Travellers Trinkets

I walked across the campus grounds through a dirt pathway, in the distance I saw my destination. In my bag waited my gun and some excess blue gems from the cave expedition. I was told that I should bring any and all weapons I had for my first day in the warfare course. My classes had been chosen for me but I didn't really mind. It scared me a little that any kind of school would expect me to have weapons lying around but I did have my revolver. In total I had two small blue gems, my red gem, and my revolver, I didn't bring my green gem since I could apparently do that stuff Scarlet did just using my fingers. 

Two dozen students waited in a group just before a giant hole in the ground opened up. Well it wasn't a hole, it was a ground dug semi circle colosseum with a floor as big as a football field and an amphitheater large enough to fit around five hundred people. Grey stone carved into the ground gave it an ancient feeling even though I knew it was probably made using green gems. Built into the back of the colosseum were large portcullises at the bottom that were at least three times my height. Shrill animalistic screeching noises from them gave me shivers and I could tell it affected the others. The actual floor of the colosseum was deep enough that falling from the viewing area would mean breaking a leg or two if you fell wrong.

Looking towards the other students I realized everybody also had weapons of their own. Some had bows, others swords, rapiers, daggers, some even had nothing but circular looms which were enlarged versions of what was on the back of my gun. It wasn't just the weapons that were diverse either, whilst maybe more than half of the students were human the others were distinctly non human. Everyone wore their uniforms as if skirts and blazers were proper attire to learn how to fight in.

There were some people with pointed ears and strange skin tones, none red though. Some with fur across their entire body, a person with a red horse tail glared at me, her red hair reminded me of someone but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then there was Lily, she was lying down on the stone of the amphitheater probably waiting for our teacher to show up. She had left before I had woken up. Though not a single other person here was a Steilae though as expected.

As I arrived at the group the red haired girl approached me with a glare before speaking up with a sneer. “You're that wayfared Steilae aren't you?” 

I looked her up and down to get a good look of the girl that towered over me. She was six feet tall, maybe a bit bigger. Her fiery red hair was in a ponytail and it had some white streaks I hadn't noticed before that looked unnaturally natural. Her eyes were a flaming orange which definitely denoted her as a non human if the tail and furred ears on her head were any indication. The ears were strangely pointed like a donkey or horses, if I had to say she was a donkey girl. All in all she looked to be about my real age from before I got wayfared.

Immediately I recognized her voice as that girl's from the night I was kidnapped. “It's been over a month and you remember that of all things? Why do you even care?” I asked, remembering how well our last conversation went.

“I'm not trying to antagonize you Steilae, apparently Kael was looking for you.” She said Kael’s name strangely, as if it meant something to her.

“You know Kael?” I questioned with curiosity as to why she sounded so reverent of the man.

“Who doesn't he's one of the heroes from the rev-” Suddenly her manner of fact speech was interrupted by a loud whistle ringing out throughout the amphitheater.

Somehow without me noticing Kael stood at the bottom of the amphitheater just before the colosseum by his lonesome in his signature black leather attire. I wondered if he ever took that off except for grievous wounds.

“Round up everyone! Your first lesson starts now!” Kael shouted across the amphitheater towards us.

Most of the students scrambled to get to the bottom of the amphitheater so they could sit close to Kael to get brownie points, especially that red haired girl. She did her best to look proper as she ran down the stairs but I could tell her excitement was getting the better of her. Then halfways down the amphitheater all appearances were dropped as she began to leap five steps at a time as if it was the easiest thing in the world. If I did that then I'd have face planted on the first jump. By the time I reached the bottom I was one of the last people to sit down near Kael. Kael looked like he was about to yell at those late like me but as he noticed me his demeanor suddenly changed into a more friendly one for some reason. 

“You, Nasyetu, good job on getting here first, the rest of you should work on following orders.” Kael praised the red haired girl which I now knew as Nasyetu before berating the rest of us. But he did soften his tone for some reason when his gaze passed over me.

“You all heard my speech yesterday and I know some of you think you don't need my training, that your private tutors have taught you all you need to know. Most of you have never seen real combat and need to understand how little your training has helped you. So for your very first lesson each and every one of you needs to land a hit on me, and don't any of you try for a lethal hit. If I catch any bullets or sharpened arrows trying to hit me you will face the consequences, you have thirty minutes.” Kael’s long winded speech ended with him disappearing in a blur before appearing in the middle of the colosseum as if he'd jumped into it

Kael had drawn a wooden knife and stared at us with an expectant gaze and a vicious grin on his face as if he expected to have fun with this. For a moment nobody dared to step forward as if in a trance. After all, who would just start attacking our teacher after he gave us a speech? But it seems my intuition was wrong as two people immediately jumped into the arena. The first was Nasyetu who similarly held a grin and the second was Lily wearing a cheshire grin as always. Lily had made a string of green threads between her fingers with no gem in sight as she made a complex weave. The ground below her bent to her will as a staircase formed from the stone towards the colosseum.

The trance was broken as Lily and Nasyetu made the first move and now everyone rushed down the staircase to punch Kael in the face. At least that's the reason why I went down, who wouldn't take an opportunity like this?

—

The flurry of students trying to hit Kael from his perspective was like watching the world in slow motion. They were all so easy to predict and dodge that Kael barely had to rely on anything more than instincts to keep them from touching him.He could easily kill any of them at a moment's notice with a real knife, but that wasn't much fun. There wasn't much he could do in the way of training without fighting people like him in a duel or spar. But over twenty teenagers and young adults trying their best to hit him actually got his blood pumping, although not nearly as that giant spider that nearly killed him.

There were some exceptions in the group though that might have a chance at actually landing a blow on him. First was the Umanuzune punching at kicking at him as if she had infinite stamina, considering her species that wasn't too far off. They were a horse therianid and stamina was their specialty. However as strong as she may be, she wasn't nearly fast enough to land a solid strike. Kael suddenly put a foot to the stomach of the girl before kicking off of her and landing a few meters back to let another student show their prowess.

Half a dozen blunt arrows and balls of fire arced towards him but the arrows were caught and the flames easily cut. It was then that Lily took the chance to send out a meter wide pillar of solid earth towards him. He could easily dodge it but she had sent out a stealthy vine of thorns towards him, an advanced technique requiring both green and blue gems. Though Rosurnan royalty innately held the lineage to use both without the actual gems themselves. Kael easily dodged the stone pillar before slashing at the vines with his dull knife cutting it into ribbons. If she had sent more maybe she would have gotten him but the cost of the attack caused her to look visibly tired.

Then came all of the students with the melee weapons. A variety of spears, swords, dagger, and even clubs rushed towards Kael to take him out. Many surrounded him as if they could possibly stop him from escaping if he really tried. Some tried to attack him on their own and they were all easily dealt with, his knife bruising them out of the fight. Most of the others attacked at once, sometimes coordinated, sometimes seizing an opportunity to attack while his guard was focused on someone else. He made sure to damage any weapons, he didn't need people to stay out of combat lessons without proper equipment later on after all.

Peering towards the seating of the amphitheater Kael saw half a dozen archers and weavers nocking arrows or throwing fire at him. The arrows were easily dodged or simply deflected by his blunt blade if they even got close to him. Most of the fire wasn't nearly powerful enough to leave anything behind but heat when he cut through them, and definitely not powerful enough to linger. However he had to make sure none of the students trying to hit him were injured. His movements were precise, letting all the students pass through the torrent of arrows and flame unharmed. 

Juggling keeping the students safe while giving them a worthwhile lesson actually made Kael's heart beat. Monsters weren't his specialty, but people most definitely were. He couldn't help but smile as he kept track of what every student was doing. After all the real exercise wasn't them trying to land a hit on him, it was him gauging all of their combat abilities. While he did berate them earlier on their lack of real fighting he couldn't deny most of them had formal training that actually helped. But in the end even that didn't matter as he stabbed every student that tried to hit him with his blunted dagger. It wouldn't kill or even bruise but it would hurt for a day or two and take them out of the fight.

None of the students came close to actually hitting him and by the halfway mark of the exercise most of them were starting to get tired. However some of them had decided better than rushing towards Kael like beasts like Nasyetu, instead waiting for him to tire out. Though Kael hardly felt tired at all he didn't let that show lest the drill end fifteen minutes before it should. He feigned weakness to goad the half a dozen or so rested students into taking a stab at him. 

There were only two of them that Kael actually paid much mind to. That being Mikayla and Amaryllis’ daughter. He knew well that Mikayla couldn't do much at all to him but that latent Wyrm blood in her might do something unexpected although unlikely. As well as Mikayla's lack of experience she also had no idea when to attack Kael. Her anxious expression and nervousness meant she would likely never try to attack him. Lily on the other hand had been trained by the queen personally and she had the innate ability to weave without gems. She was by all purposes a much stronger and skilled version of Mikayla.

Kael waited patiently for anyone to make a move as the tired students knew better than to rush towards him. The six or so students that weren't tired all waited for anybody else to make the first move, and that person seemed to be Lily. She sauntered forward with confidence in her step. Green threads emitted from her hands alongside blue from some gems on her belt. There was no loom in her possession, instead relying on the loom of ten all humans were born with. Her fingers glowed as brightly as the sun for a moment as the complex weave quickly came to fruition.

The ground shook around Kael as he realized what the girl was doing. It was something he had seen Amaryllis do hundreds of times yet having it pitted against him was something else entirely. Vines began to grow out of the ground, rising and writhing towards Kael. Ten different attacks, one for each finger, and warrant enough for Kael to pick up a stray sword from the battlefield for protection. Five tendrils tried to grasp at Kael like a hand and he easily cut off all the fingers. Two rose from the ground and tried to grasp at his feet, those were cut to ribbons before they could reach him. As he landed the final three tried to attack him from different angles but a spinning slash ended that. 

He cut down each vine that tried to grasp at him, their thorns threatening to bleed his body dry. Kael jumped through the air with a grin on his face at fighting such a skilled weaver for the first time in years. The attack wasn't easy to manage but it wasn't particularly difficult against a man who specialized in killing weavers. It seemed that this was Lily's only real attempt to land a strike against Kael as she was visibly tired after just the single weaving. With a quick dash Kael closed the distance between the two of them before hitting her with his dagger easily bringing the princess to her knees.

Looking around Kael had realized the remaining students were all shaking in their boots at the sight of him. All of them had dropped their weapons, likely in hopes he would take mercy on them. Not the worst thing to do when faced with a superior opponent but not at all what the exercise was about. He quickly slashed their joints with the wooden dagger knowing how sore it would make them after the exercise. 

Now all that remained among the warfare class was a single Steilae frightened about what Kael was about to do to her. He could have easily treated her like the rest of the students to not show favoritism but he didn't want to hurt the girl in front of him. But not hunting her would show the class his biases which would make then turn on Mikayla. With a sigh he threw his wooden dagger towards her, precisely aimed so that the handle would strike her head. It was also thrown hard enough to mimic damage and hurt but light enough to go away after a day. But as the dagger struck its target, Mikayla fell backwards unconscious. In the adrenaline he had forgotten his own strength.

Immediately Kael rushed forward towards Mikayla as if there was any possibility that he could have hurt her in any permanent way. He nearly missed catching her in surprise of how strong he had accidentally thrown the dagger. His speed almost caused him to pass by the girl he so desperately wanted to stop from hitting the cold stone below and for just a moment he nearly thought he missed her. But in just a blink he had caught her safely in his arms, a child breathing steadily, breathing well. He hadn't fucked up. 

—

I woke up with a headache and a sore forehead. Groaning, I opened my eyes to see a grassy field laid out in front of me with sparse buildings eventually leading towards a cobblestone road in the distance. Around me was just grass, no students and near me was the amphitheater along with my bag. I was leaning on something soft yet tough at the same time, it was distinctly leather in touch but there was something beneath it cushioning my head. Thinking of my head made a distinct mark on my forehead start to hurt for some reason.

“You're finally up huh?” Suddenly Kael’s voice rang out to the left of me as I looked up to realize I'd been leaning on his shoulder this entire time.

“K- Kael what are you doing!” I asked as I immediately pushed off of him only to realize one of my hands had been gripping on to him so I fell backwards onto the grass.

“Kid listen, I accidentally knocked you out during the exercise and when I tried to wake you up you grabbed at me. I didn't want to hurt you so I just let you sleep. Besides, it's only been a few minutes at most.” As Kael said that I remembered him throwing that wooden knife at me with a grin on his face.

“You threw a knife at me!” I yelled out towards Kael mostly in annoyance rather than actual anger.

“It was wood and I made sure the handle hit you. You're fine kid.” Kael said with a light tone brushing off the fact that he'd knocked me out.

“It knocked me out!” I exclaimed at him while rubbing my sore forehead, there was a small bump there.

“Your forehead’s not even bruised, don't cry about it.” Kael tried to dismiss what happened but I wouldn't have it.

“It still hurts Kael!” As I shouted at him he actually flinched as if my words could hurt him.

“I'm sorry.” Kael’s voice immediately lost all of its teasing and mockery instead sounding genuine for a moment.

“I- alright fine. But you better not do it again.” With that I stood up and grabbed my stuff before leaving Kael behind alone in the grass.

He looked at me as if he was going to say something but he refrained. Kael seemed genuine but I wasn't sure if he actually cared enough to say more than what he thought I wanted to hear. I left hoping that my next few classes would be better.

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