Chapter 48 - Sparring Practice

“Is it nice on me?” I asked Alisha as I wore the blazer to which she nodded while wearing the exact same blazer.

“How about me?” She asked while spinning around adorably before I nodded, speaking of which, I wonder why we are asking ourselves if we look exactly the same with the sole difference being our expressions.

“You two, are you coming or not?!” Iris said as she kicked the door open while stomping her feet.

“Yes, yes!” I said as I looked at Alisha before she nodded as we soon headed to the dining room where Iris’ mother, who is our instructor, was waiting on her seat. The table already had our plates with a single french toast on it.

“Well then, let’s start eating.” Iris’ mother said as we sat down and nodded before we started to eat our respective toast at our own pace before suddenly, Iris asked a question.

“Are we doing the weekly sparring exercise today?” She inquired, are we obliged to enter that as well?

“Yes, it is the weekly sparring exercise today. Will you three be joining?” Iris’ mother asked as I shook my head, I don’t think it’s best for Alisha and me to join for now since we don’t know the mechanics exactly of this weekly sparring exercise.

“Is that so, how about you Iris?” She inquired as Iris nodded.

“Just be merciful on the others. Okay, Iris?” Iris’ mother asked, Oh it must be that story that Iris’ mother told us, it was about how Iris obliterated all of her sparring partners with a single whack, smashing their wonderful pride while grinning. 

“I know, you don’t have to tell me.” Iris said as she pouted, it seems like that story is part of her dark history now. Well, I would be proud if I did something like that.

“Well then, let’s fasten up our pace otherwise we would be late.” Iris’ mother said as we nodded before we proceeded to consume our toast at a rapid but still comfortable pace, as time gradually passed with all of us having finished our toast as an ara-ara maid took over the chore of tidying up the dishes while we headed to the living room.

“Anything left behind?” As soon as we arrived at the living room, Iris’ mother asked before we did a quick final inspection on our magic bags that we are carrying in case we left behind our holobook or our notepads.

“Everything is in place for mine and Alisha.” I said before carrying our bags similar to a shoulder bag.

“Same for me.” Iris said as her mother nodded before she unlocked the door.

“Let’s get going then?” She said as we nodded before we departed from the mansion and headed towards the academy where we met up with my seatmate, Amaryllis.

“Hello.” I said as I patted her shoulders as she looked back in surprise.

“Ah-sorry, did I scare you?” I asked as she shook her head while giggling as we continued walking towards the academy while discussing our current lectures with our lecturer trailing behind us, our prior lectures were all about how to snatch advantage of your foe’s shortcoming in battle which actually aided me a lot.

We soon entered the room where all of the students greeted us as we sat down on our respective seats before Iris’ mother started reviewing some crucial parts of our lectures from the first week before giving us a brief quiz which lasted an eternity, or rather a whole hour to be exact before everyone passed their questionnaires. 

After the quiz, we headed to a stadium on the academy while bringing our respective choice of weapons which were of course made of something very soft similar to styrofoam.

As soon as we arrived at the stadium, Alisha and I were led to a seat to observe since it is our first time seeing a sparring exercise meanwhile the others were sorted together by 8 groups.

“Well then, let me explain the mechanics of the sparring exercise for today…” Iris’ mother started explaining.

The sparring exercise was rather similar to a single-elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion.

There are 8 groups with six members in every group which totals to 48 different students who will battle against each other, the award for this sparring exercise is an insignia which had an embedded crystal that seems to have some sort of effect, these insignia will be personally given by the Great Sage who somehow is sitting beside Alisha and me right now.

“Well then, let’s get started?” Iris’ mother said as everyone nodded before all of them went around their groups, searching for an opponent.

Iris who was in the third group selected a random boy from her group before picking up her weapon as the two of them took distance from the others, the weapon of choice the boy was a sword, a large one at that.

Meanwhile, the opponent that Amaryllis picked was a pink-haired girl who had identical height as her from the same group as she is, with her weapon of choice being a dagger and her opponent weapon being a spear.

As soon as everyone had chosen their opponent, Iris’ mother then rose her hand as a ball of mana appeared on her fingertip before everyone took their preferred stance before the ball of mana flew up in the air and exploded like fireworks as every single student disappeared from their spot leaving a large cloud of dust everywhere.

“As always, Iris managed to defeat all her enemies in one strike.” The Great Sage said as she smiled.

Wait you can see from this far, isn't that mindblowing?

“Once you have the experience, everything will become clearer than usual, Little Althea, so don’t worry.” She said while patting my head, 

You can read minds, I thought as she nodded.

Scary, as expected of a Great Sage, reading minds is as easy as breathing, inhumane!

“It’s not that I can read minds, its simply because it is showing on your face.” She said while smiling.

Wait a second here, are my thoughts that clear?!

“Well, the results were as expected.” She said before the cloud of dust that was surrounding the stadium dissipated revealing only 12 of the 48 students standing while the rest were knocked out on the floor, wait wasn’t this a one versus one at first?!

Mihou

I am taking a break on Wednesday (tomorrow, June 02, 2020) to fix some earlier parts of the story, and also every Wednesday will be a break time from now on.