Gathering Acquaintances

The tall boy groaned at Julie's comment but forced himself to his feet. Julie stepped back to let her opponent get his bearings as if completely unfazed by the idea of continuing the fight. "I will make sure you regret belittling me." As he spoke took another simple fighting stance, but the ferocity in his eyes and his tightened grip on his weapons showcased the seriousness he now held for the fight. Neither stepped forward for a few long seconds before Bennet shifted lower and pushed off the ground in a leap that was far greater than one would think he could perform.He covered the distance between them in a single bound, making it obvious that he had used some type of mana manipulation to strengthen his legs prior to the leap. He swung his axes at her from both overhead and in an underhand sing while still in the air as she entered within his reach. To his dismay however the target of his blow seemed to dance out of the way of his blow with and elegant spin. As if a choreographed dance she had ended up behind the taller boy, the shaft of her spear slipping in front of his front ankle from behind just as he landed.The boy's forward momentum from the jump carried him forward, ultimately causing him to trip and land into the roll he had failed the first time. He rolled into an upright position, sliding forward with the remainder of his momentum as he both tried to stop and turn around. Despite his efforts Julie had decided that she was done having fun with the fight, growing bored of the buffoon in front of her. She accelerated forward in a quick dash before using the momentum and the torque of her core to punch the boy in the stomach with a fair amount of her strength as he turned around. Her goal to simply knock him out but not cause serious injury.Her plan was successful, the blow landing squarely on his stomach before he could react. He found himself curling forward from the core, all the air in his lungs blown out like he had been stuck by a hammer swung by a master blacksmith. His lungs screamed for the air that had been lost but he couldn't seem to take the needed breath, his vision fading to black. Julie looked down at him, her cruel smile dimming with the interest in her eyes. She had thought that perhaps the boy had understood what he was getting into and challenged her with that knowledge. It seemed that he was just an overconfident idiot.She returned to her unit, specifically approaching Jien and the two leaders of the other units. Carmichael gave her an appraising look before turning his attention back to Jien, while Rebecca seemed to be truly enamored by the fight, moving to intercept Julie before she could approach the two boys, her eyes all but shining with what could be seen as reverence. Seeing this Jien simply turned his attention back to the blonde boy before him."I am assuming that you want a match with our unit?" The words were calm and casual, as if talking about the weather. "We would be happy to accept but we were about to grab a lunch first. If you would like you are free to join us. After we finish we were going to begin finding some other units to spar with anyway." That comment seemed to brighten the boy's expression as he first nodded enthusiastically before rushing back to his own unit.It was only minute or two before the one-armed boy returned with nine other teenagers, each missing a single arm. Jien had seen a similar group at the entrance the other day when entering the academy but had no idea why there were so many walking around without an arm. It wasn't even that all of them were missing the same arm, some were missing their right while a few their left. Still Jien wasn't sure what to think of it, other than feeling that perhaps it was a taboo topic. Of course, this didn't stop his teammate's eyes from gazing at the location of the missing appendages from time to time. Even if they knew it to be rude, they just couldn't help themselves.Shortly after the first group of ten walked over the girl with blue ribbons in her hair, Rebecca, motioned over to her own unit of ten members. Jien gave Julie a quick glance and saw her give a slight shrug in response. It seemed that they would have another group joining them for their meal and possibly a match or two after. The last to arrive was the group of thuggish looking individuals, a larger boy holding Bennet up as they came closer. They were hesitant but the lanky leader was glaring at Julie with a fire in his gaze. "I ain't letting you escape just like that. I will beat you into the dirt with the rest of my team!" he asserted with a fierceness not matched by his half-hunched posture in the slightest.