Gwen huffed, "I'm guessing you don't have much stamina left either. Let's call it a draw." She got off Emory and helped the frazzled redhead off the ground.
"That was much harder than I expected," Emory wheezed, "You all worked well together. I guess all the training we've been doing has paid off."
"I can't believe how easily you threw me around in my shifted form! You tossed me like a little child," Sam exclaimed as her figure returned to the average-sized green haired girl.
"Actually, I have some questions about your sphere later, but we can talk tonight," Emory commented, "Innes, are you alright over there? I didn't hold back on that last strike."
Innes groaned as he pulled himself up and rubbed his chest as he called back, "No kidding you didn't hold back. I think there's handprint impressions on my chest." He pulled up his shirt, and just as he said, two handprint welts had swollen up on his chest from her shove. Then he slowly walked back to the trio of girls, trying his best to hide how strong of a blow it was.
"I'm sorry," Emory apologized, "I got in the zone and reacted without thinking. Are you sure you don't need to see the nurse?"
"I'm fine, really. But I don't think I'm going to be sparring again today," Innes conceded. In his mind from his wealth of combat experience, he assumed he had torn some of the muscles in his chest, maybe even fractured a rib, but nothing requiring medical attention, so he had subconsciously continued to rub his chest. Boyle approached the group, largely to corral the other students since the spar was over.
"You four did very well," Boyle commended them, "Emory, you did an excellent job defending against three competent aggressors. Though you took several blows, you never stopped thinking of your next moves. Gwen, Innes, and Sam, you had a wonderful display of teamwork against a strong opponent. Each time you all went in, your timing improved and your coordination progressed." The four bowed and thanked Boyle before she returned to motivating the other students to advance their own skills.
As the class for the week would just be sparring, the group decided to rest from the little combat they had. Some of the students close to them scoffed at these four teens who had chosen to sit and seemingly relax; however, one of the more pugnacious ones elected to act on this frustration. He yelled over to them from a couple groups over, "Are you four really going to just sit there? I bet it was all for show anyway; you're probably just fine." The boy was average height, though his muscular physique rivaled that of Innes, and had five large spikes of hair, making a mohawk of sorts. He had just beaten his sparring partner and begun walking over to the group when he made his first comment. "What, are you going to ignore me?" the teen snapped, "You think since you made a big spectacle, you can just do whatever you want?" Now, he was just a few feet from Innes, the closest of the four to the rest of the class.
"What's your name?" Innes asked calmly from the floor.
"Dustin," the boy puffed up his chest, "You all may be well known by the class, but I'm going to be a dark horse in this competition. They'll forget all about you when they see me."
Innes pushed himself off the floor and stood before Dustin, "Well, tough guy, shoot your shot. I'll let you get a free hit right now. But I'm warning you, if we spar, I won't be holding back." As he said that, cones of flame began to snake up his arms from his palms.
"I don't need a free punch," Dustin snarked as he took a few steps back and put up his arms like a boxer, "I'll take you down and knock that confident look right off your face."
"Innes, do you want someone else to deal with this foolish boy?" Gwen questioned as she looked at Dustin like a piece of meat, "I don't mind, and you did take that big hit from Emory." Innes shook his head and shooed Gwen away. Innes stared down Dustin, only moving opposite of him in the ring but not positioning himself into any particular stance.
Dustin glared over, "Are you not going to take this seriously? Fine, don't make excuses when this is all over then." A bubble appeared around each of his hands as he slowly approached Innes, and when he was within range, a quick jab tried to connect with Innes's torso. Innes just smiled and grabbed the fist with one of his hands while the water had tried to wrap around Innes's wrist, yet it would instantly evaporate when it got close enough to the flames. Dustin tried to pull back his fist but felt like he was tugging on a brick, so he tried a shovel punch with his other fist only to have it caught as well.
"Your style is very rigid," Innes commented, "Try being a little more unpredictable or focused in your attack areas." After these words, Innes dropped the water covered fists and sped backwards using his flames as jets.
"Are you critiquing me as we're fighting? What the hell!" Dustin roared as he charged forward with a faster jab-shovel combination. Yet Innes caught both fists again without a hint of difficulty.
"Good, you've got anger," Innes explained, "Now, you need to focus it. Try linking in some more powerful strikes like a haymaker or a kick." Once again, Innes just threw the fists down after his comments and sped away to the other side of the ring.
Dustin's eyes grew wide, and his nostrils flared since once again, Innes had completely blocked him. He yelled, "Why won't you just stay still and fight me?" Water jets blasted Dustin into the air, allowing him to drop a fist from above, but Innes just caught it with one hand like nothing. This time, though, Dustin had followed his punch with a flip and brought down a heel drop with his full force. Innes smiled as he saw it connecting with his shoulder since he knew it wouldn't budge. Yet because the shoulder didn't flinch, Dustin was knocked off-balance and landed on his butt on the floor.
"Now, you're starting to get the hang of it," Innes applauded, "But you're letting your anger affect your magik control. If you would have channeled your magik in your foot in that kick, you might have gotten my shoulder to give a little."
"Why won't you attack? I'm giving it my all, and you just block every shot effortlessly," Dustin pouted, still sitting on the ground.
Innes extended his hand and grinned, "What would that help? I don't need to land a hit to help you practice. That IS what we're supposed to be doing, practicing." The average boy on the ground took a moment to grab Innes's hand but finally accepted the help. The two walked to their own area, so Innes could continue to explain more to Dustin. Emory, Gwen, and Sam took this action as a cue to also disperse throughout the crowd; after all, they were certainly in the top five, so there wasn't really a need for them to practice. The rest of the class progressed better than usual with the four friends helping,
After class, the group headed to the cafeteria and met up with their other friends. Once everyone had gotten their food and started eating, Gwen was anxious to hear the news about the assessment. She started, "So, we've waited long enough. What did Serah Boyle tell you about the evaluation?"
"Well, we were right about the purpose," Emory began, "She said the top students will be selected for a special mission. Unfortunately, she didn't tell me what the mission would be. There were a couple other things she mentioned, but they didn't make a lot of sense."
"What else did she say? Maybe we can make some guesses," Gatrie chimed in.
"She said that there would be four classes, including ours, that got special rewards for the top student," Emory remembered, "Something about information to build teams and something else about the highest contestant overall."
Innes scratched his chin, "I think it's pretty clear that they plan to divide the winners into four groups. Also, the four special winners you mentioned will probably be the four squad commanders. But we're still not any closer to figuring out what the mission is."
"I don't think we're going to attack the Mantoan," Tana calmly stated, "In fact, I have a good idea what the mission is."
The group turned to Tana and waited for her to continue before Sam spouted, "Are you going to tell us or just leave us in suspense?"
"It seems simple enough to me. Four squads mean one for each of the cardinal directions. I know that doesn't translate to space well, but if you think of a top-down view of the galaxy, you would want to go to a planetary system at three, six, nine, and twelve o'clock for the best defense. Even if we don't find the Mantoan home world on any of those, we'll be better prepared when they make their move," Tana gleefully replied, basking in the fact that she had figured the mission out before the others. The rest of the group took a moment to catch up to Tana's logic but quickly nodded in agreement when it made sense to them.
Innes spoke first after the collective pause, "But if we plan to set up bases on four new worlds, won't that impair our battle state if the Mantoan attack the Sol system again?"
"That's why they're sending students," Gatrie chuckled cynically, "If we send unaccounted forces and lose them, what have we really lost? And if we come across the Mantoan, it would be even better for us since we didn't have to send out an additional unit to find them."
"Well, I guess it's settled then. We all have to rank in the top five. Does that seem doable for everyone?" Emory bluntly asked the group. Though they were all towards the top of their respective class, actually scoring at the top was something that made several of them nervous. They all contemplated this new goal to strive for as they finished lunch.