"HYAAAAAH!"
With a spirited shout, a halberd swung down.
Naturally, the blade was blunted, but a weapon that combined a spear and an axe possessed enough sheer weight to kill a person easily.
...Provided it actually landed, of course.
"Too naive."
Evading the halberd by a hair's breadth, Vihera stepped in and threw a punch.
It wasn't an especially powerful strike, but it was more than enough for the woman sparring against her. She crumpled to the floor.
"Next."
The word was brief, but at its sound, a man stepped forward with a club in hand.
Clubs were common weapons. Even Goblins frequently used them, after all.
...Of course, the clubs Goblins wielded were basically just branches snapped off nearby trees—not properly crafted weapons by any stretch.
In contrast, the club the man carried had been carefully whittled with its center of balance in mind, and leather was wrapped around the grip to prevent slipping.
"Here I go!"
With a shout, the man lunged forward and swung his club at Vihera.
"No matter how powerful the swing, a wide arc is—"
Unlike with the halberd moments before, Vihera sidestepped while lightly touching the club, redirecting its momentum.
The weapon's trajectory was effortlessly altered, and it slammed into the floor.
"Wha—!?"
The man let out a dumbfounded gasp, clearly not expecting his strike to be deflected so easily. Before he even realized what had happened, his body was slamming against the floor.
His club hand had been seized, his legs swept, and the resulting momentum used to drive him into the ground—though the man himself had no understanding of any of it.
Not that he suffered any real damage. Vihera had pulled him up slightly right before impact, cushioning the fall.
While Rei and Vihera were overwhelming their opponents, the third member of their group, Byune, had a somewhat different experience.
"Mm!"
Byune dodged a blunted spear thrust aimed her way and tried to use her speed to dive straight into her opponent's guard. But the spearman knew his own weakness—once someone slipped inside his reach, he was vulnerable.
And since the small-statured Byune was wielding a blunted short sword, her options were limited from the start. That was precisely why he was able to react in advance.
"Hah!"
As Byune ducked into his guard, the man closed the distance himself.
He pressed in until they were too close for her to swing the short sword. Once that happened, the next moment was inevitable: their bodies collided head-on.
And in a head-on collision, weight was what mattered most.
If she had physical strength belying her appearance like Rei, or the masterful footwork and body control of Vihera, things might have been different. Byune had improved considerably compared to before, but she didn't possess that level of sheer skill.
Against amateurs or freshly minted adventurers, she could probably manage such feats. But the man she faced now was her equal—no, slightly her superior.
Unable to deflect his attacks so easily, she was naturally blown backward by the difference in weight when they clashed.
"Mm!"
But Byune was honed daily as a member of the Crimson Lotus Wings. Even as the impact sent her flying, she twisted her body midair, recovered her stance, and landed cleanly on the floor.
Admiring murmurs rose from the onlookers watching nearby.
Of course, among those present, more than a few could have pulled off the same feat.
But they could do it now, at their current age and skill level. Asked whether they could have managed the same when they were Byune's age, not many would have been able to answer honestly in the affirmative.
The spectators understood this full well—which was exactly why they voiced their admiration for her ability.
"Mm!"
"Come at me!"
Byune called out sharply upon landing, and the spearman responded with a shout of his own.
Their duel resumed, but overall, the man was simply the stronger fighter.
Byune fought to slip inside his guard, but his spear work was masterful and refused to give her the opening. In the end, he spotted a gap in her movement, the spear darted in, and the match was decided with the blunted tip hovering before Byune's face.
...Though if this had been a real fight, the outcome would likely have been different. Byune would have used Long Needles, and her actual weapon would have been Hakumo, forged from Silver Lion materials.
Of course, if Byune used her real weapons, the man would have used his as well—so how that would have turned out was anyone's guess.
"Gnnn..."
While Vihera and Byune worked through their matches, Rei was likewise running through sparring partners one after another.
After Edwald fell in the opening bout, hopefuls had lined up in rapid succession. Now the eighth man was on his knees, having just absorbed one of Rei's strikes.
"Yeah, I'd say you've got decent instincts. The moment you took my hit, you relaxed your body and tried to deflect the force. But your transition into that was too slow. That's why you couldn't shed most of the impact, and here you are. Once you can do it reflexively instead of having to think about it, you'll reach the next level."
Naturally, reaching that point required enduring countless attacks until the deflection became pure reflex. This was where raw talent and instinct truly came into play, and individual variation was enormous.
Vihera, for instance, could perform such movements almost purely on instinct, with barely any training at all. But whether the man before him possessed that caliber of talent—Rei couldn't honestly say yes.
That said, everyone in this training ground had a certain baseline of ability.
...More precisely, since demand for today's sparring session with Rei had been overwhelming, Edwald had handpicked the most promising candidates. That was the reality.
Edwald didn't own the training ground, but as the de facto coordinator among its regulars, everyone accepted his decisions.
If every hopeful had been allowed to participate, the crowd would have been unmanageable. There was simply no way everyone could have gotten their match—even people who had never used this training ground before had shown up wanting in once word spread.
Rei was widely feared in Gilm, but no one regarded him as a man who resorted to violence without cause. And since his strength was beyond dispute, the moment word spread of a chance to spar with him, it was only natural that hopefuls had come flooding in.
"Next up is... huh, barehanded? That's unusual."
The woman who stepped before Rei next wore Hand Gauntlets extending to her elbows.
A woman, hand-to-hand combat—Rei glanced toward Vihera, who was energetically enjoying her own matches. But the woman standing before him was decidedly not clad in the kind of flimsy attire Vihera favored.
"Please!"
With a sharp call, the woman surged forward.
The greatest advantage of unarmed combat was that the body itself became the weapon. Unlike a longsword or spear, gauging distance was instinctive.
...Being unburdened by a weapon also made one lighter, but the Hand Gauntlets she wore were solidly built—heavier than a short sword, without question.
Which meant her attacks were unlikely to be any faster than a short sword thrust. And sure enough, the fist she launched at Rei had speed, but compared to a thrust from a blade—even Byune's—it fell somewhat short.
Rei sidestepped the blow and swept his spear's butt cap low.
Though "swept" wasn't quite right. More precisely, he placed the butt cap exactly where the woman's foot would land, letting her trip over the shaft herself.
"Kyah!"
Rei had already slipped past her attack. The woman whirled around in panic—and the next moment her feet tangled on the spear and she pitched forward onto the floor with a shriek.
She had no idea what had just happened to her.
Even so, she managed to push herself upright from the floor, only to find the blunted spear tip hovering right before her eyes.
Checkmate, plain and simple.
"I get that you want to prioritize landing a hit, but when your opponent has a long-reach weapon like a spear, you need to watch for that too."
"...Yes."
The woman replied, looking genuinely crestfallen.
From her perspective, she had never even gotten a proper exchange in—she had charged, caught her foot on the spear, and gone down. Her disappointment was understandable.
Perhaps sensing this, Rei offered a few words of consolation.
"I've only got one more person on my end. Once that's done, I'll give you another round."
"R-really!?"
"Yeah. So take some time and think about how to actually fight me before the next one."
"Ugh... yes."
The woman was the only one granted a second chance to spar with Rei. The others who had already faced him weren't pleased about it.
It was understandable—they had each gotten only one shot, while she alone received a second.
Even Edwald, who coordinated the group, was casting envious glances her way.
"Ah, can't be helped. She lost without barely getting to do anything. The rest of you at least had a real exchange with me, right? Good enough, wouldn't you say?"
Even so, a few still wore looks of dissatisfaction—tinged, however, with unmistakable hope as they stared at Rei.
Rei hesitated for a moment over what to do...
"Fine, all of you come at me at once! But since it's a melee, be prepared for some bumps and bruises!"
Vihera's voice rang out across the training ground.
Rei turned toward the sound. What was unfolding there was a many-against-one brawl—Vihera alone against ten adventurers.
Under normal circumstances, that kind of numerical advantage should have meant Vihera getting swarmed and overwhelmed. But Vihera's individual prowess effortlessly eclipsed the combined strength of the others.
The result was something that barely qualified as a fight—the ten were being utterly routed.
The fact that it resembled a battle at all was only because Vihera was deliberately pulling her punches.
Watching the melee, Rei spoke up.
"Sounds good. Once my last one-on-one is finished, if any of you still want a piece of me, you can all come at once like that. That work for everyone?"
"Please."
Edwald was the first to jump in. The others followed his lead, nodding in unison.
Reasoning that one decisive melee was better than an endless string of one-on-one bouts, Rei accepted.
"Alright then. Last one-on-one—let's go."
At those words, the final challenger stepped forward: a man wielding a blade in each hand—something between a short sword and a long sword. A Middle Sword, one might call it.
"Please!"
Whether aiming to seize the initiative, he closed the distance with Rei in a single explosive burst, trying to get inside the spear's reach and fight on his own terms.
Rei read the intent instantly and delivered a rapid series of sharp thrusts—using the spear's butt cap.
The man tried to close inside the spear's range, but he couldn't find a single opening in the relentless barrage. In the end, he was struck repeatedly by the butt cap, pummeled one-sidedly until the match was over.
Rei gave the man a brief glance, then turned back to Edwald and the rest.
"Right then. As you wished—me versus all of you. Vihera said it too: only those ready to take a few hits should step up."
At those words, Edwald rose—and he wasn't alone. Even the man with the Middle Sword, who had just lost, scrambled to his feet.
What followed was an all-out melee.
For Rei, it was hardly a desperate struggle, but fighting against a crowd meant attacks could come from blind spots he'd never anticipate on his own. In that sense, it was decent training for him as well.
...Not that he had any intention of losing. Even outnumbered, Rei claimed victory.
When the dust settled, the results were, in a sense, exactly what everyone had expected: Rei and Vihera won every single match, while Byune finished with four wins and six losses.