August 3, 2152
It was Thursday, meaning the students still had two days of class left. Although Mars was lucky enough to have a rotational period like Earth and the Moon's, the farther outposts also followed the Earth calendar to better coordinate activities or events. They were in habitat units anyway, so the daylight cycle was artificial. Emory found Sam already awake when she got up.
"What are you doing up so early?" Emory yawned, "It's only 6:30am, and you look like you've already been up a little bit."
Sam replied, "I've been up since 6 meditating. I couldn't sleep after you read last night. I was exhausted from learning so much, but on top of that I was already worried. I had a nightmare that whatever the Fae ran from came to the Sol system. So, I woke up early and started practicing my magik." Honestly, Emory had woken up for a similar reason: to practice. That was when a better thought crossed her mind.
"What do you think about sparring then instead of meditating? On the holodeck, I mean," Emory asked. Sam nodded, and the two girls changed into jumpsuits for exercising. Then they made their way to the smaller holodeck near the cafeteria. Some students were using the holodeck; it was unsurprising with a class of ten thousand. However, they were a little caught off guard when Innes approached them.
"Good morning!" he heartily greeted them, "You two are up early. Are you going to do some training?"
Emory replied, "We were going to spar actually. Since you're here, do you mind watching and giving us some pointers?"
"On one condition," he said as he turned to Sam, "I want you to use a transformed form when sparring. For now, I'm imagining a bear without claws. Before you say anything, I have two reasons why. First, Emory and I are better fighters than you I'm guessing. Your raw strength as a bear should help balance the scales. Second, you'll probably being doing most of your fighting, in a real combat setting, in your animal forms." Sam huffed but couldn't argue with his logic. And if a bear was terrifying by itself, she could only imagine how terrifying a fighting bear would be. After considering it for a few moments, Sam nodded her head, and the three proceeded to the holodeck platform. Now that school was in session, one could really see the technological feat this machine was that could make up to five hundred separate platforms for students to practice.
As the three stood onto one of the platforms, it whirled into action and separated the group from the rest of the people. Innes stood in front of a console, selecting options from a display. When he was finished, the area looked like an open field in a meadow. Trees speckled the distant landscape, and a small stream trickled thirty feet away. Innes called over to Sam as he walked towards Emory, "Start transforming. I want Emory to spar in a special way as well." Sam nodded as her body began to glow a deep yellow.
"Are you sure about her being a bear? I know you think I'm a fighting prodigy, but I don't know if I'm better than a bear," Emory hissed as Innes got close.
"I'm hoping that you're at about the same level as she is in this form," Innes chuckled, "And I think I can teach you quickly how to match her for power."
Emory screamed, "What! How am I going to match the bear in strength?"
"With magik," Innes said as he made a shushing motion in front of his mouth, "I know you can use your magik a lot better than you're letting on. We're going to practice a technique I can only describe because even I can't do it. Instead of channeling your power just in your hands when you attack, I want you to try to cover as much of your body in magik as you can. Focus on contact points first, so you can match her for strength." Then he stepped back a few feet and closed his eyes for a moment to focus. When he opened them, flames began covering his hands and shooting up his arms to his shoulders. Emory looked down and noticed his feet were on fire as well, yet no other part of his body was. "This is all I can do for a little while now. But I don't think I've hit my limit yet. I think I need to find more challenging opponents and I think you could be one of them. Your fighting style is still undeveloped but raw like the bear. On the other hand, I saw your magic control right away. I promise, if you can master this form, you will be able to take on a different level of opponents," Innes carefully explained to Emory.
"For a meathead, Innes knows a lot about fighting," Emory thought. She understood exactly what he meant though, at least when he attempted to describe magik. After a deep breath, she closed her eyes and imagined magik being drawn around her body like a second layer of skin. When she opened her eyes, she had covered her arms to her shoulders, up through her neck, and around her head, almost like some sort of helmet, in a glowing translucent energy. It wasn't anywhere else on her body, but Innes's jaw still dropped. It had taken him years of magik training to be able to control this much, and this girl, on her first attempt, covered the same amount of area. He tried his best to hide his excitement, though, since he was clearly right that she could be the one to push him.
While this was taking place, the yellow glow had consumed Sam's entire body. Then it began to shimmer followed by a crackling sound coming from the shimmer. Next the glow expanded and changed into the size of a seven-foot tall, four-hundred-pound grizzly bear. When the glow stopped, a beautiful almond bear stood before them on all fours. She shook her body all over, and magik particles seemed to fly off like water droplets. Seeing this amazing transformation immediately drew Emory and Innes's attention.
"You're so beautiful!" Emory squealed, "Can you still speak in that form?"
"Thank you. Yep, I can speak in every form. If my mouth can't accommodate speaking, I gain a temporary form of telepathy," Sam replied in a deep growly voice.
"That's more impressive than I imagined," Innes said as he moved in between the two, "The rules of this spar are simple. This is for training only, so don't try to hurt each other. I'll step in if you get too hot-tempered. Otherwise, just feel each other out and exchange blows. Let's try to keep this to a fist fight too." He stepped out of the way of the two of them with his hand raised in the air. "3, 2, 1," he called until he dropped his arm. Immediately, the two charged at each other. When they got in close contact, Sam was faster as a bear and threw a wide swipe like a haymaker at Emory. However, Emory countered with a palm strike to the bear's forearm. It held off the bear and put the two at a standstill, an amazing feat to see a teenager hold it off. Then Emory reacted faster and jabbed a spear-hand strike into Sam's chest. Though it didn't break the skin, the blow hit hard enough to knock Sam off balance and move out of the way of his first swipe. The two paused for a minute and stared at each other. Neither girl had expected a net tie between the two.
Sam was surprised that someone the same age as her was able to use magik to the degree that they could fend off a bear, albeit without claws. However, it was even more surprising because Sam had not held back in that strike. Inside she was starting to feel a little jealous that Emory might be this powerful witch.
On the other hand, Emory was caught off guard that magik could be this powerful. She didn't know if that was the extent of Sam's bear strength or not, but she was just getting warmed up on her end. She grinned at Sam and pointed over at her, "I hope you've got more than that because I'm just getting started." Emory dashed over to Sam and struck her with a knife-hand chop, an overhead open palm style she had learned from Innes the day before. The blow stung, but Sam quickly batted it away and attempted to counterstrike, but Emory quickly hopped back in the opposite direction.
From the side, Innes was smiling quite brightly. He saw how well she was already incorporating magik into the strikes he had just taught her yesterday. True, her actual strikes were wide, slow, and easy to predict, yet she infused her power perfectly into every strike. It was indeed a fair fight between these beasts of land and magik.
Sam focused harder on her bear form, increasing the bear's speed and strength. Now she was quite a bit faster than Emory and she thought stronger, but when she took a quick swipe at Emory, a single palm strike to the forearm once again parried away the paw. Though this time, Emory didn't block as much as she deflected the blow and allowed Sam's forward momentum to continue. With her other hand, she performed a single palm strike to Sam's chest and threw her back several feet. This wasn't without its downsides as it was much harder to deflect the blow than just block it, so Emory had a large paw mark on the side of her forearm as well.
The two continued in this fashion for about fifteen minutes until the two stopped and sat on the ground. The same light as before came from Sam as the process reversed itself and Sam lay there panting. She rolled over and lay on her back; it was clear that Emory had won that bout.
"Did you know you could fight a bear? Because I didn't know you could fight a bear. In fact, if I could fight a bear, that would be something I advertised," Sam complained between her huffing.
"I thought it was supposed to be a workout for both of us," Emory laughed, "Besides, you were no normal bear. That would have been the fastest and strongest grizzly bear ever!" Sam laughed as well, but Emory wasn't wrong. Sam had never pushed her bear form that far before. When she shifted into a land animal, often it would be this bear. However, this marked the longest continuous time she had stayed in that form. And using her magik, she had pushed the bear's physique to her limits; it was no lie that that would have been the strongest and fastest bear alive.
Innes beamed as he walked over to the two, "You two continue to impress me. Honestly, you would both be among the top fighters at our level. Fifteen minutes of high intensity sparring like this is normally a feat performed at the end of the year, not the beginning. Sam, I think you should try out our Hand-to-Hand class today. It looked like you had fun. Let's just meditate until it's time for breakfast though, otherwise you two will be exhausted for lessons today." The two girls agreed and spent the next thirty minutes focusing their magik. Then they used the locker rooms to get ready before they headed off to the other three in their group in the cafeteria. Tana and Tethys seemed surprised to see Emory up so early; conversely, her wild curls told a story with less choice involved.
Breakfast went quickly, and afterwards, Sam joined Emory and Innes on the way to the Hand-to-Hand class. Boyle was already there, watching the students come in. As the class was about to begin, she noticed the class make up had changed quite a bit, so she started the class off with reviewing the palm strike with everyone. Boyle let them all practice for about thirty minutes before bringing their attention to the front again. She showed the class the spear-hand and the knife-hand at this point, but Innes had already shown those two to Emory. Boyle let the class practice the two new strikes for thirty more minutes before giving them a quick break to get water or go to the restroom.
When the class reconvened, Boyle split them into pairs to practice making these strikes towards a target. Many of the students, especially those that just transferred in, were still having difficulties building up magik to make successful strikes in the first place, but Innes, Emory, and Sam were some of the exceptions. Surprisingly, even Sam found herself in this group because, while she lacked the physical basics, her sphere worked exactly like this type of combat. In fact, Sam thought she may be able to put magik on the outside of her transformed forms as well with enough practice. Emory paired up with Innes, which pushed away some of the smaller sparring matches. When the two practiced striking, it looked like a flurry of blows. Neither seemed to have an edge, although that could have been by design just as easily as in reality. Though they were both holding back, some of their magik was leaking out, leading to tiny flames of red and clear being shot out all over the place. Not only did it attract the attention of those around them, but it also got the notice of Boyle herself.
"Clearly these two have a background in fighting," Boyle thought initially, but then she watched the fight a little closer. To the average person, this looked like a normal spar between two people of the same fighting style. To a professional like Boyle, though, it was a contest between martial arts and magik. Innes's strikes were precise and polished, as if he had been fighting since a young age, yet his magik was still undisciplined and on the weaker side. Emory, on the other hand, had perfect control over her strikes, doing exactly enough to push back Innes but not enough to damage him, but her method was raw and easy to forecast. If she remained the aggressor, the onus was on Innes to strike the correct spot for a block every time because it would only take one strike for her to gain the upper hand. "Except," Boyle surmised, "If this boy has the skill to counter her magik with physical strikes alone, one could assume he could change his footwork and take control of this spar at any point. Still, they're both students to watch."
After thirty more minutes, Boyle had the class take another break and then continue with different partners. She emphasized frequent breaks both to give the students a chance to catch their breath as well as to increase their intensity in the short time frame. This time Emory sparred with Sam, but it was clear that Emory had some background in self-defense while Sam did not. Boyle continued to rotate the students every thirty minutes, and while a few other pairings generated buzz, it didn't compare to the one between Innes and Emory. The group sauntered off to lunch.
"Did you enjoy the Hand-to-Hand class, Sam?" Innes asked as they walked to the line for food.
"I actually did," Sam remarked, "While I've still got a long way to go in the fighting aspect, I feel like I have a good handle on using my magik that way. With my sphere what it is, Hand-to-Hand feels natural."
Innes nodded, "I figured you would after seeing you spar as a bear. Emory, what about you?"
"I like Hand-to-Hand class fine enough already," Emory explained, "Now, I just need to get better. How often do you train? In the morning, I mean, like today."
"I practice every day, sometimes twice a day. Training to be the best is very important to me," Innes proudly boasted.
"He's not joking either," Gatrie said as he joined the line with them, "He was leaving the room at 6am this morning, and I always saw him in the gym at secondary school in the morning too."
Emory thought for a moment then asked, "If that's true, could I go with you? Sam, are you interested in coming too?"
"Coming to what? I don't like being left out," Tana interrupted as she joined the group as well.
"I wanted to practice martial arts with Innes in the mornings," Emory detailed, "I want to use my sphere to its maximum potential."
Innes shrugged, "The more, the merrier." Yet, secretly, he was thrilled at the prospect of training with Emory. "I'll break through this wall yet," he thought to himself.
"Well, if everyone else is going to be doing it," Tethys said as she joined the group, "I want to be there too. I'll try not to slow the rest of the group down."
"Oh man, I'll have to get up so early," Gatrie whined. The others just laughed and sat down with their food.