Chapter 12: Sparring With Rita

Chapter 12: Sparring With Rita

Sergeant Rita led Karl down to the main floor and out across the grounds to a large open coliseum.

"This will be our venue for the day. You'll love it, at least when it's empty. With nobody here, you can send your Hawk as far out as you want, and we can spar with the training gear. Don't worry too much, it's capable of withstanding the attacks of Commander Rank magical beasts, we won't be in any danger from the practice." She explained.

The coliseum was actually a football stadium that was converted to an arena when the facility was repurposed as the Divine Golden Academy a decade ago after the injections were developed.

It was huge and open, with more than enough room to fight, and plated with a powerful magical barrier and armoured plating to keep the battles from affecting the crowd.

"Call out your bird, you two can make the first move." Sergeant Rita suggested as they walked to the middle of the battlefield.

[Hawk, fly up high, and attack from the side, she will be expecting you to go behind her.] Karl instructed as he checked his gauntlets and drew his sword.

As soon as he released it from the mental space, the Hawk flew up fifty metres in the air and began to circle, waiting for its master to be ready.

[Go.] Karl instructed as he slashed forward with the blade, activating [Rend] halfway through to create a small arc of power that Rita blocked with ease using one of the two daggers that had appeared in her hands.

Then she dodged to the side as the attack from Hawk streaked towards her, and parried again as a flick of Karl's fingers sent more rending energy her way.

They just did it with assistants and cameras following, so the world would know how awesome they were, not like some bureaucrat or lawyer who got sent to an attack that didn't even make the news to fight alone against a rampaging monster.

"Alright, what do we start with? Sword fighting? Martial arts? Some sort of secret magical body training art?" He asked.

Sergeant Rita laughed. "First, we start with basic physical conditioning. Your body is adjusting quickly to the mana injection, and it triggers an awakening in place of your natural growth. That's why we give the shots at the end of middle school, so that all the recipients are still in the rapid growth phase and can adapt more easily to the changes.

As your body adjusts, you should be able to move from a Common Physique to an Awakened Physique fairly quickly, and then you will be able to actually fight at an acceptable pace, closer in speed to the movements of your Hawk."

Karl sighed. He knew it, there were definitely going to be laps around the academy.

"Follow me to the gym. There will be a bunch of agility type fighters there now, so your standards should be suitable for the equipment that is out. I will lead you through a basic routine today, and then we will set your baseline for improvement.

Within the next month, I expect that you will be able to make the minimum Awakened Standard, but you have until the end of the semester before the official tests are done."

"So, most students take that long to make it to awakened?" Karl asked. That didn't sound so bad.

"No, many of them will make the minimum standard within the next few weeks. The true Geniuses will be getting close to Ascended by the end of the first Semester, and make it there either late in the year or at the beginning of the second year."

Just like that, Karl's dreams of easy days as an elite were crushed.