by C. J. Cooke
“Okay, so the purpose of this lesson is to start to familiarise yourselves with moving through the sequences that we have already learnt while incorporating a blade. First, you’re going to want to spent some time familiarising yourselves with the blade that you’ve chosen so that you can get used to the weight distribution and how it moves.” Everyone had already started to take some practice swipes with their weapons. I pulled one of my short swords into my hand and started to move through the sequences introducing moving the weapon through them. “Just watch how I move for now. If you’ve picked up dual blades or axes, if you’re an over achiever, set one down and just work with one for now. We will bring in dual blades later.” I spent the next half an hour moving through three of the sequences one after the other then repeating. The others joined in with me after observing a few rounds. Caleb had taken up position nearer to the back but I could see the smile starting on his face and I was glad. He clearly needed a break. By the end of the half an hour we were all moving together and they were using the blades as competently as if they had been using them for months. Even Caleb seemed pretty proficient for someone who earlier in the day seemed to have an aversion to using a blade. I only had to make a few adjustments to the weapons which they had chosen but they had naturally seemed to pick the ones that best suited them. The only times I had to make an adjustment to a different blade for them was if they needed a heavier weighted blade or something slightly shorter. It was impossible, it was definitely something to do with magic, it was also kind of cool.
After an hour we all sat down for a water break and the group sat around playing with their new toys. “It’s definitely you,” Caleb said, “I can feel the difference.” He glanced down at his watch before he swore and suddenly jumped to his feet. “Shit, I’m late. Sorry Aria I have a meeting with the headmaster. This was really fun though.” He shouted over his shoulder as he started to jog from the room.
“You’re welcome any time.” I shouted at his retreated back. “Does this freak any of you out?” I suddenly asked the rest of the group.
“What do you mean?” Britt asked sliding the katana back into its scabbard.
“That my magic affects you all like this. You know that this is not normal right?” I spun my finger round the group.
“Yeah of course it’s not normal but nah, why would be bothered?” Britt asked.
“I don’t know, because it’s influencing you.” This was making me feel weirdly awkward. What if they all said yes?
“It’s not influencing us Aria. We’re still the same. All your magic does is help us learn quicker.” Britt reasoned. “We came to you to help us learn to fight and that’s what you’ve done. You haven’t done anything that we didn’t first come to you and ask for.”
“Talking of,” I said standing up and grabbing one of the boxes. “When we get through the competition and show the school what you guys are made of, we’re going to be rolling out an Elite training program. You guys are officially the first recruits.” I said pulling out the first set of fighting leathers, “if you want to be that is.”
“Fuck yeah,” Sykes said bouncing up and pulling a set of leathers out of the box. “Not sure that these are going to fit me though” he said holding up some female leathers.
“Yours are in the other box.” I laughed.
“These are so kick ass” he said, holding up a set that were actually made for him.
“You know you’re going to have to save them for the competition, right?” I told him knowing that he was seconds away from throwing them on.
“Awww” he said dropping his hands in defeat. He had the most adorable almost pout on his face.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Caleb
There was no point in rushing, I was late already. It had definitely been worth it though. I had forgotten what it felt like to truly train and fight. Aria was a breath of fresh air and, if I was honest, I hadn’t realised how much help I needed until she came along. When Dominic first approached me to run the combat training program at the school it seemed like a good idea. But I don’t think that I had anticipated how hard it would be to motivate the students. I was also starting to struggle with the moral question which Aria had inadvertently raised. Should we even be doing this? The students had no idea that we were training them to join an army that they knew nothing about. Shouldn’t they have a choice about whether they should fight or not? The more I thought about it the bigger the headache I got. That was probably the reason why, when I finally stormed through Dominic’s office door and slumped down on the sofa in the corner, I had suddenly gone from riding a high to a completely toxic bad mood.
“Good day?” Dominic asked looked up from his desk before not so subtly looking at his wristwatch and then raising an eyebrow in my direction.
I chuffed in annoyance and then got annoyed at myself for acting like a petulant child. “It started out the same as always dragging them through the training that they hate and try their hardest to avoid. Then it got pretty good. I joined in on one of Aria’s training sessions. It was impressive. Then I came here and started an argument with myself in my head, because apparently now I’m a raving lunatic, and it put me in a bad mood. How was your day?” I deflected.
Dominic pulled a bottle of whisky from his bottom drawer with a couple of glasses and came to sit with me. After he poured us both a generous amount and settled back in his seat, he took a long drink before looking over at me. “It was illuminating and frustrating all at the same time. Shall we deal with yours first and then do mine? You seem to be in the worse mood.” He chuckled.
“When did this become us, Dom? When did we become the adults with the weight of the world on our shoulders? It feels like only yesterday that we were going through the academy ourselves.” I sighed putting my feet up on the coffee table and savouring the whiskey in the glass in front of me. It was smooth to the point that I knew it was expensive. He always had better booze than me and I genuinely had no idea where he got it from. It seemed to be from the human realm but as I was the only one who took the portals across and brought everything back, I knew that I hadn’t got it for him.
“When we decided to step up and try and save the world because no one else wanted to.” He joked. “Tell me about the training with Aria.”
“It was amazing. She started everyone out with weapons, basically the first proper time that they were using them, by the end of an hour I wouldn’t say that they were proficient but they were halfway there. I could feel the way that her magic wrapped around me, the way that it helped me move, I think I might be better with a sword now than I have ever been.” It was mind blowing when you thought about it. “I went in with an aversion to fighting with a weapon and came out loving the bloody sword that she gave me. She actually made a really good point about that the other day that we might want to consider. We only teach the students the basic weapons techniques, but what are we expecting them to do if they end up fighting in the human realm where they can’t shift or throw around magic?”
“We can’t factor in every possible scenario Caleb. We have to make the best that we can with the limited time that we have. If the fight takes us to the human realm then they will just have to shift in front of the humans. It’s not like we are a secret there anymore and the situation is fast becoming dire. With all of the investigations that we have done, we can’t find out who opened the portal to let the demon into the school. It could happen again at any time and we would be powerless to stop it. We’ve reinforced the wards but the reality is that the strongest wards we have can’t stop the portals if someone on the inside is opening them.” He looked as lost as I felt. If there was one thing that we had not factored into the plans that we had made it was that one of our own was going to turn against us. “Its going to happen soon. I can feel it. We aren’t ready.”
“No, even the third years aren’t at a level where I would say that they were combat ready. Maybe we made a mistake not telling them. Maybe they would have been bet
ter motivated if they had known. Aria’s group though. In the few short weeks that she has had them, I’d say that if all hell broke loose tomorrow, they would have a fighting chance. Honestly Dom, it was unlike anything I had ever felt before. We need to get her training more squads if we are going to have any chance of living through this.”
“I haven’t been able to find out much about what she is. She definitely has god magic and I would bet my life on it that she is one of the god touched. But beyond that, I have no idea. I think we might have to take her to a seer.” He grabbed the whiskey bottle and filled up my glass before topping off his own.
“Is that wise? If we take her to a seer everyone and everything, in this realm and the next, will know about her. You know stuff like that causes a ripple.” I questioned, not liking the exposure that this could bring for Aria. We didn’t know what she was but could we protect her if others came for her? I scoffed at my own thought. As if that girl needed us to protect her. Guide her maybe, but definitely not protect.
“What other choice do we have? We can’t train her in her magic if we don’t know what it is. Barring breaking into the god realm and finding a god that can tell us, I fail to see any other option.” Dominic drained his glass in one gulp. Everything about this was going to shit, and it was going to shit fast.
“Seer it is then.” I said raising my glass to him before downing the contents myself.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Competition day came around fast. We did the five mile run and then everyone went their separate ways to shower and get ready. The corridors were pretty quiet. Everyone had gone to the gym early to get seats and the rest of the class was soaking up the fame. Might as well let them live it up while they can. Crushing defeat can be kind of humiliating after all. This was going to be so epic. I had heard the shit that they were saying about us and I wasn’t going to feel bad about my group wiping the floor with them. I opened the cafeteria door, and found them gathered there waiting and they looked fucking awesome. Madam Nines had done an awesome job on the leathers. Everyone had their weapons and they looked bad-ass! This was going to be so fucking awesome. I wish I had a camera. This must be what parents feel like when their kids go off to college.
“Everyone ready?” I asked looking around. I was met with a round of nods. Everyone was in the zone. “You know the plan, go in fast and put them down hard.” I said leading them out of the cafeteria. Just before we walked out the doors I turned and quickly said “But let’s not permanently hurt anyone though okay?” That at least got me some laughs. It was a real concern though.
It wasn’t far to the gym and we had fallen into a formation as we went. Kyle was by my side. Liam and Sykes were slightly behind and to our sides. The rest of the group were in two lines of three. Britt had the centre of the rear line and had fallen slightly further back guarding the rear. When we reached the gym door, we didn’t even stop, we just strolled straight through and the noise which we had been able to hear from half way down the corridor fell into complete silence. There were a few giggles and some were whispering but most just watched us with intrigue. The rest of the class sneered at us superiorly and it took genuine effort to not just laugh in their face. A marked arena had been drawn out on the floor in the middle of the gym. We took position on the nearest side. The rest of the class were already on the far side facing us. Caleb and the headmaster were on our right hand side and the bleachers which were filled with the rest of the school were to our left. A section of the front row had been left empty, presumably for those who would not be fighting. I already knew that there were three years of students at the school and that we had only about fifty in our year from the fighting class. That left probably about a hundred students sat in the bleachers. Most sneered at us. Some looked on with pity. I don’t think that there were many who looked like they thought we had even a chance at winning. No one that is apart from Trent who I spotted in the second row and what looked to be about three of his friends. He was pointed over to me and clearly filling in his friends about what he had seen. When he looked across at me and met my eyes he gave me a sheepish smile and I smiled and gave him a nod before turning my attention back to the arena. I felt Kyle bristle beside me and murmured across to him “Don’t worry honey just scoping out any other potential recruits.” I looked up into his eyes and leaned slightly into him, now was not the time for PDA’s. He smiled down at me and gently bumped my shoulder with his own.
Caleb stepped forward into the arena and addressed the rest of our class. “The nine members of the first year class who have been chosen for the competition step forward into the ring. Everyone else take a seat in the bleachers.” He shouted. Caleb stepped back to where he had been stood with the headmaster and they murmured quietly to each other while the rest of the class sorted themselves out. I saw Sex Shop Barbie and her friends take a seat in the front row of the bleachers with everyone else. Isaac, the douche bag, was unfortunately one of the nine remaining in the ring. The headmaster looked over at us and gave us a respectful nod. I really needed to take that meeting with him to discuss my magic more but if I was honest, I had been avoiding him.
The headmaster stepped forward and took the same position in the arena that Caleb had to address the school. “As you all have heard we have an experiment running with the first year fighting class looking at some different training methods. That experiment has morphed into this competition. Caleb has continued with the same training method you’ve all had. Aria here has taken a select group and introduced a different method. If Aria’s group prevails, we shall be introducing an Elite training scheme to the school.” He nodded across to me and I grinned back at him. I saw one corner of his mouth twitch. Yeah, he knew we had this in the bag. There were a couple of murmurs that ran across the bleachers. Most were no doubt people talking shit about us. I glanced over at Trent’s group. He was nodding to his friends and they looking sceptically at him. At least we had one person who believed in us. I wish I could watch all their faces as my group wiped the floor with the others but I know I won’t be able to tear my eyes away from the fight.
“Elites!” I shouted and my whole group snapped to attention. It was so fucking awesome. “Discard your weapons and take position.” Everyone removed their blades and placed them on a few of the empty seats of the front row of the bleachers next to where we stood. I glanced over at Britt and raised one eyebrow “All of them.” I pointed out and she grinned and removed a dagger from her left boot. We were basically made to be best friends. Everyone took up the position we had already discussed. The three guys made up the front row forming a barrier between the other fighting group and our girls who were stood behind pretending to look nervous. I moved to the side line keeping my back to the bleachers. I wanted a side on view to see how the manoeuvre looked when they performed it. I stood with my legs braced and arms crossed, Caleb was directly opposite me and seemed to have adopted the same position. This must be awkward as hell for him and I would have to make sure that I spoke to him afterwards to make sure that there weren’t any hard feelings. While we didn’t have to adopt any kind of tactic to win this competition, I’d still made sure that everyone knew what they needed to do to be as efficient as possible. This was going to ensure that we put them down fast and assured their humiliation. I should probably feel bad, if anything I just felt a little giddy and my magic was like a warm embrace as it gently rose in anticipation and support for my fighters.
“On three,” Caleb shouted. The other group didn’t even bother to take any position. There clearly wasn’t a plan. They just stood wherever and I’m pretty sure one of them was just flexing his muscles. Gross. “Let’s keep this clean” Caleb warned. At his warning I saw the look on Isaac’s face. They may not have had a plan as a group but he sure as hell seemed to have one. “One …” everyone tensed, “two …” my girls were doing a good job of looking afraid, it was almost comical, “three!” Caleb shouted. My three guys took two steps forward and the entire other group, as we had
known they would, ran to them. Just as they were about to collide the girls split into two groups of three and took off down the sides of the arena, and that was it, before anyone had even had the chance to throw a punch, we had them flanked and surrounded. They were too stupid to even realise their mistake. My nine closed in squeezing the other group into close quarters and the fight began. Kyle, Liam and Sykes took out one each of the other group with just one punch each. Isaac had fallen back into the middle of the group. The fight was brutal and three members of the other group were down in the first few minutes. Caleb had chosen his biggest and strongest fighters. All men. It made no difference at all. Britt had swept the legs from one of his fighters and dropped a knee into his chest. While he was curling up, no doubt struggling to take a breath, she lunged forward and delivered a brutal punch to his left temple and he was out like a light. As she looked up Isaac was the next in her sights with his signature sneer on his face. He deserved far worse than what she was about to give him but at least this way she wasn’t going to get any blow back from the teaching staff. Just as she climbed to her feet and took a step forward I felt magic rush past me and saw the ground in front of Britt freeze just before she could put her foot down. As she stepped forward her foot slipped out from under her and she fell down to her knee saving herself from sprawling out on the ground. I whipped around in a rage. Someone was interfering and of course that person was the first that my eyes landed on, who was stood at the front on her feet, with one fucking idiotic hand still stretched out in front of her. Sex Shop Barbie had no fucking sense at all if she thought this was going to have a happy ending. The fact that she would dare, that she would come after mine. My magic flared and the rage slammed into me. I strode towards her seeing red. Her friends had the sense to take a step away from her. She didn’t even have the common sense to look scared. She just sneered at me and lifted her other hand. A blue ball of shimmering light shot towards me. The rage that had me storming towards her wasn’t going to let that stop me and with my left hand I batted it away. It flew away from me and slammed into the gym wall, blue electricity crackled across the surface. At least by this point she had the sense to look worried, whilst everyone in the stands around her quickly moved away. They could see what was coming. If she had any brains she would have dropped to her knees and begged for my forgiveness. Instead she lifted her top lip in a sneer, pulled back her hand and this time threw a ball of fire straight at me. My magic flared higher. I had never ridden a wave of rage this strong before. My left hand automatically whipped out in front of me again and this time I caught the fireball. Everyone gasped. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, it didn’t even hurt. It did look pretty with the way that the flames curled around my fingers though. It looked even prettier when I crushed it and the sooty magic crumbled like dust between my fingers and fell to the ground. Now she looked fucking terrified. Grabbing her by her collar I hauled Sex Shop Barbie towards me. My magic wanted to bury a dagger in her heart and twist but I satisfied my rage by pulling back the other hand and punching her straight in the face. Her nose crumpled underneath my fist with a satisfying crunch, blood spewing over her face and her eyes rolled back in her head as she immediately passed out. My fist bunched up in her shirt prevented her from collapsing to the ground and I left her dangling from my hand. I glanced over my shoulder back at the arena and seeing that the fight was already over I threw her limp body back at her friends. “When she wakes up tell her that the next time she raises a hand against me or mine I will remove it from her arm.” I growled before turning and striding back towards my group. The other group were on the ground. A couple were moving but most were unconscious. Mine didn’t even look like they had broken a sweat. Britt was standing triumphantly over Isaac and a part of me was crushed that I had missed her victory but I knew she would give me a blow by blow commentary later. It had taken less than five minutes. The gym was silent apart from a few murmurs in the crowd. I strode back to my group and gave Britt a congratulatory pat on the shoulder and she beamed a huge smile at me. Kyle took me in his arms and pulled me tight to his chest, dropping his nose to my neck he inhaled my scent.
