The two combatants circled each other.
"You are going down, Adriel," the boy in the silver armor taunted.
Adriel smiled softly. "We shall see, Peet."
"Less talking, more combat." The staff floated into the air to punctuate Noble's words.
It swung at the two students, forcing them to roll under the weapon's reach. Noble clicked her tongue as the staff returned to her hand.
"A secondary threat won't wait for the primary one to finish before it attacks. And it certainly won't announce itself like I just did. Be ready!"
Peet took the cue, summoning a saber. He ran at Adriel to strike her. But her solid stance allowed her to duck a second time. The gauntlet of her right hand extended, twisting into a curve.
Peet realized his error too late. The hook caught the boy's left heel, pulling him from his stance as he stumbled to the ground.
"Point," Rock held out his hand toward Adriel.
"An excellent use of the element of surprise. An interesting enchantment, and a good show of its functionality."
Noble realized she sounded more like an announcer than a teacher. Was this how Dimi felt during a Dreamscape Tournament? If so, she understood why he enjoyed it.
"One to zero," Adriel's trumphant smirk said it all.
"Actually, it is zero to zero," Rock crossed his arms.
The girls straightened, looking at him in confusion. "But you just gave me a point. And Professor Noble–"
Rock shook his head. "The point brought you back to zero. You lost a point for your delay in summoning armor."
"If you have the protection, you should never step into a battle without it, including a battle ring," Noble confirmed.
Peet knew better than to take a gift for granted. In Adriel's confusion, he darted to her right and launched a downward swing.
The girl caught the motion out of the corner of her eye and lifted the hook to grapple with the blade. But as she went to grab it, the lines of it blurred, seeming to be in three locations of the action at once.
Adriel tried to grasp the moving blade, but her guess was wrong. The sword clanged against her breastplate for a solid hit.
"Point!" Rock did not need to elaborate.
"One to zero," Peet threw the girl's words in her face.
"Good use of an enchantment at the proper moment. That blur technique is common, but very effective in confusing an opponent." Noble nodded.
Adriel narrowed her gaze. Peet had struck her! Now things were serious. When he went to follow up, she was wise to his game.
Peet's sword blurred as it had before, but she followed the line of his blade more carefully. Her hook caught his blade, running the length of it in a spray of sparks. When it met the crossguard, she twisted her wrist, ripping the blade from the man's hand.
She tapped Peet's helmet with the hook. "Dummy!"
"Point!" Rock's voice held a tinge of excitement.
Noble clicked her tongue. "How does the saying go, Rock? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Using the same move twice in a row can not only be seen as lazy, but it can also open you up to a counterattack."
Now that the crowd had the gist of the rules, they began to cheer. Between the points given and the advice provided by the two teachers, they offered a mix of encouragement and constructive criticism.
The next two points were given as Peet called on a shield to aid his downward punch into Adriel's shoulder, and the girl, in response, used the agility of her armor to hit him where the sun didn't shine.
"That's a low blow," Noble winced. 'But effective...'
Indeed, the action smarted more than Peet was willing to admit, and his voice rang out an octave higher as he raised his blade. "I'll get you for that!"
Adriel was determined not to give him that chance. She rushed him, summoning a mace into her free hand.
The ball swung, ready to crash against the shield, and if the hit was true, shatter it on the playing field. However, the girl was in for a surprise. When the mace came down, the shield wavered. The ball passed through as the protective Memory was dismissed.
Peet dodged. Thrown off balance, Adriel stumbled. Peet grabbed the chain of the mace and spun his opponent with it, sending her headlong to the ground.
In a blink, Peet had his foot on the woman's stomach.
"Point and match!" Rock announced, sending the crowd into a frenzy!
Noble hushed them. When that didn't work, a wave of calm radiated from her, settling over students and faculty alike. Rock gave her a strange look but said nothing.
"That was a good match, both of you. You caught on quickly. I will caution you on that final move, Peet. While clever for a sparring match, dismissing your shield could have landed you in a world of hurt if Adriel hadn't fully committed to the strike. You got lucky." Noble didn't like relying on luck.
If he had seen how the girl handled the mace once or twice, he would have been more certain in her style. His hunch had paid off, but that wasn't always the case.
"Understood, Ma'am." Peet bowed to the instructors and then to his opponent.
'A gracious winner.' Noble nodded at him and smiled.
The next two opponents were poorly matched, but that did not make the interchange less interesting. While one had an array of Memories that could choke any Legacy, the other had the presence to avoid and draw out the tricks and mysteries without getting caught in the trap.
When the underdog won, even Rock had to applaud.
"It's a valuable lesson," Noble tapped her staff on the ground to quiet the crowd. "A few well used Memories are better than many that you are unfamiliar with. Every Awakened has their limit. Know yours."
The matches continued, each pair gaining a little bit of knowledge from their predecessors.
Things were going smoothly!
Noble smiled. Beside her, Rock chuckled softly.
"What?" Noble gave him a sidelong glance.
Rock shifted his weight.
"Nothing. I can just see how much you are enjoying this. You are pretty proud of yourself."
Noble shrugged, "Can you blame me? It's not often I get to see my work pay off so quickly."
People at the Dreamer Academy didn't have Memories, so her combat training there looked very different.
"I don't know why we haven't done this before. It's a clever way to cross disciplines." Rock imagined how this might be implemented in other ways.
"Keep your guard up. A nice Memory is no excuse for poor form!" Noble's warning was too late for the young man in the ring to recover.
On Rock's mark, the match was over.
"Well done! You two were the most evenly matched yet. As for the next…"
Noble paused as a figure descended from the bleachers without being selected.
Summoning a suit of blood-red armor, he entered the ring and lifted his chin to the crowd.
Feeling the emotion coming from him, Noble's heart sank.
'And things were running so nicely too…'