More and more, people slowly turned up and at a steady pace, started to fill up the once empty classroom, that me and Ray occupied by ourselves. Soon after, most of the class had filled the room and an unexpected person made their entrance. Long, shiny, flowing, crimson locks, icy blue eyes, an incredible figure, and to top it off, a noble presence. These traits possessed all by a single student. Yes, it was the 1st year representative, Kala Fang.
She walked from the entrance and stopped at the front to look around, before locking eyes with Ray next to me and proceeding to walk over to him.
I wonder…Does she like him–?
That thought disappeared immediately, as her aura slowly changed and the modest smile, she had on her face twisted into a sadistic grin. The air around her turned static and caused jitters in people's legs, back and hands.
She sure is scary!
"Ray! What the hell were you thinking?! Turning up late to the ceremony and not even making your entrance discreet. Not to mention the fact that people might think lesser of me due to our affiliation! Apologize, now! Before I make you!"
Ray nervously laughed as sweat poured down his face uncontrollably.
"A-a-a-about that. Could y-you just forgive me… please." As those words left his mouth, he shot her teary, puppy dog eyes, but she didn't even stop to notice that and proceeded to get on the desk and stamp on it with one of her legs which resulted in an immediate answer.
"Y-y-you're right! I'm so sorry Miss Kala!!" His head was now facing the ground and he was bowing down to apologize to her.
What the… is she his mistress or something?
"This may be rude, but I was wondering what relationship you two had Miss Kala?" I asked her in the search for my ever-growing curiosity. My mind was now wondering of into territories I never thought it could reach and I seriously wanted it to stop.
"Kala's just fine, so don't call me Miss. It's embarrassing. As for your question, to put it simply, were cousins."
Of course they were! Ughhh! Why did I think they would be engaged or have a weird relationship!? How did I not notice they had the same last name!? I feel so stupid now…
She now had folded her arms neatly and descended from the desk. She slowly walked up to me, her eyes filled with suspicion and curiosity. She looked me up and down, her white skin now glowing under the dim light that came through the clouds and had entered through the window into the class.
"So, who are you?"
I was slightly caught off guard by her sudden interest in me, but it made sense that she wanted to know who crashed the opening ceremony along with her idiot of a cousin.
"Oh, right. My name's Gr-"
My reply was sharply interrupted by the sound of heels hitting against the cold, resplendent, black floor. The steps got closer and the clacking of the heels as they came closer and closer to the entrance of the classroom got louder and louder. Clearer with each step. The students that had been quietly chatting between themselves had now gone into complete silence and everyone faced the door in anticipation as to who might walk through it.
The door opened and the women who walked through was her. An older woman, roughly close to the age of her late twenties to early thirties, with jet black hair that reached past her waist, big seductive peach-stained lips, cyan coloured eyes, and an impressive bust. Her hips were also as seductive and desirable as any other part of her body and to top it off, she wore tight denim shorts that showed of her voluptuous curves all the more and a crop top with a black denim jacket over the top. She did not possess the image of a teacher, but an incredibly desirable women that men would fall over for. Me and Ray both looked at each other in fear and we both started sweating intensely. The rest of the class looked on in awe, especially the boys who were gawking at her with their eyes about to pop out of their sockets. But we couldn't focus on those parts of her. After all, we didn't think we'd see her again. So the only thing that came across our minds was an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety.
"Why, why, why, why, why why, why, why!?" Me and Ray started mumbling in unison.
"Ohhhhhh boysssss~! How could you possibly try to get away without receiving your punishmentttt~!"
The woman that had entered the room wore a kind smile, but her face was completely dark, and her eyes filled with the souls of a hundred dying soldiers, screaming out in agony. It was the same teacher that spoke to me and Ray after we tried to sneak in but was ultimately cock-blocked by the screeching door.
Why is she here?! Did she follow us?!
"Radence Fang and Gryph Note. How DARE the two of you show up late to the opening ceremony and then proceed to try to run away from your PUNISHMENT! Though, you two seem to have some bad luck, since from this day forth till the end of the first year, I will be your guy's instructor. And because you tried to run away from your punishment, I'll give you guys an extra special punishment."
Her smile only got brighter, but the top half of her face was no longer visible. She is sadistic on a whole other level. Me and Ray looked at each over in terror and proceeded to try to swallow the fear we felt with a massive gulp that filled the silent classroom. The rest of the class looked at us and began laughing hysterically, whilst calling us dumbasses. Well, most did. The girl's kind of felt a bit bad for me and Ray and looked rather scared for us.
"Oh please, carry on laughing at them. But don't forget you might end up in the same situation as well."
Just like that the whole class went silent again and faced the floor to avoid making eye contact with sadistic and seductive succubus standing at the front of the class.
"Class! You may refer to me as ONLY, Professor Windrow! Now follow me! For our first lesson, it seems were going to be taking a bit of deviation from the original plans. Instead, we will be having a practical lesson, as our first lesson. The practical will be… That's it! How not to die against someone stronger than you!!"
With the end of her words, she shot a devious look at me and Ray, but I've had enough of acting like a kid. This time I met her glare without breaking eye contact. She noticed this and seemed amused as she smirked and began laughing as she walked out of the classroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After that, Professor Windrow had brought us along to a different place. Our new scenery was underground. An underground colosseum to be exact. I never knew that this school had facilities underground, and just when I thought I had explored the whole school. There was more to this academy than meets the eye. But that was just another normality for me, but not to the others. The colosseum was just as large as any of the authentic ones above the surface, but this one was far older than any of the ones that we had up there. The arena itself, was just a plain fighting stage on dried dirt that had taken on a yellow complexion. Small herds of grass popped up from certain areas in the dirt but never grew any longer than to about ankles height. It was standard and not really taken care of. I guess it didn't need to be taken care of that well if only bloodshed would grace the floor of this colosseum. The Arena was also scattered with broken, milky-white pillars, that had once seemed to uphold the roof.
Does that mean this colosseum was above ground at one point?
The actual stadium of the colosseum was noting too extravagant either. Just a seemingly endless flight of the same milky-white stairs travelling towards the lower layer of the ground floor that are classroom was built on top of. The ceiling held two massive chandeliers that were the only producers of the light underground, but they themselves were more than enough. Glamourous in appearance and glow. Nothing that you could fault against this.
Still, I do wonder why they have an underground colosseum and use that to train their students in, when they have seemingly capable arenas above the surface were challenger matches are held. Or maybe this is just a special punishment room that's only accessible to her?
Still there was one off putting factor about this place. The sheer stench of corpses and blood. The place was clean, but the dirt had been soiled and it seems the warriors that had died here, had also been buried here. I wonder how many of them there are.
"Okay then class, you guys will sit over on the seats provided over there. DO NOT GET IN THE WAY OF THE BATTLE OTHERWISE YOU'LL FACE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCE AS WELL!"
As those words left her mouth, unsurprisingly, some of the boys looked rather happy to hear that they might be punished by Professor Windrow and looked on lustfully.
Teenagers really are horny, huh?
She then takes multiple steps away from me and Ray and proceeds to place her hands on her hips as she looks towards us with a gleeful smile.
"Ok class, take notes. This will be used as a practical lesson, and I will demonstrate the theory behind emblems and their abilities as well as what you should do when you can't beat your opponent. So, if you don't want to fail this class, pay attention."
She then glances back over to us, her cyan eyes grasping us in the depth of her dual ocean. Though the sea looks calm, only hell awaits if we dive any further in, but hell awaits even if I back off now. It will only slightly delay the fated meeting, that will bring about a blur between hell and reality.
"Ready boys, to get an ass-whooping of the century?" She then pauses and makes a cute gesture as if oblivious to the words that came out next. "Oh, it's also possible to die, so try not."
With no further warning, she smiles deviously whilst she licks her plump lips, and kicks off the ground, leaving dust in her waking. Me and Ray immediately react and respond quickly by jumping back trying to create further distance between ourselves and the sadistic, sexy professor. The milky-white, colossal pillars that had been scattered across the battlefield served as perfect cover for us to retreat further whilst observing the professor's moves and allowing us more time to think and come up with a plan.
"So, what are we planning on doing?" Ray asked whilst the professor continued her hot pursuit of us, still not activating her emblem from the looks of it either. We had ducked behind one of the multiple pillars after finally throwing her off our scent.
I leaned against the back of the pillar and slowly slid down it until I was sat on the floor of the ground. "Well, we currently can't really do anything apart from run away and observe for now. Since I don't know your ability, it would be dangerous to try and incorporate you in a plan that used only my assumption of your ability as a basis. What I'm saying is, retaliating right now, would only end up in our loss, so for now we need to watch her closely and try to get her to reveal her cards, one by one. Also, even if you did tell me what your ability was, I still reckon it'd be hard to win this battle with you alone."
Ray looked at me understandingly for the most part and held his hand out to me to indicate that we shouldn't lounge around here and get moving. "So, Gryph. Why don't you also use your emblem's ability as well?"
I glanced towards him as we kept running away from the professor who had located us and had started flying in with attacks, that we tried to avoid. " To put it simply, I'd rather not use it as it could end up causing issues for me further down the line and possibly arising suspicion about myself. Anyway, let's keep moving!"
Me and Ray attempted to get another break from her by splitting of at an intersection, where four pillars split of into 4 smaller congested pillar like mazes. We both went off in our own direction.
Looks like she hasn't followed me. Which means… Ray, it's all up to you to lose her.
I finally made it out of the small place of ruins which resembled a maze and made it to the clearing that me and Ray aimed for. When I arrived, to my surprise, Ray was already standing there. "Ray, did she not follow you? Or did you lose her?"
"What do you mean. I thought she ran after you?" Ray replied with a shaken tone of voice.
Just then, out of the corner of our vision, it seemed we both noticed her presence. There she was, standing on top of the pillar that signalled the end and also next meeting spot for me and Ray. She stood there, oozing a cocky and arrogant presence that seemed to make people suffocate in her own self lust. She wasn't just dabbling in the scent, but it felt like you could see it slowly dripping off of her, a thick, purplish, gooey liquid that brought about and alluring and intoxicating scent. Her brazen eyes smiled with conviction, and she shot her sadistically, devious smile, whilst playing with her hair, twirling it around her index finger.
Then an illuminating light graced our vision. The same purple, but mixed with hints of violent red, seemed to shine on her. Going from her exposed abdomen, and slowly filling up with that insufferable colour, reaching to her neck in a pattern of vines that seemed to swirl around, decorated with spikes forged from steel and bathed in the deep crimson that was the remaining spillage from her fallen foes.
She then stands tall and announces towards the students sitting down, "Listen up, first thing you need to know about emblems is what they look like, how and when they appear. An emblem will first appear on a child when they reach the age of six and will look like a small tattoo on their body in a specified pattern. Also, when the tattoo first appears, its ability will also activate by itself, therefore allowing you to identify the ability and start assuming what you can do with it. However, if you're still not sure of your emblems ability, there are people called whisperers, who have the ability to identify what an emblem's ability is."
"Second, when your emblem first appears, it will always start of as a small tattoo indicating in its current limited power. However, as their control over their ability increases, the emblem will get bigger and spread around the body. Different emblems have different sizes by the end of their metamorphosis, so the size doesn't actually tell you who the stronger fighter is."
With her finishing her second announcement to the class, she faces herself back towards our direction and leaps down towards us in a fast fury. She attempts to swing her leg at my head, but I manage to ready my hand to defend my head and steady myself for her attack allowing me to brush it off, almost effortlessly. Amidst this, Ray wasted no time and whilst she tried to attempt a second attack, he came in to intercept, and jumped in between the two of us, readying his hands by his chin in a crouched position. He then proceeded to throw a quick jab to create some space between the two of them and stepped to her side trying to land a successful punch.
Guess he's all about hitting with his fists. I should probably counter by using my legs or trying to create distance. No, I'm trying to close the distance. Legs it is!
With that thought she had finalised her next attack, but before she was allowed to process that and apply it, Ray faked an overhand and used his momentum to spin around and roundhouse kick her, landing a direct and heavy blow to her exposed ribs, causing her to tumble backwards.
Shit! He's better than I thought. Smarter too. Guess I'll have to start using my ability.
I had now joined Ray and we were now in control of the pursuit, chasing her down as she tried to make her get away with each corner that she turned. Eventually, me and Ray split off from each over and I went ahead of the both of them to intercept her at the front. I was now readily waiting for her to make the final turn to fall straight into our grasps.
"Now class. Finally, at least for now, your emblem can become bigger by, as I already said, gaining control over it, using it for an extended period of time, using new skills with it and testing your powers boundaries with it. So, remember, your emblem's power is almost also an indicator of the user's experience in combat."
I had made my way over to where I heard her faint voice announcing further emblem related theory and found Ray kneeling down holding his chest.
How? How did this happen? We had the advantage, didn't we?
"Ray are you okay!?" I said as I rushed towards him.
"Y-yeah, I think I'll be fine."
She then steps closer towards us and once again challenges me by releasing her aura and the intent she saved up to face me in a confrontation. I had no intention of giving her what she wanted, but neither the less, I didn't back down and pierced her cyan eyes back with my very own gaze, that emitted strong feelings of annoyance and hate.
"Good! That's a good look in your eyes you have!"
"Now that I have finished my explanation, how about I get onto the practical and demonstrate how an experienced fighter uses their emblem and what you can do against an experienced fighter to at the very least, survive." She then smacks the palm of her hand and her fist together, smiles with that devious smile once more, and walks closer to us, whilst her emblem shone all the brighter with each step that she took. The closer she got the heavier the breathing of Ray.
I need to get Ray away from here and we need to devise a new strategy. Fuck! Why are things becoming so bothersome all of a sudden!