After the woman gave her stern words, she then walked away to check on her second-year students. Some of the first-years who also had the same weapons class went up to a wall of weapons, getting their own. Riven got a gauntlet, while Luka got a war hammer, and Skye got a dagger.
"You guys are switching weapons?" Riven questioned, with the two nodding.
"Yeah, I liked the woman's dagger design. It looked so beautiful," Skye answered. The two boys knew the girl was talking about Rowan, but her "dagger-looking beautiful" isn't really a good reason to make it your main weapon choice.
"Okay," Riven said awkwardly. "So what made you switch to a war hammer?" Riven asked Luka, trying to ignore Skye's bad decision.
"Well, it's because I also got inspired by someone, but it isn't for the same dumb reason as Skye."
"Hey! My reason isn't dumb," Skye called out while practicing slicing the air with her new weapon.
"I'm guessing it was one of the people from the small team you were in?" Riven questioned.
"Yeah. They had a war hammer as well. As I was being lunged at, I saw the person with the war hammer get into combat with the wolf, and it inspired me."
"Oh yeah? Did you ever find out the name of the person who saved you?" Riven was also punching the air, getting a good feel of the gauntlets.
"Yeah. His name was Mr. Kain. They didn't give me his first name—only his teacher name." When Luka said this, he also started to get a good feel of the weapon that he had just gotten, but he got to see Riven stop punching at the air.
"Did you know him?"
"No. He was my original weapons class teacher. I guess most of them died in the outing, but I'm glad he went doing a great deed in saving you." Riven smiled at Luka, with the boy just smiling back.
"I hope I'm not interrupting a sweet moment," a voice said behind the two. It was the woman from before. "Get in line." She pointed, and when the two looked, they could see two lines forming—but one was incredibly shorter than the other.
The two then instinctively walked to the line where Skye was already in.
"Thanks for warning us," Luka whispered sarcastically.
"Didn't want to interrupt your bro moment," Skye said back, almost laughing, but soon stopped as the woman sternly looked at her.
"Since you all have been transferred to my class, I want to see where all of you stand. So how about a friendly fight: first-years vs. second-years?"
"How is that fair?" a student called.
"Yeah, the second-years have way more combat abilities than us, and they know how to use their evolution better as well," another yelled out.
"And some of them are awakened as well. Their physicality is way stronger than most of us," Skye yelled in protest as well.
But the woman was not phased in the slightest.
"Depending on how this goes, I'll give the first-years extra training. The same especially goes for the second-years if any of them fall as well."
Those words put fear in the second-years. They did not want to go through worse than what they've already been through. This lit a fire in the second-years—they were not about to hold back just because they were facing first-years. And this teacher didn't care if evolved abilities were used, which meant they could essentially go all out.
"This is how it will work," the woman started to explain. "Two combatants will walk up to the platform and face one another. After one loses, the winner will stay on the platform and face the next. The line with the most people remaining will win."
"Oh okay, so this is just off the bat rigged," Skye commented. Everyone knew it was rigged. The number of first-year students had dwindled by a ton after the outing. And even if they hadn't, the second-years are still more experienced than the first-years.
"Now may the first two combatants come up and face one another."
Two people came up the stairs—a boy and a girl.
"Boy of the first-year vs. girl of the second-year." When the woman yelled out these words, this made them all know she didn't care to remember their names and that she would call them by their gender. "Ready."
When she said that, the two got their weapons ready.
"Go."
The girl rushed in toward the boy with extreme wind blowing behind her, giving her a huge speed boost, and then tried to punch the boy in his gut. But a silver barrier showed up in front of the boy, blocking her punch. The girl then backed off, thinking it was the platform that blocked her punch—but she realized the color was different. It was silver, not clear like the barrier from the platform. Which means the barrier that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere came from the boy. He then shot an arrow at the girl, who was able to easily block it, but a barrier once again appeared. This time, it was near the arrow, which bounced off the barrier—changing its direction toward her.
This shocked everyone. Even the teacher herself was shocked. She didn't think a first-year could have done such a trick. But the girl got over her shock and swiped her hand, throwing the arrow off balance. Then another barrier showed up, with the arrow bouncing off it again. The girl did the same reaction. This happened over and over again, making it so she barely had any area to move.
"Now this is something," the teacher thought. "The boy is not only using his barrier to attack, but is also making the barrier soft enough for the arrow to bounce off of it and still keep its same momentum—no," the woman said, taking a good look at the arrow. "It's not keeping its same momentum. It's speeding up little by little. But even then, this won't be enough."
The girl then had enough of the boy's games. She made a dome made of air, with the air twisting and turning wildly. Then, when the arrow came, it went off course and started going around her like an orbit. She then threw her fist like she was punching something, and the arrow then went flying out of the dome, going straight toward the boy. But before it could hit him, the woman grabbed the arrow, with it jerking her hand back a little.
"This match is over. Boy, you lost. Get off the platform," she said sternly, with the boy walking off the platform with his head down in defeat.
"You did good! You put her on the ropes," a first-year student yelled out.
"Yeah! You did better than what they thought you could do. You showed her what's up!" another called out, cheering him on.
This brightened the boy's face up, showing his spirits were back up.
The woman then turned to the girl.
"You didn't do no better. That boy had you on the back end, and you almost lost to a person who had way less experience with their abilities than you. Know this—you better do better next time. If not, you're going on the losing side. Got it?" She then walked off the platform, waiting for the next first-year to come up.
"Yes, ma'am," was all the girl could say before getting into a battle stance. She did not want to see what the teacher had in store for the losers.
"And as for you," the woman then walked up to the boy, looking him in his eyes—which scared him to the point he instantly put his head down. "You passed." She then turned back to the platform with her arms crossed.
The boy had a big smile on his face, but it soon went away when he heard her next words.
"But you still have much to learn. So I'll put you with the rest of the losers." She had a devilish smirk when she said this, which made all of the excitement the boy had go down like it was never there.
Another first-year walked up onto the platform, but the fight was drastically different from when she faced the boy.
"You don't seem too tough," the student said, confident, thinking they had a good understanding of the girl's abilities and her limitations. But little did they know—the girl was just taking it easy on the boy, thinking he would be a piece of cake. But his skill caught her off guard. She would not let that happen again.
When the teacher called out both of their genders, she then yelled, "Begin," and the fight was underway. But when she blitzed in, it was way faster. She quickly did a punch to the student's gut, not giving them enough time to react, sending the student flying back—but was caught by the teacher.
She then pressed something on her wristwatch, and a hooded figure appeared and took the student away.
"Well, at least we know she won't let us die or get seriously injured," Skye commented as more students went up and all fell as well to the girl—until it ended up being her own turn.
The teacher noticed something different from Skye. Unlike the other students, Skye wasn't afraid of the girl, nor was she showing confidence as well. It was unexplainable to her. But she still started to fight. The girl was sort of tired after using her evolution for so long. But with Skye being one of the last students left, she thought her trials were almost over with. When she tried to do the same thing as she did with the past students, Skye was different. She jumped over the girl and immediately put her dagger near her throat, which indicated the fight was over.
All of the second-years were shocked at this action. They thought if they took the first-years a bit more seriously, none of them would be a problem—yet this girl easily defeated one of them.
"Hmm. Maybe we actually got some of the interesting first-years," the woman said. She then called up the next second-year to go up, where it ended in the same manner.
"Man, can any of you actually give me a challenge? I don't feel like being here all day wasting my time," Skye said, checking her nails.
"A bit overconfident, aren't you?" a voice called out. Skye looked to see who said those words—it was a girl with dark pink hair, which was wrapped up in a bun. She had a bright smile on her face, looking Skye directly in the eyes.
When the female went up to the platform, gasps and whispers were heard all around the room.
"I'm sorry—where are my manners? I'm Sarah. Nice to meet you." Sarah still had the big smile on her face and also had her hand held out for a handshake. But after seeing Skye not shaking her hand, she put it back down to her side. "Now, what I was saying was—you only defeated two second-years, and now you think you're all that? I made it to the top five. And last time I checked, you didn't even make it to the top 10. Yet you have the nerve to talk down on your higher class, man—"
But Sarah's words were cut off by Skye.
"So what if I didn't make it to the top 10? It's not my fault the people above me are monsters. But that also doesn't change that I myself am strong. With the help of others, I can grow at an exponential rate. And with being at this level, why wouldn't I boast? And if someone boasts about being stronger than me, I let it fly over my head—'cause that doesn't change who I am."
Before Skye could continue, a loud clap was heard.
"No more of this sentimental stuff. Let's see if you can back up your bark. So, Sarah of the second-year vs. girl of the first-year—ready, begin."