“See?” Rea smiled, her face notably unmarred despite Shaya’s best efforts – and those of her friends. “That wasn’t so bad.”

Shaya’s only response was to continue panting for air, her tunic and pants soaked through with sweat. Exhaustion settled in as the rage drained from her. A small part of her mind was at least thankful Rea hadn’t shredded her clothes. Shaya swore she was paying a fortune to keep her clothing and armour from falling into disrepair all the time.

Damn mage school... she cursed inwardly, just full of trauma and expenses...

“Not bad?” Ren’s fur stood on end, “She tried to kill me!”

“Bah, only briefly,” the mad professor waved his concern away as they all walked back to the dining room, “Besides, she caught herself and redirected her focus to me in no time.”

“I...” Shaya gasped between inhales. “I... think I hate you.”

“Oh, better watch out,” Rea teased, “she’s clearly still taken by her rage.”

“Not... in the least...”

“Well, thank you for volunteering,” Rea turned her smile to the others, “I think your participation really cemented this lesson.”

“We didn’t volunteer!” Ren threw up his arms.

“And in the end,” Rea continued, ignoring his outburst, “we can see that Shaya is mostly capable of determining friend from foe while enraged, and even fighting with some level of coordination with them. Huge success!”

Samorn and Ral nodded, actually looking pleased by the evening’s session. Both were flushed from exertion as well, though not nearly as much as Ren was. Bri patted Shaya on the back with sympathy, handing her a cup of water that she downed like someone dying from thirst.

“Rea is right,” Samorn added, “Your control does seem to have improved greatly since you were forced to enter the rage against the raised titan.”

“Don’t... encourage her, please...”

They walked into the dining room, where Oraeus was in the midst of a discussion with Celica. His tension had melted away and he almost looked relaxed. That brought a smile to Shaya’s face.

Apricot’s face, on the other hand, turned to shock and horror when she saw them enter the room. “Mom! What did you do to my friends!?”

+++++

“My exam’s simple,” Auric explained, Shaya and her peers once again arrayed before the artificial city that served as their testing grounds, each armoured only in standard gambeson, “you’ll see a combat scenario before you, you pick your weapons for it, and you engage it. Marks are based on how quickly and smoothly you can overcome the challenges. As per the rest of our course, no magic will be allowed, not even the drawing of aether.”

Shaya felt that last comment was aimed at her, which filled her with roguish pride.

“Good luck,” Shaya, Bri, Ral and Lan said to one another, bumping their fists together before splitting up.

Shaya approached the first challenge, looking upon an open field with multiple unarmoured targets. She looked at the teaching assistant, who held up one finger to indicate how many weapons she could pick, then gestured to the weapon rack. Shaya tested a few of the short bows quickly and made sure to grab a quiver of arrows sized for the weapon.

Clawed fingers loosed arrow after arrow, each one thunking into the chest of a straw-filled dummy. The assistant whistled appreciatively and pointed her to the next challenge only a dozen feet over.

Shaya squinted down range at three armoured targets, the closest one around sixty yards away while the furthest was around one-hundred yards. She once again had to pick only one ranged weapon. She chewed her lip as she debated between the accurate and hard-hitting arbalest and the more difficult to use Sillanir compound bow.

Hesitation would cost her precious seconds, so she grabbed the heaviest bow and trusted in her abilities. She checked the arrow tips in each quiver before grabbing one that had heavy iron bodkins made for punching through armour at range and got to shooting. She underestimated how much the wind affected such long-range shots and corrected for it. It took her six shots, but she managed to take down the targets in less than a minute and rushed to the next station, thinking she still made better time with the bow than she would with the arbalest.

The next challenge took place in a narrow alley, with three lightly armoured, wingless angels standing in it armed only with longswords. Without hesitation, she grabbed a blunted spear from the rack and rushed down the alley. They approached cautiously, the alley too narrow to swarm her, but Shaya made sure to maneuver them so their sword arms were always against the wall, preventing them from swinging at her easily. That advantage allowed her to overcome their ageless martial experience and she used quick, controlled stabs to muscle through the three beings and onto the next scenario while they evaporated into aetherplasm.

I’m not sure if I prefer fighting angels or demons now... that felt weird.

A deep, feline snarl made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end as she approached an open space with no visible opponent. A teaching assistant stood in front of a weapon’s rack and held up two fingers as she approached. Shaya breathed a sigh of relief as she looked down into a pit, where only one normal tiger stalked back and forth. Then she realized that a mere tiger was not much easier to face than an Arctiger.

After a heartbeat of thinking through a strategy, she sheathed a dagger at her belt and grabbed a swordstaff with a wide guard off the rack. She hopped into the pit at the far end from the tiger, which faced her warily and began circling her. Not having time to play it safe, Shaya lunged at the tiger with her polearm. It dodged to the side with ease and launched itself at her.

Just as planned, even including which side it attacked from.

Shaya pulled her weapon back and braced it. The tiger twisted in the air to avoid being impaled, but she still managed to draw the blade across its neck and tilt it slightly off course with the guard. The tiger clipped her with its weight, still more than enough to drive her to the ground without the enhanced strength she was accustomed to fighting with.

She dropped the spear and pulled her dagger as the tiger rolled atop her. One hand kept its gnashing jaws away from her face while the other plunged the dagger into its underside until its paws stopped raking at her. With a grunt of effort, she pushed the tiger off her as it evaporated into aetherplasm, almost surprised that none of its claws managed to slash through her gambeson.

Shaya’s respect for the humble foot soldier’s armour grew as she clambered out of the pit. The assistant pointed her to the next challenge and she walked there to let herself catch her breath. The next assistant stood in front of a wide street that was blockaded by a wall of pikes.

“You just need to cut your way through,” he explained as she approached, “one weapon.”

With a greatsword in hand, Shaya hewed her way through a wall of pikes. It was the longest trial yet, the thickness of each pike taking multiple blows to the same, precise location on the haft to chop it down. Doing that by itself was challenging enough, but doing so while avoiding getting caught on the other pikes that bristled toward her turned the scenario into a nightmare.

And the pikes weren’t even moving.

Shaya was panting as she reached the next scenario, cursing Rea for her surprise lesson in anger management. Her next instructor leaned against the wall of a building lazily, before a closed door, and raised two fingers.

“Mystery opponent?” Shaya asked, nodding at the closed door.

“Yep.”

“Does a shield count as a weapon?”

“Of course.”

She strapped on a round shield and grabbed a sword from the rack. A mighty kick blew down the door to the building and Shaya rushed into what appeared to be a tavern, roaring “WAAAGH!”

Her first opponent was stunned by her entrance, another angelic figure in medium armour and a sword that may have proven troublesome had he been ready for her. Since he wasn’t, she slid her sword across his throat and kept moving as glowing silver blood flowed from his porcelain neck. The next opponent recovered and lunged at her with his spear, which she deflected with her shield. He recovered without an opening, so she kicked a chair into him and focused on his ally.

The glowing man in heavy armour chopped down at her with a bronze greatsword, the blade smashing aside a chandelier illuminating the room. Shaya sidestepped the attack and drove the rim of her shield into his visored face. She stomped down on his sword as he stumbled backwards, forcing him to leave it behind, but didn’t have time to follow up with another attack.

Spinning back to the lightly armoured spearman, she just managed to get her shield up. His spear punched through it. Before he could free his weapon, she twisted, pulling him off balance and letting her stab him in the gut. She turned her blade in his gut and slashed it outwardly to take him out of the fight, but he clung to her leg as he fell.

Unable to move, she couldn’t dodge as her remaining opponent smashed a chair over her. Shaya managed to keep her footing, thankfully, but the angel closed in with her, smashing an elbow into her head, then grabbing for her sword. The two wrestled for the weapon, Shaya at a disadvantage as he grappled with two free hands. She managed to throw the sword away from them before he could wrest it from her and proceeded to smash her shield against him until it was no more than splinters.

With both hands free, she used her greater height and strength to take control of the grapple and smash the man’s head into a wall until he stopped struggling. She picked up her sword and delivered the coup de gras to her stunned opponent, plunging the sword through his throat where the armour couldn’t protect him.

She watched the angel fade into aetherplasm, armour and all, as she caught her breath again and let the room stop spinning. The pain and fatigue in her limbs made her wish she could draw upon her magic, knowing that they could offer a quick fix.

The only other door from the room led down a set of stairs, which she took slowly as her head still pounded from the battle. At the bottom of the stairs, Shaya found a large room filled with more weapons than any of the other scenarios offered. The attendant gave her a nod as she stumbled towards him, but she read surprise on his face.

Maybe I’m faster than expected?

“Your final challenge will be a gauntlet of three scenarios, but you only get to pick three weapons at this point and must use them to the finish.”

Shaya nodded, which made her head swim, and took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

“Alright, which three weapons to go with?”