They met up with Lily on their way to invasion practice. Her time in the library had apparently been very informative, as she immediately began telling them about her discovery the second she saw them.
“You guys won’t believe it. No wonder Father never said anything; he wanted me to fail!” Lily looked somewhere between excited and pissed, unsure which one she wanted to pick. “I’m so glad I decided to look into this.”
“Spit it out then!” Erik couldn't contain himself.
“Right, sorry.” Lily shook her head, pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. “So, my father didn’t tell me about how the school works because parents aren’t allowed to, though I’m sure he told my brother anyway.” She commented dryly, “The reason for the gag order is so that the whole school, from beginning to end, can operate as a giant test. It's basically set up to filter out the self-motivated people and elevate them.”
“I’m not sure I follow.” Caeden felt like the earlier conversation with Miss Saorise had skated around this topic.
“Ok, how to put this… You know what, I’ll just start with how the school runs, and we’ll work from there.” Lily nodded to herself. “First of all, every single class is technically optional, and the itineraries they gave us are just the fundamentals. In two weeks, those classes will end with a skill test, except for general education. Based on the test, a new itinerary is issued to all students.”
“Ok, I’m following so far, but what does this have to do with self-motivation?” Caeden didn’t see the tie-in.
“That’s the thing! You can ask for a list of all the classes the school offers and build your own schedule. The whole teaching philosophy of the school is designed to account for how unique every shroud is by letting the students choose what kind of work they want to do by taking lessons that would allow them to perform better in that role. It’s all combat-oriented, or at least mostly, because it’s still a military academy, but they want us to choose what kind of fighter we want to be.” Lily was moving her hands about, waving animatedly as they walked.
“That’s where sparring comes in. After the two weeks are over, students will receive a rank based on their practical test results. You can challenge the person above you in the rankings to take their spot. In addition, every week, there will be a day where everyone will have to participate in three rounds of sparring. The matches can apparently have a lot of different conditions and rules, but the book I was reading didn’t go into that.”
“Self-motivation?” Caeden still wasn’t seeing it.
“Right, right. The key is, no one is going to tell any of the students all this unless they ask or look it up like I did.” Lily smirked.
“Oh,” Caeden took a deep breath. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m lost, man,” Erik stared back and forth between the two of them.
“Actually, just so I know we’re on the same page…” Caeden gestured for Lily to continue.
“Absolutely!” She looked at Erik, “You see, any student who took the initiative to actively learn about the school is going to have a massive advantage when sparring begins and as it continues. Anyone passively going to the classes they are told to, taking generic lessons, will have a much harder time utilizing the unique aspects of their shroud to its full potential. Meanwhile, everyone who is in the know will be taking classes they decided on to progress in whatever combat style they think best suits them. It's a meritocracy. Those who strive to be the best will naturally beat out the unmotivated and the complacent.”
“There’s a problem here, though.” Caeden noticed.
“What?”
“You said it yourself. Your father almost certainly told your brother. That breaks the whole premise. If he knew how the system works ahead of time, it wouldn't work at all.”
“You…You’re right. The bigger families can’t really be punished for breaking the rules the same way normal islands and continentals can.” Lily crossed her arms. “That is a massive flaw. I bet they can cheat even harder than that too.” A scowl stole over her face. “I really thought this meant I would have the advantage over my brother for once.”
Caeden shrugged. He had known he was walking into an uphill battle from the beginning, so this wasn’t all that surprising. “Whatever. We’ll just have to work harder.”
“Oh, I know.” Lily nodded. “I knew that the whole time. I just thought this might even the playing field a little.”
“All I’m hearing,” Erik interrupted, “Is that I get to pick a bunch of cool, fun classes instead of boring basic crap.”
“Actually,” Caeden stopped that thought before Erik could get too tight a hold on it. “I think the two of us should at least finish out the two weeks. We actually don’t know the basics.”
“Boo! I want to learn the fun stuff! None of this boring classroom nonsense!” Erik threw his arms around Caeden’s shoulders, pouting, “Pleeeease? Pretty please, Cae? Can we do something fun?”
Caeden shrugged Erik’s clinging limbs off and rapidly shifted to put Lily between himself and his pouting roommate. “Nope. We’re going to finish these two weeks out. Then we can switch over to something else.”
“Ugh, Fiiiiine.” Erik groaned.
Invasion practice took place in one of the outbuildings on campus. Along the road to the Sun Seat was a construction of grey stone elaborately carved and set with ether crystals to depict scenes of shrouded in combat, from solo duels to massive battles rife with all kinds of spectacular attacks. Caeden made a special note of the shrouded who seemed to have transformed into animals or monsters. He assumed these were the creature shrouds, since he had yet to personally see one in use.
The map showed that this building had counterparts in each of the four directions, and Caeden did remember seeing a similar structure on the path between the mess and the Core Seat. That one had been set farther away from the road, so he had only seen part of it.
There was a massive set of double doors depicting a man standing, arms wide open, a corona of light behind his head made of glowing orange ether. His features were exquisitely carved in careful detail. This image was split down the middle by the doors themselves. When the three of them walked up, that split slid open, either door moving silently and swiftly into the wall of the building to make way for their entry.
“Why’d they have to make it so we walk under the dude’s junk to get in?” Erik’s face was scrunched up. “That’s just weird.”
The carving was clothed in an elaborate robe, just as detailed as the rest. So they were not actually walking under an artistic rendering of male genitalia. However, the door crack did run right up between the man’s legs…
“Augh,” Caeden shook his head, face taking on a similar look of distaste, “Why did you have to mention that? I wasn’t thinking about that at all, and now I can't unsee it. Not cool.”
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Lily laughed at the two of them. “I guess it just doesn’t affect me in the same way.”
“Lucky,” Both of the boys shot back simultaneously.
The carvings continued on inside the building. The doors opened into a long square hallway, twenty feet across. Caeden could see daylight at the end of the corridor, which made it feel more like some kind of underground tunnel. They exited onto an oval field of the same grey stone. The ceiling was high overhead, hundreds of feet up, the whole place lit by lines of ether running the length of the building, sending a white glow down across the massive open space. There were other students already here and what Caeden assumed were the teachers.
They apparently had two for this class, both standing off the side and watching the students mill around aimlessly. They looked so similar; Caeden would be willing to bet they were siblings. Roughly the same height, both pale-skinned, blond-haired, and blue-eyed. They even had similar haircuts, both of them sporting an undercut. The main difference lay in their body language, the man standing relaxed, a pleasant smile on his face, while the woman had her arms crossed, an almost predatory smile with bared teeth looking over the students.
While they waited for class to begin, Caeden and Erik caught Lily up with everything that had happened in their previous classes, which led to an interesting discovery about their teacher.
“I’m absolutely getting my aura class switched over to yours.” Lily was dead serious. “I can’t believe your guys got lucky enough to be in a class with Samantha Saorise. Oh, my shroud, I’m so jealous.”
“Is she famous or something?” Erik asked.
“Yeah, she’s famous!” Lily exclaimed, “Captain Saorise led a company of soldiers that repelled five separate invasions from different factions of the 10,000 Empires over twelve months. She single-handedly held the line for two weeks so that her company could be rotated with fresh troops. She’s a freaking legend.”
Lily looked like she was about to burst. “I wanted to be her when I was a little girl. I forgot she retired a few years later to teach here. Ugh, I can’t believe you got into her classes and not me. Can’t even appreciate it.” She grumbled.
“She seemed pretty cool,” Erik commented.
“You talked to her!” Lily nearly screamed. Several students and both the teachers turned to look at the noise.
“Yeah, since we were there between classes.” Erik continued, either ignoring or unaware of the added attention as Lily’s pale cheeks slowly transitioned to a lovely tomato red.
“...Tell. Me. Everything.” She whispered vehemently.
Caeden and Erik finished their story just as class was getting ready to start.
“Uaugh,” Lily let loose a quiet sound of pure frustration. “Getting my class changed after this. Immediately.”
“Welcome to invasion practice, fresh meat! I’m Master Sergeant Sylvia Wolfe!” the woman instructor yelled, her voice carrying across the stone field and causing a distant echo. “Both I and my brother,” she gestured to the man, “will be teaching you how to use invasions both defensively and offensively.” She took a step back.
“I’m Sergeant First Class Aaron Wolfe." The brother carried on, “And over the coming weeks, we will also be teaching you best practices for increasing your invasion pressure and your shroud capacity by proxy. This is one of the most important classes and by far the most universally relevant. Everyone needs to learn these lessons, as invasion is one of the most direct ways to instantly neutralize an opponent. On the field of battle, I have seen some of the most combat competent soldiers I’ve ever known taken out by a well-placed invasion.” He spoke solemnly.
“That’s why we’re going to beat all of you into shape until you have a chance of not instantly dying to your first Fire King berserker or Empire knight.” Master Sergeant Wolfe began speaking again. “If you thought physical conditioning was brutal, you have no idea. Part of this class will involve allowing yourself to be occupied for brief periods, which is most likely the worst pain you have or will ever experience. So prepare yourself for that.”
“Now, we’re going to split you into two groups and have you practice invasions.” Sergeant First Class Wolfe then began reading out a list of names, indicating who should go to what side in two lines facing each other. Caeden was facing another boy who looked much younger than him. They were instructed to manifest their shrouds and take turns back and forth, trying to invade the other while the teachers watched on. Caeden assumed this was a skill assessment of sorts to put them into more competitive pairings.
He hoped that was true, because the student he had been paired with was hopelessly outmatched. Caeden understood some of what Miss Saorise had told him earlier during this exercise. His partner was slow and clumsy at manifesting their shroud, a blue and red swirling design with a rough texture, that he found it easy to defend against and subvert any defenses in turn.
He never pushed hard when he was winning and just let the guy beat on his defenses when they swapped attackers. He could see the frustration growing on his partner’s face as minutes went by. Honestly, he could sympathize, as he was having the same struggles with Physical Enhancement. Having low control was frustrating as your shroud followed its own whims more than your will. His frustrations in the last class were a perfect example. He was watching the same thing play out in front of him as the boy would try to block Caeden’s probing attacks of Sharp, crimson lines stabbing toward him. He would try to create swirling red and blue shields, only to have them fizzle out or change shape randomly.
After a few minutes of this, Sylvia called for a stop. Just as Caeden predicted, they started shifting people around along the lines. Finally, once they were done, Caeden ended up facing exactly who he wanted to practice with.
“Well, this will be interesting,” Lily smiled.
“I’m so glad I didn’t get paired with Erik,” Caeden confessed. “He’s way too good at this.”
They both looked over to where Erik was practicing against Aaron. Their teacher was weathering Erik’s attacks coming at him from three different directions.
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Lily asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea. He has this whole thing about everyone having a rhythm that you can follow to get through their invasion defenses. He can’t explain for shit.” Caeden confessed.
“Well, are you ready? I’m coming at you.” Lily warned.
Caeden centered himself and nodded, tiny beads of red appearing at six points in front of him. Caeden had begun to ascribe to a more minimalist, active defense during his time on the War God working with Erik, before they even knew that they were doing invasions. He stationed six small manifestations of Sharp in a hexagon pattern in front of him. Whenever an attack came his way, he would extend the nearest point to perform a counter-invasion, trying to overwhelm the attack and push back.
Lily’s attack was far different than what he was used to against Erik. Her shroud, Fog, manifested as a grey cloud, much like its name implied, with small wisps of bright white and sky blue scattered throughout that cloud. She made this manifestation as tall and wide as she was and pushed that person-sized cloud at him. Caeden was used to Erik’s more targeted attacks. Not sure what to do, Caeden shot out all six of his points, red lines flashing forward into that cloud and attempting to dig right through it.
The visual nature of Lily’s shroud made it appear permeable. Caeden could even see her through it. That didn’t match the reality of the situation. Caeden felt like he was trying to shove a stick through mud. Lily even thickened up her shroud around his probing attacks, wrapping his crimson lines in thick bands of grey and white. The whole attack visibly slowed down, but it kept coming.
Definitely on the back foot now; Caeden used the time he had created to come up with something new. He created another line of Sharp, This one sitting directly in front of his chest. Cupping it in his hands, he focused on spinning it in a circle as fast as possible until he had a rapidly oscillating red circle. He started making more and interlinking them until he had a bigger circle made of smaller interwoven circles. Then he started the whole thing spinning.
As he focused all his attention on his new manifestation, one by one, Lily crushed his initial attacks. Her cloud picked up speed as the attacks broke and faded into nothing. It was almost on top of him before Caeden flung his hands forward. His flat disk of spinning, interlocking circles, now moving so fast it looked completely solid, flying forward and slamming into the center of Lily’s manifestation. The rapid rotation and sharp edges of the disk tore through the foggy cloud, ripping it apart. Before it got very far, though, it destabilized. Without the disk sitting in his hands, consuming all his focus, Caeden couldn't maintain the manifestation. So it broke apart, dissipating completely.
Consequently, he was wide open, with Lily’s cloud practically on top of him and over half of its mass still untouched. Caeden knew he was beaten. “Damn. You got me.”
“What was that at the end?” Lily asked, dismissing her shroud.
“Something I wanted to try. It's too hard for me to pull off right now, though.” Caeden shrugged.
“Seemed pretty powerful.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have the skill to pull it off consistently. Plus, it takes forever to set up.”
“If you say so.”
“Yup. Alright, this time, I’m coming at you.”
“Ready.”