Chapter LXV (65) - Back in Classes

“One thousand years ago, our great academy was founded. The explosion of Mt Kazen killed 94% of the island’s native inhabitants. The remaining 6% survived due to their nature as fishermen. They happened to be far out at sea before the devastation occurred. Upon arriving back at their home, those few survivors reached out to all nearby nations in a request for aid. Hon, Tross, Edgeland, and Ilosin-Don all responded. This resulted in the formation of a new host of issues. Due to its unique location, Viefae, or Wave Edge Island as it was later named, was situated in a strategic stranglehold. Any nation that held control of the island, held control of the seas between the four nations. Instead of bringing stability and assistance to the few remaining Viefae people, the nations brought war. After seventeen years and four months of conflict, it was decided that the island would be a neutral safe haven for all nations. No one held more control than any of the others. Which consequently resulted in the formation of Wave Edge Academy.”

Kizu listened to Krimpit’s lecture with half an ear as he doodled. If the tone actually fluctuated or cadence shifted, the lecture might have had the beginnings of a half decent story. Kizu could at least see the bones of one underneath the poor presentation.

A student raised her hand.

“What happened to the Viefae people?” she asked. “Are their descendants still here?”

“Caught in the crossfires of conflict, every last one of them ended deceased. The genetic line ceased to exist after the ninth year of conflict. Some reports speculate that a few attempted to escape down into the World Dungeon, seeking power to retake their island, but there is no evidence to support such an expedition and most scholars agree it to be a wishful fantasy.” He then launched into the details of the new trading routes the academy’s position offered to the surrounding nations.

“What are you drawing?” Ione said, sliding into the empty seat beside Kizu.

“What does it look like?” he asked.

“Half parrot, half dog creature spitting out a rock? Is it a new magical creature you saw recently?”

Kizu grimaced. It was supposed to be Emilia standing in the moonlight. “Where are you getting parrot from?”

“The thing on its face, you see how it’s hooked? Looks like a beak to me.”

Kizu crumpled up the paper in a fist. The noise attracted Krimpt’s attention who swiftly exiled him for the remaining class session.

In Combat F, Arclight gathered them all around her.

“Now,” she began. “I know many of you will be saddened to hear, but with the midterms now complete, your class will be moving on from daily cardio.”

The students around Kizu cheered and whooped.

She shushed them with a smile and a wave of her hand.

“From this point, I plan to instruct you in the art of hand-to-hand.”

“Why does a mage need to learn how to fight with his fists?” one student asked. “Can’t you just blast them with an ice beam and be done?”

“Would you like to serve as an example?” Arclight asked.

The student quickly backed down, seeing the error in his thoughts. From what Kizu had seen examining the fights, as well as his own meager combat experience, it more than made sense to build an understanding of how to fight.

“The first thing to know,” Arclight continued. “Is that hand-to-hand is a final resort. Unless you are extremely experienced and trained in the art, back down and put space between you and your opponent. And if that’s not possible, finding or conjuring a weapon will likely serve you better than trying to punch an opponent. But weapons can be lost, and opponents can back you into corners. So, you must first learn how to block a strike.”

She beckoned someone lurking unseen in the shadows to approach. The student even loomed over the professor. His skin a sickly green tint, Kizu recognized him as Gob Lucas.

“Lucas has volunteered to demonstrate for this class. Now Lucus, strike me.”

The half-troll student nodded obediently and took a stance in front of Arclight. He stared at her for a minute, then, without further warning, he attacked.

His strike was easily deflected by Arclight who stepped to the side, letting Lucas’ weight cause him to stumble forward. Arclight then chopped the back of his head with a swift strike, causing the boy to collapse.

“Whoops,” she said, crouching down next to Lucas. “I stuck a bit harder than intended. How do you feel, Lucas?”

Despite her apologetic words, the smile never left her face. And Lucas grinned back at her. With how they acted, Kizu doubted that Arclight stuck with any unintended strength. Once he got back to his feet, Arclight demonstrated the block again, this time Lucas acting in slow motion.

They paired up after the demonstration and Kizu found himself next to Evie, the girl with porcupine-like quills sprouting from her skin. She put on a pair of gloves, to cover the quills there. But as Kizu struck at her, when she raised her hands to deflect the blow, the quills pierced the gloves and punctured his skin. He cried out in surprise and wrenched his fist back.

“I’m sorry,” she said, burying her face in her palms.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Kizu said through gritted teeth. He looked down at the back of his bloody hand where Evie had blocked him. A few quills had even broken off, embedding themselves in the skin.

Arclight approached and immediately determined the source of their issue.

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“You’re not fighting a human,” she told him as she yanked the quills out of his skin. “You cannot expect every opponent you face to be a clone of the last. Yamarashi like Evie here have an advantage in close combat. But, if you find a way around it, and do manage to strike, nine times out of ten the opponent won’t be able to see it coming.”

Arclight spun on her heel and flicked Evie in the forehead, dropping her to the ground.

“How though?” Kizu asked, looking at her uninjured hand.

“There are hundreds of methods! Open your mind and guess! Perhaps the greatest beauty of combat between spellcasters is that they have limitless options at their disposal. Battle acts as an expression of creativity and ingenuity. I can teach you the foundations, but every individual has a unique application.”

“How do you do it?”

“I use a body modification spell to harden my skin to the texture of steel.”

Kizu doubted that anything like that would work for him. He watched as Evie stood up, rubbing her forehead, and looked over at him sheepishly.

Going to his pack, Kizu retrieved a flask of water. He guzzled down half the flask, letting a bit of the liquid run down his chin. Then he poured the remaining water on his hands.

Arclight watched him with curiosity as he motioned for Evie to get ready again. She seemed confused but did as he asked, taking a defensive stance.

This time, right before he made contact with her hands, he froze the water soaking his hand, encasing his fist in ice.

Evie yelped in surprise and dropped her hands, completely forgetting to deflect the blow as she instead jumped backwards. The strike landed on her shoulder with a crack and sent her sprawling in the dirt. Kizu took a quick second to examine the icy shield over his hand, now with quills sticking out of it, before transforming it into steam.

“Excellent!” Arclight said, beaming. “You have a great amount of potential, Kaga. In the right circumstances, you might develop into a proper battle mage! Resourcefulness is key to victory.”

Kizu crouched to help Evie back to her feet, only to realize that she couldn’t take his hand without her injuring him. But she stood back up on her own just fine.

“And you, Miss. Alito.” Arclight faced Evie. “As I said earlier. You need to know others will find ways around your natural defenses. Dependency will cost you your life. Knowing your enemy will go a long way into predicting how he or she will act. Unfortunately, you rarely get the chance to sit down and have tea with your opponent. Instead, you need to watch for physical cues to give you hints. I will assign you a text that might help.”

Evie looked incredibly grateful for the chance to read. They both bowed and thanked Arclight as she dismissed them and went to assess other students.

Kizu continued to practice with Evie, using his ice shield to ignore her quills, and switched positions. Evie was terrible at the offensive, holding back her blows. It actually irritated Kizu a bit. How was he supposed to learn if his partner refused to commit to a blow? But after a few attempts, he relaxed, telling himself it was stupid to be upset about someone’s nature being too nice of all things. Eventually, the academy bells rang overhead signaling the end of the class.

When he arrived in Enchanting C, he took his usual seat next to Basil. Today, the shapechanger looked younger. While his height remained, his features looked like that of a ganglily first year. Kizu assumed he chose the look to cover up his lack of physical mass.

Professor Kateshi stepped through the painting that served as the class’s entrance. She examined them all slowly before taking her usual place at the front of the class.

“Today,” she said, addressing the class. “You will need to find a group to work with.”

There was a groan from the class. Kateshi ignored it as she continued.

“Enchanting goes beyond just what an individual can accomplish. You are now all at the point where more complex devices are within your understanding. Working together, each of you can complete a piece of a project and combine your skills, each of you creating one metaphorical cog, to accomplish an enchanted device beyond an individual’s ability. You will be working in groups of three or four. And this project will act as your final.”

Kateshi tapped the front blackboard and glowing numbers appeared on it. A count down from one hundred. The class immediately erupted into chatter as everyone found their group mates.

“You with me?” Kizu asked Basil.

“Of course,” he responded. “I told you from the very beginning I was going to rely on you to get a passing grade in this class.”

Kizu tried to get a few other random students’ attention, but they all blew him off. Just his luck this was the one-day Basil didn’t decide to appear drop dead gorgeous. By the time the countdown dropped to zero, almost every student in class was in a group.

“Kaga Finn,” Kateshi said, looking over the assembled groups. “You’re still sitting alone. Join your brother’s group.”

Finn’s eyes widened in horror, and he started to stammer a protest, but Kateshi ignored him.

“You have eight weeks,” she said. “Which might seem like a great deal of time, but it will pass by quicker than a blink of the eye. Today, you should begin hypothesizing with your group and sketching out ideas.”

Finn plopped down in a seat near them with his customary scowl.

“So,” Kizu said. “Any ideas for what you guys want to develop?”

“A clothing mannequin,” Basil immediately proposed. “One that can change sizes and body shapes based on who is looking at it to showcase how the clothes will fit without needing to actually try them on.”

“I hate that idea,” Finn said.

“Do you have something better?” Basil said defensively.

“I’m not working on a useless clothing mannequin for my final.”

“Okay, how about a mask that helps people learn how to smile,” Basil shot back. “I think you’ll find that mighty helpful.”

Kizu spoke up before the two of them ripped into one another.

“I have an idea,” he said, proposing the first thing that came to mind. “What if we were to develop a bookshelf? Like one of the ones they have in the library that conceals hidden passageways and disguises books.”

To his surprise, neither of them protested the idea. Finn looked away, sulking, and Basil just shrugged.

“You’re both good with this then?” Kizu said, shocked. “I’m all ears if you have any other ideas.”

“It’s fine,” Finn grumbled.

“I’m good with whatever,” Basil said, giving Kizu a thumbs up. “Like I said, I expect you to carry me through this project. You still owe me after all.”

He and Basil began hypothesizing on the different methods and things the bookshelf could do, with Finn occasionally muttering thoughts. They quickly hit a hurdle though when they realized how much their project relied on spatial magic. Reluctantly, Kizu agreed to take the bulk of that on himself, as he was the only one with any experience with spatial manipulation. Though jumping was significantly different from what they proposed. This was more similar to a portal. Which meant more studying. On the bright side, Kizu thought he might be able to get access to some restricted areas of the library thanks to the project.