Chapter 28: Spar

Chapter 28 - Spar "Like I said in the last class, since you've all completed the tests, we can now officially commence your training."

The masked instructor said with a rare seriousness in his tone.

The soldier's temperament was totally off, lazy one second, serious the next or crazy in another. The recruits already concluded among themselves that he was bipolar.

Switching back to the predominant temperament, the lazy one, the soldier continued,

"Over the next few weeks.... or months? I really...hope it doesn't last that long. Well from now till whenever, you will spend most of your time with me, the rest of your classes outside here will be dealing with.... erm...yeah!"

"They will be dealing with warfare and other topics that serve to majorly help you here."

He said, muttering to himself in between sentences, reinforcing the recruits' opinion of him.

"The coming classes with me were... brought about to train your combat skills, that shouldn't be hard since most of you have already been taught martial arts from your various families."

"This gives you a solid foundation, nothing more or less, this class is what really gives you the ability to stand out there, confident to take any ..f.. fight...haaa"

He ended the talk abruptly, yawning loudly.

"Before we start anything, I'll need you to take a look at the panel that just popped up on your watch and fill it accordingly, it will be needed for the later classes"

Looking to their watches, they saw that a panel had indeed popped up on their watches and it basically asked them to input the type of weapon they desired to use. While typing their requests, the instructor warned them off-headedly,

"You better know your limits and pick something that suits you and not some flashy weapon, you won't be getting another chance when you're dead on the battle field. Haaaaa!"

Hearing this the excitement of some the recruits calmed down as they properly analysed their strengths and weaknesses, picking a weapon they thought would suit them.

Those who were affected by the instructor's words were few, the rest of them weren't stupid, they knew they weren't in some fantasy world with them as the main character which usually had an unreasonable power like weapon mastery or something like that.

With their backgrounds combined, they already knew what kind of weapon was best for them some of them had already began training with these weapons before they got here. Unfortunately, the camp confiscated all their weapons upon entry.

Things like that weren't allowed and they weren't even told when they might get them back, this was a huge pain to some of them.

Afterall with their huge background, the quality of their weapons surpassed that which the military provided as standard gear. The camp did this for the sake of fairness between all recruits.

They even gave them the chance to upgrade the quality of their weapons with an expensive amount of CP and if they were rich enough with some merit points, they cold even request a meeting with the camp's head crafter for a custom-made weapon.

That being said the standard military weapons were in no way bad.

Typing in the weapon of his choice, a double-edged scythe, Kieran looked towards the others idly, wondering what weapon they might have chosen based on their personality he had seen so far.

"Alright! Now that's been dealt with, let's get down to today's business. Basically, for the next five hours, you'd be practicing the basics of your martial arts till your legs start to wobble and your body feels as heavy as lead."

"After that, if by some miraculous means, you're still standing with extra energy, then you form random pairs and start sparring."

'The hell is that messed up plan'

Kieran thought at a loss, trying to understand what the instructor was thinking creating such a plan for the class.

"Alright, take your positions and start immediately!"

Giving up on trying to understand the man's intention behind these exercises which he thought to be useless, Kieran took position on one of the padded squares in the room which matched the description of what he heard was a dojo.

Taking a moment to clear his mind of random thoughts, he followed Ruby's advice and went through some flexibility exercises he had managed to purchase from the military database. It wasn't a high ranking one but it was good enough for him.

After the warm up, he regularised his breathing and focused on the basic steps of the martial art Ruby had thought him the other day.

Kieran got into the first stance setting his knees slightly bent, shoulder-width apart before slowly moving into the second position, bringing one of his knees forward while planting the other on the floor, his hands at his sides.

He kept repeating this slowly trying to immerse himself while adjusting his breathing pattern to further perfect the exercise.

.....

Unlike the other recruits who had started to struggle after a few hours, she showed no signs of fatigue.

Although it didn't seem like it, she had gone through training that made this seem like child's play, she didn't even know how she ended up here.

Despite not wanting to admit it, she was starting to get bored, the combat test and morning drills were more interesting than this. Glancing at the recruits who were struggling, she thought,

'I understand now why only a small percentage of each batch is considered to have passed the camp's training. Most of them being nobles with high standings.'

The recruits who were struggling had to be exceptional youths wherever they came from to be able get into the camp, yet they were struggling here.

Meanwhile, the other recruits who came from more influential families, especially those of noble lineage were performing far better.

Descendants of such families were usually put through an extreme training schedule since childhood.

Still, this camp was feared even among families like that for a reason. The exercises being this "easy" was the camp's way of telling them to quit while they still could.

It was also their way of selecting those who they thought to have potential and invest more resources in them while discarding the rest providing them with the bare minimum, the bare minimum that was enough to make them top soldiers in other camps.

'The second phase is going to begin soon, I should prepare.'

She thought silently, still looking around until she something caught her eye.

Towards the end of the room where it was less crowded, she saw a boy her age covered in sweat.

He wasn't wearing the official training suit, not like there was a punishment for that, so the top he wore stuck to his body highlighting his toned body.

He slowly and constantly repeated the transition from one stance to another over again, ignoring his limbs that were shaking faintly, his face portraying the word "Concentration", he was totally immersed in the exercise moving one step to perfection each time he repeated the exercise.

'It's him! The one who sat at the table with me during the orientation.'

Sabrina finally realized, she had only seen Kieran's face twice. She wasn't seeking him out and he also tried his best to conceal his presence, so she didn't notice him during the classes and exercises.

"Third step, first level? Impressive!"

She muttered to herself in surprise identifying the state of concentration Kieran was currently in.

She also noticed that although his legs were shaking slightly and his body was soaked with sweat, he didn't seem to be tired, like he could keep it going for an extended period of time. Just then the instructor's voice was heard, snapping Kieran out of his trance.

"Alright! It's been five hours already, wow. Ok, if you've still got any juice, pair up with someone and have a light spar or something...ahh, I should have thought of something better to fill up the time given to me."

The instructor said absentmindedly while scratching his head.

The recruits who were struggling earlier collapsed on the floor, giving sighs of relief that the torture was finally over.

Meanwhile, Kieran felt his eyebrow twitch at the instructor's words, he reassured himself of the idea that the instructor wasn't bipolar, he was just crazy!

Shaking that off, he was about to move away from his current spot towards Ruby for spar feeling he still had a lot of energy left. Although the instructor said not to choose someone familiar, he wasn't keen on making friends or walking up to a random person asking for a fight.

'I'd seem like a creep'

Fortunately, or Unfortunately for him, before he could walk in the direction of Ruby, his path was blocked by someone. Without bothering to look at the person's face he tried to take a sidestep and continue on his journey, but he still ended up being blocked.

Finally pausing and turning his head to look at the person responsible, he noticed that it was a female and surprisingly, even to him, he managed to identify where he had met her before upon seeing her blue hair.

'Hmm, she was the one at the table during the orientation. What did the other body guard call her again?... Ah! Yes, Sabrina. But what does she want from me?'

Kieran thought trying to figure what she wanted, not even considering the possibility that she came for a spar.

Not giving her a chance to asked her,

"What do you want?", not willing to waste any more time.

Sabrina, recognizing the haste in his tone, skipped the introductions and went straight to the point.

"Isn't it obvious? I want a spar, you can't say no!" she declared in front of him.