36 First Week of Training Camp
Eventually, the first day of training camp was over in its entirety when Irvine had finished healing his hand on the pod.
Because of the curfew applied to non-1st string members of the team, at approximately 10:00 PM, all the 2nd strings that had come together with him quickly dispersed from the Arena Facility and went back to each of their own dorms.
Including Derrick and Greg, Irvine had traded contact info with all of the people present after the small excursion.
And with the curtain drawn on their first day of getting acquainted with him, what followed was a string of harsh training that was largely similar to the first day.
.
.
On Tuesday,
Their second day began with following pretty much the same format as the first one.
The morning started with comprehensive warm-ups and other similar activities for the first hour or so.
After that, the group of 2nd String members continued to do a round robin of 1-on-1 single spars between all the players for another few hours before their first break time finally arrived.
Then, the familiar Single Tower Marathon came not long after.
Same as always, Irvine continued to play aggressively just like he did yesterday.
With timely interceptions, he'd had no trouble in showing off his proficient uses of the [Blast] Ability that was already far better than even the sophomores.
The only thing that was slightly different now was that he had toned down his engagement time during combat just a little in favor of solving the tower sections more often.
It was but a very slight adjustment, not enough for his playing style to change, but this, of course, hadn't escaped the coaches' notice.
.
"He's solving more today."
"Clearly."
Two of the familiar group of coaches under the Head Coach Lark commented.
As usual, all of them were standing on different positions of the training field's sidelines, watching many different players all at once.
"He's actually quite adept at solving. It would appear he didn't choose the position arbitrarily... If he had chosen solving-related Abilities too, his performance might've even reached the level of Tier-1 regulars."
"But then he wouldn't be THIS unique."
"What do you think coach Thompson?"
Thompson was the name of one of the assistant Head Coaches under Lark, he was also the person who had first announced Irvine's participation in the 2nd string's training yesterday.
"..."
"I think he's someone who knew very well how to appeal to coaches and scouts." Thompson replied.
"Oh! That might be true as well."
"Yesterday, he was showing that he doesn't intend to play as a pure Solver. And right now he's telling us that even with that, his solving's at least not so bad for him to be a fake one." He explained.
"...Well, if you say it like that it does seems like a powerpoint presentation just for us huh?" One of them grinned.
"Is that really the case though? I think he's still spending too much time fighting and too little time solving."
"If he JUST focuses on solving, that would've shown us that he couldn't balance his own self-invented playing style. I assume that's not what he wants."
Coach Thompson patiently broke down Irvine's intentions from each of his play.
"...Maybe that is the case." The other coaches just nodded for now.
Truthfully speaking, Thompson's assumptions regarding Irvine was somewhat on the mark.
Of course, there's also the case that he was using the marathon as a way for him to get some live training.
But it was true that had he not been in this kind of neverending match format but a normal single tower match, Irvine would've focused more on eliminating either the Solver or Fielder to end the match.
*swish*
On the field, the figure of him who was solving a tower was suddenly interrupted by a pincer attack with both a Guard and a Fielder from behind!
*tsk*
'So fast... My Fielder this time's not as good as Wallace.' He complained lightly in his mind.
The only situation that could get him to be targeted by 2 people like now was if his Fielder couldn't hold down his mark long enough.
Thankfully, Irvine had barely enough time to react.
Before the two sets of weapons could hit him from the back, an explosion made from compressed air blew up on the area that one of the weapon's about to hit.
*BOOM*
The direction of the explosion was directly opposite from the swing of the weapon, reducing the force applied to it drastically into almost a soft tap before reaching Irvine's back.
*tap*
"Huh...?" The enemy's Guard was caught off-guard by the explosion that had killed his swing's momentum.
With his free hands, Irvine then grabbed the other attacker's weapon by the hilt, successfully disarming it from the owner and throwing it away.
Finally, before the two could react, Irvine dropped down to the ground, supporting his upside-down body with his hands before performing a spinning kick!
*thwack* *BAM*
The kicks got a clean hit and pushed the two attackers away in opposite directions from one another.
interestingly enough, the enemy Fielder, which was one of the attackers, was flung farther away than the Guard! Sending him towards the direction of Irvine's own Fielder teammate on the back.
Irvine had deliberately exploded a pressurized air on just one of his feet that would hit the Fielder and send him flying further back but not the Guard.
After his situation had stabilized, Irvine got up and went back to solving the tower while keeping one of his eyes open on the downed Guard close to him.
The reason he hadn't sent this one exploding away as well was because if a Guard went out-of-bounds, there would be a time-out where all players on the field weren't allowed to solve or attack until the Guard went back into his zone.
This was also the reason why Fielders focused on grappling Guards rather than pushing or knocking them away.
Although the possibility of his mini [Blast] sending the Guard flying 15 meters away was a bit of a stretch, Irvine still wouldn't want to take any chances.
.
.
""...""
From his defensive explosion to the spinning kick after the disarming movement, the whole thing was a replay-worthy performance even if it had happened in a pro match.
The players and coaches off-the-field had failed to react to it and could only turned slack-jawed when looking at Irvine's figure from afar.
One of the coaches opened his mouth from the shock,
"...Don't you guys think that combat technique-wise, Irvine Lang is--"
"Beyond college level?" Thompson interjected before his colleague could speculate further, "...Maybe."
Even he couldn't fathom how such a performance could take place after a Solver was about to get pincer attacked.
"That first hit... Did he just use [Blast]'s impact as a neutralizing force??" Thompson was remembering vividly each moment of that few seconds of combat.
"It's like a barrier of some kind...?" The coach next to him responded.
"I think it's still incomplete, otherwise he could deflect all the attacks just now. Another self-invented skill?"
"And he also controlled the [Blast] to only hit the Fielder on that spinning kick. This level of proficiency with an Ability..."
Frankly, Thompson was baffled.
'Surely not all Starseeds are like this?'
From a college perspective, and taking into account that Irvine hadn't even been a freshman yet. His play just now was indeed more than just a simple anomaly even for a prodigy.
Thompson who hadn't had much experience in working with Starseeds could only take his own guesses for now.
.
.
And just like that, the second day of training went by in a flash.
When the recording of Irvine's performance was spread around to the Head Coach and the regulars, even the conference room they'd used for the daily meeting turned deathly silent.
Clint, the Young brothers, and even some of the 4th years shifted their body forward to watch the replay closely after the first time.
"...What's he doing as a--"
"Solver. I know, he could play at the level of regulars even as a Fielder or a Guard I think?"
"--Would you stop doing that!"
Dan and Dennis spoke one after the other.
"You don't get it do you idiot twins, it's exactly because he's a Solver that his feats are this amazing. He is certainly... Interesting!" Clint mocked the two before sharing his own thought.
'As I thought, Clint Silver had somehow caught on to the possibilities and the various uses of Irvine's position.' Lark had always been appreciative of the mind this Ace Ranger of his possessed.
"So what do you think?" He asked.
"I think he's made for your kind of team, Head Coach~" He whistled while still admiring the video,
"I was rather skeptical when you told me yesterday that Irvine Lang's a fighting Solver. His type of role is... Situational, but depending on Battle Arena's future development, it might become a vital part."
It was his honest calculation. Clint thought that Irvine's type of plays was not something that should be utilized from start to finish in a match, but rather during specific time and place.
"That said, if it was up to me, he's a definite 'yes' for sure."
"It's still too early to make a decision without seeing how the other players perform." Lark just replied ever so calmly.
'Sure, old man...'
"What about you Morgan? Your thoughts as the Captain and our very own Ace Solver." Lark continued collecting the viewpoints of different regular players of the team.
"His solves are on the slower side..." The short-haired Captain slowly opened her mouth. She was sitting cross-legged with one hand supporting her chin while watching the video, her finger tapping away rhythmically.
*tap* *tap*
"Yes, and?" The Head Coach didn't rush her opinion and waited patiently.
"...He'll be a good addition to our line-up that's for sure."
Lark simply smiled at the girl's words. As usual, Renee did exactly what she was told to and gave her opinion as both a Captain and a Solver.
She had seemed unfazed, but as an experienced Head Coach, Lark could feel the excitement and expectations in her based on the faster finger-tapping of her hand.
'Next is...'
"Baron?"
The hulking more than 2 meters tall bald guy was sitting straight with his arms folded the whole time behind Renee.
"...Agreed."
'Now this one is a bit harder to read even for me.' Lark could only smile wryly at the one-word answer.
"That's fine for now, we'll be moving on to Guards candidates. Among all others, Gregory Clayton and one other player..."
The meeting continued without any problems after the short bit of discussion regarding Irvine.
As this was just the second day still, even if the performances were better, decisions still wouldn't have been made because there're chances that others could grow enough or shine in the next 8 days of practice during these 2 weeks.
.
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The third and fourth days of the training camp were a bit different from the previous two.
The single tower marathons had been fully concluded during their second day of activities, and so, for the next two days, the batch of players in the 2nd string were all separated into smaller groups of different irregular numbers.
The first two days were used as a show of skills from the players to the coach.
With what they've collected from there, the higher-ups would then be able to create a preliminary benchmarks and analysis for all the different players.
Based on the data of said analysis, the players within the 2nd string would then undergo a set of specialized training made for each of them specifically for the next two days.
all the trainings would be designed to either improve the players' strong points or reduce their weaknesses respectively depending on the team's needs.
The divisions of players were not position-specific but rather dependent on if their training plan would be similar with another person from the team or not.
.
As he had expected, Irvine was assigned with two other Solvers from the team with their training being...
"Just tower solving?" One of the Solvers present suddenly asked.
Their assigned coach simply nodded with confirmation upfront.
"Your group are the people that need to increase their speed the most amongst this batch." He explained,
"Don't worry though, it won't JUST be solving... There'll be live matches and we've even prepared some memory games as well. We're going back to basic here guys."
"..."
The two other people besides Irvine were showing faces that looked like they've been wronged.
Few as they were in number, the people here were NOT all of the Solvers in the 2nd string. The three of them being here had suggested that they were worse in terms of solving speed compared to the others.
At least the others obviously had been deemed to have sufficient enough speed by the coaches not to need immediate solving training.
Still, Irvine didn't really mind this development. Quite the contrary he was very satisfied.
It proved to him that Ravenville's coaches could pinpoint the things he needed to work on the most during this period.
'Let's do this...'
.
In the 2 days, the specialized training was carried out in the most straightforward manner for Irvine's group of three.
In the morning, they did hands and fingers specified warm-ups along with comprehensive light exercises.
They then continued to perform pure solvings without any distractions, which were the things Irvine had often done in the Facility after training these past few days.
This went on until noon when all the players had their lunch breaks.
In the afternoon, Irvine's group continued with a joint training with some of the Guards group that had training focused around intercepting Solvers.
In this particular training, Irvine and the others would be forced to decrease their solving time during live matches where they would have outside distractions and interruptions from the Guards.
After another couple hours of this, the last training format was a fast-paced memorization game for the three of them. Things like remembering formations and positions of puzzles after a fleeting split second of visuals.
All the trainings they'd accumulated in these 2 days were the bread and butter skills for normal Solvers.
Irvine had taken each and everyone of them seriously, putting himself in the position of complete beginner.
.
And finally, the fifth day of training camp too soon arrived. This final weekday was the halfway point on their 2 weeks of the training camp before the new semester started.
And on this day, a familiar red-haired figure had arrived in front of Ravenville's training fields and the rest of the 2nd strings with bow and quivers in her hands...
