Chapter 110 Graduation
Mira and Maria were now starting to settle into the Battle Maiden Sect now that they reached the Foundation Realm. They could be seen walking to and from places a bit more instead of just holing themselves up and cultivating.
The day after the last Alchemy class came the unarmed combat class that Mira taught. Except for this day, they finally switched up what they were practicing for the last 2 months.
"Seeing everyone's performance up until now, I have judged your basics as decent for a beginner. Since that is the case, we will be moving onto the next segment of the training which is grappling and chokeholds. Stay in your pairs and I will demonstrate a few of the grapples and chokeholds that you will most likely be using. These should not take you as long to reach a beginner level. Everything else will stay the same other than the contents of the training. The only difference is that I'll choose the best 5 at the end of the training for you to fight Mira. It'll take too long for me to beat all of you only using these techniques. Maria, come up!" Mira announced to the class and brought Maria up to demonstrate.
She then proceeded to show the various grapples and chokeholds that they will most likely perform. She also showed how to get out of them as well as she had Maria use the same techniques on her. Though this wasn't required to learn, sometimes knowing how to break out will give you a better understanding of the technique.
After giving a demonstration, she had them do this to their partners. She would go around 'correcting' them and providing 'pointers' on how they should fix it. By now, most of the disciples have gotten used to the searing pain of being whipped and mental abuse from Mira. Even though they were used to the pain, that didn't mean they wanted to feel it as it still hurt like hell and would come out of nowhere.
This continued for the rest of the training session until Mira decided it was time to pick 5 people to challenge Maria. These 5 were almost always the last in every session, but even though they were the best in the group, they still couldn't beat Maria. They were Celaine, Audra, Nisha, Diana, and Sia. Sometimes a few other different disciples would be part of the last 5, but for the most part, it was these girls. Celaine was by far the most talented, but because most of her experience is with her saber and not fists, she can't beat Maria who has been relentlessly trained by Mira. Plus Maria always seemed to try and deal with Celaine the quickest.
This time wasn't any different. They all lost to Maria rather easily as this was their first day practicing this. The session ended after this.
The same thing happened throughout the next 2 days as well.
Mira started to get slightly more comfortable in the Battle Maiden Sect. She was in no immediate danger, no need to adventure, cultivating, and training all of the time, while also having classes about various topics. Quite frankly, this caused her to be a bit on edge. Usually, something annoying would've happened by now. Like she'd be forced to kill a bunch of people or someone would "unexpectedly" betray her. Things seldom went this smoothly for her for so long. This is what put her on edge. So, to calm her nerves, she has been taking some missions on her days without any classes to participate in or teach. Most of them were either just fetch missions in more hostile areas or kill missions where she'd have to go kill a certain beast. They normally wouldn't take her more than an hour, so she'd grab several at a time that was around the same area. She'd spend a few hours per day doing this and started to wrack up more and more Spirit Stones and Sect Points.
Maria also had her own thing to learn now, Alchemy!
Elder Kendra didn't immediately start teaching her, but just gave her a bunch of books to read and memorize about alchemy. They were filled with techniques, recipes, ingredient locations, ingredient properties and why pills form, and various other things about Alchemy. Maria was a bit disgruntled about this but didn't complain as this would free her from monotonously cultivating all day.
Dominique was also training from Dawn until Dusk every day. She could feel herself growing stronger with each passing day. This is when she realized how amazing Qi is. Even without being a cultivator, as long as you know how to circulate it properly, you can use it to help heal you which in turn makes you stronger. She was nearing the Strength Training Stage of the Body Tempering Realm, but even though she was getting much stronger, it still didn't affect the difficulty of the training. It still brought her close to death every day. Dominique's body was also adapting to this as well and started to instinctively make the rest of her body stronger as well. Mira noticed these changes but only felt that it was right for this to happen. That's why she made the training so hard. Mira was also able to see how hard Dominique tried every day and was rather impressed. She didn't think an 8-year-old could have such drive.
A month quickly passed by like this. Nothing of interest was discussed in the classes for both Mira and Maria as they were about arrays. Maria tried to listen in on one of the lectures, but it was too complex for her. Mira also had no interest in arrays. Sure, they can be useful, but they just don't make sense to her as someone who has lived in worlds that were rather advanced in their technological development. Not to mention that arrays aren't very combat-oriented and are usually used as support or for barriers.
But after this month, Mira could safely say that the Disciples she's been training can be considered beginners in her book. Well, normally she wouldn't even classify them as beginners as Maria is barely a beginner in her eyes, but all she had to do is teach them the basics. I guess she'd classify them as beginners in the basics. She's also taught them how to get out of a situation if they ever find themselves tied up.
"You've now reached the point to where I can now call you beginners. But you are only beginners in the basics! If you want to become a true beginner then you'll need a lot more practice than 3 times per week for 3 months! But enough of that. Since this might be my last day of teaching you lot, I've come up with a perfect way for you to graduate from my teachings! It's time for a field trip!" Mira said as she put on her mask and had the disciples follow her outside of the city. Elder Bridget also followed as she was curious about what this graduation will be like. She'd guess they'd engage in real combat but didn't know where they'd find so many beasts to fight.
The nearly 1000 disciples walking out of the city certainly caught the attention of many residents and they wondered what was going on.
After they left the city, Mira started jogging towards a forest a few hundred kilometers outside of the city. After around an hour, they made it to the forest before Mira started making her way through the forest, leading all of them. Everyone thought that Mira was looking for beasts to fight and even Maria thought this as well, but she felt something was off. And when they came across a large structure that seemed to be a base of sorts, she immediately understood Mira's intention.
"This is a bandit camp. There are actually a few of them around this forest, so if there are not enough bandits here then we'll just move onto the next one after we finish up here. As for what we're doing here, well you all are going to use what you learned over the last 3 months to kill these bandits. But for now, just follow me and don't do anything." Mira said and signaled them to follow. Mira took Rhydian with her this time as well and told her to kill any bandits that exit. It seems that Rhydian is getting smarter because she seemed to understand what Mira wanted to an extent.
Mira just destroyed the front gate to announce her arrival.
"Alright, filthy rats! It'd be best to come out now as I have a proposition for you!!" Mira yelled as soon as she entered and the bandits started coming out. They were a little weaker than the bandit camp Mira took out when she went to release her pent-up energy. There were only around 300 bandits that weren't any higher than Stage 6 Qi Condensation while the Leader was Stage 9.
"What the fuck do you want?! Do you think you can just barge in he-" The Leader started yelling, but got cut off as Mira already had him in a chokehold. She was too fast that the bandits couldn't track her with their eyes.
"Allow me to give you a demonstration of what I'm expecting from you to graduate. All you have to do is kill them, but there are several different ways to do that. I personally like this way." Mira said as she crushed the Leader's neck, severing his spinal cord killing him instantly. The other bandits immediately started panicking and tried to leave.
"I wouldn't leave if I were you, that's just instant death. But like I said before, I came here with a proposition! You bandits will dual with these disciples here 1 on 1. If you can kill them, then you're free to go. Feel free to use any means necessary to kill them. While these disciples will only be using their fists and feet to take you down. Sounds better than instant death, right?" Mira said in a bit of a mocking tone. But a few bandits still tried to leave, but as soon as they left they were immediately blown up into a million bloody pieces and their fear reached new heights as they ran back into the camp to accept the crazy lady's proposition.
"Good choice. I'll give you disciples a bit of a warning before we start. These bandits are going to battle like madmen who have nothing to lose, so if you aren't careful you might lose your life. And I will not step in to help you." Mira said to the disciples.
'And whose fault is that?! You're the one that made them like that!!' The disciples complained in their hearts.
"Let's start! Maria, you're up! If you don't kill him in 2 seconds, then forget about me having a day off with you." Mira announced.
"Eh? Me? Why me? I didn't know I was also part of this as well!" Maria complained, but Mira just tossed her towards a bandit then threw a bandit towards her. Everyone then formed a circle around them.
"You aren't, but you need to get used to killing." Mira said lazily. Maria wanted to complain some more, but the bandit was already attacking her. Maria tried to steel herself and go in for the kill. She's worked so hard for the past 3 months and will not give it up just because of some shitty bandit who was already fated to die. She dashed in and did the same thing Mira did within her 2 second time limit.
"Good. Next up is Celaine!" Mira called out and Celaine's body trembled. Mira just walked up and grabbed her as she knew this girl wouldn't be cooperative. She then whispered in her ear something.
"Just know that if you don't try to kill him, then you will die. I will make sure to put you up against one of them with higher cultivation." Mira whispered and Celaine's body shook again, but she just slowly nodded her head. She was almost Stage 4 Qi Condensation now, so the strongest person she'd be fighting would be in Stage 5, but that wasn't the problem. It's that she's never killed a person before. In fact, that was the case for a number of the new disciples as well as some of the outer disciples. They just weren't as dramatic as Celaine was.
Celaine and a bandit were thrown into the ring together and the bandit crazily charged at her. This guy would normally never be her match, but her mind was in chaos right now.
The battle went on and Celaine started gathering small wounds before she closed in, grabbed the man in a chokehold, closed her eyes, then broke his neck killing him. She then ran back to the disciples crying.
Scenes similar to this continued as the disciples were able to gain real-life experience with the techniques they learned over the last 3 months. They were even fighting for their lives which only solidified the knowledge and training that was crammed into them.
After killing all of the bandits there, they had to move onto 2 more bandit camps before everyone had a turn. And by the end of it, though some disciples were rather close to dying, and many sustained minor injuries, there was nobody in critical condition. Mira also noticed that a lot of disciples were more brutal than she remembered.
"Congratulations, you have all graduated from my course! I don't know if the Elders will want me to continue teaching this course or not. Maybe they'll make it an optional class if enough people want to participate. But we can discuss this back at the Sect. But I've done my job and taught you all the basics of unarmed combat along with how to escape situations where you find yourself tied up and captured."