CHAPTER 5 - The Stubborn pair of a Teacher and a Student.

The next day, yoga and martial art classes passed by swiftly. It was then the second last theory class for the new batch. The teacher was only going to be revising the previous topics discussed. He had now accepted the student that slept through his classes. He could not wait to see how he would fail in the initiation and be thrown out of the academy now.

When Azyl found himself again in that strange dreamscape, he immediately rushed towards the direction of the ten shadows that were visible. It was perhaps a distance of a kilometer or slightly more. After running constantly for around ten minutes, he finally could take a better look at the ten shadows. In real world he would never be able to run for ten minutes, but here it was possible for him, as long his mind could take the strain. Fueled by his curiosity, he finally reached his destination.

He could clearly make out from before what those ten shadows were. And as he had thought, they were people. Ten beings, six men and four women. One woman had slightly strange features, like reptilian scales and a tail. They also each had something glowing on themselves. One of them had a pair of chain wrapped around his arms, while the middle guy wore glowing gloves. Two of them who looked like twins had a strange weapon with a trigger in their hand that was glowing. Something like a crossbow, but smaller.

But other than their features and accessories, the most unsettling thing was the way they all looked. They all had the same sad expression on their face. He could guess maybe it was because they were the only survivors of the terrible war that took place in these ruins, but because they were all frozen, it made him feel creepy. It was as if someone had pushed the pause button as they were all stuck with that melancholic expression.

They did not seem to be dead, but neither were they alive. Stuck somewhere in between, and that was unsettling. As soon as he moved to capture the clear details of their faces, he was stuck with a heavy pain in his head. The hammering headache immediately woke him up. He might have shouted out in pain as everyone was looking at him now.

As the pain subsided, he rubbed his head and spoke sheepishly,

"I must have knocked my head down while dosing off. I am really sorry for the inconvenience teacher, it won't happen again."

And without looking shameful at all he then sat back in his seat and moved his head back down on the table to lie against his arm.

That was the last straw as the incensed teacher could no longer hold it back.

"Azyl Lheas, meet me after the class is over. We need to have a proper talk later." The teacher shouted while gritting his teeth.

The whole class was barely holding back their laughter. But they all quieted down after watching the fearful look on the teachers face. Zewoulf felt bad and pitiful for his friend but he could not do anything.

At least he should have held back on going back to sleep immediately after disturbing the class like that, but what was done could not be changed. He was a little worried about what might he have seen to have such a loud reaction, but he did not think that other than another lengthy lecture from the teacher there might be another trouble for his friend.

Azyl heard what the teacher had said, but the pain was still hammering inside his head and he needed some rest. He had no other dream as he blissfully slept.

When the class was over, Zewoulf nudged him awake before the teacher could shout at him again.

"Don't do anything stupid now." He warned him carefully.

"What now?" Azyl blinked his eyes, already having forgotten the words that the teacher had said.

Zewoulf quickly reminded him as the teacher was no almost standing directly ahead of him.

"Follow me Azyl Lheas." He ordered with an icy tone that hinted to his calmness at that moment. The teacher must have reached a terrifying point to be calm like that. He turned around and walked off swiftly. Azyl slowly followed him from behind.

Zewoulf could only pray that there won't be excessive trouble for him as he saw them disappear towards the large training grounds.

........

Soon both of them were standing on the training grounds. The teacher, still with a frosty look on his face turned towards Azyl and spoke,

"Run around the ground. Don't stop until I say so." He ordered.

He had the right to be punishing this student who had been repeatedly going against him since day one. Right now he only wanted to vent out and punishing him like this as it was the only thing he could do. He could not expel him yet and he just wanted to make this student suffer.

It was strange how he as a teacher had lost his reason like this against a student, but this just went to say how annoying Azyl's behavior had been.

Azyl also didn't say anything more. He also kind of understood that his behavior hadn't been appropriate, so he complied and started running. He thought after he was exhausted the teacher might let him go. But that did not happen.

Well into the evening after the sun had set, Azyl was still slowly trotting along the ground boundary. He had already lost the count of rounds he had done. He carefully took every step, minding that he would not lose his balance. He felt immense weariness more that tiredness. His mind could not understand why this was happening. The teacher was still standing the same as before. Now more than a punishment it looked as if those two were competing on who could last longer.

Standing on the same place had also been exhausting for the teacher. But more that anything, he could not move from his place because this student still had not fallen at his knees and asked for forgiveness.

Azyl on the other hand thought that the teacher was still not letting him go as if his punishment was not enough. So he continued to take a step forward.

Six hours later both of them gave in to their fatigue almost at the same time. And from that day, another strange story about a stubborn pair of a teacher and student spread. This would later go through so much modifications that the students would recount a horrific tale of how a teacher and a student had gone on without stop for six hours straight.

........

When Azyl returned, he could not bring himself to speak anything about the dream and directly went to sleep. That day he learned a valuable lesson to never cross his teachers ever, especially the stubborn and strict ones.

The night passed like that and soon it was another day of studies for the new students. But today was different as they would finally find out more about how to become an Elementalist.

They would be told about the requirements to become an Elementalist.