'The most important things about a spear are reach and balance.

When using it with one hand, you need to hold the spear further up the haft so that you can move the tip more easily.' (Elaina)

...Rob's giggling away again.

'When holding it with two, make sure to steady the shaft with your weaker hand, and with your dominant hand, thrust forward like this!' (Elaina)

'Thrust indeed.' (Rob)

'WEAPON USE IS ABOUT SPIRIT! YOU NEED TO PUT YOUR ALL INTO THE SWING AND FOLLOW THROUGH!' (Glenn)

I feel bad for the blunt weapon guys, everyone else is getting two lessons for the price of one. Even though he's halfway across the field.

'Your other instructors should have told you this before, but you should aim for the armpit, inner thigh, throat or the back of the neck with the spear tip when possible.' (Elaina)

'I'll aim for your inner thigh with my spear tip.' (Rob)

'Hey, shut up, she'll hear you.'

'WE WILL PRACTICE SWINGS UNTIL IT HURTS, AND THEN SWING SOME MORE!' (Glenn)

'As if.' (Rob)

'If you don't have enough space to maneuver, move away from the enemy. Never allow the enemy to get close to you.

Now I want everyone to thrust on one, pull back on two, step back on three, and step back on four. Ready?' (Elaina)

'I'll always be ready to thrust.' (Rob)

'Now one! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! Three Four!' (Elaina)

'PAIN MEANS DAMAGE!' (Glenn)

'One! Two! Three! Four! You, lower your left arm, I can see your armpit hair!' (Elaina)

'DAMAGE MEANS REPAIR!' (Glenn)

'Like we told you before, if someone stabs you in the armpit, you die! Never expose your vital spots like that!' (Elaina)

'If only you'd expose your vital spots though...' (Rob)

'REPAIR MEANS GROWTH!' (Glenn)

This is chaos.

'Again! One! Two! Three! Four!' (Elaina)

'GROWTH MEANS YOU CAN SWING HARDER!' (Glenn)

'One! Two! Three! Four!' (Elaina)

'SWINGING HARDER MEANS MORE PAIN!' (Glenn)

...I take that back, I'm not sure that whatever that musclehead's saying counts as a lesson.

'One! Two! Three! Four! You over there with the shifty eyes!' (Elaina)

Shit, she's looking at me.

'Sorry, Ma'am?'

'Focus on the target! I don't know where you're looking, but if you dream like that you'll die in combat!' (Elaina)

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

'Err, yes, Ma'am! Sorry, Ma'am!'

'MORE PAIN MEANS MORE DAMAGE!' (Glenn)

'Obviously she's looking at your tits.' (Rob)

As if I swing that way.

'One! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! Three! Four!' (Elaina)

'MORE DAMAGE MEANS MORE REPAIR!' (Glenn)

Look, we get it already.

'One! Two! Three! Four! And that's it for today!' (Elaina)

That was certainly less insane than the classroom half squat nonsense.

'MORE REPAIR MEANS MORE GROWTH!' (Glenn)

'You will keep the weapons with you through the rest of the day, and if the instructors manage to get our hands on them, you fail as an adventurer and are going home. Any questions before you head back to class?' (Elaina)

'Are we going to do that ridiculous fake sitting posture for the rest of the day?'

'No, if we do that you won't be able to walk tonight. But we'll be doing that again tomorrow morning.'

A groan ripples through the class.

'PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT! THAT SISSY SWIPE WOULDN'T HURT A CAT!' (Glenn)

'Why are they still going on?'

'Each instructor has our own training program. I won't butt into his lesson, and he won't butt into ours.' (Elaina)

'FOLLOW THROUGH! IF YOU HALT YOUR SWING LIKE THAT THE ONE YOU HURT IS YOURSELF!'

...I don't know, I think what he's doing does count as butting into ours. And Gwyn's. And Sophia's. And the service at the nearby church too, probably.

'Any other questions?' (Elaina)

'Is it true that you were stabbed in the heart and didn't die, and can kill people by looking at them?' (Rob)

Whoa, this guy has balls. But why do I get the feeling that I've seen this -

Elaina smiles in a sweet but somewhat dangerous-looking fashion. 'Would you like to find out?'

Rob seems to perk up at that. 'Sure, what kind of man wouldn't want to know what's under that dreaaaRRRGHGHHHHHHHHHHHH!'

Eh?

'AARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH HEEELLLLLPP!!!' (Rob)

That doesn't look normal no matter how you slice it.

'CONTINUE PRACTICING, I NEED TO CHECK OUT A SITUATION!'

'AAARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!', continued the scream, clutching his chest. I can see the veins in his eyes.

'Elaina! Do you want to kill a student? We don't have enough people to waste for that!' (Gwyn)

'Oh my, what are you talking about ~?' (Elaina)

'Stop whatever you're doing! He's not trained for something like that!' (Gwyn)

'I have no idea what you're talking about, there's nothing for me to stop, he's just mentally weak, you know~?' (Elaina)

'AARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!' (Rob)

'Elaina.' (Glenn)

Oh, this guy CAN talk without screaming.

'My students can't hear me at this rate. Can you do something about that?' (Glenn)

'I'm afraid that's more your area of expertise ~' (Elaina)

'I see. So it has come to this.' (Glenn)

Glenn turns his hand 90 degrees, and whacks Rob in the back of the head.

'AAAARRRR-' and... he gets knocked out cold.

'See you later.' (Glenn)

'Sure ~' (Elaina)

'The two of you, carry him back to class later.' (Gwyn)

'I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO CONTINUE PRACTICING! QUIT LOLLYGAGGING AND SWING!' (Glenn)

...yeah, it's a really bad idea to piss her off.

----------------------------------------

'I can't go on.' (Rob)

'Aren't you the one who called me the weakling earlier? She just stared at you and you turned into a screaming wreck,' went his friend. Let's call him Bushybeard.

'You don't understand! SHE STABBED ME!' (Rob)

'We were all there, we didn't see anything of the sort.' (Bushybeard)

'Her spear. She stabbed me in the chest. Six times. I was going to die.' (Rob)

'She didn't move, there was no blood on the spear, and there isn't even a wound on you.' (Bushybeard)

'That wasn't my imagination. I can't stay here. She'll kill me.' (Rob)

'Like I said, she didn't even move -' (Bushybeard)

'This is a little ahead of schedule, but unfortunately Rob is right. She stabbed him.' (Gwyn)

HUH!?

Oh, the rest of the class is back.

'Sir, I'm sorry, I can't continue like this.' (Rob)

'If this happened in the field, you would have died again anyway. Feel free to drop out.' (Gwyn)

'Silas. Sorry, you'll have to go on without me. I can't die here.' (Rob)

'Whatever.' (Bushy-... Silas)

He... crawls out of the classroom.

'I told you idiots not to piss her off. Ever heard of deja vu?' (Gwyn)

'The feeling that you've been in a situation before, even though you haven't? (Dennis)

'Partially correct. It's what happens when you have been in that exact situation before in a future that got deleted, and had time rewind back to that point.' (Gwyn)

Huh?

'WHAAAAT?'

'If you've felt it before, it means you were caught up in another mage's spell by accident. Not many people can do it, but it's a relatively high level ability used to rewind time so that the user can try several possibilities to choose the result they prefer.

Your mind remembers vaguely what happened. Some people call it premonitions, but it's actually a kind of memory... of something that no longer happened.' (Gwyn)

He sighs.

'This is just my best guess since I couldn't see it myself, but Instructor Elaina probably stabbed that guy in the heart, rewound time, stabbed him again, rewound time, stabbed him again, rewound time, stabbed him again, rewound time, and stabbed him again. And for good measure, rewound time again and stabbed him a sixth time before rewinding it back to the point where he hadn't been stabbed at all. And he remembers all of it.' (Gwyn)