Chapter 62 - Sparring practice.
The training grounds of Midar University opened out in a wide circle of white stone beneath the morning sky, where the slabs were already giving back the heat they had taken in, and above them hung the dust raised by footsteps, glowing gold where the light came through it.
Students came onto the circle in groups from the direction of the main building and spread out around it, taking their usual places, tightening the straps on their forearms and checking the photocytes in their hilts.
The companions kept close to their handlers, so that a constant rustle of wings hung over the grounds, mixed with low growling and the click of claws on stone. The smallest of them came up to its owner's shoulder and took his weight on its back without difficulty, and the others stood twice the height of the students, folding their wings behind them and lowering their heads to the stone itself.
Magister Voren stood at the edge of the circle with his hands clasped behind his back, working his gaze across the grounds from group to group and marking every companion that came into view. The lenses of his round glasses caught the morning light, so that the eyes behind them could not be made out.
Aren and Eveline ran onto the training grounds and stopped a few paces behind the magister, where Eveline bent over with her hands braced on her knees, breathing hard, while Aren stood calmly, not winded in the slightest. Rexy settled on his shoulder, and Voren turned and looked the two of them over.
"You are late. By more than 5 minutes."
"S-sorry... we... haah... were held up... on the way..." Eveline answered, still catching her breath.
"That does not constitute a valid excuse, Eveline. I am taking 7 points from each of you."
"SEVEN?!" she cried out, lifting her face.
"Too few?"
Eveline caught herself and straightened with a sigh, lowering her eyes and taking hold of the strap of her bag.
"N-no... we apologize again."
The magister turned to Aren without a word and looked him over from head to foot.
"So it is you, the new one, and a foreigner besides. Give your name."
"Aren."
"Hm... And where is your companion?"
"Um..."
Aren and Eveline exchanged a look, and then both looked at Rexy.
"I see only Eveline's companion, and I do not see yours. Am I to wait long for an answer to a simple question?" the magister added.
"I-i don't have a companion."
The magister held Aren's eyes without giving any answer, then turned away in silence and walked toward the students.
Eveline and Aren exchanged a look and followed him, while Rexy flew after them.
Once the students and their companions had formed up in a line, Voren announced the order of the session and sent half the class to the far edge of the grounds, where a marked track ran across the stone with posts sunk along it.
Aren sat down on a bench at the very edge of the circle and set his elbows on his knees.
Voren raised his hand, and the first student answered it, climbing onto the back of a horned beast twice his own height and touching it with his heel.
The beast lifted off from where it stood and went in low along the belt of posts, flying between them and raising dust behind its tail.
Its owner reached the dark crystals with his palm at every turn as he went, so that they lit behind him in a yellow chain.
Beyond the posts a long stone trough of water opened up, into which the beast dove together with its rider and where the two of them lit one more crystal. Both surfaced and were back in the air immediately, and the last crystal flared under his palm on the climb out.
A hum ran around the edge of the grounds, and under it Voren called the time aloud, then sent the rest out onto the track.
Two of them left a dark crystal behind, while the next managed to light the whole chain.
When the last pair came out of the water, Voren turned to the other half of the circle and called the second track.
Ilau's boar broke from where it stood, pulling the sand under itself with all four hooves, and carried its owner up an embankment the height of a man, where he reached the crystal at the very crest with his palm.
Beyond the embankment ran a belt of loose sand, in which the beast sank to its belly and lost half its stride, and it came to the trough already at a walk. It went into the water chest first, swam across snorting, and climbed out on the far side together with its rider, leaving two dark crystals out of six behind it.
Ilau, soaked to the waist, slid down onto the stone and wiped his face with his sleeve, while Voren called his time and moved on to the others.
After him a student with a low, broad beast on six legs tore forward, raising a cloud of dust, and lit the whole chain down to the last crystal without sinking once.
Eveline stayed standing where she was, with Rexy sitting on her shoulder and watching the others' runs along with her, until both tracks had emptied.
Voren came to her name on the list, held his pen on it, and moved to the next one.
So... Eveline can't take part in these exercises because a handler has to be a rider... , Aren thought.
Aren shifted his eyes from Eveline's back to Rexy, sitting on her shoulder.
For the next stage they all moved to the other grounds, where a second amphitheater rose around a spacious arena.
"Right, we now move on to sparring practice. You will be issued special equipment consisting of barrier armor and light staves. When a staff makes contact with the magical shell of the barrier armor, there is a discharge of energy that throws the wearer of the armor back a distance of one to three meters depending on the force of the blow. For your companions a staff blow carries no significant damage, though that does not change the fact that every blow will be unpleasant for them. The purpose of the session is to test and develop both team combat alongside your companions and your control over them, as well as their discipline. Companions are forbidden to attack with claws, fangs or any other attack capable of breaking through the armor's protective barrier. Should these rules be broken, points will be deducted from you."
Voren ran his eyes over every student, pausing on Gray's Alvazar, and turned to the arena, carrying on with his speech.
"A bout is considered finished only once both the opponent and his companion are outside the arena, immobilized, or unable to continue the spar. Points will also be awarded for how effectively and how well you hold out against your opponents, and for how smoothly you work together with your companions," he finished, turning his face back to the students.
"Put on the devices and activate your armor. The staves and devices are on the tables to your right. Olfeim and Aliar go first."
All the students went over to the tables while their companions stayed where they were. Each of them put on a small steel breastplate with a photocyte set into it, along with bands carrying smaller crystals on their wrists, shoulders, ankles, thighs and neck. They each took up a mechanical hilt with a photocyte at the end of it, which put out a short staff of magical energy when activated.
Olfeim and Aliar touched the photocytes on their breastplates, so that the magical energy spread over their bodies and joined with the crystals on the bands, clothing each of them in a translucent yellow barrier that followed the outline of the figure. They walked out onto the arena with their companions, holding their already active staves, and took up fighting stances.
On Aliar's left stood a large lizard with scales the shade of sand, while Olfeim's companion was a hyena-like beast with short white fur and long doubled ears.
The moment Voren dropped his hand, Olfeim and his hyena moved out in arcs from both sides, while Aliar and the lizard held side by side, each watching his own opponent.
Olfeim took a tighter grip on the hilt of his staff, while Aliar stood in a ready stance, waiting for the attack and looking him straight in the eye.
The hyena let out a deep growl, and the lizard answered with a hiss, taking a step back toward its owner, while Olfeim exchanged a glance with his own beast, and in the next moment the two of them broke forward from both sides.
Olfeim attacked with his staff along a wide arc, and the hyena leapt forward with its hump set out as a ram, but Aliar and the lizard suddenly turned in opposite directions and swapped places. The hyena took a staff blow from Aliar as he shifted aside, and Olfeim took the lizard's tail in his lower ribs.
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Both of Aliar's opponents were thrown to opposite sides of the arena. Aliar and the lizard rushed straight forward, carrying the counterattack on.
Olfeim, coming up off one knee at that moment, snapped his torso sharply to the side and slipped Aliar's staff as it swept upward along its arc, then shot out one leg and took Aliar off both feet with a half-circle sweep.
Aliar hit the ground and had not even gathered himself before a staff came down into his chest, flinging him two meters across the ground and turning him over in a backward roll, which he finished cleanly on one knee.
By then Olfeim had already pushed off the ground and was running at Aliar, who rolled aside from his blow and, pushing off from where the roll ended, countered — and Olfeim turned the blow away with his own staff.
On the other half of the arena the lizard and the hyena went on with their own contest, in which the lizard attacked with a circling blow of its tail, and the hyena slipped it with a short shift and countered with a ram of its own, driving the lizard toward the line.
The lizard slid along the ground as it tried to stop the hyena's pressure, wrapped its tail around the hyena's throat, twisted the smaller beast over onto its flank and held it down, then began dragging it by the throat to throw it past the line.
The hyena's bite into the lizard's tail brought a low shrieking howl out of the animal, and Aliar spun around at once.
"Malkar!" he shouted, and then a staff Olfeim had thrown came flying into him.
Aliar was thrown to the ground, while the lizard bit the hyena's leg and hurled it bodily toward the edge of the line.
Olfeim picked up the staff and ran at Aliar as he was getting up, but the lizard was suddenly between them, hissing at him. Aliar turned and saw the hyena coming on with a lame leg.
Hold on... aren't the companions forbidden to use their fangs?... Or does that only apply against people?...
Voren stood exactly as before, hands clasped behind his back, his body almost perfectly still, as voices came down from the stands in support of both students.
Aliar and his lizard held a pause, then ran the familiar maneuver again, turning to swap places and going at their opponents.
Olfeim blocked the attack with his staff, while the hyena got clear of the lizard's tail and caught the end of it in its fangs, pulling to drag the lizard past the line.
Suddenly the lizard's tail came away, so that the hyena lost its balance, and in the same second the lizard threw itself forward, driving its body into the hyena with all its weight and speed and hurling it toward the edge of the line.
The hyena began to lift its head, but the lizard struck it a second time straight away and knocked it out beyond the arena.
Aliar meanwhile traded attacks with Olfeim, getting clear of him by shifting and parrying. After one of the blows he had turned aside, he threw out a leg with a twist of his torso, but Olfeim moved sharply away and swept the one leg Aliar still had under him, bringing him down onto the ground again. Olfeim followed with a staff blow off a deep backswing, which threw Aliar out past the arena and drove him into the ground.
In the same instant Olfeim stepped aside from the lizard's ramming charge and countered it with the staff into its flank, moving it half a pace and no more. The tailless lizard turned slowly toward him with a hiss, and Olfeim braced harder, settling into a ready fighting stance and following every movement of the creature.
The lizard rushed forward to strike him with its whole body, but Olfeim did more than slip aside — he sprang off from where the slip ended and jumped onto the lizard's back, locking his arms around its neck.
The creature began to buck and try to throw him off, moving closer to the edge of the arena. At that moment Olfeim sprang backward, throwing the staff at the same time into the place where the tail had been, which drove the lizard forward onto the very edge of the arena.
Olfeim came down out of the jump, pushed off the ground and ran forward, snatching up his staff, and with all the momentum of his speed and his swing struck the turning lizard in the flank, which sent it flying out past the arena.
The students in the stands shouted in delight, while Magister Voren looked the losers over, and then raised his eyes to the winner.
"Olfeim — 9 points. Minus one point for the use of fangs against another's companion. In a real fight that is an inseparable part of your companion's combat skills, but here we take into account discipline and obedience to its owner."
He turned his eyes to Aliar and his lizard, standing off to one side.
"Aliar, 4 points. Good defensive skill and good combinations with your companion. Minus one point as well, for the same reasons."
The second pair came out onto the arena, and one of them had brought a winged beast, which went up into the air the moment the command came.
The bout split into two levels, with the beast working from above and coming in behind the other student every time he turned to face its handler, so that the man on the ground did not last long and went out past the line after the third pass. His own companion was left alone in the circle, and was driven out of it after him.
The third bout ended faster than all the rest put together, since the student came into the exchange on his very first step and took a staff in the chest before he could set his own. His beast went forward alone and lasted longer than its owner, though two against one brought that down to a few paces.
The fourth bout Voren stopped halfway through.
"Control. Minus three."
The beast that had struck at full force settled where it stood at its handler's command, and after that the bout went on and ended with both of them going out over the same line they had started from.
In the fifth bout not one staff reached the other side's barrier. Both pairs turned together with their beasts to the very end and held a common front, until one of them forced the other out past the line by stepping forward with man and beast at once, for which Voren called out more points than for any of the bouts before it.
"Next... Eveline and Lanna," he said, and the two girls came out onto the arena.
Eveline checked her bracers and shoulder guards with Rexy hanging in the air in front of her face, and across from her stood a girl with her hair gathered into a long tail. A serpent rearing three meters high curved around her in a half circle, its dark blue scales throwing back the light.
"Activate barriers," Voren said. Lanna touched the photocyte on her breastplate and brought her barrier up, while Eveline for her part reached a finger slowly toward her crystal and touched it, and it only lit faintly before going out.
Eveline drew a ragged breath and tried again, and nothing came of it, again and again, however hard she strained.
Quiet laughter grew in the stands among the students, and Aren sat among them with his brows drawn together and his lips slightly parted.
Rexy flew closer to Eveline, watching anxiously as she went on trying to start the armor, until she let her arms drop hopelessly against her sides.
The magister walked slowly up to her, and she raised her eyes to him with her lips pressed together.
Voren met the look in silence for a moment, his hands behind his back, then reached for the photocyte on her breastplate and brought the barrier up himself.
Then he held out his hand to her without a word and waited, and she laid the hilt of the staff into it, and that too he activated for her.
From every side Aren could hear the voices of students whispering about her.
"What a disgrace…" came one of the voices.
"In her place I'd just turn around and leave."
"I don't think there'll ever be another one like her here. Weak herself, and on top of that a companion no more dangerous than my aquarium fish."
"Is she really that stupid or is she pretending? What is the point of her trying to prove anything in this bout, when everyone already knows she isn't our equal? She's only taking up our time…"
"Maybe once her face has been driven into the ground she'll finally understand…"
"Believe me, she won't. Even if you give that little skull of hers a good knock, there's nothing in there to switch on," added one of Gray's friends, and the laughter across the stands grew louder at it, Gray laughing along with them from his seat.
The voices went on sniggering back and forth, building into an ugly pressure inside Aren's head, so that his fists closed tighter and tighter and his head sank a little.
"How can you even say things like that?! What has she done to you that you hate her so much?!" Aren asked loudly, turning to the students.
The stands fell silent as every face turned toward Aren.
"Born," one of Gray's friends answered, and the stands burst out laughing at it. Gray himself narrowed his eyes in silence, watching Aren, who set his teeth, and the knuckles of his fists went white with the grip.
"Silence!" the magister ordered, and the stands died down quickly, and Aren turned his eyes back to the arena.
Eveline took a fighting stance, with Rexy holding in the air by her right shoulder, and her opponent simply stood there with her weight shifted onto one leg, examining her staff. Her serpent gave off a predatory hiss, keeping its eyes on Eveline.
"…begin."
Eveline shot forward at once, gathering speed, and the serpent came to meet her, moving in zigzags. It threw its head up sharply and set itself to strike with its brow and knock her back, but Eveline dropped low, sliding along the ground and letting the serpent's head pass over her.
At the end of the slide Eveline came up quickly onto her feet and accelerated into a lunge forward, as Rexy loosed a burst of magical light that blinded the serpent. It began swinging its tail about, and Rexy dodged it nimbly.
Seeing Eveline racing at her, Lanna finally took a fighting stance and caught the blow on her staff, and a flash burst between them.
Eveline pressed against her block with both hands on the hilt, but Lanna overpowered her, forced her weapon to slide aside, and kicked her in the stomach, so that she went five paces back with a gasp of breath.
Clutching her stomach with one hand, she got a block up against Lanna's fast attack, but her arm gave under her opponent's greater physical strength.
Rexy meanwhile slipped every one of the serpent's attacks with skill and agility, closing the distance a little at a time until he built up a run and put the whole weight of his body into a blow to its head. The serpent barely felt it, lifted its head slowly toward Rexy where he hung in the air, and struck him with its tail, sending him several meters through the air and out past the bounds of the arena.
Eveline went on giving ground, trying this time only to dodge and to keep the blows off her block, hunting meanwhile for the right moment to counter. A shadow fell over her, and she turned and saw the serpent rearing above her, and in the next instant a staff blow into her side set off a powerful impulse that flung Eveline's body three meters.
She began to get up slowly and, hearing a sound coming on from the side, turned her face and saw the serpent's tail racing at her, and it struck her hard enough to send her out past the bounds of the arena in the end, and she came to rest on the ground beside Rexy.
"Finished. Lanna — 10 points. Eveline — 0."
The stands applauded, and Lanna made a showy bow, her serpent copying her.
Aren broke from his seat and ran to Eveline, helping her up.
"Hey, how are you doing?" he asked.
"I think… the answer is obvious," she answered with a faint smirk.
Aren smiled with his brows drawn together, while the magister stood side-on and looked down at the two of them, then turned to the students.
"Next… Kalve and Fain."
Kalve put Fain out past the line on the second exchange, though he took longer over his beast than over the man himself, and Voren called him eight points.
After that the bouts came one after another, and the arena stood empty no longer than a moment or two, since the next pair walked out onto it as soon as the previous one had reached their seats. Some finished in half a minute, others could not shift their opponent from where he stood right to the end. Twice Voren stopped a bout himself and sent the pairs back to their places.
The large beasts decided nearly everything. In every second pair the companion went out past the line ahead of its handler, who was left alone in the circle against two and held on for as long as he was given.
Voren's pen moved down the list from name to name, and aloud he called out nothing but numbers. By the last bout the white stone around the edge of the arena had been trodden grey, and the voices in the stands had settled into scattered shouts.
Voren checked the list and then turned to the students.
"Right. By the schedule, any student who has scored fewer than 5 points is entitled to a second bout, at his own wish. Who wishes to come out?"
A silence hung over the grounds and gave way slowly to low talk among a few of the students. Aren glanced at Eveline, who had not taken her eyes off the magister.
"Eveline... I don't think this is a very good idea."
"Why? At best I earn points, and at worst I get more experience."
Aren let out a breath through his nose, while Eveline rose from her seat.
"I'll go."
The students froze for a moment, and after that many of them began to sigh, others to hold back laughter, others still to protest.
"Oh god, seriously?..." came one of the girls' voices.
"I told you it wouldn't get through to her," a second one added.
Eveline did not look back as she came down to Voren, who held a short pause, then looked at the list and made a mark.
"Who is ready to be her opponent?" he said to the students.
A figure rose among the students. Gray.
"I am."
Gray came down from the stands into the students' silence, passing Aren, who followed him with a tight stare.
The magister activated Eveline's armor and staff again, as Gray worked his neck loose, and Alvazar stood towering beside him.
Eveline tightened her grip on the hilt of the staff, hearing her own broken breathing, while Rexy settled on her shoulder. He exchanged a look with her, and a steadier smile came onto her face.
"It is funny, though... Usually it's the owner who sits on his companion, and not the other way around," Gray said, and Eveline drew a deep breath in and let it out.
Voren raised his hand, and then dropped it.
"Begin."