Team battle

Today's training went by extremely similarly to yesterdays. I spared with Iris and Emilia with the rest. However, I decided against using my new learned skills against Iris; I wanted to keep those hidden for now. Having an ace up my sleeve seemed to be a good idea to me, maybe I could get something out of it one day. Building teams and going on our first missions wasn't the only thing, which would be happening in the second half of the first year. Once all the students came back, another event started. The tournament to find out the ranking between us students.

But for now I had to focus on training. Even without going "all-out" sparring against Iris was still ideal for my progression, so I couldn't see too much downside to it. Iris, of course, managed to beat me every single time but I cared less and less about it. She also appeared to treat it more and more like a training than a battle with one's life at stake.

We continued on like that for a good chunk of the afternoon until unexpectedly, Mr. Black came towards us just like the day before. I wondered what he wanted this time; from what he told me yesterday, he didn't want to invest his work time into only helping me out.

"Have you gotten used to fighting with each other by now?" he asked as he came to a stop before the place where we trained.

Iris was the first one to respond and answered: "Somewhat, yes. I think we can handle a stronger enemy as a team. We obviously still have a long way to go, but I think we will become a strong team one day. Just give us some time and you will see."

"Well, time isn't something that you will have for much longer", mumbled Mr. Black barely audible.

He immediately noticed that what he spoke of shouldn't be known by us and led the topic in another direction.

"How about I show you kids a different type of training? One that is more fitting to what you will have to do once you fight a strong enemy together. You kids will fight me as a team and if you come out victorious, I might even reward you if I feel like you deserve it."

I rolled my eyes knowing full well even all of us wouldn't make much of a difference. He obviously tried to tease us but it appeared to work as Iris chose to accept his offer. I wasn't sure if she knew of his full strength or not; I just couldn't argue against it in spite of that. I knew this would be trouble.

Iris told us to get ready and we came along with Mr. Black to enter the elevated platform. While we walked there, Iris told us to go all out on him and try our best. For that reason, I decided to give my katana another shot even though Lisa strongly advised me against it for now.

Thanks to all the training so far, I could use if for about five minutes without too much trouble. If I utilized some fancy moves however, the timespan would drastically decrease. Iris also picked up her magical sword, which was the claymore used in the battle against me. Just her carrying around the enormous sword looked smoother than before, she had to have trained with it alone after classes.

With all of that, we thought to be well prepared for the fight. Deep in my mind, I knew it still wouldn't change too much but my naivety got the best of me.

Mr. Black told us to attack him whenever we are ready. We prepared by having Julian and Lander at the front, Iris and me in the middle, and the two healers in the back. The plan was to buff all of us enough to make up in difference of strength and speed. This would be Emilia's part.

Once we finished preparing, the boys charged at the teacher. He easily avoided their fists and even tried to counterattack with his own. But his attack was soon stopped in its tracks as he noticed Iris right behind him. She used the charge of the boys as a decoy and sneaked up on him. She swung her claymore at him with full speed but…

It didn't connect to anything.

The mighty claymore just cut through air.

Mr. Black wasn't standing where we did before; he vanished.

"Not a bad idea but you can't just all charge at me. If your enemy is fast enough or greater in numbers, he can do what I just did", a voice said behind all of us.

We turned around and saw our two supports both knocked out. We were so focused on attacking, nobody protected them. I thought myself to be at fault here, as I was the slowest one out of all of us and this should have been my job.

Iris however, took the burden on her shoulders and said: "This was my bad. I should have planned for something like this and let Yoru stand at the back to be in the right position. By having her charge with us, there was no way she could have covered up the distance to help them out. I see what your goal was with this, Mr. Black."

"I hope those two aren't too harmed, they fell unconscious from the shock of me standing right before them. My only goal was to show you your weakness as a team, which came across as blatantly obvious. You kids only focus on attacking but forgot, that a team also has to protect each other. If you fail to keep your supports save, the rest of you will fall soon after. I hope you can keep this lesson in mind and learn from it", he explained as he put his sword back into the shaft.

We thanked him for the needed insight. Iris had a look of shame upon her face; she didn't expect to let such a mistake happen.

I got towards the two unconscious girls and together with Julian, I carried them towards a more comfortable place. After a couple minutes, they woke up again and we all apologized. Iris barely stopped even though the two didn't mind as much as she thought.

A short break went by just like that and we continued our training right afterwards.

I, however, was left baffled by how much Mr. Black knew about all kinds of fighting topic. He seemed more like a solo adventurer but he figured out our main weak point by just spectating us for a while.

Later I consulted Lisa about this but she didn't have a clue either. But as I explained what had happened earlier, she found out about me using the katana.

Because of that, I got scolded by her and went through a way harsher training; her sadistic side was showing all its glory once again.

After going through hell for what felt like eternity, I fell into my bed without even needing to eat anything beforehand…