After having filled himself up with as much food as he could in 5 min, Ajax ran towards the grounds where his first class was going to be held. He was just in time, a couple of minutes before the instructor arrived.
The ground was filled with new trainees who have had a good meal and rested. He couldn't even find a place to sit closer to the dias. Luckily for Ajax, Timothy was nice enough to keep some space cleared for him and called for him as soon as he entered the ground.
"Hope you are not this late every day," said a boy as Ajax sat down.
"Ya, boss Timothy and we had to stop many from trying to sit," said another.
As he turned to his sides, he found two others also glaring at him. "I am sorry, wouldn't happen again," said Ajax and looked at Timothy who was smirking.
"It really won't. Today, I was offered an apprentice chef's position and I was held up due to it," explained Ajax.
"Oh! You see that, boys? It was good that we kept him a place. Now we already have our own budding chef," said Timothy winking at them.
"Free food?"
"Yes. Free food."
"Of course, free food."
"Ya, right! Lot of work to be done before I can be a chef," said Ajax looking at them. "Do I look like a food vending machine to these guys?"
"When did you become boss?" he asked turning to Timothy.
"Tim was always the boss."
"He was the best."
"Pa, told us to follow him. He is the strongest. So, the boss."
"You have a fan club?" asked Ajax getting more and more irritated by their words.
"Shut up. They are Jack, Jason, John and Jake," he said pointing to the four. "We know each other as kids. Their parents worked with my dad. The boss thing is just something they picked up from uncles. Enough about us. How did you become an apprentice?"
Ajax began to explain how the manager noticed him to be strong enough and decided to promote him. The others listened and while they joked a bit about how cooking is a servant's work and that they could find better work in the military, they also congratulated him when they realized that it was a job that could earn him a steady stream of money and mana stones.
As they were talking, they suddenly heard a loud cough attracting all of the new trainees towards the front. They found an old man floating down the dais. It was the old man, Karl Dustblade.
"Good afternoon, young ones," said Karl in a loud booming voice. "I am Karl Dustblade, one of the oldest instructors alive in this fort. I have recently come off retirement and it has been some time since I taught anyone as young as you guys. I have done this about 200 years ago and my methods might be considered a bit harsh, but nevertheless effective in molding strong guards. So, if you want to be strong be attentive."
"Every day after lunch, you shall have theory of combat taught by me for three hours and then you get to cultivate for an hour. I will include a few lectures but it will mostly involve pairs of students trying to defeat one another. After that you have free time for about 4 hours till night fall which you can use as you see fit," said Karl with a smile.
Following that he began with his lesson. He started with the importance of guards and their duties. and then continued on the how to exercise the body, the very basics. As Ajax began to hear about the importance of consistent exercise and maintaining stress in a balanced manner and to develop the parts of the body they used more according to their fighting style, he began to get bored as it were common knowledge for any decent body building enthusiast or fighter in his past life. But the others around him found it novel and listened with rapt attention.
During this time, he continued to examine and get used to the cultivation method given to him by the spirit. He would need to do it while exercising unlike the other cultivation methods. So, he decided to do it while others practiced close combat as he was sure he could defeat them all with one hand behind his back.
"The best way to learn combat is through practice. So, that is what you will do," said Karl as waved his hand and in a couple of seconds, Ajax found himself and another student right in front of Karl while the others remained seated. The other student was slightly shorter than Ajax with thicker build having a square face with brown eyes, dark hair and a long nose.
"Now, you two seemed to be lost in your own thoughts this hour," said Karl. "So, you two will demonstrate what you can do."
"Oh crap, he noticed," thought Ajax.
"Introduce yourselves," said Karl.
"Jean Creek, sir. Son of Viscount, Jeremy Creek," said the boy saluting, but one could easily notice that he was proud of himself seeing the way he introduced himself. He didn't even seem to be concerned that Karl had noticed him not paying attention to the lecture.
A quick gust of wind caused by Karl swept Jean's feet to the ground causing him to fall on his back. He heard the laugh and chuckles from the new trainees and other guards in the place. He could also see his opponent Ajax trying hard to not smile.
"Jean Creek, new trainee," corrected Karl. "No one cares who you were born to, when you are in here. In here when I ask for an introduction, I want an introduction of you, your capabilities not your family."
Ashamed, Jean quickly got up. He was embarrassed and angry. He had never been thrown down before and felt humiliated on having been did so in front of his peers. He felt that it was an insult to him and his father for being disciplined on his introduction.
"Ajax Dustblade, new trainee."
"See that's better. Now both of you maintain a distance of four feet between you and start on my signal," said Karl as he lifted his hand up. With his hand lift, the both of them were moved by the wind one placed two feet to the hand's right and other two feet to the left.
"Anyone fought before?" asked Karl.
"I was trained from the age of 7," said Jean.
"I fought since I was a kid, but never trained," said Ajax placing his hands to his side, causing Jean to smile in mockery.
"A couple of street fights and this kid think that he could defeat me. He doesn't even have a decent starting posture with his hands to his side," thought Jean as he smirked in confidence while he put made his fists and put them up like he was ready to box. Jean who was already angry had decided to take him down as soon as he could proving his superiority over the others.
"Ok, let us see, how good you guys are? Start!" said Karl as he moved back.
"On my mark, start," said Karl moving back.
Jean immediately moved forward in a punching motion. He came withing 2 feet of Ajax in a second and his right fist within a few inches of Ajax's head. He was sure that his fist would find its target, but it missed as Ajax took a step back tilting his head to the left to avoid it.
Jean also adapted immediately. Being trained formally from when he was a kid, he knew how to take advantage. What Ajax did was considered a very rookie move by him as a quick punch from his left hand would easily strike Ajax's back and after that he could continue with his rhythm and easily pummel Ajax.
Jean believed that even if Ajax ducked again, it would be hard to maintain his balance and that would gain allow him to kick or punch to easily take him out.
His left punch was also quickly avoided by Ajax by bending backwards. Ajax bent his back to an almost right angle and Jean crossed him. Jean was sure that he would win and turning back towards Ajax as he swung his right leg from right to left in a sweep kick aimed towards Ajax's feet.
Jean was sure that he hit but he didn't feel his leg striking anything causing him to glance towards Ajax only to find him standing upside down on his hands.
Using the momentum of the sweep kick, he turned around to aim a frontal kick but before that he could turn around, he found Ajax's leg coming towards his chest.
As he put his left hand up to reflexively block it, he found the leg swinging by his left to miss him.
"He mistimed it," thought Jean in relief. He thought his jump carried him forwards making Ajax miss his kick, but in the next instant found, he felt a sharp pain on his back as Ajax's heel hit him at the center of his back. Ajax had one leg and hand on the ground and quickly bent his knee to hit Jean's back using his heel before quickly getting on his two legs
"He bent his knee to kick me," realized Jean as he stumbled a couple of steps forward. Though the momentum of the quick kick pushed him a bit forward, it didn't really wound him but his Ajax's kick touch him in a bone on his spine that caused him a sharp pain. He knew that anyone would use this chance and quickly turned around.
As Jean turned around, he saw Ajax's fist coming at him in the same way, he started the match. He tried his best to evade but in anger of suffering the first hit, he turned around to face Ajax in a hurry at quick pace and couldn't change his direction quick enough suffering a punch to his nose.
The pain of being punched on his nose had Jean stunned for a second and before, he could his get his bearings he found himself on the ground. Ajax quickly caught Jeans hands held and put in a lock behind Jean's back.
Jean knew that he had been defeated.
"I give up."
"Ok, then release him," said Karl and as soon as Ajax released the winds pulled the two of them back up again leaving them in a standing position on the two sides of Karl
"So, what did you learn from the fight," asked Karl looking at all the trainees who saw the fight. Hands quickly raised in response to his question and he pointed to one.
"It is good to be able to balance oneself on your hands."
"Start with a joke, huh," said Karl chuckling as he pointed to another. "Next."
"One should be ready for any style of fighting. Ajax didn't follow any traditional style which confused Jean."
"Good point," agreed Karl. "Next."
"Ajax never took an initial ready pose making Jean think that he was a rookie. It was a feint at the start which successfully caused Jean to underestimate him."
"Better. Next."
"Ajax was flexible and quick in his reflexes. Though he missed to hit Jean's chest, he quickly bent his knee causing his heel to strike Jean's back. He also didn't let the moment of the kick carry him away and quickly landed on his feet before attacking Jean."
"Ok, that is good. Now, anything wrong with what Ajax did?" asked Karl.
"What did I do wrong?" thought Ajax surprised. "No obvious mistakes were done right?" he thought as he began to analyze his moves but couldn't find any.
It was the same with the spectators too. None one could find any mistake made by him.
"Is this a trick question? Ajax wasn't hit at all or fell down either," asked one of them.
"Trick question? Maybe? Any guesses?" asked Karl.
After a few moments of silence, it was clear to Karl that no one understood the issue.
"What are you training for?" asked Karl trying to give them a hint.
But they all took the question to be rhetorical and thought he was reprimanding. Before he tried to give a hint, he received answer from his side.
"To be a guard," said Jean in a small voice.
"Good to know that one of you was actually listening to me. The entire purpose of this combat exercise is to train to be a guard. That is what I have explained in the past hour," said Karl.
"Didn't I tell you that a guard can't let his adversary get behind him. If your opponent gets behind you, he will go for whatever you are protecting. When on duty, the most frequent thing you will encounter are ambushes or attacks by bandits. If you let him behind you, your quarry will be under attack which is a failure on your part," he explained.
"Maybe, I should have paid attention to his class," thought Ajax.
"The moment Ajax let Jean get behind him, he failed. A real bandit or assassin wouldn't turn around to fight back like Jean did. He would run further ahead and go for whatever Ajax was supposed to protect. Thus, at that instant, Ajax failed," said Karl.
"This is just not the guards style of fighting. Ajax is quite good at single combat from what we can see, but that is not the way a guard fights. One has to always to always maintain a certain distance from his opponent while acting as a guard. He can't let others be harmed or give his adversary chance to harm his quarry," concluded Karl.
"Now, Ajax stay. Jean go back, and ponder upon your loss."
Karl waved his hand and another recruit appeared in front of him. "As you didn't receive a single hit, I guess you could continue for another fight and this time, don't make the same mistake."