Although for the regular students of the academy, learning some fighting skills was rather important, they had come to improve their worth after all, however, for the talent holders, their worth was already at an all-time high, and their talent did not always relate to swinging weapons or flinging spells.
There was a bloody trumpeter amidst them after all, though, despite having the most innocuous of talents, he was still a part of the twelve, mostly because he could use his music to inspire, enhance and help others in general, making him rather precious as part of an army, the only limit to his capabilities was the number of people that could hear him play.
Noticing that people were a bit reluctant after Griar was brutally taken down, he stepped up, but challenging Osworth instead, the robed man seemed less inclined to violence after all, with his incredibly composed behaviour and posture at all times, with the amount of concealing items and such, it was a bit difficult to guess what his proficiencies were.
Being part of a duo, many were under the assumption that he was more inclined towards magic, or something of that nature, once the fighting began, the bodyguard dodged a simple spell thrown his way like he was dodging a leaf carried by the wind, and ran up to the talent holder.
Looking like he was floating, he moved behind the boy and grabbed him, executing a perfect supplex.
"Ansonio, avoid making guesses about your opponent's specialties too early on" Rosemary told him, despite appearances, Osworth hadn't broken his skull with that beautiful grappling, he had stopped his momentum just before the youth's head impacted the ground.
After this, most of the regular students and non-combat oriented talent holders decided to challenge the robed man instead of his armoured compatriot, one was clearly much gentler than the other.
It mostly went the same as for Ansonio, displaying various grabs, grapples and throws to the other students.
Liebeln, with a talent for architecture, was demolished with a chokehold.
Marl, talented cleric had many miracles in his arsenal, all imbued with a trace of life for he was of the church of Phanes, he had not learned much hand-to-hand combat however, and saw himself slapped straight to the floor, falling flat like a pancake throw from the clouds, the poor young man unable to even do anything.
Osworth had taken him down faster than the previous two.
Equally ruthless to everyone, he subdued Minli, a very small girl with a talent relating to healing and medicine, by grabbing her by collar and lifting her off the ground, exactly like one would do for a rowdy kitten.
Next came Spula, incredibly talented in alchemy, she tried to throw a potion at him, the robed bodyguard simply catching it, one needed to mention that the young girl threw with even less strength than expected, here was one who did not do well in Rosemary's physical exercises.
He just calmly walked her out of the arena.
The last two talent holder's that challenged him were a bit more fit physically than the rest, the first was a tomboyish girl with many freckles on her face, Mamiel, with a talent for taming beasts, she also happened to have the temperament of one.
Osworth had to restrain completely before she gave up, giving him puppy eyes, that tactic was wholly ineffective.
And lastly, a bear of a man, he was the same age as everyone else, but was also a bear beastman, he did not only have the ears and tail, but also the stature, but it was all put toward his own specialty, smithing, so despite being very strong physically, Poho was defeated by being pushed to the ground and rolled off the arena.
"Well, I am a bit disappointed kids, none of you have managed to put up any good performances yet, despite Osworth being very nice to you all, allowing the first strike, guess I'll have to increase the difficulty of the next classes" their teacher smiled, asking for the next person to move forward.
By this point, most of the regular students had already tried their chances with the masked bodyguard, leaving the fight uninjured physically, but wounded emotionally, feeling like they had been treated as mannequins for him to test his moves on.
"I want to challenge Gelter!" someone said, prompting Osworth to get off the platform, shaking his colleague awake.
Despite seeing the proficiency of the composed bodyguard, the combat-oriented talent holders still wished to test themselves against the knight, a groan escaped the barred helm as he went into position, facing off against a girl with messy hair, holding onto a regular looking sword like it was her life.
"I am Hoffnu, talent holder in swordsmanship, thanks for the spar!" she greeted him energetically, Gelter just nodded off to the side.
Without any further pleasantries, he thrusted his blade into the ground once again, activating the gravitational pull once again, the sole battle art the knight had ever had the chance of learning, it did not possess the capability to be adjusted, and Gelter himself wasn't talented enough with the art to make changes as he wished, so the art's full power always showed when used.
It swept Hoffnu off the ground and pulled her in, getting his sword back, the knight cancelled the pull, swinging the sheath as her chin, the item moving much faster than when he had faced Griar, still, the swordswoman managed to deflect the attack, kicking at Gelter's crotch.
"Oi" the knight coudn't help but say something, there had been no hesitation, either this was a rather nasty habit, aiming under the belt, or she had thought of this plan before stepping onto the platform, eitherways, the knight found it fucked up to resort to such tactics right off the bat, in a friendly spar no less.
He dropped his scabbard, grabbing her ankle, before bonking the girl over the head with the flat side of his sword, multiple times.
"You are too young to be touching that"