Olivia Kio couldn’t help but scowl as she ended up standing next to the blue-haired teen known as Alec once more. The two of them were standing in yet another practical class at Dragon-Scale Academy that was now beginning its practical application portion, just like all the others.
You go through the stances, you practice holding them and moving between them slowly, and then you pair up with other students to test it in a slightly faster-paced environment. A solid practice schedule in Olivia’s opinion, one that made perfect sense and could suit a wide variety of people.
However, this was her fourth day at this academy, and it was the sixth time that she’d been paired with Alec in particular, and it was starting to grow genuinely aggravating.
The academy worked on a revolving door of classes that ran at nearly all times of the day, at least for lower-ranking warriors like her. Supposedly some of the more advanced classes had a stricter timetable due to the instructors handling them but she obviously couldn’t join one to verify for herself.
However, the issue with the basic classes, at least that she was running into at the moment, was that she was one of the two newbies to the Academy. The other being, of course, Alec.
That meant that she was paired with him for basically everything, including –as she had discovered the first night she had stayed in the dormitory– being his next-dorm neighbour.
She had nothing against Alec, not truly, but she was here to do nothing more than to grow stronger and learn the Dragon-Scale sword style. Yet everyone in the Academy seemed absolutely arrow-tip focused on making sure that Alec and Olivia were as joined at the hip as possible while within the Academy grounds.
Her wooden blade clacked against Alec’s for what seemed like the eight hundredth time in only a few days as she let her thoughts wander, her hair once again tied back to avoid getting in her way and her gaze locked onto him and only him. In much the same way his gaze was locked onto her and only her as they sparred.
The stances this time included a few more offensive options, giving Olivia a bit more room to breathe compared to the far more defensively focused stances of the last few days. Her grip tightening around the well-sanded hilt and her muscles flexing just a bit as she struck out a bit faster than their well-maintained rhythm would allow in a childish outburst of frustration.
Her eyes widened for only a fraction of a second before she realized that Alec had blocked it exactly as he was meant to, following the Dragon-Scale style. His expression unchanged as he shifted the tilt and rotation of his blade to allow hers to slide down along it and lashed out slowly with one of the offensive strikes they had learnt today.
Usually his unchanging, focused, expression didn’t bother her much, if at all. She didn’t want to do anything except train and grow, and he wasn’t bothering her with useless small-talk or silent ogling.
She had enough of that at family outings and gatherings that she was dragged along to, thank you very much.
But today, for some reason, to see him so unphased even by her outburst lit a fire under her that surprised even herself. It was probably her annoyance at being paired up with him again that sparked it, but the sheer speed that it enveloped her entire form was genuinely unexpected.
That singular faster, and stronger, swing soon turned into two, and then three, then four, then five, six, seven, eight-
Before Olivia even realized it, she was fighting at nearly full capacity without amping her body up with mana, battling an opponent that was keeping up even without using his own mana; though admittedly he was evidently concentrating far more than he had been beforehand. The rapid clacks and whacks of their blades echoing over the interior courtyard of the trainarium as more and more pairings around them began to slow to a halt to watch the ‘spar’ between the two newcomers. The two of them not even noticing in their states of sheer focus, only continuing to dance back and forth involuntarily.
Alec retreated two steps, spinning his blade to deflect hers up and then bracing the flat of his blade with his forearm above his head to block the downwards strike she followed up with. The teen swiped his blade, and thus hers, to the side and took a solid step forward while thrusting his blade at her stomach, making her bring her own blade up to block it and let it glance off to the side. The blue-haired swordsman advancing another few steps, forcing her to back-off those same few steps to keep enough distance to properly use her blade, and raising his blade to bring it down on her just as she had done to him a second earlier.
Unlike Alec, though, Oliva chose to thrust her blade-point at the wooden cross guard of her opponent’s weapon, meeting it with a solid clack and rebounding off while throwing Alec off-balance as well. But whereas Olivia recovered and immediately went back on the offensive, Alec chose to go entirely defensive in the wake of her sudden aggression.
Their blades met again and again in a brilliant display of skill and speed, for complete newbies to the Dragon-Scale style, as the rest of the class watched the two of them going at it, even the instructor. A middle aged, short and stocky, man with a thick black beard and large nose that ran a couple fingers through the thick hair and braids that made up his beard as he watched the fight that the spar had become.
‘I don’t recognize him at all, that clearly means that he’s not from one of the established adventurer families of Xyrtah.’ Olivia thought, forced to back up a step as Alec used the footing of his defensive stance to break his way into her personal space. ‘And those clothes that he’s wearing clearly don’t cost much either.’
She thrust her blade forward and widened her eyes as he deflected and brought his blade around, finally meeting her left wrist with a loud slap that made her flinch and strike out on reflex to hit his own left arm.
“Point: Alec. Point: Olivia.”
The instructor’s voice didn’t even seem to reach Olivia’s ears as she continued her assault, a blush of embarrassment spreading across her face and up to her ears at actually being struck by Alec.
‘I’ve been training since I was a child to become the strongest adventurer I could, to match up to my siblings and prove that the Kio name isn’t wasted on me. And suddenly this backwater adventurer comes out of the woodworks, and I’m stuck to him? How can I prove myself if I’m always next to him, how can I show my worth as an individual if I’m always paired with the same person?’
Olivia’s mana shone brightly around her as her feet firmed themselves on the dirt of the courtyard and her blade was raised vertically at her side with both hands gripping it tightly. A wave of mana rushed into her as the World itself acknowledged the magical contract that she had imposed upon herself, and she took a single strong step forward-
The thud of a body on the ground was the first thing to register in Olivia’s mind, the second was the pain in her cheek and chest, and the third was the two strong hands pinning her dominant arm to the ground with her blade and placed firmly on her back to stop her from getting up.
“That was a brilliant spar, you two. But I feel like a Power Stance, especially one outside our school’s style, goes simply beyond practicing your basics. Don’t you, Miss Olivia?” The instructor asked, his deep voice flaring with an unsung warning at his final question directed towards the girl pinned to the ground beneath him.
“…Yes, instructor.” She ground out; her lungs stopped from fully expanding by the heavy hand between her shoulder blades.
“Good. All of you continue your sparring!” He ordered the rest of the class as he took his hand off Olivia’s back and lifted her to her feet with the single hand on her wrist. “And Miss Olivia? We’ll be speaking after class.”
“…Understood, instructor.” She mumbled, wrenching her wrist away when he let go of it and turning her gaze back to Alec, who could only deadpan slightly at her half-lidded, shadowed over expression.
‘Why do I feel like I’ve done something wrong…?’
XXXxxxXXX
That Afternoon, Dragon-Scale Academy
Alec breathed in slowly as he stepped forward, transitioning from one defensive stance to another, his gaze clouded, and his attention clearly focused elsewhere as he moved. The sound of wooden clacks and grunts of effort echoing through the open training ground he stood within, in one of the corners of the walled compound.
‘I don’t think I did anything wrong, right?’ The teen half-heartedly transitioned between another few stances, his low-effort clear amongst the students that surrounded him. ‘She was cold from day one, but I’ve done my best not to piss her off more…right? Dammit, this is why I leave these types of things to Peter…’
Alec’s expression darkened ever so slightly, and his next step brought him from a defensive stance to one of the few offensive stances he had learned, his blade clacking down on a wooden training dummy and stopping short. The reverberations of the strike travelled down the length of the blade in an instant and straight into Alec’s hands, getting a short yelp from the teen as his blade dropped from trembling hands.
“Gah! Stupid.” He hissed quietly, feeling the tingling remnants still in his hands as they shook minutely. “I didn’t prepare myself for that at all.”
“Yeah, that’s an issue I’ve run into a couple times as well.” The sound of another, similarly young, male voice from his right caught Alec’s attention.
Blue eyes swivelled to focus on the voice in question, seeing a late teen or young adult, Alec couldn’t quite tell, with very short spiky green hair and soft hazel eyes with a couple freckles smattered across his cheeks.
“Oh, uh. It’s just because I was distracted.” Alec muttered, not quite sure how to respond to that opening statement from the other male.
“Yeah, I could tell. You’re one of the newbies right, Alec?” He asked, walking over.
“Yeah, that’s me. How do you know?”
“You and Olivia are the talk of the academy. Your rivalry is super good gossip.” The young man giggled into his hand, raising one of his feet slightly and stomping on the pommel of Alec’s dropped blade.
In a blur of motion and a soft ‘whoomp’ of air, the hilt of his wooden blade was being held out towards him, with the other man holding the tip of the blade with three fingers.
“…Thanks.” Alec hummed, choosing to simply ignore the incorrect hypothesis of him and Olivia being rivals in exchange for analyzing what the greenette had just done.
“Cool right? One of our seniors taught me that little trick a couple months ago. Took me foreverrrr to nail down pat.” He grinned, letting go of the blade once Alec grabbed it back.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I can imagine, I think I’d just stomp it into the ground if I tried.” Alec snorted, already able to imagine it in his head.
“Oh yeah, that happened heaps.” The young man laughed, scratching the back of his head before holding a hand out so fast that Alec jolted back on pure instinct. “I’m Callum by the way!”
“Ah, Eh, I’m Alec…” He muttered, shaking his hand slowly.
“Yeah, I know, remember?”
Alec’s eye twitched at the reminder of him using his name seconds after the conversation started. A small, subtle smattering of red creeped onto Alec’s expression as the embarrassment began to slowly catch up with him.
“Ah whatever! No need to get so embarrassed dude, it’s fine. Wanna spar?”
“I- Sure?” Gods this was like dealing with Peter and Alexandar combined yet somehow worse.
He had the friendliness of both, the cheerful aura of Peter, and the exuberance of Alexandar. Yet he was lacking the more contained expressiveness of his best friend and the aged experience and wisdom of Alexandar and his calculated outbursts to pull back when necessary. A combination which, quite frankly, left Alec on quite the back foot when dealing with Callum compared to either Peter or Alexandar, and he’d been quite bad with the old man when he had first met him.
“Alright! So just a regular spar? No special rules or anything?” Callum asked excitedly, hopping from foot to foot.
“That sounds fine.” Alec simply responded, far more subdued than his opponent as he slid into the starting stance of the Dragon-Scale style.
“Good for me to start?”
“Go ahead.”
The blunt edge of Callum’s blade scraped off the edge of Alec’s, both combatants falling into a familiar and comfortable pattern of back and forth. The excitable energy of Callum evident in all his moves yet still contained now that they had an avenue with which to escape, smacking head-on into the stone wall that was Alec’s concentration with every strike their blades met with.
“Woah, you’re a super subdued fighter, Alec!” Callum commented, twisting his blade to let Alec’s slide off and striking out at him, only to have his own weapon deflected by Alec’s as he drew it back in and threw it to the side in a single motion.
“Is that meant to be a compliment?”
“Uh, s-sorta?” Callum laughed nervously, clashing blades with Alec and pushing forward, getting a slight backwards bend from the blue-haired teen but otherwise making no progress. “I was just surprised; everyone around here has such a fire y’know? Like they take the whole ‘dragon’ thing to its extreme. But you’re not like that, its super neat!”
“So, I’m neat because I’m ‘unique’?” Alec deadpanned, breaking their deadlock and forcing Callum to jump back to avoid the swipe he aimed at his head.
“I guess?” Callum shrugged as he landed.
The two combatants entered a short but intense burst of motion as they clashed and disengaged rapidly. Their blades met briefly for one or two strikes before they were back out of each other’s ranges once again. Over and over, faster and faster the two engaged each other, both trying to push each other as far as they could without making it a proper ‘fight’.
This type of engagement is an exhausting one, requiring both fighters to stay in constant motion, stay on high alert, and stay as high-intensity as possible. It was a type of combat reserved only for short skirmishes or absolute stamina monsters.
Unfortunately for Alec, Callum happened to be a member of the latter category. His performance only maintaining its status quo as Alec began to flag. Sweat dripped from his chin as he stumbled after yet another clash with Callum, turning too slow to keep up with the green-haired male and stumbling back as he crashed into him once more.
The blue-haired teen’s guard broke entirely, earning him a quick, well-aimed, wooden sword to the ribs for his weakness. His breath left his lips involuntarily as his limbs flailed for a moment, hitting the ground with a heavy thud and a jerk as he finally managed to suck a breath back in.
“Woah! You good Alec?”
“Y-Yeah. Just…ow.” He groaned, grabbing the hand Callum offered down to him and letting the other male pull him back to his feet.
Slowly he looked Callum up and down to see if he’d even managed to affect the greenette at all, a small self-satisfied grin making its way to his face as he saw the deepness of Callum’s breathing and the shine of sweat that coated his skin.
Sure, the teen may not have won and that stung, but at the very least he’d made Callum work for his win. Learn to take the small victories, he told himself, pointedly ignoring the burning pit of disappointment in his stomach.
“Haha! Yeah, I get that feeling. You should have seen it when I sparred with Instructor Kyan. She knocked the wind out of me so hard I actually blacked out for a second!” Callum admitted, seemingly without an ounce of shame in his body, with a loud laugh.
“I don’t know who Instructor Kyan is.” Alec muttered, trying to wrack his brain for any female instructors that he may have met, even in passing, in his short tenure at the academy.
“Oh yeah, that makes sense.” Callum hummed, holding his chin between his thumb and forefinger as he nodded. “She only teaches the advanced classes after all. Like for [Gold-rank]’s and above.”
Crack.
“Ah. I see.” Alec hummed, acting as if his fingers weren’t sitting slightly deeper into the hilt of his wooden blade than they had been only a second earlier.
“You good dude? You look like you’re about to faint…” Callum muttered worriedly, leaning in closer to Alec.
“I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m just going to keep training, I think.” Alec mumbled, turning on the spot and walking over to the training dummies he had been practicing with earlier.
“Mind if I join you then? I’ve never had a training partner before and I’d love to give it a shot, what do you say?”
Creeeee….
“…Yeah, sure. Sounds….great.”
XXXxxxXXX
That night
Alec let out a deep breath slowly as he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling of his living quarters silently. His brain was running at a mile a minute even as he lay completely unmoving in his bed.
‘Stamina is something I need to work on. Simply by learning the Dragon-Scale style my defense is going to be pretty well sorted out and it’ll give me some basic offensive options as well. Worse comes to worse, I have Fortress Piercer to overcome my lack of offense.’
The flitter of wings from outside his window never even made it past his eardrums, he was that far inside his own thoughts, his left forefinger beginning to tap over his stomach idly.
'I can’t believe I got that angry earlier though, now I need to make sure I can still use my blade because I managed to break it not even a full week into training. Like a complete idiot. Ugh.’
Alec screwed his eyes shut and dug the heels of his palms into them as he groaned quietly, his legs tensing and stretching as he let his emotional turmoil overwhelm him for only a few seconds before calming down once more and allowing his hands to drop at his sides.
‘I’m way too sensitive when it comes to my weakness, it’s a serious issue at this stage. But how the hell do I get over that other than becoming stronger?’
Try as he might, the teen couldn’t think of anything, only just now hearing the soft, nearly silent, flap of wings from outside his window. His curiosity flared for only a moment before dying down as he got lost in his thoughts yet again.
‘Well, I’m not going to figure this out just sitting here. I need to sleep otherwise my classes tomorrow are going to be hell to deal with…’
And so, rolling onto his side and closing his eyes, Alec tried to calm his heart and mind down so that he could actually get some rest instead of overthinking for the entire night. The teen never noticing the two sets of red eyes that shone through his window blinds, seemingly staring directly at him.
XXXxxxXXX
The Next Morning
“Halt.”
Both Alec and Olivia paused mid-swing, their skin ever-so-slightly shiny and their breathing minutely heavier than normal. Their eyes locked on each other, as if not trusting the other to follow the instructor’s command.
Alec understood where his own worries came from, but he felt insulted that Olivia was giving him that exact same look. How was that fair?
“Alec Dius, hand me your blade.” Instructor Ballui, an Elven man with heavy scarring over his face and three fingers on his left hand, ordered while holding his right hand out.
The teen slowly slid out of his stance, as did Olivia with a small huff, and handed his blade over. Flinching as he saw the finger grooves that he’d broken in the hilt the day before, and pressing his lips together thinly when it became obvious that Ballui saw it too.
“When did this damage to your blade occur?”
“Last night.” Alec answered simply, trying to ignore the silent snickering from the girl at his side who seemed to be enjoying the situation immensely.
“So you willingly chose to train with a broken blade?” Ballui tested, narrowing his eyes at the teen.
“The blade itself was perfectly fine and I was sure to remove any splinters or chips from around my fingers-“ Alec tried to defend himself, bristling up on instinct at the instructors tone.
He hadn’t gone into it half-cocked. The blade was still perfectly fine, and he’d made sure that his hand would be fine as well. It's like Ballui thought he’d just picked up his blade and-
“A copper-clutcher, hm?” Ballui hummed, his expression seeming to darken several orders of magnitude.
“I…don’t have much money to throw around, sir.” Alec responded, trying his absolute level best to stay calm in the face of his relative poorness being thrown in his face.
“Well, I can’t exactly have a student caring more about money than caring for their blade, now, can I? Until such a time as you manage to procure one yourself, the price of a new blade from the academy will be six times its ordinary for you, and only you.”
“H-Huh!?” Alec felt like he was about to fall over, an ordinary practice blade from the academies ‘war-hoard’ was already 3 silvers due to the special wood they made them from, 18 silvers for a blade was going way too far.
That would completely destroy his nice little nest-egg he was trying to put together. And after he’d been so careful to try and save money after he got to Zenik too…
The sound of near-silent giggling, coming from the young woman at his side, caught Alec’s attention, his gaze sliding over to her in mild annoyance. Unfortunately for Olivia, that same giggling also drew the attention of Ballui, who only frowned darkly.
“Well, Miss Kio. Since you seem to think that this is funny, how about that same punishment apply to you too, hm?”
“A-ah wait! N-No Instructor Ballui I swear I wasn’t-“
Crack!
“A-ah….” Olivia stared limply at what remained of her blade still clutched in her hands, the top half lying on the ground after Ballui pinched the blade with only two fingers.
‘The….same punishment as Dius?’ Her expression began to darken, her grip on her broken blade strengthening as her knuckles began to go white, the wood creaking ominously.
“Now, off you two go. You need proper blades to train, after all.” Ballui shooed both teens away, turning around to continue instructing the rest of the class.
Left with no other options, and unwilling to try and earn even more ire from their instructor, the two trudged away to the War-Hoard of Dragon-Scale Academy. Both left in foul moods, only made worse by the foul mood of the compatriot at their side.
‘All the money from my allowance is going to be gone now….’
Olivia scowled and stomped ahead of Alec, something that he was more than happy to let her do as he got lost in his own thoughts himself.
‘I’m only going to have 6 silvers left after this…I guess I should actually go take another quest tomorrow. I have sort of let it fall to the wayside these past few days…’
Alec took a deep breath in and tried to calm himself down with his game plan in mind, stepping into the War-Hoard and freezing as he saw the number of coins Olivia was handing over for a new blade of her own.
Alec may not lead his life following after money, like others he had seen and heard of in his short tenure as an Adventurer, but at that exact moment in time –seeing the small stack of silver coins the young woman handed over in a slightly shaky hand– he couldn’t help but feel like maybe they actually had a good point. Because having to spend three-quarters of your entire savings on a single blade because you got slightly angry was soul-crushing.