“Here in Levain, we are first and foremost dedicated to the pursuit of academia of any kind, my young friend. Why would we consider one sort more important than another? They are all but knowledge to be pursued at the end of the day.” Dean Garth Wainwrought, when asked why the Levain Institute of Higher Learning had not taken larger mage classes.

Fortunately for Cal, the Institute had the smarts to arrange it so students who enrolled for the Practical Applications of Magic in Combat course had the class for the entire second half of their school day, for she doubted any of her three students would have been in any shape to attend other classes after they were done. It took a good hour of rest before the three youngsters woke up after they collapsed from exhaustion, in the meantime Cal gave some help with the other students and asked Vark about their schedules. As it turned out that the kids had their morning classes reserved for academic lessons and their afternoons for practicals, she quickly formulated a plan.

When the kids woke up, Cal made it very clear to them that if they wanted to have their bodies well conditioned for future rigors, they would need to constantly train until they dropped from exhaustion, at least once a day. They groaned at the news, and gulped as she listed various torturous-sounding ways with which they could intensify their training so as to not require too much of their time.

Vark and Cal brought the three kids to the Institute’s cafeteria - it was past time for classes to end, but the cafeteria remained available for both students and staff’s perusal until the dinner hours ended - and ordered extra large, filling meals for them. All three youngsters devoured their meals ravenously as if they had starved for a week, while Cal and Vark watched with amusement as they ate their own meals by the side.

“We will now talk about how you should improve yourselves.” Cal stated as the three shoveled the last of their food into their mouths. Ognar had just started to lean back as he patted his bloated stomach, and Willa gave out a loud, unwomanly burp shamelessly, to Giselle’s embarrassment.

“Ognar. You will need some adjustment to how you fight.” She started without any preamble. “How you do things will just end with you in an early grave. Maybe later, when your magic has grown to greater heights, you can afford to incorporate taking hits on purpose into your style, but as you are now? That is a mere overestimation of your capabilities. And a death wish.”

“Uh… what should I be doing then?”

“For now? I’d recommend at least get yourself a fitting suit of armor. Maybe a shield too. It doesn’t need to be to the extent of Willa’s, just something that would turn a blow at least. Learn to use it, and how to abuse it.” She explained. “To attempt to alter your entire method to one more akin to Giselle’s or Willa’s won’t work, but minute adjustments to what you’re used to can probably afford a happy medium to work with. Learn to take hits when you must, and to avoid them when you can, instead of having everything staked on offense.”

Ognar nodded at her words, and seemed to mull it over in his mind. The other two looked thoughtful as well as they digested her words.

“Giselle, you should just work on polishing the direction you already chose, in my opinion.” Cal said next, to which Giselle nodded in satisfaction. “A suggestion from me would be to consider a heavier weapon with which you can inflict fatal wounds more easily. A rapier is excellent for a duel, but far less useful in a chaotic battlefield. Also, it does not make the most use of the strength you acquire when you empower yourself, does it not?”

“A suggestion I will consider.” Answered the girl as she thought. “Do you have a specific example for the sort of weapon that might suit me better?”

“A longsword with a similar profile as this would work, I think.” Cal said as she drew out one of the shortswords Aelfried gave her, which had a thin, tapered blade with a triangular profile, wide at the base and narrow at the tip. “You can still thrust efficiently with it, and the sides would cut better than a rapier would. It would be a far more durable weapon as well.”

“May I borrow that for a moment? I would like to make a sketch out of its measurements.”

“Be my guest.” Cal said as she slid the shortsword over the table before she turned to the last member of the trio.

“As for you, Willa… I have to admit that I’m impressed with your endurance.” She started with praise. “You lasted longer than those two despite a much heavier load, and I feel you might want to focus on that advantage of yours in the future.”

“That’s what I had in mind, Miss!” Said the half-therian girl with a cheerful grin.

“That armor is heavy steel, is it not?”

“It is. I would’ve loved me some adamant steel, but who got the money for that, you know?”

“Well, one way or another, you three are going to be the first students I’ve taken. If you prove yourself well in our time together, I’d pass on some gifts before my departure.” Cal stated. “For you I had a new suit of armor in mind, and I know some good smiths.”

“You all can consider that as some extra motivation if you like.” She added when she noticed the other two perked their ears and turned her way as they heard those words.

“You probably don’t feel the armor’s weight that much anymore nowadays, right?” Cal asked to Willa.

“Not much, not even without the boost, yeah.”

“Train yourself with extra weights while you wear the armor. That will get you used to even more, which will help when you have heavier armor in the future. Your method to focus on the use of your empowerment to wield armor most would have found impossibly heavy is a smart one.”

The half-therian girl nodded at her approval with a grin that adorned her maw.

******************************

That night, Cal had asked Vark on their walk back to his house as she asked what the different classes did during their practical lessons on days where they were not scheduled with a lecture with the teachers. He mentioned that they would normally be allowed to practice on their own, typically with targets and goals set by their teachers in their last class. When Cal interjected him and asked if that meant she could just keep her three students under her watch during those classes, Vark mentioned that it would be irregular, but not unheard of. Besides, her responsibility extended mostly to those three only, and not the rest, so he saw no problems with it.

So the next day Cal had those three young Blood mages brought to the clearing as Vark and his assistants - she noticed that two of the assistants were different today, as they apparently had different assistants for different classes to best match the affinities of the students - gathered their class of students for their lecture. Where the previous class had gathered the offensive-inclined affinities like Fire, Magma, and Lightning, the current class was made up of the supportive ones, with water and life being predominant among the students.

Cal made good use of the multitude of healers available and in need to train their arts as she made the first half of her lesson for the trio into a sparring session. This time she had not held back as much, and her blows left the young students sprawled on the ground with broken bones and shredded joints, which were swiftly attended to by the healers amongst the gathered students. They even lined up for their turn to practice their healing arts.

For the latter half of the training, Cal had they run the obstacle course again, but this time the mages she borrowed were not there to attack them, but rather to make their path as perilous as it could be, from various sinkholes to sections where the floor was so slippery no one would be able to stand there. She also had Vark actually hit them with his spikes every once in a while, as today they had healers available to immediately patch up the injuries anyway.

The only thing that crossed the minds of the three youths before they collapsed of utter exhaustion for the second time in as many days was that they regretted the day they had complained to the Institute on how their tutelage had been lacking.