In the middle of a gymnasium, about thirty students could be seen standing in three rows of ten. All of them had rigid positions as they stood at attention like soldiers. In front of them, as if she were their major, stood a tall woman with black long hair and a combat uniform. She had a serious expression on her face and a long sword could be seen sheathed on her left side.
"As you may know, the Rising Espers Tournament is just two weeks away. So from today until the tournament, we will be focusing on reinforcing your strengths and compensating for your weaknesses. You are students from the Hyperion Academy, and as such, I expect only outstanding performances from you all during the tournament." She said with a severe tone while looking at her students in which only determined looks could be seen. "You have five minutes to change into combat uniforms and come back."
"Yes ma'am!" the students replied in unison, then they left the gymnasium and headed towards the changing rooms.
"Seth" the woman called out as she approached Seth before he could leave the gymnasium.
"Ma'am," Seth said as he stopped walking and stood at attention again.
"At ease Seth," she said. Seth's posture as well as her expression relaxed.
"What's the matter, Mrs. Cunningham?" Seth asked.
"Seth, even though you are one of the best students, I would advise you not to participate in the tournament. The Rising Espers Tournament is already dangerous enough with an ability, the fact that you still haven't awakened yours would not only make it even more dangerous but would also make it less worthwhile since the best you could be offered is a place in the HSA's non-esper police force. Even if you plan to awaken it during the tournament thanks to the stress it will place on you, you would still be a step 1 manifestation-stage esper and you can't close the gap between you and the other espers just with combat ability." Mrs. Cunningham had a concerned and sad look on her face as she said this. "There's nothing to be ashamed of Seth, with the combat strength you have you would have been one of Hyperion Academy's strongest espers if only you would have awakened your ability at the same time as the rest of espers. But the ability awakening is pure luck, a lot of espers never awaken their ability. I've heard from your other teachers that you are the smartest student in your grade level. Maybe you should consider following an academic career."
"Thank you for your concern Mrs. Cunningham, but if I give up on my dream without even trying, I'll regret it my whole life. The possibility to awaken my ability is enough for me to want to participate in the tournament." Seth said with a determined look.
"Okay, just think about it carefully. Now go change your combat uniform, the class is about to start." With this Seth left for the changing rooms. 'Poor kid, even if the tournament pushes everyone to its limits, the percentage of late-awakening espers is still under 1% within those who didn't awaken it during the normal time period, it's almost a miracle to be a late-awakening esper.' Mrs. Cunningham thought as she watched Seth run towards the changing rooms.
As the five minutes ended, all the students could be seen again formed into three rows of ten and standing at attention, now wearing combat uniforms.
"In order to improve your combat ability for the tournament, from today until the tournament you will be sparring against your classmates. The conditions of the spar will change in each class. Today, for instance, you will be sparring without weapons and you won't be allowed to use your ability. To ensure this, a restriction seal has been activated inside the gymnasium. As some of you can already tell, even if you want to activate your ability you won't be able to." Mrs. Cunningham said as she pointed to a complex pattern that was shining on one of the gymnasium's walls. "I'll be choosing the pairs for sparring, each pair will enter one ring, then after I give the signal you will begin the match. You win your match when your opponent surrenders, when they step out of the ring or when they are knocked out. After every spar has finished everyone will spar against a different opponent, the objective being defeating as many opponents as you can" She said as she pointed to the different circles that could be seen in the gymnasium. Each one of them had a diameter of around 15 meters and there were 17 circles. "Now I'll indicate the groups: Vance and Kynon, Rion and Zarah, Isis and Regine, Jake and Owen, Seth and Ethan..."
One by one each pair began entering the rings and after some minutes all 17 rings had a pair inside them. The reason why Mrs. Cunningham chose the sparring pairs herself was because not everybody was at the same level, and for them to improve they had to spar against someone who was at their same level. For example, if they sparred against someone better it would be a one-sided beating, and if they sparred against someone weaker they wouldn't gain anything. Each combat had to be difficult to win for each student, however, it couldn't be perfect. Not everyone could have an opponent at their same level, and that was why the pairs would change after each spar. This was the case for the 3 strongest students in the class in terms of combat strength: Jake, Seth, and Ethan. Of these three the one who possessed the best combat technique was Seth followed by Ethan and then Jake, however, when it involved combats with the use of abilities Seth couldn't keep up with Ethan and Jake since he didn't have an ability. In that case, the most powerful esper of the class was Ethan followed by Jake, they were both step 3 integration stage espers, however, the control Ethan had over his ability in addition to his better combat technique made him stronger.
As Seth entered the circle a boy could be seen standing on the other side of the ring. He had black short hair and beautiful emerald eyes. He looked at Seth arrogantly as he entered the ring.
"Look who it is, the defective," Ethan said while smirking. Seth only looked coldly at him.
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