Combat class was weird, for the better part of one hour since Asd had arrived in this classroom, the teacher had been sitting down cross-legged and silent, with her eyes close. And beyond that Asd was the only initiate who had arrived for the class. He wasn't so sure what to do to rouse her from her meditative state, though to be honest he felt that it was more like she was sleeping.
She was young, younger than he expected a teacher of the combat arts to be. She looked no older than 28, but then again it wasn't as if age was written on the face of anyone, and mages tend to live longer than most people due to the flow of magic in their body, some could live for hundreds if not thousands of years.
It wasn't immortality per say as such a thing didn't exist, it was just an extremely long life gifted from the study of the arcane. Asd wanted to open his mouth, the very least he could do was announce his presence and let her know that he was here. But before a sound could come out of his mouth she spoke.
"There's a staff hanging on the wall to your left, pick it up and attack me. And do not waste my time by hesitating or worrying about hurting a woman, I have no time for such misconceptions as I could have killed you in a dozen different ways from the very moment you stepped foot into my class."
Asd was caught off guard. He didn't expect what she said, and even worse it was the coldness in her voice that got to him. It was challenging, and the fact that it came from a woman seemed to stir something in him that he never thought he had, and that was his pride.
There were still seats arranged in the classroom, and the teacher had been sitting down on her desk. Asd didn't pay too much attention to that. On the walls of the classroom, a variety of weapons were hung on the walls, and just as she asked he had picked up a wooden staff and turned to face her for a second before breaking into a run, the staff held high above his head.
He had only taken five steps, just five steps before her form suddenly appeared in front of him, red helix pattered eyes blazing in with animosity as she placed a single palm on his chest, and used that to arrest his momentum, raised him up in the air and brought his back smashing onto one of the tables with a loud crash.
Something broke, but it was definitely not the table as white hot pain and anger lanced through Asd and his claws slid out of his fingers and fangs poked out of his mouth. He growled; his body shaking with a rage he almost couldn't control as the smell of the teacher and her helix shaped red eyes seemed to evoke a hatred that was buried deep within his bones, he called out in a rage filled tone of voice.
"Vampire!"
The teacher didn't seem bothered by it as she took a step back and inclined her body to the side before raising a palm in his direction and giving him a come on motion. The thing is even if Asd did not want to attack, even if he knew such a venture was futile against the power of a vampire, he really had no choice; and that was because the hatred between vampires and Weres was entwined down right into the DNA of both species….. there would be no end until they tear each other apart.
Asd rushed forwards, his speed already tripled as he morphed into a semi-humanoid lion form. He was suppressing the full half transformation because a part of him still remembered he was in a school and this was supposed to be his teacher. He slashed his hands forward, the staff he was asked to carry completely forgotten behind him as the vampire ducked under his wide strike and surged upward with an uppercut to the bottom of his expanded bicep.
He lost all feeling and power in his right arm, but there was only a fraction of a second of hesitation for Asd before his left knee went striking forwards. She moved back to evade and he followed through to stretch the entire leg forwards and smash it good into her sternum. Still, somehow, she was able to evade with his foot just being two inches away from her body. He pulled his left leg back and in that same instant used his right to push up and propel himself forward, using his superior physical abilities as a boost.
He was airborne, and once again she somehow appears in front of him leaving a streak of red and black afterimages. She slammed an open palm into his sternum while he was airborne, weakening him as all the air was driven out of his body. She followed the momentum again to drive him over her head and then bring his back smashing into another table. And once again something broke, and it was still not the table.
"Now that I've established the dominance of the superior species as well as let you know who the teacher is. Get you filthy animal body off that table and stand at attention. I want to see what you really look like….. Mutt!" Asd couldn't help himself as he let out a fierce roar.
"I'm no wolf! Leech!" venom dropped with every word as he struggled to control his anger and reverse the transformation. The vampire looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but the fierceness in her eyes was no less that of his, especially with the insult thrown in for good measure. For a moment Asd thought that perhaps he might have gone a little too far with the whole Leech insult, but being called a mutt wasn't any better.
For one he was not a canine Were, werewolves are annoying and it was mainly they who had issues with vampires. But then again as long as you had the blood of the beast people, a vampire smelt like rotten blood to you. As A Were's bite is the only thing that can put a vampire down….. for good. Those myths about wooden stake to the hearts are just bullshit, and the rubbish about holy water was even more annoying. Claws and fangs of those who were one with Nature's beasts were all that could keep the bloodsuckers at bay.
"My name is Chelsea and I will be your combat teacher. I apologize for not conducting myself, it is unbecoming of a noble and one much older than you to be dragged down by petty ancestral rivalries between our people. And you can rest easy, I'm only half vampire so I'm pretty sure I'm the one with the least amount of 'stench' in the room." Asd got the feeling that today or rather this class was going to be an extremely long one.
And that shit about petty rivalries? It was more than just petty. Excluding the ancient legends, the vampires started the slave trade on Weres. It was their face that began the advent to the ancestral home or the beast people. And just as the Weres suppressed them, they too were able to suppress the Weres, and they had an advantage that Weres with all of their power could never match up. They had magic, and because of that, his people fell.
"I will try my best to teach you all that you need to know to be a battlemage. I will also try to keep my insults and prejudice to the minimum…Slave! But I make no promises. So to make things easier for us I would suggest you give up combat class and just focus on pretty spells and fighting at a distance like all the other mages, after all that's why you're here isn't it. So make up your mind, and to put it simply, please get the hell out of my class."
But Asd was a Werelion, years a slave or not. These particular breed of beast people have a natural talent to discover Weakness in their opponent. And right now Asd was bathing in it. So he looked back at the vampire and bowed with a bright smile on his face and a cheerfulness that in all his life, he never had.
"My Name is Asd Professor Chelsea, please teach me well. Because I will not give up on you or this class mam!" and all he got in reply was.
"FUCK! @#&##_$&$&&#&$&##@#$"