I walked up to the institution's entrance with Gareth. The place was huge! It was even designed like a castle! Gareth had to hold me by the shirt to stop me from dashing into the place. I was just so excited. The inside of the place was even better. Candles floated in the air magically along the stone walls. Spiral staircases ran upward, dark passageways led to unknown areas, and students who looked older than Gareth and I bustled around. Before I could explore any further, someone shouted,
"Hey!"
I yelled and froze on the spot. A "no-nonsense" looking guy approached us from the bustling crowd. I could feel his eyes pierce into me through his glasses.
"Who are you two?" He asked formally.
This guy was so intimidating that I couldn't answer. This just made him angrier.
"Well?" He scowled, his nostrils flaring.
There was something about him that was so scary. His eyes were, glowing?
"W-We're the new first years!!" Gareth blurted, fear in his eyes and sweat beading down his forehead.
I could tell he was as scared as I was. The scary guy's pupils went back to normal, and he smiled. His smiling face was just as bad as his angry face. His brows furrowed, and his grin, insanely wide. If I stayed with this guy any longer I would die of fear. He seemed to enjoy seeing us scared. The guy must be a sadist.
"Ahh...the first years. Welcome to the Warrior Institution. Give me your names." He nodded, still smirking.
We told him our names, and he brought us to an office. After shuffling through some papers, he gave us our timetables. Some of these classes looked strange to me.
"Techniques? Survival Training?" I read them with an eyebrow raised.
Gareth looked as confused as I was. We went to our first class with difficulty. I mean, the place was huge! So many staircases and passageways! You could get lost forever in this castle! The only classes I really want to talk about are "Techniques" and "Technique combat". So we can skip "Battle Strategy", "Survival Training", and the other combat classes. As we entered the technique class, we both froze. The whole class was there before us, and it was already in session. The teacher, a tired looking guy, started at us with his droopy, bloodshot eyes.
"Sit down. Both of you." He grunted lazily and waved his hand.
Some people snickered as we hurried to the two empty seats near the front of the class. He started to drone on again. This guy just looks like he's done with life. A name on the board read, "Mr.Toruga". He yawned, scratched his neck, and cleared his throat.
"I'm going to be your teacher this year, so I suggest you don't get on my bad side." Mr. Toruga sighed, glaring at everyone, "In my class, you'll learn how to use warrior techniques."
A kid near the back raised her hand.
"Sir? What are warrior techniques...?"
"Warrior techniques are the connection to the magical energy inside you." He explained, "They allow you to perform magical attacks, or give you abilities that no ordinary human can have."
There was a sudden explosion of chatter. Mr. Toruga raised his hand for silence.
"There is, however, a catch."
The room fell silent.
"Some of you may not have been born with magical energy inside you at all. Therefore, you won't be able to learn techniques.
There were gasps and whispers, Gareth and I stared at each other fearfully.
"This will make your experience here even more difficult. You may not even graduate."
Hundreds of thoughts ran through my head. What if I didn't have any magical energy? What if they fail me? What'll my father think? I must have been muttering out loud because Mr. Toruga was staring at me. He cleared his throat and started to approach. I don't know how long I was muttering, but I sure as hell knew how mad he was.
"Young Riba here thinks it's ok to interrupt my class." he growled.
"N-No I-" I tried to apologize but it was no use.
He placed his left hand on my shoulder. A cold feeling washed over me. Everyone gasped and was staring at my torso. I looked down. My entire body was encased in a thick layer of ice. It was so cold. I couldn't take it. Frost floated in the air as I opened my mouth and let out a shivering exhale.
"I-I-I-" I stammered, my teeth chattering.
Mr. Toruga's expression didn't change.
"This is what happens to troublemakers. Understood?"
Everyone nodded in unison, terrified expressions on their faces. Mr. Toruga sighed and placed his right hand on my shoulder. The cold feeling disappeared and was replaced by a wonderfully warm one. Mr. Toruga's right hand burst into flame and the ice melted away in a matter of seconds. Everyone "oohed" in amazement. Mr. Toruga acted as nothing had happened and went back to teaching.
"Techniques are very useful in battle. There are literally thousands of them, all put into categories." He went on, "As a student your magical energy only allows you to learn one technique from one category."
I tried to ignore my chattering teeth by attempting to remember all the categories.
"Element Class. Animal Class. Mystery Class. To name a few." He said, "Today you will be picking a technique from its category and will spend the next few weeks learning how to use it."
That's basically the end of that class. The other classes were ok. I learned a bit about weapons and hand to hand combat, but I'm not good with either just yet. As Gareth and I walked into our "Technique Combat Class", we both gasped. Mr. Toruga was waiting for us.
"M-Mr. Toruga...?" Gareth stuttered.
"Surprised? I'm your teacher for this class as well." He nodded.
We sat down. I was still upset about having him for another class. He handed out some textbooks which we had to read. But before that, Mr. Toruga was going to do a demonstration.
"I'm going to show you what an expert warrior can do." He muttered.
We all watched intently as he pulled out a training dummy.
"I'm highly trained with Element Class techniques." He said, turning to the dummy, "Students like you can only learn one technique, but me..."
We all watched close. I knew something was about to go down. Swiftly, Mr. Toruga stuck out his left hand. A beam of ice shot out and encased the dummy. Then he quickly stuck out his right, a fireball blasting out and exploding. When the smoke cleared, the dummy was nothing but a pile of wood chips on the floor.
Wow.