Gavrus walked out on to the sand circle to meet the two larger elemental combatants. Fadius stood opposite Gavrus, shoulder to head with Velia. His massive black boulder frame on display, making the training staff look almost like a stick in his enormous hands. Velia stood in an aggressive stance, her own staff pointed threateningly at Gavrus. She bristled with the heat of her glowing magma-like veins. And, she was showing way too much teeth. Her evil snarl looked so vicious that it was almost comical. Gavrus had to force himself not to laugh at the absurdity of it. Had he looked that stupid with Dowde?

“Everyone should be in a fighting circle now and ready to go,” Sarrius yelled, his voice echoing in the training hall. Sarrius was a master at yelling. It felt to Gavrus like it could be a power all its own. “And… FIGHT!”

Velia surged forward whipping her staff out in a snake like thrust. Gavrus would have to have been an idiot not to expect that avenue of attack. Instead of leaping left to put her in between Fadius and himself (like they had been trained), he leapt to the right. Gavrus had hoped that the Fadius would react slowly to the attack because of the rock plates that protected his vital areas. Gavrus wanted to take Fadius out of the fight early by pushing him out of bounds or quickly hitting a pressure point. Velia’s staff still barely missed Gavrus’s head. But he was given enough room to counter-thrust at Fadius like he’d planned.

The results were mixed. Though, Gavrus’s risky move might have paid off if it had been a real spear. His lightning fast thrust struck Fadius in the chest, but the staff snapped apart. Gavrus stood there looking at the broken stick for a stupid second, before Fadius returned the favor by breaking his own staff across Gavrus’s torso. The force of the blow knocked the air out of his lungs and sent him sprawling on to his ass. Okay that was a mistake, should have prepared myself for that outcome Gavrus thought.

The edge of the fighting circle was just a few feet away from Gavrus’s grounded position. He reached out with his left hand to signify he was out of bounds, in an attempt to end the match. He’d have to come up with another strategy for dealing with Fadius.

“No ya don’t,” Fadius said, grabbing Gavrus by the ankles and pulling him back into the ring, despite his hand clearly going out of bounds. Mistake number two, Gavrus thought, angry at himself for thinking that would work. Fear suddenly blossoming in his heart. No one was really paying attention to their match.

Velia slammed her staff down on to his chest with a powerful thrust, also breaking it in the process. Apparently, the staves weren’t made for durability.

“Alright, you win,” Gavrus said, knowing it was futile, but attempting to placate them anyways. They had dragged him back to the center of the ring.

“Now you suffer worm,” Velia said, spit flying out of her enraged mouth.

Unexpectedly, a heavy weight descended on to Gavrus’s body. Fadius was laying on top his lower half, with all his weight. Gavrus tried to sit up with his arms to a more defensive position, but Velia smashed into him from above with her own tackle. Struggling turned out to be pointless. Between her and Fadius, he was firmly immobilized. Velia laid across his torso on her side, pinning both arms down with her larger weight. Maybe I should use the Neverwas, he thought, reluctantly. It would be better to keep it a secret and just see the body fixer after, he decided. Deaden pain would make this bearable. Hopefully.

“Look, you guys, I’m really flattered, but I’m already in a relationship. And the whole male, male, girl threesome really isn’t my thing anyways,” Gavrus quipped.

Velia’s fist smashed down into his face, pounding Gavrus’s head into the sand. She hit him four more times for good measure. By the time she was finished, he felt like he was going to black out for a moment.

Abruptly, the thought was chased away as he felt Velia’s scalding hot hands wrap themselves around his head. Gavrus’s heart dropped, as her intention became suddenly clear. This was no longer a game.

“Wait, Velia what are yo--” Fadius said, sounding very worried.

Gavrus felt his head yanked back as it was wrenched and twisted around in a snap. His head fell to the ground hanging at an odd angle.

“You fucking killed him!” Fadius screeched in a low hiss, suddenly moving away from Gavrus. “You said you just wanted to hurt him, we are doomed!”

Velia spit on Gavrus’s unmoving face. “I’d do it again.”

For some reason, having his neck broken hadn’t hurt Gavrus. It wasn’t even that uncomfortable really. Nevertheless, he decided to play dead to gather his thoughts. In other circumstances he might have felt amazed at discovering his new body’s unexpected resilience. Instead, a cold chill descended on him, as Gavrus felt killing intent take hold of his heart. He was going to have to do for Velia the way of Dowde. Do for Velia and Fadius both. There would be no forgiveness. That was mistake number three. I underestimated her rage. She is willing to outright murder me in front of everyone in a gods damned training match, Gavrus thought.

His attackers continued to argue over his unmoving body for a few seconds. Gavrus to a quick peak with his already open eyes catching sight of Velia’s broken staff tip laying near his right hand. Now that he was no longer pinned, he could retaliate. He grabbed the wooden fragment, then lurched forward and rammed the jagged stick into Velia’s eye with everything he had.

Velia’s eye exploded with a satisfying squelch. She howled in unexpected agony, falling onto her back. Gavrus attempted to use his forward momentum to force the shard through her eye and into her brain, but Fadius reacted faster than he’d expected, tackling him to the ground.

“Hold! Please!” Fadius pleaded, suddenly looking more like a scared boy than a god of stone.

The Neverwas enveloped itself around his skin in a protective barrier. He could feel it echoing his cold hatred. They had tried to kill him! Gavrus reached up grabbing the soft unhardened skin around Fadius’s neck, while Velia continued to writhe and thrash on the ground nearby. His scaled fingers gripped tightly, digging into the flesh around the arteries of the larger boy’s neck in a devastating chokehold.

Fadius looked panicked at the soulless black plated face of the monster that lived within Gavrus. He tried punching Gavrus with his superior size and strength, but the scale of the Neverwas was too tough to penetrate. Seeing that his blows were harmless, he tried to reach up and yank back Gavrus’s hands off his neck, but they were held fast by the stinging claws. Spots began swimming in Fadius’s vision, he tried to gargle out “Please!” but it was ignored. The cold colorless white eyes of Gavrus had no mercy.

As blood stopped making its way to Fadius’s head, he weakly rolled off Gavrus, landing on his back. Gavrus never let up, following unconscious boy’s body to sit up on top of him. Time to die Fadius, Gavrus thought with glee, head still hanging at an unsightly angle.

Sarrius’s voice sounded in the dim background, but Gavrus ignored it. Fadius’s life was almost taken, he could feel the weak heartbeat even through the scale.

Yellow and purple light exploded around his vision. Gavrus suddenly realized Sarrius had hit him with something incredibly powerful. Still he was stunned by it for only a second. At least it had only felt like a second. He stood up to resume his task, only to discover he was no longer anywhere near Fadius or Velia. The blast had sent him halfway across the training hall.

Sarrius was leaning over Fadius slapping him rudely in the face with one hand and checking his pulse with the other. Two students were carrying a screaming Velia off. Everyone else was gaping at his appearance.

Gavrus stared back at his peers defiantly. They’d thwarted him for now. Velia and Fadius were still going to die. It was just a matter of time. No more mistakes.

⍏

“Look, kids, I love your enthusiasm,” Sarrius said to the three of them, sitting in his surprisingly luxurious office. They had been forced to go to the infirmary before being called back to Sarrius’s office as a group. Velia had taken forever to treat because of all the splinters of wood in her socket. Her screams of pain echoed down the hall with each removal. Gavrus sadistically smiled the entire time.

That had probably scared Fadius even more than he already was. Fadius did everything he could to avoid looking at Gavrus, itching the bruised scratches around his neck nervously.

Gavrus himself was an easy fix for the body fixer, just wrenching his head back in place with a twist. It never even hurt him. He was curious to see what was going to happen next.

“But the fact is, I just can’t have you killing one another. You have to die at the appropriate place, like in the Trials, or it could really fuck up my pension,” Sarrius said with a smirk.

“From this point forward,” Sarrius continued, “you lot are no longer allowed to train together. Personally, I’d love to see you guys tear each other apart a little bit more--it builds character. Velia here gets to wear an awesome looking eyepatch now. Anyways, that’s an order that comes directly from the Headmistress. No more bar fights for you three. I guess she has a pension to worry about too.”

“Now, Velia, we are going to have to try to call in a specialist to try to heal that eye. That may take a couple of months, but even then, you need to accept the possibility that it may not get healed. We are going to have to start training you around its loss. You’ll need to be properly adjusted to not having it if you want a chance in hell of making it through your trial.” Sarrius said.

“Fadius, you are going to have to go through some remedial wrestling. Having someone that much shorter and weaker than you choke you out like a bitch is unacceptable. That was just pathetic. I’d probably have been doing you a favor to let him finish, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for charity cases. Always have been too compassionate.

Finally, Gavrus, we are going to have to work on your footwork and agility. You shouldn’t have let two larger opponents hold you down like that. At least we know what part of your Aspect is now though. Malleable bones are a very useful trait to have. It occurs with some uncommon frequency in water elemental types. It means all those times I broke your arms and legs during training was for nothing! Hah!” Sarrius said with a hearty laugh. Then added, “Well it wasn’t totally for nothing, I had fun, I guess.”

“Okay. Any questions? No? Good. Velia and Fadius you leave first, I have to talk to Gavrus here.” Sarrius said.

After they left the room, Sarrius spoke again, “You need to go up to see Pilus. He is really excited to do some testing on your weird ass summon. It’s probably going to hurt, but at least you will then know its limitations. I can’t tell you how important that is; knowing your limitations. Go see him after lunch. And, nice job with those two. It’s always important to give as good as you got.”

Gavrus sighed, then got up to leave. Pilus had seemed like the only nice person he’d met so far. Guess he wasn’t. Was everyone in this damned place insane?