Every day, Mahon and Zac worked hard to improve. Mahon coached Zac on fighting skills while he was taught about Ratho in exchange. After two weeks, they were getting closer and closer to their first victory, especially against some high nobles that got accepted in the school just because of their nobility and not their actual skills.
But Mahon was still too weak to perform most of the attacks he knew of and even more so after Slander’s hard training. If they had to fight before training, Mahon was sure he would perform much better, at least in the first fight. The fact that the fights happened after the training changed everything, though. His legs were too sore to do anything, and he had trouble mixing what he knew from Nightmare with what he could actually do in Ratho.
But the struggle kept the two friends motivated, and they bonded closer with each passing day. With the coming of the duels and the pressure of the strategy test, all the First Red were hardworking and, although their relations were still strong, they spent less and less idle time together.
Nowadays, their evenings were mostly spent talking about strategy or training and only sometimes did they rest while listening to Zac’s music and Allen’s jokes. In fact, apart from Zac, who knew the truth, Mahon had the feelings his roommates were trying to avoid him. And who could blame them? After more than a month at school, he had still not won a single fight and everyone could see how easily he was taken care of.
Zac was in the same case, but he was at least a noble and everyone could see how hard he fought. Also, the man was good at socializing and knew most of the things that happened in Ratho because of his father, so he was a center part of the First Red group. It was also because of Zac’s position that Mahon was not confronted with rejection and isolation. Zac had said nothing about Mahon’s poor performance publicly and the other First Red were not as tied to his skills as he was.
It explained to a certain extent why Mahon never had to deal with a student questioning his place inside the institute. Until today. Meditating in Nightmare, he thought back to what happened and how that would affect his time at school.
“So Amentiae's main weakness is their stomach, right?”
Wyrran glanced at his roommates while holding a piece of paper scribbled with countless sketches, arrows and words.
“And attacking them from the flank is also a well-known strategy because they are slow to react. My question is, could we theoretically find the optimum angle to strike at to have maximum advantages of the two principles?”
“Ola! Slow down, Wyrran... I’m not sure I’m following you.” Allen answered.
“Let me sketch something, you’ll get it soon.”
Wyrran somehow found a place to draw on the almost black paper and showed it to everybody.
“If you attack at a ninety angle an Amentiae formation, you’re fully optimizing the flank principle but as you do, you can’t target their stomach because you’re not seeing it.”
Allen nodded as he followed the doodling of the pen bringing even more lines on the paper.
“And if you attack at a zero angle, that is perfectly straight to the Amentiae, you don’t have any flank advantage, but this time you can perfectly see their stomach, so it’s much easier to target. Everybody got that, eh?”
Seeing that everyone was nodding, Wyrran continued his explanation by drawing an arrow that went exactly between the two previous attack angles.
“So, is it possible to find an angle between zero and ninety that gives you both the advantage of a flank attack and the possibility of targeting the stomach?”
“Oh, I see! Good question… If we can estimate and weigh the benefits of both methods for each angle, we can find it ourselves!”
The next hour was spent computing and discussing every single possibility until they were all too tired to progress efficiently. Mahon knew most of the answers to these questions, but he hardly intervened. Zac had been a rare exception he had not expected, but he was pretty sure it would not happen again, more so since his roommates were kind of avoiding him. In fact, even if he gave them all the answers they were looking for, chances are they would not believe him anyway.
The group of five soon stored away their papers and thoughts for a future session and laid back on the comfortable sofas. Zac stood up and went to grab his sitar to play some tunes, but as he came back, the door opened and Jorik appeared.
It was much earlier than usual and from his face alone, one could see that he was upset. He walked inside at a rapid pace and almost jostled Zac, who was coming on the opposite way with his instrument. He stopped just in time and, looking at what was in Zac’s hands, he shook his head.
“Just put it back in its case.”
Although the man’s face screamed fury and wrath, his voice sounded calm. Seeing the dejected look of Zac, who had waited the whole day to be able to enjoy his music time, having the rug pulled out from under his feet, Mahon felt the urge to intervene.
“Jorik, it’s not because you came home angry that we should stop our usual business. Let Zac play if he wants to.”
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“Ah... No Mahon, don’t wo…”
Zac was interrupted by Jorik’s look as the man turned back to face Mahon. He was full of disbelief as Mahon continued.
“It’s not because you came home earlier and upset that we should bear the consequences. Calm down on your own and let us enjoy our usual evening.”
“I don’t believe what I’m hearing. Enjoy? Really? Don’t you think you’ve got enough enjoyment here?”
Jorik walked to Mahon and pushed him back little by little as he spoke, ramming his fingers in Mahon’s chest.
“Look at you. You’re fucking useless. You’re just here because you’ve got some money? You’re a commoner trying to play with the nobles? You’ve never fought once in your life. You’ve never surmounted a challenge on your own. Don’t you think you’ve enjoyed this facility long enough? And now, not only do you want to make an even greater fool of yourself, you also want to drag with you the real hardworking people?”
Mahon chased away the hand that harassed him and retorted back.
“That’s what's troubling you? Go down from your pedestal. You’re not a mighty hero. The world doesn't revolve around you. What do you think you’re accomplishing by being such a dick? You’re a noble, that’s great. You’re strong, that’s cool too. But if you think that gives you the right to wave your weight around like that, you’re as useless as the others.”
Something could be seen sparkling in Jorik’s eyes as he sighed.
“Fada, it seems you’re even worse than I thought. I see you’re in dire need of an important lesson about your place in this world. I can reassure you it has nothing to do with one nobility or one’s birth. It just has to do with abilities. I will show you what you lack so sorely since it seems you’re too dumb to realize it by yourself.”
In an instant, Jorik reduced the gap between them and punched with his left. The blow was fast, but Mahon was prepared. The moment he had seen Jorik’s shoulder tensed up, he had already started to move.
Jorik’s fist passed alongside his target without touching it, and Mahon pushed it away with the back of his hand in an elegant move. He was preparing his own punch when he saw that Jorik had pivoted his hips to ready a strike with his left leg.
However, the last moment revealed that it had just been a feint and Jorik instead struck with his right fist. Mahon adjusted his strategy in a flash and bent back to let the arm slip harmlessly on his flank.
Or so he thought.
Alas, in the heat of the fight, his mind went ahead of his limited physical abilities, as it always happened in Ratho. The closed fist met his shoulder and he was pushed back in an unsteady position. It didn’t last long, however, as he took another painful hit in the stomach. The strength behind it took his breath away and a final knee to the chin threw him on the ground.
The scene had lasted under two seconds, and no one had time to react to Jorik’s onslaught. But once it was over, the roommates still did not move at all.
“You’re a pathetic weakling trying to play with the big boys. But guess what? You’re nothing. You don’t belong here.” Jorik gestured to Zac as he added. “Don’t you realize you’re even dragging down those who deserve to be here in your madness?”
Mahon’s body burned from the hits and he sat on the floor, looking at Jorik while massaging his jaw.
“Go back crying to your mommy. Play with your toys. Fada, you can even order your friends around if you want. But don’t dare talk about skills and one’s place when you’re just relying on your daddy’s connections. I hope one lesson is enough to realize you should leave this place, but come find me if you need a reminder. I’ll be there.”
Without another word, Jorik went to the dormitory. The silence that followed was unbearable and Allen, Wyrran and Kali left the living room in the following seconds. Zac came to his senses at that moment and rushed to Mahon, dropping his sitar on the way.
“Are you fine? Why did you do that?”
Mahon nodded, but he soon grimaced while he took Zac’s extended hand to stand up.
“You’re sure you’re fine?”
“Yes, don’t worry. Although he did hit me strongly, he somehow held back from injuring too hard.”
“Why did you provoke him like that?”
Mahon threw a side glance at Zac and raised his elbow as if he was questioning if Zac really did ask that.
“Yeah, I know he is rude, bossy and annoying, but that’s not a reason to poke the beast.”
“...”
“Thinking about it, from his point of view you indeed look like everything he hates.”
“He’s not the only one, apparently.”
Mahon gestured to the empty sofas where his roommates had been sitting a minute ago.
“Well, to their defense, I was also mistaken about you until two weeks ago… Shouldn’t you tell them? I’m sure they would understand.”
Mahon shook his head.
“No, I don’t think so. I have to show them my worth before I convince anyone up there. I can’t even avoid a simple punch. No wonder they treat me like that.”
“Hey, don’t be like that. You can’t devalue yourself now with all the work you have to do if you want to continue on this journey.”
Mahon looked at Zac. The man surprised him sometimes with such deep sentences. “You’re right.”
“How much time before attaining a level you’re comfortable with? Years? Months?”
“No, I don’t think so. My mind knows how to fight. It’s just my body that is lacking physically to follow. I only need to reach a minimum amount of fitness to perform most of the moves. After that, it will be faster and faster. It’s probably just a matter of weeks.”
“Really? That’s good! You think you would be able to fight Jorik by then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I did not see him fight with all he got, so I’m not sure. But the him from tonight? If I can’t beat that, I might as well quit now and bury my dream forever.”
“Let’s focus on training and improving, then. We’re in together and the stronger we are, the faster we’ll reach our goals.”
Zac smiled with his usual demeanor and only now did Mahon realize that his friend had effortlessly diverted the conversation to Mahon’s goal and that he had almost forgotten how bad his situation had been just now. Mahon smiled back at Zac and after discussing a bit more they too went to the dormitory to rest in preparation for the harsh future that awaited them if they wanted to realize their dreams.