[14]

Sharp stinging pain sent me tumbling out of bed and shrieking in surprise. For a horrible second, I thought that my hideous face had returned. I reached over to the source of the pain, my left ear gently probing it to see if it was in half again. Instead, I found Ugz.

“What the abyss, Ugz!” I yelled at the monster newt, holding him in a tight grip with my left hand. Being ugly again was my greatest fear, and the little mean bastard knew exactly how to tap into it.

Ugz slowly released the top half of my ear and narrowed his green crocodile eyes.

A mental sense came over me, informing me of his intention.

“That is horseshit and you know it Ugz! I asked you to wake me up at dawn, not try to chew my damned ear off! No more bite-y!”

Ugz burst out from my hand and ran under the bed, leaving me in doubt about his desire to follow my instruction in the future.

Having a personal spy and intimate confidant had seemed like a dream. Ugz could stay up all night to make sure no one broke in while I slept, ate any vermin that came even near the house, and was easy going. Well, maybe not that easy going. I guess we still had a few issues to work out.

I wondered if maybe I could get him a treat for friendly behavior. But what the hell would a giant mutated amphibian want? More bugs?

Putting Ugz out of my mind for the moment, I got dressed in my new black ascendant robes and sheathed my knife on my belt. Most of the red-robed military students wore a weapon, so I figured it would not be an issue to follow suit. Rollo and Saewulf drilled the importance of always being armed to me.

Afterward, I shaved the stubble that had grown on my face, only nicking myself once. Per the advice of Claudia, I had also sheared off most of my long black curls, leaving me with a close to the scalp military style cut. She had said the hair would impede my martial training, and I took her words to heart. I wondered if cutting my resplendent hair would change my appearance for the worse, but after the fact, I felt like it just made me look more masculine; if less princely.

Before I ran out of the house, I filled up the tub with water in case Ugz got thirsty or wanted to go for a swim. I had not fully forgiven him, but I also did not want to stoop to his level.

As I hoped, the dining hall was mostly empty at the early hour I arrived. There were a few early birds like myself, but no one bothered to look up from their food to whisper about me. Exactly as I hoped.

I shot through the food line, getting a gigantic plate of eggs, ham, and biscuits. Last night I skimmed the beginning of all my coursework, and the physical fitness class stressed the importance of eating right. To that aim, I was eating a bunch of meat and eggs as instructed.

Once done, I made my way over to the combat class.

The combat training grounds were too fancy of a name for what amounted to a giant sand pit the size of a farm field. Along the outskirts were racks upon racks of weapons, with both real and wooden models on one side, and training dummies around the other half circle. In the center of the pit was my target, the combat instructor.

His back was to me, but I could already tell he was not human. Orange hair sprouted in a high topknot, drifting down over massive shoulders. He had to be close to seven and a half feet tall. When I got closer, I saw his ears twitch.

A tiger beastman wearing the green robes of an instructor turned to look at me. His intense cat eyes stopped me right there in my tracks.

“Yes?” he said, smiling and showing a lot of fangs.

“Greetings Instructor,” I said with a bow. “I am Harald Horste, a new student at the academy. I was told by my guide, Claudia, that I should come to you before class starts to figure out what weapon would be best for training.” That was only part of the truth. Claudia said the instructor was always at the fighting pit early practicing forms and meditation, even on days when everyone else was inside. Claudia did not say it, but hinted that he might be a bit of a nut job.

“Greetings Harald, I am Master Rohan,” he rumbled. “Coming here was wise advice, I will have more time to devote to you before class starts. So, let’s begin. You are tall and lithe.” Master Rohan walked around me, prodding my arms with a long nail.

“Do you have any previous training?” he asked.

“Yes sir, I’m ranked E with the knife. I trained to fight with my fists some, but the ledger did not think it was enough to warrant mention.” I admitted. That one had hurt. Rollo had wasted a lot of time trying to teach me to scrap dirty.

Master Rohan barked out a loud growling laugh at that. “Good, Good, humility is important in the combat arts. Lying to me would only hurt you. A knife is an excellent weapon to train; it is useful in close quarters and easy to carry everywhere. We will continue your training with a knife after you become proficient in a primary weapon. Now, do you prefer ranged or melee weaponry?”

“I don’t know, sir.” I answered nervously. I had only ever gotten a small taste of combat.

“Well, think about your spells and abilities. How would they aid you in a fight?” Master Rohan asked.

I did as he instructed, thinking about the few abilities I currently had. “Harassment and confusion, mostly.” I decided. “From a distance,” I added.

“Do you need a free hand to cast spells?”

“Yes, sir.” I had not even thought of that.

“Let’s try some weapons and get a sense of how they make you feel.” Rohan said.

The two of us went to the different racks, trying out stances and swings. None of it felt comfortable until I picked up a quarterstaff. I gave a few more practice swings than Master Rohan requested, enjoying the wind coming off of each swing.

“Sir, I think I would like to train with this.” I said confidently.

“The way you swing that weapon... I know what we will use. Your weapon will be the poleaxe. Many overlook it for the sword, especially around here, but it is a suitable weapon for fighting monsters.” Rohan led me over to a rack with actual weapons and picked up a poleaxe for emphasis.

It had a staff about four feet long, with an axe-head at the end of one side. On top was a spear point, and opposite the axe was a narrow hammer head.

Rohan entered a stance, then swung the axe head side of the poleaxe down in a chopping motion. “The poleaxe is an excellent weapon for its versatility. It gives you reach, which as a taller human will be even better for you. For unarmored foes, or monsters with weaker skin, the axe side is devastating.” He repeated the chop.

“For armored opponents, you have the armor breaker.” Rohan spun the weapon, then swung the narrow hammer head side at an imaginary foe. “One hit can rattle even the most armored foes, shattering bones or crushing limbs.”

“Finally, the top spear is good for penetrating monsters with tough hides, or receiving a charge from an enraged foe.” He leapt forward, thrusting the spear with two hands.

“The disadvantage is that you cannot use the weapon properly while you cast. Since your magic does not sound offensive, that should be less of an issue for you.” Rohan concluded.

I bowed to Rohan, trusting in his wisdom. Versatile sounded good.

He nodded at me and put the poleaxe back on the rack. Together, we walked back to the wooden replicas, and he handed me a wooden poleaxe. “You will use this until you reach rank D in the poleaxe. Let’s begin practice.”

While we waited for the rest of the class to arrive, Rohan ran me through a few stances and swings. Initially, I felt silly and like I was doing everything wrong. Rohan always corrected me in a mild voice, and with a light touch, completely in opposition to what you might expect from a giant beastman. Tiger beastmen had a poor reputation for savagery.

Our lesson ended once the others arrived. Most of the students wore the red robes of military studies students. I feared I might be the only ascendent there until I heard a voice.

“Harald!” a familiar voice said.

I turned to see Elaine Highrow, dressed in a black robe, walking toward me with a beautiful smile on her face. As before, the sight made a returning grin spring across my face.

“Princess Butterfingers!” I said, giving an absurd bow.

Just out of hearing I heard someone say something, followed by a laugh. I did not know the words, but people had ridiculed me enough to know cruelty when I heard it.

I stood, looking behind Elaine to see a group of ten other black robes heading our direction. Among them was the guy who picked up Elaine and Florence in a carriage, Reynold Kestev. Still laughing at his joke was a massive human male, with a wide nosed face and cruel grin.

Kestev saw me looking in his direction and gave a juvenile sneer. I ignored him, returning my attention back to Elaine.

“So, how have you settled in?” I asked her.

“So far, so good. It’s going to take a while for me to get accustomed to wearing these robes, but other than that no problems. You? I like the fresh haircut.”

I ran my head across the shortened hair and explained to her what Claudia had said.

Master Rohan interrupted us from speaking further. Class had started.

And so had the pain.