The Martial Unity

"Please wait here a moment, Apprentice Quarrier." An assistance staff told him. "I will inform Apprentice Sierra Frial that you have arrived."

"Please do." Rui nodded, as took a seat in the reception of the Martial Academy.

Five minutes later, he felt the presence of a tall and burly Martial Apprentice enter the room, recognizing her immediately, the Frial Family had provided him with a picture of her.

"Apprentice Frial." He began. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm-"

"I know who you are." She rudely cut him as she folded her arms. "Follow me to the sparring facility immediately. I want to see what you're made up of."

Her tone had more than just a little hint of challenging hostility.

Rui stared at her for a second, before wordlessly getting up. They both headed towards the Apprentice sparring facility of the Martial Academy. Rui felt like a celebrity as everyone he walked past. Staff, foundational and explorer students, Martial Apprentices etc all recognized him as their eyes widened. It got even worse once he actually entered the sparring facility. It turned out there was an ongoing regular Apprentice sparring session. Nothing odd about that, his Academy had held plenty of those as well.

He just felt countless eyes widened with surprise as each and every single one of them recognized him.

To be fair, he understood their emotions. He would be surprised as well if someone like Fiona walked into his Academy one day wearing her Martial uniform. He just ignored all of them as Siera Frial dragged him to an empty ring.

Yet before they could even reach it. Siera had been flooded with Martial Apprentices who all pestered her with questions.

"What's going on here?!" One of them asked in a barely concealed whisper.

"Why's he here?"

"My Family hired him as a sparring partner." Sierra huffed with a hint of pride. "He's mine for the next seven hours."

A flash of surprise made its way through the small crowd as the Martial Apprentices glanced at him with expressions of curiosity and admiration.

"Enough." A powerful voice drew everyone's attention as all of them experienced a familiar pressure.

to your places and leave them alone." The Martial Squire instructor of the

were about to

time." A deep

around, recognizing the towering, imposing man. "Arjun Erigaisi. I expected

I didn't." He smiled friendlily. "What brings you

Rui gestured

see... that's pretty interesting

Siera complained. "Don't waste time, let's

his standard gear and kit

stances." The

Siera adopted a closed defensive stance. She brought up her arms up and close to her

which meant he was an offense-oriented Martial Artist. Yet Siera was a defense-oruented

his arms in a way that made it

The referee

swiftly. As the only fighter with an offensive fighting style at all, the initiative of the fight was in

POW POW!

two short speedy jabs, yet they

('Solid.') He mused.

POW POW!

shifted to her side, launching another swift combo. Siera turned trying to block in time, yet she was too

wasn't accumulating momentum or

is not enough at the higher echelons of the Apprentice Realm, it

behind him as

BAM!

her guard, yet she remained steady even if she had to exert

retreated before accelerating towards

BOOM!