Forty of us stood in a semicircle, waiting for Master Yoshun. Despite his silvering hair, every strand of every muscle stood out in his arms, and when coupled with the mass of scars he sported, there was no doubt he was a mean-looking son of a bitch.

  Name: Alon Yoshun

  Title: Combat Master of the Velkyn Academy

  Level: 38

  Class: Warrior

  His eyes swept over us, not lingering for a second as he barked out. “We are continuing our lessons on breaking holds against stronger opponents. If the Xeo scum do come again, then I want you ready to face them, hand-to-hand if need be. I want you prepared!”

  Torma huffed. “If I have to fight a Xeo with no mana and no weapon, the only hand they’ll get from me is when I wave goodbye over my shoulder. As I run away.”

  I snorted at that, and thankfully, Master Yoshun hadn’t noticed. “Are they tough?” I whispered.

  Keeping his voice low, he replied, “I’ve only seen pictures. They look at least the same size as an Unalaran but scarier looking. And get this. Most of them can get stronger when they kill you. They drain your energy and some of them can even grow. I heard they get bigger than Ogrids!”

  “You two, shut up!” Master Yoshun snapped. “When I’m talking, you are listening.”

  I swallowed and looked back. Thankfully, he didn’t double down, and continued his lecture.

  “The Xeo, like all other races, have weak spots. Arun, you’re the biggest here. Come forward and let us demonstrate the move we will be working on today.”

  Arun stepped forward, and it was the huge Archon who’d been sitting in front of us in Siege Craft.

  Name: Arun Tachal

  Title: Scion of House Tachal

  Level: 20

  Class: Warrior/Mage

  The Master fell into a stance like some Tai Chi move. I instantly hated it. Anything that fancy had no place on a battlefield. Arun adopted a similar pose as the teacher snapped at him.

  “Strike me.”

  Arun lunged forward. It was a fast and powerful strike directly at the Master’s face. It would have stung if it landed, but it was so badly telegraphed that a sloth could have avoided it.

  The Master easily dealt with the blow with a left-handed parry to Arun’s elbow. He brought up his own right hand up and grabbed Arun’s wrist, locking the big man’s arm out.

  Arun yelped, and Master Yoshun stepped back, releasing the hold.

  “Did you all see? Not only did I control the fight, but if I was so inclined, I could have snapped Arun’s arm.”

  He scanned the watching faces again, and once satisfied everyone had nodded their understanding, he pointed to Arun. “Again! This time, strike with your left.”

  I groaned at the display and side-eyed Torma. To my surprise, he seemed to be paying attention.

  The display unfolded with identical results, and Yoshun clapped his hands together. “Let’s begin. I want you to all pick a partner to practice the move. Do not break the arm. Yes, you can be healed, but the paperwork I have to fill when a first-year student is injured is truly terrifying. If it does happen, I assure you that the offending student will be staying behind after class to fill it in for me while everyone else is eating dinner. Now pair up.”

  Torma and I naturally gravitated to each other.

  I looked at his massive arms and grinned. “I don’t think there’s any risk of me breaking them. They’re like tree trunks.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” he said, wringing his massive hands together. “It’s those branches.” He nodded at my perfectly acceptable arms.

  “This is what arms are supposed to look like.”

  He shook his head. “Sure, sure. You need me to go slow? Seeing as it’s your first unarmed class and all?”

  “Well, it’s not exactly my first,” I replied. “But I suppose until we get a measure of each other, slow would be better.”

  We both copied the stance we’d been shown, and Torma threw the punch, and I methodically repeated the move. We did both sides, and then switched so that I was striking.

  Like him, I took it slow, and he shook his head. “You’re actually supposed to be trying to hit me, you know. A newborn could have blocked that.”

  “It’s called practice, Torma.”

  “Bah, you’re a Level 16. Show me what you’ve got. Get some snap into it. I wanna see a bit of power.”

  I shrugged and threw another, doing as he asked. I had to pull it just short of his nose. He caught it after I’d pulled it, but didn’t seem to realize.

  “Much better. That almost got me.”

  “Come on then, your turn. You can put some more effort into it too.”

  His beard split into a white-toothed grin full of malice. “You might regret that.”

  We set up again, and he threw a much faster punch. It still seemed like a long way off what I expected his top speed to be, and I was able to perform the block without much trouble.

  “What is that, Torma? Put some effort into it, boy.”

  I hadn’t realized that the teacher had approached and was watching us. I wished I hadn’t when I noticed his sour expression bordering on disgust.

  “He was just showing me, Master,” I said, not wanting Torma to take any heat. “It’s my first full day here.”

  “We all know who you are!” he snapped. “Do you require a medal for it being your first day?”

  I raised an eyebrow at the rude arsehole and opened my mouth to reply, but then closed it again. It would achieve nothing. People who abused their power always had an answer for everything.

  “Come on then, again!” he snapped, glaring at the two of us. “We haven’t got all day.”

  We reset our positions, and Torma threw another punch. It was so much faster and had real power behind it. For whatever reason, he was trying to prove a point, and I was the unlucky target. I had to lean back slightly to avoid being hit, but still easily performed the block.

  When the master spoke again, his voice had changed. “Do you have much experience fighting, Adam Henshaw?”

  “Quite a bit,” I replied.

  “That was well done. Show me again.”

  Again Torma threw a punch. He went slower this time, and as I performed the block, the Master huffed.

  “No, not like that, Grunir! Get out of my way.”

  To my surprise and horror, he took his position across from me. “Are you prepared for a strike?”

  “I am,” I replied with as little emotion as possible.

  He threw a punch, lightning fast. I could barely follow it. Instinct and a lifetime of beatings got me out of the way, but I didn’t make the block. The Master tittered, but I was quick to respond.

  “Apologies, Master Yoshun. I wasn’t expecting such a difference in speed. Again please. This time, I’ll be prepared.”

  “One should always be prepared.”

  “True, but then we are training, and it’s customary when training on Earth to match your abilities to a lesser opponent so as not to hurt or demoralize them.”

  He eyed me again, his lips thinned. “Do you seek to lecture me on the morale of my students?”

  “It’s the last thing I would do,” I replied. “I was merely explaining how we do things on Earth and why I was unprepared. If it was a real fight things, would have been different.”

  “No, they would not. For if it was a real fight, you would not have dodged my strike. Despite what you think, the strike was muted for your ability level.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I could see I wasn’t getting anywhere fast, so I bowed and returned to the starting pose.

  The teacher struck again, a very similar speed, far too fast for me to deal with confidently, but I still dodged and performed the block to the best of my ability. I didn’t quite catch his wrist and ended up holding his fingers.

  “Apologies, Master. I just missed, but I think I could get it.”

  He waved me off. “Excuses and apologies are of no use to me, and I have tarried on you long enough.” He pointed to one of the other students. “Erale, come. I want you to spar against this new student. You throw first.”

  Around the same size as Yoshun, he was broad-shouldered, thin-waisted, and moved well. He was a Level 20 and had a natural sneer that I couldn’t help but want to remove.

  Once he was set, Yoshun barked out the command to start, and start we did.

  “Begin,” the Master said.

  The speed of his punch was approximately the same as the teacher’s, though I sensed he was working at the upper end of his capability and pushing it to prove superiority.

  I performed the block, and as I promised Yoshun, I caught the wrist and applied pressure to his elbow, making him jump forward to try and get out of the hold. I let him go immediately. I wasn’t looking to make unnecessary enemies.

  “Better!” Yoshun declared. “Now reverse! Erale, you defend.”

  My sullen-faced opponent glared daggers at me as we set our selves. I took a deep breath, then threw a fast and solid strike. It could have been faster, but I wanted to keep a little back. Best not to show all of your cards, especially in a scenario like this.

  Erale caught my strike with similar ease. Three more times the teacher demanded I perform the punch.

  “Very good, Erale! Very good. Everyone, stop. I’m satisfied you can all perform the block. Next up is the leg block. Aeloria, dear, you can help me demonstrate this one.”

  The golden girl of the academy happily joined Yoshun at the front. He performed a high kick at her head but pulled it short. My eyes goggled. I could kick a little, but there was no way I was getting my leg up that high.

  I looked over to Torma. “Don’t expect me to be doing that one anytime soon.”

  He grunted. “Me neither. Maybe just go with low kicks? We’ll probably get an earful, but…” He shrugged is huge shoulders. “If you don’t got the sinews, you don’t got the sinews.”

  I chuckled and returned to watching Aeloria perform the kick. It was probably more impressive than Yoshun’s, and flicked at his head with startling speed.

  He blocked it by pushing his left arm up into a high guard and kicked the back of her standing leg. He kicked it in a way that it would break if the pressure was applied to the side of the knee, but on this occasion, his foot wrapped around to strike the pit of her knee and folded the leg.

  She was so fast and agile that she managed to get her other leg down and a hand down before sprawling on the floor.

  “Excellent demonstration, Aeloria. Not only in technique but in the importance of high agility.” Barely taking a breath, he turned and barked out at us. “Begin!”

  “You go first this time,” Torma said.

  I winced. “Okay, here goes nothing. Literally.”

  I brought my leg around to kick him in the head. As he was short, I almost reached his shoulder, but I was totally out of balance. He whacked my leg away with rather more force than was necessary, then booted my knee to send me sprawling on the floor.

  “I’m not even going that high,” he grumbled as he offered me a hand.

  I took it, and he hauled me up showing his effortless strength.

  “Can’t fault you. I certainly won’t be doing that again.”

  He chuckled as we reset. I watched carefully, trying to anticipate where he would kick.

  It came just under waist height. I blocked it with a low parry and attempted to kick at his knee, but it really didn’t work with him only kicking a couple of feet off the ground.

  “What is this shambles?” Yoshun snapped, surprising me for the second time that class.

  “Shambles?” Torma snapped back. “I’m a damn Grunir. You know my body doesn’t do things like this.”

  “Oh I know that,” he said, his icy stare falling on me. “But what is your excuse? Your body constitution is not too different to that of an Archon, if a little smaller and heavier. You have no excuse.”

  “I’ll be honest, I haven’t spent a lot of time on lower body mobility or agility. It’s definitely a shortcoming for me.”

  “Useless!” he snapped. “Why would you neglect such an important area of development? That is something you need to focus on outside of lessons. I expect to see you here in this gym for at least two hours working on lower body agility this free day. I will set you exercises to do.”

  I bowed like I’d seen some of the other students do, though it was an awkward thing, and I decided never to do it again.

  He spun away to shout at other people, making me glad it wasn’t just me.

  Torma and I worked on the kicks still until he shouted for attention again.

  “Right class! Time to spar and incorporate what you have learned today. Arun, Aeloria, you first. Show them how it’s done.”

  The two of them began to circle, adopting wide-footed stances. Both shifted their weight on the balls of their feet like dancers. Arun was the first to strike, a straight right, lightning fast.

  Aeloria sidestepped and executed a spinning roundhouse kick aimed at Arun’s jaw. He deflected it with his right arm and then kicked out at her knee with his left foot.

  She fell from the impact, but in the most graceful way imaginable. Using her momentum to regain her feet, she was circling and looking for an opening in an instant.

  He came with a straight right, which she blocked and used what we’d been shown to grab his arm. He reacted quickly and spun away, showing what a poor defense it actually was, and delivering a high-kick to her side into the bargain.

  He wasn’t anywhere near as agile as Aeloria, and she blocked the kick and followed up with the attack on his standing leg. He was too strong and managed to ride the kick out, but he still ended up on the defensive as she followed after him with a combination of strikes and kicks.

  He blocked frantically and finally managed to pinned her arm with the block.

  I still felt like she could easily get out of it, but Yoshun clapped. “Bravo, Arun. You too, Aeloria. I dare say you are the only one in this class who could get close to landing a blow on Arun.”

  He paired up others, shouting their names out while the rest of us watched. He dissected their fights, pointing out weaknesses and strengths as we all watched.

  The fights continued until there were only three of us left, and Yoshun frowned.

  “Torma, you will fight Erale. You,” he said pointedly at me. “It seems you have unbalanced my class’s numbers. What to do with you?”

  He looked across the class. “Can I have a volunteer who feels fresh enough to fight the Adam?”

  The Adam. What an ignorant ass.

  “I will do it,” Aeloria said before anyone else could.

  “No, I will take this one,” Arun said.

  “I don’t think so. You are the best we have. I hardly think that is fair.”

  “I won’t hurt him, I promise,” Arun said with an eager glint in his eyes.

  Aeloria scowled. “And neither will I. I don’t like the insinuation that I can’t control myself.”

  Yoshun shook his head. “Very well. Aeloria, as you offered first, you can have the pleasure of showing our new recruit what real Archons can do.”

  I groaned. I would have infinitely preferred to fight Arun for so many reasons. I generally wasn’t comfortable fighting against women, even if Aeloria was the same height and most certainly stronger and faster than me. It just wasn’t something I was used to.

  I felt myself falling into the trap of overthinking the situation which never helped anything. Shutting it down, I focused on Torma’s fight against Erale. I wasn’t sure what to expect from that with Torma giving up a lot of height, but there was no doubt that Erale was showing a lot of respect to the Grunir.

  Once the fight started properly, I saw why. Torma was a vicious little bastard, and he was out for blood.

  “Cool it, Torma,” the Master growled after Torma smashed a big right hand into Erale’s leg. The effect was instant as Erale limped backward on a dead leg, and Torma came after him looking to put him down.

  The taller Archon just couldn’t handle his low size. Rather than standing tall and using his reach, he crouched down to protect his midriff, removing some of his ridiculous advantage.

  The match went on longer than any of the others, and I shook my head. It wasn’t how I would have fought Torma. He was playing into the Grunir’s hands. It was an issue I suspected was inbuilt in Archon culture. To believe their style was the best and the only way.

  The fight only ended when Torma managed to get in the kick-block in. The Archon came with a desperate head kick. Torma threw up a chunky right arm. The slap of the kick rippled against his muscular arm, sounding like a slab of meat being thrown down on a countertop. Torma didn’t move an inch, other than to stick out his foot and kick the inside of Erale’s knee and he dropped to the ground.

  I was in the process of congratulating him when the Master snapped at me.

  “Adam, come. We all have things to be doing and we can’t finish the class until you have had your matchup.”

  “It won’t take long,” Aeloria said, dropping into her favored starting position in front of the Master with supreme confidence.

  I wanted to thank her as her words chased all thoughts of taking it easy from my mind. I made a little promise to myself that she was not walking away from this match with that expression of superiority on her face.

  “It seems we meet again,” I said as I came to stand in front of her.

  “I want you out of this school,” she replied coldly. “That’s the only reason I am entertaining this farce.”

  “Ready?” Yoshun shouted.

  I nodded while shifting my feet and straitening up a little so that I was closer to my preferred stance for fighting. I didn’t intend to be kicking, so I used a wider stance. But there was no doubt that I’d be ducking and dodging, parrying and blocking.

  After training so long with Earl, those were the things I knew instinctively. Those kept me alive and the beatings to a minimum as I got older.

  “Begin!”

  She drove forward with a front kick, faster than a striking viper. I sidestepped to the left, and threw a straight right to her ribs. We turned at the same time, and I saw the confusion in her eyes, the slight lean to her right where my shot landed.

  Surprise turned to fury, and she came again. No wild front kicks this time. Those she did throw were cagey, testing the range, prodding. I let her come, moving around her, backing up. Parrying anything that came stronger. I could see the frustration growing in her as we danced.

  She looked over to Yoshun. “He will not attack. What use is this?”

  Yoshun seemed to be enjoying the engagement, but he nodded at her complaint all the same. “Adam. You cannot run the entire time. Be more active.”

  “Just tiring her down, Master Yoshun. Watching for weakness and waiting to exploit it.”

  “I can see what you are doing,” he said, clearly irritated. “And I said I want to see you active!”

  While we spoke, she came faster again. Front kick, left strike, right strike, low kick to the knee to bring my guard down, followed by high kick to the head to knock me out.

  As soon as I saw the low kick, I knew what was coming, so I weathered the storm, accepted the knee kick which was horrendously painful. And as she kicked high, I shot to the side and forward, aiming for the same spot on her ribs that I hit before.

  She reacted faster this time and tried to sway out of the way, but I followed through with the elbow, and rammed it in the same spot. Overextended, I fell, but rolled back to my feet, far less ceremoniously than Aeloria could, but I did it to the sweet music of her crying in pain as my elbow found ribs.

  She was beyond furious now and came at me with a barely controlled onslaught. There were oohs and ahs from the rest of the class as I desperately defended against a master class of striking.

  Sweat streamed down my head. My arms were getting numb from blocking, barely surviving the onslaught. There was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t change things up soon and maybe go for a hold that I was getting knocked out.

  “Aeloria!” It was the Master, an edge of panic in his voice. “What are you doing? Stop this instant.”

  To her credit, she regained her control at the sound of his voice and came to stand to attention, rigid as ever and trying hard to mask her heavy breathing.

  “Do not let your pride get the better of you. I fear Adam has taught you a valuable lesson today. Superior levels are helpful, but skill, knowledge, tenacity, and clearly an abundance of martial practice are equally helpful. I am very disappointed in your loss of control.”

  As hard as Aeloria had taken her inability to score a meaningful strike on me, her heart visibly broke by being admonished by Yoshun. He looked genuinely annoyed.

  “I apologize, Master Yoshun. I was carried away in the heat of battle.”

  “No, you were embarrassed and frustrated, and that led to carelessness. This free day, you will join Adam in extra training. You will meet for three hours and you will help each other. Adam can help you with control and anticipating your opponent’s moves, and you will help him with lower body mobility.”

  She went a ghostly white as a chorus of snickering and whispering sprang up around the class. She looked about to cry, and I think Yoshun noticed it too.

  “Class dismissed,” he barked out, saving her blushes.