บท 10: Sparring
Today was the day the eighth generation would begin sparring with each other. Everyone had spent the past week giving it their all, learning to fight with the aid of the Helpers. Even Thirteen, who was originally apprehensive at the idea of fighting his friends had grown excited.
However, Chores, Breakfast, Theory Hall, Lunch, and Cultivation Hall still had to be completed before Combat Training in the afternoon. 'I feel like today is moving even slower than the day we were getting our cultivation manuals.' Thirteen thought to himself.
When the afternoon finally made itself known, the children almost ran to the clearing outside for Combat Training. There, they split into four groups, as per usual, with Thirteen and his friends gathering before Instructor Diores.
"8-11. 8-29. I want the two of you to follow me back here." Instructor Diores ordered as he began walking backwards, away from the group.
Lining the two students up in front of each other, he turned his eyes to the larger group.
"We will showcase the first few fights as I set the ground rules for sparring. Once I'm sure you have all understood how this works, I will split you all into your own pairs to spar."
Returning his eyes to the two boys in front of him, Diores continued "Use only what you've been taught. If someone loses control, he is disqualified. If you show malicious intent, you will be punished. If you are excessive to the point of serious injury, you will be punished. You may hit wherever on the body, but attempts to blind or cripple will not be tolerated. Since none of you know how to fight on the ground, dropping means you lose.
Now then, when you're ready, announce your attribute and bow to your opponent to begin."
"Eleven, Agility"
"Twenty-nine, Strength"
As the two bowed to each other, they then both stepped back at once, neither going on the offensive.
Twenty-nine intentionally made himself look big, as he tried to fake out Eleven, the latter of which wasn't having any of it as he waited patiently. Eventually, Twenty-nine stepped forward heavily, looking to throw a punch, but then tried to fool Eleven by feinting, and bringing up a side kick instead.
Unfortunately, while he loved the 'idea' of feinting, twenty-nine didn't have a real grasp of how to pull it off, and his feinted punch and side kick merely interfered with each other, leading to a weak, unbalanced execution that Eleven took advantage of.
Stepping in close to the larger twenty-nine, Eleven kept low, avoiding the kick and placing his shoulder just under twenty-nine's leg. Suddenly standing up, Eleven pushed the attacking leg upwards, ruining Twenty-nines already fragile balance, and punched him in the sternum as he fell to the ground with a thud.
*Whistle* "That's enough." Instructor Diores interjected. "Eleven, It's your win this time, you did good in making the most of his mistakes but you can't always be defensive. In a more experienced fight momentum is important, and you can be easily overwhelmed while thinking that you'll bide your time and control your foe."
"I understand Instructor"
The Instructor then turned his attention to Twenty-nine as he helped him up "As for you Twenty-nine, sparring is certainly the time to try out new things, but you lack awareness of your own body and you didn't consider how your opponents attribute would play into the fight. An agility meta will always have the advantage of speed, if you don't want to let them make the most of it, then stick to basic maneuvers and keep them overwhelmed. Don't give them the opportunity to strike by performing risky techniques, especially if you've yet to truly grasp their workings."
"Okay, I get it." While Twenty-nines words came out somewhat brash, his expression was serious and he obviously valued the Instructors advice. Comparatively, It seemed Eleven didn't pay it much heed and returned to the group with his head in the clouds.
Soon after, instructor Diores called up two more sets of students to spar one after another, and then, happy that the children had understood how he wanted them to act, he began reading off names of sparring partners and sending the pairs off to spar by themselves. Every pair had their respective helpers watching. In Thirteen's case, this meant Melia.
Standing in an open area, the one before him was the same Twenty-nine from earlier.
Bowing to his opponent, Thirteen recited his name and attribute.
"Thirteen, Healing"
"Twenty-nine, Strength"
As they both straightened their postures and made eye contact, Thirteen made to raise his hands and ready himself to attack, but the moment he did, Twenty-nine was already closing in on him. The boy had a longer reach than Thirteen, and within the second was hurling a right fist towards Thirteen's face.
Thirteen instinctively guarded. As the fist made contact with his forearm, his guard was forced back, and the punch slid off to the side, making contact with Thirteen's left cheek.
Thirteen was amazed by the power held in that fist, as it sent him reeling in an instant, small colorful dots filling his vision as panic and dread rushed out from some place in the back of his mind to fill all his thoughts.
As thirteen's choppy vision witnessed a left fist tucked low on a collision course with his hip, fight or flight kicked in like he'd never felt it do so before.
Kicking out with his left leg, he disrupted the stance of Twenty-nine, and bringing in his left shoulder, rammed into him, before pushing Twenty-nine away by the chest and bringing his right fist down on his opponents face with all he had.
It wasn't a perfect hit, it couldn't even be considered a good one as his posture was off and it didn't have much strength backing it, but it was enough to shock Twenty-nine and put space between them.
Somewhere in that flurry of movement, Twenty-nines left fist did make contact with Thirteen's hip, he could feel the pain now, but it was certainly weaker than it would have been if he hadn't acted.
As the two each took a small breather to collect their wits about them, Thirteen felt his pain numbing. 'Of course! Healing! I just need to drag this fight out.'
Twenty-nine on the other hand was wondering what had just happened. 'I was sure I had taken the momentum like Instructor Diore had said. Does it change that quickly? Not good, I shouldn't let him recover.'
Twenty-nine advanced on thirteen once more, slowly at first, until he realized thirteen was backing away, at which point he sped up.
No matter what, Thirteen didn't let his opponent get within striking range. He knew that his own range was much shorter, and that any hit from a strength meta wasn't something he could tolerate easily. At this, an idea began to form.
Thirteen kept moving backwards, faster and faster, as twenty-nine continued to chase, both still with their guards up, until suddenly and without warning, Thirteen stopped his retreat, lowered his stance and dashed towards his foe as quickly as he could. He moved directly past Twenty-nines striking range, and reached his own. Stomping on the grass hard, he utilized his whole body, feeling his muscles shift and move in accordance with the daily routines, he brought a left hook up as swiftly as he was able, aiming for the tip of the chin. This wasn't something he was taught, but rather something he had experienced before in his spars with Melia.
Twenty-nine panicked, he stopped hard and reeled back to avoid the fist, which he did to some extent, but even as a grazing blow, the rocking power of that fist, along with all the inertia of twenty-nines own movement, sent his chin shooting upwards, as he felt like he had just hit the ground from a 30 foot drop.
Thirteen could tell, this wouldn't drop twenty-nine, the blow didn't land well enough. But that was fine. Bringing his left arm down as quickly as he could, thirteen began to treat the stunned twenty-nines body like the dummies in practice, throwing one short, powerful punch to the gut after another. One, two, three. Twenty-nine let out sounds of pain and exhalation, but did not drop as he begun trying to struggle against the onslaught
Thirteen grew scared. He had done so much, surely he would be in for it if twenty-nine recovered. He had to end it now. Sweeping with his right foot , he tried to trip his foe, but as Twenty-nine's foot was swept from under him, the boy grabbed thirteen's collar, and with a spin as he fell to the ground, he threw thirteen to the soil below.
*Bam*
*Thud*
Thirteen's chin hurt.
Opening his eyes, he was grass before him. Twenty-nine, while falling had managed to throw Thirteen to the ground just before his own descent.
*groooaan*
Thirteen heard his sparring partner groan in pain beside him. Pulling himself to his feet, he extended a hand and pulled Twenty-nine to his feet, only now realising how fatigued he felt.
As Twenty-nine looked at the younger kid before him, who was helping him to his feet, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. But he had learnt a lot from this one fight, and he was sure the child before him was the same.
With one hand clutching his own gut, where he'd been hit repeatedly, he extended his right towards Thirteen, as a handshake.
Thirteen, slightly taken aback, looked up the smiling Twenty-nine. That smile seemed infectious as Thirteen shook his hand, a big grin of his own plastered on his face.
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