The School of Blades

Eight days flew by as the duo spent almost all their time in the dungeons. With their existing knowledge of each one, they were able to clear them within a day for each. Spending the rest of their time planning for the events to come. Gathering supplies and preparing for the School of Blades’ orientation. The School of Blades itself was only slightly smaller than all of Kellansburg. Having four dedicated buildings on its campus, one dedicated as an arena that allowed for multiple battles to commence at a time, each one had giant stone slabs arranged in a nine-by-nine grid, and spaced equally from one another to serve as each mini-arena. The main school building was easily the largest among them, forming the shape of a cross and being made entirely of brick; a multitude of classrooms lined its halls. Finally, the last two buildings were the dorms. They sat across from one another and served as a place for the students to rest. They were separated by gender, but did feature co-ed rooms for students willing to try it out.

The front gates were adorned with winding patterns of metal that resembled rose petals, much like the flowers that hugged the outer wall. Dark blue plants served as a base while roses were grown in the shape of two swords on both sides of the gate, each pointed at the entrance. New students were pouring into the gates, dressed in the school’s attire. It consisted of a dark blue blazer with a red lapel over the front, and the edges of it were white accents that went down half the blazer. An image of a sword covered with thorned vines was embroidered on the left breast of the blazer. The pants were also the same shade of blue, and along the sides had a thick line of red going down the side, while the bottoms of the pant legs had the white accents around them.

The cobbled path to the school was smooth and perfectly even, colored the same as regular brick, accented with a tan color before reaching the school's grassy exterior. Arte and Leo came marching in amongst the droves of younger students and were definitely taller than most. Many of the younger students saw them and laughed under their breaths; eyes were constantly digging into them from all angles.

“This sucks.” Leo sighs and then shivers. “Ugh, High school.”

“I was excited about this because it was such an interesting time in the game, but… We’re like seven years older than the youngest student here… “ She muttered.

“This school lets people up to age twenty-five get in,” Leo says.

“It’s one of those things that’s cool in theory, but being surrounded by these high schoolers is already sapping my energy,” Arte added.

“Not just ANY high schoolers, but kids of nobles, god forbid we end up stepping on one of their shoes or something…” Leo says.

“I see they let any sort of riff-raff in these days.” A voice calls out from the school gates.

“Aren’t you both a little old to be attending this school? I know the age limit lets you near-thirty-year-olds in, but I didn’t think you’d have the guts to actually show your faces.”

“And the biggest annoyance of the year award goes to…” Leo begins.

Dressed like everyone else, his hair was blonde, and bangs hung over the left side of his forehead, sword at his hip. Students were filtering around him, leaving an empty space that only he, his two cronies, and the duo occupied.

“Oh my gosh, you’re Lance Arveld!” Leo slapped his hands to his cheeks before pointing at him. “The most annoying guy in school!”

“What was that?!” He shot back, his hand was already poised to reach for his blade.

“You’re gonna draw that here? It’s the first day of school, have some restraint.” Arte states.
“Do not look down upon house Arveld! My name carries weight!” He shouts.

“You’re right. The name does carry weight, but you don’t. Build a name for yourself before throwing your family’s around.” Leo adds.

They walk past him and his two goons, and Lance draws his sword. He jumps into the air, raising his blade. The other students gasp and shriek in panic, but Leo calmly looks back, raises two fingers in front of his lips as the blade prepares to hit him.

“Summoning: Teacher!” He says.

He timed his words perfectly as a teacher zooms in and grabs the blade with his bare hands. His arms were thick like tree trunks covered equally in hair and bulging veins, his body as large as a gorilla’s, and his hair long and wild like a horse’s mane. His eyes were as dark as the abyss, and with sheer strength alone, he held Lance in the air by his sword.

“Here at the school of blades, we follow several core tenets.” He spoke. His voice was deep, booming, and raspy; despite this, his tone was steady and calm. “Never raise your blade against another student unless we’re doing combat activities.”

“Sir…! I was just teaching them—” Lance began.

One of his goons jumped in.

“We apologize for our behaviour. Lance was simply testing the skill of some of the other newcomers. He was a bit… Overzealous.” He adjusted his glasses mid-sentence, before he and the other goon bowed before the instructor. The instructor releases the sword, allowing Lance to land on his feet. Without hesitation, he places it back into its sheath, bowing with the rest.

“Break another tenet and you won’t get off with a simple warning.” He says sternly.

“We won’t.” Lance says.

The instructor turns and looks at Leo and Arte. Leo beams at the instructor, and Arte gives him a simple smile.

“Thank you.” Leo says.

“It was nothing.” He says.

He continues past them and heads back near the school doors.

“Arte, did you even catch him moving?” Leo asks.

“No. He took one step and was gone.” She admits.

Leo sighs.

“We’ve still got a long way to go.” Leo grumbled.

Lance marches up to Leo and Arte.

“Don’t think this is the last you’ve heard of me.” He says in a low tone, almost growling. He storms off, taking his goons with him. Arte and Leo continue heading into the school. In the main building’s auditorium, the wooden floors glistened as the students filtered in. They stood before the stage in the room and began chatting with one another as they waited.

“Didn’t you hear the news? Someone cleared all the dungeons in Valmanhyn!” One student spoke.

“For real? I thought that was a bad joke.” Another replied.

“My uncle’s a guard, he saw it first hand.”

“I heard there were rumors the hero was in town a few days ago, too. Coincidence? I think not!”

Leo and Arte quietly smirk at one another. A man with a limp walks onto the stage carrying a dark wood cane. He has a long beard that extends at its sides into curled tufts, the hair on his head is sparse ,and his eyes appear white. He creeps over to the podium, standing and waiting as the students continue to chatter. A flash of light overtakes the room, resulting in multiple students dropping to the floor. Leo and Arte’s bodies remain standing as their heads hit the floor and roll onto their sides.

“Whoops.” The man says. “It appears I’ve overdone it.”