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Chapter 50 – Adam

  As one full cycle completed, I was back in Evocation class with a smile on my face, standing next to Ressa as we attempted a blast of water. The basics of the power had of course been covered earlier in the year. Lessons that I missed, but Ressa proved herself to be a better teacher than anything she gave me credit for.

  I may have been the poorest at producing the skill compared with most of the class, but I wasn’t made to train by myself as others were, which meant I definitely didn’t have to train one-on-one with Aeloria. That was a win in itself.

  She’d kept away the entire cycle after our free day training. Whether it was because she thought I wasn’t as bad as she first thought, or she just didn’t want to sully herself in my company, I didn’t know. But I was glad of the distance, and dreaded Unarmed Combat class as we would probably have to fight each other again, and I really didn’t want to.

  I navigated Evocation without any trouble from the teacher, and even managed to nap like Torma in Siege Craft after making sure it was just going to be another bullshit-filled hour of Archon awesomeness.

  As Torma and I arrived at the class, fresh after a solid nap, I prepared for the worst. Master Yoshun, however, seemed to have forgotten that he’d assigned Aeloria and me to train together, and instead matched me with another of the Archon students.

  I winced over at Torma who grinned back.

  “I prefer beating these bastards up anyway.” It was said under his breath, but I completely believed him as he marched off.

  With nothing else for it, I headed over to my opponent. He was comfortably taller than me, but certainly not the biggest Archon in the class and only a little taller than tall Aeloria.

  Name: Valda Fenis

  Title: Aspirant House Planius

  Level: 19

  Class: Warrior/Mage

  He had the I’ve just stuck my tongue in a lemon look as I approached, and wordlessly, he fell into his stance. I groaned internally. I could see the overconfidence in his eyes. Even though I’d demonstrated my skills last week, I could feel the aura coming off him. He knew it was a fluke. He knew something I didn’t. Archons were superior and I couldn’t possibly harm him.

  I’d held back a little, testing my opponents as much as I was testing the class. I would do the same today. Something I’d learned on my own was to never show everything if you didn’t need to. That definitely wasn’t something Earl had taught me. But then when you fought like Earl, it hardly mattered. He took being unpredictable to a level never before seen.

  I took my place in front of Valda, surprised we were going straight into a full spar rather than trialing moves. I surged forward, front kick to my chest, straight left, followed by a straight right, then a jumping knee.

  Like Aeloria, he was skilled and capable, with a beautiful form of fighting. However, it was very showy with not much substance. As my old Nanna would say, all fur coat and no knickers.

  I stayed compact with a tight guard, light on my toes, always moving back, always circling. Most of his blows missed. The ones that landed where those I let land. I was looking for openings, tells and weaknesses in his style.

  To the casual observer, it probably looked like I was being destroyed, and that his fluid form was impossible to counter. They’d be wrong. There were more gaps in his defense than a sieve.

  I gave him one more flurry of attacks. Then I struck.

  Low, left hook to the body, big right to the kidney, then I whirled away to see how he dealt with them.

  The anger in his eyes told me he felt them. Tender areas, left exposed. Yet he came in the same way again, with slight differences as he tried a roundhouse instead of a knee. I ducked it, and repeated the same attack.

  I could have taken him easily at that point, but as much as I hated the whole thing, I found myself trying to teach him by throwing the same move again. Low, left hook to the body, big right to the kidney.

  Rather than covering up the areas, he came even angrier. I was getting furious myself that he was continually neglecting the targets I’d hit three times now.

  It appeared I wasn’t the only one.

  “Valda! For Union’s sake, boy. What are you doing? Adapt! He’s picking you off like a prize hog.”

  While I reveled in the fact that they had pigs on the menu, I filed it for later as I studied Valda, breathing heavy, looking exhausted from the body shots, but still determined. He changed his tactics, bringing his fists up and finally tucking his elbows in as he attacked again, this time relying on kicks to control the space.

  I almost nodded with respect at the adjustment as things became more difficult. But the fact that he needed to be told to do it held my acknowledgement in check.

  I parried and moved, but didn’t return any strikes until I’d reassessed his pattern. Having trained with Aeloria, I knew far better how to deal with his style.

  Biding my time, I waited until a front kick came in. Then I grabbed his leg, took a step back, pulling him towards me, and then launched him in the solar plexus with a huge right hand.

  Valda dropped to his knees coughing and holding his abdomen.

  To my surprise, Master Yoshun clapped. “Excellent, Adam. Perfectly executed counter. Did you improve your flexibility with Aeloria as well?”

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  “A little, sir. It’s slow going, but I’m doing the stretches she showed me every morning and practicing the kicks.”

  “Show me,” he said, ignoring the spluttering student on the floor.

  He held up a hand around head height for me, and I grimaced. I wasn’t sure I was ready for a head kick yet. I set myself in position and found myself glancing over to Aeloria. She was watching me now with interest.

  I looked back to the hand, focused on the move, and then delivered my kick. I was an inch short, but I landed well, recovered from the miss, returning my guard as I landed.

  The Master looked about to slap me with an outstretched hand, and then nodded with a wide smile. “Beautiful, beautiful.”

  One of the Archon students, clearly outraged from his high-pitched tone, blurted out, “But he missed!”

  Yoshun spun on him. “But he controlled the miss and retained his guard at all possible times. That is a sign of an excellent fighter. You need to learn that.”

  He cast his gaze across the class, his anger seeming to come from nowhere. “All of you need to learn this!” Then he sagged. “But the fault is mine. Like all the first-year classes before you, I struggle to cement this simple premise in your minds. Those who return for the second year after you’ve served your first-year military placement invariably learn the importance, but rarely before.”

  “I retain my guard!” Arun said, stepping forward as if personally insulted.

  The teacher shook his head solemnly. “No, Arun. You do not. You are all children of great houses, more or less. None of you have known true hardship, and it is easy to forget as you play spar with each other. But having an outlier come into our class has reminded me what we are missing. What I can never provide in a classroom with your precious hides.”

  “Which is?” Arun snapped.

  A dangerous smile spread across Yoshun’s face. His muscles bunched visibly under his uniform. “A severe beating, Arun. One which will take you closer to death than anyone would feel comfortable with in the noble houses.” He turned to me. “Does that sound right, Adam?”

  It didn’t need much thought. I nodded. “As unfortunate as it is, yes. Sparing is important, but it’s nothing more than a shadow of an actual fight. And until you’ve fought for your life, you can’t get the best out of sparring.”

  Yoshun nodded solemnly before addressing the class again. “Adam is correct. And if you need further proof, then hear this: Despite his level deficiency and his size deficiency, Adam is the most accomplished fighter in this class by a long way. While he still needs to work on his flexibility, it has improved measurably from last week. He is training and improving faster than anyone else in this class. Aeloria, what improvements have you made under Adam’s tutelage?”

  I was mildly curious as to what excuse she was going to come up with for not learning anything from me.

  She couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable under the stares of the full class. “I apologize, Master Yoshun. There was only time to help Adam with his flexibility after a tumultuous start to the session. This free day, I intend to focus on my own shortcomings. Adam kindly offered a second session.”

  It took all my effort to keep my jaw from dropping as I wracked my brain to recall when I’d said such a thing. Apart from saying, ‘I hope my experiences might help you at some point,’ which was the last thing I’d said to her, there was no promise of such a thing. Needless to say, it wasn’t happening either.

  My defense came from the most unlikely of sources.

  Arun shouted again, “You can’t hog all of his time! You had your chance to train with him, and if Master Yoshun thinks it’s important, then someone else should train with him next.”

  His outburst clearly shook her. “You want to train with the Earther?”

  He folded his arms across his barrel chest. “I don’t have anything to learn from him. Unless he can beat me in a fight.”

  It was hard to follow all of the reactions in the room. Surprise, excitement, and a glint from Yoshun that I couldn’t read as he watched me. “Are you willing to spar Arun?”

  “I mean, he said fight,” I pointed out. “So I’d like that clearing up before we start. But regardless of the result. I’m busy this free day, so any other one-on-one training won’t be this cycle.”

  Yoshun gave a slight bow. “Your free day is your own, unless you are falling behind. I have no complaints to that order.” He raised his voice to make sure there were witnesses. “This will be a sparring session only. No deaths, please.”

  Then it was happening. Arun and I faced each other, dropping into our chosen stances. I’d been watching him as much as I could when he sparred. It was hard not to as he, along with Aeloria, were the best fighters in the class by a margin.

  He was huge, but moved so fast. He always led with a devastating attack that he did well not to over signpost. Though, the fact he did it every fight made it obvious. That said, not all of his first strikes landed, but they did set his opponents off back-peddling, and not many here were good at being on the back foot.

  He came with a front kick that I only just got out of the way of. Sidestepping instead of backing off this time, and I tried to surprise him with an early reply, aiming for a left hook to the gut.

  He maintained a good guard, so I had no choice but to move on without a reply.

  He spun fast, coming with a left-right combination. I twisted and spun behind him again. But he moved with me, expecting my reaction. It seemed as though he’d been watching me as well, and he kept up his barrage to give me no time.

  Nothing I wasn’t used to. I created the distance I needed by feinting to his right before circling away to his left, wrong-footing him. He recovered quickly, and charged forward with another front kick.

  I saw it coming, and this time, I completely surprised him but stepping inside where I scored a thunderous right to his gut. It was like hitting a brick wall. My fist crunched against bulging abs, and he barely moved from the blow.

  Instead, he grabbed the back of my clothes and lifted me into the air like I was made of sponge.

  Dangling at waist height, practically helpless, he brought his knee up to smash into me. There wasn’t much I could do to prevent the blow apart from covering up, but covering up would just leave me forever at his mercy. So I took the shot in the gut, almost spewed from the impact as it hit my chest, but managed to grabbed his leg at the knee joint.

  About to overbalance, he had to let go of me. I kept hold of the knee and pulled as soon as my feet touched ground. He hammered me in the back with his right fist. I took it with an umpf of wind being expelled, but not enough to stop me driving forward.

  He overbalanced and tried to thump me again, but I threw up my left arm up to block it as we fell, and after pushing it wide, I fought to pin it as we sprawled on the ground.

  It worked better than I could have hoped as he tried to save his fall, which only helped me. I spun my hips quickly, looking to pin his left arm with my leg and as he writhed, straining to get his right arm free of my grasp I spun again, this time allowing his right arm to come up a little so I could get him in an arm bar.

  Finding the position, I wrenched back on his arm.

  “That’s enough!” Master Yoshun barked. “Adam, you have won. A victory that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as that style of fighting is unpleasant, but a very impressive victory nonetheless.”

  “What!” Arun half-screamed as I let go of his arm. “That was a trick move, but I would have gotten free. He’s too weak to keep me down. I promise you that, Master Yoshun.”

  “He is weak,” Yoshun replied. “Far weaker than you at least. Which is why he worked for that move. If he finished it, you would have had to beg him for release or have your arm broken.”

  Arun looked about to protest again as he got quickly to his feet, but Yoshun patted Arun on the back.

  “It was going to happen. I saved you the indignity of begging, so don’t make it worse now. Instead, take note. As unpleasant as Adam’s reversal and attack was, we could be fighting the Xeo in the not-so-distant future. When that happens, there will be no such thing as trick moves—only survival or death. It is my job to prepare you to be proud, honorable Archons for the crowds, but vicious, merciless killers for our enemies. I think we sometimes overlook the importance of the latter.”

  The class fell into a contemplative silence at his words. That and a healthy dose of hatred for the scruffy outsider who was better at something than they were.

  It wasn’t hard not to look smug. I’d have given up my skills in a heartbeat if I could also give up what I had to go through to get them.

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