“Ah, I see that you two finally got enough training that you weren’t kicked out of the Power Stance classes.” Xyn chuckled as he walked into his private training ground and saw both of his students practicing the exact same motion in slow, careful arcs.

He had told the both of them that he was willing to hold a lesson tonight, which was why they were here. Yet he had gotten a bit carried away with the proper lesson that he was teaching for some of the more experienced students and ended up arriving at his private lesson a bit later than initially planned.

About 16 minutes late, but he doubted that either of the teens in front of him cared that much.

Based on their movements and the way that they were trying to form their mana through their swords, the technique that they had finally learnt was Glancing Scale.

Ironic, considering that the proper learning order of the Dragon-Scale techniques actually began with Iron Scales and then Glancing Scale, but he supposed that when you ran a school like they did, messing up the ‘proper’ order was to be expected.

Not to mention that the difficulty of the technique was actually making the two teens play nice and work together for a change, a welcome pace after the argument that they had had a week and a half ago.

The Headmaster may have had the ability to step in before now and prune their inferiority complexes, but in all honesty he didn’t want to. They were both big kids –big, immature and somewhat naïve, kids– and the whole point of Dragon-Scale was to give their students their own freedom and agency to do and act how they please.

Within reason, of course.

Neither of them started random fist fights in the middle of a hallway nor were they being disruptive in class aside from a few cases where they started to get a bit too heated. Neither of them was obligated to like the other and Dragon-Scale didn’t need, want or care if they did or didn’t. So therefore, neither did Xyn.

However, he could admit, from a teacher’s point of view, why they continued to get placed together even as both the teens’ annoyance with the status quo continued to get more and more evident by the day. The scene in front of him only proved it.

Their rate of growth was, quite frankly, disturbing to watch. Especially to those that had already hit their limit at or just above average proficiency.

“About time.” Olivia huffed as the two of them slid out of their stances and let their blades fall to their sides.

“Getting continually denied was annoying.” Alec grumbled, stretching his arms a little as Xyn shrugged his coat off and grabbed one of the many practice blades hung on the eastern wall.

“Oh, I’ve heard all about it. It’s been a running bet amongst the teachers to see if either of you two would try sneaking into a class for a while now.” He admitted to the two teens, grinning slyly as he heard the both of them click their tongues at once.

It was that similarity between the two of them that always made him curious how they could continually go from working well together to being on the verge of blows, yet in his heart of hearts he already knew that that very same similarity was the answer.

Also, teenage hormones. Gods above how he didn’t miss dealing with that.

“Ah.” Alec jolted slightly before his expression shifted into one ever so slightly more self-conscious as he spoke again. “I don’t know why they thought I would do that, sneaking into places isn’t something I’d ever do.”

“Cause it’s only bad if you get caught, right?” Xyn chuckled with a raised eyebrow, seeing straight through his lie.

At his side, Olivia gave Alec a look of pure surprise and confusion before she perked up a bit too and a flash of understanding shot through her eyes.

“No of course not! I can’t believe that someone would ever think to do that.” She denied with a shake of her head.

‘How amusing, dear Alec here has the instincts to instantly deny any wrongdoing but not the acting to get away with it. While little Olivia doesn’t have the same reflex to lie but is much better at pulling off a convincing façade.’ Xyn thought to himself, only chuckling externally and spinning his sword in a slow and flashy fashion as he walked over to them.

“If you two say so. How about we go through Glancing Scale for today’s lesson? Since the two of you seem to have it on your mind and the formation of both of your mana was all wrong. If you tried turning your versions of the technique into a Power Stance, you’d blow your sword to smithereens.”

Olivia’s gaze sharpened and her grip on her blade tightened halfway through his comment, a flash of something darker dancing across her eyes at the same time as Alec just huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms at the man’s comment.

“Well? What do the two of you say?” He asked with a somewhat cheeky hum, wobbling the tip of his training blade in their direction mockingly.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Alec jolted slightly at the venom in Olivia’s voice, and even Xyn raised an eyebrow. He was absolutely certain that she would have heard far worse comments from some of the teachers that he had employed at the school and yet he’d never heard about her getting this angry from a single comment, what could he have possibly said that set her off to this extent?

“That’s the fiery spirit I’m looking for!” The Headmaster rolled with the punches and gestured for them both to raise their blades, “Now, let's see how you do with a proper strike first!”

XXXxxxXXX

The Following Day, Zenik Adventurer’s Guild Branch

“Let’s see. No. No. Noooooo. Ew definitely not.” Noelle Kio muttered to herself as she read through the flyer’s for some of the [Gold-rank] quests held within the specific floor that she stood on.

After about three weeks of waiting and putting it off to do –truthfully nothing of any real importance– the Kio [Summoner] was finally willing to make good on her promise to her younger sister and her friend.

Of course, the fact that she needed some more materials for some of her stronger summoning spells was a good reason to go after a new quest too. But she’d say it was for Olivia and her friend, because that made it sound way nicer and less selfish.

So, here she was, now trying to find something at the bright and early time of 11am that was both valuable enough for her tastes and safe enough that she could get away with bringing two [Iron-rank] adventurers with her.

“Though they are martial fighters…” She mumbled to herself, setting the bar of expectations just a notch lower in her mind as she kept looking.

She needed something that her summons could deal with that wouldn’t outright crush them and the two teens she would be bringing with her, something that ideally was slow and as squishy as possible.

At the level of a [Gold-rank] quest such things didn’t really exist anymore but a woman could hope.

Finally, after a few minutes of looking, where she lost a perfect quest to another party just before she could grab it, she finally found one that was close enough to perfect and quickly ripped it off the wall. It was a simple extermination quest for a Water Spirit, but it required quite a bit of travel directly north of Zenik to actually reach the lake that it was supposedly forming inside.

There had been a quest for an Earth Spirit as well, but at this level such spirits were usually beginning to forgo regular stone for gemstone in their make-up and they were an absolute pain to deal with.

The Water Spirit would be faster and harder to hit, but at least majority of her summons would still be able to interact with it without just uselessly bouncing off, so she decided to go with it.

Olivia and her friend would be pretty useless against it but that was going to be true either way, as martial fighters, so she really didn’t care. Besides they’d be getting cuts of the pay regardless, so neither of them had room to complain.

Since she wasn’t allowed to take the quest out of the building and couldn’t try and hide it either, she had to stay here so that it couldn’t be taken and find some other way to get the two of them into the Guild Hall. Lucky for her, she knew exactly what to do.

At her feet, two purple magic circles lit to life, their soft glow illuminating the young woman as her hair and some of the frills on her clothing waved in a non-existent breeze.

“Go, my children. You know what to do.”

XXXxxxXXX

Dragon-Scale Academy

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

Alec sighed as he sat on the sidelines of a class, forced to watch and not join in as two of the stronger, more experienced students duked it out.

It was a special opportunity to watch a match that actually went beyond the hyper-slow and careful sparring that newer students like Alec were confined to.

Since it was such a rare opportunity, he was surprised that he didn’t see Olivia here either; not that they would have exactly been trading notes on the fight if she was.

This was a fight between two people that had learnt nearly all of the Dragon-Scale Power Stances with only two out of their grasp. Supposedly the only two that weren’t just handed out on a whim due to their power and complexity.

Personally, Alec thought that it all came down to the individual that was actually using the technique –he and Tyrius when it came to using Fortress Piercer was a prime example– but if that’s what the school and headmaster wanted to do, then that’s what they could do. It was no skin off his back.

The two students continued to fight, magic flaring in the air and techniques and Power Stances constantly shifting the balance between the two of them. Glancing Scale and Iron Scales –a technique based around the flat blocking of a strike by dispersing the force of the strike with the flat of the blade and their mana– were the main two technique’s put-on display but some of the higher finesse techniques like Crushing Claw and Dragon’s Might made their appearances as well.

Those technique’s being an evolution of Glancing Scale involving using the deflection of an opponent’s blade to open them up to a devastating strike by essentially inducing a pseudo-amplification within their blade, and the sole pure-offense technique taught within the Dragon-Scale style that just involved a high-level of physical reinforcement alongside a particular release of mana upon contact.

They were fascinating techniques, things that Alec had yet to see within the vastness of techniques and powers that the world had to offer and something that he doubted he would have ever gotten to see if he had stayed in Blessed Catalyst.

Yet watching this fight only made him bored.

Another long, slow sigh left his lips amidst the high-intensity cheering of the students around him as one of the student’s Dragon’s Might clashed head on with the other’s Iron Scales. The shockwave from the dispersed force of Dragon’s Might shrouding the two in dust and sandblasting the closest spectators ever so slightly.

‘Glancing Scale or Crushing Claw would have been a better option there. The strike was a simple overhead one and could have easily been parried to the side to use either technique even if they couldn’t take the time to turn it into a Power Stance.’ He thought to himself, trying his absolute best to suppress a yawn as he quietly stood up and began to make his way out of the stands.

There was the slightest bit of guilt in the teen’s soul as he did so, thinking about the internal commentary that he had kept up the entire time that he was watching the fight. How he had broken down their fighting styles and commented on the mistakes that they made constantly.

He didn’t think for even a moment that he could beat either of them in a fight, at least not at his current level, but as a spectator looking from the outside in things just looked so….obvious. He knew that it was a common phenomenon, where someone watching something picked up things that someone doing the thing didn’t due to the differences in stimuli that their brains had to contend with.

‘But come on! Apart from the few moments where the both of them kicked it up a notch for some rapid skirmishes and I couldn’t follow them it felt like I was watching two idiots dying of thirst while constantly stumbling around a pitcher of water!’ He groaned mentally to himself, clutching at his hair with both of his hands and silently suffering amidst his exit.

Finally letting out the breath that he had kept so painfully contained in his lungs during his silent temptation to scream, he untangled his slightly grown hair from his fingers and let his hands fall to his side.

“Whatever… it's an exhibition match, it's not exactly like they’re going to go all out in the middle of a crowded training room.” He muttered, finally leaving the building with his sight locked on his hand that trembled ever so slightly.

For some reason that even he didn’t know, though, after watching that fight, he felt itchy and antsy. Like he needed to do something himself to work some energy out, but he didn’t know what.

Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, even when Blessed Catalyst had joined with another [Copper-rank] party for a quest a few months before Alec’s departure and he had watched them spar amongst themselves.

“What’s this feeling? Why am I….angry?” He muttered stopping mid-step and staring at his hand as he slowly clenched and unclenched his fist.

Above him, silent and unnoticed, a raven constructed of purple mana circled the sky, its eye zeroed in on Alec and only him as it suddenly dived down, its form shifting and changing in a cloud of purple. Alec’s body jolted as he turned on the ball of his foot and looked up, only to have a centipede the size of a human man fall from the sky and wrap him up completely. Its form sinking into a magic circle as the teen thrashed and screamed into the constructed carapace that placed itself just perfectly to muffle his screams.

XXXxxxXXX

The moment that he saw the scenery around him change, as he and the purple mana construct rose from the ground, Alec jerked sharply allowing himself just enough freedom to rip some of the construct’s limbs off and fling himself out of its grasp along the floor.

Only to jerk violently as he collided with something back-first.

“Ah, what the- Dius!?” Olivia made a surprise sound as they both turned around to see the others there.

Namely, the innocently grinning form of Noelle as she wiggled her fingers at the two of them and the two guards that stood at the doorway with their arms crossed, looking as still as statues.

Despite that, however, Alec didn’t dare to think that they weren’t ready to move at a fraction of a moment’s notice, they were too dangerous to ever do so.

Idly, he wondered how Noelle could ever be so comfortable around them, who oozed danger and power, unlike anyone that the blue-haired teen had ever seen outside of Alexandar. Yet even with that old man he had always been joking and jibbing and generally kept the danger that he emitted to a rather low level. So for the pearlescent-haired female to so casually draw their ire and then just ignore it, it was just something that Alec couldn’t understand, no matter what angle he tried to approach the situation from.

“Hiiii~ I’ve brought you here to pay up my end of the deal.” Noelle explained in a sing-song voice, clearly having fun.

“Did you have to do it like that!?” Olivia snapped, pointing in the direction of the constructs that had already begun to fade into small motes of light.

“How else would I do it?” Noelle questioned, placing a finger on her lips and tilting her head to the side.

“Obviously you could just-“

“Since it's not like either of you can teleport or anything.”

Noelle’s comment, simple and to the point, froze Olivia in her tracks, her fingers clenched into fists so tight that Alec was worried for a moment she would start hurting herself.

“We’re going to be going after a water spirit, so I hope that the both of you are ready to get wet.” Noelle giggled, clearly finding the mental image to be at least somewhat funny.

Alec didn’t even humour the thought, knowing exactly what kind of slippery slope that idea would turn into. He’d rather not put himself in undue duress or harm, thank you very much.

“What a sick joke…” The words were whispered, barely loud enough for Alec to hear as Noelle proudly walked out of the quest room.

The teen wanted to look over at Olivia, to ask what those words meant and why she sounded so hurt as she said them. To ask why she had reacted so violently to her sister's words and why there seemed to be this odd distance between the two Kio sisters.

However, at the end of the day, Alec knew that he’d only make the situation worse if he did so. Because he wasn’t the social one of the group, he never had been –that was more Peter and Angelica’s scene– and he likely never would be. His social skills were nowhere near the level needed to actually get to the heart of the matter without utterly fucking the situation up beyond all hope of repair.

So, he didn’t look. Alec didn’t turn to see what her expression looked like and he didn’t allow the question whirling at the forefront of his mind to tumble from his lips.

Instead, he snatched it all up and pushed it as far down into his psyche as he possibly could and then slammed the lid shut and just let out a small, humoured breath.

“Has your sister always been that carefree?”

“…If by ‘carefree’ you mean ‘stupid and naïve’ then yes.” Olivia finally retorted back, a small hint of mirth creeping into her own tone as she spoke.

“I suddenly dread joining this mission with her.”

“As you rightly should.”

“Are you two coming or not!?” Noelle barged back into the quest room with a large pout and squinted eyes, clearly not impressed by having been abandoned by the two teens.

“Calm down, we’re coming.” Olivia snapped back, though the heat that had been welling up in her before was oddly missing.

With quiet steps, the two teens followed after her. Their footsteps in near-sync as they went down the flights of stairs to approach the desk on the ground floor to apply for the quest in question.

“You think that Xyn will be worried about us suddenly disappearing?” Alec suddenly brought up, getting a silent raise of Olivia’s eyebrow before she answered.

“Unlikely, he seems like someone that rolls with the punches pretty well. Not to mention I think he’ll be able to find out where we went fairly quickly.”

“True, he definitely has ways of getting information.” Alec nodded along, thinking over the situation himself.

He was a bit sad that they would be missing out on some training sessions with the headmaster, but a [Gold-rank] quest wasn’t something that he was likely to experience for a long time and the opportunity was just too good to pass up.

Also, the pay was very, very nice.

If –however– he had known what he would end up running into during the span of this quest, Alec Dius might never have agreed to go on it even if that pay had been doubled and given solely to him. Because the Twin-Continents were a land of strife and combat where civilizations fought for every ounce of territory that they claimed as theirs at every hour of the day.

And outside those borders, living in their own society almost entirely separated from the kingdoms and empires of man, elf, and other, lay a species whose destructive capabilities had yet to be fully discovered, for their own continued survival.

XXXxxxXXX

Meanwhile, Elsewhere

“The three of you have a simple mission.” A stray ray of sunlight glinted off the rapier strapped to the man’s side, his gaze locked impassively on the hordes of training figures beneath him in the courtyard of the castle.

“Of course, my liege. Name it and it shall be done.”

“Before he can be allowed to grow and flourish in freedom, slay the anomaly ‘Alec Dius’.”

“It shall be done.” The three figures knelt behind him stated in unison, a small, cruel, smile making its way across his lips.

“You’re bound by the pride of the Von Lung household you three, succeed or don’t bother returning.”

“Yes, my liege.” The shadows seemed to stretch and warp supernaturally over the three of them, their forms disappearing entirely from view with one final, echoed, statement.

“For the glory of the Von Lung….”