Chapter 18 18:Combat Class
The walls around the huge closed space were made of thickly reinforced metal but their designs were sleek and futuristic with various blinking flood lights embedded in the ceiling running around in circles.
This was the training ground for the First year only and other years have their training ground.
Lucas stared at the area while standing behind. His face was filled with awe.
"It\'s beautiful."
"It\'s huge. What a grand place to train?"
The students murmured among themselves.
"Silence."
Miss Ami\'s voice stopped the student\'s murmurs.
Most of them have not seen anything like that and their murmurs were met with ridiculed gazes from the nobles who thought of them as some kind of hillbillies.
Miss Ami led them towards a corner ring where they spotted a man with crimson hair and a fiery expression standing straight at the center of a ring.
Lucas felt chills as soon as he met his gaze.
\'This guy seems to be quite fierce. Even a newbie like me can sense pressure from him.\'
"Now we are in the training grounds which are open for 24 hours. However, the place we are standing is only available during the combat classes."
Ami walked forward and spoke, "Say hello to your Combat Instructor Sir Harris."
"During your stay, Sir Harris will take care of you and help you to improve your fighting skills."
"Hello, I am your combat training instructor. Nice to meet all of you."
"I hope my teaching will benefit you and help in times of need."
Contrary to the cold and hoarse voice they expected, Harris\'s voice was quite warm.
\'He seems to be tough from the outside, however, he is a bit soft from the inside. There was not much written about him and I don\'t remember much about him.\'
Lucas murmured while trying to size up Harris while trying to remember if he had major roles.
Outer appearances can be quite deceptive and who knows what kind of personality one has underneath the mask. So, Lucas repeatedly warned himself not to be swayed by appearances.
Harris glanced around, thought for a moment, and spoke.
"When you all see your stats in the Divine Mirror, you will find combat prowess stats."
"Now have any of you ever wondered what exactly is combat prowess?"Harris waited and saw the confusion on the student\'s faces. Some wanted to speak but they were not able to find the terms to define it.
"Combat prowess can be divided into two aspects. One is the strength of your body and the other is your mind. Training the body might seem tough but it is quite simple. All you need is to practice a set of exercises, fighting, and experience and this should be repeated to the point that all of this is engraved deep into your body to the point where you can react instinctively. Every human shows superior instinct in times of crisis and if you can tap the potential of your body to the limit, you could get through most of the danger."
"In fights, things happen too fast. If you hesitate even for a moment, it means death. And remember, this is coming from someone who had faced death three times in his life."
Lucas\'s and every student\'s eyes brightened for a moment.
There was something in Harris\'s speech that drew their attention. His words seemed magical and profound and filled with experience.
Harris turned his gaze and smiled seeing everyone\'s attention drawn to him. Even the arrogant nobles whose faces were filled with annoyance seemed to hook on his speech.
"You can achieve initial success through practice however to fortify your strength further and overcome the flaws of your technique, you need real experience. The more experience you have, the deeper your insight will become. You may practice with a dummy and have a friendly spar many times but I have seen people falter when things become dangerous for real."
"When the sword of death hangs upon your head, most people lose their edge and their mind becomes inefficient to make proper decisions which results in wrong moves and wastage steps which ultimately leads to death.
"That\'s why the second most vital thing for combat is the mind. The moment you lose your calmness is the moment you are done. However, training the mind is not simple."
"It also depends on your nature. Wild and brave ones are easy to adapt while cowardly ones lose themselves easily in fear. Still, it is a fact that cowards live longer than braver ones who risk their lives worthlessly so one needs to have disposition in between the two."
The students nodded their heads subconsciously and waited for him to speak further.
"Once you reach a certain level, the battle of the mind is more important as the outcome has already been decided by the outlook between the two warriors.\'\'
"So first of all you need to fortify your mind. You need to fight where there is a need, kill where you have to kill and retreat when you have to. You need to understand your own situation carefully."
The students flinched back a bit as they saw grave seriousness in Harris\'s eyes.
Lucas felt the discussion was a bit heavy and it also made him remember the fight he had gone through in the morning.
He did not know whether the kid was killed by him or if he survived and was taken. He had forgotten to ask about it. However, there was a 99% percent chance he was killed which made his heart feel a bit heavy.
After all, taking life is not a simple matter and no one can measure the value of life.
He needs to reinforce his heart and mind cause this will not be his first or last kill. To survive here, he would surely come across situations where he had to kill.
He shifted his gaze towards blue-haired Frederick and others who seemed to be quite indifferent.
"You should always remember one thing, victory does not lie in winning or killing the enemies. Sometimes, getting out of the situation alive is the real victory. However, some of you might encounter certain situations where you have no way to retreat and need to kill the enemies at any cost cause if they left alive, they could cause a disaster ."
"At that time, you all should know better what you have to do."
"Now!"Harris clapped his hand which broke everyone out of their reverie and said, "I think, things have become a bit heavy."
"Let\'s lighten the atmosphere a bit."
"Most of you have your own set of techniques which you might have inherited from your family. For those of you who don\'t have any, you can take a basic set of techniques and martial arts you want which is totally free."
"For advanced ones, you need to gather points and exchange them for points."
"Since we have 20 minutes more. I want you to choose your weapons and next, I need five volunteers."
"So, please choose your weapon. Miss Ami will help you."
"Follow me!"Miss Ami spoke and walked towards the weapon stands.
Lucas stood quietly for a moment and stared at Harris.
\'Although I don\'t remember anything about him, he doesn\'t look like an extra and I feel he surely had some roles to play. Maybe he would appear in the second part or maybe not. I only hope he does not turn out to so-called biased Professor.\'
Lucas shook his head and followed the crowd.