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Grave took a moment of pause to look internally when Aysel spoke. He felt a wave of calm, of compossure and not even her commentaries about the Paintball Wars stirred anything in him. Good, he'd be able to answer truthfully. "It is because of the events in the Paintball Wars that I wanted to spar you, Aysel. I want to practise in the calm of mind and skill that I should've employed to start. If anything, sparring with you will...make up for my actions before." Grave offered a short, nearly noble bow, and offered a hand.
"Alright, when you got yer partners, stand facing each other in a row before me. We're gonna teach you a basic punch attack, kick attack, block and dodge. Since this is only practise you won't be trying to hurt each other, you'll just be sparring for points. Does everybody know the rules for sparring?" Orrys asked, while stalking up and down the quickly forming aisles of students. His six tails were swishing behind him in excitement and his normally gruff voice was drawled in a grin that stretched across his muzzle.
Grave took a deep breath, and focused all his visual attention on Aysel, and all his audio attention on Prof Orrys. This is one class that Grave knew he needed to work hard at, and he wanted so badly to not be another useless academic.

Ubel squeaked quietly and grabbed Mathiaz's hand, pulling him into the line that the teacher wanted them in, blinking several times. He could do this. He had to be able to do this... weakness was no longer an option. No matter what his size was, he had to be able to do this, be able to fight...

Ubel smiled weakly at Mathiaz, before putting up a mock serious face, arching an eyebrow. "Now, you can't laugh at me," he said almost playfully, nose wrinkling just a bit.

Orrys turned about when he heard Kallisto's question and grinned."It's actually Pretty Simple. All Stage Zeros have 10 points when they begin a sparring match. Each Skill will do a certain number of points of damage to your opponent, or protect a certain number of points of damage. The first student reduced to Zero points loses the match. For each win, a Student earns 1 extra point to go into a duel with from what they have learned. Skills can be used in the Arena to spar with classmates in order to learn how to Duel, and eventually how to fight. Every Empyrean can fight, not just the Kinesthetics, so listen up!
There are three Orientations, and three types of Fighting Skills - that's one for each Orientation - Academic Skills, Journeyman Skills and Kinesthetic Skills. This doesn't mean that only an Empyrean of that orientation can use a skill aligned to a certain Orientation, but it does determine how many point the skill is worth. The four we're going to learn are punch, kick, block and dodge!" Orrys paused for dramatic effect and swished his tails. "The Punch is a close-handed strike, like this!" Orrys formed a perfect punch and held it at its pinnacle for a moment, muscles coiled and rock-hard. "A Punch, obviously is a Kinesthetic skill, which means it's worth more points if a Kinesthetic performs it. So, for the academics it's worth 2 points of damage, for the kinesthetics it's worth 4 points of damage and for the Journeymen it's worth 2 points of damage." Orrys suddenly let fly a flashy snap kick, and held his leg in position as he proceded to explain. "The Kick is a strike with the foot. Since it's powered by the legs, it overall is a stronger attack than the Punch. It too is a Kinesthetic skill, making it worth 3 points of damage for Academics and Journeyman, and 5 points of damage for Kinesthetics." Orrys dropped his leg with great control and formed a close-quarters middle-area block against an invisible opponent. "The Block is used to defend against attacks. You can use your arms or legs to block incoming attacks so that they do not connect with the body or head. A successful block saves you from losing points of damage. For Academics and Kinesthetics it can prevent 3 points of damage. For Journeymen, it can prevent 4 points of damage 'cuz it's a Journeyman skill. In the case that your block prevents more damage than the attack blocking, you do not get extra points back to your total. In Fact, as youget up to higher levels of sparring, this excess is called expenditure, ad it can tire you out faster for exerting too much force and energy. For now though, you don't need to worry about that. And last but not least," Orrys did a nearly dance-like side-stepping move that positioned him a good 4 feet away from his original position in the blink of an eye. "The Dodge is an Academic skill, as you might have guessed. Its job is to get you out of the way of an incoming attack. It's useful when your blocks are not strong enough to defend you against an incoming attack. It prevents 5 points of damage for Academics, 3 points of damage for kinesthetics or journeymen. So, with those four moves, practise a little amongst yourselves..."

Grave turned to Aysel and let out a slow, small breath of preparation. He curled his delicate Academic hands into little fists and raised them to his chin. He shifted his feet to get a better footing and felt the weight distributed on them. "Are you ready to begin?" Grave asked her politely.

Ubel watched Orrys intently, lips parting as he watched the other move so fluidly and with such strength. He shifted his body slowly into a good stance, though felt a bit silly, biting his bottom lip. Upon the professor finishing his explanation, he looked up at Mathiaz, smiling crookedly. "Ready...?"

"So we start out with 10 points here ... " Mat murmured, going over the information in his head. "Yea, think I got it ... you want to attack first, or me?" He grinned, obviously looking forward to this.

Taking a deep breath, Aysel nodded, bringing up her fists as well, though she intended merely to defend at first...discover Grave's methods before she attempted to strike him. "I am ready.." she answered softly, and then simply stood, shaking slightly and waiting for him to make the first move.

Kallisto nodded several times as Orrys explained the movements. She especially liked the dodge technique and imagined that could come in very useful in diverting someone's incoming strike. She tried spinning as Orrys did, but it didn't look anywhere near as polished as the teacher's had. She had no doubt that the kick technique would could naturally. The punch she wasn't so sure about, she flexed her fists, she wasn't as strong in her upper body.

Ah well, she shrugged and turned to Nadyrr, she'd have to learn to compensate or just get stronger. She beckoned her partner forward, "You feel like going first? He said we should practice a bit." She smiled, tilting her head to the side a little as she slid her left foot back and bent her knees to get ready. Arms up and fisted, she steadied her balance and awaited Nadyrr's attack.