150 Combat Arena

The evening that Jayde transported to the artifact, after her first day at school she found White waiting for her.

"Mr. White," Jayde greeted him coldly as she saw him waiting outside her small cottage, "What can I do for you?"

"Jayde," White nodded curtly, "I am here to collect you for training."

"Oh, really?" Jayde said cocking her eyebrow, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hmm," White said waving his hand he then ported himself and Jayde to a small dojo inside his own personal space.

"What the!" Jayde exclaimed, "I did not agree to this."

"Of course you did, but accepting my assessment, you agreed to be my student."

"Now defend!" White ordered as he launched a series of attacks at her.

With barely enough time, Jayde immediately went on the defense, lifting her arm to defend herself from White's high kick. Seeing a fist coming for her face, she leaned back to avoid.After about ten minutes of exchanging blows, Jayde managed to go onto to the offense.

Launching her own martial attacks, she threw a series of rapid high kicks and punches. Jayde sent a double palm heel blow to both of White's ears, ripping downward along his cheek and collapsing onto his throat; stepping under and inside his flailing arms Jayde shot an elbow upward into his stomach.

Her sharp elbow blow took White off his center causing him to step back slightly; Jayde then rolled into a palm heel strike to White's groin, which he leaped backward to avoid. Dancing forward Jayde then her used her right elbow to smashed into the underside of his chin; while her left arm arched down into another palm heel onto the bridge of his nose. Each of her movements didn't waste any motion; her actions were designed to roll naturally into the next.

White and Jayde carried out their martial dance for nearly an hour. Sweat streamed down Jayde's red face as she panted, trying to catch her breath.

"Enough!" White ordered.

Jayde nearly fell as she stopped her attack at White's order. Her legs were trembling in exhaustion.

"You too weak," White said curtly. "I will see you tomorrow, same time," and with that, he teleported Jayde back to her cottage.

What the fuck, Jayde thought, finding herself back at the door to her cottage. That rude bastard, what the hell was that all about, she grumbled to herself.

***

For the next four days Jayde was very busy spending her whole day at school, and her evenings in her dimensional space within the artifact, each day White would teleport Jayde to the Dojo, and they would spar until Jayde was ready to fall down from exhaustion.

Without realizing it, Jayde was becoming faster, stronger and her martial skills were increasing in leaps and bounds. Many times White would stop their sparing and point out weaknesses in Jayde's attack or defense.

Although Jayde still thought he was the rudest individual she had ever met, she had to admit that when it came to martial skills, he was an expert.

***

On Sixday Jayde had arranged with Nova, Ash, and Raven to meet them after breakfast. Since Sixday was set aside for school social activities, they were all going to have a look at the combat arena.

Jayde had just finished breakfast when someone started knocking frantically on her front door. Walking over Jayde open the door, and was nearly greeted by Nova's fist.

"Whoa," Jayde called out leaning back to avoid Nova's fist.

"Whoops! Sorry," Nova said as a small blush stained his cheeks.

"So you ready?" Nova exclaimed excitedly, as he bounced up and down. Ash reached over and grabbed his boisterous twin by the back of his collar and pulled him away. Jayde couldn't help smiling slightly at Nova, he looked just like an excited puppy.

"What's got you so excited?" she asked curiously.

"Betting!" Raven answered curtly.

"Huh?"

"Ha, don't lie, Raven, it's not betting," Nova said sulkily.

"Oh yeah, then why is that the only thing you have spoken about for the past half an hour," Raven retorted.

Nova rubbed the back of his neck, while look down.

"I just think the betting is interesting," he mumbled under his breath.

"So you ready to go?" Nova asked Jayde his eyes glittering with excitement.

Chuckling at the teenager, Jayde turned back to look at Lucia over her shoulder.

"Lucia, I'm going to the combat arena, will be back later, you can take the day off as well, I will see you tonight."

Jayde then walked out of the cottage closing the door behind her but stopped after taking a step as Takara started yodeling. Turning back she opened the door, only to be nearly run over as Takara leaped into her arms. Oh no, you are not leaving me behind, Takara said silently.

"Ah Takara, you want to come too?" Jayde asked as she scrambled to hold onto the wriggling snowkitten.

"It's fine, bring him, we allowed to bring our pets," Raven said.

"Ah, okay," Jayde said as she closed the door. The four of them and one snowkitten made their way over to the combat arena, with Nova hurrying them up, chatting up a storm.

The combat arena was built similar to an amphitheater, it was an open area, the oval shape arena was surrounded by a rising ground with tiers of seats. In the central area were various platforms.At the top of the seats were numerous balconies, used by teachers to view the combat fights below.

As Jayde and her group walked in Jayde could smell the various foods from the concession stand foods, the area was full of commotion and energy as students started to fill up the seats. Jayde could feel the suspense in the air. All of that suspense was getting the students hyped up for the show.

In the lobby of the arena, Jayde could see many student standing around various booths.

"Oh that must be where we can place our bets," Nova said excitedly pointing to the group of students.

"I thought you said you weren't interested in betting," Raven said sarcastically.

"Er... I'm not, but we should check it out at least," Nova said defensively.

Ash rolled his eyes at his brother's antics as he watched Nova bounce over to stand in front of a booth with a small queue.

"Hey what you doing standing over there," Nova shouted waving the group over to join him, his light brown eyes glowing and his cheeks flushed with excitement. Shaking her head slightly at Nova Jayde strolled over to join him. Seeing that Jayde had joined Nova, Raven and Ash joined the queue as well.

When it was their turn in front of the booth, Nova rushed to the table.

"So how does this work?" he gushed.

The student sitting behind the table was dressed in navy blue pants and a silver shirt indicating that he was a fourth-year student. Giving Nova a slight scornful look he then explained.

"We only accept cultivation resources as currency, the odds are written there," he said pointing to a black slate board behind him.

His shoulders slumping, "Oh, you have to use cultivation resources," muttered Nova as he frowned.

Jayde coughed to hide her chuckle at the disappointed teenager. He looked as though someone had stolen all his toys.

"Come on Nova," Ash ordered as he pulled his brother away.

"But ... but," Nova said pointing to the booth.

"Let's watch a couple of fights first," Jayde suggested.

"Ah, okay," Nova grumbled.

The four of them then walked up the raised ground to find seats for themselves.

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