Chapter 707: Second Year Of Martial Class
We had set our private slumber party to happen this weekend after we were done with this week of school.
For now, I had to go back for our second day of school, which just happened to be my martial class.
And for some reason, Odeta seemed to be sticking to me more than usual today.
Well, not sticking to me literally but the Amrap was just hovering behind me the entire time ever since we got to school.
I would assume that she was trying to claim her place beside me or something so that the others around us wouldn’t approach me? Not sure why she would want to do that though.
Our class was a mixed class so we had older students as well. Which meant that today, we would be seeing some first years joining us as well. Especially since yesterday was just orientation for the first year students.
Sure enough, there’s a few students whom I had never seen before mulling around on the field alongside us.
Well, not all of them were juniors though, as some of them were clearly older than us whom I have not seen in this class at all.
I then remembered that this class was actually not a beginner class but an intermediate one, so the juniors joining this class would at least be proficient to a certain degree. On the other hand, the older students would be students who had increased their proficiencies enough to join our class.
As of now, we’re all separated in our little groups spread around the field in our own cliques.
There’s the group of new first year students, the group of new older students, the group of ‘veteran’ students… And then Odeta and myself.
Pretty sure we’re on our own mostly because of Odeta standing over me from behind.
Instructor Henry then stepped in front of our class and everyone started to gather in front of him, though there was still kind of a distance between each of our groups at the moment.
“Alright all of you! First martial lesson of the school year! We have some new students joining us this time so I’m expecting all of you to take care of them during today’s lesson. And for the first year students, don’t think that we’re going to just let you all slack off just because it’s the first day, got it?!”
“Yes instructor!” We answered quickly, as we were already used to doing in our past classes.
Instructor Henry looked in the direction of the first year students, “I said got it?!”
The first years quickly learned what was expected of them and shouted out together, “Yes instructor!”
He nodded at them before turning back to address the rest of the class, “Alright. For the old students, welcome back to the new year. For the new students, congratulations on being deemed proficient enough to join this class. We’ll be doing something different today in lieu of the newcomers but as I said earlier, we’re not going to just slack off because of that!”
He then turned around to blow a whistle with his fingers, prompting a few people I recognised to be Mercenaries and Dungeoneers to appear around the corner and arrange themselves in front of us.
Oh wow, this brings me back quite a bit! It’s going to be a training session with the veterans isn’t it? He must have hired some Mercenaries to come over to let us experience how veteran fighters would fight their battles.
I guess this would be a refresher course for the experienced students while being an eye opener for the newer students.
Too bad I don’t see anyone I know amongst the crowd though… I wonder how Jack and his Free Wind Mercenary group are doing? I haven’t seen them for a long time already.
Instructor Henry gestured to the Mercenaries, “All of them are veteran members of the Guild who have achieved at least a D rank in either being a Mercenary or a Dungeoneer. For today, all of you will have a match with at least one of them and learn what you can from your opponent. For the experienced students, this would not be your first time so I’m expecting you to at least hold your own.”
Right then, he turned his head to look pointedly at Odeta and me, “For you two… Hold back a little.”
Oh come on, I’m not that bad, am I? I’m also just a D ranked Dungeoneer I’ll have you know!
And did I just hear Odeta huff disappointedly behind me? You did, didn’t you? Sorry but I’ll have to agree with our instructor for your case Odeta… Please hold back a little.
Otherwise, I think you might accidentally kill them.
Our instructor then got us all to arrange ourselves into groups where he sorted us in terms of our skills. Needless to say, we were sent to stand all the way at the end which I felt was fair, since I don’t think any other student was as experienced as we were.
I noticed that a few of the Mercenaries and Dungeoneers were looking in our direction for some reason.
Instructor Henry then told the Mercenaries and Dungeoneers that they could pick and choose who they wish to have a match with and everything made sense.
A couple of them immediately came towards Odeta and I, three of them male Mahuns while one was a female Mahun and the other an Amrap.
The Amrap immediately went towards Odeta with her hand stuck out, “I have heard about your feats, sister Odeta! Please allow me the honour of a duel!”
One of the male Mahuns who obviously wanted to have a match with Odeta as well was not amused and quickly stepped beside the Amrap.
“Hold on! I want to have a match with her instead! I’m a D ranked Mercenary here!”
The others weren’t as interested and approached me instead.
The female Mahun smiled at me, “Hello there! You must be the strongest in this class aren’t you? I would like to have a match with you.”
The other two males quickly joined her side to speak to me, one of them sticking their hand out at an attempted handshake.
“Greetings, lady! I will tell you right now that you will benefit greatly if you were to have a match with me! I have been a Mercenary for twenty years already!”
The other male quickly jumped in, “Don’t listen to that old man! Surely you would prefer to be guided by a charming and dashing man like myself instead, right?”
Err… I don’t get it… Why are these people so interested in having a match with us? Are they getting something in return for that?
I was just about to ask them why when Odeta let out a laugh, “Wahahaha! That’s ok! I will take you both on at the same time!”
Surprisingly, instructor Henry quickly rejected the idea, “No. One on one matches only. No team fights. The both of you flip a coin to decide who gets to have a match with her. The other three, either Aster picks one of you or the three of you come up with a way to decide who will be the one to duel with her.”
Odeta let out a disappointed groan while the two Mercenaries in front of her immediately started flipping a coin.
On my side, the three started to argue amongst themselves on who should get to have a match with me.
Seeing that the three were occupied, two more Mercenaries, both Mahuns where one is a male and the other a female, also approached me and asked if I would like to have a match with them too.
Ok, I’m pretty sure instructor Henry actually gave the Mercs some kind of incentive for duelling with us. Maybe he told them they would get something if they win?
The three Mercenaries who were already arguing were understandably not amused that the two tried to jump in front of the line to ask me for a match and now it looked like it could come to blows between all five of them.
Holy shit you guys, it’s just a lesson with a student right? Why are all of you so desperate to do it?
Also, don’t look at them like you envy them, Odeta! This isn’t something to get envious over! If you want to have a spar, I can have one with you later!
In the end, instructor Henry made me choose who I wanted to fight and I decided to just go with the first female Mahun since she introduced herself to me first.
The fact that the male Mahuns were checking me out in a rather sexual way was also part of the reason why I didn’t choose them.
As for Odeta’s case, she ended up having to duel with the male Mahun instead of the Amrap, which seemed to disappoint both the Amraps in question.
The others who didn’t get chosen trudged off to find the other students to train with while Odeta and I moved to an open space so that we could start our own matches with our opponents.
Alright, it’s been awhile since I last sparred with someone so let’s do this.
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