Teacher Loran continued the lesson and called for the next people to start fighting. He let Sarah and Shang do whatever they wanted. Sarah had said that she learned a lot from Shang, which meant that Shang was an appropriate sparring partner for her.
Under normal circumstances, Shang should lose to someone of Sarah's level. However, Shang's experience in fighting barehanded made him the perfect counter to Sarah.
One had to remember that something like this wasn't normal. Basically, all warriors focused on their weapons, and they definitely didn't have much experience in serious hand-to-hand combat.
Yes, the students often beat each other up in a fistfight, but that was it.
It was a fistfight.
They punched and kicked each other, but they generally didn't grapple. They were so used to fighting with their weapons that they used their fists and legs as weapons. That meant striking the enemy with them.
If someone else had managed to get behind Sarah, they would have most likely unleashed a fist strike or a kick. Sarah would have been injured and thrown away, but she would have had a chance to turn things around.
And even if they tried to grapple Sarah from the back, there would have been a high likelihood that Sarah would have somehow managed to either smash their face in with the back of her head or managed to wriggle out of it.
However, Shang had been an MMA fighter on Earth. He knew exactly how he had to grab her. By putting his legs around her torso, shaking him off would have proven basically impossible. Her arms also wouldn't have been able to deal much damage, and her hammer could have only been swung in a very awkward manner.
The way Shang fought with his bare hands was very strange for this world. It was basically completely unknown.
In a way, one could say that Shang fought like a beast without his weapon. Beasts also often used their claws to grab an opponent and then use their teeth to kill them. When a beast wanted to kill someone, it didn't just swipe forward with its claws. No, swiping with their claws was mostly a defensive maneuver.
When a beast wanted to genuinely kill someone, it dug its claws into the opponent to keep them close and to position them perfectly for the finishing bite. Being caught by the claws was a death sentence most of the time, but not always. With enough experience, one could potentially turn things around.
Sarah and Shang began talking after teacher Loran turned his focus to the remaining class.
Sarah told Shang that she was interested in learning how to fight against beasts and unarmed opponents, which was why she asked him to fight without a weapon.
However, she also knew that Shang would basically not learn much, which would make this lesson an affair with only one beneficiary.
"In exchange, you can ask me whatever you want. I know a lot about politics, materials, resources in general, and weapons," she offered.
Shang realized that the offer was pretty good. The teachers had a lot to do, and he could probably only ask these questions at the end of lessons. Additionally, several teachers didn't specialize in the things Sarah knew. For example, teacher Loran didn't even know what a Sparren was, which counted as a gem and material.
Sarah's fighting style was specialized for countering weapons, which meant that she also had to learn a lot about materials and weapons. If she didn't know everything about her opponent's weapons, she would put herself in severe danger.
"I accept," Shang said.
Sarah nodded. "Then, after every session, you can ask me questions for ten minutes."
Shang nodded. "Deal."
After that, Sarah readied her hammer again.
Shang put his sword to the side. At this moment, Shang's sword was useless. If it touched Sarah's left hand or weapon, it would be destroyed. Because of that, it was literally better for Shang to fight barehanded.
So, the two of them began fighting again.
How did the fights go?
Horrible.
For Sarah, that is.
The biggest reason why Sarah couldn't win was her hammer.
It simply wasn't sharp.
Because of that, Shang could afford to kick, push, and punch it away. Yes, the power of the hammer still broke his bones, but that wasn't an issue. Shang's superior body gave him the ability to throw such a heavy weapon as Sarah's hammer away. If Shang's body were as powerful as Sarah's body, he wouldn't have that ability.
However, that was exactly the reason why Shang was able to essentially act as a beast. In the earlier levels of the Soldier Stage, the difference in physical power between a human and a beast wasn't that great. One could almost call them as being on the same level.
But everything changed in the Peak Soldier Stage. That was the first level when a beast's body became quite a bit more powerful than a human's body.
And things would only get worse at the General Stage.
The power of beasts' bodies continued to escalate the stronger they became.
Why?
Because that was the only way they could fight humans. The beasts that didn't have those powerful bodies had long since died out. Starting at the General Stage, a beast was a genuine threat to a warrior.
In the Commander Stage, beasts won far more fights against warriors than they lost. Of course, that was assuming a one-on-one duel without one party using a surprise attack.
In reality, most warriors remained hidden when they were hunting a beast. They would only attack when the beast didn't pay attention. Additionally, many hunters worked in pairs or teams.
In an open one-on-one duel, most warriors in the General and Commander Stage would lose against a beast of an equivalent level.
Why?
Because warriors fought mostly with their bodies and beasts did too, and beasts had far more powerful bodies.
It often ended with a beast getting cut by a sword, the sword getting stuck in a bone, and the beast biting down on the warrior, killing them.
However, that only counted for warriors, not humans as a whole.
There were still the Mages, and those fights went very differently.
A true Mage didn't have any issues in taking down a beast of an equivalent level. They simply readied their spells and unleashed them on the charging beast.
Most of the time, the beast would be dead before it even reached the Mage. On top of that, Mages weren't stupid. They knew that they were at their weakest when their opponent was close. Because of that, it was imperative for all Mages to learn plenty of Spells and skills to gain distance.
If the beast didn't have an amazing long-ranged ability, the only way to win was to exhaust the Mage's Mana, which took quite a long time.
Beasts were mostly helpless in front of Mages, just like warriors.
This was not a rock-paper-scissors scenario.
Mages just straight-up dominated all the classes.
Being the strongest warrior on a level meant being a slightly above-average Mage in terms of Battle-Strength.
However, that only counted for the General Stage and up.
In the First Realm, the Soldier Stage, the two sides were still about equal.
The important part in all of this was that beasts were very dangerous to warriors, and that was why Sarah wanted to learn from Shang how to fight them.
Sarah lost every single fight, but she wasn't distraught. She knew that Shang was essentially fighting like a beast, and he also had the physical power of a beast.
As the lesson continued, Sarah managed to last longer and longer.
She was using her hammer less as a weapon to end the fight instantly but as a means to keep Shang at an appropriate distance from her. Shang's weakness was that he couldn't directly block the hammer. He had to evade or parry it.
Every time Sarah managed to force Shang to block, he would accumulate injuries.
However, one wrong move from Sarah and the fight would end.
This meant that Sarah had to be perfect, and she had to anticipate every single potential move Shang could make.
If she were fighting a beast, that wouldn't be so hard, but she was essentially fighting a human in the body of a beast. Shang had a lot of creativity in his fighting style.
So, when teacher Loran ended the lesson after three hours, Sarah still hadn't won a single time.
