, even Andrei Bailey took note. He walked over to them and started lightly tapping their backs.
“Relax your shoulders; you’re losing 2% power due to the tension… Strike after releasing 80% of your breath, not 30. Your form’s good, but your mind is too stiff. You, on the other hand, are too excited. Calm down and focus.”
That day, the rookies of square one became filled with envy. However, what they failed to realize was that there was still half a month until the start of the school year, and these two monsters were just the first to arrive.