"Alright Cadets, now that that situation is dealt with, it is time to continue on to the second tier of the tournament!" exclaimed First Sergeant Lioni as he returned from taking Tony to the nurse. "Your fellow Cadet Karesi is going to be fine. Now, from the first tier there are obviously five winners and five losers. That means we need to complete a tournament with an odd number of contestants. This creates an obvious problem. In this situation, I am given a choice to use a program to randomly select a student to bump up to tier 3. That student will sit out of the tier 2 matches. Another student will be selected to sit out from the Tier 3 match to compete with the winner in the final Tier 4 match. The Tier 4 match will determine the winner of the Melee Aptitude Test. Now, to make things fair, that student will receive a smaller number of points unless he or she wins the final match."
The students grumbled slightly.
"Alright." said Lioni. "Normally I would use the algorithm to choose who gets bumped up to Tier 3 without fighting, but I think I know who I regard as being the most impressive and I have the right to decide myself who deserves to sit out and wait." Logan smiled pridefully, expecting to be bumped up. "I choose Melbourne Acliate to skip Tier 2 and wait for the Tier 3 matchup. I will choose the top performer of Tier 2 to skip Tier 3. Now, the first matchup for Tier Two will be Logan Indri versus Jeremy Olan."
The two walked to the ring and drew their training knives.
"Hello little peasant boy!" mocked Logan. "Concede now and I might just deign to make your life in these halls a little bit easier."
Jeremy's face twisted into disgust. "In your dreams, Indri! Your little lapdog might have given you an easy ride up one rung, but you aren't getting that mercy from me!"
"Then prepare to be punished." said Logan indifferently. "If a dog does not know his place, he must be forcefully put in it."
"BEGIN!" exclaimed Lioni.
The two began to parry against one another for about five minutes. While Jeremy rushed at Logan, desperate to get a winning strike, Logan danced around him easily. Melbourne's stomach churned as he realized that his best friend was being toyed with. Logan could have won the fight a long time ago but he chose to torment Jeremy instead.
"Ah, good, good." said Logan mockingly. "That anger is most becoming of a servant. You know, if you had surrendered then I might have let you run with my clique as a peon. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to make you a social outcast with your dear friend."
Logan yawned as he blocked a few more strikes from Jeremy then plunged the dagger into his head while kicking him in the gut, sending him flying straight out of the ring into Melbourne's arms.
"Victor, Logan Indri!" said Lioni in a monotone that implied no enthusiasm for the result.
Logan saluted directly at Melbourne as he returned outside the ring.
"Next contest, Sarah Jenol versus Liana Rayes!" said Lioni.
Melbourne watched the two women enter the stage and hoped for Sarah's victory. Someone needed to put Liana in her place and Melbourne wanted sincerely to see a human do it. It was not that he didn't have confidence in his ability to kick Liana and Logan both to the curb even if they ganged up on him, but he was not normal and seeing another underdog do this instead would be leagues more satisfying.
"BEGIN!" announced Lioni.
The two women clashed in battle viciously and aimed for each other's throats.
Sarah struck at the stomach but missed, striking the legs.
Liana recoiled and proceeded to scream indignantly before roundhouse kicking Sarah in the head, knocking her to the floor.
Liana proceeded to strike Sarah hard in the temple, making sure it hurt but being careful not to continue so as not to attract the wrath of Lioni once again.
"Winner, Liana Rayes." said Lioni in an obvious tone of disappointment. "That concludes the Tier 2 matches. The winners are Logan Indri and Liana Rayes."
The two stood next to one another and bowed in pride as though their victory meant the cosmos was in perfect harmony.
"Alright, now for the Tier 3 matchup." said Lioni. Lioni thought for a second. He already disliked Logan and Liana, but which one did he want to punish more? He normally didn't feel so personal about how he matched people up, but the two had already shown exceptional aristocratic arrogance. Lioni believed in meritocracy and hated these spoiled rich kids who always demanded special treatment. Logan, however, had done less damage and Liana's little scene with Tony deserved some special punishment. After that little outburst, Lioni made up his mind, hoping Liana wouldn't receive the honor of achieving Tier 4 in the aptitude test. "Logan Indri, you will sit out for this one and fight in the Tier 4 match."
"Thank you, First Sergeant." said Logan, bowing slightly in mock respect.
"Next matchup, Melbourne Acliate versus Liana Rayes!" announced Lioni, intentionally putting Melbourne's name first.
The two walked up and drew their blades.
"Are you ready to learn your place, little pleb?" asked Liana. "Good little show with poor Timothy, but now you're fighting me."
Melbourne did not speak. All he could do was think about how much he wanted to wipe that smirk off the mouth of this arrogant princess, the risk of discovery by Lieutenant Lavender be damned.
"BEGIN!" announced Lioni.
Melbourne wasted no time. As the Aclito showed solid red attack vectors emanating from Liana, Melbourne dodged them and stabbed the blunt training knife into her chest, adding extra force to send her flying out of the ring. He almost sent her into a wall but remembered that he shouldn't reveal his hand to Lioni or any of the other instructors. As much as he was starting to resonate with the teacher and his meritocratic values, Melbourne still didn't want to risk the man finding out he was a cyborg.
"WINNER, CADET ACLIATE!" exclaimed Lioni in elation. Lioni was not normally one to play favoritism, but in this case he felt compelled to make an exception.
Liana screamed in frustration and indignity as Melbourne stood victorious upon the red paint of the combat ring.
"You'll pay for that one, Jody." whispered Logan into Melbourne's ear, walking into the ring before Lioni called the final match.
"Bring it on." said Melbourne defiantly. "Let us see how superior pedigree is to skill and training, Logan."
"How dare you speak back to your betters!" hissed Logan indignantly.
The two already stood off with their blades drawn before First Sergeant Lioni announced the next match.
"Final matchup, Melbourne Acliate versus Logan Indri!"
[Mission Received: Shove Your Pedigree
*Shut the mouth of the entitled bully Logan Indri by defeating him in a knife duel.
*Reward: +5 XP]
"BEGIN!" announced Lioni with finality and anticipation.
Despite his apparent arrogance, Logan was able to back it up. Melbourne found himself shocked at the overwhelming barrage of parries that almost pushed him out of the arena boundary.
Just as Melbourne's feet were a centimeter from the edge, the Aclito guided him to somersault back towards the center and run to stay in it as he awaited another series of strikes from Logan.
"Not bad, Acliate." said Logan. "Too bad your family has no name. Now, let me show you why the Indri name is superior among Martians and why we deserve to rule this world!"
Logan threw his training knife straight at Melbourne's neck, the item almost striking him. Melbourne deflected it with a swift blow by the help of his Aclito, sending it flying outside the ring.
Logan panicked as he dived to catch it, barely getting it in his hand as he slid across the floor, stopping a few centimeters from the border.
"A lesson to you all!" announced First Sergeant Lioni to the audience of those who had fallen in the earlier rounds. "Never throw your weapon like that if you have no alternative weapon with which to back yourself up should you miss! The last thing you want is to end up disarmed in a fight against an armed opponent!"
Logan blushed in embarrassment at the public humiliation and proceeded to run recklessly at Melbourne.
Melbourne fully used Logan's emotional instability to his advantage and expertly struck the training knife into his gut, sending him flying out of the arena.
"Lesson Two!" announced Lioni. "Never let your emotions get the better of you when your priority is survival. That is a quick way to give your opponent the upper hand. VICTOR, CADET ACLIATE! CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR VICTORY!"
[Mission Complete: Shove Your Pedigree
*+5 XP
*XP: 120/200]
The eight onlookers erupted into mixed reactions of clapping and hissing.
"Now!" announced Lioni, cutting the gossip before it started. "I want you all to know Tony has fully recovered and that we still have an hour and a half before lunch. We will now host a consolation tournament for those five of you who failed in the first round. This is a chance to accumulate a fraction of the points you could have achieved if you had won. For some of you, this may be the saving grace you need to avoid being demoted to the higher levels of this facility tomorrow."
As Tony returned, the secondary tournament commenced in the same fashion that the original Tier 2 battles were held.
As the combatants fought, the group diverged into its own ranks of melee combat aptitude. Melbourne found himself impressed at Tony's actual ability and reasoned that he would have won if he hadn't been taken off-guard by Liana's overly emotional outburst. Those who made it to the final round were Tony Karesi and Layne Shogoth, both of whom had surprised many with their competence.
At the end of the final matchup, Layne Shogoth became the victor.
"Congratulations, Layne!" announced Lioni. "Given that we have thirty minutes remaining, you have earned the right to challenge the victor, Melbourne Acliate, to a duel in an effort to take his place."
Layne began to approach Melbourne to offer the challenge when Logan stared daggers straight into his eyes. Melbourne understood the message. Logan was silently saying "You are not to challenge those who have bested me."
Layne took the message and backed down.
"What a lapdog." thought Melbourne, shaking his head in disappointment.
"No?" asked Lioni in disappointment. "Very well then. We shall finalize the results and the ranking of the Melee Aptitude Test and you are all free to wander the campus freely for the next thirty minutes or return to your HR instructor until lunch time. DISMISSED!"
As Melbourne walked out of the classroom with Jeremy and Timothy beside him, Logan brushed up against him and whispered venomously.
"Listen here, Jody, you must think you're some big shit by embarrassing me in these aptitude tests." hissed Logan. "Well, you're not. I'm going to make your life here a living hell for showing me up. You better dull that shine after yesterday's performance in the strategy aptitude testing this afternoon."
Melbourne did not reply as Logan walked off to join Liana Rayes and Layne Shogoth who both looked back at Melbourne with contempt.