The Prince's Issue with Combat Class

It was certainly starting to heat up. Ryan and I were dying from the heat so the pool had become the only place we wanted to be. On one particularly hot day I had peeled off my clothes and jumped into the pool with Ryan, we floated around.

“What do you wanna do for the solstice?” He asked, laying on his back.

“Well I’m going to invite my friend Modesta but I guess try to avoid the ceremonies as much as I can,” I swam over to him.

He smirked at me, “You know Racheal’s going to hunt you down.”

“Every year my friend,” I winked at him.

“Doesn’t your school do some big thing for it?”

“Nah that’s the winter one. I want Modesta to come since it is our last year together though.”

He smiled lazily, “sounds nice, I intend on staying in the shade.”

I jumped on a pool float and drifted around the pool. The water was nice and cooling on my legs, I could almost fall asleep. That late spring breeze was magical. My eyes couldn’t stay open.

“Varinia,” Ryan had swam up to my float and was holding on to it. I could feel his weight but I wasn’t opening my eyes.

“Yep.”

“Don’t you think it’s weird that we haven’t had many myth hunter attacks recently?”

I pushed him off the float, “Jesus I’m trying to relax Ryan! Why are you talking about that kinda stuff?”

“I don’t know it’s just been on my mind,” He swam back over to my pool float.

I looked up into the cloudless sky, “Maybe they are thinking, it’s too hot to bother those wolves, we will start again come autumn.”

He smiled, “Yeah that’s it for sure.”

Lucius trudged into homeroom and he looked pissed. He and the other Amanes sat beside me. I looked around at all of them, all kinds of different energies going on here. I addressed the most explosive one first.

“What’s up with Lucius?” I asked the siblings.

“His girl got taken,” Rome chuckled at his brother.

“What does that mean?” I looked to Lucius.

He sighed, “Kayin is dating Lizette.”

“Oh, so now she’s off limits, not when she told you to get lost?” I got up in his face.

He pushed me away, “Don’t kick me while I’m down.”

I rolled my eyes. There was no way I could feel bad for him. Besides Lizette had managed to get one of the pureblood princes. Sure not the one I would go for but I supposed Prince Kayin was attractive as well.

“That’s not the only exciting thing that happened last night,” Rose tugged my arm.

I looked back at her, she had a massive grin on her face.

“Good news?”

She nodded, “I took your advice and it paid off. Big time.”

I smiled at her, “Good for you, you go get him.”

“Oh I will,” Rose got up and moved to where Arlen was sitting.

“You encourage her but you call me disgusting. You’re a hypocrite you know Varinia,” Lucius spat at me.

“Rose doesn’t harass people, Lucius,” I stated.

“Whatever, I don’t even care about Lizette anymore. I've got to keep my eyes on the prize,” he stared directly at Ephvangeline’s chest.

“Eyes on the prize,” Rome whispered into my ear and his arm pulled me closer.

“Yeah,” I muttered.

He nibbled at my earlobe, pulling me ever closer to himself. I was sitting on his lap before I knew it. I let his hands explore my legs under the table as I kept my eye straight ahead at Mr S.

Lucky for me the bell rang before he could get any further.

I got up quickly.

He ran his hand through my hair as he left, “See you later sexy.”

I shook it off and walked to my next class with Lucius and Ephvangeline. This class was all about perfecting the art of weaponry. It was a little pointless to shifters but still the school felt it important for us to learn as young myths. The class was taught by a Dwarf named Mr Jervis who was a master of just about every weapon we could name. It was taught in what I assumed was an old dining hall by the massive hearths at either end of the room. It was stone cold in that room though, despite the heat outside. For me, it was honestly perfect. Prince Caelestis and the vampire girls walked in. Caelestis’ younger sister Princess Elvira still hadn’t returned to school, it seemed that Crimson had really taken her down. I was curious about the situation but I wasn’t going to get any information from the Amanes.

Mr Jervis addressed the class, “Your aims still suck, archery again today.”

The whole class groaned collectively before picking out our bows.

I ran up to Yami and Modesta, “Girls there are so many new couples popping up right now.”

“Oh, did you bag the pureblood hotty?” Yami picked out a few arrows.

“Absolutely not but Lizette and Kayin are a thing as well as Arlen and Rose,” I picked up a quiver.

“Damn Arlen really?” Yami lamented as we walked over to the range.

“All the hot ones,” Modesta mumbled.

“I know I know,” I took aim at a target.

My arrow completely missed it, slamming into the stone wall behind it. Mr Jervis was right.

“Varinia you suck,” Yami laughed.

“You do better then!”

“I will.”

Yami pulled back her bow and her arrow arched through the air hitting the target, not in the centre but it did hit. I sighed.

Next to our target someone got a bullseye.

“Whoa!” I exclaimed and turned to see Caelestis with a smug smile on his face, the vampire girls were all fawning over him as well. Impressive in more ways than one.

A yelp of pain came from behind me suddenly. I turned to see Lucius holding his shoulder standing in front of Ephvangeline. Oh no, this wasn’t good. I rushed over to them.

Ephvangeline was glaring at him, “Would you just leave me alone?”

“Hey hey, you don’t have to shoot him,” I grabbed Lucius and pulled him to the side.

“He wouldn’t get out of my way, He kept trying to touch me!” she knocked another arrow and fired it.

I looked at Lucius’ shoulder, it was just red. Thankfully they weren’t silver arrows, it was just the force damage that would hurt him.

“I’ll get her back, don't you worry Varinia,” Lucius was seething.

Our next class was combat training and Haven and Rose snuck up to Lucius and I in the hall. Haven poked Lucius in the back.

“Get to your own class,” Lucius growled, clearly not in the mood after what had happened.

“Yikes, fine, fine but it's not like I wanna go…” Haven muttered as he walked off.

“I’ll push him,” Rose grabbed her brother’s arm.

“You can’t go to our class, you'll be killed,” Lucius said darkly.

Rosé called out to Lucius, “He just wants to see Modesta!”

I giggled, looking over at Modesta and Yami. Understandable Modesta was pretty but perhaps not the most datable.

Our teacher for Combat training was Mrs Fhaolain, a vampire slayer. She opened the doors for all of the students, “Ok you guys get it, pick a partner and do some warm up fights.”

I paired up with Woll mostly because I just wanted the entertainment of seeing Caelestis and Ephvangeline fight and I think Woll thought the same. We nodded at each other and chose a ring close to them.

Ephvangeline took the first move pouncing at him.

“You’re on, werecat,” the prince avoided her completely at the last second.

They went back and forth, Ephvangeline attacking, the Prince evading. I focused on my fight waiting for it to get a little more spicy. Woll was surprisingly strong despite his height and managed to knock me off my feet a few times but I got a few good punches in there. It wasn’t long before our attention drifted back over to the more important fight though.

Caelestis had disappeared and Ephvangeline was tense looking around for where he would appear next. He reappeared at her side, she wasn’t expecting it and a strong kick to the ribs sent her skidding across the ground.

Ephvangeline stopped herself and shifted, a horse sized black lioness now stood before us. She was huge against the Prince’s slender body. He watched her every move. She ran towards him, her huge jaws snapping him up. He kicked at her throat, she took the kicks and dug her claws into his ribs.

Sahar stood beside me with Shizuka.

“Why do we always stop to watch these two fight every class?” Sahar said with a laugh.

“You can almost see the hatred right there,” Shizuka replied.

“They are also really amazing to watch,” Katsu added, as he had also stopped fighting.

Ephvangeline was pinning Caelestis to the ground with her body weight, I knew from my own wolf form was about a ton.

Caelestis, not wanting to admit defeat, summoned a bronze sword to his hand and struck the werecat with it. Bronze, like Silver for werewolves, was the only metal they were weak to. There was a flash of panic in Ephvangeline’s eyes and she backed off Caelestis.

“No weapons,” Mrs Fhaolian called out.

Caelestis sighed, “She was getting on my last nerve.”

He stood up and made the sword disappear. Ephvangeline grabbed his leg so he would fall then pulled him underneath her. He disappeared again.

Ephvangeline’s wound from the sword was slowly healing, she stood and tried to detect where he was again. He appeared beside her and forced gravity down upon her, she struggled against it.

He glared at the werecat, “What a shamefully biased subject this is where some species can use the full extent of their powers while the rest are merely forced to hold themselves back. Vampire powers revolve around creation of weapons, unlike those who merely take another form. I thought Teach would know this.”

He chuckled and looked at the teacher as if a direct challenge to her.

Mrs Fhaolain sighed, “Yes but this class is supposed to teach you how to fight without them. In power training you can do all that.”

While Caelestis was busy staring down the teacher, Ephvangeline had gotten her way out of the grip and jumped on him. Though he quickly evaded without taking his eyes off the teacher.

“Then explain the case for the werecats, relying on their powers. They have claws as weapons, double standards really,” he questioned her.

“Can you take the claws off a werecat?”

“Werecats can train in their final form while the rest of us are training in our weakest form…. Hardly useful I say.”

Mrs Fhaolain was sick of this discussion, “Jesus Christ every lesson Caelestis. Try being a wizard and doing this. Look, the point of this class is for you to learn to fight when everything has been taken off you, for example when you’ve been held captive.”

“Nothing is being taken off me if I am using my powers to create weapons,” To demonstrate he made small knives appear in his hand, “For me to not be able to do this much, a werecat must also be unable to shift.”

“You can’t force a werecat to change back from a form, therefore if Angel were captured like this she would stay like that.’ Mrs Fhaolin said pointing to Ephvangeline, ‘However, Angel no powers.”

Ephvangeline nodded her great head and shifted back into her human form, “Ok.”

She ran toward Caelestis.

He dodged, laughing, “This class is pure BS. It’s so subjective.”

“Says the one who’s been disappearing this whole time,” she grabbed his arm.

He just laughed in her face, “Because I really cannot be bothered with the effort. It isn’t worth anything.”

Ephvangeline put him into an arm lock and made him eat dirt, putting her foot on his head. Caelestis just disappeared.

“Hey I’m not using mine!” Ephvangeline yelled.

“Come on,” Mrs Fhaolain sighed, “Ephvangeline can you go track him down.”

Ephvangeline nodded and left the classroom.

“Anyway, all of you stop your staring and get back to training!” Mrs Fhaolian looked at all of us.

Woll and I quickly partnered up and got back to trading punches. I thought about what Caelestis had said. He was right, there was just a fine line with all of our powers. It was hard to place any kind of limit because we were all so different. How combat classes were quite frustrating because of that.

I looked out of the window and I could see Ephvangeline and Caelestis talking outside alone. I couldn’t help but be just a little bit jealous. Though I knew I wasn’t powerful enough to be Caelestis’ combat partner.