The outdoor field had been divided into three sections where the matches would take place. By making three pairs fight at once it would considerably shorten the time needed to assess every student in the class. The rules were fairly simple: no use of deadly force, no changing soul manifestation and if you step out of the boundaries, you lose.

Unbeknownst to the students, this was one of the five required battles that determined if they were allowed to stay. The teacher was carefully observing each students’ combat ability and based on the fighting ability they’d be allowed to stay or not. This was primarily done for safety reasons, students have been known to die in the preliminary rounds. This is why those that could not fight were automatically filtered out. Most students enrolled to Halram Military Academy for prestigious reasons, but those children are often more suited to go to the neighboring schools that taught baking or smithing.

After the initial few duels had occurred, Ragnar and Amalia had walked onto the field and prepared themselves for their match. Amalia took a quick sip of water from a cup of water she brought along and she placed the cup gently on the ground. She faced Ragnar and prepared herself for combat. They both leered at each other as they waited for the start signal.

“So, Miss Tomato, are you ready?” taunted Ragnar.

“Oh, I’m ready all right,” answered Amalia with a sly smile. “To burn your blueberry ass to the ground.”

Ragnar grabbed his butt and said, “Oh no! She knows my only weakness! What will I do now?!”

The spectators laughed and jeered at the obvious tension. The entire class was getting excited for this duel. Nobody was paying attention to the other bouts because they were far less interesting, this was the fight was going to be the fight they’d remember.

Even Teacher Michael had shown visible interest in this duel. Throughout the previous matches he had shown little to no interest in the bouts themselves, only scribbling into a notebook as the fights began and ended. He never praised or reprimanded a person on their actions either, he would just tell the next group to come up. But this time was different, this time he was carefully observing the way both combatants stood, the way they interacted. And judging from their behavior, he was certain they’d both been trained in combat.

“Ragnar Forgeron and Amalia Kafsi, are you ready?” said Teacher Michael with a loud voice.

“Yes!” they both shouted.

“Then begin!”

Ragnar immediately summoned his light blue claymore and assumed a defensive position. He knew that she could use magic so he was prepared to deflect any incoming spells. As he looked up, Ragnar saw that Amalia chose to increase the distance between them and had ran towards to edge of the designated battle field.

She channeled her spiritual energy into her hands and a large wooden spear appeared. It was made almost entirely of walnut wood, a deep brown pole with a red gem on the one end, a light-red blade on the other. She immediately started to chant inaudibly, preparing spells to sling at her opponent.

Ragnar, off course, wasn’t going to let her finish. He immediately ran towards her, and even though his speed was no match to Ymil’s, he was still a lot faster than your average Joe. It took him about 5 seconds to reach her and in that time Amalia only had time to prepare a single spell. He thrust his sword at her hips, but Amalia was prepared for that. She took her spear and swung it down on the blade, deflecting its path just enough for it to pass by her body.

Ragnar’s entire body flew past her, his momentum making it hard to stop. He spun around as quickly as he could to change his thrust into a downward slash. The blade arced through the air, over his head, and then fell down on the red-haired girl to deal a devastating blow.

*Cachink*

With bright red sparks, the tip of Amalia’s spear deflected the trajectory of the blow, barely missing her head. The blade struck the ground and Amalia jumped away from Ragnar once again. Ragnar looked up, looked at the girl who’d deflected his attacks so easily and smiled.

“Not bad, Miss Tomato. I have to admit, you’ve got some moves.”

Amalia gave him a curt bow. “But off course, I am the daughter of Leonard Kafsi, after all.”

“But don’t think you’ve won just because you deflected my initial attack,” said Ragnar.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t be that conceited,” answered Amalia with a sly smile, and then she winked at Ragnar. “I think I’ll win because of where you’re standing.”

Ragnar’s eyes shot down to his feet and realized he was standing on the edge of their battle field. If he’d taken one more step he’d be out of bounds and thus disqualified. He looked back at the girl in front of him, thinking he should charge at her again.

But then the three small fiery embers caught Ragnar’s eye, the little flames that were floating around her body. ‘She kept on chanting while I attacked?!’ Ragnar thought. ‘Oh crap, I think she’s going to….”

Before Ragnar could finish that though, Amalia pointed the tip of her spear at him and yelled:

“Fièrum Fotia!”

A sizzling sphere of burning embers headed straight for Ragnar at a speed he could not dodge. He looked at the incoming ball of fire and braced himself for impact. He poured energy into his feet and thought: ‘Spirit brace, don’t fail on me now!’

**********************************

Theo, Ymil, Lance and Rena had each found a sparring partner to fight against. Most children tried to refuse their requests, as they were afraid to get their butts kicked, but there were some brave souls that wanted to see why having a different color hair was such an advantage.

The first fights ended fairly quickly. Most students had never held a weapon in their lives and it was painfully obvious who the ones who had prior training were. Many kids tried to summon the largest weapon they could think of: hammers, swords, axes… you name it, they probably thought that bigger equal stronger. They always lost big time to the ones wielding smaller weapons as they couldn’t handle the weight of the weapons they’d summoned.

One such instance was particularly interesting sight to see. Two boys were facing each other, about 10 meters apart, and were waiting for the teacher to give the start signal. On the one end stood a pale boy clad in green, carefully observing his opponent with narrowed eyes. On the other end stood a boy with dark brown skin, obviously a southerner, with shaven hair and big brown eyes, wearing only a pair of dark brown pants. He just looked at his opponent with a big smile on his face, his half naked body calm and relaxed.

The teacher himself was sitting on the side with a book in his hand. He was carefully observing the fighting styles and soul manifestations of all of his students for future reference. As soon as he saw the two boys were ready to duel, he announced the beginning of their fight.

“Emmanuel Psomi vs Ariel Panthira, fight!”

With sudden flashes of light, both boys summoned their souls at the same time. The boy in green held a large axe in his hand, it was a weapon that a lot of heroes used to vanquish their foes in fairytales. It was a large, bulky weapon made entirely of black iron, with the exception of the orange gem in the hilt.

The other boy had summoned a peculiar weapon, a sword with a curved blade. It was made of a magnificent white metal and the hilt was made of gold, adorned with intricate patterns and a single pink gem.

“A pink gem?” shouted his opponent. “Look everyone! That guy’s got a girly weapon!”

The surrounding students laughed, that weapon did look like something a girl would think of. Other students didn’t take notice as they were observing the other two fights in the pit.

“Ah yes, how could a man with a girly little sword with a girly little gem ever hope to defeat such a manly weapon as the one you’re holding?” said the southerner, his smile never wavering. “Why not make fun of my name while you’re at it?”

“Ariel? That’s the girliest name I’ve he-….”

Before the boy could finish, Ariel started to sprint towards his opponent. His speed was incredible, he covered the distance between them in a mere second and his sword swung down on at the axe wielding boy.

*Clachenk*

With a loud noise, the blade was repelled by heavy axe. The boy had been caught by surprise but the sword had been directed at his weapon, not at his body.

Ariel continued his attack with fluid feline motions. The sword did not bounce back but slid across the surface of his opponent’s weapon. His entire body turned gracefully past his opponent and his sword swung around, slicing through the air, only to come to a complete halt at his opponent’s neck.

“But if I am so girly, what does that make you?” whispered Ariel in the boy’s ear. His opponent’s eyes grew wide as he felt the blade at his neck.

“….”

“That makes you my bitch,” whispered Ariel and he kicked the boy in the back. The boy flew forward, dropping his black axe and catching his weight with both arms. Ariel calmly walked up to the boy on the ground, playing around with his sword until he reached the boy’s side. He then calmly placed the sword in the boy’s neck again.

“I think this is my win,” said Ariel as he looked at the teacher.

The teacher nodded and wrote down the results. This fight had also caught his attention, as the weapon the boy summoned was a southern classic, a Scimitar. It was a curved blade with a short range but with deadly fluid motions. It was a hard weapon to master but this boy had wielded it skillfully. That, together with the fact that his Soul Gem was pink, was enough to tell teacher Michael what this boy’s heritage was.

*************************

*BANG*

The large ball of fire exploded against Ragnar’s claymore and heat washed over his entire body. The sudden burst of energy tore at Ragnar’s clothing, burning a few patches here and there, revealing the smooth skin underneath. Some areas even got slightly burnt as flares flew past but none of them were serious.

Ragnar wasn’t pushed back though. The energy he’d poured into his feet had frozen his feet to the ground, immobilizing him completely. This wouldn’t have worked if he received the full force of the attack, but his spirit brace mitigated most of fireball’s power.

“Hey, if you wanted me to undress, you should have just said so,” said Ragnar with a sly smile as he started to take off the tattered shirt. Amalia was surprised at how well built his body was, he didn’t appear to have a single piece of fat on him. His body was covered in lean muscle and he was taller than the average eleven year old. He then threw the rags to the side and he removed the energy in his feet, freeing him from the ground.

“Haha,” replied Amalia. “I’m way too refined for your boorish methods. If I wanted you undressed, you’d be naked before you could say ‘blueberry’.”

Ragnar looked at his blade, then at Amalia, and then he rushed at her as fast as he could. His sword pointing at the girl, he placed all his weight behind this charge. The girl took her spear and braced herself for another thrust and was ready to deflect the incoming stab, but it never came.

Right at the last moment, Ragnar spun his body and swung his frozen sword at the fiery girl. Unlike before, the attack aimed for her chest. She couldn’t propagate the attack this time and blocked the attack head on, forcing her spear to stand between her and the incoming sword.

*THUD*

The heavy blow threw Amalia back a few meters and she landed on her feet. She immediately took a few steps back and started to chant again, preparing more spells.

But Ragnar wasn’t going to let her do that, he ran after the girl the moment his attack landed. He was going to make sure she didn’t have enough time to cast that annoying magic of hers. Even though their power was largely reduced against him, they were still a hindrance.

‘She’s good,’ Ragnar thought. ‘Not only is she good with magic, she’s also able to handle that spear very well. I’d better not let my guard down.’

He could already see one spark of fire surrounding her body and he didn’t want that to increase. More flares meant more power, as was seen from the previous firebolt. Ragnar could only lament the amount of power he’d have to endure if she used 6 of those buggers.

Ragnar initiated his thrust attack again but unlike before, he didn’t use the momentum of his charge. He stopped in front of her and thrust his blade at her thighs. Like he expected, she deflected the blow by hitting the sword on the side, but this time Ragnar was prepared. He pulled back his sword and raised the blade to parry an attack to the chest.

Amalia didn’t do that though, she bent down on her legs and swept at Ragnar’s feet. He lost his balance for just a second and she pushed against his blade as hard as she could. Ragnar fell backwards onto his butt, his sword still ready to parry any blows. Amalia took a few steps back and continued to chant her spells, disregarding her fallen opponent.

Ragnar got up and looked at Amalia with a quizzical look. Another spell had started to float around her, but this one was different. A large orb of water was hanging in mid-air, the same kind he’d seen in the Royal Finals the day before.

“You’ve got some good defensive moves,” he yelled. “But your offense needs a bit of work.”

“You have no idea…” she said with a smug face.

She made the sparkling ember and orb of water float on top of her right and she made them float around each other with increasing speed. The distance between the two decreased as they were spiraling faster and faster.

Right before they collided, Amalia threw the spells to the ground and closed her eyes.

*BANG*

A small explosion happened as the two orbs collided, releasing a massive amount of steam at their location. A white hot mist expanded quickly and engulfed both Ragnar and Amalia obscuring the entire area. Both Ragnar and Amalia were unable to see anything as the water vapor obstructed their view. They were both unperceivable by the spectators, but more importantly, each other.

*************************

Theo was facing an opponent he’d only just met. When he went around, looking for an opponent, this was the only boy that would agree to fight him. He was a fairly muscular boy with shaggy brown hair and wore a simple brown overall. Puberty was taking its toll on this boy’s appearance as his face was a riddled with zits.

“Theo Katharos vs Luke Skylos, fight!”

They both concentrated their spiritual power and their souls appeared in their hands. Theo placed both his hands in front of his face as his two tonfas materialized, while the other boy, Luke, got ready as a massive tortoise shell appeared in his hand. It was a large green shield that was as large as the boy’s chest.

Seeing his opponent’s choice of materialization, Theo couldn’t help but smile. ‘This will be easy,” he thought. He’d sparred with his brother enough to know the way a shield wielder would fight. Shield bashes, swipes or just simple blows, they were fairly easy to evade when your weapons were as light as Theo’s.

Luke immediately came rushing at the blonde boy. He didn’t want to give his opponent the first attack. His shield arm extended, he dashed towards the boy by placing his entire weight behind his shield. He’d trained this technique on trees and he’d even been able to snap a tree in half using this technique.

But Theo was no tree, trees are immobile. Theo took a step to the side and stuck out a foot in the boy’s path. Luke saw this and immediately jumped, unable to stop himself from moving forward. He desperately tried to turn his body in midair as his opponent was now behind him.

*BANG*

One of Theo’s tonfas hit Luke’s shield with a loud noise, indicating that Luke had succeeded. This wasn’t enough though, as a second blow quickly followed the first, only to attack from the other side.

There was no shield to mitigate the blow and the wooden weapon hit the boy square on the hip.

“Ow!”

Luke lost his balance and fell to the ground as he landed back down. He dispelled his shield and was holding onto his hip while rolling on the floor, tears appearing in his eyes.

‘Crap, I think I broke his hip,’ thought Theo as he watched his opponent flailing about. He went up to the guy and tried to calm him up. He helped the boy up and provided support as the boy started to walk away. He asked a few students the way to the infirmary and then he started to walk his opponent to the nurse.

The teacher looked at the spectacle and wrote down the results, indifferent to the pain of his student. He was more interested in the weapons that Theo had just used. There was only one person in the entire kingdom that used Tonfas as their weapon of choice, and that woman had been missing for 10 years. If this boy was her pupil, or worse, her son, then this boy had the potential to become one of the best fighters in the entire country.