Two days later, Ian was back in Sett's combat and physical education class. Everyone did their start-of-class warm-ups as Sett filled out some observation notes.
Once everyone was done, Sett split them into two groups. Those who have already fought against him and those who haven't.
The group that had already gone up against Sett was made to do element training, while the smaller group was moved towards the arena.
The last few students gathered near the arena, looking a bit nervous. Even Ian looked a bit worried about going up against Sett.
Sett stood on the arena platform, a cheerful look on his face as he looked down at everyone. He clapped his hands, gathering their attention. Without wasting any time, Sett said, "Alright, kids, let's get this started. Now, who wants to go first?"
Everyone seemed apprehensive at first until one student walked up. After the first student went up, more followed soon after.
None of the evaluation matches lasted very long. Only one student managed to surprise Sett with his unique fighting style, making the match last around 30 seconds.
Finally, it was Ian's turn. He was the last one to go up, both because Ian wanted to observe the other students first and because Sett wanted to save him for last.
Ian walked up to the arena feeling a bit confident in himself, but still nervous. Unlike the other students, Ian hadn't unlocked his elemental powers yet.
Sett stood ready to go against Ian, his smile as big as ever. However, he stopped himself as he too realized Ian's lack of elemental powers. He looked at Ian a bit concerned and said, "Ian, before we start, is there a weapon you would like to use? Since you don't have elemental abilities, you can use a weapon to make it a bit more fair."
Ian was a bit surprised by Sett's question. He expected to just fight Sett with his bare fists. Ian took a moment to observe Sett before saying, "I like using daggers."
Sett smiled at Ian before walking off the arena. He walked towards a storage room under the bleachers, going through the equipment in there. After a few minutes, he walked back holding a pair of daggers. Once he got back to the arena, he threw the daggers at Ian.
Ian quickly caught the daggers and inspected them. They were two simple wooden training daggers. There were no sharp edges to them, and they seemed a bit worn, but Ian didn't care.
He messed with them a bit, tossing them, spinning them, and testing their weight. They were a bit heavier than what he expected, but he could work with them.
After a few minutes, Ian was ready to go. Sett smiled upon seeing Ian's readiness. He stood up in a casual stance, just like the other times, ready to start.
Ian did a few stretches, making sure his limbs were nimble. Afterwards, he grabbed one dagger in his right hand as he got into his fighting stance. However, it didn't look like any normal fighting stance.
Everyone was going to pay close attention to this match. The students wanted to see what Ian was capable of doing. But as everyone watched, all their faces suddenly changed to one of confusion and disgust.
Ian got low to the ground, lower than anyone expected. His torso was only a few inches off the ground. He had his left arm and right leg stretched out, holding him up, while having his left leg close to his body for balance. He also had his right arm close to his side. He looked like a lizard that was going to pounce.
Even Sett was weirded out by the unusual stance. Even so, his smile didn't waver. He knew this match was going to be an interesting one.
Ian kept his stance, not moving an inch. His eyes were completely focused on Sett, observing him intently.
Sett stared back at Ian, taking in all of the information he could from Ian's unusual stance. It wasn't until he reached Ian's eyes that his smile disappeared. There was something strange about them. Though they were laser-focused on him, unmoving, they looked like they were changing, but they weren't. Sett couldn't quite understand what it was he was seeing, or not seeing, but Ian's eyes didn't look human.
But in the moment of Sett's confusion, Ian finally moved. Using as much power as possible, Ian launched himself forward, thrusting the practice dagger towards Sett's neck. His eyes never looked away from Sett.
In his confusion, Sett lost his focus and was slow to react to Ian's attack. Even so, he quickly bent backwards, evading the dagger.
Seeing his attack miss, Ian swiftly moves to grab Sett's shoulder, swinging himself around to strike at Sett's neck once more.
Sett felt Ian grab onto his shoulder and immediately grabbed his arm, pulling him off and swinging him around.
With Ian being pulled away by his arm, he changed up his attack using the momentum from Sett to swing himself further. He flipped the dagger in his hand and was now going to slam it into Sett's side.
Sett's face finally changed at this point, going from one of confusion to one of joy. His smile returned to him upon seeing Ian's movement. He quickly let go of Ian's arm and stepped away from the incoming attack.
Ian slid across the ground as he failed to hit Sett again. Once he came to a stop, he turned to face Sett once more. He took on a different stance as he stared at Sett.
Sett also stared at Ian with his iconic smile back on his face, but there was something off about him. Even though he was smiling, a cold sweat was starting to form on his forehead.
Staring into Ian's eyes once again, Sett finally realized why they looked strange, almost inhuman. Ian wasn't looking at him as an opponent or instructor. Ian was looking at him as if he were something else.
"Prey." The word appeared in Sett's mind. He now understood why Ian's eyes looked different from everyone else's. Even with this newfound understanding, Sett wasn't going to end the match quite yet. He had a feeling Ian had more in store.
Ian kept his focus on Sett once more, looking for an opening like before. He could feel a cold sweat forming on his face as well.
As the two kept staring at each other, not moving an inch, more sweat droplets formed on their faces.
Finally, one droplet ran down Sett's forehead slowly. It kept moving down, over his eyebrow, and onto the bridge of his nose, stopping there for a moment.
Even though he could feel the droplet on the bridge of his nose, Sett did not look away from Ian. He didn't even take a moment to blink. But the droplet had other plans.
The droplet stayed hooked on the bridge of Sett's nose, moving side to side. With a simple blow from the wind, the droplet tilted to one side and slid down into Sett's eye.
Sett couldn't resist anymore, feeling the drop of sweat enter his eye, he quickly blinked.
At that moment, Ian launched himself forward again. His dagger thrusted up towards Sett's throat.
Sett opened his eyes, seeing Ian approaching to attack. He finally had had enough of messing around and threw a punch at Ian.
Ian saw the incoming punch and quickly leaned forward, ducking under the fist. However, his momentum didn't stop, so Ian grabbed Sett's shirt, swinging himself around again.
Sett wasn't having it, though. He used the momentum from his punch to spin himself around, throwing his other hand to swat at Ian.
Ian wasn't slow to react. He expected Sett to do something like this, so he leaned back and slid on the ground, creating some distance.
Sett kept spinning around to face Ian again, but his eyes opened wide as he saw one of the wooden daggers flying towards his face. He quickly swatted it away, only to realize that Ian wasn't in front of him. He was behind him.
Ian threw another attack at Sett from behind, aiming at his side. Since Sett wasn't using more than a small portion of this power against his students, he wasn't fast enough to block the attack. He had to evade it instead, stepping away.
Sett stared at Ian once more, looking into his eyes. They were different this time. Ian's eyes weren't looking at him as prey anymore. They saw him as more.
Ian's eyes looked angry, observant, and calculating. They were studying Sett, almost like a predatory animal would to a possible threat and meal.
This wasn't a fight between teacher and student. Nor was it a fight between predator and prey. This was a fight for survival, and both of them knew it.
Sett wasn't going to pull his punches, he was going to fight back, even if not at full strength. He made the next move, running towards Ian, throwing a punch at him, but Ian was ready.
He moved around the incoming punch, swirling over it like a snake. He then slashed at Sett's face, but also missed.
The two of them weren't playing around anymore. They both kept attacking each other relentlessly, but not one could land a hit.
Sett was only throwing punches with the power and speed of a silver rank. Meanwhile, Ian was constantly switching up his movements, attacking and evading in unnatural and unusual ways. Every time Sett thinks he's figured out Ian's fighting style, he's thrown for a loop as Ian switches it up again.
To Sett, it felt like he was fighting different creatures, one after the other. He couldn't predict what Ian was going to do next. Even so, he wasn't going to make it easy for Ian either. He increased the power and speed behind his attacks slightly and began to push back Ian.
However, Ian had expected this. He dropped to the ground, taking the stance of a lizard again. Sett saw this and threw a punch downwards. But even before Sett attacked, Ian launched himself forward, going under Sett's legs. He then swept Sett's legs again, making him fall forward and punch the ground.
Before Sett could recover, Ian jumped on his back and thrust the wooden dagger towards Sett's neck again.
Sett couldn't react at all for the first time in the match and panicked. He instinctively increased his power and threw Ian off his back, quickly turning around to grab Ian by his leg before slamming him down on the ground with an audible crack as the stone platform broke underneath Ian.
After slamming Ian down, Sett realized what he had done and panicked even further. He quickly kneeled down to check on Ian, who had the wind knocked out of him.
"Shit! Are you okay?" Sett was filled with regret as he watched Ian struggle to get up.
Coughing to catch his breath, Ian was stunned. The sudden slam on the ground dazed him for a moment. Once he came to, he turned to Sett, wheezing. "I'm good. Nothing's broken." Ian's voice was raspy and quiet.
"No, I was in the wrong for slamming you. You should go to the nurse's office and get checked." Sett sighed in relief.
Ian got out of the small crater he was in and lay down on the flat surface. "Nah, I'm going to lie down for a moment. Please tell me your observations first." Ian still sounded a bit winded as he spoke.
Set nodded, sitting down on the floor to think for a moment. "Hm…You are definitely unusual. Your fight style is unlike anything I've ever seen."
Sett took another moment to think, choosing his words carefully. "You have excellent close combat capabilities. You're able to track your opponent's movements carefully and adjust effortlessly to their fighting style. Not only that, but you are capable of switching between multiple fighting styles to keep your opponent on their toes. Most of these fighting styles I've never seen. It felt like I was fighting a creature…no, multiple creatures, one after the other."
Sett turned to face Ian, looking a bit serious. "Where did you learn to fight like that? Was it from Erik?"
"No, no one taught me to fight. My dad did try to teach me, but I struggled with his lessons. I'm self-taught mostly. I did a lot of hunting back home and honed my skills that way." Ian got up from the ground, rubbing his back.
Sett scratched his beard, thinking for a moment. "Huh, you are quite unique. I would like to know what your range capabilities are, but you haven't ranked up to silver rank. I guess we'll have to wait and see what you can do."
Letting out a sigh, Sett continued, "Moving on, as I said, you're great at close combat, someone of the same level would struggle against you. However, it may be a different story against opponents who use elemental powers. We'll just have to see later on."
Sett stood up after talking and turned to the rest of the students, who were still stunned by what they saw. He then spoke to everyone in a more serious tone, saying, "Alright, everyone. Now that I've gauged all of you, starting next week, you'll be put into pairs. You will train with each other, helping one another to improve and develop your skills."
The students snapped out of their daze upon hearing Sett's voice. They looked at each other with worried looks. Only a few students seemed excited. Ian and Darren being two of them. Training was about to get more intense.