BXBX NOVEL Chapter 778: Newcomers In Close Combat Class
I\'m sure Mother would not mind if I did that but I would rather we be able to stand on our own instead of having to rely on others.
Emilia was of the same idea anyway so that was that.
The next day, I went for my close combat class with Odeta and I was quite looking forward to it because I knew that someone who should be an Off-Worlder would be joining the class.
"Did you manage to spar with him yesterday?" I asked Odeta.
She pouted, "Bah! The instructor merely made us do exercises yesterday! We didn\'t even get a chance to spar at all! The exercises were also so easy that I had to do six sets of it while the rest did two!"
I don\'t doubt it…
"Did you meet the new students that just transferred to our class?" I asked.
"Ehhh… Not yet. I think they\'re avoiding me though."
"How many of them are there? The new transfer students I mean."
Odeta started lifting up her fingers to count them mentally before showing me all her fingers and thumb extended on her right hand.
"Five?" I guessed.
She nodded with a grin, "Yeah! They look pretty strong too! So I don\'t know why they were avoiding me!"
I gave her a pointed look, "Were you trying to get them to spar with you after class or something?"
"Of course, Sister Aster! Why would I let this opportunity go?!"
Only you would see sparring someone strong as an \'opportunity\', Odeta… They must have been intimidated by you and chose to run away instead…
Of course, I did not say that out loud and kept that thought to myself.
We reached the training field just in time for the class to start as Instructor Henry arrived at the same as we did.
Which also meant I didn\'t exactly have any time to check out the class to see who the newcomers were.
"Alright, everyone gather up," He instructed, prompting all of us to arrange ourselves into our usual groups to stand in front of him.
He scratched his head, "I know there\'s some of you who were unsatisfied with the fact that there wasn\'t any combat training yesterday so that\'s what we\'re doing today."
He glanced towards Odeta in a not so subtle way when he said that while Odeta merely puffed up her chest in pride instead.
I would like to apologise for her behaviour, Instructor… I have a feeling she was most definitely pestering him the entire time yesterday to let her spar with the new students…
Instructor Henry shook his head before continuing, "All of you, pair up with your partners and start sparring. The usual rules apply! Begin!"
I felt myself lifted up the moment those words left his mouth and I looked up to realise that I was currently being held in a princess carry by Odeta.
"Let\'s go Sister Aster! You wanna fight those guys too right?!"
Well… She\'s not wrong so I just nodded at her.
Odeta then let out a laugh before running towards the other end of the class where a group of five boys seemed to be huddled together.
The moment they saw Odeta running towards them though, they each let out a startled yelp before they started to run away, dispersing in different directions.
What the heck? They\'re actually running away from us… Just what did you do to them, Odeta?
Odeta huffed, "Sister Aster! Look, look! Isn\'t that rude?! Why are they running away from us?! It\'s almost like they are scared of us or something!"
Odeta… I\'m pretty sure that\'s the exact reason why they\'re running away from us… Just what did you do to them?
She then lowered me back down onto the ground before rolling up her sleeves.
I realised what she was trying to do a second too late as she was already leaping towards one of the boys before I could stop her.
I watched as she tried to grab him by the back of his neck when he suddenly spun around and raised his wooden sword to block the \'attack\'.
He even twisted the sword to angle it such that Odeta ended up grabbing nothing but air as the boy leapt away to escape from her.
Huh… For him to be able to react to Odeta\'s surprise like that…
I quickly used [Screened] on him.
[Name: Haddock
Title: The Most Fortunate Unfortunate boy, Future sword god, Sword prodigy
Race: Mahun
Gender: Male
Current Mood: Fear, Traumatic
Stats:
110 Strength
145 Dexterity
180 Endurance
80 Magic
Skills:
Sneaking (Tier 1), Tracking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2)), Hunting (Tier 1)
Magic Skills:
Pyromancy (Tier 1), Aeromancy (Tier 1)]
Eh? This guy isn\'t an Off-Worlder?
But his stats are… Well… They\'re really, really high for someone who isn\'t an Off-Worlder and also at our age range… I mean just look at Odeta, she\'s definitely an odd one for having the stats she has.
No, no, I don\'t count because I\'m an Off-Worlder which is why my stats aren\'t weird at all if you took that into consideration.
Odeta seemed quite offended by the fact that the guy had parried her grab away and chased after him.
He seemed to realise that he could not run away from her so he turned back to face her instead, his sword held in front of him defensively.
The other four boys who had run off earlier quickly converged behind him, acting as his support as they faced against Odeta together with him.
A quick scan of my [Screened] also showed that the other boys had roughly the same stats as the first one but all of them were not Off-Worlders at all.
At first, I suspected that the first guy to have some kind of artefact that hid his real stats but with this many of them? I think it was genuine.
Still, that brought the question of why they were so afraid of Odeta in the first place? Wasn\'t this like their first meeting?
Predictably, Odeta faced the five boys standing against her with great enthusiasm and even let out a challenging roar at them.
I considered joining in at first but I think that would look more like we were bullying them.
Odeta leapt towards the first boy and punched her fist forward towards him.
Woah, wait… She\'s actually going to spar with them seriously?
To the boy\'s credit, he did not panic and simply lowered himself while raising his sword over his head with the flat of the blade facing towards Odeta.
The Amrap\'s fist landed on the flat of the blade and I thought she would have shattered the blade with that punch but I was once again surprised when the boy jumped back just before the blow landed to lessen the impact instead.
As though on cue, the other four boys behind him immediately jumped forward and tried to attack Odeta from her flanks while she still had her arm extended in her punching motion.
Odeta\'s brows scrunched up while her lips curled downwards in a frown.
I thought that she would be hit by the four boys with that attack but she deftly leapt back before their swords could hit her.
"Should I help?" I asked.
"I got this, Sister Aster!!" She yelled out before jumping back towards the boys.
I did realise that the boys suddenly turned to look at me with rather unfriendly faces when they heard our conversation but I couldn\'t tell if it was due to me offering to help Odeta or was it because of what Odeta said.
Nevertheless, they quickly turned their attention back on Odeta as she started engaging them again, sending a kick at one of the boys only for him to roll away like he had been expecting that attack.
Their coordination was really uncanny and they seemed to know exactly what Odeta would do before she did it. One of them would always be focusing on avoiding her attacks and creating openings for the other four to engage Odeta.
But despite that, Odeta was handling them quite well as she also looked like she knew what they would be doing before they did it.
Even when four of their wooden swords were swung at her at the same time, she could dodge or parry it away with her fist and avoid getting hit.
But eventually, Odeta managed to close in on one of the boys before he managed to get away and she landed a punch directly in his gut.
The boy exhaled before collapsing on the ground, which set off a chain reaction as their formation crumbled, allowing Odeta to wipe out the rest of them quickly and leaving five boys groaning on the training field.
Ok… So what\'s their deal now?