Dragon-Scale Sword Academy was, in Alec’s opinion, a rather intimidating and substantial establishment all things considered. A stone wall surrounded the entire complex back to front that was at least twenty meters high and almost a solid meter thick. The complex inside looked more like a large village than the academy that it truly was with all the buildings and pathways winding around. With a large building in the center of rectangular shape and a burnt red wood making up the tower that pierced out of the right wing of the building.

Around him, he could see people of all shapes and sizes, everything from middle-aged men with bulging muscles to one or two small children chasing each other with small, blunted wooden daggers.

Personally, Alec thought that might be a little dangerous, but he also grew up with two mages that had far too much free time, not enough supervision, and the curiosity of a small child, so what did he know about safe playing? When compared to that, pretty much anything was considered safe.

The teen side-stepped around the two children as they ran past him, watching them for another few seconds before continuing to walk, his gaze sliding from a seemingly in-house blacksmith all the way to a distant training field that he could see a few people practicing in. Though the details remained fuzzy at best, given the distance between him and the training grounds in question.

One thing that became apparent very, very quickly was the emphasis on the ‘dragon’ theme of the academy. Small statuettes and stone carvings of dragons hung and stood almost everywhere he looked, with even one of the buildings made to appear as if it was made of dragon scales.

Alec personally didn’t understand the appeal of leaning into a motif this hard, but he understood it was what some people fancied, and that having a ‘unique identity’ like this may actually be helpful for the academy.

Though the stone carving of the dragon stuck to the inner wall just beside the entrance made him feel like they were going just a little bit too far. That thing just made him uncomfortable to look at.

Heading to the central building, as the advertisement in World Quest had detailed, Alec opened and closed the door quietly, looking around idly. There were a couple other people in the entrance alongside him, but none that really shone out to him as anyone especially important or dangerous as he made his way to a small wooden counter with a young-looking elven man sitting behind it.

“Hello, welcome to Dragon-Scale Sword Academy, how may I help you?”

“I was looking to sign up for the academy? Or learn a bit more about it beforehand?” Alec answered, realizing about halfway through his sentence that he actually didn’t know anything about the academy.

This is what he got for spending the rest of yesterday goofing off after he got his rank-up and not doing any research at all. Having Angelica around for so much of his life had really ruined him when it came to preparing himself intellectually…

“Oh yeah, of course. You’ll need to- ah. H-Headmaster!” The elven man jolted in surprise and sat straighter in his seat, Alec’s eyes swivelling across the room as he turned his neck and spun around on the spot to follow the receptionist’s gaze.

There, stood only two or three meters from the late teen, was a surprisingly young-looking human man, in his late 20’s or early 30’s if Alec had to guess, with long dark green hair and brown eyes. The teen’s own eyes widened as he saw the man, his thoughts stuttering over themselves in confusion.

‘I…didn’t sense him? I still can’t sense him.’

“Ah, don’t mind me, Nathan. I just saw a new face out my window and decided to take a stroll and say hello myself.” The headmaster hummed, waving Nathan off easily, “Hey there, I’m Xyn, the headmaster of Dragon-Scale. You wanted to join, right?”

“Uh, yeah. I did. I’m Alec, by the way.” Alec introduced himself, still trying to get over the oddity of speaking to a man that he could see but not feel.

“Great, here follow me. I’ll bring you to the initiation hall and we can go over what’ll be expected and any questions you have.”

“Sounds good, lead the way.”

“Decisive, I like it.” Xyn chuckled, gesturing to Alec to follow with a single finger before turning around and beginning to walk.

Silently, Alec followed after the headmaster, watching the way he walked and how the people around him greeted the man. He was evidently well respected, and undeniably a well-trained fighter based on his gait, but the man was a giant mystery to Alec, and somehow that put the teen so much further on edge than he could have ever guessed.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask while we walk.” Xyn spoke up suddenly, getting a small stumble from the blue-haired swordsman and a click of his tongue.

“Right…Why did you have an advert in World Quest?”

“Because how else are we meant to bring in more students? Sure, we could do it like the old-style academies, but they’re bound to be phased out given another couple generations.”

“What is an old-style academy?”

“Hm, never interacted with formal training before, huh?” Xyn guessed, opening the door to a large stone building as he looked over his shoulder and gave the teen a small grin.

“Not….quite.” He muttered, clamming up just a little as he assumed the man to be mocking or teasing him in some way.

“Well, to answer your question there are two types of academies, old-style and new-style. When I talk about a sword academy or a magical academy, what comes to mind is probably an old-style academy. Where there are strict rules, a curriculum, a self-contained ‘society’ amidst the campus and complete dedication is required to the academies teachings or else you’ll be booted from the program forever. Am I in the right ballpark?” Xyn asked, leading Alec further into the building, seeming to take his silence as an affirmative with a small laugh.

Meanwhile, behind him, Alec just pressed his lips together thinly and tried to ignore the thin blush that spread across his cheeks at the man’s assumption and its accuracy.

“Those things are all well and good, but they’re overall a holdover from the days of isolation between the various countries. A way to instill a certain kind of culture and mindset in its students that either worked with, or directly against, the country’s wishes while nearly completely cut off from the outside world. Small, private armies if you wanted to be really pessimistic about it.” Xyn scoffed, waving his hand dismissively over his shoulder.

“New-style academies, like Dragon-Scale, are academies that are primarily built for adventurers and the type of world we live in nowadays.” Xyn continued, giving a small wave to a random student that walked past, “We allow you to live on campus if you wish with a few caveats, but otherwise you’re entirely allowed to continue adventuring and going on quests at your leisure and you can choose to pull out, or re-enroll, at any point you wish.”

“Wow. That sounds…rather casual?” Alec said hesitantly, wondering if ‘casual’ was the correct word to use in this circumstance.

“Because it is.” Xyn shot back with a small grin over his shoulder, leading Alec into a spherical training ground, walking to the center of the room and gesturing for Alec to do the same.

“Are you going to test me?”

“I am.” Xyn answered succinctly, drawing his blade from his side.

Goosebumps rose over Alec’s arms and his muscles tensed a little, his hand slowly reaching for his blade without him even realizing.

“While we’re far more relaxed than old-style schools, there’s still a need to know your limits and how well suited to the Dragon-Scale techniques you are.”

“Yeah. Right. That makes sense…” Alec mumbled absentmindedly, drawing his blade and holding it out in front of him, getting a small hum from the academy’s headmaster.

“Your opening stance could use some work, its solid but not built for your frame.” Xyn hummed, gesturing for Alec to begin with his free hand as he kept his blade out and pointed towards the teen.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Alec shot forward and struck with a thrust, his blade glancing off the headmasters in a thrum of mana and a flash of sparks.

“Quick, decisive, well aimed.” Xyn commented, parrying the teen’s blade three more times and finally lashing out with a strike of his own, allowing his blade to be thrown up by the teen’s own deflection.

Alec had good speed and strength even before the mana pulsing through his body was taken into account, Xyn could tell that without even having to try. Yet at the moment, those raw characteristics and his surprisingly refined instincts were basically all the teen had going for him. His technique was sloppy, his grounding and footwork was far from ideal, and the headmaster would take bets on if the teen even understood how to properly feint a strike.

Of course, the idea of the teen being able to do so well enough to fool Xyn of all people was basically impossible, but he was looking at it through the lens of the average swordsman, not the headmaster of the largest sword academy in the country.

The man allowed himself to be pushed back as the teen continued his relentless attack. Xyn dancing and circling the teen as he struck out with slashes and thrusts that the far more experienced man easily blocked or parried.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Until finally, the teen broke the stalemate, getting a raised eyebrow from the headmaster. That is until he watched the teen take a stance and felt the sudden intake of mana rushing into Alec’s body.

Xyn’s grin widened, and he squared his stance, holding his blade with both hands almost perfectly vertical. Mana pouring into him just as it did with Alec, only far faster and with far, far more quantity than with him.

The teen shot forward, and his mana began to pool into his hands, the headmaster took a single step forward and shifted the alignment of his hands to better match the tip of Alec’s blade.

The mana in Alec’s hands surged to the tip of his blade and exploded outwards, doing nothing as it struck only air, his eyes glued –almost hypnotized– on the fluid movement of Xyn’s own blade.

The edge of Alec’s blade struck the edge of Xyn’s and he finally began to move, shifting and twisting his blade to the side and in a circular manner as he took another step forward. Alec’s blade veering off to the side violently as the edge of Xyn’s ghosted underneath his now outstretched arms-

Xyn took another two steps at a calm, casual, pace before coming to a stop, re-sheathing his blade as he turned to look back at Alec. The man utterly unsurprised by the splurt of blood from the teen’s stomach as he fell to his knees and clutched his injury, a green magic circle immediately lighting to life over his hands as they began to twitch and shake.

“Don’t worry, I have no intentions of killing you.” Xyn tried to calm Alec down as he walked back over, a chunk of the wall sliding open, and a dragon seemingly made of stone came wondering out.

“Y-You cut straight through m- Ah!” Alec jolted a bit as the dragon wondered over to him, its mouth opening wide and a conical spray of green gas spraying over the teen, beginning to stitch his body back together magically.

“See? Usually, this little guy isn’t needed because practice blades are used instead of real, sharpened, ones but it always pays to have him around.”

“Yeah I can….tell. Holy crap…” Alec cancelled his spell and moved his hands away from his wound, watching it seal closed in real time.

Though it was making him feel rather lethargic, unlike the magical healing he had received in his previous encounters with deep wounds like this.

“Awww, you have another admirer Fron, aren’t you happy?” Xyn cooed at the stone dragon, getting a roll of the creature’s eyes as it stopped spewing healing gas at the teen.

Almost tiredly itself, Fron’s mouth opened and closed a couple times before it yawned and turned around, its tail curling and whipping behind it as it went right back into the hole in the wall, and it re-sealed itself shut.

“What an unappreciative little monster. I can’t believe him.” Xyn sighed, crossing his arms and shaking his head in disappointment.

“That’s…really potent healing.” Alec mumbled, touching the repaired skin at his side with the tips of his fingers.

“That’s right. Fron’s bloodline is terrible at dealing damage like most dragons, instead their focus was on healing and recovery.”

“Huh.”

“Are you good to stand?”

“Yeah, yeah. I can stand.” Alec nodded, rising to his feet and sheathing his own blade.

Though he did wobble a little unsteadily on his feet, a yawn escaping him despite his best efforts to tamp it down.

“That’s the downside to Fron’s healing, little guy has healing far beyond his means but just no way to properly replenish the energy that healing takes. Though I’d take lethargy over death any day of the week, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah, I would.” Alec nodded slowly; his gaze caught on the blood staining the ground before he turned to look at Xyn. “What was that Power Stance you used at the end?”

“One of the techniques of Dragon-Scale.” The man began proudly, standing just a little straighter as he got to show off the excellence of his school’s sword-style. “Its called Glancing Scale, its one of the basic Power Stances that you’ll learn as part of your tenure here.”

“Glancing Scale, huh?...”

Xyn just stayed silent at the teens mumble, watching him out of the corner of his eye as Alec’s eyes seemed to dim slightly in thought, his hands twisting and turning slowly in place as the headmaster assumed he began to replay their final clash in his mind.

“So, can I assume that you’ll join the academy, Alec?” The headmaster questioned, his hands folding behind him on instinct and clasping one in the palm of the other.

“Absolutely.” The teen answered instantly, his gaze swivelling to the headmaster with a fire that could have melted Fron to slag in seconds.

“Hah! Did that little demonstration light a fire under you?”

“If that’s just a basic technique of the style…I can’t wait to see what else Dragon-Scale has to offer.”

“Nice, nice!” Xyn said eagerly, his lips stretching wide into a toothy grin as he brought one hand back up and around to hold his chin. “That kind of determination is precisely what I’m looking for! Follow me, Alec, we’ll go get you signed up and if you want to stay here, I’ll show you to your accommodations personally.”

“Eh?” Alec’s determined expression faltered as he seemed to almost stumble on the spot at the headmaster’s words. “You’d…do that? I’m only an [Iron-rank] adventurer and I put up a pretty poor showing in our spar.”

“Ah forget that.” Xyn scoffed, waving his hand in the teens face. “An academy is a place to learn and grow stronger. Regardless, our goal is to teach as many people as possible our techniques and style so that Dragon-Scale will never die out.”

‘Oh, so that’s the advantage of new-style academies…’ The realization hit Alec like a lightning bolt on a cloudless day, his eyes widening in silent understanding.

An old-style academy was excellent at instilling spells, techniques or fighting styles in its students in the truest and most refined manner possible. A new-style academy, on the other hand, focused more on the fast-paced world they lived in, and the fear of their techniques being lost to time or enemies. Each had advantages and disadvantages, but Alec was only just beginning to realize that.

“Besides-” Xyn began to walk, gesturing for Alec to follow as he tilted his head back and to the side to get the best possible look at Alec as he could while still walking forward.

“You’re a hundred years too early to ever hope to best me when it comes to pure skill, young man.”

XXXxxxXXX

The next day, Dragon-Scale Academy

Alec walked down one of the streets of the academy as he looked for the building where the beginner classes were set to be held. He’d been assured by one of the older students, a man in his mid-40’s if Alec had to guess, that he’d get the hang of it once he was here for long enough when he had asked but for now it was just confusing and a little annoying.

“Emerald Tooth. Emerald Tooth. Emeral- Ah, here it is.” The teen perked up as he found a building with a copper nameplate nailed to the side, walking up to the front door.

“Train- eh, whatever.” He sighed and shook his head in exasperation as he walked into the building.

Dragon-Scale clearly had some kind of blood-feud with status-quo’s and Alec wasn’t going to step in the middle of it if he could conceivably help it.

“Hey, you’re a new face. Newbie to the academy?” A young man with a small brown mohawk asked, leaning against the wall besides who Alec guessed was one of his friends.

The man was wearing a sleeveless shirt that was pinned open a little to reveal a good portion of his chest, a thin layer of sweat covering his form and a towel around his neck that he was using to wipe sweat off his face whenever it formed.

“Yeah, I was looking for one of the beginner classes.” Alec nodded, staying where he was but turning his head to show that his attention was on the young man.

“Head out into the courtyard in the center of the building, I think that’s where the next class is starting.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” The young man smiled, giving the teen a small thumbs up before turning back to his friend, Alec heading towards where he had been directed.

With a light jog, and a couple wrong turns, the teen was there in only a minute and a half. His gaze catching a small group of about 20-ish people limbering up in the center of the courtyard as an elderly man went around and gave some small tips and advice.

The teen was quick to head over and begin doing the same himself, trying not to draw any attention to himself and failing utterly as the elderly man’s eyes immediately snapped to him.

“Ah! Another new face. Is this your first lesson here, youngin’? Or have you happened to wander through a couple other classes first?”

The twenty-something pairs of eyes around him all drifted over to Alec as the instructor walked over, a somewhat embarrassed blush spreading over the bridge of his nose before he coughed into his fist and tried to push the reaction down. Attention from a lot of people was something that Alec had never been great at dealing with, especially when he was being singled out for some reason, like now.

“Ah, uh. First lesson.”

“I see I see. Looks like we have two fresh faces here today. How delightful!” The instructor laughed, walking around to Alec’s side and placing a comforting hand on his back. “I look forward to teaching you, youngin’.”

“And I….look forward to learning?” Alec answered a little unsurely, assuming he’d done the right thing when the man just hummed and walked away before clapping sharply to force everyone’s attention on him.

“Alright! For those of you who have been here before you already know the drill. But for our youngin’s here today I’ll explain again. I’m going to go through some of the basic stances of Dragon-Scale and then I’ll be placing you all in pairs to practice them against each other.”

Alec just took this information in silently as a few nods and ‘yes sir’s went up around him. The blue haired swordsman grabbed one of the wooden practice swords and moved to his own spot to follow along with the basic stances of Dragon-Scale as their instructor showed them.

It was unusual, practicing in such a controlled environment like this. Alec wasn’t quite sure whether he liked it or disliked it but he followed along regardless.

‘This style is remarkably defensive, but it's not completely devoid of offensive strikes.’ The teen noted as he went through the stances in a small rhythm to try and get used to them.

His body felt odd, straining and pulling against him as he tried to move it in unfamiliar ways and patterns, his self-taught nature rearing its ugly head.

“Alright! Everybody pair up now. Our two fresh-faced youngin’s will be pairing up with each other for today, however.” The elderly man instructed with another sharp clap, murmurs and conversations immediately starting up as people started to walk around and pair up like a hive of insects.

“So, you’re the one I’m with. Olivia.” A girl greeted Alec, her face almost entirely expressionless with her practice blade resting comfortably over her shoulder.

Her hair was a pearlescent white with a bright red hairclip keeping her evidently large fringe out of her red eyes and the rest of her hair done up in a low ponytail. Her clothes were simple and good for moving around in, but also not the same kind of basic, low-cost clothes that Alec himself wore.

“I’m Alec. Nice to meet you.” The teen greeted, holding a hand out to Olivia, only to falter when she just looked down at the hand and back up to his face, a brief spark of annoyance lighting up in her eyes.

“I’m here to train, not make friends.”

“Yeah, right. Got it.” Alec muttered, falling into the basic starting stance of Dragon-Scale a few seconds after Olivia did, practically able to feel the annoyance rolling off of her.

And as the two of them went through their stances in slow motion against each other, bathed in a deep, thick, silence that neither of them wanted to break, Alec couldn’t help but think to himself.

‘Day 1 of Formal Training: I pissed off the only other new start in the entire class. Great going me, that’s what I get for trying to be like Peter and be friendly.’