"ATTENTION" a shout from Andra distracted Julian from his thoughts of the past and future.

"EVERYONE, GET BACK INSIDE THE GYMNASIUM, WE WILL NOW BE STARTING WITH YOUR STRENGTH TEST."

"Uff Julian lifted himself off the grass and walked inside with the rest of the students sitting outside.

"NOW BEFORE WE START WITH THE NEXT FEW TESTS I WILL BE INFORMING YOU OF SOMETHING. I KNOW THAT SOME OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PROFESSIONS THAT DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH PHYSICAL COMBAT,AND WOULD LIKE TO ARGUE THAT A STRENGTH TEST, AND A SUBSEQUENT DUEL WITH CLASSMATES, IS UNFAIR. WHILE I DO UNDERSTAND WHERE YOU ARE COMING FROM, WE HERE AT THE ACADEMY LIKE TO PREPARE OUR STUDENTS FOR ALL TYPES OF SCENARIOS AND THAT INCLUDED HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT, SO I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY EXCUSES FROM ANY OF YOU. DO YOU GET THAT?"

""YES MA'AM"" most of the students shouted.

"WHAT IS THIS? DID SOME OF YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I JUST SAID? WHY DO I NOT HEAR A RESPONSE FROM YOU? I WILL ASK ONCE MORE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY WORDS?"

""YES MA'AM"" this time all the students shouted in reply, and some who were clearly disgruntled just frowned and made a sour face.

Ignoring the students who still had a frown on their faces

"WELL, SINCE I HAVE CLEARED THAT,WE WILL NOW BEGIN WITH THE STRENGTH TEST. WHILE I DOUBT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO HERE, I AM OBLIGATED TO EXPLAIN THIS HERE SO, WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO HERE IS GO TO THE MACHINE AND PUNCH IT WITH YOUR FULL FORCE. ANY QUESTIONS?"

""NO MA'AM"" all the students in the class replied to Andra's explanation.

"WELL GREAT THEN, I WILL NOW CALL YOU ONE BY ONE AND YOU WILL FOLLOW THE EXPLANATION THAT I HAVE PROVIDED YOU."

"Rank 1 – Leopold Cavendish"

Leopold walked to the machine and took a boxing stance, and closed his eyes. Leopold exhaled air and then *boom* Leopold's punch landed on the machine creating a loud sound throughout the gymnasium.

Andra smiled as she looked at the display beside the machine.

[attack strength – 2863 points]

This level of strength was often found among students who had reached the second year and had extensive training in combat, but to see this from a first year at the academy was practically unheard of.

Murmuring started in the class as a result of Leopold's result, which made Andra quite annoyed, "SILENCE ALL OF YOU. I DON'T WANT ANY WHISPERING GOING ON DURING THE TEST. Now Leopold, as for you, meet me in my office after the tests are completed, and for now return to your seat." Leopold just nodded his head and acted nonchalantly as if something like this was only natural.

.

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.

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The rest of the students also took the test with most getting a score between 750-1500 points, only about 5 students got above the average and only 2 got below it.

Julian got an about average score of 1370, and Andrew scored a 1000 on the test. While Julian could supplement endurance with technique, strength was a completely different thing, he could increase the result by a bit if he used his skills to punch properly, but without the body to fully support his actions the result would only let out a minor increase.

While Julian scored a 1370, Jason had a score far above the average of the class at 2179 points, this upset Jason as his score being below Leopold's was not something he could tolerate.

Most of the magic field students, including Helen, performed relatively poorly in the test, as was expected considering they didn't train their bodies.

As such, the test ended with quite a few students who were unsatisfied by their results, and some who were unbothered by it.

********

"WELL NOW THAT YOUR BASIC FITNESS TEST IS COMPLETE, WE WILL BE PROCEEDING TO INTER STUDENT DUEL'S, IN THIS YOU WILL BE MADE TO FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER IN PAIRS FOR UN-ARMED COMBAT, THE PAIRS HAVE BEEN DECIDE BASED OF YOUR STRENGTH RECORDED IN THE FITNESS TEST. THIS WILL MERELY BE A TEST TO SE HOW WELL YOU CAN HANDLE COMBAT WITH OTHERS AND NOT SKILL.THE LIST OF PAIRS HAVE BEEN SENT TO ALL OF YOUR MOBILE PHONES, SO PLEASE CHECK UPON IT. ANY QUESTIONS SO FAR?"

""NO MA'AM""

"GOOD, THEN LETS MOVE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GYMNASIUM INTO THE TRAINING HALL, WHERE ALL OF YOU WILL Organize INTO THE PROVIDED PAIRS AND PREPARE FOR COMBAT."

""YES MA'AM""

On Andra's notice, the students slowly left for the training hall that was on the north of the gymnasium. The hall was a massive structure, that was covered with a dome as a roof, it was filled with seats on all sides for spectators, and two dozen concrete stage placed orderly on the floor of the arena.

"WELL, SINCE YOU ARE ALL HERE, AND HAVE ALREADY BEEN INFORMED OF YOUR PARTNERS, GO PICK A STAGE THAT HAS THE SAME NUMBER AS THE ONE PROVIDED TO YOU."

Julian now had finally looked at the list that was sent to him and "haaaah seriously did it really have to be with that guy" Julian sighed when someone called to him in a clearly pissed off voice.

"Oye fucker, I am definitely going to beat you this time, you just got lucky last time but this time I will definitely beat you up." said Anthony as he approached Julian who was moving to stage number 7.

"Shut up will you, Anthony, if you want to fight, just get up on stage and wait for miss Andra to announce the start."

Anthony was clearly annoyed by Julian's words, but still chose to get up on the stage, like most students did with the stages that they were assigned to.

"NOW, SINCE EVERYONE HAS GOTTEN TO THEIR POSITIONS, I WILL BE ANNOUNCING SOME BASIC RULES FOR THE TEST."

"1) WHILE SOME PHYSICAL DAMAGE IS OKAY, DAMAGE WITH ILL INTENT OR ATTEMPTING TO DAMAGE SOMEONE IN A WAY THAT COULD PERMANENTLY HARM SOMEONE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED."

"2) YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE MANA OR MAGIC DURING THIS TEST."

"AND LASTLY, 3) VICTORY WILL BE DECLARED IF THE OPPONENT DECLARES THEIR SURRENDER OR IS IN NO CONDITION TO FIGHT."

"REFEREES HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO EACH PAIR AND WILL SEE HOW THE FIGHTS PROGRESS WHILE WE TEACHERS WILL OBSERVE YOUR FIGHTS FROM THE OBSERVATION CHAMBERS TO YOUR LEFT" Andra said as she pointed to a glass cube that was on her right side.

"ANY QUESTIONS?"

Since no students replied to Andra, she and the rest of the teachers decided to move to the glass room, where they would assess the performance of the students.

****

Once inside the room, Andra spoke into a microphone that was attached to a table.

"YOU MAY NOW BEGIN WITH THE DUELS"