“Alright, kids, playtime’s over,” The Instructor separated the two.

  Professor Fergus Ursain was the freshmen and sophomore’s combat instructor. Rinna had arrived with him in time. Avryn held onto his hand, it was still stinging from coming full force into Fergus’s metal hand.

  The instructor turned to Weylen and gave him a scolding. They were mercenaries-in-training, and he had broken the very first tenet: Never harm a comrade. Weylen stood there, miserable. He held his tongue but his temper rose within him. He then turned to Avryn and asked why he interfered.

  It was an easy answer. He didn’t condoned abuse of power, it was simple as that. Fergus raised his eyebrow from that and grunted,

  “Hero-type, huh,” He murmured.

  “No, just a Not-fan-of-bullies-type,” Avryn puffed out his chest.

  Fergus stared at the crowd. They got the message and went back into their business. The hallway was cleared within minutes.

  “Feels like I’m running a kiddie daycare, here. Thought we’re all grown men and women,” He complained.

  An idea popped up in his head. He proposed an idea. Since they caused such a scene today, they would make up for it in tomorrow’s combat class. This was the way he was taught. He had them promise to settle the dispute, no matter the result. They were both fine with it.

  “You better prepare yourself, freshman,” Weylen antagonized him.

  Avryn replied with a smile, and nodded. It felt like a burden was lifted off Fergus’s shoulders. He dismissed them both by telling them to scram. He returned to the faculty building.

  Rinna scolded Avryn for his actions, it was rash. Avryn refuted, stating that he simply couldn’t stand idly by with that happening. He cited his long time problem with a certain type of people in authority. Tvira chimed in, she respected that kind of sentiment.

  Avryn’s squad went ahead and continued their joint training session, albeit they started late thanks to Avryn. He explained to the rest afterwards. Leifren and Kiria agreed with Rinna, while Harver backed up Avryn. There was no harm done, Avryn planned to deal with it. The rest wished him luck.

  Avryn entered combat class. He looked around and saw it was a bigger crowd than usual. There were all kinds of students in a quick glance. Instructor Fergus beckoned him forward. Weylen was already in the center, waiting. Harver was among the audience and gave Avryn a quick pat on the back.

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  “Show him how it’s done,” He encouraged Avryn.

  Fergus had Avryn stand opposite from Weylen and laid down the rules: full-contact sparring, continue until the instructor deemed a stoppage was necessary.

  “And the most important thing: put on a show,” He gestured to the audience.

  He pointed out the crowd was a mix of all students from first year to fourth year. It was the same exact crowd from yesterday. They owed it to them for disrupting the daily ongoings. He turned to them and introduce the fighters today.

  Avryn was eyeing Weylen while the introductions were happening. He was equipped with claw gauntlets. He lived up to that Wildcat nickname.

  “And to my left, the freshman, Avryn Starbright,” Fergus gestured.

  Wraps were unravelled. Avryn settled for the gunblade. This intrigued the crowd, knowing the whole incident during the opening ceremonies involving him. Whispers filled the room,

  “That’s Sir Iver’s weapon, isn’t it?” One asked.

  Leandros’s curiosity was piqued. This was the closest he ever saw the knight’s weapon. He thought to himself,

  “So, this freshman owns it now. Interesting…”

  Weylen wasn’t intimidated and got some few practice punches. He had been waiting for this. Fergus held up his hand,

  “Ready?” He exclaimed.

  “Alright, Lerosa, let’s put on a show,” Avryn whispered to it.

  A nod from the two fighters led to the official start to the fight. Weylen rushed up and started his flurry of attacks. One swipe got through Avryn’s defenses and grazed him on the cheek. They were caught in a bind. The gunblade was caught in between both the gauntlets’ claws.

  Avryn kicked and wrestled the gunblade into position. He had the barrel pointed to Weylen while he was avoiding the claws. Avryn focused back onto defense. Weylen had better mobility. He grabbed the gunblade, wrestled it away, and started punching,

  It was awkward, he was forced into a reverse grip to block. He caught one punch and headbutted Weylen away. He followed up and uses the recoil from the gun blast to overwhelm his blocking. Avryn pointed the sword slightly up. The gun came down with the speed of sound, the shot accelerated it, slashing Weylen’s chest.

  The Wildcat raged and forced himself through, stabbing his claw into Avryn’s upper arm. It was searing, that pain. That was at least three holes forcefully made in the bicep area. Pain was a familiar feeling to Avryn. He bent his arm and shot another time. The bullet pierced through Weylen’s shoulder.

  Blood had painted the floors of the room. The other students were getting concerned. Fergus still had his arms crossed, and continued surveying the fight. One thing was clear: the next blows would finish it. Avryn had stood up, holding on to his injured arm. His fingers let slip the gunblade, they couldn’t hold anymore.

  “Damn it all, you’re one tough son of a…” Weylen’s voiced trailed off.

  Another wave of pain passed through him. He put pressure on the shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding. Blood trickled down his shaking arm. Avryn’s was also shaking but his face expressed he wasn’t affected as much. He had entered a state of deep focus. Sounds began to muffle around, only his breathing was clear.

  One hook landed square across Weylen’s face. He was rocked. His legs started to wobble. He attempted a counter attack but was parried by an uppercut from Avryn. The sophomore finally buckled and fell on his back.

  “And that’s the two I owed you,” Avryn lowered his fists.

  “Alright, that was a decent show,” Fergus applauded.

  He officially stopped the fight and declared Avryn the winner. He grabbed something from his pocket and administered magic crystals on the both of them. Its healing properties fixed up all their wounds.

  Avryn helped Weylen back up. They shared one look. It was all they needed to do to reach an understanding. Respect was earned in that moment.

  “You know what, maybe I was wrong,” He begrudgingly told Avryn.

  “All I want is for you to stop picking on people,” Avryn gestured to the victim. “Especially those you see as weak.”

  Weylen looked to the freshman he bullied yesterday. He looked back at Avryn and nodded.

  “Guess you’re right. We have an understanding,” Weylen assured.

  “Good. I believe you owe someone an apology,” He gave way.

  The now former bully and his victim made amends. Fergus stopped the two from going further.

  “Oh, before you two go, I need you to clean up all that mess,” He pointed to the blood puddles.

  Weylen didn’t complained and went straight into it. He couldn’t afford to let the freshman one-up him in that regard. Rinna just shook her head at Avryn. He was scratching his head and relented. The two ended up discussing a few topics as they cleaned the room.