Chapter 26: Tempting Taijutsu

The following matches were overwhelming victories for Henry and Yohan. Neither of them wielded weapons. For Henry's case he hadn't found a weapon that he particularly likes as of yet, while Yohan just didn't do so because he decided to test some taijutsu on some opponents which weren't his shadow clones.

(A/N: I forgot to mention that they are wearing combat suits similar in appearance to the ones in 'tsukai no world break'. From now on during combat classes, routine, tournaments, etc. Assume the involved characters are fighting wearing these combat suits, unless stated otherwise. The combat suits become more armored when they become official mages, not to the point of Master chief from Halo, but it covers the more important parts like front torso, fore arms, shins, etc.)

Yohan's sensory capabilities were top notch, enough so that he is able to dodge and weave in between his partner's ranged support. He could fill in any role, a jack of all trades, a healer, a vanguard, flanker, support, you name it. With three victories he went to the first quarter and saw the 3 other teams who had the same three victories. Unsurprisingly Klara and Snow were one of them, Ayne and Stella who were paired with each other were unlucky to be in the same pool as them.

Klara and Snow's combat performances on the first day was spectacular to say the least. They had swept up the competition easily, they were more one sided than Yohan's matches while he fought with pure physical capabilities. To compare, watching Yohan's matches was like watching a soccer or basketball player dribble through a whole team, it looked very graceful, while the two girl's matches was like an indomitable force outright defeating the futilely 'resisting opponents', essentially like shock troops.

"Yohan, you're not going to win this." Klara said while crossing her arms.

"It's too soon to call that." Yohan wittily remarked while shrugging.

Klara steamed off and took a seat on a nearby bench. Yohan was going to fight in the match after. So he decided to go and cheer on Ayne and Stella for the time being. Henry tagged along.

"Go get 'em and good luck!" Yohan cheered.

"Nnnnn, we don't need luck" Stella said as she and Ayne both stuck their tongues out at Yohan.

Yohan and Henry both giggled. The instructor was satisfied with the latest crop of first years. It was only their first day, yet they displayed a satisfying level of competence in battles, for first years. After instructing them for half a year, none of them would have any problems meeting the criteria for B grade, at the very least, in practical combat. Stella and Ayne fought well and would be graded around B grade for their year, as of this moment, so they could at least obtain grade A for practical combat by the end of the year. Yohan displayed high end grade A worthy performance.

The grades are F, D, C, B, A and the new addition of S grade. F grade is a fail obviously (0-39%), D would be below expectations (40-59%), C would be satisfying (60-74%), B would be good (75%-84%), A would be a great grade (85%-94%), S would be excellent (95-100%) and they would be considered 'la crème de la crème'. This applied to all subjects.

The two girls fought their opponents, they had a some difficulties since their opponents were used to close quarters combat. One had dual sabers, while the other held a shield. However, Ayne and Stella quickly learnt to keep a distance, the girls were more agile than their opponents so they would exploit this and keep them on the defensive. Ayne with her spear stabbed towards the shield wielder while Stella had difficulty diving in to deal damage against the dual sabers who also used wind to enhance his movement speed though not to the same degree and dexterity as Stella. They were still green at this point so they didn't have the best decision making.

After a few more minutes they decided to switch opponents, with a minute or so left, they found that the match ups were much more suitable after switching. Stella no longer had to worry about two weapons with longer reach than her's aiming to slice her, instead she needed to only worry about one weapon since the shield wielder didn't think of using a shield as a weapon to shield bash for example, but even then Stella could rebound off it like she did with Yohan's war fan. Ayne's stabs were more effective since the dual sabers user needed to accurately counter her spear thrusts. When he tried to advance he would have to mind the spear that would be coming at him quicker as a result of approaching Ayne, he would have to slow down or suffer damage. Plus his opponent can retreat fairly quicker than him, though her reactions were a bit slow it didn't matter since he couldn't shorten the distance very quickly when met with her spear.

"Time's up! those with the same amount of people on each side, you may continue for another couple of minutes, before it comes to a draw." Stella and Ayne's match was the only one that needed the overtime and that was enough time for Stella and Ayne to finish off one. They now had a strategy to handle their opponents so they can team up after separating them. The shield wielder tried to use earth to root his opponent, but Stella was too fast to be held down. She easily lured the shield wielder away before quickly bolting to create a pincer movement towards the lone dual sabers with Ayne.

They had lots of practice when trying to perform this on Yohan, but with no such luck of landing a hit on him. It was no problem landing a couple of hits on their respective opponents, so it wouldn't be difficult at all to finish one off when ganging up on that same target. The shield wielder couldn't make it in time to rescue his partner, it happened very quick and decisively. The dual sabers stumbled back while trying to avoid their assault. The spear limited his maneuverability and Stella limited the places he can dodge to. While trying to recover his footing he was rooted in place by Ayne's earth magic, though for a short moment it was enough to deal with him. The dual sabers took a knee, catching his breath and signalling their defeat. The combat simulator ensured that no serious injuries will occur, at the same time a magic formation helped in recovering stamina.

"Hey Yohan, it's our turn now." Henry informed.

"Okay let's go dominate!" Yohan and Henry entered the arena. Their opponents were tensed. They were very pessimistic of their chances at winning. Those who bothered watching Yohan's matches knew that he was a genius and he wasn't even using any offensive magic, if he was actually serious, he would absolutely wipe the floor with all of them. Ayne probably had a closer evaluation to Yohan's strength, though it is still an underestimation.

Since Yohan was able to instantaneously decapitate 2 B ranked monsters which each would require a B rank mage to subjugate and that was 2 years ago. Each of the triplets and their father Falnis had initially felt a trace of fear, but now they were filled with gratitude, the triplets in particular developed some affection towards Yohan. Besides, even if Falnis decided to report the truth of how they reached Hakono, there will be doubts in believing a 10 year old that is capable of slaying a B-rank monster, much less one that had slain 2 and possessed an unbelievable mana mutation capable of space-time manipulation. Therefore the crowd of students were like mere children to Yohan or it would be more right to say that he was an adult among, metaphorically and in total if we were to count the years from his previous life, standing out in a crowd of children, though he still retains a fairly naive and childish mentality.

Yohan's match proceeded leisurely, though that was mostly for Yohan and Henry. Their opponents were struggling to defend themselves let alone counterattack. The match ended after 8 minutes, Yohan still looked energetic as ever after basically running circles and exchanging blows and his partner Henry let out a relaxed sigh, after all he just threw shards of rock the whole time from a distance.

"Henry and Yohan versus Klara and Snow in the 1st quadrant, Fredric...." The instructor continued listing out the matches. Yohan and Henry stayed in for another match. Their opponents stood across from them whispering a strategy. Yohan felt his blood having a slight rush, they were at least a whole level stronger than everyone else.

"The match may begin in 3...2...1... Start!" The instructor shouted. Each quarter of the large field in the combat center became chaotic.

The two girls took the initiative and charged with wind magic making them fleet footed. Snow held her large scythe close to the ground, looking ready to perform a sweeping motion at any time while Klara's fists were pulled back to her sides. They split up so as to not let Yohan keep them in place with the support of Henry. They were both slower than Yohan according to the speed he displayed so far but they were confident in one of them holding him down while the other took out Henry, this was their plan of action coming into the match. Henry didn't have much capability in the way of CQC, so he would be dispatched fairly quickly. They went around their flanks, forcing Yohan to confront either one of them. Yohan decided to take on Klara since she could use lightning magic and earth was strong against Snow's water magic.

Yohan stopped Klara in her tracks. Of course Klara hoped to fight Yohan one on one, she wanted to test herself against the person who defeated her, she considered him her rival. They exchanged blows but she didn't anticipate Yohan's were more heavy handed.

'Drats! How is he so strong!? I thought I can easily take him after all that training!' Klara was indignant, she had been training hard, yet she couldn't face Yohan head on. Now knowing that she couldn't defeat Yohan, she decided to evade what she can and block his path to his partner, stalling for time so that Snow could eliminate Henry.

"Excellent! she can use two magics at the same time." The instructor praised under his breath. Klara was using an active wind magic to enhance her movement while she tried to release flames and arcs of lightning towards Yohan.

Though she tried to using magic against Yohan, he easily retreated or stepped to the side, so she decided to stop that and focus on hand to hand combat instead of using up mana. In fact, Klara had successfully landed some hits on Yohan, while Yohan's strikes either were tapped away, missed or blocked.

This was because she had learned some proper martial arts. Yohan was even tempted to use his sharingan so he could fight like her, after all his hand to hand combat techniques were formless and relied on reaction, but he didn't feel the need for it as of yet. Even if she had learned martial arts, Yohan's strength training could be argued to be more intense, so even the blocked attacks would feel like a hit.

(A/N: Yohan's rapid growth in physical strength can be attributed to the fact that his body can recover quickly, easily due to the wood element which also nourishes his cells to burst with more vitality and so the process of forming stronger, thicker myofibrils show quicker and apparent results.)

"Those are some nice moves you got there." Yohan complimented.

"You won't be so easy going after Snow comes back to deal with you too!" Klara barked.

Yohan was holding himself back to keep a low profile, well, as low as it can be for now. However by doing so, people such as the instructor eventually ascertained that he would prove to be a more frightening existence if he decided to use offensive magic. Klara herself noticed this and couldn't believe it, she became slightly angry that Yohan is not going all out, she felt her pride being wounded, though she understood that he didn't mean to.

"Ooof!" An audible muffled noise sounded out behind Yohan. Snow easily took out Henry in under three minutes or so, which was admirable considering that he wasn't gifted in CQC and he was facing a very CQC competent Snow. Henry took a knee before going to a bench outside the field and sat there. The albino wolf-girl didn't waste time after taking out Henry and immediately came to help her partner. Yohan now had to face an onslaught of deadly attacks. This time Yohan looked to be on the ropes, he was taking hit after hit, the blade of the scythe didn't draw blood but it still dealt a fair amount of damage which was converted to fatigue by the DCF.

(A/N: DCF = Damage conversion field.)

Yohan managed to escape their entrapment. He stood across the bloodthirsty girls.

"Sorry Yohan! I couldn't handle Snow!" Henry apologized in self depreciation.

"Give up Yohan! Even if you were to start using offensive magic, it won't do much against us." Klara provoked as Snow silently stood with her weapon

'He had been taking the two of them on for 4-5 minutes! How is he not showing a tired face.' The instructor on the side was astonished. Yohan could stand up to these girls even after taking so many hits?

"This is fun!" Three words, that was all Yohan said. The two girls, Henry and the instructor were at a loss for words.

'Are these early signs of being a masochist?' The instructor pondered on Yohan's words, but dismissed it, giving the benefit of the doubt.

Yohan's eyes became a darker shade of red while 3 tomoes circled round his pupils on the border of his irises. The two girls felt a rising eeriness seeing the transformation in Yohan's eyes.

Yohan dived back into action. He struck Snow's scythe on the bar, when she raised it to block his fist. She felt a slight tremble in her grip. Klara reacted to receive Yohan and her punches and kicks were now blocked without an exception. Snow weaved in heavy attacks, which Yohan dodged with small movements. Yohan acted completely differently.

If before it was describing two wolves wearing down a tired lion, then this was the lion fending off two wolves. Yohan seemed like a master at martial arts who is two to three steps ahead of his opponents, making them feel nigh helpless. His counter attacks were swift and straight forward, he bobbed and weaved between their hooks and jumped above their leg sweeps. However, his moves became more ordered and resembled a certain someone's.

'Isn't that my Karate?' Klara herself didn't believe that Yohan would know her martial arts, however she felt a trace of familiarity when confronted with his changing stances and strikes, it was far from a mirror of her moves but it was recognizable.

Their battle continued and grew more intense. The match looked like a lion that was now vigorously overwhelming two wolves. Yohan's moves became more recognizable and was about 70-80% close to Klara's own Karate moves. He finally decided to let loose a little and use some magic as well, jutsus were basically spells and he understood this during the combat exam, so he held back on jutsus. He fired off some fireballs and casted wind magic which helped him dexterously danced through Klara and Snow's coordinated assault. They were knocked back from his attacks and now they were on the ropes. The tables had turned into Yohan's favor.

The instructor noticed the changes in his eye, showing a peculiar pattern. He noted it down to inquire Yohan about it later, he had a feeling it was rather useful mana mutation and was curious at what it can do.

Yohan was now conjuring elements left right and center and struck his opponents into almost kneeling positions. He was now creating arcs of lightning within his palms and was ready to shoot them from his hands.

"Time's up!" The instructor said. Snow and Klara knelt down, catching their breaths.

'Saved by the bell.' Klara, Snow and each spectator thought.