A week had passed, with Coach Turbo introducing new concepts to them and teaching them a few basic moves. There wasn't much he could do or each person in specific, since the melee users did include two-thirds of the entire class. But today, there was going to be a change to their schedule one again.
"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS! THIS IS THE FINAL WEEK BEFORE YOU GO FIGHT YOUR FIRST BEASTS AND ENTER THE CHAMBERS TO UNDERGO ADOUBEMENT AND BECOME A SERF! THIS IS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TIME FOR YOUR GROWTH, SO WE WILL START THE FINAL PHASE OF COMBAT TRAINING! YOU WILL SPAR WITH EACH OTHER!"
Ty's face hardened. He knew that a time like this would come eventually, but he wasn't sure if he was prepared. Sure, he went through the training and all, but there was a different reason he was unsure, and that was because of his weapon. He was supposed to attack from the shadows, but he would lose the main advantage of surprise in a one-on-one spar. Of course, if his weapons were sharp enough to cut through the opponent's then it didn't matter, but he had been training with the practice knives this whole time to prevent hurting himself and others. He was sure that he would have to use them in the fight as well.
"SINCE TRUE COMBAT IS NEVER FAIR, I WILL BE PAIRING YOU BY PULLING NAMES OUT OF A HAT!"
Coach turbo then pulled a top hat out from seemingly nowhere, which was filled with paper. He then tossed it around for a bit, to mix up the names. Finally, he picked two names out of the hat.
"OUR FIRST MATCHUP IS… SORYN AND TARIK!"
Surprisingly, the first pair of names called had someone Ty recognized in there. He saw Tarik stand up with gauntlets on his hands and… a sword on his back? And a knife on his hip? Tarik had always been an overachiever and multitasker, being able to play four instruments and mastering three old world combat techniques when they were young, but was it really ok for him to try and use three different weapon types like this?
Ty then saw the other person who stood up, and his expression twisted even more. This person, Soryn, seemed to be just as interesting as Tarik, but for a different reason. This seemingly ethnic kid had a cleaver in his hands. But not the long combat type which he had seen on the walls previously, but he had somehow found a cooking cleaver and decided that it would be his weapon. But Ty had no time to think about it further, as more names were being called.
"NEXT WE HAVE… BRENNAN AND ORION!"
Ty did not recognize either of these names, but it did not stop him from scouting them out. The first person who stood up, presumably Brennan, had curly brown hair. In his hands, was- well there was nothing in his hands, actually. Ty had to search for a quick second before noticing the odd boots on the feet of the lanky boy. He was actually a user of battle boots, like that of Coach Turbo!
Ty then looked at the other kid who he assumed was Orion. He was shorter than Brennan, although not by much, and had short blonde hair. Interestingly enough, he actually had a flail in his hands to use. Not that it was a bad thing, flails were very good at demolishing armor and have good range. However, they were extremely hard to control due to… it being a large metal ball at the end of a chain.
At this point, Ty was starting to get bored and stopped looking the called people. Many more names were mentioned, but he couldn't be bothered to listen to them past hearing that they weren't his. But soon enough, he did hear his name.
"NEXT UP WE HAVE… TYSON AND HALVREN!"
Ty looked around for this Halvren, eventually noticing him standing up close to the front. He had long flowing dirty-blonde hair, and even a small beard. What was interesting is that he not only had heavy armor on, but he also had a tower shield in his left hand. His right held a short sword. Most likely he wanted to be a tank-type.
Eventually, Coach Turbo finished naming of the pairing and led them into a new room. This one was much larger than the classroom, about half of the size of the beast processing room that Offshore had brought him to before. There were a lot of mats all across the floor, each one a perfect square.
"THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL BE SPARRING! THE RULES ARE SIMPLE AS WELL! STEP OFF THE MAT? YOU LOSE! GET KNOCKED OUT? YOU LOSE! ALMOST ANYTHING GOES BUT DO YOUR BEST NOT TO HURT YOUR FELLOW CLASSMATES TOO BADLY! AND OF COURSE YOU CAN ALWAYS FOREFIT IF YOU THINK YOU'VVE BEEN THUROUGHLY BEATEN!"
After he finished talking, he had everyone go and pick a mat to spar on with their partner. After looking for a bit, Ty again found Halvren and walked up to him.
"Hey uhh Halvren. I guess we're sparring partners or something."
Ty was kinda awkward since he had never talked to this person before, cursing himself for admitting to himself that he did look slightly intimidating. However, the reality was not nearly as bad as it seemed, as he was actually a very friendly guy.
"Hi Tyson, I guess we are. But call me Hal if Halvren is a mouthful."
"Oh, I will. And I actually prefer Ty rather than Tyson."
After exchanging greetings, they headed to an empty mat.
"Just so you know, Ty, I don't want us to have any hard feeling no matter who wins, ok? You seem like a cool dude and I'd rather get along with my classmates."
"I won't hold it against you if you win, man. Just means I'll have a strong teammate! I do want a fair fight, so let me remove my jewelry."
Ty then took off both rings and the necklace, placing them in his bag. He felt noticeably weaker and slower, but it was worth it to give Halvren a fair fight. Plus, this would allow him to train his own physical limits, rather than something borrowed. Of course he would eventually reach that level of power, however he would inevitably forget the rings at one point or they would possibly be destroyed, and then he wouldn't be left unprepared for combat at his unbuffed level of strength. Once he finished, Hal spoke.
"If you're ready, then I won't be polite. Let's go."
No more words were needed to be spoken between them as Ty dashed at Hal. His tower shield would be hard to get around, but Ty had the advantage of speed. He wanted to leverage the fact that Hal was too slow to turn quickly to get behind the shield and possibly get to his neck, ending the fight quickly.
However, reality is often much different from expectations.
Ty tried to dash around Hal, but he ended up turning his tower shield sideways, blocking Ty's path. He had to circle him more, avoiding going over since it was obvious bait.
'Bang!'
Ty hit the shield once, causing it to tremble slightly from the impact, but doing little else other than causing sparks to fly.
Quickly adapting, he ran to the shorter side of the shield, only to be met with a short sword aimed at his neck.
'Clang!'
Ty crossed his knives to prevent the short sword from reaching him, pushing upward and ducking under to avoid his sword after.
He then ran around the shield as Hal was still dealing with the aftermath of having his sword deflected and attempted to put his knife in his right hand to his neck instead.
Reality again showed it subversion to expectations, as Hal was simply pretending to be preoccupied with his sword, slashing at Ty with the flat side of the sword, preparing to knock the knife out of his hands.
Ty used the knife in his left hand to catch the sword, being forced to leverage the handle guard to move it away from his right hand, ending the fight with his knife at Hal's neck.
If Ty had been even slightly slower with his knife movement, his right hand would have been disarmed, and most likely eliminated soon after. Frankly, the battle went about as good as it could for him. If Hal decided to knock him off of the mat instead of fighting, he would have been eliminated long ago. After all, his entire build was light, using a leather armor against full plate really isn't a good matchup.
"I win Hal. That was a good fight though!"
He meant it. He truly enjoyed seeing the fruits of his extra study time compared to the others. Only learning what he could in class wouldn't have allowed him to overcome such a disadvantage like a wide and tall shield.
"That you do, Ty. It was quick. Seems like I need to learn quite a bit more- or maybe just get stronger. My shield was quite hard to control all things considered."
At that point, most of the fights had gotten done. Tarik had ended winning his battle from the looks of it, and he had even knocked out his opponent, Soryn. Brennan won against Orion, simply due to the face that the blonde youth was inexperienced with his heavy and unwieldy weapon.
Ariel had ended up fighting some guy with a curved sword of sorts. It could have been a katana, but it seemed oddly too short to be one.
Save for a few others, the fights were… finished.