“Awwe. No throwing us in there one by one? That my type of training.” Ayaka crooned lightly with sarcasm, accepting his turducken gratefully. She ran a few fingers through her animal’s thick silver fur, whom had enough table manners to claim his own seat and eat off the table. Ralth is very generous… The kitsune’s thoughts acknowledged, her expression practically empty before a small smile filled the space. While the Warklock addressed his other female friend, a minor disagreement between two other students took a deadly turn. Ayaka watched this scene with widened eyes- the orc's lunch suddenly seemed harder to chew and swallow at this moment.

From dragons crashing into rocks to butterknives, at least the fight was more colorful than normal fights. Ayaka chuckled to herself, flinching when hits that look painful landed as if it were a football game. The lunch entertainment was on point today. Ayaka pointed both of her acquaintances to the catastrophe, replying to Ralth when the superiors showed up on scene and threatened to expel them all. “Mmm…they can’t be too upset. They did agree to teach hundreds of us fighters and killers in close quarters. In the end, I hope all ends well. “

“Oh! This is Mishka. I’d say he’s magical but he’s more intelligent than magical. He communicates to me through telepathy. Oddly, sets me straight at times. You know, another set of eyes to watch out for you. I wonder if he can speak out loud but has yet to do that. I’m sure she would get along swell with your wolf friend.” The fox breaks out into a series of hops and “yips” , gleefully running in small circles around the orc’s feet when his companion was mentioned.

Ralth’s powers intrigued the blonde woman, causing her to slowly tap her lengthy nails on the table. She slid her elbow into the table, using her hand to support her chin as she gazed at him, popping another piece of meat into her mouth. “I’m sure you will be at the head of our class. I saw how eager you were to take notes. If only my motivation was up to par, but we will see on the battle field tomorrow. Could you place another soul into a vacant skull? My powers are a mixture of elemental magic, melee, and transformation. I hope that one day I can fully depend on my transformation to get the fighting done. I mostly use my whip. And yes, the whip is magical. It can do just about everything but open a portal to another world but it only works for the person it chooses and decides the power behind the lash. Maybe ill gain control over it. Sometimes I feel like the fight is between my whip and the enemy, never myself.”

“…. Why are you looking at it like that, Master Marchosias? Be careful, it might leave a mark.”She learned closer subconsciously, bitting her bottom lip after speaking clear perversion, removing her bite from it soon after so the soft rosy would drain back to her full lips. It was too late before she realized what she said but it was physically impossible to rob the words from his ears and brain. Hopefully he took it all as banter and comic relief. Well she wouldn’t necessarily mind if he took it the accidental seductive/ submissive way it left her mouth .she cleared her throat . “Are you….experienced?”

(Double post. My shame right now--->)

TENTH POST:

Repairs and Refreshments:

After jousting a finger towards Lilith, making her the object of the personal query, Varren and Alika could only sit back as the situation began to unfold. His classmate’s expression remolded itself within an instant, changing from its usual nonchalance into an expression brimming with disgust. He let out a sigh as the girl began to bare her teeth, disagreeing with Fai’s playful jeer. He chose to step in at this point, before the girl put her powers to use. With a playful poke at the lower rim of her hat, he made a kind smile, drawing her attention away from his socially blind friend. ”Sorry. He’s more innocent than me, and he isn’t as versed when it comes to our language~. Just think nothing of it, and have a cup of coffee!” The boys sheer ebullience was able to subside Lilith’s anger, quickly changing the topic to something less personal.

Varren was unable to guess how he had managed to find himself in the middle of the group of interesting people. They ended up orbiting around him, and gave life to an energetic and vibrant conversation. ”Guess I’ve found some good friends.” He thought to himself as more obscenities were thrown at Fai. The boy merely laughed along in the hostility, until a large rifle was suddenly slammed onto his desk. His eyes traced the arm and stopped at the man’s face, which was currently scrunched up into an intimidating expression. He dragged a desk out of the symmetrical formation and slid it in front of Varren’s, then slithered into his seat.

The student demanded that he clean his rifle, threatening him with a concoction which Elena could most likely chug like water. But he refrained from calling the russian, as she had already sauntered her way out of the classroom. A normal reaction would be to break into an angered state, in response to the infinite amount of curses flung at the first year. Instead, he greeted the senior with a smile and nodded in acceptance.

”Okie dokie~! Just give me a moment to get my tools prepare-” Taking in the exterior of the firearm, the boy let out a mixture of a gasp and a squeal excitement. "Woah! Where’d you get this? Is this a Rorsch X1?! They’re pretty rare, since the company which produced them went into an economic decline after the fall of America’s west coast. You must’ve lived there, hm? I’d love to find out how you acquired such a weapon! But asking a senpai gunowner his secrets is taboo!” Raising his toshinmac device over the firearm, the device scanned the railgun, then presented the group with a diagram of its disassembling procedure. While keeping his eyes glued to the hologram, he set down the wrist-device and began to pull an assortment of tools from his satchel.

Within the span of a few minutes, the conglomerate of desks had turned into a makeshift work space. The boy playfully grinned as he went to work on the armament, deconstructing it as the diagrams instructed. ”Uwaaaaaah! Look at the charging and propulsion systems! Ok. Blood. Gotta clean that out.” With determination and unfathomable finesse, the barrel and exterior of the firearm was soon spotless. Disposing of the bloodied tissues and gloves, he scratched his neck and stretched out, letting out a yawn. ”That was pretty cool. Never seen the internal working of a railgun.” As he stood near the front of the classroom, Mr. Fenris sneaked into the classroom, already regretting his decision as soon as he heard Varren’s voice. ”Varren, please. I’m tired. Even though I just had lunch. I swear, I will defenestrate you.”

Varren cocked his head, looking at him quizzically, ”What does that mean? De...fe...nes...trate?” The teacher let out a deep sigh, placing a tentacle on his forehead. ”Eh, even if I get put on leave for this. It’s worth it.” He uttered as a limb shot towards Varren, wrapping itself around his scarf. ”Wait wha-” The boy was yanked like a ragdoll, and ended up being propelled towards the window, only emitting a light yelp. ”But we’re on the fifth floor!” Fenris quickly shot a ligament past the boy at lightning speed, holding the window open, since he didn’t intend to pay collateral for shattered glass. ”Don’t let the pane hit you on the way out.” The boy waved him arms about uncontrollably as he plummeted towards the ground, a white canvas destined to be dyed with red. He closed his eyes, bracing for an impact.

But he suddenly came to a halt, suspended midair by an unseen force. His eyes darted around until he found the one responsible for intervening with his fate. The headmistress was holding the cane towards him, her stern complexion focused on him. ”Ew. It’s a fleshbag. Drop him.” The force levitating his body was ceased, making him fall face first into the snow. ”What was that, the fifth floor? I guess Mr. Fenris has been developing his throwing arm, hm? Well, let’s just leave that there. Oh, I heard that the Women’s Swimming Club has tryouts today! Let’s go check that out.” The boy was left there, still in a frightened daze. He listened to the conversation between them as they walked off, the woman spoke up in a somewhat irritated voice, ”Oh, really? Alright, we’ll be there shortly. Headmaster, it seems Ms. Ek and a few other students have gotten into a tussle. I advise we room them together.” As the faint voices dwindled in the distance, Varren opened his eyes and rose from the whitened ground. Standing in the cold terrain, he looked around as he took in the campus and what it entailed.

Requiem Pt. II:

Date - Unknown:

At a first glance, the campus would be mistaken for a military institution. Albeit the fact that the academy’s purpose was to train students to combat hordes of beasts, it had lost its studious zeal. Soldiers were patrolling the premises in squads, while students rushed between training buildings or to their next class, hoping to avoid the armed militants. ”So… I take it that the Lucisean Alliance stationed some platoons while I was taking a snooze?” Varren asked the cane as a group of soldiers jogged by, lead by a drill sergeant.

”Yeah. We didn’t have much of a say in it. They implored us, and with the aftermath of that attack a few weeks ago, we had no reason to turn them away. They’ve began training platoons with our students, since they will be fighting side by side. As for earthlings, they’re still deciding on their next action. Good thing Luciseans are not held back by legislative bindings, and actually take action.” Taking a leisurely stroll towards the portion of the campus closest to the forest, he blocked the rays of the sun with his free hand. ”Ah, here we are. Remember how many parties you nearly ended up crashing? Pretty sure Elena almost blew up a wall on one of her drunken rampages. Probably thought she was reliving a combat operation.” Coming to a brisk stop, he surveyed the terrain before him. How quickly things had changed in a couple of weeks. The fort had taken a strike which instantly demolished a good portion, it was most likely the first institution to be hit during the raid. Even though the ice had remained in its solids state, with the intervention of the Harmonious First’s chanting and spells. But the inner metallic skeleton had been exposed, left to bare through the summer's heat. Taking a few steps forward, he placed the palm of his hand against an architectural corner piece. He read the plaque which had been drilled into the metal;

IN MEMORIAM OF THE LIVES LOST IN THE DEFECTUM PACEM:

”Latin, eh? Didn’t know you Luciseans were affiliated with that corpse of a language.” He let out a sigh as he leaned forward, slowly rubbing a finger over the golden lettering. ”A teacher recommended it. We’re not gonna forge the list of the deceased until this all blows over. As for the Harmonious First’s fort…” The gemstone trailed off, Varren raised his sight to level with the shambles of a building. With the lack of a plaque listing the deceased students, Varren realized that the academy had fully acknowledged the fact that the number of dead would only increase. This was not the best thing to wake up to. Having everything changed in what seemed like a blink of the eye. He winced and took a few steps back, allowing himself a few minutes of reconciliation as he stared blankly at the ruins. ”...I’m gonna need a cup of coffee. We might as well stop by my class. I bet Mr. Fenris will be happy to see me alive and kicking!” Though he originally intended to proceed to the office, Varren built up the courage to face his classmates. ”Alright…”

Today - 8:00 PM - Day 2:

Training Building #5:

”...Let’s go!” The boy shouted as he followed behind the group of students. Trailing Mr. Fenris as his limbs flopped on the concrete floor, leading them into an open auditorium. The formation applied for every single training building, one out of thirty-six built for what they were named after. At the middle of the open air room was a circular stage, taking up half the diameter of the building. Surrounding it were rows upon rows of seats, employed during tournaments and other events held within these establishments. The students of class 1-Q lined up near the edge of the training area, and were quickly inspected by Mr. Fenris. ”Alright, packed a few magazines! Should be all set.” He thought to himself as his teacher gave a nod, concluding his analysis.

All of the students were accompanied by their respective weapons, and would submit to completing training courses, based upon their classes and armament type. ”Eh, guess we’ll get melee out of the way. Not sure if I want to include Ms. Machina in this group, as she has that ’toy’, if we can even call it that. So that would leave Mr. Thorn-of-Shield, Ms. Cho, and Mr. Marchalos You will all get to beat the living crap out of a few training dummies with your weapons. After you three will be the small arms duo of Yinyues and Mr. Ellison. Then the Strike Witches. Then the magic-based trio of Mr. Sulan, Ms. Ephyrene and Mr. Huanglong. And to wrap things up, we will let Biggy have the stage. Now about those dummies...” As if on cue, slots in the flooring of the stage slid open. Out of them ascended a plethora of training dummies, made out of common wood. There were three separate groupings of the mannequins, for the trio of students, of course. The figures began to move within their own secluded cycles, portraying the movements of a live entity. Mr. Fenris spun around and grinned, ”Well. Have at it. Show me your moves!” The teacher commanded, thrusting out a tentacle. "Oh, and one more thing. Though this may seem as a generally combat-oriented drill, you are surely mistaken. If you need any modifications in the exercise, say... a change in the movements of the dummies, or a different scene to fight under, just ask me. I can alter the secluded areas per student at will. So don't feel doubtful to ask me anything!"

Lilith tipped her cup slightly over an open and fanged mouth, catching the precious last few droplets of the nectarous liquid. It would be a shame if such ambrosia went to waste. For a moment, she began to wonder about the source of said blood. It was far too sweet to be a rodent's, perhaps something larger, or at least something with a better diet... The thought trailed off into the void. Setting the cup down on her desk with a clink, she closed her eyes as a pleasant rush of vitality coursed through her head for a few seconds.

She opened her eyes in time to see one of the one of the girls she spotted yesterday, who had flown in with strange bulky objects attached to their legs. This one had curious, feathery alabaster tufts sprouting out of a head of matching hair, and appeared to have a similar fluffy tail. The girl clearly was not entirely human, unlike the majority of the students from Earth. Observing the avianlike traits, she found that it brought back images of the lovely griffons from the other day. Reaching back into the memory of the student introductions from a few hours ago, she recalled the name "Alika", or so she hoped it was that. The girl sat across from Varren, setting down a tray of foreign-looking, and frankly greasy-looking food with her.

It wasn't long until an ebony-haired boy approached Varren, an excitable look to him as he began to speak in a tongue unknown to Lilith. Judging by the befuddled expression on the scarfed boy's face, Varren wasn't having much luck either. She remembered his introduction: the boy was another Earthling, from a place called 'China'. Must be another one of Earth's nationalities.The two boys began to engage in casual conversation for some time, and Lilith silently listened along. The fellow first year sounded like one of those intelligent, formal, polite types, judging by his wordiness of speech. Unfortunately, she would not uphold that exact perception of the boy after the day had passed.

Varren began to introduce each one of the three to one another in a single breath. Lilith bashfully smiled slightly at the comment about her headwear, adjusting said hat slightly.
"Pleasure to meet you," 'Fai' bowed at her slightly after she was introduced to him in a rather amusing manner.
She responded with a nod. "Nice to meet you as well, Fai."
The boy greeted Alika as well, but with a knowing smile. Apparently, the two had already met earlier, in an encounter involving some rather terrible 'jokes.'

"You! What are the measurements of your bust, waist, and hips?"
Lilith flinched at the sudden distasteful inquiry coming from the Asian boy's mouth. "Rude.." she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes with a frown. The boy seemed to have a rather tasteless sense of humor, considering he had apparently asked Alika the same thing yesterday. Whoever that previous statement was directed toward, she hoped that they would not hear it, or she was sure some unnecessary mayhem would ensue.

"That is not something you sh- " Eyes trailing down the finger he pointed, the realization dawned upon her that the disgraceful remark was, in fact, directed toward herself. It was only a few times in her meaninglessly long life had she ever had to deal with crude words like that, let alone from someone she had scarcely expected anything of the sort from. Her normally stoic expression now appeared to be hastily plastered on, and badly too; as she locked her gaze with the offender's, her eyes burning to an unsettlingly more vibrant sanguine shade of red. She understood that it was only just the boy's rather poor attempt at being humorous, but it didn't help fan the flames of indignation she felt from its offensive nature. Gritting her teeth, or say; fangs, "You are not funny." she uttered in a calm voice, keeping her tone at a decently low level. After all, she would not want to be...rude, would she?

~~~~~~~
The next day, Lilith found herself walking along with a crowd of students as they approached the training grounds. Feeling rather apprehensive, she fidgeted with her hands as they reached the area and stopped walking. She took in the sight of the vast, open room with a stage in its center, and the wide expanse of seats surrounding the area. It vaguely reminded her of the arenas and coliseums she had read of that war-loving creatures would play in. As she lined up in an orderly fashion, she began to listen carefully to the tentacled teacher's commands. She would be part of the second-to-last group to preform. Good, plenty of time to observe the other students, and not be pressured to go first. Looking up at the center of the room, she noticed the floorboards of the stage slide open to push up wooden figures to the surface. The dummies seemed rather lifelike despite being made of wood, as they began to move about in an unsettlingly realistic patterns.

Gulping, nervousness crawled up her throat, imagining how embarrassing it would be if she were to mess up somehow in the first training procedure of the year. Being judged - and to preform in front of others - was not her most favored thing to do. Anxious to get her turn over with, she tapped a foot as she stood and watched the first group go first. She was glad she felt mostly awake and perky today - it wouldn't be too difficult to tap into her magical abilities. Although, one extremely random and morbid question popped up in her head. Exactly how many people have died around here? She couldn't help but feel curious about it. The more, the merrier.. well, actually no...

/(double post D: )

Ralthavar Marchosias

---

Laughing softly Ralthavar played with Mishka a little as Ayaka spoke more about him. Though she claims that he isn't magical, Ralthavar was certain he was feeling a certain energy radiate from the fox. Certainly not normal as far as Ralthavar could tell. Whether or not there was more to it, he'd have to wait and see. As Ralthavar occupied the fox Ayaka complimented his dedication to class and had questions about his staff. He didn't say much about his schooling; he though it was normal to keep notes. He suspects that once he gets into the swing of things, he'd write less and less down. "Unfortunately, the skull must belong to a spellcaster for me to gain their magic from it. Though I can bind souls to objects, it requires another ritual to gain their powers that way. It's hard to explain, but... In a sense, by taking a magical user's skull, I can "Short Cut" most of the ritual and simply use the skull as the source of power. To bind spirits to a new skull would mean that I need to bind not only the object, but also the spirit to the object, since the spirit would not naturally reside in any skull but it's own. Not to say that it's impossible. But taking the heads of mages is easier than trying to pull their souls from the afterlife."

Ralthavar continued to listen as Ayaka explain her powers and abilities further. She was a magical shapeshifter it seemed. He has heard tales of druids back at his home land who could turn into powerful beast while still retaining their spellcasting. He was somewhat certain he had a few orcs under his command that can do exactly that. Ralthavar would have to figure out the details and see if Ayaka would be willing to learn from his orcs. While they weren't masters, perhaps together they could learn something. Ayaka also mentioned that her whip was magical, and short of creating portals, it could do anything. That certainly interested Ralthavar. He wanted to learn the enchantment behind it and see if he could put one on his own weapons someday. It would certainly be something worthy looking into. Though from what Ayaka mentioned, it was a temperamental enchantment. He would really need to look into it further, in that case.

There was another thing for him to look at too. Ayaka leaned in, revealing her cleavage to Ralthavar. He did not stare directly, however he could see just from the corners of his eyes the detail and unblemished perfection of Ayaka's bosom. Indeed, she was quite a woman. Ayaka even warned Ralthavar of how he looks at her, worried that she would leave her mark on him. The orc merely smiled. "And where would you touch first?" Ayaka pulled back just as he did as he stole a quick bite from his plate. She bashfully asked for his experienced, to which he remarked: "Educated, my dear. But I'm always eager to put it to practice. Perhaps later you and I should go somewhere... And I can show you my technique."

However before it could really go much further, lunch was over and all the students were called to class. Ralthavar packed the rest of his lunch into a bag for later and got up. He winked at Ayaka and said good bye to Elena and Mishka. He lightly tapped the end of his staff that was hanging off the edge of the table, where it shot out towards him. He caught it with the same hand he used to knock it up and sauntered off to class.

-Later-

Ralthavar walked with dull amazement as the various wooden targets popped out. It would be him, the crystaloid creature Ier, and Ayaka first. Each had their own group of training dummies to demonstrate their melee abilities with. Suited him just fine he supposed. It's been a while since he was able to take out his axe, and he certainly felt like showing off a bit. On the teachers command Ralthavar threw himself into the mass of moving targets.

Now granted, Ralthavar wasn't much of a duelist. When he fought against others, he often did so as a group. Even if he was expected to fight alone, he was more experienced at taking down monsters than human sized targets. Not to so say that he lacked the competency to fight on his own. He just had an odd way of going about it. First, he launched himself to the location where he was certain most of the dummies would converge onto him, as though they would "Attack" him. What did than wasn't so much as striking back as much as he did intercept them. He dodged and weaved, leaving his axe behind in his place, resulting in many of the dummies moving towards their demise. He cleaved and decapitated various targets without even throwing one attack. Once the dummies started to move in such a way that implied they were avoiding him, he cut off their escape. In addition to his axe, Ralthavar carried a few double-ended spears. He threw one of them which actually overshot a line of dummies. But that was because he was threw his spear in such a way that it dug into the ground in front of the dummy, which than ran into the spear, as did the next few. By the time the dummies would realize (If they could) that they were running into a trap, Ralthavar was already on them, slashing them down with the flat of his axe.

There was some more targets for Ralthavar to hunt down, but he was going to need a bit of an edge to get them all efficiently. That's when he took out his staff and began to cast a Enchantment on himself. When his spell was complete his body was thrown forward towards a small cluster of the dummies, who managed to avoid him. What they didn't manage was to escape his threat range as he grew to three times his size, standing at around twenty feet tall. His weapons and clothing grew with him, not only granting him the strength of a giant his size, but also a massive reach. He only needed one cleave this time to eliminate the rest of his targets, and this time he actually used the blade of his axe. When his attack was finished he had cut a large groove into the ground behind him. Sheathing his weapon Ralthavar returned to his normal size and stood in line with the other students.

His stroll through the Training Grounds was about on par for what he expected. He greeted a few lower years who were in the halls like he was, stepped into a few buildings in use to look in on others’ training, and spoke with one of the staff members, Mr. Seor, that was in charge of the Grounds. Before he could leave though, the man called for him. Turning at his name, he paid attention as the teacher explained that apparently one of the fourth year teachers wanted a few fifth years to put on a demonstration for his class when they came in. Given he had stayed the lunch period on his own accord, the man figured Raule wouldn’t mind too much. “If you can get me out of the class I have at the time, then certainly,” he answered with a grin.
"Sorry Raule, but Dr. Li's bringing them down at 8 today."
“Tsk.” A small scowl formed before he cleared his expression and shrugged, “Sure, I wouldn’t mind I guess.”
“You just wait around at arena four around 19:55 then. I’ll let you know when everything’s good to go. And don’t bother with your weapons, I don’t need you to actually wreck the dummies. You’ll be fine as is.”

Well, it was good to hear that he wouldn’t have to go back to his room to grab his equipment. Given his fighting style, he didn’t carry the metal gauntlets and greaves around him on a daily basis. While he couldn’t say they were uncomfortable, Raule nevertheless prefered to walk around without them if he could. With a nod, he left Mr. Seor to his own business and left the Training Grounds. Lunch period was almost over and he still had classes, none that he’d manage to slip out of sadly enough, afterwards.
________________________
As he entered the arena, it wasn’t a surprise to find it empty. He had come a bit earlier than Mr. Seor had told him to, figuring it would be for the best if Dr. Li was a teacher that took his timings seriously. Sighing, he strode up to the actual ring and took a seat on the edge as he waited for the “audience” to show up and get seated so the show could get on the road. He still had no idea if Mr. Seor had found any other fifth years to participate, but hopefully he had or the demonstration would be rather short or boring.

Ayaka cracked a smile at Ralthavar’s explanation of relationships between skulls and mages. Taking heads was normally too gruesome for people outside of places like these but the charismatic women found joy in it…perhaps it was their expression or how some corpses would twitch like a newly decapitated chicken until their blood ran dry.

The couple delved into her own powers. Ayaka believed her explanations were more than confusing and disconnected, and awaited an answer she thought would find her the most socially awkward person on Earth. However, Ralth’s witty comeback to the kinky tongue she spoke in threw a shiver or two down her spine and a surprised light in woman’s narrowed eyes. He was taunting her, throwing her normally chill persona off guard. Her heart pounded a few times against her chest’s door- oh, how she wished she could test his own techniques, right here and right now ~. Ayaka didn’t have to reply because the answer was clear in eyes, dark smile, and relaxed posture as the orc left the table. Her gaze burned into his back until he’d completely depart from the lunchroom.

Ayaka stood, facing Elena with a cheery, innocent-school girl type look as if nothing occurred between herself and the orc, waving. “Nice meeting you, Elena, see you in class!” She cheered as her fox attempted to snatch a taco free from the sharklike girl. Ayaka swiftly swept up the animal in her arms before it could as much as soil Elena’s plate.

~In class

Ayaka walked into the training room during a heated discussion with her animal whilst the teacher explained the situation. She had a talent for being able to listen to two things at once, although it was already obvious why the class was stationed here with a mass of dummies getting ready to be fired up. Listen, animal… She placed a hand on her forehead, swiping some sweat away. She sighed- Jeez, It was hot in here and the place smelled stale. Your powers aren't effective against non-living things. So sit there and act like a normal fox. Before her pet could as much as say a word, The class trio was sent off to a wave of enemies.
The kitsune shot forward, squeezing a woosh out of the air . She released her whip from its confinements and positioning slightly behind her at her waist. “Lend me your power.” She whispered as the whip nearly tripled in length a split second before she charged into the first line of 10 dummies. She flew past them, only just an inch from their wooden sides.. At the end of the line, her whip made contact with all of them at the chest. The attack was silent and much too swift for many eyes to follow- one would even wonder if the girl even left a mark. There was a slight delay before her enemies snapped in half. One dummy’s separated body would have small flames burning at the cut.

There were a few more who came for her at her sides but she dismantled them without much trouble, although her weapon did need two tries to significantly injure one.

A single dummy rushed up behind the girl. Her hearing was much too animalistic to miss the sound of the dummy. Ayaka leap, just high enough for her rugged boots to connect with her enemy’s shoulders, gaining enough height to come raining down on the dummy behind it, skillfully breaking through the neck with her foot. The dummy before that could not escape its certain doom- it was decapitated as well when her whip had coiled around the neck, pulled by the woman as she jumped from it.

The girl completed her attack around the same time Ralth had, Lunch’s “incidents” still fresh in her brain. She fell in by his side as they departed the stage. She mumbled- her words were for only his ears. “Touching? Perhaps a place that would leave you as disoriented as those dummies back there.” She mentioned casually before reuniting with the rest of their class.

“Mr.Fenris, may we have some feedback?” She questioned whilst standing a foot away from varren. "Maybe today's fighting will aid you against that automatic door tomorrow." She politely teased, bringing back the moment the door had tried crushing the boy.

Class 4-Q
When 8:00 PM rolled around, Dr. Li led the fourth years student to a training building. Before leaving the classroom, he had explained their destination and purpose: "You all will be observing the fifth years this evening. It should give you an idea of what to strive for during the year," he had explained. "And you might have the chance to get involved and learn from the fifth years directly." Now that they were approaching the training grounds, he took a moment to take a silent headcount, making sure none of the students had slipped off during the walk. He gaze paused on Arkyiel, Dagny, and Joseph pointedly.

"Alright. Enter and find a seat. Quiet when Mr. Seor or I speak, and don't antagonize the fifth years." His blue eyes fell on the three troublemakers again before opening the doors to allow the students to file in. When Dr. Li joined the students inside, he stood to the side with his arms crossed. Although he had been rather content today, a frown tensed his lips as he looked around at the arena.

---

Class 2-H
Mr. J led his class of second years to Training Building #5, coffee thermos in hand of course. On the way, his mouth was running about a mile a minute about the school and its history and his personal history with the school (though also outside of school). When they finally arrived he abruptly stopped and faced the students, reminding them why they were here for about the third time. "Remember, you are here to observe the first years. Try not to laugh too much and keep in mind that you're all still learning, as well." He nodded toward the door and allowed the students to walk in, taking their seats on the sidelines where they would watch all the commotion between the first years and their dummies.

An open-air arena, was it? It would be a nice break from all those theoretical classes during the day, at least. He didn’t need sleep, but listening to teachers drag on and on about a subject that one could study in the textbook WAS rather boring. Lunch and break were similarly pointless, just wastes of time that he spent exploring the grounds of the academy. And while the school uniform wasn’t uncomfortable by any means, Ier-Briar was still more comfortable with the familiar weight of his armor resting on him. There were 36 training buildings in total, and they had entered the 5th one. Drifting in the air, he could hear the thunk of metal against wood from other buildings, as students proved their mettle to their instructors. The snow that had fallen yesterday was swept away now, leaving only a concrete floor for the exercise.

Called up to the training field as one of the three in the ‘melee group’, the gemstone shrugged as he grasped his spear, following behind the other two as the tentacle fleshbag teacher went on about the specifics of the exercise. Wooden dummies spilled out next, and Ier-Briar restrained a sigh. Wood. Against a gemstone. Really?

As the orc and the horny fleshbag did their thing, showing off their magical abilities and weapon skills, the gemstone just stood there, his face expressionless. Without reaction, he allowed the wooden dummies to go ham on him, those pitifully dolls smacking him futilely, attempting to get a reaction out of the six year old. There was no reaction, and he called out tonelessly, “Mr. Fenris, mind raising the difficulty level?”

In an instant, the strength of the dummies increased, and they began to alternate their attacks, as if trying to find a weak point in the gemstone’s dull-gold armor. There was none for them to exploit, and they still weren’t strong enough to make him DO anything. “If you mind, Mr. Fenris?”

Finally, the blows were starting to become something that he would notice on a regular basis, and they were actively going for combination attacks now, striking the same spot at the same time. Some of the dummies were even launched into the air, spinning downwards to land an axe kick on the gemstone’s head. The doll that did that promptly had its foot broken off from the impact. Not very smart, were they? This exercise was a tad bit pointless now, and on the next synchronized attack by the dummies, Ier-Briar expanded his thorns and skewered them all, their own momentum becoming the instrument of their doom.

With a few pieces of wood still stuck to him, he walked out of the training space wordlessly. So far, the only thing in the Academy of Arcane Artes that wasn’t a disappointment was the headmaster. Hopefully something more simulating would come past soon…

Precision and Accuracy:

Once the last melee fighter finished with their exhibition, the teacher applauded, grinning while congratulating his pupils. "Good job you three. Well, if you truly want some Ayaka, I guess I would advise not letting your mind wander whilst in combat. And Ralth, very good trapping skills. Beautiful weapon play. But... don't rely on chants too much. They drain a tad too much energy. Ier. Keep up the good work." Ushering the student back into their seats, he spun around and faced both Varren and Jeremiah, "Looks like you are up next, boys. Any battle requirements needed?" Varren shook his head, though he was about to go into depth concerning the dummies' prerequisites, a fellow classmate spoke to him.

"Maybe today's fighting will aid you against that automatic door tomorrow." The boy rubbed a hand behind his neck, putting on an embarrassed white grin, "That door is a whole other ballpark. It fights on different terms than the monsters we'll be fighting." He glanced over to Jeremiah, wondering if the boy had any special needs of his own.

"Nope I don't need anything special" Jeremiah said smiling to the teacher. "I am ready to start whenever Varren is." He looked over at the man he would be fighting with.

With a quick nod, Varren took the lead and paced onto the stage first, slipping on his glasses as he held the K30 close to his chest. The three groupings of dummies diminished into two, with the middle pack collapsing into opened slots. After the figurines were completely absorbed into the stage, the flooring closed, leaving two circles of training dummies. He glanced back at the trio he befriended yesterday and gave a thumbs up with his free hand. "Wish me luck~!" He chirped to his friends before returning his attention to the adversaries before him. The boy cocked his rifle, he shoved the magazine into the loading port then pulled back on the charging bolt, chambering the gun. He peered down at the sidearm resting in his pocket, double checking if it was loaded. Yinyues made a gesture of confirmation, though his eyes were slowly drawn to the rows of seats, he realized they had a few attendees watching them. One called out to Jeremiah, waving her hand accompanied by a greeting smile, stretched ear to ear.

"Guess you have some people to cheer you on, Jeremiah? Nice~ Well, good lu-"

The boy was cut off mid-sentence, abruptly broadsided by an unhesitating dummy. The boy was folded over its waist, as it dragged his limp body. Varren appeared surprised, to say the least.

Jeremiah smiled up to the stands it took him a moment to realize the training match had begun. He saw as Varren was attacked by one of the dummies, before he could rush to help another one came for him. "Guess they got tired of waiting, huh? Kasha said from her perch on his shoulder. Jeremiah simply nodded feeling the magic take shape in his gun he fired into the dummy.

After lugging the student as heavy as paper, the dummy came to a sudden halt. Even though it only stood on one peg, it still had uncomprehendable footing. Varren still carried momentum and flew a few feet before sliding onto the ground. He groaned out of pain, propping himself with his gun as he tried to focus his now blurred vision. Mr. Fenris was chuckling maliciously, but quickly realized what he was doing and turned to face the seated students. The octopod was met with awkward looks, "What? He deserves it. Why are you all looking at me like I'm the villain."

"Because you are the villain!"

He waved a tentacle, dismissing any accusations of the sort, "I'm sorry my dear pupil, but that's a plot twist for another time. Now dodge this!" Varren remembered he was in the middle of combat and reacquired his target. He wrapped his hands around the rifle as the dummy took a blatant charge. The student sidestepped the figure, raising his the silenced weapon to head level before firing a round into its head. The wooden mannequin collapsed to the floor, the boy's ebullience was quickly replaced by a stern mien. He rapidly raised the K30 and eased the firing mode into its 12 o'clock position.

Looking through his glasses with a built-in display, the computer system instantly calculated the elevation and range. He squeezed the trigger, and out flew a trio of grenades. His sights were trained on the formation roughly ten meters away. Two detonated on impact near the back of the formation, meanwhile the closest one blew up in the middle, enveloping a third of the dummies in trio of explosions. Another one attempt an assault, Varren released his primary and grabbed the White Wolf, bringing it up to the dummy's chest. He dumped the whole clip into the wooden exterior, then proceeded to eviscerate the remaining targets with volleys of bullets.

"Wow he must make you feel pathetic" Kasha laughed as she watched Varren obliterate the dummies surrounding him. "No" Jeremiah said ducking a blow and shooting repeatedly into the dummies arms "it just shows me I have to try harder".
He looked on as another dummy rushed him, he smiled as he hopped over it and fired into the top of its head. Jeremiah looked around for his next target finding it looking in Varren's direction he jumped on its back and dragged it to the ground. He shot twice into the dummy before seeing others closing in on him.

Saving Varren the hassle of dealing with the enemy before him, he diverted his attention to a duo of dummies heading straight for them, each with their own target. Jeremiah was in the middle of dealing with another one, Yinyues took the chance and dealt with both rushers. The two students finished off the last of their respective enemies, though their endurance was definitely lacking. Though Varren showed no malice to hiding it, as he collapsed onto his rear within a moment, inhaling and exhaling briskly. "I don't want to get uuuuuuuup. Uwaaaaaah." He complained as he finally got onto his own two feet, with a slumped back he proceeded off the stage. "Alright. Nice job you two. Next up are the Strike Witches. Then Mr. Huanlong, Ms. Ephyrene and Mr. Sulan. I'll edit the dummy's thought processing if need be." The boy plopped himself onto a bench, still catching his breath. The two aviators devastated the dummies in the blink of an eye. All Varren could perceive from his view point were a lot of explosions and patches of fire. Once the three magic-based students were called up, he glanced at Lilith and Fai, "Good luck, you two."

Raule was busy lounging around on the stage, legs swinging about idly, when Mr. Seor walked in from one of the many entrances. “Good to see you’re here early, not sure if any of the others plan on coming though, but I got a few maybes.” Nodding at that, Raule turned his eyes towards the stands where the fourth years fell in behind their teacher.

Clearing his throat, a sound that somehow filled the open aired arena, Mr. Seor turned to address their “audience”. “Good evening fourth years. I’m sure a few of you are wondering exactly why you have been called down at this late hour to watch fifth years give demonstrations. No doubt some of you are thinking, ‘How big of a difference could one year make?’ Well, a question then. When do you think most of the Academy’s students drop out?” He paused as he looked at the gathered fourth years, not expecting an answer, before he continued. “It is near the end of the fourth year surprisingly. While you may have taken various missions starting from your third year to ease yourselves into the expectations Gatekeepers are held to, I would warrant very few of you have actually ventured into Labyrinths as of yet. Perhaps you have dealt with the monsters that have been spawned in one’s vicinity, but if you think that prepares you for the challenge of clearing one I would suggest you throw those assumptions away. However, by the end of this year you will all be expected to step foot into one of these mysterious and dangerous zones. Some of you may not survive, while others may not be able to rise up to the challenge. Those that do complete it successfully will move on to their fifth year, like this man over here.” Raule raised a hand in a small wave when Mr. Seor mentioned him, but otherwise did nothing. “Tonight he will be putting on a small demonstration of what can be expected of a fifth year in the Academy.”

With that, Raule finally stood up and turned his back onto the fourth years as he stepped out into the middle of the stage. Mechanical hisses could be heard as segments of the floor shifted and moved, before his opponents for tonight rose up. Not the fragile wooden things that first and second years sparred with, these were fully equipped combat droids. Often sent ahead of actual Gatekeepers into Labyrinths, they were quite capable of clearing aside weaker monsters found closer to the surface, and were considered to be invaluable for supplementing numbers in the outposts. It seemed that Mr. Seor didn’t intend to hold back as surrounding Raule at the moment were 10 of the droids, and the vibrations underneath his feet told him there were more being readied if need be. With a deep breath he shifted his stance, spreading his feet wider, lowering his body, and nodded.

“Begin.” At Mr. Seor’s word, the droids came to life. A few reconfigured their hands into blades, others rushed towards Raule as they were, and about half hung back as their hands shifted into guns which began to spin up. Raule on the other hand exhaled slowly as a white glow spread across his entire body, originating from his chest. While he didn’t quite cause a sonic boom when he moved, he did manage to shatter the arena floor underneath him, cracks spreading across the surface. To the droid’s credit, even as Raule rocketed towards it, it managed to halt its advance and shift into a defensive stance. The overhead guard managed to hold against Raule’s axe kick, but the droid was unable to react when Raule grabbed its arm, ripped it from the ground, and hurled it towards the others like a projectile. Then he turned to deal with the others, but had to leap to the side as the spot he had previously stood was torn up by automatic fire.

The demonstration continued for a while before Mr. Seor finally called it off. It wasn’t that the droids weren’t useful, but against Raule they ran into the same issues as the stronger Labyrinth monsters. They could absorb an insane amount of punishment, so much that Raule had to pull out all the stops if he exactly wanted to break them apart, but their offensives capabilities fell far short in comparison. Their armaments were often too weak to hurt the larger monsters, or the more humanoid creatures, like Raule, simply moved too fast. He weaved in between their numbers, threw them around, before hopping away as the roar of gunfire trailed after him.

The droids picked themselves up, marched back to their starting positions, and powered down. Raule on the other hand sighed and let the white glow fade away, glancing down at himself with an annoyed expression. He’d probably need to visit the school store to pick up another set of clothes after this. While he wasn’t actually injured, beyond the superficial pain from the blows and bullets he hadn’t managed to dodge, his clothes hadn’t come out undamaged. It still held up fine, so it wasn’t like he was indecent, but he couldn’t imagine any teachers allowing him to come to class wearing something in that condition.

A Truly Long Winter
Location: Unknown
Time/Date: Unknown/Unknown
Team: The Yellow Dragon Walks Alone

The snow crunched beneath his feet with every step towards the fallen hovercopter, the first of three. He had made quick work out of the first, and then taken both the second and third with one blow. Two birds with one stone, just like the idiom. He supposed he should've been proud of his display of power, that was what he came to... that place, to demonstrate, was it not? But he felt nothing but the numbness of the cold and a hollow in his heart. Even an honourless dog like himself wouldn't celebrate the death of his close friends...

....No. They weren't his friends. Not anymore. He'd gathered his memories of them and thrown them aside the moment he left, just as he had done with his honor. He had to forget their warmth, their smiles... They were only distractions.

...The air felt just a little bit colder then...

His Surveillance Field informed him that he was nearing the crash site, and though he didn't know it, the assailant steeled his heart and mind just a bit more. But what he saw wasn't honoured dead, waiting to be buried, but rather...

"Y-You!"

His throat went dry, and his body was heavy like lead. He couldn't find the words, and he couldn't move a muscle. For before him...

A commando stared.

"What a relief! We-We all thought you were d..." the commando began to speak, before a realization began setting in, "W-Wait... Did you... Did you do this?"

The enemy was silent as he slowly stepped forward.

"Fai... Did. You. Do. This?"

"I-I never wished for it to end like this..."

"Don't get any closer!"

"But if this is the price that must be paid..."

"FAI!

The commando reached for a firearm, a fire burning in those weary eyes. And with a renewed vigor, the commando raised his weapon at his enemy. Taking one last glance at his friends, who were only beginning to stir now. He returned his attention to what used to be a member of such a group. The grip around the M93B tightened even more.

"...Please forgive me, Varren Yinyues."

The air shimmered with mana as the Failure of the Huanglong hardened his heart once more and assumed his stance.

---

Shen Huanglong
Today Was A (Huang)Long Day

---

Shen's muscles tensed in anticipation, stance low and firm. This was it. This was the first true test on his path, one that would test both his skill and resolve to succeed. He'd saved his energy throughout the entire day and ate a nutritious lunch to maximize how large his reserves would be for this trial. He wouldn't - no, couldn't allow himself to fail now. He had to measure up to the likes of those who'd fought before him. His peers were all so brilliant, so noble and powerful, like bolts of lightning from the heavens. If he wasn't like that... He didn't deserve to be here in the first place.

"I am ready," he indicated with a nod, after a few deep, meditative inhales and exhales to calm his tumultous mind. He didn't remove his eyes from the wooden training dummies. Stationary. Staring. They'd start moving at any time. He had to be ready...

'There'.

The moment the wooden targets began to move, the Chinese mage was there to meet them with his magically enhanced legs. Using the left over duration of the enhancement to roundhouse a target away, he used the remaining momentum to plant his foot on the ground and go for a roundhouse heel kick. With a swift exhale and a surge of mana, the Asian slammed his flaming heel into another dummy. He pivoted on his foot and thrust his fist out, shooting a stream of flame at a congregation of dummies coming from his back - now his front. He pivoted again to face some of the other targets. A flurry of blows coming straight out of a Wuxia movie followed, fire flying from the crowd surrounding the young Asian.

'Yes! I can do this1' Shen thought proudly as he push-kicked a dummy away, slammed his kicking foot on the ground, and pushed off it to throw an enhanced punch straight at its wooden face. However...

"GYAH!"

A burning dummy slammed into Shen's back leg, knocking the Asian off balance and causing him to stumble... Where he was hit by another dummy... And another... And another... And another... And another..

The Asian was completely surrounded by flaming mannequins, each wailing into him one after the other. There was no room for retaliation. He couldn't use his Wu Ji Long Quan with all these obstructions so close, so all encompassing. Shen turtled up on the ground. The smoke and heat from all the burning wood was getting to him.

But he wouldn't cry out for help. He'd have to take it. Take it all and wait for a chance to get out of this mess...!

Suddenly, they all stopped.

Shen kept in his turtle position, until he finally realized that he was safe. Did he... Fail? The Asian slowly and tentatively got up. A path had been cleared for him, allowing him to exit the crowd of flaming dolls. Shen hobbled out of the crowd, using the remainder of his mana reserves to issue some healing magic on himself. If he failed, he didn't want to have to feel it in the morning.

Suddenly, a loud crash.

Shen looked behind him.

...Oh. So now they fell apart. Today just wasn't his day, was it?

(I’ll post an appearance for the creatures tomorrow morning. The second half was written in a tired state, sorry. For those of you who have yet to post pertaining to the training, do not fret. Just include that in part of your post.)
Life of Sin Pt. I

Day 3 - 7:40 AM:



Mr. Fenris tapped away at his console, his beady eyes glued to the luminous screen. The teacher had his usual grin stretched on his face, a complexure which could almost be mistaken for malicious intent. But on the contrary, the man was only doing what he had been tasked with. Nothing more, nothing less. It did indeed appear he was completely absorbed in his duties, but in actuality, the octopod was mentally preparing himself for the day to come. It was only the second day of classes, out of the entire school years. Another nine, agonizing, insufferable, unbearably painful months awaited the adult. He was fine with a majority of the class, hell, even the alcohol chugging russian was manageable. But there was one student, who he completely loathed, beyond the boundaries which teachers aren’t allowed to cross. A lone student which would bring upon him agony and strain, to the point where he himself would want to leap out of the window. Somehow, the kid survived a five-story fall, completely unscathed. It was obvious that the person who had sent him a document this morning had meddled in it, and saved the boy from becoming a splotch in the earth. Fenris glanced down from his monitor at the hard-copy, a thin stack of papers stapled together, with the academy symbol printed on it. The headmaster had his wife print it out for the teacher earlier this morning, and plopped such an assignment on him without a moment’s notice. The HM also designated one of the students as the auditor of what the document entailed, and would present its contents to the gathered students. But, why? Why was it him, of all people? Even though he wanted to deny it, Mr. Fenris was already fully aware of his boss’ decision.

”Good morning, sensei~!” A student cooed as he leaped through the automatic door frame, having learned from yesterday’s account with the device. After greeting his teacher, the boy pranced over to his seat and set his messenger bag next to it, though his primary wasn’t present. Fenris held back the swelling impulse to throw the student out the window a second time. But knowing his luck, the boy would magically sprout wings and just float away, drinking coffee as he did air tricks in front of the classroom’s view. Varren spun around on the ball of his heel to face his teacher, and let out an unrestrained yawn, cuffing his mouth as miniscule tears formed at the corner of his eyes. With a quick brush of the ocular secretion, he didn’t stop himself from getting straight to the point. ”Okie dokie. So, Mr. Fenris, why was I called out this early in the morning? It’s so eaaaaaaaarly~”

Complaints upon complaints upon complaints were all that left his mouth. The teacher would need to tolerate his incessant inquiries for only a little longer.
”Well, Yinyues. Even though it is only the third day of school, the headmaster found it somewhere in his crystalline heart, to discard an assignment onto us. The operation won’t start for another four or five days, but you have to page through it. I hate to admit it, but I can see why the headmaster chose you to present it to the selected students?” Varren cocked his head with a raised eyebrow, tensing up as a stapled document was shoved into his arms. It had been a while since the boy had read through physical paper, since holographic technology was economically and conservatively more efficient. A list of included students were on the cover page.


Before he slipped a finger to separate the crease in the parchment, he glanced up at his mentor. ”Well, since you already know… Do you mind enlightening me as to why I was chosen?” He set the assignment down on his desk, keeping eye contact with Fenris.

”Compared to the rest of the students in this class, you have made the most social strives. You aren’t as intimidated as your classmates by your seniors. Might I recall yesterday, when Mr. Conrad abruptly strolled into this classroom? He started tossing insinuations and even threatened you with alcohol. I don’t even want to fathom how jittery you would be on such a toxin.” The teacher paused, letting out a sigh as he subsided his usual antagonistic mentality. ”But instead of faltering in fear, you just brushed off whatever he said, and willfully helped him out. I guess that’s what the headmaster is looking for. People to calm others down. If I had given this document to anybody else, they would probably be devoured by uneasiness, or read it in a boring monotone voice. But if I give it to somebody like you, the manner you would read it in… would keep the listener entertained. To say the least. Chances are, they were be stuck between debating over if you’re actually serious, or how bubbly you could make such a thing sound.”

Varren took a few moments to surmount a reaction, only letting out a nod of acknowledgement. ”Interesting. I can’t say I’m not surprised. I never was the social one, in all honesty. I could have a knack for it, but I’ve never expressed it up until now. Probably because I filled a majority of my time with work concerning research and the business, rather than making relations with others. But, since I’m away from the company, I have some free time. I have to spend it productively somehow.” The boy made a slight shrug with his shoulders, making a callous grin as he made his way for the door. ”I’ll be back in twenty minutes. Everybody should arrive by then. I have a delivery.” With a quick wave, the boy departed from the classroom, almost as briskly as he entered. The teacher crooned his neck, watching as the student’s foot disappeared from past the frame. He elevated his eye, but soon returned to preparing for the students to arrive.

Day 3 - 8:05 AM:
A message was sent out to all listed students to arrive at Class 1-Q’s room by 8 AM, as an assignment was awaiting them.

And of course, he was running late. Such a tardy individuals was to present this class’ first assignment? How preposterous, it would be logical that a renowned businessman such as Varren would know how crucial arriving on time was. Fenris muttered a few curses under his breath, then looked up at the students before him. Given 1-Q’s head count in correlation to the amount of provided seats, only half of the desks were filled every year. This gave students enough spacing between each other, but also offered refuge to those who were visiting. The man wrapped a few limbs around his stand, and squeezed tightly, keeping his rage stowed away from the students. ”Good morning students. You have all been gathered here today, since each of you have been selected for a certain assignment. To those of you who are returning students, this should be a walk in the park. Even though it is a mission which extreme caution must be exercised, it will also be a learning experience for my pupils. Now, the specifics of this task will be expanded shor-” The teacher was cut off, as soon as an entrance to the left of the automatic door had opened. In place of the hole Biggy smashed through yesterday was a metallic door, custom built just to let in the massive robot. A student’s playful humming could be heard from the hallway’s side of the door, and rose in volume as he entered the classroom. The boy had a firearm slung over his shoulder, with a longer barrel and heavier caliber compared to the K30 from yesterday. In his hand was a plastic cup, its contents were obvious as he took a chug of the beverage. Good morni-”

BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL DETECTED. FORCE-CLOSING DOORWAY.”

The boy yelped as the heavy metal doors clanking resounded when they slammed together, almost catching the student in their wake. He looked behind him, double-checking to see whether his rear was still intact. After confirming that it was indeed still attached to his body, he set down his coffee on the podium. He looked over to his desk, yet the assignment wasn’t resting on it. Suddenly, the teacher struck him lightly with the rolled up paper on the back of his neck, then handed him the document, ”Don’t be late, next time.”. He rested his arms on the podium as he paged through the literature, before flipping back to the first page.

”Anways… Before I was nearly killed a second time by a door… Good morning, fellow students! I’m Varren Yinyues~” Varren chirped as he set his eyes on the first page, ”Now, we have all been selected for a very important task! We have all been assigned to clear out a labyrinth which has formed nearby. Though it isn’t that high of a level, all students are advised to exercise caution. To sum it up, we’re going to be exterminators. From what the academy scouts have gathered, the beings which reside within this labyrinth operate off a hive infrastructure, and pose a threat if given enough time to expand their horizons. Our task is simple enough; Clear our way through the hive, find the queen, and slay her. Or it could be a drag queen. Who knows?” He took another sip of the beverage before proceeding to the next page.

”Well, that’s the mission detail. We will indeed be issued medicine, in the case that anybody receives any wounds or stings from the beasts. Now, on to teams. Teams will consist of partners, and will be made up of two to three pairs each, depending on preference. As for partnerships, students should find a suitable partner before the beginning of the operation. These duos shall be temporary, or permanent if the individuals give consent. You have four or five days to find a partner among the people you see before you. I can’t say that we can measure experience by age, as such a factor fluctuates too much nowadays.”

He leaned over the podium a bit, ”Careful guys, my mother told me that some beings feel uneasy about being asked their age past three-hundred!” He joked, leaning back from the podium, ”Well, class is dismissed for periods before lunch. Contemplate about your chances of survival. Seniors, please keep my classmates alive.” He made a quick bow, before glancing over to Fenris, ”Yep. You are free to wander on campus as you wish. Perhaps train, chat, or find somebody who will be covering you within half a week.” Varren walked over to his seat and looked to his left, where Lilith had been watching him present the speech. The boy was hiding his flustered feelings behind a facade. As soon as he reached the desk and sat down, he slumped over, feeling the energy slowly draining from him. He made out a weary, "Good morning...", to his friend as he let out a yawn.

Lilith observed the first set of students perform with interest. The orc and the fox-girl seemed to use a combination of the strength of their weapons and magic, reducing the dummies into useless timber. The gemstone boy dully finished his course seemingly without much difficulty as no blow by the dummies affected him much. Varren and the cat-boy employed some rather loud, fascinating looking Earth weapons, leaving an aroma of smoke in their wake. She felt a sense of awe at the destruction her peers managed on their first day. Surely, there was no way that she live up to that – to perform that impressively. Lilith glanced at Mr Fernis expectantly as the last of the melee, weapon-wielders, and firearm duo finished up their sessions.

As she heard the magic wielders get called up, she took a look at the students of the trio she was apparently grouped within: The ‘Asian’ boy with a rudimentary knowledge of humor, the meadow green fae draconian, and herself. She acknowledged Varren’s short words of encouragement to them with a nervous smile as she approached her section of the stage.

She inhaled a shaking breath as she anticipated the start of the first test of the year – there was no turning back now. Honestly, she constantly expected failure in a lot of things – and that would make it easier to accept it when it came, anyways. The thought lingered in her mind as she stood and faced toward the wooden figures that were currently not activated as of yet. She warily eyed the mannequins, knowing she absolutely should take use of the precious time that was left before they came for her.
She closed her eyes, an oddly peaceful expression on her face, although her mind was racing. She concentrated on her innate magic and guided a mental ‘thread’ across the expanse of the room, unsure if she should be glad or sad to sense somebody – no, somebodies – nearby. There were an unsettling number of presences in total that became apparent only to the still-standing girl on the stage. She took hold of four of the poor things – it would not be wise to take more and exert her too much. Dark figures began to materialize in front of her. Translucent, black jagged bits of ethereal nothingness pieced themselves together into varied shapes, three utterly indistinguishable, and the last being the smallest and vaguely humanoid. The faintly glowing figures floated silently above her head, awaiting a command. I wonder what they are thinking, if they can still think at all…

A whoosh of air was felt to her right, her eyes snapping open as she instinctively bounded away from the direction. The wood mannequins had begun to make their move, although sooner than she wished.

Destroy all wooden figures! Lilith channeled the blunt motive to each of the four spirits as she was able to nimbly sidestep another dummy. She began to trot away from the horde of dummies, hoping to keep her distance from as many of them as possible. As she turned, a dummy suddenly appeared behind her. Unable to move, she cringed as she prepared for the incoming blow, as a black bolt of energy intercepted the figure at the last second. The dummy fell with a thump, its wood eaten through and scorched, a foul flesh-like odor rising from its ‘wound’ rather than the expected scent of burnt timber. Magic performed by the dead sure had its fitting characteristics.

Alert, and suddenly determined to be rid of every last one of those dumb wooden dolls, she fed more of her magical reserves into her undead companions as a barrage of the majority of said targets began to rush toward her. She frantically weaved around and between the dummies as they surrounded her, wincing as some managed to slam into her.

The ghostly figures hovered above and about the scene, opening what looked like gaping mouths to let out balls of magic as they opened fire on the dummies. Lilith did her best to avoid contact with as many dummies as she could, while continuing to feed a little more of her magic to them throughout the time. The loyal souls had only one motive, and that was to protect their current master. What a sad existence.

In due time, Lilith stood in front of nothing but the fallen corpses of scorched dummies. Feeling dazed, she glanced around her and realized it was over. Letting out a relieved sigh, she began to make her way back to the group of students. She first stopped and turned, looking up at the four glowing blobs that came to float gently in front of her. “Thank you.” She murmured with a small smile before she released hold of them. She began to leave the stage, and it felt as if a weight were lifted from her mind as the ghostly figures faded away. She quickly took a seat at a bench, feeling slightly light headed as she caught her breath. The idea of sleep sounded very welcome.
~~~~~~

Lilith let out a slight yawn as she rushed herself to Class 1-Q's room the next morning, having heard the message that there was going to be some sort of 'assignment'. She plopped into the seat of a desk to the left of the podium in the front of the room. Looking up at the clock, it was exactly 8 AM, to her immense relief. It had taken slightly more effort to lift her head from the pillow that morning. Well, at least this time, the window blinds were closed at least. It must be an important meeting for both first years and apparent higher-year students to be summoned to the same room. She relaxed, sitting back in her chair and took a short swig from a small glass flask, its contents being easy to guess as they would smell foul to anyone but her. As she began pocketing the bottle, she looked up as she heard someone humming loudly as they entered the classroom. Nearly everyone was here already, though she had not really paid attention to who. Thinking back to the events of the first day, she chuckled as she found it unsurprising that Varren's greatest struggle, once again, were doors.

She mentally went over the mission assignment after the short speech was over. A labyrinth inhabited by unspecified hive minded monsters. The first thing she imagined were giant insects, or something at least physically similar to insects in appearance. How fascinating! She thought to herself, surprisingly feeling eager for the upcoming mission for a chance to see some new beasts. Unless one sliced her into pieces before she could look at them, which was likely.

Lilith glanced over to her right, at the boy who just finished his speech yawning in his seat next to her.
"Good morning to you too. Nice job with the presentation," she said with a warm smile. She had grown to be rather fond of the boy's presence, having been the only student who she had actually talked to.

Day 2

Chris strolled into the arena, whistling as he walked, when he noticed Raule was already busy with the combat droids. Shit. Late. He glanced around before moving into place, apparently nobody had noticed. More importantly, Mr. Seor didn’t notice. Good. He checked his weapons briefly, knowing his turn would be up soon. He looked up just in time to see Raule rip off one of the droid’s arms and throw it at one of its teammates. Chris raised an eyebrow. ’I’ll have to match that, he thought to himself.

The noise -mainly the gunfire-, suddenly died down, and Raule stepped off the stage.

“Alright. Another one of our fine 5th years has volunteered to demonstrate for you all. Chris, if you please?..”

Chris cracked his knuckles as he stepped out onto the stage. This was going to be fun. He stood in place for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as the droids powered back on. He reopened his eyes.

“Begin.”

The droids suddenly sprang to life, and began their routines. Bladed bots charged, as did the unarmed bots, and the gunners began spinning. He knew exactly how to take them down within his skillset, after countless hours of training: aim for the joints, with any means necessary. The first bot to near him rushed into an overhead strike with its blade. Chris pulled himself to its side, simultaneously dodging the attack and removing his bowie knife from his jacket. He stomped down on the inside of its knee with all his force, bringing the bot down, and thrusted the knife into a chink in its neck.That wouldn’t keep it down for long, but it bought him the time to wheel around and deal with the other droids’ attacks.

The rest of his demonstration would consist of fancy dodges and rolls, crazy gunslinging, mind-blowing precision shooting into impossibly small joints, and generally being a badass making the extra effort to put on a show. At the very end, during a brief lull in the combat, he found himself face to face with the knife-necked droid again. Time to finish the job.

---

“Enough!”

Mr. Seor’s words rang out clearly, and all the robots powered down. All of them, except for the one that was now lying headless in a heap on the floor. Chris had one leg up on the droid’s body, pressing it down from it’s spazzing with his boot. He held the severed droid head up in the air above his own, showing off his trophy. During his moment, he searched the faces of the audience, and winked at Dagny. A few seconds later, he stepped down, carrying the head (which later found a home in his dorm) out with him.

---

Day 3

An assignment. Great. He rolled his eyes as he stepped into the classroom, coffee in hand. He took a seat in a(n unspecified) desk, and sat there half-listening during Mr. Fenris and Varren’s spiels. His job, in a nutshell, would be to babysit the younger classes. Great. He let out a yawn as he looked over the other students in the classroom.

Mortia stood outside the first year's classroom not exactly sure how he felt about the news the class had been given. they were going to be entering their first labyrinth in a few days.on one hand he was excited to finally be doing something besides meditating or getting adjusted to the academy. on the other hand it also meant that all the students entering would be putting themselves in harms way. "well even if someone does get hurt at least ill be there to get them back on their feet" he thought out loud.

As he started walking down the hallway away from the classroom he noticed one of the students walking down the hall ahead of him. Sprawled out across his shoulders was a black ball of fur, and even at this distance he could make out just what it was. Mortia started to bounce as he was filled with joy at realizing just what it was. It was cat perched atop his shoulders, like a small stone gargoyle. it was surrounded in a strange aura, but even then he didn't care it was still a cat after all. He took off squealing down the hall way in a full sprint to catch up with him. When he finally caught up to him he jump in front of him. still bouncing up and down he said " My name is Mortia. is that a cat? may i pet her?" all in one breath as he reached his hand out towards her.

It was around 3 AM, Ark had woken up about half an hour before, and was given a quick check up before being allowed to go to his room. Well, his new room, anyway. His stuff was already at the room. Ark walked through the cold walkways, dim lights making his path clear, though the weather didn't really help. It was still snowing, and it had gotten colder. This was terrible, since Ariadne had his coat.

Ark looked at the card in his hand, and then at the door. Yep, right room. He watched as the door slid open, and the dark room revealed itself. The room contained 3 beds. Two were occupied... by the worst people Ark could've roomed with, ever. Ark had officially entered a living hell. Dagny and Ariadne occupied the middle and leftmost beds in the room. It looked as if the remaining bed had been pushed farther from the other 2, given the scratch marks in the floor. As Ark settled into his near-permanent fate, also known as his bed, he began to notice a loud obnoxious sound from one bed over. Dagny seemed to be snoring rather loudly. "Dej' Deknan" Ark muttered under his breath. This phrase is easily translatable to "Fuck my life."
Ark got aproximately two and a half hours of sleep, thanks entirely to Dagny, and what happened after 6:00 AM.

At 6:15 AM, Dagny's alarm blared rap music from the '10s, effectively putting an end to her snoring. Her pale arm shot out, though she managed to catch herself before destroying the alarm clock, and she pressed down on the snooze button. "Fuuuuck," she groaned, forcing herself to sit up as she opened her eyes only to squint against the dark room. She shivered a bit and stood up to change.

As she gathered gym clothes from her bag, she noticed that the third bed was occupied. A scowl came to her face and she snorted in Ark's general direction before turning away to change into a sports bra, t-shirt, and shorts.

Ark's eyes were just about bleeding. He was abruptly woken up by some loud music, and before him was a terrible sight. He instantly closed his eyes and pretended to be sleeping still. 'fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck' is all that ran through his head. He prompty tried to erase the image from his mind, prevent him self from throwing up, and wait for Dagny to leave.

Forgetting to turn the alarm from snooze to off, Dagny headed out with her gym bag.

The dragon girl would spend an hour working out before returning to the room to take a shower and change into her school uniform.

Ark had spent about half an hour trying to return to sleep, but, the music started again. Damn dragon girl forgot to turn it off. For the sake of Ariadne, Ark unplugged the device with massive force, nearly breaking the plug, given that he had no idea how to turn those things off otherwise. Ark got ready before the dragon girl returned, taking his shower and changing before he would have to deal with her again. By the time she returned, Ark was sitting on his bed, reading a book.

(Collab post by Kidd[the kidd] and [Card Games on]VarionusNW)

Jeremiah sat in stunned silence for several minutes after the class had been let go. He looked towards Kasha as he got up "This has to be a prank they play on the first years, right?" he laughed halfheartedly. "No i think they are serio..." Kasha stopped as did Jeremiah as the listened to the strange squealing that approached them. By far the strangest elf he had met (The list consisted of two.) hopped in front of him. "My name is Mortia. is that a cat, may i pet her?" The elf reached out his hand towards Kasha who swatted him away. "First, I'm not a cat I'm a demon and second, no you may not pet me."

Mortia continued to smile at the cat "Oh I'm sorry, you still look like a cat though." he said with a smile. Jeremiah liked this new elf especially how he annoyed Kasha. "My names Jeremy and this," He said with a small flourish. "is Kasha".

Jeremiah and Mortia spoke for several more minutes until Jeremiah found the elf he was actually looking for. "Loreal," Jeremy asked walking up to her. "I was just wondering if they normally played this prank on the first years". Kasha Laughed at him again. Jeremiah continued to smile, "I mean there is no way they could expect students three days in to survive a labyrinth right?" He asked, Trying to keep his voice from showing the panic that had started to build.

As Jeremiah spoke to Loreal, Mortia continued to stare at Kasha, A battle of wills had begun.

"Please Kasha?"
"No."
"pretty please?"
"Nope."
"Come on please let me pet you."
"Not gonna happen."

Kasha finished the conversation by fleeing into Jeremiah's bag Leaving Mortia standing there.

Earthbuddies with Ier-Briar Thorn-of-Shield and Shen "Fai" Huanglong

It would be a lie to say that Shen's morale was at an abyssmal low. Needless to say, his body wasn't the only thing left bruised and beaten during his massive failure the other day. And unfortunately it wasn't something his shitty healing magery could fix. Two social failures, and then unsuccessfully applying what he took pride in. Gods, it was times like these that he really felt as useless as his family made him out to be.

But he couldn't allow himself to fall into despair that easily. He had, technically... very technically... defeated the training dummies and completed the objective. Looking on the bright side of things, assuredly that was a virtue in this new world. Even though he'd heard the story circulating, heard every interpretation, he wouldn't back down. And yet, when he found himself in the classroom, he was almost completely unwilling to make eye-contact with anyone. Even his "friends", if they still considered him that.

Speaking of which... Yinyues Varren was... late and brutally attacked by the mechanized door. Quite a bit like the day before, actually. He could at least find solace in the fact that someone seemed to have much less punctuality and favor with machinery than himself. Once again: bright side is best side, right? BS is BS.

A quick speech and debriefing of their future mission followed Hunt and kill, plain and simple. Hopefully this time he'd be able to get it right. The congregation of students was then dismissed by the cephalopodic teacher.

Shen was at a loss of what to do now. So he just sat at his desk, watching students form their own little cliques and funnel out of the room or sieze a grouping of deskings or whatever it was they chose to do. Once the commotion settled, Shen found himself alone. He surveyed the room. It looked like everyone had a friend to chat with except for him... him and the one in the back of the class, standing against a wall while reading, the wind (how did that get in here?) tousling her flaxen hair. It was the one who had idly defeated all of the threats as if she were just going to pick flowers. Truly an individual of great power

"Hello," Shen said, approaching the Gemstone known as Ier-Briar before bowing himself low, "We have not spoken before. You were very impressive the other day."

---

A typical mission, it seemed. Standing at the back of the classroom and dressed in his uniform once more, he read a book as every other person listened to the mission briefing. If there was something important about that brown-haired boy's words, doubtlessly it'd be repeated. If there wasn't anything useful, he wouldn't be wasting his time listening to Varren. Allowing his sense of touch to expand as a wind blew through the classroom, he enjoyed the breeze for a moment, before realizing that some fleshbag was bowing down before him.

Good, at least one fleshbag understood the superiority of the non-fleshbags.

"But of course I was," Ier-Briar replied, shamelessly spouting those arrogant words, "And you were equally impressive, in a different fashion. Your name, you pig-cunt-bitch-slut?"

---

What.

Yes, boasting over one's achievements was indeed an understandable response. It was hardly rude to be proud of oneself, but was calling him a 'pig-cunt-bitch-slut' really necessary? He had done nothing wrong, as far as he could tell. Was this what Alika meant about a 'strong independent woman who don't need no man'? ...Though he didn't expect something of that nature to sound more like his angry clan elders.

"I am Huanglong Fai, and I would prefer that you not refer to me by that fourfold term," Shen spoke, face completely straight, no emotion whatsoever.

---

Oh, what a good face of stone. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a weakling fleshbag, Ier-Briar would have complimented him. For that face alone, though, Ier-Briar would respect the weakling's words.

"Huang-Long-Fai it is then, meatsack. What do you want from me?"

---

It seemed that they had finally come to some sort of an understanding, which was obviously a good thing. Though Shen could do without being called a meatsack, he wasn't going to bite off more than he could chew, so to speak. He'd have to navigate this social minefield carefully, and he wasn't going to take unnecessary risks.

"I wish to gain only two things from this dialogue," the Asian mage said, "A name to refer to you by in kind, and a discourse with another child of the sacred ear...th...?"

At this range, Shen's geomantic senses could better 'feel' out the young Gemstone. But... there was an anomaly in the system. That had to be it. For what else could it be but an anomaly? Girls should not have that!

---

"Ier-Briar Thorn-of-Shield. And sacred ear? I don't even need ears."

As if to demonstrate, the Gemstone lifted up his flaxen hair, revealing that, where there should have been ears, there rested only smooth stone.

---

...Huh. Not exactly what he had been looking for, but it was an interesting tidbit of information. And definitely did wonders to get his mind off of the other interesting tidbit of information he had learned a few seconds previously.

"Apologies, I had been momentarily distracted as I was speaking," Shen explained, "I did not mean to refer to the anatomical body part. I had meant to say that we are both spawn of the land... In different ways of course. Like ears."

---

"Right...so are you done with your discourse? Or do you have more to offer?"

---

"You do not like speaking with others, do you?" Shen asked, moving to lean on the wall just as the boy-girl-rock had done, "Why is that? I wish to understand."

---

Ier-Briar edged three steps away when Shen decided to mimic his action. "I can speak to others. But yesterday has proven that, despite having lasted longer than my six years of consciousness, these fleshbags and meat sacks have only proven themselves to be either horny, stupid, aggressive, or weak."

"The only exception to this is Mariam, who at least understands the superiority of metal over flesh."

---

Shen thought on Ier's answer. It seemed that this character had a low opinion of humanity and the other humanoid races. It was an opinion of superiority reminiscent of his family's mindset concerning the mages and non-mages of Earth. Yes, he knew what he had to do. The Huanglong had to shake the Thorn-of-Shield's worldview!

"Perhaps you should give those of flesh another chance to prove themselves. A caterpillar is ugly, but with time it turns into a beautiful butterfly," he said, an idea forming in the Chinese geomancer's brain. He removed himself from his placement on the wall and faced the Gemstone directly.

"So I ask of you, Ier-Briar Thorn-of-Shield!" Shen declared with arms outstretched, "Allow me, the weakest of the fleshlings, to redeem the beings of the flesh..."

A beaming smile.

"...Let us slay the queen of the hive together, become my partner for this journey!"

---

Lazy bastard. If he wanted to get carried through the Labyrinth, there were simpler, less roundabout methods of doing so. His comparison between a caterpillar and a butterfly was stupid as well, because both of those things were mere insects that could get squished much too easily. But whatever. It appeared that partnering up was mandatory for this mission in particular, so the Gemstone shrugged in the end, not at all effected by Shen's chutzpah.

"What can you do to slay the queen then?"

---

...And there was his first challenge. What could his ineffectual self even do against a creature undoubtedly more powerful and more protected than twenty wooden mannequins? The geomancer put his hand to his chin in thought. Martial arts, magical or otherwise, was hardly going to be enough to contribute sufficiently. So it seemed the only thing left was his family craft, but...

...Shen was kind of shit at it. All basics, no specializations or customizations whatsoever. He had utility, but not stopping power. The only saving grace he had was that his family was just plain unmatched at this sort of thing, which meant his basics weren't as bad as others'.

Looks like it was time to see if honesty truly was the best policy.

"Truly, my combat capabilities are... sub-par, as you have seen. My abilities on that elemental front... do not vary too significantly. However, I do have the capability to locate and track any entities and environmental abnormalities within a 5 kilometer radius, as well as manipulate local terrain, and conceal presences."

"I can also heal and enhance physical qualities or magical spells," Shen added as an afterthought.

'...That sounded more impressive in my head,' Shen mentally cringed.

---

"And you're saying that, with such sub-par abilities, you will redeem your race?" Ier-Briar frowned, wondering if this was one of the 'practical jokes' that were so popular amongst the flesh-races. "I will say, straight out, that my main problem will be range and mobility. How will you help me compensate for that? What plans do you have?"

---

Finally. Something in which he could meaningfully contribute to the situation.

"Hmm..." Shen thought, "I suppose if I can 'stack', so to speak, enhancements onto myself, I could increase my damage output to reasonable levels. I cannot promise anything extraordinary, but it would definitely be workable. As for mobility..."

Well, there was that, but he didn't know how Ier-Briar would take that particular method of both defeating the Queen and increasing his mobility. Though it certainly would increase damage output exponentially...

"...If I cannot find an acceptable way make you any faster, I could just move the terrain instead."

---

The Gemstone rolled his eyes. Weakest indeed, but at least there were a few applications for his abilities. It would have been nice if Shen relied a bit on the technology of humans, but if he was so set onto using his magic...well, whatever.

"That's...acceptable, for now, fleshbag."

---

Shen nodded. Though even he knew that the Gemstone wasn't pleased with his abilities. It didn't take a genius to detect that.

"Please, have faith in me, Ier-Briar Thorn-of-Shield," Shen bowed low once more, "I swear on my honor that I will not fail you."

There. It was now set in stone. Now he'd have to put all of his resolve into this one operation. Time to hope that fate would smile upon him that day.