Wiltoh then continued with his lecture about the basics of sword fighting, practicing on a practice dummy that was brung to animated life by magic, the practice dummy reared itself anticipating a strike from the students, most of the students were readily beaten by the dummy though some managed to land a strike and those few were the exceptional students, Wiltoh cried out to the students who were sitting on the ground after taking a beating from the practice dummy, that was pathetic! the training dummy is only set to the easiest setting yet you all performed poorly! Wiltoh then set the training dummy to expert and then readied himself to attack it, the dummy blocked his moves and struck out to strike the professor, but Wiltoh was too skilled and blocked and countered the training dummy's every move, a testament to his skill in sword fighting, Mivera then interjected and tried to ease the bruised egos of the students,

"now-now, Wiltoh, you should take it a little easy on the freshmen, they're not a Alwyn tournament winner like you...."

Wiltoh grunted

"hmmph!, they should know how tough the course is from the start, keeps them in line and will toughen them up in the long run."

Wiltoh then turned to Papaya and then invited her to try "how about you young lady? let's see what you're made of. try to last a minute against expert setting, pointing to the square where the training dummy was, Papaya the pointed to herself and said

"you mean me?"

Wiltoh then put his sword on the ground while leaning on it

"yes, you try to fight expert setting you only ha--"

Papaya then charged forward while Wiltoh was talking then one-shots the expert level dummy with her spear then sheaths it back to her back

Wiltoh then shocked was speechless, while Mivera's and the entire classroom's mouth were wide open in disbelief,

Papaya calmly went back to Mivera's side and waited

Wiltoh recovering "young lady, where are you from if I may ask?"

Mivera then explained to Wiltoh

"She's an Amazon from the jungles of Ixiltah"

Wiltoh then stroked his chin examining Papaya, "is that so? an amazon? haha."

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

Wiltoh then went closer and examined Papaya up close and then drew his sword, Papaya sensing the sword drawn then quickly plucked her bow and arrows aiming at Wiloh, the sword fighting instructor then had an arrow aimed at his face, even faster than he could anticipate, leaving the entire room stunned,

"young woman, said Wiltoh

"that is a very fast sword arm you have there, reaction time like that can only be acquired by long and constant practice"

Papaya nodded and saw Wiltoh go back to the cache of wooden swords in the corner of the room and then chucked a sword her way, Papaya quickly catching the weapon and then swinging it with consummate skill, Wiltoh then asked her

"would you be so willing to match swords with Wiltoh,

I am in search of a powerful combatant and I have seem to have found him....or her"

Papaya prepared herself, Mivera then putting her hands on her mouth then tried to come between them,

"Wiltoh! matching your skill against a student, she doesn't stand a chance!"

Wiltoh then contradicted her and said

"she is skilled enough, and I have doubts if she is still even a beginner, judging by her skill....."

Papaya was the first to make the move, in front of the eagerly watching students she made her sword strike, the students cheering for the upstart Amazon.

Wiltoh steeled himself and went into his fortress stance a powerful technique made by himself, Wiltoh himself was no ordinary swordsman, the fact that he was one of the instructors at the Alwyn Academy and the champion of one of its past tournaments was testament to his skill as well, Papaya's sword came fast and true striking like lightning but Wiltoh parried and then switched the attack into his favor, preparing to strike the Amazon down, but a surprise twist by Papaya's wrist then leaned her sword from an attack position to that of instantaneous defense, Wiltoh was immensely impressed, then shifted backwards to avoid the swing from Papaya, the whole room was in a rumble of sounds and cheers as the two continued to engage, Mivera could only watch as the match continued its exciting pace.

Papaya then shifted her weight and quickly flanked Wiltoh, though he was skilled Wiltoh's form made him slower in exchange for the added defensive ability, Papaya drawing to her own Amazon fighting arts went to Wiltoh's side and then with a burst of speed made a thrust towards Wiltoh's left torso, Wiltoh sword was at his right thus his left arm was undefended and vulnerable, Wiltoh with great skill then shifted his weight and in an instant was now guarded at his left side blocking Papaya's strike

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

The Amazon then swung her wooden sword in an arc, signaling a challenge to the instructor, this time it was Wiltoh's turn to

charge and he did so with great fervor, already noticing that the Amazon was no mere student but one that was actually experienced with the ways of fighting, Wiltoh did a feint to the left then swung his sword in a circular fashion... a moon slash as it was called, and quite a difficult slash to block, but not to the Amazon who jumped and parried with a downward block using her body to put weight on the force effectively nullifying the moon slash, Wiltoh was amazed at the clever parry done in by the Amazon, but had to set aside all his musings for now, the fight was commencing

Papaya and Wiltoh then flanked each other and then locked in a stalemate of feints and fake attacks were now sizing each other up, the tension was intense, Wiltoh putting his champion status on the line, Papaya fighting for the honor of the Amazons. Papaya was the first to attack, slashing in

a diagonal arc towards her opponent then blocked and counter slashed by Wiltoh, Papaya had barely enough time to dodge spinning quickly out of the path of the opponent's sword, then setting herself up for another attack to the midsection to the champion of Alwyn, a slash to the middle was then blocked by Wiltoh as he used his weight to stave off the attack as he was heavier and more stocky than the lithe Amazon, grasping his sword he then made an upper slash surprising Papaya who countered with a dodge and rolling forward away from Wiltoh, the champion then chuckled

"What't this? you're not telling me you've had enought now amazon?"

"Papaya is not going to be provoked into being attacked easily by the likes of you" Papaya shot back

readying herself to attack she then put herself into one of the Amazon fighting stances

raising her wooden sword she then formed herself into an s shape position, Wiltoh then remembering from the stories he had heard about amazons that they possessed very dangerous fighting stances and though he did not dream in his wildest that he would be placed in the position of fighting one, Papaya formed herself into an S-shaped stance forming into the Cobra form, she then put herself into a position ready to strike at a moments notice, Wiltoh curious to see the Amazon fighting arts were then risked coming closer putting himself into a defensive stance, inching closer and closer to his intended target, he then decided to test Papaya by repeated jabs with his sword, but Papaya would easily swat the sword aside thanks to her added defensive stance, that was when Wiltoh made a mistake and went in too close miscalculating his movement due to Papaya's smaller frame as the Alwyn champion was too used to fighting large and wide, muscled opponents.

fighting a shapely and thin Amazon for the first time threw him off as he went in her strike zone too closely, that was the opening Papaya needed and then with the speed of a cobra struck out from her coiled position and made the first hit with her sword, Wiltoh was pushed back and

then saw his breastplate dented, Papaya had the first strike winning the match.

Wiltoh then put down his sword and raised his hand declaring Papaya the winner to the cheers of the students

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

Papaya raised her one hand in a victory pose. as the entire classroom rushed to her, Mivera among them

"it seems you are more than just an applying student, they'll be talking about this in the succeeding batches!"

said Mivera, now about that enrollment....all freshmen are expected to apply at the hall of heroes for application, but Papaya merely stopped her and explained that she was not an applying student much to the surprise and disappointment of Mivera, she had assumed and had hoped that the Amazon would be joining the campus but the Amazon had other things in mind

Wiltoh came closer and was still nursing his bruised ego after the match had gone to its timely conclusion, Papaya had explained her quest to both professors who looked at each other and pondered her words for a while

"hmmmm....you've been on quite an interesting adventure amazon...said Wiltoh but this land among the stars, it's the first time I had heard of such a thing, but Mivera had a different answer, I've had many books and tomes read during my lifetime possibly numbering in the thousands and yes during my years as a student here I've had read a curious tome that describes a story about a man journeying among the stars,

Papaya's face lit up and eagerly asked Mivera,

"where is book now? Papaya want to know about it!"

Mivera then obliged her and then pointed to the great library of Alwyn, I've had the pleasure of reading that book all those years ago from the great library, but she also gave Papaya a warning, but there is something you must know Amazon.

"What is that?"

Mivera paused for a moment and then continued

the book is buried within thousands of books in the library, to find it would take you months even with the help of the librarian, which is why I will come with you on your quest.......as I will too! Wiltoh also added

Papaya now had two members in her own party on her quest...

Githiom strode into the marketplace surveying all that he could see and took note of the hustle and bustle of the area, all around him he could see vendors plying their trade and hawking their goods and people from all walks of life selecting goods to buy from loaves of bread to weapons for adventurers, it was the perfect place to collect information, and since he was Illumian, people were more likely to give it to him, the renown of Illumians is that of shining paragons of the light that is known to the farthest reaches of the land, Githiom noticed a comely lady perusing a collection of perfume from a merchant to his left and a portly man selecting a basket of delicious fruit to his right the marketplace was lively from all the people going about their day, he then approached one of the merchants particularly the merchants selling weapons and magical trinkets as they would come into contact with adventurers who might have the information he needs