The team battles were due to begin after breakfast, so the three youths left the Food Hall for the inner school after Jin Li's third helping of congee.
Pike was waiting for them, wanting to take them to an open battleground just outside of the main school. "Bowyer's team is due to battle first," he explained. As expected, the two men, being amongst the current top members of the Standings, were in separate groups.
Leon had worked out that there would be twenty one teams all told and Pike advised them now that the battles would take place over the day, three an hour, which were timed. The teams had fifteen minutes to score victory or it would be declared a draw and only two points per team member would be awarded. Only a little better than losing, but no where near as good as securing a win. Pike was free for the first hour, his team were scheduled to fight in the main arena as they were due to fight another team whose most skilled member was also a top ten ranked martial artist. Pike was calm about it, but it was Ari's team he was against, meaning there was a fair chance of losing this round.
Bowyer's team did not consist of any people that Leon recognised from the day before, though that did not mean that they were bad martial artists. He had not seen the first melee and some good people were just unlucky the day before. The team he was facing only had one vaguely familiar face, Leon thought he must have been one of those to remain upon the platform the day before.
As the teams could wield weapons, Bowyer naturally had his sword at his side. Jin Li knew how skilled he was with this weapon and his blood felt hot as he amused himself with the memories of facing it. He wished he could temper his own blade in opposition, but unfortunately that was not possible at this moment. Still, it may yet see action, he mused, so he watched Bowyer's movements carefully, uncaring about the final score.
The battle was over after just seven minutes. Pike did explain that generally the whole fifteen minutes were not necessary, that just one badly timed move could be exploited by a good team and the defence of the others would crumble to dust. Bowyer's team won this round. Pike casually mentioned that this would also be a challenge for the losing team; how they coped with the loss. Sore losers would affect following matches, while those who learnt from their losses had the chance to rise and regain face.
Such an example was given by the next team to lose on this battleground, watched by the group and Bowyer who joined them to observe. Of the two teams, one had the girl Luna, the only female martial artist to be in the top ten and the other team had the youth who had been disqualified the day before, Gopher. These two were on opposite sides. Leon was startled to recognise another person, who happened to be on Luna's team. That person was the first senior he met when coming to the inner school for the first time, the one who had 'expressed' interest in his pills.
Luna used a ranged weapon, a sling and so was kept to the rear of her team's formation with a spear user protecting her. The Senior wielded a pair of tonfa's made of a dark wood and stood at the front of their arrangement. The wind user Gopher on the opposite team favoured thrown weapons, which under normal circumstances, could be manipulated by his elemental abilities.
At first glance, it seemed as if Luna's team was at a disadvantage, the girl's stones could not penetrate the defence of the other team and as she had another member focused on protecting her, it was as if the battle was actually four versus six. However, a sword wielder on the other team became overconfident and swung at the tonfa wielding Senior, only for the man to use the wooden weapon against the lengths of his arms as a shield one moment, before spinning one with a practised grip and using the sudden length of it to smack down upon that person's wrist. The sword wielder dropped his weapon, the numbing pain on his wrist too much and so the tides suddenly turned.
The spear wielder stopped protecting Luna and came forward into the fray, nudging his spear in between the bodies that had practically formed a wall and distracting the opponents further as they fought to avoid both the point of the spear and the weapons of those they faced. Gopher threw knife after knife, but having relied too much on his wind arts, his aim was too often off and the only damage he inflicted was to skim the flesh of the Senior. Eventually, his side had to give up or risk being too hurt to continue in the next battles.
Gopher threw down a knife in disgust and automatically pinned all blame on the sword wielder, who had been rescued before the Senior could finish with him. The wind user took no responsibility for his own poor performance, causing a crack to form in the team. Leon later found out that this team lost two battles, including this one and only managed to draw in the final round.