THE SOLAR DRAGON MOUNTAINS
THE CITY OF LONG YANG
THE VARSESSA AND NISI ACADEMY OF MARTIAL AND MAGICAL ARTS
30 SEPTEMBER/ 10 NEW UNIVERSE ERA
01:47
MAX
We arrived at the city really late, but that would probably be because the air space above the solar dragon mountains was restricted, and spatial teleportation was not allowed into the city, but was a normal sight within it. The academy has been attacked once before, so this was a way for the students to be kept safe. Which left us with only one choice, and that was to take the train that was going around Spero picking up the lucky few that were successfully admitted into the academy.
It hasn't been a bad ride if I should be honest, I enjoyed the scenery and the view of nature that being in PARABELLUM has not afforded me. The only annoying thing would probably be the fact that Mike had slept throughout the entire journey, and I had to share a cabin with his bloody sister and his former betrothed, whose bloody wings made me sneeze one to many times. Seriously was there a need to douse that much perfume on bloody feathers.
Either way, my dad and Mike's dad, along with my mom and the rest of the dragon kings, had left last night for the front lines in their fight against the Toroth and the gods. Mine and Max's escapade as detectives had gotten me two weeks of detention until the resumption of school, but maybe it was something I needed. I got a much needed talk from my dad and my mom, and my step mom; and just like Mike, I've decided to actively try and get stronger, if not for anything, but to avoid being picked on by Cassiel and Ariel, those girls are annoying.
"Wake up Mike! We're here!" Cassiel yelled as she kicked her brother in the shin, forcing him to yelp in pain as he jumped a little to high and banged his head on the roof of the train.
I felt sorry for him as he sat down totally disoriented. He's not yet used to his increase in physical abilities, but even then he was still practically blind. Well at least being here would be a great help to him, he told me he had been awake all night drafting out a plan for his warband. A warband with me as his general or queen, or whatever ranking he wanted to choose. Ultimately I'm his sidekick or right hand man.
Now I'm sure most people wouldn't be happy with such an arrangement, no one would want to be second fiddle to someone else. But Mike and I were best friends, practically brothers. We're both light skin black hunks, though we're sort of short for our age with Cassiel and Ariel towering over us by at least a head. But we have a symbiotic relationship, we complement each other, and now that Mike has finally decided to step into the spotlight, the place that he's always meant to be, I can finally be where I want to be. Under the shadows of the night, just howling at the moon.
{Welcome young heroes and heroines to the Varsessa and Nisi Academy of Martial and Magical Arts. We have no arrived at the academy's train terminal, so please disembark in an orderly fashion and head north towards the orientation building. Your luggage would be brought up to your assigned dorms by academy's helpers, but please make sure not to leave any personal effects in your respective cabins.
The train is always available every Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays for transport into the city at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 6pm. Please note curfew is at 10pm and the train returns back to the academy by latest 9pm. Please don't be caught out during curfew. Thanks for riding with us, and welcome to V.A.N.A.M.A.M.A}
Well that's nice, really nice. Unlike Mike who had slept the whole journey here, I was privileged enough to see the entire city, before we got to the academy. Long Yang city was built right at the mouth of a massive valley, with high mountain walls on both sides. The valley narrows the deeper you go in, until you reach the end where a massive lake and an island is located. The main school building is on the island itself, whichever was where we are now, but apart from that I don't know anything else.
The city though was really beautiful, rather than concrete and steel, and smoke and fumes from burned out energy sources, the buildings were made of wood and in a very traditional and beautiful architecture. It was clean, practically the cleanest city in all of Spero, and it was also quite likely too. Either way, I'm sure there's a lot of fun stuff to do down there, a lot of cases to solve too. Good thing I have my partner in hunting crime right beside me, he can go ahead and be the leader of our warband, but me, I'm the lead detective in all our cases.
We came out of the train, who's tracks had actually been built on top of the lake, making it seem as if we were disembarking from a cruise ship and at a harbor. Ignoring the whispers and pointed fingers, I placed my hand on Mike's back as I led him forwards, the blue bandages with runes glowing on them, drawing the attention of quite a few new students to us. Well this whole staring thing was to be expected, the grand dragon princess, a dragon prince, the oracle, and the grand prince of Spero, all standing side by side was more than enough news to get the tabloids rolling for weeks. We're freaking celebrities after all.
I could feel Mike's heart beating at a mile a minute, but he remained calm, just like a royal would in a situation like this. We moved forwards until we were within a grand hall. There was a podium, a really large one; and it was built in between two massive statues. One of them was the statue of a devil, however everyone knew she was a vampire, or at the very least a dhamphir, being born from a vampire and a devil. The other was a gnome, looking at her face, it's obvious that she's really young.
These two were Varsessa and Nisi, the only two people who had passed from Kael Cor's original group, they're popularly known as the first oath takers, amongst which fearsome heroes like Kodak, Teluna, the general Asare, and the high priest and priestess of the Universal Church Of Gaia, the uncle and aunt of Kodak, who in turn is the principal of this school.
The crowds parted for us as we moved forwards, I'm sure Mike would have loved to just mingle and hide within the crowd, but there's nothing to be done about it. He can't change who he is, and who he was born as, it would remain this way for the rest of his life, and I think the sooner he comes to terms with it, the better it would be for him and the rest of us.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and the attention of all the students were drawn to the young man who appeared on the stage. He had red skin, and tiny horns growing from his head, he also had literally golden hair, and eyes that glowed a soft yellow. The Golden Guardian; Kodak of The Sun!
"Ladies and Gentlemen....welcome to school. Now I'm not going to give you kids all that crap the other schools will give you about loyalty, and servitude and integrity, no! We don't do that here. Many of you here are vampires, werewolves, dark elves, humans, Serpentis and many others, you're all built for conflict, for war, for blood and for death. I'm not here to teach you how to be upstanding citizens of Spero, that's just a bonus of the teachings you will receive.
What I'm here to do, is teach you how to harness the great power within your bloodline, how to focus the rage and bloodlust, within your mind. To be prepared for anything and everything, and strong enough to stand with your kings and queens when the hour of reckoning finally arrives. I'm here to teach you, how to kill, how to fight, but most importantly how to defend and die for what you love and believe in. There would be no favorites, not even to my own godchildren the grand prince and princess of Spero, in fact I invite you all to take shots at both of them, and the dragon prince of the wind and the Oracle included, because this is a competition, and these four are your biggest and toughest opponents."
Fuck! Fuck! What the hell! Did he just turn the entire student body against us, we're so screwed. What we have is potential, not strength, many of these students have been training since they were born and some for the chance to actually be able to get into this school. They had levels ranging from three to even seven! And he's painted a target on our back, yet for some reason Mike and Cassiel were smiling, what's going on with this two.
"Forget what you've heard about this place, this year at the behest of the dragon kings, and the high king of Spero himself Kael Cor. The curriculum has been changed. The dorms are no longer separated male and female, however any unruly activities would be punished mercilessly, so you all better tighten your pants. As I was saying, the dorms are built to cater for seven people, and they're built on the east and west of the mountain walls, or rather the dorms are built directly into the mountain walls.
So you all have a week to fight and scramble amongst yourselves for the best rooms, but also to create your own warband. Seven students to a room, I don't care how you split the male and female ratio, but it should be done. And after seven days, the students without a room or in this case a warband of seven, would either be placed together with what's left, or if you're really unlucky, sent back home.
You can try to apply again next year. For now I'll see all of you in seven days, after you're done picking out your rooms. Oh! And one more thing, even after the room has been exchanged, someone can still be kicked out and replaced with someone else, as long as your strong enough to fight for the room.
So my advice is to get to know each other's strength, and if there's someone not compatible with you, kick them out, or there's someone compatible with you but the room is full....kick them out. Your schedules would be assigned in seven days, and lessons begins in eight! Good luck, and also just so all of you know, the royals here are also going to be looking for a warband, the grand prince and the grand princess will be competing against each other for a chance to lead their warband, and the top ten warband from either the west or east dorms to Transylvania for a one year expedition. With that said, you can also take their spot to lead by thoroughly dominating and destroying them. With that said Michael and Maximillian you're to take the west dorms, and you Ariel and Cassiel the east belongs to you. Good luck."
And then he disappeared in an explosion of light, just as he had appeared. I looked at Mike and he moved his head towards me with a soft smile on it, then he said to me.
"This is going to be a challenge isn't it Max?"
"Well obviously!, I have no ides what you did to your godfather, but why the hell is he taking it out on me! I didn't do anything....recently." my voice became a murmur at the end when I remembered I spent headed the investigation that wiped an entire zone of a city map.
"Please don't act like a whiny bitch, it's not as if you're not excited by the prospects laid in front of you. You and I both know that if it's easy, then it wouldn't be fun either way. So come on, let's go find our room. We can play with all these children later."
Well there's nothing much to say, Michael's right.....it wouldn't be fun if it was easy.