Holy Combat

With a bit of running, we made it to class right as the bell rang.

Classes in Mikin were a bit atypical, at least from the stories I’d heard. While most schools focused on pure academic learning, here in Mikin, we preferred to do things practically. Sure, normal paper and desk classes existed. They were a minority at best.

Our classroom was much more akin to a small coliseum, with crisp marble stands stretching over a dozen rows up encircling a flat dirt battleground.

We snuck in near the back on one of the few empty rows. Excess was a guarantee for a place like this. The classroom may have had twelve or so rows, but it took an anomaly for more than three of them to get used.

Today was no exception.

As we sat down, a few wandering eyes glanced up at Mai, their reactions a mix of shock and horror.

“Alair’s Breeze…” I gritted my teeth. The man back in Progan was bad, but normal people didn’t live their lives praying for the chance to get sent to war against Arhonia. Here, that hate ran deeper, stronger, more ingrained. Normal civilians couldn’t compete with noble students raised for war.

“Class!” Yet, before any of them could make a move, Professor Silver shot that down. “Quiet now, we have a busy day ahead of us.”

She flew down from the sky. Dust and students scattered back as she fell, causing a cloud to erupt in the middle of the field.

Professor Silver was the definition of the world eccentric. Her long grey hair sat braided down her back, letting the red pins holding it together shine like rubies in the sunlight. She glanced at everyone with bright orange eyes like a wildfire. “Welcome to intermediate magical combat everyone, for those of you that have never had me before, my name is Professor Silver, and every single person better remember that fact!”

A round of grumbles preceded her words before she continued. “This class will separate the talented among you from the rubbish. If you want to get the attention of the king, here's your chance.

As for the rest of you… well they say spilt blood brings glory. Don’t let Mikin down.”

I rolled my eyes. No class would change the amount of attention Father paid to me.

“Is every one of your classes like this?” Mai whispered, keeping her face calm.

“If anything, this is one of the more normal ones.”

Mai raised an eyebrow. “Please enlighten me on how the fuck this is normal?”

“You’ll see,” I chuckled under my breath. “This is Mikin, if something can’t kill people, it's thrown in with the swine.”

“Wow… I feel safe now.”

“Don’t worry, bloods only shed half the time.” Though with Mai, they wouldn’t be holding back.

I glanced towards her sword. Every move she made gave the impression Mai more than knew how to use the thing, but Arhonia and Mikin were very different places.

“Only half? Guess I’ll have to make sure to leave a mark.” There was an air of excitement as she gripped her sword’s handle.

Maybe Mai wasn’t the person I should be worrying about.

“As this is the first class of the semester, we’ll start out with a demonstration of what is to come,” Professor Silver said. “I’ve heard that we have a guest in our midst this semester. Care to give us a demonstration, Ms. Arhonia?”

Ripples clashed among the class as Mai’s name got called. I couldn’t hear anything concrete, but the atmosphere was clear enough from their faces.

“I would love to,” Mai stood, wearing her normal facade, yet I could see the faintest traces of excitement. Her petite hand gripped firmly against her sword hilt, mouth tilted up in a smile, and stance calm.

She was confident. What I couldn’t tell was how willing she was to back that up.

“Excellent,” Professor Silver exclaimed. “As for your opponent…” She took a hard look around the arena. My classmates started straight ahead, yet their excitement couldn’t be contained.

For the average student, Arhonians were these mystical far-off enemies, ones they’d only get to face once finishing their training.

And that mystical so called enemy had just fallen into their lap.

“Calypso, care to give it a try?”

“Certainly.” From the front row, a girl half my height stood. She had long brown hair that wrapped around her back, matched with a stance filled with confidence. Her eyes glared at the professor, the scar on her cheek nearly pulsing in excitement.

“Excellent! Both of you come down here, we have a fight to start!”

As Mai hopped down the rows, Calypso and her eyed each other with the slightest hint of disdain. The crowd around us slowly grew their mummering. Tension swirled around the two as Mai took her place, ready to fight.

While Calypso wore a vengeful grin, Mai kept her facade, giving a proper curtsy while giving her opponent a kind smile. “My name is Mai Arhonia. It is an honor to duel you.”

“Shut it, I don’t take introductions from Arhonian swine.”

Yet, Mai kept her kind smile, not even a flinch coming from her–only a single muttered word lost in the chatter of the arena.

Knowing her, it was probably the world cunt.

“The rules are simple!” Professor Silver said, stepping back into the stands. “The fight will last for either fifteen minutes, or until one of you is unable to continue the fight. That designation will be decided by myself alone. You can't resign on the battlefield; why should I allow you to do so here?”

“Please…” I scoffed. There wasn’t a better way for her to control the tide of battle. To the professor, Calypso was her favorite kind of red flag. Mai? Well, if something happened to her, nothing of value was lost.

“Begin!”

“Say your farewells, Arhonian.” Calypso’s hands began to glow, spheres of grey manifesting like ice around her footsteps.

Yet it mattered not.

Mai’s movements were akin to lightning. The air itself seemed to warp around her as she unleashed her blade, sending dust scattering like field mice behind her.

At last, her sword revealed itself. Its blade shimmered, exterior coated in a deep, mystic fog. She leaped forward, breaking the space between the two in one big crack, and thrust with the force of a sonic boom.

Calypso leaped back, but not without facing the consequences of her frontal assault. She shot upward, blood dripping towards the earth. “How the bree–”

“BOOM!” A dust filled explosion erupted out, Mai leaping like an angel from its midst. A faint hum followed her moves, almost like a clarinet rising and falling with every slash Mai made.

But Calypso wasn’t nearly out of tricks. A grey mass of stone began to form in her hands. It grew larger, faster, exponentially–the once hand sized rock exploding out into a mass larger than the arena. “Not bad Arhonian! But no good Mikin would go down to just that. I’ll have to take this seriously.”

“So sorry about that, but the idea of taking this seriously hasn’t crossed my mind.”

“GRRASH!” With a single slash of Mai’s blade, rocks exploded out like a volcanic blast, falling down towards the earth in clumps the size of a chariot.

Yet there was no need to worry. Mai, using Calypso’s body as a springboard, launched herself towards the falling rubble, turning each rock to dust one by one.

Her grace, the elegance in which she moved was greater than the best of acrobatic performers. The rocks exploded like fireworks one by one–bursts of grey stone filling the air with ash and dust.

“I thank you for the opportunity to participate in this exabition. May we have another duel soon,” Mai landed gracefully as a cat, speaking to her opponent still falling out of the sky.

“I… we have a winner!” Professor Silver stood near the edge of the field, her shock clear as day.

Exactly what she deserved, creating a stunt like this.

Mai gave another curtsy before walking back up the stands to where I sat. “Class is over, right, professor?”
“C-correct.”

“Let’s go Rio, I don’t see a reason to stick around these cunts.”