Apart from Styx, who pulled others’ gazes with his scars and presence, there was only one dragon that was interesting enough to catch my attention.

And he was apparently torn between running after his tail and continuing to roll on the ground.

“Connie…! For the love of all gods, you are embarrassing us!” Ceres cried out, pulling the ice-blue dragon’s reins with all she had, and failing to make him move even an inch.

He is the youngest dragon by far…

If Cornelius the Third was a human, he would be using a pacifier and drinking bottled milk.

To my knowledge, Ergos had a total of six gymnasiums. The one we were using was one of the small ones, since our class didn’t have that many students. The gymnasium, like the others I had seen before, was simplistic. There were silver arcs spread around the space, and from the sides, I could spot turrets similar to the ones in the Training Cell.

If there was one thing worth mentioning, however, was the equipment—or lack thereof.

“To those who didn’t bring your own gear, you can rent some from the warehouse—just be quick about it. As a warm-up, I want each of you to fly two hundred laps around the gym. You will have two minutes. Exceed the time limit, and you are out. Questions?”

Professor Bel had barely stepped into the gymnasium when he started to speak, his voice echoing through the space with the same power as a thunder. If anyone had any questions, not even one soul raised their hands. Maybe it was because right before the break, Belenus kicked out two students because of their ‘stupid questions’.

Or they were too busy trying to see how long their dragons would take to run a hundred laps.

Belenus started to go around the gymnasium, helping some students who were having problems with their gear. That image almost didn’t suit him.

I looked over at Styx, a smile on my face.

“Want to make a bet?” His ears twitched, the dragon’s purple gaze piercing my own with its own intensity. “If you fly more than five hundred laps, I’ll buy a box of winter flowers for you—two if I fall off the saddle before time’s up.”

The ebony dragon said nothing for a few seconds, yet I saw his tail moving. A glow crossing his eyes. I knew Styx had accepted before he smiled by the way he stretched his wings.

I grinned, starting to set up the saddle and the rest of the protective gear.

“And you better not try to drop me on purpose—you can forget the flowers, if you do.”

Styx scoffed, rolling his eyes at me. A nervous laughter escaped my lips, a faint tremor running through my hands. I eyed the metal rings, shadows enveloping my thoughts. That bet was an incentive for me, not Styx.

In two minutes, how many laps could Emrys fly with Blue?

How many could Alantra?

If Belenus Kairon was demanding for two hundred laps, that was the bare minimum. I had given my all to make it to Ergos, and all I managed to do was enter the Reinforcement class after someone convinced the director himself to let me enroll. If Belenus asked me to jump, I couldn’t ask how high and hope to meet his expectations.

I had to fly and cross the distance.

“Vex!” Ceres waved and walked toward me, her left arm filled with scratch marks. She glanced to the sides, cautious, before whispering. “I didn’t have a chance to ask—did you get to enroll in the electives you wanted?”

“Ah, yes. Thanks for the help.”

Her eyes filled with pride, followed by a beaming smile as she placed both hands on her waist. “A pleasure! You enrolled in Professor Kairon’s electives, right? I heard they are pretty difficult. You must be really smart, huh?”

Again, there was no malice or mockery in her voice. She actually sounded impressed.

“There’s nothing easy about Ergos. Pan Petras may be one of the most liked professors here, yet her Special Advanced Taming course has one of the toughest projects.”

Ceres widened her eyes, holding her breath.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“How did you know I enrolled in Special Advanced Taming? Professor Petras has so many electives this term.”

I looked at her. Unblinking.

Would you ask someone if fire is hot?

“I just concluded. Your dragon has…quite the personality.”

The girl’s eyes filled with worry and affliction, turning to face her dragon as if in thought.

Then she saw him gnawing at one of the wood pillars.

“Cornelius, stop this right now! I swear I will lock you for an entire week if you keep up with this!”

To say she was ignored would be an understatement.

Ceres continued to pull Cornelius by his reins, to no avail, until a shadow stopped beside them.

Belenus Kairon did not utter one word. He only stared.

Cornelius Romerio the Third held his gaze for about three seconds before he let go of the wooden pillar, slowly, waking away from it with his ears down.

Ceres’ mouth dropped open, arms falling to her side.

“H-how did you…”

The professor ignored her, eying the dragon with a devilish smile. “This one will give Pan some trouble. Can’t wait to see it.”

Ceres continued to stare at him, mouth agape, as if the man had suddenly become Angus’ winged goddess. Then he turned to me. No, actually—

He turned to Styx.

Belenus leaned closer to the dragon, as if I was not standing right next to them. As if I didn’t exist. “If you are half as old as you look, and your previous owner was at least decent, you know how things work, don’t you?”

Styx’s growl was faint, not a complete warning, yet nowhere near a friendly reminder. Belenus smiled even more.

“Good.” Then the professor did something I was not expecting at all. He got even closer to Styx and whispered in his ear.

So that I couldn’t hear.

It was subtle, yet I saw as Styx’s pupils dilated, the dragon holding his breathing for a second too long. And when Professor Bel pulled away and looked at me, there was that chaotic glow in his eye.

Like a child’s pulling a prank and aching to see who would get caught.

“Whoever is not ready can leave!” he shouted as he walked to the center, a silver orb floating from one of his pockets until it was hovering above us all.

With a timer.

“Mount your dragons and get ready. When the time starts, you start. I don’t want anyone complaining and crying to me, saying

I didn’t give enough time for you to prepare.”

I was up on Styx in a few heartbeats, adjusting the reins and making sure I was properly tied.

Styx showed no distress, nor any odd behavior. As if there was nothing to worry about. I gripped the reins tighter, my eyes going from the dragon to the professor at the center of the gym.

What did he say to you?

Before I could ponder about it any further, the clock started to go down.

And the dragons roared into the sky.

That gymnasium, in particular, was not too big—when compared to race lanes. It was wide and lengthy enough to make for some good exercise, yet not enough to provide a serious training for races. This showed how much the reinforcement class was worthy in Ergos’ eyes. How much they cared for us.

Still, the warm-up given to the class was not that simple. Sure, most dragons in the class—even the most mediocre ones—could fly fast enough to make two hundred laps. The problem came with the time and the obstacles.

Something Professor Bel had made very clear during the lessons was how dragons were not permitted to leave the premises of the stadiums and gymnasiums unless they were in a cage. And that, whenever there would be practical lessons with our dragons, we were not allowed to fly outside the limits of the space.

The rings were set up in a way that, in order to fly under these rules, we were obliged to maneuver either around or through them. And I would bet my own heart and soul that Belenus would turn on the turrets before the first minute was up.

So then, it was not just a matter of speed. It was about controlling the dragons’ stamina and power, and knowing how to ride.

For the first twenty seconds, things were going well. I was sending Styx through the rings instead of flying around them, to maximize his speed. And, the few times I got a glimpse of Ceres and Cornelius the Third, I saw them flying around the rings quite well. It was interesting to see his flying pattern, considering he had the body of a four-legged without any wings.

Most riders that weren’t having too many complications were riding wingless dragons—which was not surprising. They were the best for fast maneuvers and speed control. When the rider knew how to control them, of course.

Then, when almost thirty seconds had passed, Professor Bel turned on the turrets.

And everything turned into chaos.

It was the same patterns and projectiles as the ones from the Training Cell. Yet the students who were so focused on maintaining their speed while glancing at the timer—those students fell like flies. In the first six seconds the turrets were on, dragons continued to fly and finish their laps.

After that, the screams and grunts from both riders and their dragons that echoed throughout the gymnasium soared alongside their failures.

Some riders were completely thrown from their saddles, hanging by their security gear—a fortified leather string—being either forced to land when they couldn’t climb back to their saddles or wasting precious seconds climbing as the dragons were forced to slow down.

Considering how much space I had, compared to the Training Cell, I shouldn’t have any problem dodging and keeping Styx’s speed.

Yet we had collided with the rings at least seven times, and I had almost fallen off the saddle thrice to dodge the turrets’ shots.

I looked at Styx, my heart racing and thumping against my chest.

“What the fuck are you doing?!”