War and Survival

Morgen charged foward, his blue fist aimed purposefully for what seemed like a powerful jab. He was a warrior, and a proud one at that. He had faced a number of attacks, to and for his Tribe, and so he was confident, believing he was ready for anything.

Kanima watched, her eyes never closing for a second; like a Fish. She stood motionless as she waited for the anticipated attack. Her actions to her spectating classmates, were seen as one made due to fear, but no one appeared to judge her.

'Poor thing, she must have never been in a fight before' the students surmised.

Morgen, now approaching, struck down, his fist rapidly moving towards her. His right fist descended like a death hammer, intending to crash upon her head with devastating momentum.

She sidestepped to her right; ducking, just when the fist was a hairsbreadth away from her face.

Quickly, like a piece of elastic, she raised her knee, slamming it horrendously onto his chest.

Morgen staggered back as blood seeped out from his mouth.

Kanima once again kicked backwards, moving a distance of about twelve metres away from Morgen. She had to, she had not yet completed the circulation of her Flores. While Morgen on the other hand was nearly done with his.

Morgen turned towards his opponent, not wanting to give her a chance to manifest her Flores, he leaped after her as a flash of bright blue light trailing silently from behind, he landed eloquently before her.

Due to Kanima's incomplete circulation of her Flores, Morgen turned out to be both faster and stronger than her.

"Cut me some slack, can't you see that I'm not yet done with mine?", she asked, her tone of voice expressing her new found wariness.

Morgen grunted a reply, walking steadily towards her, "I don't know what plans you have; slowing down your Flores circulation like that, I don't plan on giving chances especially to one from the Tarykar Faith Tribe".

–Xenophobia.– That was one of the major problems faced across all the Faith Nations and Tribes in the World. And Morgen who's Faith Tribe happened to be neighbors to the Tarykars, and therefore had to attack and to be attacked by them.

Their hatred although uncalled for was understandable. And Eloth, standing within the semicircle of the students, narrowed his eyes as he watched.

Morgen punched foward ruthlessly, this time faster, he sent the punch towards her Solar Plexus.

And like a ninja, she leaned to her her left, turning first, before swiveling to his back. She dodged beautifully.

The students watching her erupted into cheers, 'She has not fought before but she had excellent reaction time', They believed once again.

Kanima, quickly, with the new found opportunity, dealt quick jabs to Morgen's exposed back. She did it subtly, to locations of counterbalance.

And Morgen, being hot-headed took no notice of this, he spun around while flinging his arms, sending her backwards.

He tried to think, he had a full minute till his Flores circulation was complete. It was a side effect of one's Tribe having a low PL, and because of the tribe of Tarykar had recently raised their PL level, letting Kanima succeed in any of her plans concerning her Flores; would prove exceedingly disastrous.

'I need to work faster!!' he urged himself. 'The best way to defeat her is if I beat her before her plans are carried out'.

His actions soon seemed to become faster, more reckless, ad he appeared to act without thought.

"What is he doing?" a spectating student asked, he was short, almost dwarfish, with long brown hair and small,beady eyes. He looked comical with the quizzical expression plastered all over his face. His name was Drey, Drey Iguas.

The question seemed to ignite something within Ikem, who sat alone at the back of the class, watching, trying to unravel the underlying meaning of Kanima's actions. Throughout the past week, during the times when they had these minor exams, Ikem had silently absorbed the knowledge of the fighting skills of his classmates. Though he couldn't fight well enough himself, he tried learning and incorporating their arts and styles into methods that would seem to both fit and be useful for him.

And he felt he could learn something from Kanima's actions.

Kanima seemed to move like a fairy, dodging each attacks before or during when they struck. Her movements became blurry and even more fictual, uncannily matching the speed at which Morgen attacked.

She had the makings of an ancient bullfighter. And even more so of that of a glorious gladiator.

Some of students pondered on how she was able to match the speed Morgen, who they knew was using a greater percentage of Flores than her.

Some of the others argued that it was due to PL balancing, some disputed that it was due to the power of her Overseeing Deity.

The problem with this theory was; that her Deity 'Harnikar of the violent' was believed by them to be a violent deity and that she was supposed to charge head-on to any confrontation. Except that this was the Class Unique.

"How in Paths name are you moving like that, how can you dodge this?", He asked, beads of sweat cascading down his face, each illuminated by his glowing blue body.

Although a warrior, he, just like most of the captured students had never gotten the chance to study the in-depth theory of PL.

His chest heaved with exertion as he moved, time seemed to move slowly as his countdown; from Sixty to Zero was currently reading: 37. 'Damn it, damn it, gods damn it!!!'. He screamed mentally.

And then, for the first time since the fight began, he went for a feint. Such actions weren't expected as the chosen of the Eight Immortal, but desperation had pushed his hand.

He moved back, and then with full force, he raised his right arm up high, his fist set for a powerful downward hook.

Kanima had begun moving, she moved according to her anticipation of the attack.

He sidestepped, suddenly whipping his left foot towards her stomach.

Yet, she dodged. Her actions were unclear to the students watching, her motions blurry, as she appeared to zip away, through the air.

Morgen's foot had missed, hitting nothing but air. His eyes widened in surprise as he momentarily lost control of his still moving body. He couldn't catch himself.

Time seemed to stand still as he moved in slow motion.

The only one that appeared unbothered, and happened to move quickly was the patient Kanima, who appeared behind him.

Her leg moved upwards, gracefully sauntering through the air; glowing a bright silver light, the instep of her foot struck Morgen's nape.

Morgen lost balance; as he was still on one leg. Spitting out blood, he fell, tumbling heavily towards the ground.

Kanima looked down at him silently, her limbs aglow with a bright silver radiance.

She was almost ready, at that moment she had picked up the pace in the circulation of her Flores.

Morgen picked himself up from the floor with an audible growl.

"Lucky shot" he muttered from under his breadth.

It was clear to the class that round two was about to start.