Chapter 15 - First Training Exercise(Part 1)

"Alright, put on the restriction collar and activate your X-Abilities in Phantom Mode and come at me, I guess. I won't be fully on the defensive, by the way, I'll be holding back but I will attack and counter," Remarked Instructor Satou, putting on a collar himself, "<Primary Manifestation: Scorpion>."

Red Phantom XFE wrapped around his arms and extended out his lower back, forming in the shape of scorpion-like pincers around his arms and stinger from his lower back. After the entrance exam, we had all been given one of those restriction collars since we'd be using them regularly at the Academy. Tairo looked hesitant but stepped forward...

"<Primary Manifestation: Sword>, <Secondary Manifestation: Shield>."

His Manifestations sure were generic and boring, but he was fairly skilled in terms of technique, I had watched him fight in one of the inter-high tournaments and I had to admit, he wasn't half bad. Plus, he wouldn't have passed the entrance exam if he wasn't skilled. He was wearing a black undershirt under a dark blue sweater and dark gray trousers with black shoes, all of which was lightly armored.

He shot forward towards the instructor with his sword and shield close to himself. As he neared him, he swung his sword up at his throat. The instructor didn't move, the instant before the blade could whip across his neck, he deflected it with a flick of his stinger, before swinging it at Tairo, who managed to block it with his shield and parry it away.

He then went low and drove his sword up at the instructor's chest, who caught it with his right pincer and flung him away. Tairo went flying several meters away, attempting to use his shield to soften his fall, but that didn't work too well since it was in Phantom Mode. The instructor was able to fling him away even though both their Manifestations were in Phantom Mode because if two Manifestations in Phantom Mode, they would make physical contact when struck against each other.

He stood up with a groan and moved his shoulder tentatively, before he shot towards the instructor again, unleashing a barrage of slashes and thrusts at him. Instructor Satou effortlessly dodged, parried and blocked every single attack, before whipping his stinger at Tairo's midsection. He managed to get his shield in the way, but got sent flying back again, crashing onto the ground on his back.

"Alright, that's enough. Who's next?" Asked Instructor Satou, ending the bout.

"Wait, I can still fight-!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can, but I have to do this sixteen times, so I can't overdo any of these fights. This is just to get a rough estimation of what each of you are capable of, the win/lose factor doesn't apply. So, who wants to go second?"

Tairo reluctantly deactivated his X-Abilities and took off the restriction collar before returning to the sidelines where the rest of us were seated. I'll volunteer towards the end, that way I can get a good idea of what the instructor is capable of, plus he was bound to be at least a little bit tired towards the end.

"I'll go next!" Someone finally volunteered, a guy with a confident grin.

Jian Lee, I believe he'd placed somewhere between fifteenth and twentieth in the first stage of the entrance exam. He had long black hair that covered his left eye in front and was tied in a ponytail in the back, black eyes, a silver earring on his right earlobe and a curved birthmark on his chin. He wore a long sleeved t-shirt that was mostly white with black along the neckline, shoulders and sleeves. He had on black trousers with dark red shoes. He put on his restriction collar and stepped forward confidently.

"Okay, make sure to go all out right away. Like I said, I'll be keeping each of these bouts short, so don't complain if I end your bout before you're able to show me everything you've got," Advised the instructor.

"You don't have to tell me twice...<Primary Manifestation: Axe>!" He exclaimed with a grin, dashing forward as a large, green energy double-bit axe formed in his hands.

He unfurled a swift horizontal slash at the instructor's midsection, his attack missed but he smoothly transitioned into upward diagonal swing across at his head. The instructor stepped back to avoid it, before crossing his arms in front of himself to block a rapid straight thrust.

Huh, this guy didn't have much of a technique, but he sure swung that axe around rapidly, he had some pretty flexible wrists and shoulders. Tairo had a much more disciplined fighting technique, but his attacks were slower than Jian's, which was why the latter was giving the instructor a harder time.

That being said, the instructor was blocking and parrying his attacks without too much trouble, though he wasn't able to dodge much. Jian then seemed to have made an opening, and rapidly jumped up and swung his axe straight down at his shoulder. He didn't move, catching the axe with his left pincer and flinging him away.

Did the instructor bait him into thinking that he had an opening? Well, he is a K-Ranked X-Warrior, so it wouldn't surprise me. Jian shot towards him again, undeterred by his failed attack. He closed the gap and...did the same thing, sprang up and began to swing his axe straight down. Seriously, he was trying the exact same attack agai-...

"<Secondary Manifestation: Axe Expansion>!"

I stand corrected...

The end of his axe about tripled in size as he swung it down with all his might, Instructor Satou was just about able to get his stinger in the way to block the strike and knock him away, but the impact was heavy enough to force him down onto one knee.

"Okay, that's enough. Next, please," Declared the instructor, deactivating his Manifestation and adjusting his collar with a look of discomfort, as Jian got ready to charge in again.

He looked disappointed that the bout was over, but made no fuss, deactivating his Manifestation and taking off his collar before rejoining the sidelines, as the next person stepped forward.

It was a girl, I think her name was Zoya Sokolova, if I remember right, she'd placed sixteenth in the first stage of the entrance exam. She was on the tall side, with short straight blonde hair that stopped just above her shoulders in the back, dark blue eyes, a blue streak across the middle of her hair that she braided and grew past the front of her left ear. She wore a short-sleeved pink dress with a white collar, it stopped just above her knees, with a dark purple belt around her waist and black tights on her legs under the dress. She wore dark blue sandals on her feet and had purple fingerless gloves on her hands that went up to her forearms.

"I'll go next, unless someone else wishes to," She said amicably, before continuing onto the middle as no one else volunteered.

Her way of talking was kinda...formal, I guess? I feel like I'd exhaust myself if I spoke like that. The instructor reactivated his Manifestation and got ready.

"Okay, whenever you're ready," He instructed, as his pincers and stinger formed again.

"Yes, sir...<Primary Manifestation: Rapier>," She said, a long and narrow white blade forming in her right hand, before sprinting forward at an impressive speed.

She's pretty fast and nimble. She reached the instructor in a matter of seconds, unleashing a series of rapid thrusts at him. He wasn't able to evade any of them, forced to stay rooted and block the strikes best he could. Then, in the blink of an eye...

"<Secondary Manifestation: Mini-Rapier>!"

A second, shorter blade appeared in her left hand, and she thrust both blades at him, crashing against his pincers and slightly knocking him off-balance. And then, in an instant, she slipped behind him and drove her blades towards his back. He barely managed to block it using his stinger, and then sprang away as fast as he could, his Manifestation severely cracked...

<Secondary Manifestation: Flaming Pincers>!" He exclaimed, flames forming in his pincers.

He blasted out rapid fireballs from each of his hands as he backed away, she slashed away the first one by swinging both blades outwards, and attempted to dodge the second one, but got hit square on the right shoulder. Since the flames were also in Phantom Mode, it didn't do any real damage.

"Alright, that's enough. Next," Said the instructor with a quiet sigh of relief.

She had really kept him on his toes, even if he had been holding back. I don't think he planned on using his Secondary Manifestation at all, he seemed lacking in motivation but I guess he still had enough pride as a K-Ranked X-Warrior to not want to lose to a Level J student.

The next person to volunteer was Alex Jaice, he had placed first in the the first stage of the entrance exam, so I was interested in seeing him fight. He had medium length red hair, light blue eyes and pale skin, and wore an unbuttoned white short-sleeved shirt over a black undershirt and dark blue trousers with black boots and fingerless gloves.

"Alright, I'll go next!" He volunteered with a smile, walking up to the middle.

"Actually...wait, let's take a five minute break first," Replied the instructor, sitting down with a sigh.

Alright, then, guess we were taking a break...

...

"Okay, let's continue," Said the instructor five minutes later, standing up and stretching his arms with a sigh.

"In that case...here I come, <Primary Manifestation: Twin Crossbows>!" Responded Alex, two red energy crossbows forming on top of both his forearms.

"Jeez, no need to be in such a rush...<Primary Manifestation: Scorpion>," Sighed the instructor.

Alex then pointed his arms towards the instructor and...fired a rapid-fire barrage of arrows at him. The instructor was taken aback, before swiftly crossing his pincers over his chest and wrapping his stinger around his body, the arrows bouncing off.

I see, so that's how he got first place, he fired those arrows in even quicker succession than either my X-Pistols or X-Blasters could. But his arrows weren't powerful enough to get through the instructor's defense.

"In that case...<Secondary Manifestation: Foot Rockets>!"

Red energy wrapped around his feet in the shape of boots, and flames began sprouting out from below, and he started to fly up. He flew till he was above the instructor and hovered there, before raining down another barrage of arrows, this time with a bit more force since firing downwards meant that the momentum would only keep increasing.

Cracks began to appear in the instructor's defense, he responded by blasting out a large fireball and springing away, a couple of the arrows grazing his shoulders and chest as he let down his defense in order to counter. Alex dodged the fireball and continued launching his arrows, while the instructor was busy evading at top speed and countering with his fireballs.

Instructor Satou was on the defensive, but wasn't getting overwhelmed, thanks to his agile evasion and accurate fireball counterattacks. Meanwhile, Alex was in no danger of getting hit by the fireballs, having enough time to see them coming, but it looks like his accuracy decreases when he isn't firing from a fixed position. In other words, this was a stalemate, and it didn't take long for the instructor to realize that too...

"Okay, that's enough, I won't waste time stuck in a stupid battle of attrition. Who wants to go next?" He inquired, as Alex hovered back down and deactivated his Manifestations as he reached the ground.

The next person to volunteer stood up and stepped forward with a cocky and excited look on his face. Taayin Sharma, he placed thirtieth in the first stage of the entrance exam, I remember that because he was the only person who had placed below twenty-fifth in the first stage but still passed the second stage, beating the person who placed third in order to do so, the next lowest-ranked from the first stage to pass was Bytra, who placed twenty-fourth.

This guy kinda gave me the creeps. He had medium-length dark blue hair with light pink eyes, his hair was parted from the middle of his forehead and wore a black headband. He had a darkish complexion and a vertical scar down his left eye. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves halfway ripped off around his biceps, with dark purple trousers and shoes. And his expression sent chills down my spine...he had that crazy-eyed look on his face.

"Hey, instructor...do I have to use Phantom Mode? See, my Secondary Manifestation is useless in Phantom Mode, and more importantly...its just no fun that way," He remarked with a smirk, as he approached the instructor.

"Wait, are you the kid whose restriction collar somehow malfunctioned during the second stage and you nearly ended up killing your opponent? Hm, I'm starting to think that the apparent malfunction was no accident...word to the wise, reign in that violent streak, kid."

"Heh, I have no idea what you're talking about. After all, there's no evidence that I tampered with my collar back then, and you know what they say...innocent until proven guilty."

"You sure are a messed up one, aren't you? Well, truth be told, I couldn't care less whether or not you did that deliberately...but I should warn you, if you try that against me...I'll absolutely destroy you, understand?" Remarked the instructor, his voice turning serious and cold towards the end.

"Like I said, sir...I have no idea what you're talking about. <Primary Manifestation: Finger-Blades>!"

Black energy extended out from his fingertips, curving slightly towards the end...it was like each of his fingers had sharp, six-inch claws growing out of them. What's more, it was black in hue, meaning that he had the Dark Attribute, just like I did.

"Alright, let's get this over with...come at me," Sighed Instructor Satou, clicking his pincers a couple of times.

A wide smirk spread out on Taayin's lips, before he shot forward rapidly, sprinting towards the instructor. What's with his movements...?

He reached the instructor and unleashed a couple of slashes, then suddenly ducked and swiped at his knees, the instructor blocked his strikes with his pincers and swiftly backed away, but Taayin was right on his tail, giving him no room to get any distance.

He was fast, but it wasn't like his speed was greater than anyone else I'd seen so far, in fact I'd say that he was slower that Zoya was...but there was more to him, his fighting style was different to anything I'd ever seen before. He reflexes were insane, and his movements were animalistically unorthodox, he moved like a feral beast, almost purely on instinct. But that wasn't all, he was also ridiculously good at premeditating and predicting his opponent's movements, almost like he knew what they would do before they themselves did.

He was the type who didn't simply enjoy fighting, he absolutely lived for it. He swung his left claws at the instructor's head, who blocked it using his right pincer, bringing his right forearm in front of the side of his head. In a swift, fluid motion, Taayin ran his claws down along the length of the pincer and slashed across the instructor's side, who just about managed to spring away to the right and reduce the impact to simply getting grazed.

The moment he sprang away, Taayin followed him with a rapid shuffle of his feet, pouncing on him while he was still off-balance and pinning him down. With a wide, sadistic grin, he balled his fists together and raised them, but before he could slam them down, the instructor wrapped his legs around his waist and flipped their positions over, swiftly grabbing hold of Taayin's wrists and holding him down.

"I think we'll wrap this up now," The instructor sighed in relief, letting him go.

"Ahh, I almost had you just then!" Laughed Taayin, jumping to his feet, showing no signs of frustration.

He didn't care about winning or losing, he just wanted the thrill of it...creepy. I should stay away from that guy.

Before the next person could volunteer...

"Let's continue after another break, as for how long it is...well, let's just say that I'll decide when I feel like it," Yawned the instructor, sitting down with his back against the wall.

It hadn't been that long since the last break, if I had to guess, he was probably just trying to calm himself down after that last bout, he'd definitely been caught off-guard by Taayin's dynamic and unpredictable fighting style. We were just under a third of the way done with this...five bouts so far, eleven more to go...

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