After another hour, Ivan called all the students to him. Many were now exhausted and were sweating profusely.
"Those of you who managed to do nearly 3 laps, good job. For those who only finished 1 lap, you need to work on how you run. If you sprint with everything you have at the start, you'll run on empty before you know it." He explained to them.
The kids who hadn't thought of that widened their eyes in realisation.
"Alright. That's all for today. You can all go wash up and get ready for dinner." Ivan waved his hand at the kids before turning and walking off. These were all only kids, and they needed time to get used to this before they could start pushing them.
The boys and girls separated to wash up. Aala finished before Sarah and said she would wait outside for her with Ithil.
When Sarah walked out, however, she saw a small crowd had gathered and heard soft crying, then a familiar voice shouting, "Get away from him, you jerk!"
Sarah frowned softly, 'Aala?' She managed to push her way through the crowd and saw Aala standing in front of Ithil, who was sitting on the ground wiping his eyes, while that blond Krakow stood in front of Aala with a smirk on his face.
Sarah immediately ran to Ithil, "Ithil! Aala, what happened?" She asked as she gently grabbed Ithils hands, noticing a bruise forming on his cheek.
"I came to meet Ithil only to see him get chased out of the washroom like this. Just as I reached them, he shoved Ithil down!" Aala had apparent anger in her voice as she glared under her hood in Krakow's direction.
Sarah frowned and moved to Aala, "Go heal his cheek. I'll deal with this." She whispered. Aala hesitated, but when Sarah gave her another nod, she moved down to help Ithil.
Krakow glanced at Sarah and raised an eyebrow, "What do you want, little girl?" He scoffed.
"You're the same age as me. Why did you hurt my friend?" Sarah asked, her tone was as cold as her expression.
He rolled his eyes, "Elves should not be sharing a room with me. They are filthy savages who live in the trees." He sneered towards Ithil, "When I demanded he leaves, he dared to refuse me, so I punched him instead."
"This Academy accepts everyone. It doesn't matter what you think. He has the same right as everyone to be here." Sarah clenched her fists, but her face just got even colder.
Krakow rolled his eyes again and scoffed, "When I'm older, I'll ensure that all Elves are killed on sight. Especially these ugly moon Elves. They all should just-"
He didn't get a chance to finish what he was saying, as Sarah suddenly punched him. She hit him square on the nose, and there was a very noticeable crunch sound when her fist made contact with his nose.
He stumbled back a few steps, then held his nose before he started crying, "Y-you broke my nose!"
"It will be healed in less than 5 minutes by the healers. But if you hurt my friend again, I'll break it again." She sneered at him, then turned around, flicking her hair behind her as she did and helped Ithil up, "Come on, let's get to the cafeteria." Her cold demeanour immediately dropped. Both Aala and Ithil had been so shocked at her sudden attack that they hadn't even realised she was speaking to them until she lifted Ithil by the arm.
All three of them, under the eyes of the crowd, walked away to the cafeteria.
"That punch was so awesome! I didn't even see it happen!" Aala giggled as they sat down to eat.
Sarah looked at Ithil, who had been quiet, "Ithil?"
"Hm?" He looked up, hearing her call him.
"Are you okay? I'm sorry if my attack on him bothered you... I just couldn't stand hearing what he said and reacted before I could stop myself." She looked down sadly.
"No, it's okay. I actually was surprised someone stood up for me. Especially... well, especially a human. There are more humans like Krakow, who look down on other species, than there are ones who don't treat us like poop." He said with a faint smile.
Sarah looked back up at him and smiled, "I'm glad I didn't scare you away. Although... I guess I still need to work on controlling my anger." She sighed.
"Who told you that?" Aala asked as she finally calmed down.
"Zion. He helped me a lot. He taught me that when we act due to anger, we make more mistakes. For example, that punch of mine would have been easily blocked if he hadn't been so arrogant to think I wouldn't attack him." Sarah explained with a smile.
"That makes quite a bit of sense... where did you get Zion?" Ithil asked offhandedly.
"Hm? Oh, my Daddy brought him for me when I was 5. He was brought in Reles City, but I heard he was caught from Scarlin Woods." Sarah answered, not thinking much about his question.
Ithil frowned softly. The amount of intelligence Zion had was bothering him a bit. He was way too bright for an ordinary rank D fox beast. And when he saw the rainbow shine on his fur, he first thought it was a trick of the sunlight on the foxes' fur, but he saw it again when they were inside, and an illumination crystal shone on him.
After that second time, Ithil immediately thought of the clue that the great elder had told him about.
"The one that will rise to SSS rank will have something to do with a rainbow."
He looked at Sarah, who was chatting to Aala about Zion again, and became lost in thought.