Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Alaric blushed when Elizabeth walked up to him. She was stunning to Alaric, with dark hair and skin.

"Nice to meet you Elizabeth, I wanted to get back at Finn, so I made an automaton.

Elizabeth chuckled, "yeah, Finn is an idiot. He thinks that he is on top of the world sometimes. Anyway, are you excited for the combat class coming up?"

Alaric raised an eyebrow, "Is that really the next class? Aren't we supposed to use our bright coins to fight?"

Elizabeth nodded, "yeah, but seeing as you are the only one in the class who can't use one, then I'm not sure what Leah will have you do."

Elizabeth glanced at Eli, "you won't have an issue, though. All you need to do is toss the people around a bit, and you win."

Eli rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, well, you see, I can't lift a person up yet. All I can do is move smaller objects."

Elizabeth smiled, "still, you shouldn't have that hard of a time. I know you'll be able to figure it out. All I can do is light up my hands. That's it, nothing else."

She sighed, "I know some hand to hand combat, and I'm excited to see how far I can get with that."

Elizabeth walked with Eli and Alaric until they made it to the bright coin combat class and then went back off with her group of friends.

Eli spoke up, "dude, you like her, don't you?"

Alaric acted shocked, "what?! No way, man. She's just nice is all."

"Uh-huh..."

Before they could talk anymore, Leah came swooping down once more in her flashy style with wings on her back.

"Welcome, class! Today will be the first day that we fight using our bright coins. It will be a series of one on one matches that will be randomly selected. Sometimes it could be a bad match, and someone has an ability that is good against yours. However, life is not fair, and it is up to you to figure out a way around that."

Leah pointed towards the open field. There was a space that was marked with white chalk on the ground.

"You and your opponent will stand on opposite ends of this little arena. When I signal, you will charge forward and try to force your opponent to yield. They can surrender, or you can win by knocking them outside of the arena. I will be the referee, and when I say to stop, you stop immediately, no matter where or what you are doing. Okay?"

The students all nodded.

"Good, now then..." Leah went and grabbed a bowl with little slips of paper.

"Your names have already been written and placed in this bowl. I will draw out two randomly, and that will be your opponent."

Leah reached her hand into the bowl and drew out two slips of paper.

"Barry and Sarah. You two are up first."

The two students walked out into the makeshift arena and stood at opposite ends of the field. The rest of the students, including Eli and Alaric, stood off to the side to watch.

Leah was standing directly off to the side, "are both sides ready?!"

The two students gave a thumbs up to signal that they were all good.

Leah dropped her hand, "begin!"

Barry formed an icepick in midair. He began running at Sarah, but she was ready. She waved her hand, and the ground beneath Barry turned into quicksand.

Barry stopped running as he began sinking into the ground. His icepick disappeared, and he shoved his hands into the sand. It froze, and he stopped sinking.

He broke his way out and formed one icicle in the air, and he threw it towards Sarah like a javelin.

Sarah raised her hands once again, and a small pillar of sand and earth rose up to block it.

Another wave of her hand and a humanoid figure made out of earth formed. She controlled the earth puppet and willed it to charge towards Barry.

The earth puppet had a sword in its hand, made out of solidified dirt, and Barry formed an ice shield.

He blocked several blows that struck at his sides and above his head.

The puppet's movements were slow and predictable, and each swing was easily blocked.

Barry deflected one more sword strike and ran past the puppet.

He materialized an ice spear in his hand and extended it out as if he was about to stab the Sarah.

"I surrender!" She yelled, and Barry stopped immediately. The ice spear dematerialized and the puppet also fell back into the earth.

Leah walked in, "that was a marvelous fight! Both of you performed excellently for your first fight with the bright coins. Sarah, I would recommend you to practice your speed. When you used your abilities, they were clunky and slow. For you, Barry, I would work on your creativity. Your ice was very straightforward with how you used it. Try to hide some of your weapons if you can, perhaps form a patch of ice on the ground behind your opponent. An accidental slip could mean the difference between life or death."

"Yes, teacher!" They both responded and went to go stand off to the side. They were actively talking to each other about how to improve.

Leah went to her bowl and pulled out two more names, "Alaric and Finn! You two are up next."