Chapter 53: Combat practice
Felix Sythias’ POV:
I sat at the side of the field and watched Professor Scott scolding a pair of male students about proper behavior and public nudity—what? I took a closer look and only then did I recognize these students. It seemed Alex and I weren’t the only ones who caught them making out in the showers.
Speaking of Alex, was he back yet? I stretched my neck and raised up on my hind-legs so I could look over the crowd. I didn’t see his handsome black scales anywhere. He must still be at the toilet. I lowered back to the ground and sighed. Now that I knew I wanted to ask him out, every moment we spent apart felt like a wasted opportunity.
It didn’t matter, though. I’d already proven I didn’t have the guts to ask him out. After I left Hugo’s place yesterday, I’d felt so confident, but each step closer to home had drained away at it. By the time I got back, I wasn’t so sure anymore. I still wanted to ask him out, but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t just walk up to him and ask him to go on a date, right? Surely it had to be more special than that. It was an important question, after all.
I knew it was an excuse, and a poor one at that, but that didn’t make it any easier. When Alex came home last evening, I’d tried asking, but the words got stuck in my throat. Then later, when we were all alone in the kitchen and making dinner together—a good moment if there ever was one—I froze. Not even when he asked to cuddle with me later could I manage to bring the words out. Despite my whole conversation with Hugo, I was still scared.
I wasn’t sure what there was to be scared of, since I’d already made the choice to act on my crush, but I was scared nonetheless. Maybe I just needed a little bit more time to really let the decision sink in, to build up the courage. Or maybe I was going about this wrong. I shouldn’t fly before I could glide, right? Maybe I should start with something smaller.
“Alright!” professor Scott yelled, interrupting my thoughts. “Everyone’s here, so let's begin!”
I turned my focus back on Scott and frowned. What was he talking about? Alex was still on the toilet, right? I looked around and noticed him standing right beside me. I’d been so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed him coming back. He wasn’t looking my way, so I let myself stare a little longer than usual. His scales shone brilliantly today. They were sleek, clean, and glittered in the early morning sun. I was a little disappointed he was wearing his armor, though. I wish I could’ve seen the rest of his body, too. Not that the armor didn’t look great on him, too. I smiled at him, but he still wasn’t looking my way. Following his example, I tuned back into Scott’s explanation of today’s activities.
“—so everyone will split into groups, each containing two parties. If everything goes well today, everyone gets to stay in their current party. With that all being said, please go find your party members so we can begin. My assistants will assign you to a group.”
And with that, the group of a hundred students erupted into chaos as everyone needed to get through the throng to get to their party members. It seemed very few people actually got to partner up with their friends. Not having an interest in pushing through the crowd, I motioned Alex to follow me away from the rest. Tiki should be able to find us here fairly easily, and we wouldn’t need to play shove with everyone. Looking around, it seemed I wasn’t the only one to think of this.
While we waited for Tiki, I turned to Alex. “So, what are we doing? I wasn’t paying attention.”
He looked surprised. “You weren’t? Why?”
I was about to answer when an idea crossed my mind as I remembered my earlier thought—I should start with something smaller.
“Your scales,” I blurted out, the words not at all coming out like I intended. Seeing his confusion, I quickly clarified. “Sorry, I meant that they looked very pretty in this light and they distracted me. Did you polish them this morning?”
Stars beyond, I sucked at flirting. Alex, however, scratched the scales behind his ears and looked away, a shy smile on his snout.
“Thank you. And yeah, they were getting a little dull, so I polished them before we left,” he said, then blinked and looked back up at me. “Ah, yours look good, too, by the way.”
Now it was my turn to avert my eyes, which is how I noticed Tiki standing to the side. She was smiling at us, though she tried to hide it. When she noticed me looking at her, she cleared her throat.
“Are you guys ready to go? The other group is waiting for us.”
“In a moment,” Alex said. “Felix didn’t pay attention and doesn’t know what we’re doing.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s very simple. We’re sparring with other parties. Can we go now? I really need to hit something.”
I nodded, and we followed her. When I tried asking what was wrong, she said she was fine. But from the glare she occasionally sent her brother’s way, the fewer than usual potion bottles on her belt, and the fact that some of her hair was slightly singed, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened.
Tiki led us to an assistant, who paired us off with one of the groups waiting with her. They were three guys, two with swords and one with a shield. The assistant assigned a part of the field to us, so we started heading there. While we walked, I managed to pry out the story of what happened to Tiki’s hair. It was like I expected, mostly. She’d been making potions and her brother kept interrupting her until finally one reaction didn’t go all that well. At that, Alex invited her to use his old room, since no one was using it, anyway. She took him up on the offer.
Soon, we arrived at our part of the field. Alex, Tiki, and I started walking to the other end of the field so we could start, but the other party interrupted us, saying they wanted to talk about how we were going to do things. So we talked about some expectations and rules for a little while. They basically amounted to: one, when someone says stop, you stop; and two, no faking injury or death. I didn’t agree with the second rule, but the other party insisted on it. After that, though, it became clear what they really wanted to talk about.
“And what about Felix?” John, their tank, asked. “He gives your party an unfair advantage. Wouldn’t it be better if we fought two on two?”
Before I could respond, both Tiki and Alex spoke at the same time.
“So what?” they both said. They looked at each other for a moment before Tiki continued. “Do you really think that the battles during the excursion will always be fair? Besides, this is meant to practice our ability to work together. How are we supposed to do that with one team member down?”
John was about to respond, but I cut him off. “I’m not going to sit by the sidelines,” I said, leaving no room for argument in my voice. “But I get where you’re coming from. So, for the first fight, I’ll only dodge so you can get some experience in. After that, I’m not holding back.”
He looked like he wanted to argue still, but a glare from Tiki shut him up. As we walked to our respective sides of the field, Tiki and Alex both made their displeasure at the situations known.
“Ridiculous,” Tiki said. ”Alex could probably wipe the floor with them just by himself, but they’re only going after you because you also look big and strong, unlike Alex.”
Alex put on a look of faux hurt. “Hey! I look plenty strong!”
“Not compared to Felix, you don’t,” Tiki said, rolling her eyes.
“Fair,” he said. ”I agree though, it’s not right. Maybe we should go to profess—”
I put a talon on his shoulder, and he stopped. “Thank you, Alex, but it’s fine. I’ve dealt with this before; I can handle it now, too. Same goes for you, Tiki. Just let it be. Hopefully, the next group will be nicer.”
We reached the end of the field and turned to face the other party.
“Like I said, I’ll only be dodging. That’ll be good practice for you, Alex. Try not to fall off.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said while climbing onto my back. He’d learned how to best get in my saddle, so I didn’t have to lower back down to the ground anymore. My back wasn’t that high off the ground anyway—a meter and half at most.
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“Ready?” I asked.
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Alex Sandclaw’s POV:
“I am,” I said, nodding at Felix.
“Good,” he said. “What can you tell me about our enemies? What archetypes are they? What should I watch out for?”
Felix had taught me a bunch about the archetypes the Academy used, but he still asked me about it every spar. It was good practice.
The other—enemy—team was standing in an arrow formation, with the shield bearer at the front, and the two sword fighters in a row behind him. They were still standing relaxed, waiting for the ready signal.
“The one at the front is a tank. He’ll probably try to keep one of us engaged while the other two try to slash our heels or something. Those other two are fighters, by the way. They’re wearing lighter armor and will be more vulnerable, but they’ll also be faster. My guess is that since the tank can only effectively protect one fighter from us—we’re too nimble for him to protect both—that one of the fighters will rush forward as soon as the match starts. The one on the left is looking rather nervous, and he keeps shifting on his feet, so I think that’s the one. Tiki should probably try to take him down as soon as the match starts.”
Felix nodded. “That’s what I thought, too, yeah. Tiki, do you think you could take him out?”
I didn’t need to look at her to know she rolled her eyes. “Of course.”
Felix shot her a look, but didn’t say anything about the overconfidence; though I guessed he’d want to talk about it later. I got the annoyance, though. Overconfidence almost got us killed a month ago, when we stopped paying attention to our surroundings and got ambushed by the dire bear. Speaking of overconfidence, I should check their levels. I checked the tank first, then the left and right fighters—in that order.
[Level 3]
[Level 5]
[Level 4]
Their levels weren’t all that high, and generally lower than ours. I was level seven, and Tiki level five. Felix of course didn’t have a level, though that didn’t matter much—he was still able to kill a high level monster all by himself. So even their highest level member was as high as our lowest. Levels didn’t mean all that much right now, but it was still good to know. So what if they were a little weaker than us? If they were better fighters, we’d still lose.
I was now sure the left guy was the one who was going to rush over, though. With the highest level, he was the one most likely to deal significant early damage, especially if he caught us off guard.
“Are you guys ready?” Felix yelled to the other team.
“Yes!” they yelled back.
Knowing the battle was about to begin, I leaned forward in the saddle and tightened the grip on my spear.
“Alright. Everyone ready? Three! Two! One! Fight!”
Felix rushed forwards, and I jolted a little from the sudden burst of speed. All our practice paid off, however, and I remained securely in the saddle. On the other side of the field, the team of three rushed forwards as well. Not even two seconds later, the tank and the fighter on the right stopped, while the left fighter redoubled his effort, activating some Skill to boost his speed.
There was a twang, and I almost missed what happened next as I suppressed the urge to look backwards. The left fighter got hit in the leg by an arrow, and when he put that foot down, he crumpled to the ground. He tried to roll, but his suit restricted his movement and he couldn’t bend his knee anymore, causing him to fall flat on his face instead.
“Alex! Spear!”
Felix’s roar shook me out of my trance and I stabilized my grip on my spear, which had started to drift while I was distracted. I aimed downwards at the fighter’s center of mass to skewer him. He tried climbing to his feet and was almost successful, but I’d readjusted my aim again and knocked him right out of the fight. He fell back to the ground, this time completely unable to move. From the corner of my eye, I saw an assistant rushing onto the field to carry him away.
Sadly, the impact of the spear also knocked it right out of my hands. I made a mental note to work on my grip. Looking back, I saw it lying on the ground several meters behind us and it was getting further away with each passing moment. I definitely wouldn’t be using it anymore in this fight. Snapping my head back around, I realized we were almost at the tank and the remaining fighter. Knowing the spear was out of commission, I quickly unsheathed my sword. It was a practice sword and was very dull. The suits protected us anyway, so what was the use in sharpening it after every use?
The downside of the sword was that it didn’t have much reach at all. And so I wasn’t able to do much once we got to the tank and fighter.
Felix dodged back and forth, and from side to side, to avoid the fighter’s jabs and the tank’s attempts to batter us with his shield. Meanwhile, I did my best to strike back. I sliced at the fighter as he jumped in close to strike at Felix, but he angled his sword at the last moment to parry my blow instead, before jumping away again. The same happened with the tank as he tried to smash the shield into my leg. I jabbed my sword at him, and he raised the shield to block me before dodging away. All my blows and strikes were either parried or just didn’t reach far enough to do anything. Next time I was taking a second spear with me.
As the fighter and I exchanged another set of blows, he dodged backwards, and I leaned forward to reach him anyway. Which was, of course, the exact moment the tank chose to try to slam Felix over the head with his shield, causing Felix to jerk away in the exact opposite direction I was leaning in.
As I hung in the air for a slight moment, flung out of the saddle, I wondered if they planned this out or if this was just convenient timing. It didn’t matter, of course—I was out of the saddle either way.
Flying through the air, I only had a small moment to think and decide what to do. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. The fighter was still right there, after all.
In the small moment I had, I kicked out behind me, catching Felix’s side beneath my feet. I rocketed forwards towards the fighter. I saw the reflection of my sword in his panicked eyes a moment before I slammed into him, sword first, knocking both of us to the ground. He went completely rigid beneath me, and I knew I’d taken him out.
Taking a moment to recover from the impact, I sat up and breathed heavily. I ignored how awkwardly I was straddling the man beneath me as I caught my breath. However, I’d almost forgotten the important fact that he wasn’t alone in this fight. The thud of a footstep was the only warning I got, and I quickly rolled to the side, only barely managing to avoid being struck by the tank’s shield.
Scrambling to my feet, I looked around for my sword. I saw it lying two meters to the right. Glancing at the tank, I saw he was busy standing back up. It seemed he hadn’t expected to miss, and had stumbled when the momentum carried him forward, making him trip over his teammate. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I dove towards the sword, ignoring the dirt scraping against my scales. I picked it up and quickly scrambled back to my feet.
Turning around, I saw the tank had also gotten back to his feet and was rushing towards me again. I also noticed he’d dropped his shield in favor of speed. He closed the distance in a matter of seconds, and I had to step backwards to avoid a fist to my snout. I tried slashing at him with my sword, but he was too close and used one of his hands to knock the swords sideways. Knowing it wasn’t going to be of much further use, I dropped it and swung my arm around just in time to block another strike. I felt my suit tighten up a little around the area. This was a battle of attrition now—who could immobilize the other first?
I blocked another few strikes, but I tried to dodge most of them by stepping backwards or sideways. He always followed me, though, doing his very best to remain close and keep the distance small. Then I noticed Tiki standing with her bow raised somewhere to the side. My distraction was punished by a rough blow to the side of my snout that sent me stumbling. When I regained my footing, though, I knew exactly how to win.
The tank closed the distance again, and I dodged again, but this time I did it very deliberately. A few more dodges later, and I could see it working. Tiki, who had previously been on the edge of my vision, was now closer to the middle of it—right behind the tank. There was a loud twang, a thud, and then the tank fell over, face first, a dulled arrow lying behind him.
The assistant who had taken the incapacitated fighters off of the field earlier called the match, and I let myself fall over in exhaustion. I never hit the ground, though, and was instead caught by Felix’s wing. He laid down and sat me up against his side to rest. I shot him a grateful smile.
I was breathing heavily, gasping for air. My endurance was terrible. Well, it was decent, but right now it felt terrible. Especially since Felix didn’t even seem the least bit winded.
“How are you not tired?” I asked between breaths.
He smirked. “I guess you could say I have great stamina.”
“I bet you do,” I retorted, flirting back. He’d flirted with me earlier, too. Or at least, I thought he did. I liked it either way. I also wanted to flirt back, and this was as good a place to start as any.
He chuckled. “I also got knocked out of the fight earlier than you did, so I’ve already rested up a bit.”
I shot upright, my flirting forgotten. “You got knocked out of the fight?! How?”
He scratched his snout. “I’m fast and nimble, but I’m a pretty big target. And without being able to fight back, the tank hit me over the head. It was hardly enough to knock me out of the fight, but the assistant told me to get off the field.”
I was about to say something not very nice about that, but he stopped me.
“I know. We’ll talk about it later, okay? This training is more for you and Tiki than me, anyway.”
“Fine,” I grumbled.
“Now, come on, time to get back up. Tiki is waiting for us. We need to talk about what went wrong and right, so we can prepare for the next spar.”
Felix stood up and started walking towards Tiki. I was still sitting on the ground and had a good view of his hind-quarters as he walked away, and I was once again reminded that Felix never really wore any clothes aside from his saddle. How many times had my eyes lingered on him without me realizing what was happening? That had never happened with Viggi. It was still bizarre to me to think of another man that way, but my discomfort was drowned out by my feelings towards Felix. I shook my head and stood up. Thinking of ways to tell him how I felt, I followed after him.