Chapter 19: Spar
After receiving the techniques and the sword, Athar returned to his room and carefully secured them. He did not want to risk carrying them around and misplacing them.
He did not linger in the room for long. Arriving at the training grounds a full half hour earlier than his scheduled spar with Ryler, he found the area bustling with activity. Students were scattered across the humungous training ground as they had formed invisible separate zones for themselves. Some were busy practicing alone, others with partners or in group and few were engaged in light spars too.
Apart from the large training grounds and training halls in which the practical classes were held, the academy also had smaller private training rooms, but they were not freely available. One had to spend points to gain access to them.
As Instructor Vale had mentioned during the first class, students were not allowed to randomly spar with one another. All duels required the supervision of an instructor.
If the spar was a full-powered duel—involving mana or the tamed beasts—then a designated instructor would oversee it. There were instructors hired specifically for this task. A student had to formally apply for such a duel, and then he could permission depending upon many factors like how much duels he had had in the past month and most importantly the availability of an instructor.
However, if students merely wanted to physically spar without mana or their beast involvement, the requirements were minimal. All they needed was to equip a mana sealing band, and they could then spar freely under the general supervision of training ground instructors.
Athar after arriving at the ground, began with warm-up exercises as time ticked by.
About five minutes before the scheduled time, Ryler arrived.
"You're early," Ryler commented, walking up to him with a grin.