Chapter 5

After assisting all of the students by giving them the weapons of their choice that seemed reasonable, Ms.Williams had her assistant who was an upperclassman deliver the list of weapons she had distributed to the Vice Dean so that he could order replacements for the next year of students.

There were several buildings on the academy's grounds which included a blacksmith building, but for teachers of first year students, they would be given a special magical ring with enough space to fit all of the weapons inside called a storage ring which was created using a special type of artifact.

The Holy Knight Academy's training area was split into over thirty large areas including many different types of equipment and enough space to fit any number of students who were in a class such as Cole's class. This area would be where the students would spend the majority of their class time unless they were given different kinds of tasks.

For example, if before the yearly exam began, if one of Cole's classmates was able to become a rank one warrior, it was possible for them to accompany a group of students who were given the task to patrol an area within the region to assist the military squads. This way, they would be able to be rewarded while obtaining more real world experience.

"Alright everyone, I will now begin to pair you all up with a partner. I have put groups together from seeing both the weapons you chose and your marks during the entrance exam. When I call your name please step forward and join your new partner who you will be training with for the year. I expect all of you to work hard during this time along with your partner and if any serious injuries occur, it may mean a suspension!"

Hearing Ms. Williams' harsh words caused some of the students to feel a cold shiver down their spines but everyone at least agreed that what she said was indeed correct. The point of training students in the academy was to help increase the number of soldiers to continue pushing back the demonic forces. If one of the prospects were injured out of the selfishness of another and it went unpunished, it would mean a much lower number of soldiers over time.

Such a rule was adopted by every major human faction around the world, but infighting would still occur often regardless of the situation. The reason was, humans although, at any point could be pushed to extinction if enough top experts were to lose their lives, there was still a need for power within every place and so some bad apples or even good apples would fall to such thoughts.

Several groups were called but both Cole and Leo had yet to be paired up with someone. Deep down both children wanted to be able to train together since they have slowly become closer as friends, but from the way the current pairs were looking, it seemed nearly impossible. Ms. Williams chose to pair up those who chose a spear with another spear user and those who chose a sword with another sword user.

Pondering over this decision, Cole quickly realized that it was possible to be trained more efficiently if you went up against an opponent who used the same weapon. This would increase the likelihood of on the spot techniques being created and would push both students like himself to pick up more skills faster whether it was offensive or defensive based maneuvers.

When he was ten years old, Cole would listen to the village's training instructors and part of the lessons taught to him was when he would spar with another child one on one but being forced to only use their fists. This allowed him to have some basic combat understanding and due to this, Cole's movements were a little more refined compared to children who had never sparred before.

"Cole will be partners with Ren. Both of you please step forward and walk to an open space." His opinion quickly turned into reality as Cole looked at Leo before meeting with his new training partner. Ren had a very shy personality but was around the same size and build as Cole. Ms. Williams picked up on his character and felt that he would be a fairly good assassin type fighter in the future since he was able to blend into a crowd very well.

On the other hand, Leo was partnered up with a somewhat muscular youth named Thomas. Even though he was twelve years old, he had a shaved head and some muscles where a commoner who had to work the fields would acquire after several years of hard labor. Unfortunately, Leo and Thomas did not have the same weapon; Thomas had a staff but it was deemed close enough to the scythe that Leo had chosen since no one else chose to use a scythe.

"Alright, now that each group is in a circle, your training begins now. For the next hour, you are all going to have practice matches in order to find a flow while using the weapons in your hands. After three rounds, I want you all to take a five minute break before going again. When the hour is up, I will have you all taking laps while I meet with each of you personally to describe what you could have done better and what to focus on for the next month! So without wasting any more time, begin!"

Every weapon handed out had their own safety features such as dull blades on Cole's daggers and Leo's scythe. This was to help prevent any serious injuries to occur because these were only twelve year old students with no real combat experience. One wrong thrust or slash could mean the difference between life and death if this was not put into place. However, as the students became more well adjusted, they were able to be given real weapons to train with.