Maxine was hurled out of the Endless Battle formation array and simply laid on the ground panting. She didn't even care that her sweat was making her clothes cling to her body. She was just too tired after spending the past three hours fighting an endless horde of opponents with varying levels of skill and strength. That situation constantly forced her to use smaller and smaller movements to both attack and defend. She knew that she would eventually run out of stamina, but she also knew that she would still feel pain from the minor injuries that she sustained while in the array. However, when she was ejected out of the formation array, all of her injuries had vanished. Fucking illusionary arrays messing with my mind.

She had only been laying on the ground for a few moments before Horatio Quay blocked the sunlight. "You defeated one thousand two hundred twenty illusionary warriors," Horatio Quay informed Maxine, "That is far more than I expected. It seems you've had a lot of experience fighting large groups and that means that I can increase the difficulty sooner than I planned. From now on, this illusion array will include some weaker gold stage opponents. You can have fifteen minutes to rest and eat before we move on to one on one sparring." First he throws me into that damn formation array without any fucking warning and now he wants me to spar with him! At least, he's letting me get some food down.

She continued her mental complaints until she saw a food tray heaping with various meats. She only looked at it for a moment before she rolled onto her hands and knees and devoured the food provided as quickly as she could. She could feel her strength returning rapidly as she ate, but she still wasn't back up to full strength when Horatio Quay returned.

Like before, he wasted no time and threw her roughly onto a grassy field well over a mile away. He arrived just as she landed and proceeded to slash at her with his blade just as she landed on her feet. Maxine immediately jumped backward to dodge by a mere milimeters and drew her own blades as she took her stance. She saw an approving smile on Horatio Quay's face before he rushed at her.

She slashed out with her right blade, but she was completely dumbfounded by what happened. Horatio Quay casually slapped the side of her blade away with his free hand before he raised his blade to use the flat of his blade to slap her across the face. She attacked him again in an attempt to wound him, but the same thing happened again every time she tried to attack.

She was pissed, but she did her best to control her anger. She knew he was testing her willpower and how much she would take before she would finally snap. I have to remain calm. He's trying to see how easily you give in to your anger. It's not like pain or humiliation piss me off that much anyways. This continued for another half hour before he stopped slapping her with his blade. By that time though, her cheeks were both red as apples.

"Good, very good. I can see you have your anger well under control," Horatio Quay said, "But that begs the question as to why your choice of words is so vulgar. No matter. We can work on that another time. For now, I noticed there were several flaws in your technique. In particular, the one where you attacked swiftly enough for it to appear that you had twelve arms. Can I assume that attack style is your creation?" He saw flaws in the technique? How? I could barely see the blur that my arms left.

"Yes," Maxine answered, "What can I do to improve it?"

"You need to fight against an equal opponent that uses the same technique for it to become obvious to you and I have just the thing to help you," Horatio Quay said as he revealed a vicious smile. Oh damn.

Maxine only saw the ground brighten up for an instant before she was in a completely different place filled with fog. When the fog cleared, she saw her doppelganger in a fighting stance. It was a perfect copy of her with one exception. It had no face. That's unsettling.

Before she could fully process what was going on, her doppelganger charged at her and used her technique, Hydra's Relentless Assault. Shit! She was forced to use it herself to keep up with it. However, she was still at a disadvantage since she was fighting in a exhausted state while her doppelganger was fully rested.

It took her awhile to realize that her doppelganger was attacking in a very specific pattern and it allowed her to see the flaws in it's technique. That's how it looks when someone is fighting me? Why couldn't I see those openings from my end? With that in mind, she started correcting her own technique and she began to wound her doppelganger. Unfortunately, her strength was waning faster than she could correct her technique.

She tried a desperate gambit and focused all of her offense onto one point. But her doppelganger deflected both of her blades to the side. She was completely open and her doppelganger hacked down at Maxine's head. She felt the blood drain from her face, but before the attack could land, she was ejected out of the formation array. She landed on the ground and laid there in exhaustion. However she never let go of her blades.

"You lasted twelve minutes. You did very well against yourself while in an exhausted state," Horatio Quay praised.

"I hate you," Maxine said weakly as she laid on the ground.

"As I said before, I'm fine with you hating me," Horatio Quay said calmly, "But you can't deny that your technique has improved."

"But your methods suck," Maxine retorted.

"Cowards don't get to complain about my methods," Horatio Quay said coldly. Maxine was surprised for a moment, but calmed down in the next moment. He has to be guessing.

"I'm not a coward," Maxine asserted as she sat up.

"Then what do you call changing your name and face several times to hide from others if not cowardice?" Horatio Quay asked, but didn't bother waiting for her to respond, "Your master revealed everything about your past to me, including your heiritage."

"Why?!" Maxine asked incredulously.

"I needed to know everything about you to know if you could withstand my teaching methods," Horatio Quay responded calmly, "And I'm going to do my very best to rid you of your cowardice."

"No, why are you saying that kind of thing HERE?!" Maxine demanded.

"Why not?" Horatio Quay asked in return, "You should have no fear of anyone knowing who you are and if someone comes, defeat and kill them. Regardless, there are very few that would risk offending any academy by harming one of their students since it would instantly mark that person for death and the faction they came from would be barred from having any of their young warriors from joining an academy for a period of five hundred years."

"Fine," Maxine said grumpily, "What do we do next?"

"Mental exercises," Horatio Quay said as the most complex board game imaginable appeared between them. She found out quickly that it was a real-time three dimensional strategy game involving thousands of units. Needless to say she lost horribly several times before she was able to put up a decent fight in it.

It wasn't until the sun was direclty over head that they stopped, but it wasn't because of a set time limit. It was because Maxine was mentally exhausted. "You're free for the rest of the day. Any more training would be pointless. Go relax and have some fun because tomorrow we will do this all over again," Horatio Quay said calmly as he got up and walked to his small house.

Since Horatio Quay released her for the day, Maxine intended to first get a bath in. She was covered in sweat and just wanted to feel clean. Unfortunately there wasn't a bath tub or even a shower in her small cottage, but she saw a women's bathhouse while Horatio Quay escorted her here.

She wasted no time and flew straight to it. When she got there, she saw that there were very few humans in the bathhouse. It was predominately occupied by beastkin. She also noticed that there were no changing rooms. Thus, Maxine shrugged and put her clothes directly inside of her dimensional ring. She glanced around for a spot that had enough space that she wouldn't be afraid of scratching someone accidentally, but it was hard finding such a spot since there were Lamia and other beastkin with large lower bodies occupying the bathhouse. Still she found one after looking for a few moments.

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However as she approached it, she drew the curious gazes of half the young women bathing. Maxine mentally shrugged as she reached the rather open spot and sat down to soak. After a few minutes, a red-haired lamia approached Maxine.

"I've never seen one of you before," she said, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?" God damn it. I just wanted to get clean without being bothered.

"I'm a hydra/shadow elf hybrid," Maxine answered.

"Oh? So Ismena wasn't full of shit," the red-headed lamia commented, "Does that mean you're Master Quay's student then?"

"Yeah," Maxine answered simply.

"Is his training as tough and cruel as they say?" the red0headed lamia asked.

"You have no idea," Maxine replied and glanced at the lamia, "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh, I'm such a dunce! My name is Mia," the red-headed lamia replied, "What's yours?"

"Maxine," Maxine replied, "And I would prefer to be left alone right now."

"Oh, alright. It's just that everyone is curious about you," Mia said.

"I understand, but I'm very tired right now. And I would like it to just enjoy bathing in peace," Maxine said.

"Oh, alright," Mia said, but she paused before saying nervously, "Just watch out for the bear and tiger tribes. They're a bunch of bullies."

"Thanks for the heads up," Maxine said calmly as the lamia slithered away. She got a few blessed minutes of peace before being approached by a pair of young women with short hair. The one on the left had orange hair with black strips in it and a set of round ears on top of her head. Maxine didn't needed any more hints to what kind of beastkin that girl was when she noticed the tiger tail traling behind the girl. The other one had short brown hair with roundish ears as well, but she was heavily muscular. Clearly this young woman was a bearkin. Damn it now what?

She closed her eyes as she sighed. "Hey, little lizard," one of them said, "You are in our spot. I know this is your first day, so I will forgive you just this once. So go on over to the rest of your kind. Oh, wait. You don't seem to have any." Is that really the best insult she can come up with?

"This is a public bath, so your claim to this spot is invalid. If this were a private bath house, you would have every reason to ask me to move, if you had reserved this spot, but it isn't," Maxine said coldly and opened her eyes to look at who just spoke, "Also, I'm not a lizard. I'm more closely related to a snake. Although both are reptiles, there is a significant different between the two. So next time just use the word reptile when talking to someone with scales to avoid making yourself look like an idiot."

"I don't care what the hell you are. And I'm not asking. I'm telling you: Move," the tigerkin woman said angrily and when Maxine didn't move, she lashed out with her clawed hands, "Don't say I didn't warn you!" However Maxine effortlessly caught her wrist. Is she stupid? She's a reckless idiot. She should know better than to attack an unknown opponent! And that's beside the point. If even a drop of my blood hits this water, it would poison everyone here!

Maxine felt her rage skyrocket and reflexively grabbed the throat of the bearkin woman when she tried to attack Maxine as well. The tigerkin woman attacked again, but Maxine had enough. She grabbed the idiot by the throat and shielded her forearms from their claws.

"Are you both completely stupid?!" Maxine roared as she felt the insides of her eyes stretch vertically and her teeth sharpen to points, "You two dumbasses could clearly tell that I've had a bad day, yet you still tried this bullshit! So I'm going to give you a choice. Either you two stay as far away from me as you can, or you can become my next MEAL!" Both of them had become pale and completely limp in her grasp. It took her a moment to realize she was unconsciously unleashing dragon fear on them due to her anger. This had also caused everyone else in the bathhouse to look at Maxine fearfully.

She took a deep breath to regain her calm and released both of them. At the same time, her teeth and eyes returned to their previous state. I shouldn't have exploded like that. That asshole, Horatio Quay, is to blame for this shit. He's messed with my emotions enough that it's becoming difficult to control myself. And it didn't help that these two idiots were trying to establish their dominance over me.

She turned around before using her energies to gather up an orb of the bathhouse water and used it to scrub herself down. Once she was done, she got out of the water and dressed herself before leaving. During that whole process, the bearkin and tigerkin women had moved to the other side of the bathhouse at a run.

She wandered around the academy looking for a place to eat. She passed a few stalls of people trying to sell equipment and potions, but nothing was of any interest to her. She ended up retrieving a few purple snake fruit from her dimensional ring to eat and headed to the medical center. She still needed to make that healing potion for Ismena's sister.

Maxine heard shouting just as she reached the entrance to the medical center. She turned her head and saw Ismena shouting at a very muscular and hairy man. It wasn't until she saw the monkey like tail that she realized he was a type of apekin.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not interested in you?!" Ismena roared at him, "I don't care what kind of protection you can provide. It won't change my mind!" The male apekin looked visibly hurt, but not from the slap.

"It only has to be on the surface. They wouldn't force your sister into a difficult situation again if you simply appeared to be my woman," the apekin male offered, "Please, let me protect the both of you." Maxine walked swiftly up to both of them. Ismena looked like she tempted to agree, but Maxine didn't let her answer.

"Excuse me. Who the hell caused Ismena's sister to get hurt?" Maxine asked with a smile that promised pain if she wasn't answered.

"Tia, the princess of the tiger tribe, and the other of the members of her pride," Ismena answered reflexively, "They said it was to give her some experience, but it's a lie. They used her as a literal shield, so they could finish the mission without getting hurt themselves."

"That's cowardly," Maxine said angrily, "I doesn't matter anymore since neither you or her will be joining them on these missions ever again."

"But..," Ismena tried to say, but Maxine cut her off, "No buts. Just tell them the truth that you and your sister have become my subordinates. As a gold-tier alchemist, I need a couple people to run a few errands for me. Now, let's go check on your sister." But that's not the only reason. No matter how much I don't like it, that bastard Horatio Quay is right. I can't keep hiding and having a few powerful allies will definitely help me. Advertising that I'm a gold tier alchemist is one way to get others to come to me in hopes of some kind of friendly relationship. And now that I think about it, I think I saw a few beastkin women that were wearing the Guardian Mother badges. It might be a good idea to join them or ally with them. That reminds me, I need to check on the village in the Shadow World at another date. It's been awhile since I last checked up on them.

Ismena stood there in shock for a moment before she nodded her head and with happy voice, said, "Yes, ma'am." The male apekin had a complex look on his face, but in the end, he gave Maxine a grateful look. It looks this fellow really likes Ismena. I wonder to what extent though. It has to be a strong like if he's willing to protect her from the academy bullies.

Maxine made her way to the room in the medical center that held Ismena's sister and swiftly checked on the poor girl. Ismena's sister was sleeping and and after a brief examination via spiritual sense, Maxine judged she was strong enough for another dose of her specialized healing potion.

"Ismena, I didn't have time to make the potion for your sister earlier, so I'm going to do it now," Maxine explained, "So, could you stand outside to make sure that I'm not interrupted?"

"Yes, I can," Ismena answered swiftly and gave her sister a quick glance before leaving the room to guard the door.

Maxine began to concoct her specialized healing potion. Everything went far more smoothly this time since she was more emotionally stable. However as soon as she took her focus off of the potion, she heard Turan and Piras Long arguing.

"... that," Turan growled.

"I won't know for certain until I ask, elf," Piras Long said in a tone oozing with venom. I definitely missed something, but I don't particularly like Piras' sense of superiority.

"As you wish. We will wait and see her opinion on the matter," Turan said with cold fury.

Ismena's sister took that moment to wake up. "Excuse me, but who are you?" Ismena's sister asked.

"I'm the alchemist treating your wounds and I need you to drink this," Maxine said as she put the potion up against the young gorgon's lips. Ismena's sister looked at the potion for a moment before drinking it.

"Thank you," Ismena's sister said after she finished drinking the potion and could clearly feel her serpents for hair regenerating, "I don't care how much my sister owes you. I will pay it all."

"She doesn't owe me a thing," Maxine said, "And your sister has neglected to tell me your name."

"Thank you so much. My name is Reina," Ismena's sister answered simply.

"Well, Reina, I heard about how you got those wounds and it's best if both you and Ismena start spreading the word that you two work for me," Maxine said, "I don't think anyone is dumb enough to piss off a gold tier alchemist to bully you and your sister."

"You would be surprised just how stupid those muscle brained idiots are and it's not just over those two," Piras Long said as she intruded into the room, "You also humiliated two promising young women of the Bear and Tiger tribes in the baths. They came to me for information about you. I can get them to back off if you join my faction, The Gilded Roses." I think I would be embarressed to be with them. You are basically announcing you are rich women and I don't think things are a serious as she claims.

"No, thank you," Maxine replied calmly.

"I told you she wouldn't," Turan said smugly.

"Anything else that I should know?" Maxine asked.

"The Tiger-Bear Mercenary Group has no idea of your background," Turan said, "I'm certain, once they discover it, they will back off."

"I'd prefer it if they don't. It's time I stopped relying on my master for protection. He can't always be there for me," Maxine said calmly.

"Interesting choice. I hope you don't regret it," Piras Long said before leaving.

"Good riddance," Turan said a few moments after Piras Long left.

"Now, Ismena, Reina, can either of you explain to me why you let others bully you?" Maxine asked, I really want to know why. They can turn people to stone with their gaze alone. All it takes is one instance of either one of them loosing their temper and removing their blindfolds. I know it only turns them to stone for a few hours, but that's plenty of time to smash them into tiny pieces. And the only evidence of their crime would be a pile of rubble.