Whoops, looks like I just can't stop myself from writing despite having summer work to do xD
Anyway I decided not to skip any chapters so this chapter, and the next will continue the story of Akio with his students. The next three chapters will have my first real fight scene since the prologue, and all of them shall turn out significantly longer and more detailed so I hope I get a lot of response on how the fight scenes are
Again, reading the attached document will probably make it easier to follow and read but I will put the Chapter in the post as always.
Chapter 5
Akio tried to sleep, tired after writing his letter to Celia. There was a knock on the door, Akio scrambled and threw the letter under his pillow. “Who’s there?” he asked.
“Urala, Cortez’s assistant,” a very female voice responded. Akio knew that voice she definitely wasn’t lying. He walked up to the door and opened it. “Cortez says he needs to meet with you.”
“Did he say why?”
“No, just not to keep him waiting,” she said, and walked down the hallway marking something done on her checklist.
Akio calmly strolled to Cortez’s office, without the stops to Celia, it really was a short walk now. “Let’s see what he wants now…” Akio thought. He knocked on the door to Cortez’s office.
“Come on in, Akio,” Cortez said, apparently he already knew he was at the door.
Akio opened it up, “You called for me?”
“Ah, yes. It’s about you’re students.”
“Please tell me that this has been a huge misunderstanding and I don’t have to train them,” Akio joked.
Cortez gave out a slight laugh, this was new for him. “No Akio, you’re responsible for those kids… but you only have one year to train them,”
“What? How am I supposed to train them with just 1 year?”
“You’re needed in the field, the only reason I let you do this is because of you’re whole situation with Celia, I figured you’d need some time so you didn’t break down in the battlefield,” he explained.
“Since when did you care about what happens to me?” Akio asked.
“I always have, whether you’ve known it or not,” he replied. Akio rolled his eyes at that one, is this the same Cortez? “Alright I told you what I needed to, go back to your room.”
“Whatever you say,” Akio answered, and left the office. He made his way back to his room, and glanced at his watch, 2:30AM… “Kyto should be outside my room.” Akio picked up the pace and, just as expected there was Kyto. “You’re always on time,” Akio stated.
“You know my reputation,” Kyto responded a bit smugly.
“Hold on, I’ll get you my “Bills”,” he said, and walked into his room, grabbed the letter from under his pillow and gave it to Kyto. “Be as quick sending them, can’t have these babies late,” Akio continued going along as if he was actually handing Kyto bills.
“No problem,” Kyto said and left to send his post.
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For the next two months Akio began lived two separate lives. By day he was Akio the Trainer, pushing a group of kids above and beyond their limits, and by night he was Akio the Lover, perpetually writing and reading letters from Celia. It was tiring, but he got more sleep then he would being Akio the Soldier.
With his new time limit he had to increase the hours they trained, and the rate that things where learned. If a subject was supposed to take 3 days to learn, he’d make sure they’d have it mastered in one. It was a difficult process as he’d have to make sure he corrected everyone doing things wrong; Akio had to be the all-seeing eye in a class of 16 students. Eventually his students would take up several pages of discussion with Celia until finally he read part of a letter from her that he really took seriously.
“Akio, you’ve been working these kids so hard. But its not just them I’m worried about, if you continue to work yourself this hard you’re going to become careless, and you’ll let someone discover these letters. Make them earn a day off, and enjoy that day as well.
With much love, ~Celia~”
The day after he read that letter he showed up to class 6:30, the first time he was early, ever. He told each of the kids that came in not to sit down, until one by one the entire class was standing around waiting for him to say something.
“We’ve been training for two months now. We’ve made a lot of progress; now you can all cast mana spells, you can all wield weapons better then average soldiers, and you are all definitely smarter then the average soldier,” Akio said, beginning his speech. The students seemed a bit proud to be receiving praise instead of an endless lecture of their mistakes at the beginning of class. “And so, today, shall be a break. Training shall end at 3PM… unless of course, one of you makes it even easier on yourselves. Until 3PM you shall be trying to eliminate me in a one on one sparing match… with real weapons as usual. The match begins in one hour; we shall meet at the battle dome. Good luck,” Akio finished, and left the room. He closed the door behind him, and stayed for a moment to listen to the response. Silence. The students where in shock, but then again, could he blame them? He had told them he wouldn’t do anything like this, he thought, and started to the battle dome.
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The students showed up in exactly an hour, by now they where all very trained to punctuality. “The weapons are where they always are, now choose wisely,” Akio yelled to the students. By now all of his students already had favorite weapons, so the choice was obvious for most. Except for four students, Hirle Yassago, Jaaj Lu, Josh, according to the records he had no surname, and Veruo Kutz. Those four took their time, picking their ordinary weapons, but remembering that this wasn’t normal one on one sparing, and choosing addition secondary weapons so that they may continue in case they where disarmed. While they decide on their weapons Akio took a small look around the room they would be fighting in. The battle dome was meant to resemble any area that a warrior might find himself in a battle, and the scenery, and foliage was changed every night. Today the battle dome resembled a grassy plane; nothing to hide behind, or use. Perfect for testing only their battle skills, exactly what he needed.
“The rules are that of a Duel, the fight shall continue until one of the combatants is eliminated. Elimination can occur when one combatant is fully disarmed, or if a combatant breaks through the opponent’s defense and has to stop what would be a decisive blow. Now, I do not expect any of you to stop you’re blows against me; each attack shall be as if you intended to kill me, no hesitation. If you hesitate, I can guarantee I shall not be eliminated. You all are allowed to use Spells, I will refrain from using any spells,” he explained to his pupils. “Now, line up, in a single file line, no pushing or shoving, I know you’re all eager to beat up on an old man but restrain yourselves,” he joked, and the class let out a chuckle. It was funny though, considering many of his pupils where just as old as he was, if not, older.
The students lined up, impatient to get their turn that the drill sergeant that had been pushing them so hard. Only the four students that took their time with choosing their weapons where smart enough to realize that staying back in the line would give them the biggest advantage; getting the chance to see Akio’s technique would be very important to them.
They where all lined up, and the student in front took a few steps toward Akio, “So… aren’t you going to get your weapon before we start?” he asked. Akio just looked at him for a moment, the student was Kyle Joru, he was the oldest of the entire group Akio was training at 41, and he was also the largest by far.
“Don’t you worry about me. Let’s begin,” Akio told him.
“I want a challenge, you’ve never shown us you’re even capable of fighting,” Kyle persisted.
“I thought I order you to begin,”
“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t try and stop you!” the man yelled, clutched his sword and made a dash toward Akio. About to reach him Kyle raised is sword into the air preparing to slash.
“Too slow… Sword Ejection Technique!” Akio mumbled, and put his middle and pointer finger of his right hand together. Akio ran to Kyle far faster then he was charging toward him, aimed and smacked his fingers into the pommel of Kyle’s sword. The sword flew out of his hand flying straight into the air and lodged itself into the ceiling. Akio’s fingers slide into his hand, Kyle didn’t even notice he wasn’t holding his sword anymore. Akio wrapped his fingers that weren’t in his hand around Kyle’s wrist and twisted it.
“A-Amazing! W-What an incredible technique!” Josh sputtered dumbstruck. “And the difficulty, I can’t believe he pulled it off, moving so fast and still aiming in the exact spot.”
“Hm, it was definitely impressive, disarming the opponent and setting yourself up to gain control over their strength in one motion.” Hirle commented watching from the back of the line. By now the line wasn’t one behind the other, the students had spread a bit, all wanting to finally get a glimpse of their teacher in action.
“You’ve been eliminated, nothing you can do will free you from my grip now,” Akio stated. The moment he said Kyle was eliminated the next combatant made her move. Ura Nasaa, began to charge to daggers loosely gripped. She threw one, hoping to distract Akio, but it turned out to be a decision that would come back to bit her. Akio caught the knife with his middle and pointer finger of his free left hand, and twirled his fingers spinning the dagger into the air. He then reached up, and grabbed the knife with his left hand when it was facing toward Ura, and in a sort of pushing motion, flung the dagger at Ura. Ura froze, stunned that Akio had been able to send the knife without even letting go of Kyle, the dagger smashed into the other one she was holding sending both of her weapons flying backward, she was completely disarmed. “In a real battle I would have aimed that at a vital point, and you would be dead from Hesitating, consider that an elimination.”
Ura was shocked at how easily she was eliminated, her knees buckled and she sunk to the floor, and right in time. Three arrows swished by her, dead-set for Akio. Still holding on to Kyle’s wrist Akio focused on the oncoming arrows. He moved his left hand very precisely, opened it, and waited a moment. Right as the arrow passed by the hole of Akio’s open hand he clenched down, catching the arrow. Then he moved his hand and the arrow to the right of his body and right as the other two arrows where about to hit him he flung his hand to the right, and batted the other two arrows away with the one in his hand. Afterward he moved his hand back and in another pushing motion he rocketed the arrow back at the Héro the boy who fired it at him. Desperately Héro lunged to the left, failing to see what the arrow was actually heading toward. Like a puppet doing exactly as the puppetmaster intended, Héro failed to think about protecting his bow and the arrow sliced through the string of the bow. Héro wasn’t ready to quit though, he drew a blade and charged.
“Don’t they learn the first time?” Akio murmured but Kyle had picked up on what he said.
“No fool! Stop!” he tried to warn, but it was too late Héro had already reached Akio.
“SWORD EJECTION TECHNIQUE!” Akio yelled, knowing it didn’t matter if he exposed what he was about to do now. Using his free hand he hit his pointer fingers against the pommel of Héro’s blade, rocketing it out of his hand and slipping Akio’s fingers into his hand. Akio clasped his fingers around Héro’s wrested and twisted it. The rest of the students stared breathless at the feat Akio had accomplished. Effortlessly he disarmed 3 students, twice one handed. Kyle and Héro were on their knees from having their wrists twisted, ashamed. To the students, he looked like an invincible god, exposing how insignificant they where…