Chapter 19 – Class Struggles

"And the winner is Petra!" Miss Kane announced with a huge smile on her face. Then she looked pointedly at Henderson's father. "And all done without one of the Contestants dying. So let me be clear: for the rest of the bouts, armbands will be worn. There won't be any death here today. Now… are you both OK?" She'd turned her attention to both Petra and Henderson, who were both slowly returning to their feet. Henderson nodded, looking a little sheepish.

Petra was staring down at herself with a confused look on her face.

"I… I got a Class…" she said under her breath.

Miss Kane was the only person to hear her.

"What was that?" Miss Kane asked.

"I got a Class!" Petra exclaimed in delight.

"Amazing!" Miss Kane replied, then turned to the crowd. "Our very first White-Ranked Contestant to gain her Class this season! Tell us Petra, what is your Class?"

Petra smiled as though it was obvious, and just what she'd been hoping for. "Rogue!"

The crowd cheered and whistled, and Petra was the only person close enough to hear Henderson mutter something under his breath.

"I got my Class too."

"Isn't that something, ladies and gentlemen?" Miss Kane returned to her full announcer mode. "This is something that will happen to all of the Contestants you see here today. It may not happen directly after their first fight as we can see with Petra here, but rest assured, it will happen. Classes are an integral part of the Arena and what we do here, and to be present when a Contestant breaks through that boundary is something truly special. So let's move on to the next round, shall we? Let's have Alexandria and Vincent next."

Jordan waited for Petra to return to the edge of the sands after she'd been given a health potion by Miss Kane, which returned her bleeding neck to its previous un-cut state.

"You did so great," Jordan said to her, taking hold of her arms.

Petra was smiling, but her eyes were scanning the crowd.

"He went outside," Jordan said knowingly. "I don't think he could watch."

"Right," Petra replied. "Well, we better go see him."

Then Petra and Jordan quietly removed themselves from the training sands, and just outside the door they found Titus, who was still doubled over and holding his neck. It had stopped bleeding, but blood stained his shirt, hands, and the floor beneath him.

"God! Titus!" Jordan exclaimed. "What's happened‽ Petra, go get help!"

"It's alright," Titus said, holding a hand out. "It's stopped now, just… give me a minute." He took a deep breath, stood up, and asked: "Did you win?"

Petra grinned and nodded, but Jordan looked horrified at the deep cut that rounded Titus' neck. It was identical to the one that Petra'd had.

"What's wrong with you two?" Jordan asked, his eyes bulging. "Were you attacked? It couldn't've been Henderson; he was in the fight the whole time, but maybe he paid…"

"It wasn't Henderson," Titus said with a sigh. "Well, I guess it was technically him." Jordan couldn't've looked more confused if he tried and looked to Petra for a better explanation.

"We're going to have to tell him," she said. "I think we all need to be honest with each other, right?"

Titus nodded, then spent the next couple of minutes coming clean to Jordan about the boar, the fight they'd had, the experience, his Capacitor Class and finally, the skill: Sacrifice.

With each moment that passed, Jordan looked more and more surprised, and in some cases a little confused.

"I knew something was up…" Jordan said once Titus had finished. "I knew something changed when we were fighting that Spectral Harbinger… that was you, wasn't it? You saved us both… and you never even took any credit."

"I didn't think I could…" Titus replied. "We still don't even know what this Class is, let alone what it means. Have you ever heard of it?" He added hopefully.

"No…" Jordan replied. "But then beyond the main Classes, Contestants don't usually go around telling everyone what they're capable of."

"Then we're still dealing with this alone," Petra said. "But you're going to have to fight in a minute, and you can't go out there looking like that. I'll go and see if I can get another health potion from Miss Kane; I'm sure she won't mind, seeing as we seem to need them on an almost daily basis at this point." Petra disappeared through the door and returned a moment later with a glass bottle filled with the red health potion. Handing it to Titus, both Petra and Jordan watched as he chugged the liquid, then his health pool returned almost all the way back to full, less a handful of points. The cut on his neck also all but disappeared, though if someone were to really look for it, the thin line was still visible.

"What about all the blood?" Jordan asked. "He looks like he's straight up murdered someone - especially seeing as he doesn't have a scratch on him."

Petra gestured to her own blood-soaked shirt, and then her hands and face. Then she wiped her bloodstained hands on both the boys. "You both must've just got some of my run-off when you congratulated me on my victory," she said. "Plus, everyone's pretty dirty out there already.

"Right," Titus said, exhaling loudly. "Let's get back in there and see about having a fight in front of all of these nice people."

"I hope she doesn't pair you two up together," Petra said. "If Titus keeps getting beaten to a pulp, then I think they're going to cut off our health potion supply."

Titus frowned. "You don't think I can take him?" he asked, gesturing towards Jordan.

Jordan grinned. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

Clapping echoed out of the training arena, and it caused the three to turn to look through the door, seeing that the next fight had finished. Thankfully, this time there didn't seem to be any bloodshed.

"Ah, Titus," Miss Kane announced as soon as she noticed the movement at the door. "Why don't you come and pair up with Reagan? I think that would be a good showing."

Reagan was a young girl with long red hair braided down her back. She was relatively small compared to many of the other White-Ranked Contestants, and if Titus had to guess, she was probably planning on becoming a Rogue Class like Petra had become. It suited him well because from the size of him, he thought people would assume Titus planned to be a Rogue himself, or perhaps a Spellcaster. Either way he was silently glad that he didn't have to fight Jordan, who not only was much bigger than him, but also knew a great deal about how to fight properly. They'd all trained well for the past week, but a single week's training was never going to make up for a lifetime of preparation - even if the teaching methods had been somehow magically enhanced by the Instructors' skills.

Titus moved out into the centre of the sands as everyone watched in silence. Nobody seemed fazed by his bloodied attire though, which was a relief in itself.

He peered across at his opponent, who was standing empty-handed.

"Would either of you like to select training weapons for this display?" Miss Kane asked.

"No," Reagan said quickly before Titus could answer. He was going to select a wooden sword and shield if he had the choice because he liked the thought of having something between him and his opponent, but he didn't object. If he had to fight bare-handed, then so be it.

"For the people!" Both Titus and Reagan announced. The warm, tingly feeling washed over Titus a second before he was thrown into his very first contest.

Reagan came at Titus with a flurry of regimented blows. They didn't look powerful, but they were coming with such speed that he knew he'd do best to keep out of their path. He adopted the standard fighting pose, and when one punch came a little too close for his liking he slapped it away with his palm.

The impact hurt his palm and sent a minor shock up his arm, but it did no damage to his health pool nonetheless. The slap that rang out was deafening, and it caused Reagan to pause for a second. She clearly hadn't expected Titus to meet her fist with his palm.

With her punch caught early, her balance was challenged, and she took a single step backward. To Titus, this was in itself the greatest victory he could've hoped for.

Reagan then balled her fists and attempted the very same punch, again with the same result.

"Close the distance!" Petra's voice rang out. It was all that Titus could hear, and where Reagan took a step back, Titus took a step forward to press his advantage.

Reagan's face reddened with embarrassment, and again she began throwing a flurry of straights and hooks at Titus. He did his best to keep out of the way of them, but he still kept moving forwards, keeping control of the space between them.

A few punches landed and he saw his health pool drop by one to three points with each, depending on where and how hard they landed.

"Fight back! Throw a punch!" Petra shouted.

In the other fights there had been no such coaching, but nobody seemed to object, so it must've been within the rules.

But Titus had no reason to fight back, not yet at least. Sure, if it carried on indefinitely, then he would lose all of his health points, but from what he could see of his opponent, the fight was going to be over long before that was going to happen.

Reagan's eyes were almost entirely closed with effort and frustration as she tried her hardest to use her speed to her advantage. But she wasn't that much faster than Titus, and he parried and dodged over and over until he found his opening.

And then he saw it.

Reagan's body leant back in one final vow to knock Titus down, and before she knew it and as her fist flew through the air, Titus took a large step to his left, and the girl stumbled forward. He was just quick enough to stick out a foot for her to trip over and stumble to the ground.

Titus smiled to himself and turned, holding out a hand for Reagan to take and bring herself back up to her feet, but she didn't take it. Instead, she brushed herself off and re-readied her fighting stance. Titus could respect that.

As Reagan resumed her side of the fight, Titus couldn't help but think about what Petra had said earlier: "Fight back! Throw a punch!" His reluctance to strike back had been partly due to an aversion to harming others, but in this controlled training environment, perhaps it was necessary to demonstrate his own abilities.

But he'd never, not once purposefully hurt someone before in his entire life.

Reagan launched another series of quick punches, but this time Titus didn't just parry and dodge. He began to deflect her strikes with quick movements, using his palm and forearm to redirect her blows. It was still a defensive strategy, one meant to tire her out rather than harm her but he knew eventually he'd have to fight back when he saw an opening.

Reagan's frustration grew again as her punches continued to miss their mark.

Titus kept his focus on maintaining his defences, moving to evade or block her strikes and still taking minimal reductions to his health pool.

Slowly but surely, he noticed her movements becoming less fluid, her attacks losing their speed.

Then with one swift motion, Titus closed the distance between them, grabbing Reagan's arm mid-punch. He didn't exert any force; instead, he used her momentum against her, guiding her past him as she stumbled forward.

Reagan, off balance and clearly exhausted, stumbled to the sand once more. This time, she didn't immediately get up. She lay there, panting heavily, her shoulders rising and falling with each laboured breath.

Titus knew this was his opportunity to end the fight, so just as Petra had done, he quickly climbed on top of Reagan and pinned her down and where Petra had choked out Henderson, Titus had no idea of the technique to use so he simply pretended to know what he was doing and to his amazement, Reagan signified her surrender.

"I yield!" She announced, and Titus stood up and held a hand out for her to take. This time she took it.

The crowd, initially surprised by Titus's defensive tactics, erupted into applause. It hadn't been a particularly violent fight, but it had been fun to watch nonetheless.

Miss Kane approached the two Contestants. "Well done to both of you," she said with a smile. "You've demonstrated exceptional control and strategy. Reagan, you fought valiantly. Please take this as a valuable learning experience: speed is not everything, especially when your own speed isn't that much better than your opponent's. And Titus, planning on becoming a Dodge Tank are we?"

Titus had no idea what that was, but it sounded like something he didn't want to be.

"Now did either of you have your Class awarded?" Miss Kane asked.

"Yes!" Reagan announced with a shriek. "I'm a Rogue!"

A round of applause and whistles rang out for Reagan, who couldn't stop smiling.

"And you?" Miss Kane asked Titus.

He looked down at his feet and shook his head slowly. He wanted to tell Miss Kane about his Capacitor Class, to ask what it meant or what he was supposed to do with it, but he still felt like the time was wrong.

"No," he eventually replied.

Miss Kane stared at Titus for a moment with an expression he couldn't quite read, then nodded and turned away, dismissing both him and Reagan from the training sands.

The training session continued, with two more pairs of Contestants stepping onto the sands in turn to showcase their skills. By the end of the rounds, everyone had been awarded their Class, except for a boy named Arthur, who'd shown prowess in both attack and defence. Presumably, The God of Balance was having a hard time deciding to place him as either a Warrior or Defender.

Jordan, who'd faced a boy named Grayson, and who'd been Classed after the fight as a Warrior, also won his round. He actually made it look easy, taking Grayson in a headlock and walking him around the sands until he admitted defeat. Jordan had then been awarded the Defender Class.

"That was pretty good," Petra said with a grin. "And Titus, you know you're going to have to throw a punch eventually, right?"

Jordan nodded. "Yeah, you're good at dodging, but that won't help you against some of the monsters we're going to have to face out there. You're going to have to fight back, my friend."

Titus smiled. "That's what I've got you two for right? Me, a Rogue, and a Defender. Sounds like a good team to me."

"Well, it would be if we had a Warrior on our side, but we don't fight in groups of four, so that's out. It means we'll be relying on Petra to do all the damage. I don't know if it'll be enough."

Petra put her hands on her hips. "Just you wait and see what I can do, maybe I'll surprise you just like I did Henderson."

Nobody mentioned that Titus had helped significantly in that fight.

"Well, let's just see how it goes," Titus said. "And if I need to learn to throw a punch… then I guess I'll just ask Henderson to teach me."

Petra hit Titus hard on the arm.

"See, I can hit pretty hard," she said as Titus saw two of his health points drain away. "And I didn't see you dodge it either."