Spar

Ben woke up the next day. He was refreshed now. He had to go to school today. Ben got ready. His sister also was going to school. She was pestering him about the previous night's conversation. Ben avoided the topic throughout their journey towards school. Finally, he got to school. His friends were there to bombard him with various questions. He had invented some clever lies. It would take some time for them to find about it. By that time his martial seed implantation would be over. He felt bad telling lies to his friends. But he did not have any choice. He did not want to get them involved in any problems. 

The school went as usual. The martial class was boring for Ben and his friends. They had to spar with each other to get some improvements. At last Mahaansh said, " You five, let us have a spar. All five of you come at me together." The group were stunned. Saarsh had knees hit each other. Jim and Rais were biting their nails. Roshin had his mouth opened down to the floor. Ben was a bit apprehensive, but still suppressed his fear. " What are you boys looking at? Come at me." The students made space for them. The five friends stood in a semi circle. Mahaansh took a neutral stance. The five of them went into an attacking stance. For a second all of them stood still. Suddenly, Ben moved. He, without the slightest fear attacked Mahaansh. It was not that Ben as a fearless person, but the visualization technique was giving him an edge over others in suppressing his fear. As he neared the teacher, he attacked him with a punch. It was just to test the waters. Mahaansh sneered and said, " Boy you dare to test me?" Saying this, his hand moved in a blur and hit Ben's gut. Or so the teacher thought. Ben had seen through this and had tried to block it. He could not mitigate the damage entirely. He slid back a few meters due to the power of the punch. The other four came out of their stupor and attacked the teacher. Saarsh tried to hit Mahaansh's legs to destabilize him. The teacher just lifted one of his legs and Saarsh lost his balance. When teacher was just on his one leg, Jim jumped at him and tried to throw a punch. Mahaansh simply caught his punch and threw him away. Rais and Roshin came from either side, so that he could not dodge at all. Mahaansh just redirected them. Roshin's punch landed on Rais whose kick completely missed the mark. Rais fell down due to losing balance and Roshin's face was paining. All five of them stood up with great difficulty. But the thing that the teacher noticed was that all of them had a fierce look in their eyes. Especially, Ben. He had an expression which felt as though a volcano was ready to erupt. 

Mahaansh decided to taunt them a bit. " What? Tired already. It has barely been 1 minute." He paused there. Then he reduced his volume a bit and said, " No wonder you guys don't have girlfriends. You get tired quickly." The five of them and the teacher were standing close. So, others did not hear this. Mahaansh also had used a technique to make it so that only they could hear it. That remark hit the mark. Saarsh, Jim, Roshin and Rais had their faces crumped with rage. Mahaansh was satisfied with his taunting skills. He looked at Ben. Mahaansh was confused. He looked at him intently. Ben's face was calm. No hint of anger could be seen. But his eyes were a different story. When he looked at his eyes, Mahaansh felt as though he had made a huge mistake. It was as if he had antagonized the universe. He was a bit stunned. While he was standing like that, Jim had slowly approached him. Jim jumped at him from a short distance aiming to kick him. But he was sure that the teacher would dodge it. Unfortunately, it did not happen. He straight away went and kicked the teacher. Mahaansh came out of his stupor. He was about to fall down. But he regained his balance. At that time, he had lost sight of Ben. He looked at Jim who had kicked him. Suddenly his senses triggered. He blocked a well timed punch from Ben. He had to shift his legs backwards for balance. At the same time, Rais and Roshin attacked him from the front. When he was going to take care of the ones in the front, Saarsh attacked the shifted leg with full force. With this Mahaansh lost his balance. He went down on one knee and balanced himself with two hands on the floor. Ben and his group were about to do a follow up attack, when they were hit by a shockwave, which sent them hurtling towards the walls. They stopped abruptly before they hit the wall and a profound pressure filled the indoor stadium. Mahaansh was standing in the center of the stadium radiating pure power. 

Suddenly , the pressure disappeared. Mahaansh said, " Well now I know what motivates you little brats. Excellent. You have forced a martial artist to use his power against you." He paused there and told the students, " Did you see what they did? Even though they were normal people, they attacked a martial artist without much hesitation. You need to display such courage and presence of mind at all time." Then he turned to the 5 friends and said, " Don't let this get to your heads. While your courage and tenacity is commendable, your tactics and strategy are not. You have a lot to learn in that front. Be mindful of that." The five of them nodded. Mahaansh then said, " Your martial class for today is over. You can leave." 

Everyone left the stadium. The five of them went to the cafeteria and found a corner place to sit down. They had much to discuss about.

Ben: "Whew, that felt good.

Saarsh: Which part of getting beaten up felt good to you?

Ben: Isn't it good to hear about our flaws in combat from an experienced person. 

Jim: He is a martial artist for god's sake. At least a peak Martial Knight or a beginning martial noble.

Rais: Yes, getting beaten up by him teaches us nothing. 

Roshin: Exactly. Those b***s whom we beat during the sparing sessions were laughing at us.

Ben: Come on guys. Who cares about them. The sheer experience that man has in combat is extremely high. It was our ability to make him use his martial prowess against us. 

Saarsh : Yeah, yeah."

They bantered for some time in the cafeteria. Soon they were on their way to their homes. Ben sat in a seat in the train. He was thinking about today's combat class. He could not understand why, but he felt that Mahaansh was hiding a lot. It felt as though he was suppressing a lot of power inside him. When sparring with him he felt as though the teacher was a beast who was struggling to contain its power. He could see it in his face. Ben felt as though he could learn a lot from his martial teacher. Then there was the Martial seed implantation which was going to happen in 6 days. He had to prepare for it as well. He took a deep breath and relaxed himself. He thought, ' Getting tensed does not get me anywhere. The immediate priority is to get my mind and body ready for the martial seed implantation. Then comes the stay in the facility for a month. We have a one week leave right after this. So, it is also advantageous for me. The amount of work will be less. I will also have to find the right cultivation method. Good thing I am not a beast master, at least not a normal one. The funds required will be low comparatively at least.'