"Oh, get UP already!" Layla hollered at the very obviously unconscious Minotaur Combatant that was face down on the ground by her in the obstacle course she'd made.
Three weeks had gone by since Damien's second day of classes. The first month of the year was coming to a close and Alexa had made a complete recovery about a week prior, making it just in time to suffer with him more in this class she'd made him take.
They were all being forced to go down the course Layla had redesigned over the break, one person at a time. It didn't look enjoyable at all from Damien's point of view; the multitude of Combatants not even making it a quarter of the way through before breaking a bone or falling unconscious.
No magic was allowed and no Mage had gone yet. Cedar had elected to be the first to try it out and Damien was all too happy to let him make a fool of himself. The instructor not allowing magic would make this impossible for them to get past even the first obstacle, Damien theorized.
Not only was the course full of painful-looking obstacles, but Layla would also occasionally run alongside them as they went through it, deciding to throw in a punch or trip they had to dodge on top of everything else if she felt so inclined. Reinal wasn't present today and yet it still seemed the Kreel was just as determined to ruin everyone's day as usual.
Damien was fourth in line to go behind Arion, Cedar, and the only Human Combatant in the class, who was nervously waiting for his chance to hurt himself. Damien sent out a silent prayer for his good fortune.
"FINE, YOU'RE DONE. Pathetic. NEXT!" Layla yelled at the large, hairy student, voice booming across the field they were in.
The Human that was next jumped slightly, wandering to the left toward the start of the course.
"Move forward when you are ready. If you take too long I'll throw you in personally."
The Human nodded and took a few deep breaths before setting into a forward stance. After a few seconds, as if a silent gunshot had gone off, he sprinted forward and began launching himself over the hurdles made out of logs that were alternatingly covered in what looked like some kind of oil.
Each hurdle was about twenty feet from the one in front of it with a large stone pillar standing in between them. Your options were to guess which were greased to jump off of, or to utilize the pillars to get across the one hundred foot long section. If you accidentally slipped or tried to step on the ground in between them, you'd quickly learn that not only the hurdles were greased as your head slammed into the floor beneath you.
That's how the first attempt failed, along with a few of the bulkier Combatants.
Words of complaint had been thrown around by the first and she gave him a second chance, only to immediately kick him in his back as he tried to land on a pillar, sending him crashing into the ground. 'Don't always be eager to go first unless you know what you're getting into and don't ever bitch about how unfair something is. Life isn't fair,' she'd yelled down to the groaning Dwarf.
The Human shot forward, leaping over the first hurdle in its entirety to nimbly land on the pillar behind it. With a smooth transition of his mass around it, he launched off the backside of it and sailed through the air to the next one. Twenty feet seemed like an impossibly large distance to jump consecutively, but he made it appear as if he were simply taking a leisurely stroll, until the last one.
"Ah," Damien gasped lightly as the Combatant's feet contacted the pillar, snapping it off about five feet below the top and toppling it forward.
Acting fast and seemingly recognizing he shouldn't try swinging around it the moment his feet touched the pillar, the Human crouched down and held on to the stone, waiting. When it had become parallel to the ground, he lept directly for the safe zone twenty feet away, slipping a bit as his feet left the flat surface.
"Oh! Here it comes!" a few students yelled out, pointing forward as the Human looked to be on a collision course with a greased hurdle just before a safe platform.
Damien's chest tensed, then eased once the Combatant dove cleanly over it, clipping his ankle on the wood but landing half in a roll, half crashing into the ground. The tumble looked uncontrolled all the way up until when he stopped, right before running into the next section of the obstacle course and impaling himself.
Damien grinned as he noticed the irony of why he'd stopped rolling when he had: large divots in the ground from previous attempts. Others crashed, rolled, and slammed into the ground here so often, it was rough and uneven. Luckily, it seemed to have saved this one.
He was off to a riveting start.
"You got this man!"
"Get up! Keep going!"
More of the nearby students called out in support, eager to have one of them at least make it halfway through the course. They treated the Human as their last hope and were biting their nails in anticipation, yet Damien couldn't help but notice that when he was about to fail, they were excitedly leaning forward.
The man stood up from where he'd stopped and dusted himself off before sighing at the sight in front of him. The spot where most people had failed.
A massive wall, standing around one hundred feet tall and leaning over the challenger, sat dauntingly above and before him, covered from top to bottom in spikes all facing in variable directions. The spikes were small enough to grab onto easily, but too smooth to get a good grip and barely any were pointed upward in a manner that you could rest your foot between it and the wall. The first seven feet were all pointed downward as a 'you must be able to jump this high to climb this wall' indicator.
The Human stood, looking up, contemplating. Seemingly deciding where he'd try to land, he took a few steps back and lept directly upwards, settling what seemed ten feet up the wall and gripping tightly to one of the spikes that was slanted parallel to the ground, resting his feet on a similar one below it.
He carefully began climbing, searching for a vertical hold he could take a break on. The first row of them was twenty feet above where he was and he struggled to get there, leaping sideways when he was slipping off his current purchases for fresh ones, moving up when he could, forehead visibly glistening with nervous sweat visible to Damien as he watched on
"Ahhh!"
"Noo!"
A few of the nearby students cried out as he almost fell, his hand slipping off a deceptively angled spike. The man handled it with excellent calm, grabbing on to one near his chest and clenching until he'd regained his center. Once calm, he once again continued upward and avoided the spike that had almost sealed his failure. Damien tried to memorize where that one was.
A few moments later he was hanging off the row of spikes angled upward, resting. He pulled his body up to them and set his feet into the grooves, looking further upward once again. The nature of the wall made it so that you couldn't jump from this level to cheat a section without chancing impaling yourself on the many downward-facing ones.
A few minutes and more than a few near-misses later, and he was nearing the top; two rows of nothing but downward spikes with one outward-pointing spike in each, both on opposite sides of the wall. Damien watched the man pause, shift left underneath the one on that side, then pause again, standing perilously high yet needing to take a moment to decide on a course of action.
"What do you think he'll- ah!" Alexa gasped out, her question becoming interrupted as the Human took a leap of faith for the top.
The area went silent as time seemed to slow, his hand outstretched and on course with the top of the wall. It looked like he was going to barely skim by the many teeth until he brought his left thigh inward, just a bit, causing his uniform to catch a spike that drove itself deep inside the man's leg.
The students that were rooting for him moments before yelled out as his ascent slowly turned to a descent, impaled leg gradually slipping off the cause for his failure as blood dripped to the ground below. Right before he lost the ability to stop himself from falling, he opened his left hand wide and swung it forward onto the horizontal spike just above him.
"AHHRRRRGGHHHHH!" came the howl of pain as the man hung limply from the top, right hand shooting up to take some weight off the inside of his palm.
"Excellent," Damien heard the sadist instructor comment from a few feet away.
No doubt, she loved what he'd done to ensure he didn't lose here. No one had gone as far to stay in the game of yet, willingly injuring themselves to this degree to stay in for a second longer, and Layla seemed genuinely impressed at his grit, as was everyone else in the class.
Everyone except Cedar and Arion. They had been yelling at him to fail since he'd started, mocking him under their breaths for each and every mistake the "insufferable pet" made. They hadn't done that for everyone, even cheering on a few others — just the Human.
"Can I heal this!" the Combatant on the wall yelled out suddenly, staring down at Layla
"Fuck no you can't! Keep going! You're kicking ass!" she yelled back up to him with a wide grin.
'Ah, bud. What did you expect her to say,' Damien inwardly lamented, feeling bad for the guy.
"What's his name again?" Damien asked to his right side where the teacher stood.
"No fucking clue, but I like the guy," she responded.
Damien nodded. HE should have expected that. That was the hard thing about this class. Unless you asked someone's name directly, you wouldn't know it, and they were all too busy trying to dodge or avoid some new crafted way of causing pain that Layla had come up with to ask.
The Human groaned in response and swiftly removed his hand from the spike, lowering himself carefully with his right arm from where his leg was impaled. Once low enough, the red spike glistened in the sunlight as he dangled from one hand above the long drop. Reaching up, he rested his bad hand above the spike and with a final effort, heaved himself up until he could touch the top of the wall.
Damien let out a sigh of relief and tension he didn't know he'd been holding as the Human gripped to top of the wall and hoisted himself upward with his one bad arm, scratching his stomach on the now red spike he'd used to turn himself into an ornament hanging off the wall. Finally, his right foot stood on top of that same spike, and he was standing tall moments later.
The man peered over the back side of the wall, staring down a greased slide lined with many blunt spheres that students had already broken bones against, hitting them too fast or just at the wrong angle. If they'd tried to avoid them altogether though, they picked up too much speed and crashed in a heap at the bottom.
After taking a second to evaluate his options, everyone watched on as he lept off the flat portion of the platform and began speeding to the first sphere, using his good leg and hand to absorb most of the impact before leaping off toward another. As with the first obstacle, his distribution of weight and momentum was spot on and the entire trip down, even with his injuries, concluded without an issue, landing in a roll and staring into the next section.
It was where everyone who made it up and down the wall had failed. No one knew exactly what went on inside the thirty-foot long enclosed, box-like section, but the only person Layla hadn't needed to go inside to retrieve was the Minotaur who'd been sent flying out the other side like he'd been shot out of a cannon.
The Human entered cautiously, a stone door sliding out of the way for him to enter and then sliding back in place, stripping everyone's view of him. The surroundings were silent, no noises coming from the box and none coming from the spectators, until a loud bang sounded out from the other side of the box.
"Yes!!"
"Awesome man!"
"KEEP IT UP!"
A few onlookers cheered as they saw him flung out the other side of the box. The cheering stopped when he landed onto the ground face first, rolling to a stop and very obviously unconscious. Those cheering groaned at the realization.
"Maybe I need to make that hit softer," Damien heard Layla mumble to herself before taking steps to retrieve the young man. "NEXT!"
Cedar moved forward with a little hesitation in his steps, turning to look at the Kreel as she dragged the Human with scratches, burn marks, and punctures behind her.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Am I allowed to use a little bit of mana or my wings?"
Layla considered the question for a moment before addressing the class at large.
"The weakling mages may use both wings if they have it and mana in a minimal amount. If you take advantage of this though, I promise to make it extremely painful," she finished with a sneer.
Cedar nodded with a smile as he moved to the starting line, stretching his wings out as if to show off. He started off in a much lazier run, eventually reaching a faster jog and leaping for the first pillar. Clearly unable to make it off the jump alone, he flapped his wings carrying him upward and using them to glide the rest of the distance where he clung to the pillar and balanced himself with his outstretched wings.
"Oh, even I know that's bullshit," Kastra declared as a few people around her nodded angrily.
Damien wanted to call foul at that as well, Alexa even looking disgruntled. Whereas using them to balance was... an unfair advantage, but understandable, gliding as he had and not even attempting to build up as much speed as possible for the jump didn't sit well with Damien.
Layla said nothing however, and they all continued watching the display.
When he jumped to the next pillar, he flapped his wings again and barely made it in the same manner. Not trying to conserve momentum and jump immediately; he once again stopped and held fast on the very top of it, balancing and then squatting down to leap again. More complaints went around as he left the pillar with less effort and a faintly discernable grin on, flapping his wings twice.
Damien's eyes widened as the pillar that was his instructor vanished at the same moment a figure appeared above the Celestial.
Cedar's tiny grin disappeared when he felt something off, followed by his body as Layla's axe kick caught him in the back, sending him directly into the ground. With a huge splash of brown grease and the sound of a splat, the Celestials white wings became an entirely different color.
'Dumbass.'
"Ughhhhhhhhh," he moaned out, arm at a twisted angle while bleeding profusely from his nose. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!" he screamed, sitting up and glaring at Layla who had her hand embedded inside the top of the pillar he was trying to get to, foot lodged inside it lower as she grinned down at him while flipping him off.
"I said MINIMAL," she yelled down. Did you really think I'd allow you to just fly from place to place? Are you a fucking idiot or just arrogant?" she asked.
"He's both!" Kastra yelled out from beside Damien, causing him and a few others around him to laugh.
"It's a course designed for Combatants! What did you exp-"
"Are you going to keep bitching or try again? I gave you a handicap, take it or leave it," Layla interrupted.
"Oh whatever," Cedar declared, standing up and trying to heal his arm. "One try per person. I'm not special."
Damien laughed at his bullshit copout. Maybe he was trying to garner sympathy, but the Combatants already didn't like the Mage's presence in this class, and a few chuckled dryly at his attempt to seem fair while giving up.
Layla's eyes turned to slits as she glared at the Celestial beneath her. There was clearly only one correct answer to her provocation, and he'd not given it.
"You weak bitch," Layla declared, glaring down at him. "I knew accepting Mages into this course was pointless. Get out of the way so your idiot friend can try."
With an affronted look, but unwilling to match her deadly gaze that brokered no argument, Cedar attempted to stand and move out of the way only to lose his footing and hit the ground, crying out in pain and holding his broken arm. A few onlookers laughed as he tried and fell again, eventually resorting to using magic to shift his body to dry ground.
Arion walked up to the starting line as Cedar finally stood and began healing his arm, cursing Layla as if she couldn't hear every word he said as he got closer to the rest of the class. If Damien could hear him, the Kreel certainly could, so he assumed the foolish Celestial had a death wish.
"You need to use soap, man," Damien offered when he got closer, eyebrow raised as the Celestial kept trying and failing to remove the brown from his wings while healing himself.
"Piss off," Cedar shot back.
Damien sighed.
'I tried.'
"Go whenever you want, pretty boy," Layla said, staying in place on the pillar.
Arion looked at her confused for a moment before shrugging and sprinting forward, taking the course much more seriously than Cedar had. He lept through the air and almost didn't need to use his wings but eventually did, opening them up to soar a tiny distance before landing and conserving his momentum to launch off the other side of the pillar in a similar manner the Human had. When he got to Layla's pillar, he manipulated his trajectory to land on the opposite side she was and continued past as she glared down at him, pretending he hadn't even noticed her presence.
He got to the last column and skipped the standing portion of the broken pillar, instead landing on top of where it had fallen to the ground. With three quick steps, he picked up speed and lept with a flap of his wings to get him over the last hurdle and past the remaining ten feet to safety. A moment later, he landed on his knee while using his wings to stabilize himself before the wall of pain.
He moved up to the wall and lept upward, once again using a slight flap to send him a bit higher than the Human had lept. Damien narrowed his eyes at the obvious excess use, but Layla did nothing so no one dared complain after her last display. The celestial only used his wings for balance as he scaled the wall, slower than the Human but still under his own power. When he got to the last two rows by the top, he lept up and backward, a flap sending him back toward the wall and high enough to grab the top.
Layla launched herself from the pillar, heading directly in the Celestial's direction as everyone watched on with anticipation, some nodding their heads at his flagrant misuse of his advantage. To their surprise though, she merely landed directly next to Arion, causing him to almost fall down the other side because of the loud sound and vibrations her massive figure had made. She stared into his face from less than a foot away, deadpan, as if daring him to do it again.
Arion didn't look at her and lept off the top of the wall, using his wings to shift the direction he was falling in, bouncing from sphere to sphere. Layla lept off and followed him the entire way down, boring a hole into his back with her eyes as she expertly balanced on her feet, hopping off each sphere he had. When they got to the bottom, Arion lept off the wall with less speed than anyone else had and glided to a stop right in front of the last obstacle. Layla crashed into the ground behind him and grabbed him by his left wing to prevent him from going further, spinning him toward her.
"You're done. You treat this course as if it is a stage to perform on rather than something to be used to practice actual skills on. What happens if you have no wings? You don't even use magic, content to instead utilize these huge lumps of penetrable meat. I'm sick of watching it. You and your friend are no longer permitted to use this as a form of training, and I am contemplating removing you both from my course altogether. You've lost your privilege. Get off the course and leave my class for the day," she demanded in a level tone, no anger present in her voice, terrifying Damien more than her shouting ever could.
Arion looked up as she let him go and stared at her inquisitively, then nodded and left the course without an argument. He passed by Cedar who was clearly unsure of whether he should follow along or stay, deciding to stay in the end.
"Next," Layla growled out, staying facing the direction she had been when reprimanding Arion.
Damien began moving toward the starting line at a healthy clip, not in any mood to upset her more than she already was. When he arrived, he was surprised to see her very slowly making her way toward him. Figuring it was better to wait to hear her out than to just go, he stayed put until she was standing across from him, scowling down at him.
"If you take advantage of the small handicap I allowed you Mages, you and the rest of your crew will be leaving my course," she declared with venom.
Damien nodded solemnly before looking back to to the course and stretching his legs, resolving himself to only use magic to overcome things he physically couldn't overcome on his own. He closed his eyes and set into a sprinters stance, body low to the ground while clearing his mind. He'd never done a course like this, but with how he saw everyone else handle it, he figured he might stand a good chance. At least the climbing wall-type obstacle would be easy enough. Everyone had tried a climbing wall more than once back on Earth.
A gunshot rang out through his mind and he opened his eyes, accelerating forward as quickly as he could. The perks of being a Human who had practiced rumination at one point in his life showed now as he moved faster than the two Celestials before him had, their inherently stronger bodies being no match for his mana infused one. He neared the end of the safe point and launched through the air with his right leg, utilizing as much strength as he could put into it.
"Shit shit shit!" he yelled out, going much higher and further than he'd meant to while spinning his arms in a panic.
Apparently, the Combatants weren't using their full strength when clearing this particular obstacle if he could jump this far.
Damien soared through the air and nearly missed the pillar entirely, just managing to briefly land on the top edge of it before shoving off. Once again, he was airborne and going way too fast. This time though, he was on a direct collision course with the column before him, no longer arcing high but in a more direct line.
With a moment to prepare, he rotated his body until his feet were leading his body, then prepped for the inevitable collision. When he impacted the pillar, he allowed his legs to collapse beneath him to slowly absorb the impact as he slammed his hands into the sides of it to keep him from falling off. He mentally sent out a prayer to the god of earth magic to not let the post fall over as it rocked ever so slightly. When it stopped moving, he let out a large sigh of relief.
"HAH! THAT! EXCELLENT!" Layla bellowed out as he heard the sound of some muffled banging coming from her direction.
He did his best to keep focused on the task at hand and ignore the bi-polar instructor, refusing to look over. He steadied his slightly frayed nerves and moved around the pillar until he was on the other side, still hugging it. With an awkward bouncing, he lifted his butt up away from the pillar and snuck his feet in between his body and it, tilting his head upside down to see his goal. Tensing his thighs, he launched off, spinning in the air so he was upright again, completely on target this time with the leftmost side of the new column.
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"Good luck love!!!" Kastra yelled out after Layla finished berating him.
She was a bit sad to see he didn't seem to have heard her, but tried her best to keep herself upbeat and confident in him for everyone's sake in their bond.
Alexa seemed nervous, regardless of the calm feelings she was putting off if the way she was gripping Kastra's hand was any indication.
They watched on as he shot out of where he'd been crouching oddly, sprinting much faster than they'd ever seen him move before. He lept into the air and Alexa's grasp tightened, feeling like it would break Kastra's bones.
Kastra watched on a tad bit nervous as he almost overshot the column, sighing in relief and tensing up again as he collided with the following pillar way harder than she'd want to see anyone slam into stone like that. The huge thing even began to rock slightly as he regained his bearings and balance.
""HAH! THAT! EXCELLENT!" Layla screamed out from beside them, slamming her hand into her thigh as her frown turned into a large grin. "So uncontrolled but handled well. You've got a good man there, N'moran."
Kastra did her best not to laugh as Alexa blushed but said nothing in response, still too nervous to care about anything else at the moment.
"He was mine first," Kastra eventually said to Layla.
"Well, he's an excellent- oh, how unique a way to start from a dead stop like that. Interesting form," she responded.
Kastra turned her head in time to see Damien twisting in the air, landing on the third pillar. He swung around it like he was hugging it, braced his feet and once again ejected from it to the fourth. The process repeated itself as he landed in a run on the downed section of the fifth before leaping off as Arion had, soaring to the spike wall and landing with both feet planted while skidding forward to a stop.
Once he was back on the ground, Alexa relaxed and stopped crushing Kastra's hand.
"You're my hero!" Kastra yelled out.
A few of the surrounding people in the class began to chuckle while one or two calling out alongside her, excited at the performance as some tension began leaving the air. It had been one of the more lively attempts so far, and they seemed intrigued by his lack of mana to handle the situation.
Kastra smiled inside as Damien reacted to her call, shaking his head and kicking the ground in mock embarrassment as real embarrassment, pride, and love flowed through from him.
"Why don't you cheer for him, N'moran? I almost feel like it," Layla asked as Kastra nodded along.
"It's a bit embarrassing..." Alexa replied.
"Isn't he your man? Who gives a damn?" Layla questioned, shrugging.
Kastra nodded again as Damien began making his way forward to the wall. She didn't know why the brute was inquiring, maybe she was just in a better mood now, but she wanted to see Alexa be more honest with her wishes, so she pressed with the Kreel.
"You should cheer with me, they're doing it too," Kastra suggested, pointing to a couple of Elves who were shouting in support of her husband.
"Ahhhh. Fine, I will if he does something great again," Alexa responded. "And he isn't my man," she said, looking at Layla briefly.
"You're a shit liar," Layla replied.
Kastra laughed, listening in while still watching Damien. He bent low and launched his body upward, barely missing the lowest spike he could actually use. He tried a second time and once again fell a row of downward spikes short, grabbing onto one to try and lift himself up, but slipping off immediately.
"Ah... sorry, I can't exactly make it that high on my own," he declared, glancing at Layla.
"Do what you have to, boy!" she yelled back with a wide-toothed grin. "I think I'll go harder on him in the future. I like his potential."
Alexa chuckled from beside her.
"I'm sure he'll love it."
Damien once again settled downward and lept up, using a foothold created from ground manipulation about halfway up to take a double jump. He overshot the first row of useable spikes and seemed unsure of what to do, allowing himself to fall back down until he could grip them with his hands again, dangling at the lowest point he could start from. Kastra watched on with immense pride.
"A bit too honest, though," Layla declared.
He began scaling up the wall in an almost practiced manner, finding footholds in places no one else had on previous attempts while utilizing a lot more side to side movement than them as well. He made it up to the final useable holds before throwing his body upward and grabbing onto the rightmost flat spike, not bloodied by anyone yet, and used that to carefully haul himself up to the top of the wall.
Kastra and company once again cheered up at him in support. Upon hearing the praise, he turned to the crowd and began flexing in different positions before kissing his hands and waving them out to his supporters.
Kastra smiled and waved as Alexa started laughing hard at the sight. Layla shook her head while looking away.
"I can't- ahahahaha -I just... Ah my god. STOP SHOWING OFF AND KEEP GOING," Alexa yelled out with a wide smile.
Damien stopped the foolishness and smiled down at them both before turning back to look down the wall. He sat on top and lowered his body down until he couldn't hold on anymore, releasing some five feet further down than anyone else had. He looked silly doing it but seemed determined to do each piece as intelligently and carefully as he could after his first mishap.
A few of the onlookers laughed good-naturedly at him and began clapping as he let go, bouncing from sphere to sphere on the way down. He had a bit of an accident on the last two, his feet slipping off early and sending him down face first, almost catching the final sphere in the jaw, but managed to correct himself enough to swing around it with his arms and push off the wall with his feet at the last second. He landed hard on the ground and tumbled a bit but stood up almost immediately with a grin and a shake of the head.
"Don't die in there!" Alexa called out, waving goodbye to him as he slowly inched forward to the box of death.
"We'll give you a special reward tonight if y-" Kastra started as Alexa clamped her hands over the Fae's mouth.
"Who the hell is this we??" she hissed in Kastra's ear.
"You and me. He likes kisses, doesn't he?" Kastra explained, confused.
Alexa's face seemed to be questioning for a second before nodding.
"You should have said that instead of leaving it ambiguous then," she said.
"ALEXA SAID SHE'D KISS YOU ALL NIGHT IF Y- mmm!"
Once again, hands clasped over her mouth as Kastra yelled out, Damien pausing slightly and glancing to them, holding his thumb up right before the opening.
Their surrounding classmates laughed again and called out in support before he took his last steps, disappearing from sight.