As the strangely mannered child approached Auria, she had to force down a variety of negative reactions, with great difficulty.
It was blatantly obvious in every movement he made that he had literally never trained using a weapon.
She was surprised however, when he lunged at her with focused intent, there seeming to be present some understanding of combat in that motion. In a split second, the young instructor decided to forgo testing his technique, which was clearly a lost cause, and assess some other aspects.
Technique could be taught, talent could not. As long as he was physically up to the task, this Istrokarth academy did not have many standards for warrior's entering into the program at the earliest possible stage. These entrants were only taking the first steps into adulthood, meeting the bare minimum requirements to be capable of developing in strength.
Activating one of her sub-abilities, Auria instantaneously became wreathed in a sleek set of full plate silver armor, asides from the helmet.
The unforgiving surface of the plate caused the boy, Lucius', training sword to rebound unexpectedly. Lucius managed to keep hold of the faux weapon, causing the warrioress to nod subtly in approval.
Honestly, warrior students didn't need many qualifications to enter, the true trial occurred at the end of the first two years in the academy, and until then warrior students could hardly even be considered students, having to work, train, and attend lessons for virtually every waking moment in order to succeed.
An incredible number would be accepted, therefore the school did not have the means to treat each and every one of them as geniuses, or so went their reasoning. In reality academies like Istrokarth enjoyed using these 'students' as unpaid laborers, only to ultimately cast them to the side if they did not achieve high merits.
Istrokarth was actually fairly good on this point when compared to many other schools, that's just how bad it tended to be. Spellcaster students, for a variety of reasons, had much higher theoretical potential, which was an entire lesson on its own.
Her eyes flicked up and down the younglings figure. While Lucius was odd, it wasn't unusual for those in the midst of puberty to act in an inconceivable fashion. In a way, he behaved more maturely for his age than could be expected of most.
'I should keep my eye on him as a candidate...'
She shook her head, knowing not to get ahead of herself.
"Okay, that's all I needed really. I'll just have you demonstrate any skills you have and we can wrap it up. Do whatever you need to do to show your stuff, you can attack me again too."
The boy's eyes widened, not thinking that the test would end so simply, as he suddenly became nervous, suspecting that he may have underperformed to the point of the instructor not needing to conduct the rest of the test.
Lucius, now believing this was his last chance to impress lest he be denied, crouched slightly low to the ground. Carefully preparing himself, he activated his only other skill.
(Blood Flush)!
Lucius felt his right thigh flare up, his vision remaining towards Auria as he did not even cast a glance towards the visual effects of the skill.
His left leg was already gliding forwards, as his right propelled him into a high acceleration sprint. In a bid to impress, Lucius arrived before her as the skill already began to wane, however another use was quick to follow as the sword he held came around from his left in a wide swing.
Lucius' left forearm bulged with strength as his solid grip launched the bokken into an impressive slam against Auria's plate armor, as she showed absolutely zero change in countenance as she observed.
This only rose Lucius confidence, as he resolved to try one final time, accelerating along with the recoil, performing an almost three hundred sixty degree spin during which three stuttered uses of Blood Flush covered his right forearm, upper arm, and back.
The boy created an impressive improvised one two combo, serving little in the measure of practicality, but doing well to display exactly what he was currently capable of!
This time the impact was so strong he could not maintain his grip on the weapon, and the wooden sword clattered to the ground as Lucius staggered backwards, clutching his right wrist while his face showed an expression of mild displeasure.
Auria suddenly grinned.
"Kid, you're abysmal, but I like you. I think as you are you at least stand a better chance than a candy in a fat kids hands."
"EH- hah... is it really that bad?"
"Yeah, but you are basically as unpolished as a person can possibly be, so it's up to you how well you do here."
"I'm accepted?"
"That's right, but don't think getting accepted is anything too special, even here at Istrokarth. You're a warrior, and a junior warrior at that. Luckily for you, I'm the head instructor that oversees all the junior warriors, but you still might not see me too often since there's just so damn many of you."
"Follow me."
After haphazardly throwing the equipment back where it came from, Auria led Lucius to a room where a number of scribe-like office workers resided. She talked with one person in particular a, strangely enough, glowing white haired lady who filled out whatever was necessary for Lucius to be considered an official first-year entrant.
She then led him towards another room, which was basically just a waiting room with a counter, where she was able to talk with a man behind it and obtain for Lucius a uniquely crafted bronze chain bracelet which could securely lock around his wrist.
She also obtained for him a set of leather equipment to be used for training, and then guided him to the dorms for the new warrior students. Lucius was surprised she didn't just send him with an attendant or something, and chose to chalk it up to her being a more caring educator than she appeared.
As she guided him to the living quarters where he would be residing, she explained to him that he would wake up to the bell in the morning, and could follow the multitude of students to the cafeteria, where he would then be further debriefed on the activities for the day afterwards by her and a few others.
Lucius, on their walk, discovered the sun had in fact begun to set.
Eventually, Auria stopped before a door, in a more modest section of the seemingly endless institute. She helped him bind his bracelet with special locking function on the door using her own bracelet's functions, waved a quick farewell, and went swiftly back to take care of her own matters.
As Lucius closed the door behind him, making sure that the handle did indeed lock, he felt that he shouldn't be surprised at the contents of the room that met his eyes.