Of all the gods Brand knew of, Odin was now his favorite and really, the only one worth listening to. The old man was a god of war but unlike Magni and his ilk, he emphasized becoming stronger through whatever means necessary. That's what led him to learn the first runes he gave to humanity.

  He gained the knowledge of runes after hanging himself on the world tree for seven days with his own stomach lodged into his stomach. The god somehow sacrificed himself to himself as if trading pain for the building blocks of magic itself.

  Brand wondered if he would need to do something similar to obtain power from him. Maybe a blessing to control magic with a thought or familiars like the wolfs and ravens Odin kept to gather secrets from the world.

  “What does Odin want in exchange for a blessing?” Brand asked with excited interest.

  The monk seemed to lose some of her gusto. “The thing is, gaining a blessing is not like a trade. Whatever your god of choice wants is a display of devotion, not a price to be paid.

  “Bullshit,” Brand thought to himself.

  Some gods may act that way, but Hel dealt in equal trade. Odin being the kind of god Merwyn described would probably be the same.

  “There's also the problem of him being dead,” Merwyn finished.

  Brand cursed as several students not familiar with the story also showed signs of irritation. Apparently, many in the room started to think highly of the hanged god.

  “Who knows anything about Fenrir?” Merwyn asked the class. She pointed to one of the few who lifted their hands.

  “It was the beast that ate the old gods and shattered Midgard’s first moon. It was later killed by Vidar of the roads.”

  "That's right,” Merwyn praised. “Sadly, Odin is one of the gods Fenrir killed, but not before he left us the runes.”

  With a wave of her hand, Merwyn banished all but one of the runes glowing in the air. “The first runes we will learn is usually used to protect oneself from harm but can also be used to make simple constructs. It is also the most common set of runes used to contain many different types of energies.” The runes shook then disappeared leaving a sphere or translucent blue light around Meryn. “For both magi and cultivators, this rune is the first step forward. Feel free to start trying it out.”

  Brand condensed mana in his palm and tried to form the runes. Before he came close to succeeding, the mana fell apart flying freely into the air. He'd groan in frustration, the memory of Aleen’s first lesson coming to his mind.

“Here I go again.”

****

  “So, what do you think of those two?” Dagfinn asked Cora as she paid attention to their combat teacher explain the rules of engagement for the exercise.

  Not looking away, she answered in a bored tone. “Tanya’s a bit too shy which is understandable. She’s going to get a lot of hate in the coming years from the nobles and even some commoners. Brand is the only one I see not being that way because he’s completely blind to how fucked he is.”

  Dagfinn looked over at Brand. He once again decided to sit next to Tanya because of all the room her presence created. He was now in a sleeveless more tightly worn version of the uniform given to anyone that did not have decent clothing of their own. Most of the students in this course were nobles so very few didn't have their own house colors on display.

  “At least he has good mana control,” Cora continued. “Would have looked stupid if he caught the eye of everyone in the room only to have no talent.”

  “Probably because he has practically no mana,” Dagfinn added. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with so little after the first gate.”

  To everyone's surprise, Brand was able to correctly use all the runes Merwyn introduced. Why he was able to, was obvious. Every time he completed a rune working, the effect was laughably weak. The mana shield he made was about as hard as thin glass, His mage light was about the brightness of a small fire, and he could only elevate something about half his own weight. Being a mage of any kind was far beyond his reach, but his cultivation potential was much higher because of it.

  Merwyn explained that the more mana one had, the harder it was to control. On the other hand, having less mana meant cultivating and magic in general, was that much easier. It was those like Dagfinn himself with just enough mana to make cultivating difficult and enough to halt cultivation that could not excel in a single field.

  Tanya had the opposite problem. She'd only been able to correctly use one of the runes resulting in a flash the temporarily blinded half the room. This showed she most likely had the greatest mana pool amounts the students but that didn't stop many from laughing at her and Brand who cursed in his blindness.

  “We can approach them with-.” Dagfinn was suddenly cut off by a mage bolt sailing past his head. He almost manifested his defensive aura but was able to hold himself back before revealing his true skills.

  “Pay attention,” said the monk in charge. The man was short with thick muscles stretching his robe tight.

Heeding the teacher’s words Dagfinn paid attention to what no striker would ever call a fight.

****

  A girlish whimper escaped Marla as she was thrown to the ground. Her opponent was the boy previously sitting by her side. They both held the same noble features marking them as family as well as the same utter lack of skill that was almost painful for Brand to witness.

  Regardless, the little bitch would have a hard time laughing at him for his weak runecraft with a swollen lip. Although, her being considered beaten after three hits grated at Brand’s competitive spirit.

  Elof, a short bald monk with building muscles covering his body, called out as Marla walked off the matted floor. “You, dark-skinned, you're next.”

  As he looked around for his next pick, Brand interrupted him. “Can the rules be changed for me?”

  “What do you mean?” Elof asked with a chuckle. It was clear he already knew what Brand wanted but it still had to be said.

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  “This three-hit rule won’t do anything for me. It’s even boring to watch.”

  No one that fought had fighting experience of any kind. The entire class was like a parody of the pits Brand had grown used to. The more enthusiastic student rushed the more apprehensive ones punching wildly like a child until Elof called off the fight.

Brand’s perception of nobles fell more and more as he saw how weak they truly were. Without magic, they’d be killed by any living in the Nulls with murder in their heart.

  The only reason none of the nobles lost against the commoner students was that they lost on purpose.

As for the commoner students, they should have been painting the floor with noble blood. they were scared with violence etched into their faces but against a noble, they'd try their hardest to lose, accepting blows to the chest or arm to end the fight.

Brand's eyes shifted to the commoners for an instant. he would have probably the same if his patron was vellian but all Azmina told him was to get as powerful as he could within five years. He didn't have to spend half his day pretending to learn.

  Elof signed. “I see where you're coming from, but most can't... handle more than this.”

  "Well, I can."

  “I’d be happy to supervise that kind of training if you could find anyone willing to join you,” Elof said.

  A smile parted Brand’s lips as he turned to look for a challenger. Two nobles took a step forward only for the blonde boy who'd just finished fighting to grab their shoulders.

  “You don’t want to fight that one,” he said. “Trust me, you’d only be embarrassing yourselves.”

  “Godric he’s only a drow,” one of the boys being held back said.

  “No, he isn't,” Godric corrected, failing to hide an excited grin. “And even if he were, he’d still end you both in seconds.”

  Brand could have sworn he’d seen Godric somewhere before but was pulled out of his thoughts by someone stepping up to his challenge. It was the little beast kin girl that had not said a word since introducing herself in Merwyn’s class. She had a look of determination he hadn't seen before as she wrapped her clawed hands in a black cloth leaving only her fingertips exposed.

  “I’m ready,” Tanya stated with none of the shyness Brand thought would accompany her words.

  Respecting her seriousness, he stifled a laugh. There was no way he’d consider fighting this girl, so he decided to let her down easy.

  “I’m not fighting you,” he said.

  “Why not?” Tanya asked genuinely surprised.

  Brand signed. “Look, I’ve got almost three feet on you and what, 100 pounds. It’s not a fair fight. Just look at what happened to her.” He gestured at Marla whose face turned an angry red and was about to scream, but a look from Godric convinced her to keep quiet. “Just fight one of the other girls. I don't want to hurt you for no reason.”

  “What do you mean by girls?” Cora said, butting into the conversation.

  “You know,” Brand said. “A girl like you shouldn't fight me to keep things fair.”

  “Are you saying us girls can't hope to beat you?” Cora asked with a bit of venom in her words.

  “That's right,” Brand declared with a straight face. “You can't beat me. If you could use spells then you’d stand a good chance, but without them, I win every time.” He pointed at Tanya without looking at her. “She'd be even worse than you. I'm not going to be the guy that beats on little girls.”

  "She's just as capable-"

  "No, she's not!" Brand said cutting off any complaints. “She's worth my time, and you fucking know it!”

****

  Tanya stood on the matted floor, angry and ignored. The one thing she had truly been proud of, her combat skills, were now being belittled because of her age, height, and gender.

Brand hadn’t even given her a chance to prove herself and Cora along with almost every other girl present had not allowed her to speak on her own behalf. She was about to walk away from the argument at least until the teacher broke it up but in the heated moment, Brand said something she could not ignore.

  “She's not even worth my time, and you fucking know it!”

  A growl like a raging beast escaped Tanya as she ran on the air not bothering to touch the floor and slammed her fist into Brand’s face sending blood misting onto Cora’s shirt.

He should have gone flying into the wall leaving an imprint on its surface, but his head rocked back and stopped. A sound like a snapping branch rang out as his eyes refocused and turned like a spear's tip taking aim.

  Brand spun crashing his knuckles into Tanya’s face with no hesitation sending her spinning through the air until she hit the hard ground outside of the ring’s padded floor cracking it with the force of the impact.

  “Damn it. I’m going to have to fix that,” Elof said.

  Tanya heard the complaint without knowing where it came from. She was too busy trying to regain her scattered wits. If this were training at home, now would be the time the house guards would advance on her, dealing punishing blows for taking too long to recover. Her diligence paid off, alerting her to a kick that was about to collide with her head.

  Tanya used her hands to push herself into the air avoiding the blow. She then made a foothold in the air using it to jump forward catching Brand on the side of his face with her elbow. Not deterred, Brand swung for her stomach narrowly missing as she once again pushed off surfaces that weren't there.

  For several seconds, she didn’t meet the ground, instead jumping around Brand and sometimes rolling across the air as if it were solid. Brand could do nothing against the flying her as she found opportunities to kick and punch him across his body at strange angles.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere with simple attacks, he started to faint to confuse Tanya’s rhythm. This paid off when he was able to grasp one of her ankles in an iron grip. He swung her above his head then brought her to the ground with as much force as possible making sure to root himself to the world for extra leverage.

  'BANG!' Tanya hit the ground face-first breaking padded tiles.

  'BANG!' Brand brought her back up then down again this time on her back yelling as he did it.

  'BANG!' Tanya once again was slammed against the ground, but this time Brand was not able to bring her back up.

  Her fingers dug into the ground with a pulse of mana not coming free as Brand struggled to swing her. With a mighty twist of her body, Tanya overcame his grip kicking her feet free. She then catapulted herself up connecting the soul of her feet with Brand’s chin, sending him sprawling.

  When Brand and Tanya both found their balance, they stared each other down. Neither had anger, fear, or contempt in their eyes. Brand just looked excited showing his reddened teeth in a smile. Tanya looked like she was ready to pounce on wounded prey as she shifted from side to side so quickly her clawed feet tore at the ground.

  “Kick her ass Brandy!” Godric yelled shocking everyone out of their shared silence.

  Cora shouted next not wanting Brand to be the only one being chaired for. “Fuck up his face Lion Girl!”

  Brand's smile widened like a man in his element. Tanya, on the other hand, was distracted by the ever increasingly rowdy crowd. Brand took advantage of the detraction launching himself at her with a burst of speed could be nothing but magic.

  Tanya leaped out of way receiving a glancing blow on her shoulder, but Brand followed her pushing himself with a magical burst of force. The move was awkward to perform and witness but with it, he was able to close the distance fast enough to keep Tanya on the run.

  From all around the room Tanya was forced to flee dodging Brand's punches and kicks by inches. Seeing that at this pace she would lose, she filled her right hand with rune altered mana and punched the floor. Rather than making a fist-sized howl, the punch shattered the ground sending dust and rocks flying upward from across the entire floor blinding many of the students that were now all chairing the fight on.

  Not being able to see, Brand relied on the magical perception he’d been subconsciously honing for years. Tanya couldn’t see or sense it thanks to his focus, so he thought to win the fight by catching her in a surprise headlock.

  Detecting an object coming from above, Brand went for it only to find a stone the size of his head falling to him. He then sensed Tanya but was too late to dodge her fist that glowed with power.

  As she punched Brand’s stomach, Tanya’s mana shot out as a mage bolt overcoming his roots to the world sending him flying into Elof’s arms. The teacher caught Brand, stopping his own kinetic runes from fully powering so he could absorb some of his force to save his student’s bones from breaking.

  Tanya stood panting and covered in dark bruises and drenched in sweat. “Did I win?”

  Elof placed Brand on the ground as he tried to stop coughing. He looked around at the room that had been torn up by the fighting. “I’m going to need a better room.”