Chapter Text
“Today we’re going to be doing something different,” Karter announced.
Bear shared a significant look with Jordan. His best friend only offered a cocky grin, waggling his eyebrows. That was entirely unhelpful. He returned his gaze to the arena, searching for any clues for whatever Karter had planned for the next two hours. The only indication seemed to be a large crate of practise swords, situated to the side of the fighting rings.
”There’s only so much your abilities can be challenged when you’re fighting classmates of the same Potential level,” Karter continued gruffly. “It’s better that you get this sort of opportunity now, rather than somewhere down the line in a life-or-death situation.”
Bear’s classmates all wore the same baffled expression that he did, glancing speculatively between each other.
“Thankfully, you dunderheads aren’t my top contenders,” the Combat instructor barked, “and your peers in my Epsilon class have very kindly volunteered their time.”
Bear and Jordan glanced at each other again, this time with much more excitement than the first. Their other classmates began to whisper and hiss among themselves, but they weren’t kept waiting much longer; the doors to the arena rolled back, admitting five older male students and one female student who was all too familiar.
Alex stuck out her tongue in their direction as the Epsilon kids made their way confidently over to where the Delta class was benched. She must have already known about this — her hands were already wrapped for fighting, her hair was braided out of her face, she’d taken off all her jewellery and she was wearing her favourite baggy exercise pants under her winter parka.
“Can’t believe she didn’t tell us about this,” Jordan grumbled, subtly flipping her off when Karter wasn’t looking.
“She probably thinks it’s funny,” Bear retorted.
Alex grinned cheekily; she’d undoubtedly heard them, knowing her heightened Meyarin senses. She definitely seemed to think it was a total laugh. Bear’s gaze wandered over the faces of her other classmates, even though he was familiar enough with the Epsilon class. Predictably, she’d walked in with Kaiden James, who was wearing all black and already had a bored expression, unless he was looking at Alex, which was more often than she seemed to realise it. Leading the group were several apprentices: Sebastian Gibbs, Nick Baxter and Brendan Labinsky, all of them beefy and broad-shouldered. Bear’s gaze fell to the flank of the group, where Declan Stirling was hurrying in late, scarfing down a muesli bar. He caught Bear’s wandering gaze and winked.
He swallowed hard, and forced himself to look away.
“These are the academy’s finest when it comes to both armed and unarmed combat,” Karter barked, but he had a strange sort of look in his eye. Bear realised it was pride. It was such a weird realisation, he banished it immediately. “They all have their own unique skill sets and styles, which they’ll demonstrate for you shortly.”
“Do you want us to do that in pairs or trios, sir?” Brendan called.
Karter considered it. “Pairs.” He pointed at the rack of weapons that stood against one of the walls of the arena. “Choose your preferred arms. Take as many as you like, but close range weapons only.”
Bear wasn’t the only one who watched as the Epsilon kids ambled towards the weapons wall. Some stood back and considered their options carefully, like Kaiden and Nick, but Alex and Declan both reached for their choices confidently.
”What do you reckon she’ll use?” Jordan gambled. He lowered his voice. “Something similar to A’enara?”
”I dunno, she’s pretty keen not to get tested for performance-enhancing drugs again,” Bear replied.
Alex stepped back from the weapons rack with several knives and an elegant pair of dual swords, spinning them experimentally. Declan followed her, swinging a halberd. Bear couldn’t fathom the kind of skill or coordination it had to take, wielding that sort of a weapon. They seemed to be bickering about something as they made their way back over to the benches.
“I’m not pairing you together again,” Karter grunted. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
”We’ll put on a good show for the Delta kids,” Alex offered.
“Yeah,” Declan agreed, “pinky promise I won’t put Alex in the Med Ward again.”
“Hey, that’s only happened twice —“
“Stirling, you’re with Baxter. Jennings, you and James. Gibbs and Labinsky can go after you sorry lot.” Karter rubbed his temples. Evidently, he spent a lot of time dealing with Alex and Declan’s combined antics. Something bubbled up in Bear’s throat; it almost felt like jealousy. He shoved it straight back down. “Before you demonstrate, can you give a description of your fighting styles and why you chose the weapon you did?”
”I’ll go first,” Declan volunteered, stepping forward. “Hey everyone, I’m Declan. I started training in classical martial arts when I was four, and learned combat when I was eleven. I chose this weapon because it looks sick as fuck and Alex bet me I couldn’t win a fight using it —“
”Stirling!”
“Right, so, Alex is next,” Declan waved her forward, but not before he caught Bear’s gaze again.
“I’m Alex,” she chirped.
“Really?” Jordan catcalled.
”I’ll gut you and give your liver to your girlfriend as a late Kaldoras present, Sparky,” she retorted. “Then we’ll all finally get some peace and quiet.” Both the Delta and Epsilon cohorts laughed. “Anyway, I’ve got more of an — acrobatic style, you might say. I’m usually the smallest and weakest in a fight, so I have to find a way around that. I’m using the dual swords because it’s more dramatic, and apparently I’m supposed to be working on fighting left-handed anyway.”
” ‘Acrobatic’ is an interesting synonym for ‘Meyarin’,” Bear quipped under his breath to Jordan.
They went around the rest of the Epsilon cohort, and then Karter made the pairs fight. Declan and Nick went first, who’d chosen a broadsword. Bear was grateful that the rest of his classmates were just as apt with attention, though he hoped he was the only one looking a little too closely at the powerful shift of Declan’s shoulders, the strain of his forearms, the way his chocolate skin gleamed with sweat. The halberd looked similar enough to the staff training that Karter had tortured his classes with, but Bear couldn’t imagine the extra coordination it must have taken to compensate for the top-heavy weapon.
After maybe six minutes of swift parrying, Declan managed to disarm Nick and send the broadsword into the sand with a muted thud. He helped his classmate back to his feet before stepping back and raising the halberd over his head with a whoop.
“Jennings owes me fifty!”
”I do not!” Alex objected from where she stood with the rest of her classmates. “The bet was whether you could beat me in a fight, not Nick!”
Most of the Delta class were laughing as well as applauding, Bear and Jordan amongst them. Bear was still feeling a little dazed when he realised where Jordan’s excited focus had narrowed.
”Can’t wait to watch Alex,” he muttered, his knee bouncing. ”And she’s fighting Kaiden. I hope she does something stupid that we can remind her incessantly about for the next ten years.”
Bear realised Jordan had a point. He’d been so distracted by Declan, he hadn’t even clocked the hilarity of Alex duelling her not-boyfriend-but-also-definitely-not-friend in front of an audience.
Alex and Kaiden assumed their positions on either side of the ring. Kaiden had chosen duel blades as well, but his daggers were maybe half the length of Alex’s swords. It was more military; Bear couldn’t say he was surprised in the least.
“Can I make a request?” Alex intercepted Karter’s whistle to begin.
“No.”
Bear didn’t miss the impish grin she hurled in Kaiden’s direction. Poor guy. ”Can we change the music?”
”No.” Karter repeated, and blew hard into his whistle.
There was no better way to describe it; they simply flew at each other, both aggressively taking the offence to try and force the other onto the defensive. Kaiden’s fighting style was a work of art to watch — precise, opportunistic, merciless — but Alex was a total wild card. Bear knew she wasn’t remotely close to her full potential including Meyarin abilities, but she had enough skill to easily match Kaiden, on top of a total lack of self preservation dressed up as risks with narrow odds. Declan and Nick had been fast fighters, but you couldn’t look away from Alex and Kaiden.
There was also some sexual tension that definitely added to it. Alex didn’t seem to implicate herself in any ways that would promise a very high-pitched conversation with D.C. that evening, but the way that she and Kaiden seemed to be egging each other on — beyond earshot of everyone else of course — was absolutely more than just friendly banter.
Besides him, Jordan was rubbing his temples. “Can they get it over with and just fuck already?”
Bear scrunched his nose. “Ew. Not in front of all of us. Plus, that sand is a total hazard.”
Jordan’s cheeky retort was swallowed by the sympathetic groan of their classmates, when Alex managed to evade Kaiden’s defences and crack the base of her fist into his nose, her hand still fisted around the solid hilt of her sword. She danced out of his range as he staggered with the injury.
”NO BREAKING BONES!” Karter bellowed. “This is meant to be a demonstration! I’m not packing any of you to the Med Ward!”
“She didn’t break any bones,” Kaiden corrected. He didn’t seem too concerned as he pressed his thumb against the side of his nose. “She just drew blood.”
Karter harrumphed and waved for them to continue.
Alex hesitated, and Kaiden took advantage of that, instantly darting through her defences and deftly disarming one of her blades. She squawked at him, and reached for her knives. Bear watched as she brought Kaiden back into her range, kept him at a safe distance with the remaining sword, and then in a blink of an eye dropped the sword and refilled her hands with a fan of knives. She dropped and rolled to his left in a quick twist, narrowly dodged his strike when she sprung up to his feet, and lunged for his back while he was still turning to properly face her.
From behind, she could quickly disarm him with two well-placed hits to Kaiden’s wrists; she moved a little too inhumanly fast, but nobody else was certainly caring as she fisted a rough handful of Kaiden’s dark curls and jerked his head back until his spine curved and his eyes met hers, raising a knife confidently so that its edge kissed his jugular.
Both Bear and Jordan made a point of loudly wolf whistling as everyone else giggled. Karter blasted his whistle again.
“I hope you can see that these two are on the more dramatic side of fighting abilities. Mind you, that’s not an example I expect from any of you runts,” he sighed, eyeing the Delta cohort pointedly, as Alex and Kaiden cleared the ring. He waved on Brendan and Sebastian, but Bear was still watching his best friend.
Alex and Kaiden stood together, slightly apart from their classmates. He seemed to be waving off Alex’s help as he mopped up his nose, but he didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, considering he was unapologetically staring at her with the biggest puppy eyes Bear had ever seen in his life.
“Ugh,” Jordan remarked. “Do you think he’d be looking at her the same way if she didn’t draw blood?”
Bear laughed.
The last fight between Sebastian and Brendan wasn’t quite as exciting to watch, but Bear was more interested in why Karter had bothered showing off his beloved Epsilon cohort. Sure enough, after Brendan successfully forced Sebastian to yield, Karter blew his whistle.
“I’m going to split Delta into pairs. Each pair will take on an Epsilon student each. In theory, this should create some important challenges for all students involved.”
The Delta class whispered in a mix of surprise and apprehension, but the Epsilon cohort didn’t seem fazed at all, taking the cue to head back across the arena and return their weapons to the rack.
Jordan’s hand shot up. “Sir, do we get to call dibs?”
Karter’s gaze flicked suspiciously between Jordan, Bear and Alex. Jordan dug a pointed elbow into Bear’s ribs.
“We’ll behave,” Bear added on a touch of his Charm. His classmates giggled, knowing exactly what he was doing. “No trips to the Med Ward.”
Karter’s eyes glazed over a little. He harrumphed. “Fine. Don’t make me regret this.”
Alex whooped from the other side of the arena.
Ten minutes later, Bear found himself standing in a triangle with Jordan and Alex in one of the fighting rings, each sporting a blunt practise sword and equally devious grins.
“So,” Bear probed. “Are we gonna talk about it?”
“Talk about what?” Alex cocked an eyebrow as she swung her sword into an overhead stance that he recognised as the “Kenobi pose”, which had to be a Freyan reference.
Jordan clearly couldn’t contain himself. “Whatever the hell was going on with Kaiden.”
She rolled her eyes. ”Karter told us to put on a good show. We were just following instructions.”
”Is that what they call it these days?” Bear questioned sarcastically.
”Looked like you were trying to hit,” Jordan added.
”I was trying to hit him. It was a duel.”
”Not the kind I was talking about,” Jordan muttered, before Karter’s whistle blew.