Sparring

The morning sun reflected from the ocean, which was glimmering like the stars.

The cadets were enjoying their breakfast, chatting with each other. Edana looked at the bright cadets and sighed.

"Reminds you of your own time as cadets huh." A man's voice came from beside Edana.

She looked at the one who spoke, clear brown eyes, flat nose and short hazel hair. He was a cadet from the same batch as Edana, a former classmate, Haskell Burress.

"Yeah, makes me miss my friends."

"Haha, missing friends, you?" Haskell scoffed. "More like you miss thrashing everyone.."

A vein popped in Edana's forehead, "Do you want to relive those moments?"

Haskell shuddered, "No.. I'm fine.. Anyways, what do you think?"

"About what?" Edana asked, confused.

"What Night Commander Thorn said yesterday. It's fine if they want to do a hunting competition an an excuse to eliminate the beasts, but why insist on camping in the forest?"

"Who knows.. Maybe they want the cadets to have some fun? Don't think too much about it."

"Hah. Sure." Haskell looked towards the door and Edana followed.

*Bang* The door opened. "Cadets, get ready, we will be going to the Boatwood Forest!" Thorn shouted with a grin, as soon as he entered the inn.

---

The sun was blazing above the sky. Birds were chirping and insects were buzzing from the trees of the forest. The cadets were following behind two people, Thorn and Avery Gray. The knights were walking alongside the cadets, making sure everyone was following and no beast surprised them with an attack.

Together with the Storm Academy, a total of 48 were present. 24 from the Nox's Academy, and 24 from Storm's. Walking deep into the forest, they only stopped once the two commanders leading them stopped in an open area.

"Stop!" Avery commanded. The cadets and knights halted and looked ahead.

"We'll set up our camps here, after we're all done setting up, we'll explain about the two friendly exchange events we're going to have over the course of 2 days."

The cadets immediately broke into groups and started finding spots to put their tents. The tents were distributed to the cadets by the academy, one tent could easily fit 4 people inside. Each group was assigned to one tent.

The cadets excitedly gathered on the open space after setting up their tents. They wanted to hear about the contents of the events. After all the cadets finished and gathered around, Thorn started speaking.

"Looks like you all have finished setting up your tents. Good. Let's get straight to the point. There will be two events during the 2 days we'll be staying here."

"The first will be sparring exchange. Each cadet from Nox's Academy has been assigned a sparring partner from the Rivenport Everlasting Storm's Academy. Remember, this is only a friendly sparring match. Try your best to learn from your partners."

Cheers erupted among the groups of cadets. The cadets from the two schools began sizing each other up, as if they were looking forward to spar with each other.

Valentina was also sizing up the opponents, when a cadet caught her eye. It was a girl from the Storm's Academy, with brown eyes and mint colored hair. She was also looking at Valentina.

The moment Valentina made eye contact with her, she smirked and looked towards Ben, the horse-faced friend of Odis. Ben was also looking at Valentina, with a grin.

"Cadell, something's wrong. I think that horse boy is colluding with the cadets from Storm's Academy."

Cadell glanced at Valentina and moved his gaze towards Ben. "Hmm.. Don't fret too much. It's a 1 on 1 spar. We just have to beat them. But still, be careful."

"Alright." Val nodded her head.

"Silence!" Avery Gray shouted with his shaking voice. After the cadets stopped chattering, he continued, "The second event will be a team hunting competition. As you all know, Our townspeople chop down the woods from here and use them for boats. Till now, they have only been coming up to this area, as beasts start coming out if they move deeper. So, let's use this opportunity to compete with each other, yes, but also help our townspeople and make their life easier!"

Avery finished his speech with a kind smile. The Storm Academy's cadets instantly started cheering, but the Nox Academy's cadets only started clapping nervously. They were all intimidated by the smiling Avery.

"Now then, let's start the sparring matches!"

---

"Winner: Ouida Roan!"

"Huff" Ouida returned from the sparring ring.

"Nice going Ouida! You were great out there!" Valentina praised her.

"Thank you, I was lucky.." Ouida blushed.

"Lucky? No, that was pure skill!"

"Next round - Valentina vs. Annie Withers" A knight from Storm Legion shouted.

"Ohh.. It's my turn." Valentina started walking towards the sparring ring.

"Do your best Val!" Ouida cheered. "Be careful." Cadell also added.

Valentina nodded and entered the sparring ring. She was wearing a light sparring outfit and her two hands held a heavy sparring hammer. Taking a look at her opponent, she recognized her from before, the mint haired girl.

"Hello Valentina. Nice to meet you, I'm Annie. Let's do our best!" Annie spoke with a bright smile.

"Stop your fake smile and just come at me." Valentina readied herself.

A visible nerve bulged on Annie's forehead, but she was still smiling, "My My, this is why commoners are so repulsive, they do not have any manners. Let me teach you some." She readied her weapon, which was a sparring rapier.

"You're welcome to try." Valentina grinned.

"Start!" As soon as the knight shouted, Valentina dashed forward and swung her hammer.

Annie let out a small grin, "Barbaric." She put one of her arm behind her back and elegantly countered the hammer, which changed the trajectory of Valentina's attack.

*Bam*

Valentina's hammer struck the ground. She widened her eyes and quickly pulled her hammer and held it in front of herself in a blocking pose.

*Clang*

The rapier hit the hammer and bounced back. Valentina barely blocked the first blow, but she was stuck in a defensive position.

*Clang Clang Clang* The rapier landed repeated strikes on her hammer. Taking a step back with each strike, Valentina was barely holding on.

"What's wrong? Can't catch up?" Annie mocked and stabbed her rapier towards Valentina.

Clenching her teeth, Valentina parried the incoming rapier which made Annie stagger.

Using this opportunity, Valentina swung her hammer towards her from the side.

With a smile on her face, Annie dropped to the ground and sweep kicked Valentina's leg, making her lose her hammer and fall down.

*Whistle* The knight overseeing the match blew his whistle. But ignoring it, Annie quickly dashed towards the fallen Valentina and kicked her stomach.

"Learn. your. place. filthy. commoner." She kept kicking Valentina with an ecstatic smile on her face.

"Stop! Stop!" the knights quickly entered the ring and pulled Annie away. Edana and Haskell also entered the ring and held Valentina. Her mouth was full of blood. "Val! Can you hear me?! Val!"

Valentina let out a small smile, mouth full of blood and a tear drop rolling through her cheek, "Brother..." She muttered and passed out.