The sounds of clashing steel filled the basement, each one of the five using their own weapons and styles. Coincidentally all of them had different elemental affinities.

Zacharias Gotha, Zach, swirled around his polearm and struck the forearm of his master, Grey’s hands, with wind dancing around the pole all the while.

Regulus Nemea brought out his own pole, but it was much different than a normal one. For one, it had an opening at one end as if a blade had been yanked out. It looked regal, with its red body and gold accents. Regulus imbued some of his mana into the weapon, and the sand stored inside it flowed out of the opening and shaped itself into a spearhead. His master, Jei raised an eyebrow at that, but soon got into her own stance with her naginata.

Ryla Ryugami brandished her beastmade sword, the hilt, and pommel being a lustrous gold with the handle being cobalt and the crystal-like blade being the same color. Clovelyn held her own sword diagonally in front of her, giving her the first move.

Hazel Demaria used her multi-purpose white and blue bow, with the limbs being mostly white with blue accents and a blue bowstring, as both a ranged weapon and a melee one. Unstringing it in one swift motion and folding it to form a baton. Boba, her master, having already faced this raised her fists.

Ryoto Inari kept hacking at his mentor, Daniel, with his dual daggers. The daggers had a black hilt and purple streaked black handle. The pommel had a purple flame engraved under it. The blade was pitch black, as if made of pure obsidian, the fuller being purple. But none of his attacks reached Daniel, every one of them stopped right before touching him. Almost as if the space itself bent around him. Daniel sent a punch to his torso, and Ryoto flew away from him into the nearby wall. Ryoto stuck to the wall for a few seconds, before falling down to the ground. 

“Ow.” He spoke comically as he got up, his daggers still clenched in his hands, “Time for round 2.” And rushed forward once again. But Daniel raised his hand, stopping him in his tracks. 

Daniel says something to him and they both turn to watch the others.

On the other side of the battlefield, Regulus was having trouble facing his master. Even though it was an enclosed room underground, there was enough light for Jei to manipulate. Regulus was overwhelmed by the unending barrage of solid light rays, even a graze left his skin scorched and his muscles throbbing. The raised earth which was acting as his shield crumbled apart, as he began creating another one to take its place. But he wasn’t fast enough and one ray got through, heading right for his chest. To his surprise, it dissipated before he could get hurt, sighing in relief he dropped to the ground.

Meanwhile, Boba blitzed around the battlefield, barraging Hazel from all directions with speeds that approached the speed of sound. She stops when Hazel drops down to the ground. 

“I hate it when you do that.” Hazel groaned as she got up. 

Boba just smiled in reply.

Ryla missed just by a hair's breadth as Clovelyn transformed into a sabre toothed tiger and pounced on her. With her claws on Rylas neck, Clovelyn spoke, “Yield?”

Ryla sighed, “I yield.”

“Get up.” Grey ordered.

Zach who was lying face down on the ground responded with a groan. He tried to push himself off the ground, but his hands gave way and he fell face first.

“Get up.” Grey ordered once more, this time with more aggression.

Zach tried again but faced the same face. Grey was about to walk to him and pick him up himself when a hand fell on his shoulder.

Grey glanced back, meeting Jei’s gaze as she shook her head. With a sigh he relented, still glaring at the boy.

On the other side, Regulus helped Zach to his feet, placing Zach’s arms over his shoulder. Ryoto joined in, grabbing his other side as they hoisted Zach up from the dusty ground.

“A-Are you okay?” Regulus asked in concern.

Zach nodded weakly, the bruises on his face already swelling.

“Bullshit.” Ryoto scoffed, noticing his battered form, “You’re most certainly not ok.”

“Don’t you think you went a bit too far?” Hazel spat, glaring at Grey, even Ryla seemed disturbed at how far Grey would go.

“I don’t need you to teach me how to train.” Grey said coldly, shrugging Jei’s hand off of his shoulder.

“She has a point.” Clovelyn stated, standing up for the teenagers.

“Without hardships one simply can not get stronger. They need to understand that.” Grey justified.

“It won’t matter if you kill them before they get stronger.” Boba too was against Grey’s behavior, “We usually pick third years, not first years. You need to understand that.”

“If I may,” Daniel began, “How about getting them to a point where they can at least stand up to us for a few minutes, before resorting to harsher methods?”

Boba nodded, “I second that.”

“That’s a reasonable suggestion.”

“I too agree.”

Clovelyn and Jei too supported Daniel’s plan.

“Tch,” Grey clicked his tongue, “Fine…”

The others let out a collective sigh at that.

“But on one condition.” 

And just like that, they tense up again.

“Have all five of them face me at the same time, and if even one of them manages to score a hit, I’ll agree to your terms.” He demanded.

“I’m assuming you will be restricting yourself?” Upon a nod of confirmation from Grey Daniel continued, “That’s acceptable then.”

The five students were given a few minutes to rest and come up with a plan and rest from the training.

It took them a while to come up with a plan, mainly because Zach wanted it to be honorable. Although he was convinced soon enough.

"I still don't like this plan, it's dirty." Zach grumbled as the five of them began moving towards Grey.

"Honor has no place on the battlefield. You may need to play dirty to survive." Ryoto advised, "Besides if we don't do this, you're going to be bludgeoned like this everyday. I'm sure you don't want that. Unless you're a masochist of course."

"I'm not!" He protested, disgusted by the mere idea.

"Then don't act like one and accept the plan." Ryoto retorted.

Zach relented, walking beside the others who seemed unaffected by this. Does honor truly mean nothing to them? He thought.

“Are you ready?” Grey spoke once they got within earshot.

Upon a collective nod, Grey stood up, dusting his robes, “Then we shall begin.”

Ryoto and Hazel advanced first, their hands coated in fire and water respectively, and lunged forward.

Grey scoffed, readying his fists for a counterattack, and waited as they got closer. He thought they would have at least thought of a better strategy.

Turns out they did, as before the duo could get too close, they hit each other's fists. As fire and water met, a curtain of steam rose, obstructing his vision. Or it would have, had Grey been a lesser man. 

The wind around Grey picked up speed and began circling him, taking the steam with it, but it would have all been in vain. If pieces of earth didn’t break apart from the ground and accompanied the vortex. It was difficult for Grey to see now, but not impossible. 

On the other side, Zach and Regulus stood with their hands raised as beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads, Regulus even more so than Zach.

Suddenly the ground under Grey gave way, before swiftly solidifying, restricting his movement. Now, normally that would be a nuisance at best for Grey, it would take him mere seconds to break free, but his adversaries knew that, and they planned as such. 

Grey was not given time to escape, as massive thunderbolts closed in on his location from all sides. He was initially astonished, none of them should be capable of such a feat. And he was right, they weren’t.

But whoever said all of them were real?

Due to the tornado around him, the air had turned denser than usual, allowing him to utilize it to his advantage. A shell of iron began materializing around him, forming a ring around him and slowly extending to cover the top.

A shadow fell over his face, and by the time he looked up, all he could see was the winged figure of a certain blue haired girl, and a massive bolt of lightning heading down.

But he wasn’t going to lose that easily, in one swift motion, Grey brought out a plate of iron, and held it above him, fusing it with the rest of the shell, which had already penetrated the ground. The lightning surged into the ground, through the iron, without ever hurting Grey. A few seconds later, Grey decided it safe to dismiss his makeshift shield.

But then, a small portion of the vortex opened up and something entered the enclosed space, something small. Grey, noticing this, swiveled his body away from its path, breaking the ground where his feet were trapped

To his surprise, the violent circulation of wind opened up in front of him with enough space for him to walk through, but his surprise stayed for only so long when he saw what was beyond it. A massive gout of flames headed his way, making him widen his eyes. With the air around him now much denser than before, Grey had no issue materializing an earthen shield, a proper one this time.

The silhouette of a crouched figure appeared briefly in his vision, alerting him and making him turn the ground around him to liquified cement, with a part of it under Grey’s feel left untouched. The silhouette jumped up, holding his weapon up for a downward strike.

Grey raised his makeshift shield, attempting to block the hit. But it never came, instead, the figure dived down, dipping his legs in the liquid cement, and swinging his, now identifiable dagger to Grey’s legs. 

The fire subsided, and the blade of the dagger hit the cloth over Grey’s leg with a dull ‘thud’, the cloth protecting his leg even from the sharp edge of the weapon. 

“So, does that count?” Ryoto asked cheekily, glancing up at Grey who had an amused twinkle in his eyes.