"Psst."
"Julius."
Julius groaned as a nosy set of fingers pinched his back.
He looked up in irritation.
"What?"
Yevian, the blonde boy slowly stood up along with the rest of the class. Everyone looked hasty to leave.
"Bell rung. Lesson over."
Julius looked around in confusion.
He muttered subconsciously.
"What the-?"
He looked around as Silver left and a mirage of chatter arose.
"Ah."
Julius concluded that he had slept through the rest of the lesson. Luckily Silver seemed to have missed his actions.
Julius looked up, his hair stuck down to his face.
"What do we have next?"
Yevian groomed his chin carefully.
"Hmm... Either Magic Dueling or Combat Dueling."
Yevian scanned Julius.
"You're doing Magic Dueling, right? There's no way you don't. Your mana pool must be substantial if you can casually open the Grand Hall Doors. I tried that on the opening day but I only got them to budge..."
Julius coughed abruptly.
"I'm doing combat training."
Julius thought to himself in his mind as Yevian started whining.
'Since I'm destined to have 0 wisdom than I probably won't be able to learn anything from Magic Dueling and I'll just get embarrassed. I can at least put on some muscle with Combat Dueling or get some battle experience.'
Yevian gave up.
"Hmph. Fine. You're the one wasting your potential."
Julius shrugged.
Yevian turned around just before he left.
"Lunch in the grand hall. Bottom end."
Julius let out a nonsensical eyebrow raise.
"Bye."
Julius headed out after Yevian, he turned a few corners and followed some people who Yevian had stated to be from the House of Dragon. They were all around Julius' age at 15 at first glance and all had tall and fit figures.
The boy who had thrown a paper ball at Julius earlier, possessing swamp-green hair and fang-like teeth seemed to lead the group. He was an inch taller than his goons and easily the most noticeable. Julius noticed a sword sheath on his right side.
After trailing the group for a fat minute, they took a left turn and Julius followed.
Light wind flourished.
Julius found himself in the open air and outside Ruloy.
In his view was a huge flat clearing fit for running laps.
There was a large gathering of people standing right next to a flat stone stage fit for duels.
Julius crammed himself into the gathering of people so he could hear what seemed to be the instructor's words.
He couldn't see the instructor but from his voice alone he deemed him to be strong and boisterous.
"You can all select a partner to do a basic warm-up with before I'll line you up for duels with weapons I select."
Silence.
"NOW."
A voice boomed and soared through the ears of every student.
Everyone scrambled around rattishly.
Julius scrambled too and after half a minute of searching through the crowd, he found someone with the exact same look in their eyes as him. He couldn't see anything but two magical cyan eyes.
The kind of look that just wanted to get this over with.
Julius had assumed that the two would pair up but they vanished into the crowd and Julius was forced to scavenge for a partner once more.
After a few suffocating minutes, the crowds thinned until there were only four people left.
And then two.
Julius looked at the only remaining person.
It was a stunning beauty with flawless tanned skin, ravenous black hair, and magical cyan eyes. She looked well-trained and extremely resistant to the idea of training with Julius.
Julius moodily ambled over until the two stood next to each other, silently.
Julius looked around, everyone else was just doing basic stretches and muscle-loosening techniques.
Julius copied and didn't mind that his partner had frozen into the position of a gloomy stubborn teenager.
A minute passed and Julius felt irritated by the actions of his partner.
"You just gonna stand there?"
Julius chirped as he did a particularly demanding arm stretch.
The girl glared at Julius like a rabid hound.
"I don't need your attention."
Julius looked away and did the rest of his copied warm-up in peace.
The Professor of Combat Dueling stood on top of the stone dueling platform and Julius could get a good look at his figure.
He had not the largest figure but clearly a trained one.
His muscles were toned and perfected to every angle. His abdomen area was a 1-to-1 copy of the gods. He had grizzly bushy white hair on his head and 2 maroon eyes.
His skin was twice as tanned as the girl who stood next to Julius and his hands looked so toned and trained that they looked like separate entities compared to the rest of his body.
He put two hands around his mouth.
"GATHER HERE YOUNGLINGS."
The students rushed over to form a horseshoe.
A butler-like figure ran over. He rose a hand to the sky and out of seemingly empty space around 300 weapons of various sorts crashed to the ground.
The butler's face was hidden behind a delicate gold-painted mask.
Julius clamped his ears shut with his hands.
After a few seconds of disastrous noise torture, the ruffle was over.
"Thank you Albertos."
The Professor thanked Albertos before turning to the students once again.
"I, Gin Gronos swear on my heart to find each and every one of you a suitable weapon."
"Once you receive a weapon you will have a gentle duel with the person who receives one after you. A killing blow marks victory. Albertos will halt any real danger so don't fear to go all out."
Professor Gronos clapped his hands abruptly.
"Form a line younglings. For your fate of steel shall be decided right here in this very moment."
Everyone shuffled into a line. The class was strangely compulsive.
Julius slid himself near the front.
The boy at the front was skinny and freckly. He had ginger hair and you could see the bones poking through his pale skin.
Like everyone else, he wore the same green uniform and his badge was that of the House of Lighthause.
Gronos inspected him eerily close, even pecking him and snatching a sniff.
He looked at the pile of common weapons behind him.
"Boy, you are fit for any weapon behind me."
The boy jumped up in joy.
"YES!"
Gronos held him back with one firm hand as he tried to run toward the pile of weapons.
His voice grew cold and strict.
"Why are you so happy?"
The boy responded cheekily.
"W-well, you said I could have any weapon? Doesn't that mean I'm talented?"
Gronos laughed darkly.
"Boy, the reason you can select any weapon is because you have talent for none. I can't even call it talent. I sense that you will fail every single weapon that you select. That is why I don't give a rat's arse about which you select. You should've gone to the Mage Dueling class. Now take a weapon and scurry off."
The boy miserably walked off, being devoured by embarrassment and sniggers from the line.
Julius sighed. It seemed the Lighthause house truly was in a bad state. Even the teachers didn't care to polish over their words.
Gronos shouted over the small lurking laughs.
"REMEMBER. Those who are humble neither win nor lose."
He settled with a spear. The lightest he could hold.
The next in line was the boy with swampy green hair and spiky teeth. He waved his sword sheath in front of Gronos amusingly as he met him face to face.
Gronos grinned.
"Your talent is immeasurable but your mind concedes you."
The boy took it as an acceptance and walked over to reach the duel stage.
Gronos turned around, turning his back on the person 2 spots before Julius.
"Watch students. You are about to witness talent against hope."
"One of them will fall."
"And I will say this before they start but..."
"Talent never falls, those who rely on it merely sink."
The two fighters tightened their stances.
The Lighthause ginger boy had a frail and untrained stance. He was wobbly and he held the spear so loose that a light gust could separate him from his weapon.
The Dragon House green-haired boy on the other hand didn't even unsheath his blade. Instead, he looked on in pride.
"Fight."
The ginger boy shakily began walking over, he poked the spear forwards to keep his opponent at bay.
The Dragon House boy sighed before calmly strolling over ignoring the metal armature in his opponent's arms.
As the tensions tightened and the two got within mere meters of each other, the ginger boy struck. Sloppily and fearfully, he thrusted his spear forwards. It wavered in the air for a moment.
"Pathetic."
The Dragon house boy grabbed his spear mid-thrust and chucked it backward.
Before the ginger boy could make another move, the Dragon house boy jammed his knee into his ribs.
"Argh-."
A strange sound of weakness gurgled out the mouth of the ginger boy.
The Dragon house boy grinned sadistically.
"Nighty night."
Bang.
A smooth right hook.
The ginger boy's body slumped to the floor.
2 hits was all it took.
2 hits was enough to show the gap between houses.
The combat professor jeered.
"1 Orth for the Dragon House's Vibra Tongt. As they say, the Dragon rules the tower."
Julius looked around in confusion. Nobody seemed to care about what had just happened. Were there no medics?
The combat professor merely shrugged his heavy shoulders casually.
"Talent prevails to the surprise of none."