‘Thud’

A wooden sword struck wood.

‘Thud’

“Again”

‘thud’

“If your hands hurt when you strike, good! Get used to it. That’s what it means to hold a sword!”

‘Thud’

“Again!”

Ryder awoke at the crack of dawn, eager to get to the academy and even more excited to learn more about the arcane. He had expected to be learning swordplay as well, but his idea of sword play was sorely mistaken.

On earth, the sword had been such an antiquated notion for so long that the real reason it was made became bleached from the art, replacing functionality with beauty, and skill with style.

“Again!”

Here, the sole purpose of a sword was to kill. Any deviation from that was a mistake. It made sense though, judging from what he had already seen of the world. Everything he'd encountered so far wanted to eat him, and had damn good trying to. Ending up in the gut of a monster because of his preconceptions about the sword did not interest him in the slightest.

“Again!”

Twenty-nine others suffered along with Ryder, though their expression differed greatly. Most look determined, not enjoying it but understanding the necessity. Some looked happy, he ignored them, they were obviously insane. Very few looked upset over the work, and those that did were all undoubtedly spoiled and overweight nobles.

He didn’t like what that implied about his work ethic. While he was far from overweight, his body had certainly not been built up to be used to swinging a sword for hours on end.

‘Thud’

“Enough. Take a break, there’s a well behind the armory, go get a drink of water. Don’t drink too much though, or you’ll puke!”

Ryder wiped the sweat from his brow. It wasn’t even noon yet, but he was already tired. He had been spoiled by his lackadaisical upbringing and life on earth, where he didn’t have to work hard to get by. Here, he would have to fight for his life, and then some, just to get by outside of the city.

Thirty students wandered behind the armory, a large stone building that somehow still managed to look graceful from the outside, even though the inside was filled to the brim with blades of different shapes and styles.

Not that he would be able to use any of them for a long while, though.

Ryder followed along behind the rest of his class. He hadn’t spoken to anyone in the class yet, and it didn’t seem that was going to change. His class was made up of roughly half males and females, of varying origin. He spotted a few that reminded him of Yuri.

He was easily one of the tallest, which made him stand out quite a bit. Though, most of the students in the class had taken one look at his plain clothes and wild hair and sneered at him. The academy certainly did not lack for noble students, even if it did lack nobility.

“Ryder!”

A beautiful woman called out to him.

Regal, elegant, the very image that nobility tried, and usually failed, to personify. Which made it a bit odd that she would actively approach him, who looked the part of the poor commoner. He shook the thoughts from his mind. He wasn’t here to flirt, and picturing the woman that approached him in the nude was poor manners.

“Good morning miss Yuri. I didn’t know that you were a student here as well. Judging by the armband, if I’m not mistaken, you’re my senior.” He noted the gold armband she wore.

The other students in his class were gaping at him. Apparently Yuri was an important person in noble circles.

When he had arrived at the academy, besides being shown around the many buildings and the different training areas, he had been given a pitch black armband with the crest of the academy on it. It signified his status in the academy, telling everyone he was a new student. It served several purposes, first and foremost to inform the other students that they were not eligible to be dueled.

Black armbands were only given to new students, those that had just enrolled and cannot control Arcane power.

A brown armband signified that the student was no longer new, and thus eligible to duel, but still couldn’t use arcane power correctly.

The blue armband came next, and with it the student needed to be able to moderately control Arcane power. Ryder technically should already have a blue armband, but the academy didn’t allow the skipping of levels. If he wanted to raise his level, he would need to take and pass the advancement test. These tests were simple, and held once a month in the auditorium. The auditorium reminded him immensely of roman architecture, but it had been built to sit less than a thousand.

After the blue, came the red armband, where the true power of the arcane started to show itself. A student must be at the level of control and power to easily defeat a normal trained swordsman. A swordsman that could not wield the arcane. The academy usually employed the cities guards for these tests.

The last armband one could receive before graduation from the academy was the Gold armband. Students at this level could take on an entire squad of soldiers, some with arcane abilities, and win. It required competent control of the arcane, and enough battle experience to outmaneuver the opponent and not get surrounded.

The only one left was the graduation armband.

Yuri stood in front of him wearing a gold armband.

“I had no idea she was so skilled! That would explain all the blood that had been on her armor when she entered the baths though, now that I think about it…”

Some of the students in his class glared at him, but their outrage was lost on the back of his head.

“don’t worry about it. The distinction between the armbands is meaningless to me. I’m just glad to see you are enjoying yourself in class.”

Ryder paused for a second at her words, confused.

“Enjoying myself, surely you kid. I’m in agony out there.”

Yuri gave him an odd look. He matched it.

“Yet you were smiling the entire time during class?”

“I was smiling? No way! Hold on a sec, how would she know…”

“That’s crazy, there’s no way I’m enjoying this—, doesn’t that mean you were watching me train for the last hour?”

He smirked. She blushed a little.

“Looks like I was right!”

“Breaks over! Get back over here, we aren’t even close to being done today!” The big burly instructor called out from the sword training area. Evidently class was back in session. Yuri gave him a smirk and ran off.

“Saved by the instructor. Wait! I never got a drink!”

Unfortunately, the instructor didn’t like to wait…

‘Thud’

‘Crack’

‘thud’

The sun had reached its peak in the sky.

Ryder was soaked. Sweat ran down his brow like a waterfall. His shirt stuck to his chest. Most of the students were similarly drenched though. Only a few looked to be slightly sweating. It was obvious which of the students had prior training.

“Alright, now that you know the feel of a blade, I’m going to let you get a feel for taking a blade. Partner up! One will strike at the other, nothing fancy, and the other will block the attack.”

The students shuffled around, some still out of breath from the earlier practice. Ryder waited to see who got stuck as his partner. It appeared that his friendly demeanor and conversation with Yuri had only served to alienate him further.

As it turned out, the only other student that everyone disliked as well was one of the students that looked similar to Yuri. While he couldn’t actually see the man’s teeth to check, and his eyes looked normal, he had a similar facial structure that reminded him of her.

“Hi, I’m Ryder.”

“You will pay for disrespecting Lady Olegouna.”

“I guess he was one of her people…”

“Alright, now that everyone has a partner, Begin!”

His partner wasted no time attacking. In fact, it was so quick Ryder almost didn’t block it.

‘Crack’

The two blades connected, sending a throb down their arms.

‘Thud’

The two blades connected again. His partners blade swept in from the side. Ryder parried, his hands throbbing.

His partner didn’t seem to want to switch anytime soon. Blows came raining in, alternating between horizontal and overhead attacks.

“alright then, I guess I’ll just make you switch!”

Ryder waited until the man overextended with an overhead slash, obviously not worried about Ryder counterattacking.

‘Crack’

“Ah!”

Ryders blade crunched into his partner’s shoulder. The man had been so busy trying to injure Ryder he had failed to notice the blade coming for him before it was too late. The man fell backward, his ass planting itself in the dirt as he dropped his blade and clutched his shoulder.

The instructor that had been roaming around and helping the students, suddenly appeared next to them.

“What are you doing! You think this is a picnic? You think just because you say ow and drop your blade that your enemy will stop and wait for you? Get up!”

The entire class was watching now. Snickers could be heard from the crowd.

“I’ll say this now, and I speak to you all when I say this. If you give up on the battlefield, your dead! Drop your weapon, and your dead! Your sword is the single most important tool in your arsenal, followed barely by your head. It is much better to lose an arm, and keep the sword, then to lose the sword! Continue!”

The words angered his partner, who leapt from the dirt as if nothing had even happened and retrieved his sword.

Ryders blade parted the air as he attacked, and his partner blocked. His partner counter attacked, and Ryder blocked. It was no longer friendly practice, they wanted to beat each other.

‘Crack’

The man parried Ryders blade and tried to step into his guard.

‘Thud’

Ryder attempted a quick slash to get him to back up, but his partner had been waiting for it. Ryders blade passed harmlessly by the man and his partner went for his neck.

‘Swish’

Ryder dodged to the side at the last minute. If the attack had landed, it would have done serious damage.

“I see, so that’s how you want to play this.”

Ryder charged back into the fray, cleaving the air with a vertical chop that could break bones if it landed.

‘Thud’

His partner had blocked it without trouble, a grin on his face. That is, until Ryder’s kick sent him sprawling backwards.

This continued long into the afternoon, only stopping when the sun kissed the horizon, painting the sky in hues of red and orange. The earlier enthusiasm between the two partners had evaporated in the afternoon practice, replaced by exhaustion and pain. The instructor had alternated between striking practice on the straw dummies, and blocking sparring between partners.

Bruises ran up and down Ryder’s arms. Several red marks dotted his face. The other guy looked just as bad. They had come to an understanding over the course of the sparring that neither was skilled enough to injure the other without being injured themselves. That didn’t stop them from trying though.

If it had been a real duel, they both would have died from their wounds. But it wasn’t, and they actually learned a lot from there heated sparring. For one, not to get pissed off during combat.

Ryder was exhausted.

He wallowed through the streets, looking more the part of a beggar than he ever had before. He barely made it home. While his legs weren’t as sore as the rest of him, hours of exercise had made his whole body hurt.

He shambled inside the inn, tired, sore, and hungry. The bar, as always, had a few seats open. He planted his ass on a stool and his head on the bar counter. It felt so peaceful, not moving a muscle, enjoying the feel of the cool bar counter against his skin.

A cold rag fell over his head. The ice cold water soothing his head and waking him up at the same time. He picked his head up, seeing the grizzled old man giving him a look.

The man had a chalk board, at least that’s what Ryder thought it was, and placed it on the counter where Ryder could see.

“Order something or go to bed, no sleeping here.”

Ryder sighed, handing the rag back across the counter.

“I was planning on it. Two orders of whatever’s for dinner please.”

The grizzled man nodded, taking the rag and stepping away.

Ryder let his head fall back to the counter.

“rough day?”

Yuri sat in the stool to his left.

“You could say that. It might have been because of the partner I had today. He insisted that I call you Lady Olegouna from now on. Today was supposed to be my punishment for not doing so before.”

“Ah, you must be talking about my cousin, Korari. He always was a stickler about the proper way to address someone. Terribly dull if you ask me.” She gave him a smirk, not worried about his hardships in the slightest.

“so that’s what his name was, He never did introduce himself.”

“If it makes you feel better, there are few in your class that could give as many as they took like you did sparring against him.”

Ryder turned his head to look at her, just so she could see him frown.

“It doesn’t, not in the least.”

“Here you are, two By’tun Steaks with healthy sides of veggies and two large glasses of spring water. Ah, how nice of you to buy Yuri dinner.” Lisa had arrived, and was already sticking her nose in their business.

Ryder picked his head up to complain, but Yuri beat him to it.

“Why thank you for the sumptuous meal Ryder. I’m forever grateful.”

Ryder grumbled under his breath.

“What do I owe you? Also, I’ve decided to book the room for a month, so add that in there as well.”

“Hmm, that’ll be thirty Seps for the room, and another two Seps for the meals.”

Ryder nodded, mechanically collecting thirty-two Seps from his ring, and piling them on the table. She nodded at him with a business smile, collecting the money.

Unfortunately, she didn’t leave.

“So how long have you two been together?” Lisa asked with an innocent smile. It didn’t fool him though.

Ryder was already digging into the steak, which tasted somewhat like a beef. He looked over at her with his mouth full, unable to speak, but glaring was a silent move that he employed to the fullest.

“Oh, so shy you can’t even speak? How cute, he-he-he” Lis sauntered away with a smirk. Ryder thought she had been talking to him, as he actually couldn’t speak without being rude, but he missed the red faced Yuri sitting to the left of him.

He took a swig of the spring water to wash down his food.

“So, what is a By’tun?” He turned his questioning eyes to Yuri, only now noticing her red face.

“I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it, considering you’re not from around here. It’s a creature well known for both its meat and its horns. It has three of them, and they make excellent spear tips. They have a few spears like that at the academy, but since you chose to learn the sword I doubt you’ll see them.”

“I see…”

“I wonder why a noble is a regular here…”

“Hmm, that was good.” Ryder had finished he food, while Yuri had barely touched hers.

“hungry much?” she teased.

“not anymore, that hit the spot. I’m off to bed now. Night. Make sure you finish the meal you swindled from me” Ryder gave her a tired smirk as he retreated to his room. She watched him go a bit reluctantly. He stumbled into his room, yanking his smelly shirt off of him. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

A little while later, his door creaked open, sending a sliver of candle light into the room. Yuri peered into the room, taking sight of the soundly sleeping man in the bed. Ryder was far too exhausted to be woken up from the door opening. She snuck into the room, draping a light blanket over him. She left the room just as quietly.

Yuri slowly closed the door, not wanting to wake him.

“Sneaking into his room Yuri? My, you’re so bold! Must be nice to be young.” Lisa appeared as she always did, at the worst possible time.

Yuri faced her down with a finger raised to her lips, not falling for the provocation. “Shh, he’s sleeping, I was just making sure he made it to the bed. He looked dead on his feet earlier.”

“Sure you were. I bet you were just trying to peak on him while he was undressing.”

Yuri’s ears tinged pink, unwillingly reminded of their first meeting.

“I was not, now shoo, get out of here. I’m going to bed!”

Lisa only chuckled as Yuri made her escape from the busybody.