"You must be hyped for today, eh?" Kane asked Rui, smirking.

"Well..." Rui smiled wryly. "I would be lying if I said wasn't."

"You better not get your ass whooped."

"Will do."

Rui and Kane bantered as they walked over to the sparring facility. It had been year since both of them had joined the Academy, both of them had hit their growth spurts in that period, growing several inches taller, their bodies had visibly defined muscle tone, uncharacteristic of normal young adolescents, having long shed a lot of their childish features.

Rui's black hair had grown in the time that he had immersed himself in training, a testament to how he focused and invested he was. A lot of the active energy Rui had, had condensed, as if it had a direction to strive towards. Gone was the Rui that had limitless curious excitement regarding all matters related to Martial Art, and in its stead was a calm driven young man with a temperament forged by immense perseverance and hard work.

Kane on the other hand appeared to have grown more comfortable and at peace. A year of freedom, exploration and growth alongside friends had done him good. Although he wasn't absolutely free from the formidable influence of his powerful father, it was still enough for the boy to catch up on a lot of what he missed his entire life. Yet underneath the nonchalant temperament was a desire to grow strong enough to protect this freedom, he did not want to lose his freedom the moment he left the Academy, especially now that he had truly understood just blissful a life without shackles was like.

"My, look who we have here." A voice called out, instantly earning a sigh from Kane.

"Fae." He muttered in resigned peace. In the past year, he had given up on trying to shoo her away. He simply accepted she would be around to pester them and had moved on.

"Such lethargy." Fae sighed, shrugging. "Rui, to think you would join us only one year after becoming Apprentice, as expected, your growth is fearsome. It took us so long to reach that stage, right Milliana?" Fae turned to the girl accompanying him, earning a quiet nod in return.

"It took me almost two years to reach that point." She murmured softly.

"It's because he's a potion junkie." Kane grumbled.

They bantered some more until they reached the facility.

"Well, here we are." Kane announced. "Oof, she looks ready to go." He gestured at a female figure standing in the center of the biggest training ring. Rui stiffened as he felt faint pressure gazing at her.

('Martial Squire Kyrie.')

Today was a routine sparring session between the combat supervisor Squire Kyrie and the senior Apprentices. The Academy had mandated sparring sessions not only between Apprentices, but also between more developed Apprentices and Squires. Martial Apprentices who had built the foundation of their Martial Art like Rui recently were qualified to spar against Squires. He had just finished polishing up the five techniques he resolved to learn when the next Squire sparring session was announced.

('Martial Apprentices who haven't built the foundation of their Martial Art simply have too little to gain from fighting Martial Squires. They're better off learning new techniques and developing their foundation like I did rather than getting into fights so above their level they can't consolidate anything from it.')

Today was his first time fighting a Martial Squire, that too one of Squire Kyrie's caliber. From what he knew of her, she was a veteran all-rounder who served in the field for more than twenty years. Although quantity had its own quality, there was no way a bunch of kids like them were beating her under normal circumstances.

"What strategy do you guys normally use?" Rui asked.

"Uh..." Kane threw an awkward look at Rui. "We try basic stuff; you know; dogpiling her, distracting her and stuff, but it never works."

"If something like that was to work on her, she would have long died in the field."

"Yeah, but it's better than nothing." Kane shrugged.

"True." Fae concurred. "At our level, any strategy we come up with is guaranteed to fail."

"Hm..." This was a fair point. There should be little to no way they should be able to outsmart her. It wasn't a matter of intelligence, the sheer experience she had was not something young Martial Apprentices like them could outsmart.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.

"Still, we should do our best." Rui insisted.

"You have anything in mind?"

"First, who and all are taking part?" Rui wondered, looking around. Before he could even conceive of a strategy, he needed to gather all the necessary information at hand."

"There's Felix." Kane pointed him out.

"Ah..." Rui remembered him, he was the kid who fought Nel a year ago.

"And Dalen too." Fae waved at a big burly boy.

"He was a defense-oriented Apprentice, right?" Rui asked, having sparred with him once.

"Yeah." Kane affirmed. "He's pretty good too."

Rui quickly counted the participating Apprentices, and listed basic information about them in his head.

"Eleven Martial Apprentices. three speed and maneuvering-oriented Apprentices, four offense-oriented Martial Apprentices, two defense-oriented Apprentices, one stamina-oriented Martial Apprentice and one all-rounder." Rui surmised.

"Yeah, we don't stand a chance." Kane laughed. "But that is the point of fighting a Squire, I guess."

"If we were united, we'd do much better." Rui sighed. "Unfortunately, it's unlikely we can rally everybody under a leader and fight in a more united way."

"Martial Apprentices have too much pride and individuality to submit to others." Fae shrugged.

"Yeah..." Rui nodded. ('Not only that, the coordination needed to execute more sophisticated strategies and tactics is too much. We can't expect strangers to cooperate with each other well. This group is too incapable of working together.')

"It's almost time." Squire Kyrie called out. "Gather around, we'll begin soon."

He glanced back at Squire.

('The only advantage we have is that she's lax. She's definitely not in a combative state, nor is she going to go all out.')

"Hey." Kane threw him a puzzled look. "Are you really trying to win? You know that's basically impossible right."

"Extremely impossible." Rui helped. "Still, if you want to make the most of a fight, you better fight with determination to win." He turned back to face the Squire. "It's not every day we get an opportunity like this, after all."