I was the first to arrive to the room after class. I had just come from advanced magical theory, so I was well rested and ready for whatever training they had planned for the five of us. The instructor wasn't there yet, but he would come when it started. I was twenty minutes early and the others were probably putting away their school books. I had a storage spell that could hold a small amount of things with spacial magic, so I didn't have a reason to procrastinate by going back to the dorms.

All I had on me was my sword, which I was only seventy percent sure I needed. I sat in the back and pulled out my book Dark Magic: How to Summon Powerful Creatures and read until the door was opened and someone else walked in.

Atezor Graeme came strolling in and sat next to me. Put my book back in storage as he turned to talk to me.

"You're Alfred, right? I'm Atezor. Your father let me in despite being a foreigner." He introduced himself, in a strange accent.

"You're really from the north? I didn't think foreigners were eligible for the academy. If father saw fit to accept you then you must have really impressed him. I look forward to training with you." I said.

"And I you. Headmaster Von Earlheight is strong but you seem to have inherited more than just physical prowess." He said.

"You aren't so bad yourself. Top five in the best magic academy in the kingdom."

"Not as good as top three. Or first place," He sighed, "that honor belongs to you."

"It's no big deal. If the headmaster's son isn't top of his class, can he call himself headmaster?" I responded

"True." He laughed.

Two people walked in one after the other. First was the commoner, Wayne Goodman. Then Leviah Nightshade.

Wayne saw Atezor and smiled as though they had already met. Then he saw me next to him. His smile vanished and he made a subservient nod.

"Lord Von Earlheight." He said in a low voice. He wasn't sure how to address me.

"No need for the formality," my good mood from talking to Atezor faded, I didn't like being seen as superior just because of my birth, "we're all equals at the academy."

He just nodded and sat next to Atezor. Behind him, Leviah said nothing and sat away from the three of us in the back. She didn't appear to be a noble but she was definitely powerful.

The last of us to come in was Enis Walterberger. She walked in like the room was empty and sat in the front row.

It was five minutes until the training was supposed to start when the instructor arrived. He was stern looking, with a buzz cut and a military uniform on. His chiseled jawline was perfect for a military man.

"Today you're civilian life is over," he shouted as he was still walking to the teacher's podium, "today you become soldiers. In this training course, you will learn what it means to be a follower. Only then can you be molded into leaders. When I look around this room I don't see leaders. I don't see followers. What I see is a bunch of sorry...sacks...of shit that did well on a test." He looked around when he reach the podium.

He singled me out. "You," he pointed at me, "you got a one hundred, a perfect score?" He yelled.

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"I did." I said in an even tone.

"Good. Now do one push up for every point you got. And don't whisper to me again." He yelled.

My arms were well muscled from sword training but one hundred push ups was asking way too much from my fifteen year old body. I dropped to the floor and did fifty-six before I began to struggle. After sixty-two I had to use a muscle enhancement spell.

While I was doing this he was still shouting at the top of his lungs. "When you speak to me you sound off. If I catch you whispering like this young fuck-up, you do exactly what he's doing right now," he looked at me, "who told you to magic? Cancel the spell and start over!"

My arms gave out and I landed on my left side.

"You're weak," He said in an inside voice, "I thought you were William's son. That man could did a thousand pushups a day when he was three years old."

Someone laughed, it was Wayne. The man turned to him. "You think something is funny? Get down there and do it with him."

He did seventy-six before he gave out. "You still think anything's funny?"

"No." He shouted in response.

"No, Lieutenant Orwell." He loudly corrected.

"No, Lieutenant Orwell." Wayne copied.

"Better. Get up both of you. Today I'm teaching you basic drill. Get outside."

Once we were outside, Lieutenant Orwell got us in a line. "Get to the position of attention. Eyes ahead, back straight, legs together, feet at a forty-five degree angle." He demonstrated and we copied his lead.

"In order to do a left face, you push off the ground with your right foot and pivot to the left with your other foot." It took some time to get it down, but after we did it seemed stupid that it took us that long.

"An about face is done by putting your right foot behind your left and pivoting one-hundred-eighty degrees." We completed the task.

He drilled us until we had it all down. Then we switched to marching. It was easy enough to stay in step so it wasn't all that difficult. After two hours we were done with basic drill.

"For the next three hours we will do sword training. How many of you don't know anything about swords?" To my surprise, all five of us had trained with swords.

We all spared with the lieutenant to place us with sparing partners. There were five of us so one would be without a partner. I noticed this and pointed it out.

"You will be sparing with me. I want to see if your father tought you anything."

Enis was paired with Atezor as the best two behind me. The remaining two were pared together.

I prepared to get destroyed by the lieutenant. He came at me with speed beyond the norm. I barely deflected his first strike. His second was just as fast but I was expecting it. I met his wooden sword with mine to block his over head attack. He had me on the defensive, leaving no openings. As I parried his strikes, I began to think of a plan.

The duel went on for a few minutes and I saw my opportunity. As he went for another overhead strike, I feigned a parry and dodged out of the way at the last second. He stumbled, but as I went in for a strike, he turned and hit my sword away.

I saw my opportunity and went on the offensive. He parried my quick barrage of attacks but obviously wasn't expecting me to be so fast. I pressed my advantage until I saw an opening. I went in for the "killing" blow. Suddenly, my world turned upside down. Lieutenant Orwell was standing above me sword placed on my shoulder in triumph.

"Not bad," for once his voice wasn't at maximum volume, "if you hadn't fallen for the fake opening you would've damned near beaten me." He helped me to my feet. The others were looking at us, astounded.

"You've never seen a sword spar before?" His voice returned to its normal volume: full blast, "get to it."

Atezor and Enis got to sparing. They both had obviously professional training. Their strikes weren't anywhere near as fast as the lieutenant's or mine but the technique was flawless.

Leviah and Wayne had far less technique but their raw skill was to be marvelled at. With some training each of them could be as good as or better than me.

Words from the lieutenant snapped me back into reality. "Ready for round two?"

Overall the experience was draining, but I got some good practice in and my skill seemed to have improved. After years of training alone, I didn't think I could keep up with an actual battle hardened veteran.

At eight, when practice was over, Atezor came up to me. "It seems your swordplay is just as Impressive as your magic."

"Yours isn't so bad either. With some extra work, you could surpass even me." I responded

He smiled and gave a thickly accented laugh. "You willing to help out with that?"

"Is now good for you?" I asked

He shook his head. "I'm too tired now but whenever you have time."

"Come to my dorm whenever. I'm usually not busy."

"Will do." He turned and walked away.