Chapter 44: Teaming up
Felix Sythias’ POV (continued):
The crowd of students around me gasped, then started shouting. I couldn’t blame them. One and a half weeks. We’d be going on a monster hunting excursion in one and a half fucking weeks?! Half the students in our group probably hadn't even seen a monster before, for the star’s sake! How in the depths were they supposed to handle this? I knew I could take care of myself, as the incident with the Dire Bear had proven, but not everyone could.
Then again, if it really was that dangerous, Scott wouldn’t have even considered letting us go. And these were nobles, who all likely had training before they came here. That realization didn’t stop me from worrying, though, especially about Alex.
I glanced down at him. I knew he could handle himself in combat, but he didn’t do as well with the stress that accompanied it. I should urge him again to talk with Scott; any progress beforehand was better than none. Maybe I should also help him with some extra training? Confidence in his own abilities—and mine—might help soothe his worries.
Thinking about training made me think of another question. I looked back at Scott. “Will we get extra training to make up for the suddenness of the excursion?”
“I had intended to only tell this at the end of the class, but yes. All of your morning classes next week have been canceled and replaced with training. Yes, this is mandatory, and yes, everyone has to be there even if you tested out of the original class. This is not up for discussion. Now then, if that was all the questions, we’ll begin!”
He turned to the closest assistant, ignoring all the raised hands. He handed her a keystone from his pocket. She ran off towards one of the large spires lining the field. She was going to turn on the enchantment-array that powered the combat suits and kept everyone safe, which meant there definitely wasn’t going to be time for any more questions.
“While my assistant turns the enchantments on, I will take the moment to explain the changes in our training schedule for these next two-ish weeks. Previously we only focused on solo combat—not anymore! As per Academy regulations regarding low-level combat, you’ll assemble into groups of two or three. Today we will figure out who your party-members will be. So, please, go right ahead and form groups. We’ll sort you into something useful later.”
The moment the words left his mouth, people started talking over each other and forming groups. There was even some shoving as students fought over who could be in who’s group, trying to get into one high noble or another’s group, neglecting to ask if the others would even allow them in.
I let them be and turned to Alex. He nodded at me, answering my unspoken question—we would be teaming up for this. I trusted him, and we’d already fought together. So unlike all the other students here, I already had an inkling about how he fought. And he knew I would protect him, as I had done with the bear. And I knew I could trust him to have my back as well, as he’d proven with the fight against the goblins. He put me at ease, and I hopefully put him at ease, too.
“We still need a third,” I said. “We’re both melee fighters. We need someone who could support us from a distance. You get along better with the other students, do you know anyone?”
“Why don’t we just ask Tiki? She’s an archer, and a pretty good one at that from what I’ve seen.”
I hid my grimace by looking around as if to search for her; I didn’t want Alex to see my reaction. I’d already considered Tiki as our third party-member, but I didn’t trust her. Not enough, anyway. I didn’t trust her with something as important as that. What if she let me down again? The situation and context weren’t really the same as before, when she used something I told her against me, but I found it difficult to care.
But on the other hand, I knew her. I didn’t know any other students here. Better the monster you know, than the monster you don’t, right?. Besides, I knew she was sorry, and that she was trying to do better. And it wasn’t like any decision now was final. This was just a training session, after all. And I really wanted to trust her. I wanted to be able to know she had my back, that she would keep my secrets and not use them against me. I didn’t think I would ever be certain about the last one, but I could give her a chance to prove the first.
“...alright. Have you spotted her yet?”
We looked around for her for a moment and finally found her arguing with her brother.
“For the thousandth time, I do not want to join up with you, Alfred!”
Alfred scowled, clenching his fists. “Why are you being so difficult?!”
“I—what? Me?” she sputtered. “I’m being difficult? It’s you who’s being stubborn and difficult! I’ve already said no, just accept it and leave me alone!”
She spotted us approaching and glanced at us. She sent us a questioning look, and I nodded while Alex shot her a thumbs-up. Alfred, with his back turned to us, didn’t notice us at all.
“Besides,” she continued, “I already have a party. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to them.”
Without saying anything else, she walked past him and up to us, leaving Alfred sputtering. None of us paid him any mind, and we walked until I could neither hear nor smell him anymore—which, considering his strong odor, put us on the other side of the field. We sat down and talked while we waited for Scott to continue the class.
“So, just to be clear, it is okay for me to join your party, right? I didn’t misunderstand?”
I shook my head. “You didn’t, you’re… welcome to join.”
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“What was that all about?” Alex asked.
She sighed. “My brother sucks at fighting. He much prefers alchemy and stuff like that, so he wanted to join me so I could protect him. All he offered in exchange were potions I didn’t need. I also just don’t like him much.”
“Alchemy, huh?” I asked. “He should make himself some soap.”
She chuckled. “He does, but the smell won’t go away. I think there might be some Skill involved.”
I was about to respond, but Scott interrupted me, loudly getting everyone’s attention before continuing with his explanations. Even on the other side of the field, none of us had trouble understanding him.
“Alright then. Now that everyone has a group, we’ll move on to the next step: seeing if this group works. Talk with each other, figure out what you can and can’t do. Practice a little if you want. Then, in thirty minutes, explain—as a group—to one of my assistants why you should work together. If they don’t think your reasoning is good enough, they’ll split you up and send you to me, where I’ll help you create a group that does work.”
I turned to my friends. “Just so there are no misunderstandings later, I think it would be best if we all explained our capabilities before we do anything else.” They nodded. ”I’ll go first; I’m primarily a melee fighter and use my claws and strength to tear my targets apart—as much as I dislike doing so. Other than that, I can cast simple ‘spells’ in all four basic Affinities.”
Alex went next. “Um, I use my sword to slash and stab things.” We waited for him to elaborate or continue. He just scratched the scales behind his ears. “That’s it, really. I don’t have magic yet. I’m pretty decent with my sword, though. My dad thought it might make me more manly, so he taught me,” he said, bitterness dripping from his voice.
I squeezed his shoulder, and he smiled up at me, appreciating the gesture. Then, I voiced my agreement. From what little I’d seen of him fight and spar, he was good with a sword. It made me wonder who his father was to teach him that.
“I’m an archer,” Tiki said. “I shoot arrows. Other than that, I know some basic alchemy and I can do some enchanting. I’ve used it in the past to make traps and such.”
“Huh, interesting. That would definitely be useful.”
“Can you show us?” Alex asked. “I’d like to know how big it is. I’m not sure how much room we’ll have, but from the word ‘cave’, I doubt it’s much.”
Tiki blinked. “I don’t really have my stuff with me. I wasn’t expecting to need it.” She rubbed her chin. “I suppose I could just draw the shape out in the dirt, though. It wouldn’t work, but it doesn’t really need to.”
We watched her as she drew rough lines in the dirt and sand. It was a circle roughly half a meter across, with a square overlapped on it, with its four points poking out. All in all, it wasn’t too big. There was an empty spot in the middle, too. Tiki told us it was for an enchanted plate, which would function as the fuse and trap, while the rest of the lines were basically the trigger.
She stood up. “There. This is the smallest I can make it.”
“That will work, yeah,” Alex said. “So, uh, now what?”
I thought for a moment. “Well, I think we should figure out an explanation of why we should be a group.”
The other two nodded, and we started brainstorming and sharing our experiences in combat to try to figure it out. We sparred a little with other groups who were also trying to figure out how to justify their match-up. It wasn’t a serious spar, but it helped. The thirty minutes were over before we knew it. We had to wait in line for a bit before it was our turn to explain, so we used that time to go over our arguments again.
The group in front of us used the argument that they were friends and knew each other and could trust each other. The assistant deemed it not good enough and sent the group on its way. I was glad we had other arguments prepared as well, besides just that.
When it was our turn, I started off by stating that we were already friends and comfortable around each other, a valuable asset in combat. Alex then went on to explain how he and I had already fought together once and we knew how the other fought. That got us a nod, so we went on to explain why we thought we could fight well together as a group of three, too.
I began. “I’m big, strong, and tough. I can easily take and deflect simple attacks by low-level monsters, or keep their attention on me. I can also use my instinctive magic to change the battlefield in our favor, like creating a slippery floor, or raising small walls,” I said.
“And while Felix distracts the monsters, I can attack them from his back or from his side and whittle them down,” Alex continued. We’d already decided that the safest place for him to be while helping me attack would be on my back or just behind me. He’d have to work on his spear skills, too, though. The extra reach would be invaluable.
“Meanwhile,” Tiki said, “I’ll support them from a distance with my bow, picking off targets they missed and helping put down bigger enemies without putting myself in needless risk. And before the fights, I can place traps to help decrease numbers.”
The assistant nodded and scribbled it down on his notepad. “So, a tank, a mounted warrior, and a ranger?”
I nodded to the man, and he scribbled that down too. Alex looked confused, so I quickly explained it to him. “They’re archetypes the Academy uses to generalize abilities. Makes things like this easier. I'll tell you more about them later.”
“Alright,” the man said. “Sounds good enough to me.”
“Really, just like that?” I asked.
He nodded. “This is mostly just meant to weed out the idiots and to make sure you actually put some thought into your grouping. The monsters you’ll be fighting will, for the most part, not really be all that much of a threat, so the team composition doesn’t matter all that much. Now, if you’d been three support types, it would’ve been different. But you aren’t, so…” He shrugged, then motioned us to step aside so he could judge the next group.
There was still a bunch of time left in this class, but when I asked Scott, he said that he would be helping the weaker groups and would leave stronger groups like us to train how we saw fit for the remainder of the time. Or we could ask one of the assistants to help us.
We decided to do the latter, and the assistant we asked for help decided sparring was the best use of the time. So she sparred with us and gave us pointers. Especially Alex and I, since this kind of combat was very new to both of us. It would take some time for him to get comfortable in my saddle during combat. He kept falling off during sharp turns. This was going to be a lot harder than I expected it to be. We’d need to set apart some time to practice, though, even outside of class. And even then, we might not have this down before the excursion. Despite that, it was still a lot of fun.
Before we knew it, the class was already over. Professor Scott made sure we all understood that the next class was Monday morning and not next Wednesday. Then he had a bunch of brochures handed out to us. I leafed through it but it was mostly stuff I already knew. I’d read about the dungeon caves before and knew what I needed to know. Mostly. Alex and I were going to visit the library, anyway. I’d take a look for some books about the place then.
We all agreed to some extra training this week, and I used the moment to invite Tiki to go to the river with us to swim this weekend. She agreed.
After the class, Alex and I went back to the dorms. We helped each other out of the combat suits, and he went to take a shower. I had an appointment with Elana to go to, though. My wing was getting close to fully healed, and I needed to know if I would be able to use it again before the excursion.