41 - Close combat training

Jade was leaning on the door with her arms crossed and tapping her fingers in a constant movement, Mayara, Brianna and Dinorah were also waiting, standing in a rigid posture near Jade, hands behind their backs, all waiting for the three slower companions.

Penny, Ardelia and Melvin were just a bit slower than the rest when it came to the morning rituals, not to say they were at fault today for being 'late'. We were still in the usual time we left for our combat training, it was Jade that was a bit impatient since today was the day we were going to start the close combat training, in which she was the main instructor, thus, she wanted to get there earlier, but told this to no one.

The three that were done with the rituals were the smart ones that assumed that the incomprehensible teacher would want to leave earlier and made preparations for that. The rest of us were just normal beings that did not have the insight or the ability to read Jade's mind.

After a few more uncomfortable minutes Jade noticed that we were almost finished with the Dedication and left the house, the ones ready followed immediately, the rest took another few seconds to wrap up and left running behind them.

The arena where the combat training took place was relatively close to our current house, hence the few seconds we took to leave the house after the others were already enough for them to be almost halfway there. Jade was not running, but she definitely was power walking, making the travel time even shorter. We had to run at full speed to be able to get to the group before we got to the destination.

As soon as we entered the field it was clear that not every team was there yet, we were missing about half of the expected quorum. That was obvious since it was still a bit earlier than the normal starting time, Jade did not seem to care about this important fact and started to snort a lot and complain to no one in particular, all this in whispers, probably not intending to anyone to hear.

As soon as the last team entered the facility Jade jumped on the podium and started her speech, barely waiting for them to get in line.

"Welcome to the first day of your real combat training! today we will finally start the real fun stuff. I'll teach you close combat arts. Up until now, the little 'combat' you had was all just indiscriminately violence against each other, but from now on it will be different! I promise you it will be super fun!!" She took a small breath and stopped for a second to gouge everyone's reaction. There were none, she frowned her eyebrows for a single millisecond, then decided to not continue her not so motivational speech.

"Let's not waste any more precious time, since we only have so little to train and begin already." She started walking back down to the floor, but then stopped after a few steps, turned back and continued to say "Be prepared tho! It will be fun, but not easy. The next few weeks will be hard, the hardest training you had until now probably, but also the most fun!... And if you do not pay attention and take it seriously, it will definitely hurt."

I heard the other instructors laughing behind us every time she said the word "fun". I don't think they agree with her statement that this part of practice will be very enjoyable for us…

"TODAY IS INDIVIDUAL TRAINING!" A louder than normal voice echoed. Jade was definitely liking the spotlight. "Everyone take your places. NOW!"

At her command all 37 students entered in the right formation. Positioned in a grid of 5 lines and 8 columns, with one column containing only 2 students, lots of spaces between each of us so as to not invade each other's spaces during practice.

Up until now this much space between us was useless, not one training needed this much area for anything, but I can guess that it will be necessary now.

The first few days were actually a bit fun, it pains me to agree with Jade, but I enjoyed the time and the knowledge. I'm no martial artist nor do I have any real knowledge of any martial arts aside from the movies I saw back on Earth, so I can only describe the first part of our practice as similar to a historic military chinese movie, no people flying tho.

We learned a series of solo movements that are almost similar to a dancing routine, but with martial arts flow, clearly meant for combat. Jade gave a set of explanations for each movement, how they could be used to kill your opponent, barehanded or with a short weapon. No wasted act in the routines, everything was meant to inflict certain damage.

At some point we were requested to do every combat routine while cycling our inner mana for increase in body performance and endurance AND our 'outer' mana trying to create the external shield for defence or weapon. The only one that actually succeeded in doing both at the same time was the super genius Mayara and the next in line, Brianna. There were a few others close, but not yet able to sync all that.

Few people had that much talent in both physical combat and mana manipulation. Take for example Dinorah, she excels at mana manipulation and is actually able to perform both, body manipulation and protection, but sucks at doing the actual martial routine. Melvin is absolutely incapable of doing two separate things with her mana, but she does the routine perfectly, it is almost like she is performing a deadly dance, each iteration faster than the last.

Everything was great until one day, a new day, Jade started the practice with a new speech. "Hello! Hello! The past few days you learned how to move! And you improved a lot compared to when you started, congratulations! YOU LEARNED WHY YOU MOVE THE WAY YOU MOVE! You learned to deploy your weapon, buff yourself and shield yourself. Not all of you can do all at the same time, but you will with enough practice! But that practice will have to wait, you will have time in the future to master it all! NOW, now we will start the REAL fun and apply what you learned in real, controlled but real, combat." Jade started another of her "motivational" speeches...

"The combat is controlled, but do not take it as if your safety OR your life is guaranteed. We will do our best not to kill you, and try to make sure you do not kill yourselves, but accidents may happen… will happen." She made a dramatic pause, looked every single one of us in the eye and repeated "Take it seriously, be careful and prioritize survival... NOW, solo training is over, make single line and prepare to combat against us"

This is another formation we learned during defense training, everyone made a single line in front of all instructors, they would call one person at a time to beat up…. They like to call it 'teach' but I personally prefer 'play punch bag with students'.

Everyone's faces darkened a bit, PTSD from the last training where we were all beaten up pretty badly for a couple days in sequence, and required to practice healing so we could go back in line as fast as possible, just so we could be beaten up again.

Even with the absurd learning ability of the Efalem, we had just too much to learn in too little time, and thus another scene where the overwhelming strength of our seniors was displayed by beating up everyone was repeated.

Melvin was the first of the line, just by luck since the line started right where she was standing before. And also by luck (or lack of) Jade was the first to call a trainee, which meant Melvin was paired up with her.

"Take your instance and attack to the best of your abilities, no weapons for now, but you can use your shield. If you can." A taunt from her, Melvin prepared herself with invigorated will. Jade sure knows how to deal with her.

My host barely took her instance and started her first attack. Her stupid brain was thinking that if she attacked before Jade gave a go sign, she would take the teacher by surprise and be able to land a blow… Oh god… How wrong was she?

"Do. Not. Play. With. Me" was the only thing Melvin was able to listen to before passing out. In between each word she also landed heavy blows on my stupid host. Once Melvin was out on the floor Jade literally kicked her out of the way and called the next person in line.

It was so fast that the other instructors had yet to start sparring with their own students.

Melvin was stupid but resilient, she woke up before the line had a complete run. Her next time was also, by sheer luck, with Jade. This time though, she took her instance and waited for Jade to sign the start.

"Terrible instance. Move your feet to the side. Your hand goes here..." Jade took on herself to correct Melvin. "Now, you can start attacking with everything you have, no weapons. Shield is ok." she repeated with a smirk on her face.

Melvin started with a strong kick directed to Jade's knee, which was easily blocked. Then a punch in the face. Blocked again. "Weak" was the only thing Jade said.

Melvin continued her chain of attacks, all were blocked, Jade was just playing with her. 5 entire minutes of Melvin's useless attacks, while the teacher was just standing there, blocking everything like she was playing with a child… no, not a child, a toddler.

Only after the first few minutes did the teacher start to really move and direct the pupil's movement. Sometimes verbally correcting Melvin, others just counterattacking to show an opening. By the mark of 10 minutes Melvin was all beaten up by just the light counterattacks of the teacher, Jade landed a heavy kick on Melvin's gut that sent her all the way back to the line. "Rest, heal and wait for your next turn. You are terrible with your mana, weak and slow with your attacks".

Melvin unhappily complied. Crunching her fists and promising to herself that she would at least land a blow on Jade before the day was over. (Spoiler: she did not).

For me, it was obvious that no student here stood a chance against the seniors, the amount of experience and training was incomparable. Even Mayara was beaten up constantly and sent back to the line by a heavy kick of the teachers, while also showered by criticism. Replacing the student back on line with a heavy kick was, apparently, the normal thing to do. In my point of view it was just mad violence, but I'm not the one making the rules here.

Melvin was mad. She was really mad. Mad at her incompetence and weakness. The poor performance was repeated several times, with all the instructors. She did not land a single blow on anyone.

I think it was the third day of the new hellish regime when things started to get even worse. The students were amazing and learned fast, but the teachers were still leagues above them and able to constantly put pressure during the practice.

By now they were allowed to use any short weapons that they could create. But the teacher's also started using daggers to counter it. Not that they needed, with the puny excuse of strength that we showed, they could just block everything with only their mana shield, but since this was essentially a class, they chose not to.

Since everyone was using sharp weapons now, the injuries were no longer just bruises, but cuts. Sometimes heavy cuts, specially when the instructor was mad at some stupid shit the student did wrong… they did not care to make some serious cuts on us.

And since we could heal ourselves even quicker now, the line was never empty, the cycle of training continued. Everyone got better, stronger, faster, with better coordination between movements and mana control. They all got better terrifyingly fast, they improved in a week which I'm sure a normal human would need years of training… No, that's not right, no human could compete with these monsters no matter how much time and training you gave them, the worst of the Efalem were already leagues above the best humans.

We only had 2 more days of close combat training when the order to spar between students came. The demand was simple: two students were chosen by a teacher instead of one, and they would fight each other, the teacher would be the supervisor.

"Aranka, Graya, came here" Jade initiated the training by calling two students. Both were from other teams, none which Melvin was too close to. The other teachers did not call anyone and just waited.

"Take this fight as if it were real, give it your all, try to kill your opponent for real. Start!" Jade commanded.

Both girls hesitated a bit before starting, but they eventually did attack each other. Yet, the fight was slow. I'm sure they were worried about causing a serious injury to one another, but to fight carefully in front of Jade, during a class, was the absolutely wrong decision. Jade was furious with the displayed incompetence.

"This is not a game! FIGHT TO KILL EACH OTHER!" She yelled at the two. They flinched a bit at the unexpected yell, but did start to display a little heavier blows. Still, it was obvious that they were being careful and not going all out.

Jade frowned and took a deep breath. She was not happy.

"Last chance. GO FOR THE KILL".

The girls did not comply.

Jade did not like that.

In a single millisecond she kicked both of them into the wall, all the way to the other side of the stadium. No warnings were given beforehand. The kick was so strong that a crack could be seen on the wall where poor girls landed. A big explosion noise echoed in the otherwise completely silent place. I'm not sure they survived that. I could hear gasps of surprise, all turning to see the two unconscious girls stuck on the wall, some even made a motion to go help the two but stopped, one other teacher signaling for them to not move from place and another walking towards the injured ones. Leah, the support specialist, was going to help them.

Leah examined Graya first, shook her head with a dark expression, closed the girl's eyes and went to assess Aranka's condition, this time her hands started to glow on top of the girl.

"NEXT TWO! " Jade called. The two other girls swiftly walked, or better yet, ran, to her and prepared themselves for a fight. "START!" They both started to fight very seriously. Yet no one conjured any weapon. It was a brutal fight, but a barehanded one.

"Better, but not good. GO FOR THE KILL!" Jade kept warning from time to time.

"I CAN'T JUST TRY TO KILL HER!" One girl finally snapped. Jade was also not happy with that. She immediately kicked the less foolish girl on the wall and directed her full attention to the one that yelled. For an entire minute Jade was in silence, just standing in front of the silly girl that dared to disobey her. The entire arena was still, waiting to see what happened next. Not a single sound could be heard for some time.

"So..sorry.. I'm sorry..." The poor girl finally mustered enough courage to say.

Shaaassh!

The sound of her head rolling on the ground reverberated in the silence.

Pahhh!

Her body did not have time to fall on the floor before Jade kicked it out of the way, directly at the wall where it landed precisely by the previous marks on the wall.

"So…" Jade turned to look at the rest of the class. "New rule, if you don't fight for real and accept the chance to kill your opponent, I'll kill you myself, simple right?"

Obviously, no one answered.

The other teachers were just observing all this, no one was doing anything beside Jade, almost killing, or killing, their students and Leah, trying to keep the almost dead students alive.

"NEXT! Melvin! Briana!"

They both ran and immediately took a combat instance, just waiting for Jade to start the battle.

"Do not disappoint me. START!"

Right off the bat Melvin launched a punch to Briana's face while also coalescing mana around her fist, modifying it into a thin dagger. Bria blocked her punch and launched one of her own, aimed at Melvin's belly, too fast for her to evade. Melvin's eyes widened at the danger and by pure instinct was able to form a small mana shield to reduce the damage, but it was not strong enough to counter Brianna's total strength, it shattered into small spheres of light.

Her hastily formed shield was weak, but it was enough to slow the attack to a degree that Melvin could take head on. The attack did a considerable amount of damage, traces of blood on her mouth, but it also distracted Bria just enough for Melvin to try another attack with her dagger.

Adrenaline and pain made my host move faster than ever before, faster than I thought she would ever move with just a few weeks of training. She counterattacked with a slash aimed directly at the opponent's face. The speed and strength were just enough to destroy Bria's shield and cause a shallow cut in her cheek.

Bria jumped back making a good distance between the two, and smiled.

"You improved". That was the only time Melvin had to breathe.

With apparently renewed strength Bria jumped back on close quarters and started a chain of attacks, with a mixture of kicks and punches, giving no time for Melvin to even think.

Melvin got fed up with being brutally attacked, at some point she decided to ignore all defence and tried to land a blow on Bria's neck with her dagger, a last effort to win. She failed.

Bria jumped to the side evading the weapon and landed a quick succession of punche on her side. Within the next split second Bria conjured a dagger of her own and direct it at Melvin's core.

The dagger was halfway through her flesh when it was forced to stop. Before the attack could kill Melvin, Jade had interfered and intercepted it. I did not know when she moved, in my opinion, Jade just teleported from her position to here, where she stopped Briana's movement at the last second possible, saving Melvin's life.

With a grin on her face she looked at Bria and Melvin in turn. And declared "GOOD!" This time, no one was sent flying to the wall.

"You can both rest and heal, and prepare for the next fight. As for the rest of you" she turned to eye the class "THIS is what I want from you. Go for the kill. Try your best to survive"

Brianna and Melvin went back to the waiting area. "You are too good for me Bria, give me a chance next time"

With a smile and a hand placed on her cheek, feeling the cut she received during the fight, Bria answered just "No" while making eye contact with Melvin. Both girls laughed from it.

"NEXT" The next victims were called. But this time the one that shouted was another instructor.

"NEXT" Then the instructor next to it…

5 out of the 6 instructors called new fights. The support specialist did not oversee any fights, she was here today to make sure the trainees could go back to spar after a fight. Thus, just a few seconds after her fight, the girls' condition were being assessed by Leah.

The deadly fights continued and every person that was slacking was being kicked on the wall by the instructors.

By the end of the day only 8 students were standing, 27 others passed out on the floor and two died… actually, this did not count as 'death'. They were taken to a nearby shrine-like building and recycled there. A 'glorious' reunion with Mother.

One of the recycled was Graya, the first girl that got kicked on the wall. The other one was beheaded for misconduct. The casualties were kept in check after the incident. Jade's new rule worked like magic. Everyone was happily trying to kill everyone else after that, making it a success session in Jade's opinion.

The next day, and last of the close combat class, was a complete success, with multiple people being seriously injured in a fight but no casualties. No one dared to NOT take the sparring serious enough to be kicked on the wall or get beheaded. I wonder why.