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Fizban just nodded at the cat lying near him. He looked at the students and decided to take mental notes about each of them.

"Anyone who has lived in the forest as long as I have knows how to hunt and fight to survive," replied Talia.

She declined to mention her enhanced predator instincts when morphed, as she was still easing in to a more populated society.

She looked around and noticed an old man observing the class along with a cat. She studied it for a couple seconds, and turned away. She did love all animals, but best not to be distracted amidst combat training.

Morris looked out his window and sighed. He did not have a single class today! One teacher always got saddled with one day without a single student and it seems to his misfortune he was that one this year, a quirk of the schedule. Still, it did give him plenty of time for marking, if he had anything to mark. There wasn't anybody to take care of since well, it was the first day, he hoped no one would be injured! He acted as the schools healer in more serious cases where the staff for such things did not know how to act or were not powerful enough. This wasn't particularly common but he usually saw a few cases a year, accidents happen with magic, it is inevitable. Since he had nothing to do he decided he might as well watch some of his soon to be students train, perhaps learn a bit about them by watching and so he went down to combat training. He was sure Neels wouldn't mind, always good to have someone on hand in case someone went too gung-ho or some accident befell a student.

Velvet just happened to be standing among her fellow classmates. After hearing the teacher's question, she smirked and put her fists together. "I know a few things about brawling." She noted a cat and the old guy from before. She was bad with names, though...but she shrugged it off.

Neels sighed. He would have his work cut out for him, since people in this class either didn't know anything, or they were brawlers, with very few exceptions. Oh, well, that's what you're here for, he thought to himself.

"Alright, I've gotten a general idea now. I think it would be a good idea to teach you all the basics of judo for the time being. At some point, I shall be teaching you various Kung Fu techniques as well, but Judo is a good starting point.

"And, I know this is going to be unpleasant, but before we do anything, you had best run a lap or two around the field to warm up."

A chorus of sighs and grunts went up into the air, but Neels could sense that some of the students actually preferred jogging to sitting there with legs crossed and listening to him.

Never a fan of physical activities regardless of the intensity, Laura’s personal distaste for exercise was strengthened by prolonged exposure to the loathsome sunlight which she deemed unnecessary for her development as an individual. A proponent of sedentary lifestyles, she always believed that reading a book would be much more rewarding than running a lap on the field. She was not surprised that it would become part of her experience at Maelstrom Academy though, since even ordinary schools would dedicate a portion of the curriculum time to train on the student’s physicality. Nonetheless, unlike some of her classmates, she refused to express her dissent publicly as she did not want to earn the disapproval of her teachers, much less on her first day in a new school. Not wanting to be remembered by her peers for being physically weak, she waited patiently for the rest of the class to begin running before following suit.

The one physical traits that stood out for Zek, agility. He needed this for being able to sabotage and dodge many various things. Speed was close enough to agility for him, so he came through faster than most. At the end of the two laps, he was exhausted.

Zemas was fine with jogging. But he was frustrated that they weren't learning any magic. He sighed and decided to run ahead of the pack during the jog. He saw Fizban just grin at the students as they jogged. He finished the 2 laps with ease, as he is used to the exercise from his old school and some training at home.

Talia didn't care about jogging. She'd run through the forest with animals for hours at a time. She finished the two laps without tiring and waited for further instruction.

Working on a farm made one used to exercise, but running wasn't Velvet's thing- not that she couldn't run, she just didn't like it. She completed her two laps without fail anyway, though at the end she was frowning. Come on, old guy, get a move on. Enough with this- teach us how to kick some ass already. Martial arts piqued her interest, as she always wanted to learn that stuff. But it's not like there were kung fu masters or anything around back where she came from. She at least she had a small knowledge of pressure points and weak spots in the human body, but that was it. Sighing, Velvet cracked her knuckles while unintentionally staring at Neels intensely.

Karlien had no problems with two laps around a track. She simply expected more from Combat Training.

To be fair, Karlien thought, it would be a terrible idea to teach us martial arts when we haven't warmed up. And the name Combat Training doesn't imply anything magical either. It's just what we were expecting.

She thought of this just as she finished with her lap, and was surprised to see a ghost of a smile form on Neels' face, almost in response to her thoughts. Can he read my mind, Karlien pondered.

As Mads finished up his second lap, he was completely out of breath and exhausted. He leaned over with his hands on his knees trying to get his breath back. Being stuck in rooms like at home and school, he didn't get many chances to exercise other than the occasional physical education class.

At least I'm outside, he thought while looking down at the grass. I doubt many other classes will. Maybe this class will be good for me, he thought as he stood back up, but he immediately got light-headed. Or maybe it'll kill me. He dropped to his knees then fell on his back, breathing deeply while lying in the grass. That's better.

Neels could feel Mads' exhaustion, and decided he would need to be careful not to push these students too hard.

"Well done, class. It may sound like a cliché, but being physically healthy will improve your ability to concentrate, which would of course lead to better performance with any mental task too. Without any further ado, I shall proceed to teach all of you judo. What makes judo so good, is that you don't need to be the strongest to succeed. You need to use your brain, and you need to work on your reaction times and hand-eye co-ordination, but the idea is to use the opponent's momentum against them. Strength would certainly not go amiss, but over-reliance on strength in this martial art will not end well for you.

"Now, some of you may notice that the field is not the best place to be teaching you judo, and you'd be correct. You may also notice that I don't have a partner here to show you the various grips and throws one can find in judo. That is because none of you will experiment with any of it until you've mastered your rolls."

Sensing the students' confusion, he elaborated: "To put it shortly, mastery of the roll is the difference between a broken arm or leg, and one that remains intact after a nasty throw. Therefore, for the rest of this period, and for however long it takes you to master it in this class, you will be practising the roll."

He proceeded to roll once to demonstrate it to them.

"That didn't look too difficult, did it? Regardless, I don't want any of you practising without my supervision, here in this class or otherwise. Those who struggle, are invited to join me for extra classes after school. Now, form a line, and we'll practice one by one."

Zemas decided to go first in line for Judo. He thought it would be best to get it over with and show his skills. He still was frustrated that they won't learn magic, but a little physical combat training won't hurt.

Zek went next, the student in front of him did very well. Zek had ducks, rolls, and other dodging techniques helped him in this experience, since he did have to avoid many random fights in his old school.