A few hours later, the students gathered inside a training room—with racks of wooden weapons lining the walls and a floor space marked with tape for sparring.
"We’re even training to fight?"
Ned asked.
Devon looked at all the weapons—it made sense to train to fight—after all, the federation wanted to create a powerful fighter.
Asia ruled Innerworld mainly because their younger generation had been trained to fight since they were kindergarten age.
Martial arts was in their blood.
In that moment, the door opened up, and Thomas walked in a red tracksuit—he was followed by his assistant, Annie.
"Welcome to the Weapons Training."
Thomas said.
The students were wearing some light. T-shirts, loose pants, and comfortable sneakers. Just anything that would allow for easy movement.
"Most of you have experienced Innerworld already and had to fight somebody before—but it does not mean you’re a good fighter.
"Most of Innerworld are actually really poor fighters—most barely know how to swing a sword."
Thomas said.
And then Annie brought a television from the other room and plugged it in—then she inserted a tape in the VCR and pressed play.
Everyone looked towards the television.
In there, it showed two players fighting in the middle of a forest—they were swinging their swords like they were baseball bats—it looked really clumsy and awkward.
"I bet most of you are fighting like that. Maybe some of you are afraid to fight at all. We are here to change that.
"I need you to be comfortable with fighting."
Thomas then went to one of the racks, picked up a wooden sword, and then said, "Everyone, gather around this mat!"
The students made a square around the red mat—and then they sat down on the edges of the mat.
"Who wants to be my exhibition partner?"
Thomas asked.
None of the students raised their hands, because honestly, they would be too embarrassed to get their asses kicked in front of everyone.
"Haha, I’ll go!"
In that moment, somebody did raise his hand—it was none other than Rexzavian—and he looked more than excited to try.
Thomas tossed him a wooden sword, and Rexzavian caught it mid-air and then hopped into the mat.
"What is your name?"
Thomas asked.
"Rexzavian, but everyone calls me Rex."
Rex said with a smile.
"Well then, Rex. You can start whenever."
Thomas took a casual stance—he put his left hand behind his back—and moved the wooden sword-holding hand in front of him.
"Heh!"
Rex, like a wild dog, rushed forward without a plan and swung the wooden sword in a wide arc, like he was trying to cut some wheat in a field.
Thomas swiftly sidestepped the wild swing and smacked Rex in the back, which caused him to stumble forward.
Laugh~!
The students laughed.
"Hehe."
Rex just laughed it off, and then he slowly walked circles around Thomas—who was just standing there, waiting for the next move.
"Hah!"
Rex lunged forward with a sword stab, but Thomas parried it just in time. Rex kept pressing forward aggressively—trying to hit him even once.
Yet.
Thomas kept his cool and just parried whichever attack came to his direction—his defense was rock solid—none of Rex’s attacks got through!
"You’re fighting like a wildling. You’re good, though. I am sure that you are one of the best in the draft.
"However..."
Thomas whipped the wooden blade at Rex’s wrist, catching him off guard and knocking the sword out of his hand.
He then pressed the blade against Rex’s throat.
"You abandon defense in favor of offense. That is good in some cases, but after you saw that you couldn’t break through my defense, you should’ve switched tactics.
"You can’t just brute force through everything."
Thomas said.
"Hehe... My loss."
Rex playfully raised his arms in surrender.
Clap~! Clap~! Clap~!
The students clapped.
"Is anybody else interested in training your luck?"
Thomas asked, but none of the students seemed interested, as they could see the difference in strength.
"If you manage to hit me once, I will reward you ten points. How is that?"
Thomas asked with a smile.
That time around, there were some curious looks in the crowd, and they thought about it really hard.
"I will go."
Nathaniel said, and then he stood up—the gold watch shining on his wrist—and the students gasped excitedly.
One of the Gold Rankers was going to fight Thomas the instructor, and not just anybody—it was Nathaniel, who was one of the Twelve Rising Stars of the World!
If somebody could hit Thomas, they were certain that he was the one.
"I forgot to mention this. If I hit you three times before you hit me once, then you will be on cleaning duty for a week."
Thomas said with a smile.
It didn’t seem to matter to Nathaniel, as he just picked up the dropped wooden sword from the mat and said, "Deal."
Rex went to sit back down—with his arms crossed—but he was still wearing that goofy grin on his face.
Nathaniel slowly approached Thomas, and then, without any warning, he immediately swung for the head.
’A sneak attack!’
Ned leaned forward with anticipation.
However.
Thomas blocked it. He was ready for it. Nobody else was.
"Never drop your guard when you’re around an armed enemy. There are a lot of players who do not fight with honor."
Thomas said.
However, to some students, it also sounded like Thomas was making a dig at Nathaniel for trying to throw a cowardly strike.
"..."
Nathaniel didn’t react, and he pressed forward—swinging the sword from high, middle, and low—testing Thomas’ defenses.
Thomas was definitely good at guarding, but it didn’t mean that there weren’t any weaknesses.
’His guarding when it comes to low attacks doesn’t seem too good. He instinctively backs away while blocking, which makes his stance unstable and leaves him vulnerable to follow-up strikes.’
Devon thought.
Nathaniel also noticed it.
He kept swinging for his legs, leaving Thomas constantly off-balance, and the smile on Thomas’ face also disappeared as he struggled to defend himself.
In that moment.
Thomas gave a hard swing at Nathaniel’s sword, pushing it aside, and then he smacked Nathaniel in the shoulder.
"That’s one."
Thomas said with a smile.
Clap~! Clap~! Clap~!
The students were amazed. They even forgot to breathe for a moment. They really thought that Nathaniel would have it.
Nathaniel already managed to push Thomas to the edge of the mat, so there wasn’t much more room for Thomas to move.
"You became too excited after seeing me trapped. You exposed yourself. If you had kept your cool, I might’ve lost there."
Thomas said.
’Liar...’
Nathaniel thought with a cold look.