“REPOSITION!” Vulk roared.

The circle of shield bearers around him and Korith scrambled to move to another part of the wooden arena. They trampled on planks, climbed staircases, and ran on the stone floor of the courtyard most of the Warrior training happened in. Once they had found their new standing spots, they dug their heels in and waited for the inevitable.

Korith was in a state of exertion where her body felt lighter than it truly was. Her lungs were pumping air at a steady, sustainable rate. She was dressed only in casual clothes and armed with a wooden hammer. Vulk wore nothing besides baggy pants and had a long training sword in one hand. Student and teacher both exuded an air of physical might, a side manifestation of the Warrior Control supporting their every move.

“COME AT ME, PIPSQUEAK!”

Korith crouched down and launched herself at the goliath. The metres between them were bridged in a flash. Wood smacked against wood, the sword brought between him and her hammer strike. The goliath showed a toothy, brutal grin, and pushed Korith back.

The second Korith’s feet hit the ground, she skipped away from her opponent. Exerting her power in such a way that she did a backwards somersault on the fly had taken several days to figure. Now, she was confident in it. Her feet hit the shield of one of the other students. The arms gave slightly. The student grit his teeth and vigilantly stood his ground. This was as much training for them as it was for her, an endurance test of running and withstanding the impact of heavy ‘projectiles’.

Launching off, Korith was on a direct collision course with Vulk again. Her teacher unexpectedly retreated two steps. Smacking into the floor on two feet and one hand, Korith immediately jumped upwards to escape the ensuing kick. She went five metres up into the air, the extra strength of her arm adding to the intensity of the leap.

Impressive as that was, it was also a mistake. Straight upwards, there was no point to jump off from. After reaching the highpoint of her trajectory, she plummeted back down. Vulk dodged away from the clearly telegraphed swing of her hammer, then managed to grab her by the foot. The world was transformed into a blur. Vertigo dominated her senses. Vulk spun her around himself two times, before slamming her into the floor.

The stone cracked, splinters of it flying everywhere. “Good reaction!” Vulk grinned. The kobold’s form was covered in scales of a steel grey. They retreated rapidly from where she was supposed to have skin. The colour lingered a little bit on her arms, legs and tail, before draining from there as well, leaving behind the typical red. “If any of you doubt why Warrior Control is important, try reacting this properly with any conscious effort!”

“Uhm, will you let me go?” Korith asked, her left foot still in the iron clutches of her teacher.

“If you didn’t want to get grabbed, you shouldn’t have let me fucking grab you!” Vulk gave his response and lifted her back up like a flail. This was a lesson to be beaten into anyone who relied on mobility to make up for their lesser reach: do not ever get taken hold of. Korith activated her Ironscale Armour again, just in time to withstand the second impact of her back on the floor. Shards of rock ground against her skin. All that was torn in the process was her shirt.

Laughing like a fighting addicted maniac, Vulk ripped her up again. He spun around, building up momentum for the third slam. Sturdy as Warriors were, their ki reserves were not endless. Korith needed a solution and she needed it fast. She did not have the reach nor the opportunity to retaliate with any strikes of her arms. The advantage she did have was that her feet were more of a weapon than those of most humanoids.

A third time, she was slammed into the floor. This time, she didn’t let the Ironscale just drain away. She channelled it all into her right foot. The scales shimmered metallically, the deep red, curved claws of her three toes were turned nearly black. They spread out, webbing stretching between them, then slammed into Vulk’s arm.

His own Ironskin activated in response. A peculiar sound, between the squeaking of leather and the screeching of tearing metal, echoed through the courtyard. Korith tried her hardest to punch through his defences – and she succeeded. Blood poured from three holes in Vulk’s arm, each about as large and deep as the bite from a housecat.

It did not even inconvenience the titan of a man. He laughed, triumphantly. “An opponent of your level could lose half their wrist to that! Good – JOB!” Vulk’s congratulations came in the form of Korith getting thrown at the shield wall. Reacting swiftly, Korith twisted around and landed on the shield of whoever she was getting thrown at.

The problem was that this particular whoever was not able to withstand the impact. In a discordant mess of splintering wood and pained groans, Korith and the Warrior student both tumbled outside the bounds of the arena. Dazed, Korith rolled off the giant of a man. “Sorry about that!” she apologized and checked on the man.

“It’s… fine,” the Warrior mumbled, downplaying his pain. The reasons for his brave front were manifold. A large one was definitely the two huge knockers hanging next to his face.

“Eeeep!” Korith noticed that the bindings that had kept her tits from bouncing around had been undone together with the back of her shirt. “C-could we maybe fight in a way that doesn’t gradually strip me?”

“Like your enemies give you that choice!” Vulk thundered, as he stomped out of the arena. “Take a break you lousy excuses – and by break I mean run! If your arms are getting tired, keep those legs busy. Three rounds around the complex, GO!” The Warrior next to Korith knew better than to prioritize ogling her over orders by their teacher. Rapidly, the courtyard emptied itself of students. Korith stayed and gave her back a careful padding.

‘Aclysia is going to kill me,’ she whined in her head. The sweet song of metal bouncing on the floor immediately had her attention. Instincts kicked in and she pounced on the coin like a predator on helpless prey. Greedily, she held it in her clutches, only remembering where it had come from when she was halfway through stashing it. “What’s that for?”

“Get a new shirt,” Vulk told her and sat down in front of her. The heaviness of his muscle bound body made some of the nearby pebbles bounce. “You’re making good progress, shortie. I’m impressed. Been a long while since I saw a kobold using their toes.”

“I mean… I should use all that Hoard gave me, right?”

“With that logic, you should look into how to knock someone out with your fat fucking tits,” Vulk stated.

Korith hugged her chest in a vain effort to hide her boobs from this vulgar man. That he wasn’t staring barely helped her discomfort. Crawling away half a metre, she held to pose as she asked. “So, uhm… any tips?”

“Not really, you’re doing pretty well. Bunch of tactical mistakes and inefficiencies, but you’ll have to iron out those kinks yourself. Not like I know how to best leap around like you do. I just run at people and cave their heads in.” Vulk shrugged. “You’re pretty fast, you adapt well, and you’re figuring out a good balance between offence and defence. I can’t really do more than be your personal beating stick.”

Heavily breathing Warriors ran by the main entrance, marking the first completed round.

“You need to figure out what you’ll do in a flat area though. If you have no launching points, that leaping technique of yours is going to fuck you over. Every idiot with two hands and eyes can catch you if you go for a long jump.”

“Yeaaaah… my plan was just to avoid those battlegrounds?”

“GET WITH THE TIMES, PIPSQUEAK!”

“C-can you please not shout at me?”

“NO!”

“Awww…”

“Warriors don’t get to choose where they fight. We get punched in the face and break the enemy in return. Get up!” Korith followed his demand and watched as Vulk backed away several metres. “I’ll charge at that target dummy!” He pointed at many of the wooden constructs around. “That’s your healer! If you don’t stop me, I’ll fuck up her pretty face.”

“B-but Aclysia’s face is way too pretty to fuck it up!”

“I disagree!” Vulk immediately went onto a charge.

Korith tried her best to get between him and his target, but the difference in their leg length made it impossible for her to outrun him. The goliath just ran a curve around her and then breached the distance. Disappointed, he groaned, after smacking the target dummy in the face. Korith watched him slowly track back to the original position.

“Your job is to be a mobile wall, a threat that cannot be ignored!” Vulk shouted at her. “Everyone in your party can deal damage, but not everyone can take damage as well as you can. Against monsters, you might be able to lure them in with body language alone but any creature or person with just an ounce of brain matter in their skull will try to get around you. You need to make that option entirely unappealing. Attempt number 2!”

Korith was trying to solve this problem and was not given enough time to really come up with anything intricate. When Vulk went back on his charge, she simply did what she could: using her Treasure Leap to make up for the difference in their speed. The moment she launched herself, Vulk stopped dead in his tracks. She flew past him, then he continued running. A second time, he smacked the target dummy in the face.

“Now your healer has a broken jaw!”

“That’s so mean!” Korith complained, lying on her back. “Aren’t you a teacher, can’t you at least give me some pointers?”

“You’re a Warrior, fix your own fucking problems! Grow stronger, I don’t care how – as long as it doesn’t involve some pansy magic.” Vulk returned to his original position.

Korith got up and did the same. ‘I’m definitely getting some magic…’ she thought, spitefully. Vulk was getting on her nerves. Even if she was too timid to ever really do anything about that fact, she could at least have her revenge by investing in some magical means of solving this issue. ‘Hoard will surely bless me with another vision if I pray to him and give him lots of shinies! To learn a few Paladin Skills would be good anyway.’

That was a project for the future, now she had to deal with Vulk charging again. Korith tried her best to solve the issue at hand. If she couldn’t run after the goliath and couldn’t leap at him proactively, the best course of action would be to leap reactively, wouldn’t it?

Korith ran towards Vulk in a futile attempt to intercept him. As with the first attempt, he aptly made a turn around her. That was fine with her, as long as she left his field of view. Once he was solely focused on the target dummy, she crouched down on all fours. To leap forwards on the flat ground was difficult, but with four empowered limbs she made up for the difference. Her entire body was bristling with ki. Scales of the colour of steel rapidly spread out from her limbs, encasing all of her in a hard layer.

Then she launched forwards. Vulk turned at the last second. It disappointed Korith to no end, that her teacher managed to twist out of the way of her punishing leap. The necessity to dodge, however, slowed him down. Korith landed in front of the target dummy and whirled around with the time bought.

Vulk grinned at her. “There you go! Either break the charger’s spine or force them to dodge and get between them and your healer. That works!”

“Oh thank Hoard,” Korith mumbled and plopped down on the floor. She was spent now. That manoeuvre had cost her what mana reserves she still had. “So… what do I do if there’s more than one person charging?”

“Figure it out,” Vulk responded immediately. “There’s way too many fucking combat situations and I don’t care to think about them all. Sometimes you’re just outmatched and then your healer gets run over like the pansy they are. You just got to deal with it.”

He was helpful as always.