First Step [8]

"Let's spar. Let me see you back those words of yours up as proof of your conviction."

Our teacher's arms were no longer crossed as he took a couple of large strides away from the group and further out onto the field where a rack filled with an assortment of weapons was conveniently placed.

From it, he grabbed a simple metal sword and swung it a couple of times, making the air whistle around it, before turning back to me with a cold stare.

"My original plan was for you to spar with each other anyway so this will make for a good demonstration. Or at least it should, if Mr. Flowers here can prove that he isn't all talk."

'Oh, he knows my name as well? What a diligent teacher! Though, that being said...'

I had seen his small warm-up all too clearly thanks to my Temporal Synapses, but it still took a bit for something very obvious to dawn on me.

'That's a fucking sword!'

My brain had somehow managed to completely ignore the fact that a large weapon rack was placed on the training field, very likely as a way to repress reality. Now, however, that reality hit me with full force.

'How am I going to fight against a sword without dying?! I'm going to die! My champion's walk is going to end before I even start walking!'

I had no issues getting beat up and losing a fight but imagining getting my body sliced into pieces... was on another level of violence that I wasn't used to.

'Then again, I didn't have all that many chances to fight on Earth either...'

Truth be told, my fighting experience was very limited. I did have some sparring sessions while I was trying to become a boxer, but most of them ended rather quickly as my body was simply too weak to endure them. But back then I would never back down just because I was afraid.

'I'm still pretty pathetic, aren't I...?'

Clenching my fists, I looked up at the clear blue sky above us and thought back as to why I was here in the first place.

"Fueee..."

Taking a deep breath, I forced my nerves to calm down and took a step forward toward my new teacher. My eyes landed on his as I tried my best to remember the basics of my father's teachings, preparing myself for the fight that I had brought upon myself.

"-Wait, he is actually going?!"

"-Is he insane?! Sparring against the teacher on the first day? Does he have a death wish?!"

Ignoring the voices of my classmates behind me, I arrived before my teacher and waited for his instructions.

Funnily enough, my teacher had quite a surprised expression, showing that he didn't think that I would accept the spar.

It didn't take more than a second, however, before his face changed, now wearing an almost invisible smile, something that probably only I was close enough to see.

"You've got some courage at least. That's good. Now, choose a weapon and we will begin. And don't worry, I will not inflict any serious on your body. It's just a spar after all."

'How can you call it just a spar when you have a sword in your hand...?'

Pushing back the dark thoughts once again, knowing that they would just get in the way, I shook my head to the teacher's exhortation.

Instead, I simply raised my fists.

"I don't want a weapon."

A brow was raised on our teacher's face, but other than that, he didn't seem to care all that much about my choice. After all, he still had a class to teach, as he turned to my classmates and continued our lecture.

"Alright. Then, everyone, I will now explain how spars work at the academy. First of all, spars are not allowed if you do not have both an instructor's permission as well as an instructor's surveillance. Secondly, during spars, you are not allowed to aim for vital spots unless you do 'touch-sparring'".

Touch-sparring wasn't something new to me as it was quite common in boxing. More or less it meant that instead of throwing actual punches at each other, one would stop their punch right as it touches the opponent. In other words, it was a way to spar and practice techniques without any real danger as long as both participants had a clear head and were skilled enough to not make a mistake.

"Most of you are probably familiar with these two rules if you come from a preparatory school but know this..."

A sword was suddenly pointed at and although it looked quite sharp, it was still not as sharp as the two eyes that had set their sights on me.

"... death is not an uncommon side effect of sparring here."

Silence settled in around us, with none of us saying a word as the sun kept us warm with its harsh light.

'There are no more words that we need to say, I guess.'

Taking off the uniform jacket and throwing it on the ground, I rolled up the sleeves of my white shirt and prepared myself for my first fight in this world.

I had no idea how to fight against someone wielding a sword, and as I had never been able to learn any real footwork or fancy boxing techniques due to my health condition, I knew that believing in victory was farfetched.

'But I would rather foolishly believe in victory rather than accept defeat before giving it my all!'

Once again I raised my fists, the symbols and source of my hope, as well as my desperation and angst.

And as I did, I slowly felt my blood heating up again, just like it had done when the goddess forcibly circulated my mana or like when I had seen Cerus up on the stage.

Now there was just one thing I had to do before I was completely ready to fight.

"What is your name, teacher?"

...

'Hmm?'

For some reason, my teacher's eyes went dark and the veins on his forearms became even more visible as his sword began to shake a bit. I thought I could hear some slight gasps and giggles from my classmates behind me, but I was too focused on the matter at hand to spend any mental capacity on it.

"My... name?"

"Yeah, your name. I don't want to fight someone I don't know the name of."

At this point, his whole body was shaking, and although I acknowledged that it was clearly due to anger, I had no idea what he was angry about. Then, it happened. A small twitch in his leg, his right pecs activating, and his bicep growing a size bigger. 

"You... you stupid brat!"

The gravel beneath his feet was crushed as my teacher could no longer withhold his rage.

'What?! Wait!'

But it was already too late. Despite everything moving slowly, I was still not able to stop my teacher from taking a step forward, swinging his sword with a speed that I couldn't believe was produced by another human. 

An overhead swing, coming straight towards my face, ready to split my entire body in two with the force his strong body could produce. And as his sword moved closed, time appeared to slow down even more for me. If things had moved in slow motion before, they now appeared to move in ultra-slow motion. 

Yet, I couldn't move. Because my body also moved equally as slowly. No, my body moved a lot slower than his, likely due to the large difference in specs. A fact that made me more and more frustrated for every nanosecond that passed. 

'Move... move... move!'

My body heated up even more, making me feel as if my entire nervous system was on fire. At this point, there were no thoughts of footwork, there was only a desperate cry for any movement at all that could get me out of this situation. 

'Move! Move! Move!'

The blade was inching closer and closer, and the voice inside my head only grew more desperate. 

'Move! MOVE! MOOOOVE!'

And finally, I moved. 

It was just unfortunate that I tripped forward. 

****

[Teacher's POV]

Seeing the youth in front of me standing completely still in fear as I swung my blade, I couldn't help but feel a bit content as I got the chance to teach him a valuable lesson. Being confident wasn't necessarily bad, but without the power to back that confidence up, it amounted to nothing. 

Honestly, I did get a bit aggravated when he didn't even remember my name, but looking at the way he wasn't even able to move, the surprise attack likely didn't matter at all. A weakling was always a weakling, after all. 

'Hopefully, he learns from this and works hard to become stronger. But... it's strange... His eyes...'

Although I felt pretty good about the situation as a whole, there was still one thing that gave me a bit of an eerie feeling. A weakling was always a weakling, but, for some reason, his eyes had never wavered, not even for a fraction of a second. 

His eyes didn't resemble the eyes of someone who was about to get his head split in two. No, they continued to seemingly analyze my actions, as if sucking every inch of light in to make sure he didn't miss even a singular, minuscule movement my body made. 

'But it's already too late!'

With that thought, I prepared myself to stop my blade as close to Ray as possible, to make sure I could give him the harshest wake-up call I could. Naturally, I had never had any thoughts about hurting him for real. However... then something strange happened. 

Ray moved, and he moved in a way that I had never seen an enemy move before. Because he moved forward, no, he fell forward straight into the blade that I could no longer stop. This would be his deathbed. 

'Fuck!'

Just as I was visualizing explaining the blood bath to the vice principal, Ray's body shifted to the right, a movement containing the entirety of his body weight, and somehow, a split second later... he was now standing beside my sword, his back straight and his gaze indifferent. 

'...he dodged it.'

Worse than that, however, was the fact that his eyes were still staring straight at me, their dark shine appearing as if they were swallowing everything they came across whole.