The next day, Tom reluctantly went to his morning lessons.

Beatrice was leading it, but only volunteers read from the front. It was green eggs and ham, and Tom made a point of stumbling over every word he could.

She almost had steam coming out of her ears, and Tom ignored the angry looks Kang shot him.

Even if the other boy was annoyed about him going too far, it had been worth it. Beatrice deserved every second that his frustrating ignorance could throw at her.

The session finished, and Dimitri stood up.

“Sorry, everyone. I know you were all looking forward to making bead necklaces, but we have a travelling expert in town. I would like to introduce Ailill.”

“The Wind Wisp,” the smiling young man called out.

“A travelling expert who has not earned a hero’s name,” Dimitri said flatly.

Ailill winked:

“Remember boys and girls, I’m the Wind Wisp.” The man blurred, and suddenly he was on the other side of the classroom. He made an elaborate bow.

“Ailill has significant dodge abilities, and kindly volunteered his time to show you dodge basics.”

“More than significant ones. I’m the Wind Wisp, able to move like the wind and sneak under and through all attacks.”

“He has some skills, but is nowhere near strong enough to have earned a hero’s name. Please ignore his stupidity.”

“Give it a break, old man.”

Dimitri glared at Ailill for just one moment, grinned, and then reacted.

They all felt their hearts stop briefly as he did. Then there were twin blurs as they both collided together.

Sonic booms were unleashed as body parts went faster than the speed of sound, and, for a second, a blur crossed the front of the classroom. Tom couldn’t see, but he guessed a hundred attacks had been launched. It ended with Dimitri holding two daggers, one against Ailill’s throat and the other placed at his gut.

There was a moment of silence, then Dimitri let go. Ailill laughed joyously:

“I forget with you teaching here how damn incredible you are in combat. That was amazing. I was sure my new skill would make the difference, but, nope, you’re just too fast.”

Dimitri ignored him and turned to face them all:

“As I’ve said, Ailill is talented, but hasn’t earned his name yet. Give him another decade, and he may end up as famous as Shooting Star or Shadow Blitz, but he is not there yet. As guest lecturer, he’ll be taking the class that Susanti…” Dimitri’s head flicked toward a girl of about fourteen who stood in the doorway. “Usually runs daily before lunch.”

With that, their caretaker led them into yet another massive gymnasium. This one, unlike some of the others, had a roof that was only four metres high, as opposed to the ten plus that a lot of the rooms sported. The huge space was split up into hundreds of fighting pits that were only three to five metres wide all of which had combat dummies set up in them.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ailill pointed at the closest pit. It was basic, little more than a depression on the floor with a single combat dummy set up on the side:

“That’s the easiest one. You can’t get hurt in it.” Then he traced his hand around the room as the fighting pits and combat dummies got more and more elaborate, until the last couple of dozen had multiple dummies positioned. “To the hardest,” he pointed at the one on the other side of the door. “You need to scan to use any of the pits, excluding the first ten that anyone can attempt. Once you’ve beaten a lower ranked pit three times, you move up through the room. There’s a challenge to see how far you get before a full awakening. A prestigious position currently held by the Wind Wisp. Yes, I’m the proud holder of the record, as I’ve managed to reach the eighth last pit while I lived here. But I’m a fair bit better now. If you want, I can even show you.”

He jumped into the final pit and the five combat dummies immediately spun into action. They weren’t quite a blur of movement, but they each had six arms holding a variety of weapons and they were swung with lethal intent. It felt like every inch of the space was filled with spinning metal.

Five minutes later there was a ding, and the combat dummies powered down. Ailill’s clothes were covered with cuts, but he was grinning:

“That’s a buzz.” He brushed the clothes down, and they mended perfectly. “These are a little baggy for this type of test. If I was in combat gear, I would have passed, but that doesn’t matter. I wanted all of you to see what high-level dodge abilities can do. If you get them, dying becomes almost impossible, and the best time to start learning is as soon as possible. Now, all of you, go and fight. Four to each of the starting pits.”

They lined up. Tom was behind Bir, with Kang at his back. After some confusion, Ma reluctantly joined their team. She had been driven out of three teams before theirs, including one that definitely had a spot available.

Bir looked like she wanted to confront the girl.

Discreetly, he stepped on her foot before she could say anything. She pushed him warningly away.

With a cheeky grin, he half jumped on her other foot.

Outrage flashed over her face and, as expected, she reacted and shoved him. Tom allowed himself to fall and dragged her down with him. She squealed and wrestled him in an attempt to pin him. When Susanti separated them, her glares were directed exclusively at him. Ma was forgotten. That was an outcome he was happy with.

Bir remained annoyed until they started the course, and then she didn’t care because she was focused on the effort. She did well, but not fate-level well, and Tom was impressed that she was resisting the temptation and clearly keeping her fate in reserve for magic practice later.

Both Ailill and Susanti, but mainly Susanti, were very active in going to the pits to help people. They demonstrated movements that could help you dodge the combat dummies. It was all very simple, but Tom pretended to be amazed and practiced the motions that he was shown. It was an easy decision, because they knew that they were doing.

They ran through the course over ten times. The combat dummies were less predictable than the monsters he had been fighting, which boded well for the more advanced versions. But they were designed to be beaten by younger children, so they moved terribly slowly and telegraphed their moves. Tom could have gone through the first run untouched, but he allowed them to knock him over. It was like he was in a pillow fight. Even the sand when he fell onto it was magically cushioned.

Their session ended, and they went back to learn some mathematics. Officially, he had cleared the course twice, which was the same as Ma. Bir and Kang had gone better, with four and three clears respectively, which qualified them for the next hardest pit.

“We should do that again,” Kang suggested.

“No! I hate it.” Bir declared. “Not good, bad. We not do again.”

“Ma said she’s going to do it.” The other boy told her.

“What?” Bir’s head snapped around to look at him. “She said what?”

Kang shrugged.

“Ma said she’s going to do it. Get better than all of us. You saw the Wind Wisp. She wants to do that.”

“I won’t let her beat me. We’re doing the class.” The girl declared angrily.

“If you want.” Kang said, sounding unconcerned. When she looked away a small smile played on the other boy’s lips. Tom had to give him credit. It had been masterfully done.