She really did deserve her title as Dean of the College of Mana. Her lecture was incredibly informative. She'd show examples of everything she talked about leading to a very immersive learning experience. My internal respect for Professor Ilmarë rose by quite a lot as a result of this, unsurprisingly.
"If I hadn't seen her last Friday, I'd have idolized her by now."
Reina's words were sharp but true, and elicited a laugh from the rest of us. We were currently eating lunch in an empty room in the same building as earlier. Petra designated this room as our meeting point for lunch and dubbed this our de facto lunchroom. With classes having officially started, Professor Ilmarë didn't have as much time as before to join us for lunch.
"Reina, what electives did you take?" Vera changed the topic of conversation.
"I'll be taking Unarmed Combat and Ritual Magic for Close Combat. How about you two?"
"I'll be taking Stavemanship, Support Magic, Healing Magic, and Offensive Magic."
"Stavemanship, Swordsmanship, Archery, and Offensive Magic for me."
General combat majors were given the ability to take more electives — up to a maximum of four — compared to other combat majors to give them the opportunity to find out what role best suited them. This is why most, if not all, general combat majors ended up shifting to a specific combat major once they found something that resonated with them.
"That's a wide spread. Why?"
"Vera and I talked it over. She preferred focusing her spread on magic and stavemanship in the event she couldn't use mana. I went with my spread in order to effectively plug in holes in our team composition. Swordsmanship if I need to go up front together with you. Stavemanship if I need to support you up front. Archery and Magic for ranged options."
Reina nodded. "Good idea."
Electives were two-hour classes. For general combat majors who took four electives, this meant that we could either only attend each elective an hour each day or we could attend the full two-hour classes and attend each elective for one hour on Wednesdays.
As Vera and I shared two electives, we elected to take the second option. We would take Stavemanship together on Mondays and then head off to Swordsmanship and Support Magic respectively, and so on.
We bade Reina and Petra goodbye as we headed to our first elective, Stavemanship. We arrived at the assigned training hall. There wasn't that many people at all, which kind of made sense. The reason you'd use a staff over other weapons was for its reach and versatility but with its lack of power, it was hard to justify it over other weapons. It was, however, a good class for rear combat majors and support majors who specialize in magic for the same reason as Vera.
The beastman instructor had us pick out any of the available staves from the racks.
"You'll face me one by one so I can group you all."
I watched the fights go down. It was pretty interesting. Most of the fights ended in a single exchange. She would let the student go for the first strike, she'd react and then the fight would be over.
Vera... was not of the same mind. She was bored, very bored waiting for our turn on the center. Bored enough to start poking me with her staff. I ignored her pokes in order to focus on the matches.
She started rapidly dotting my back with her staff. It was steadily moving across my back as if drawing a figure.
She poked horizontally across my upper back.
Okay. That's a horizontal line.
Next came a straight vertical movement.
A vertical line starting from the center of the previous line.
Next came another horizontal figure.
A horizontal line parallel to the one earlier. Is it the capital letter 'I'?
She swiped my back with her hand as though clearing the board. She started poking again.
It started from the center and went up to the upper left in a curved manner. It did a nearly complete turn and started going straight, only stopping when it reached the base of my spine. It was like an upside-down pear.
She then did the same movement, this time, on the other side of my back. Immediately, a soft smile came unbidden. I couldn't stop myself from smiling nor did I want to.
She cleared the board — my back — once more, and started dotting two parallel vertical lines connected at the bottom by a curve.
I ♡ U
My smile grew even wider. Just as I was about to turn to face the author who wrote on my back, my name was called.
"Dina! On to the center."
"Good luck!" The foxy sly enchantress behind me lightly pushed me forward as she wished me luck. I looked back at her while making my way to the stage, and I was rewarded with a wink.
A small chuckle left my lips as I stood in front of the instructor, a quarterstaff in hand.
"Start at your convenience." Her voice was cool, straight to the point, and a tad bit bored. If I had to liken her vibe to someone, it would be to Ilmarë's professor persona. The only difference was, this was a genuine article unlike the fraud that was Ilmarë.
"Is mana allowed?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Sure. Knock yourself out."
I guess no one else tried using their mana for the fights? I couldn't really pay attention due to a certain someone. The others probably got too fixated on the fact that this class was stavemanship and so proceeded with just pure staff combat.
I breathed in and started circulating my mana around my mana circuits.
This would be my first taste of staff combat or even combat in general. Sure, I've done some mock fights and everything, but nothing where the results would actually matter. There was a sense of pressure within me to do well. To not make a fool of myself. But even more than that was smoldering desire to show off to the odd-thirty or so students watching.
While I asked if I could use mana, that didn't mean I was going to use anything that counted as magic. Rather, I asked for permission so I could circulate my mana. This would give me a slight general boost to my physical abilities.
Let's see.
From the few matches I've watched, students who came in with a straight overhead strike was blocked and then got hit by her counter. If you lean back to dodge her swipe, she'd push off the end of her staff to launch it to you.
I could just start things off with a different strike, but it made much more sense for me to make use of what I've already seen her do and react accordingly.
I breathed out and opened my eyes.
With my grip on one end of the staff, I dashed in and swung an overhead strike with full force. Anticipating her block, I jerked my hand downwards slightly letting go before catching it again. Her staff blocked the tip of my own.
She used the tip of my staff as a pivot for hers, intent on striking my face with her right sweep.
Instead of instinctually pulling away like what the others did, I dropped down to a crouch. With my earlier grip adjustment, I was in perfect form to attempt a thrust towards her defenseless stomach. I extended my body towards her as I thrusted my staff.
And just as I felt contact, a sudden blow to my own stomach blew me away. While airborne, I contorted myself into a back handspring and successfully landed on my feet. The instructor looked satisfied, one leg still lifted from when she kicked me.
"Good. That's good. Are you a close combat major?"
"General combat major."
She nodded and motioned me out the center. Next up was Vera's turn to fight. I wished her luck and sat down on the floor. There was still a lingering pain in my stomach from where her kick landed, but I focused up on Vera's match.
She started things off similarly to mine where she dashed in with an overhead strike. When the instructor blocked it and used her staff as a pivot, Vera didn't pull away nor did she crouch down. Rather, she followed along the path of her staff as she stepped forward to the right into the instructor's space.
She, then, brought the head of her staff back and struck the side of the instructor with the opposite end. Her strike was suddenly blocked by the instructor quickly moving her staff to its path and used her hips as a lever, the action reminiscent to a swordsman sheathing their sword. With her left arm free, the instructor quickly did a horizontal chop towards Vera.
The strike rang true and the bout ended.
"Great. Major?"
"General combat."
A satisfied smile crept up her face. Her previous bored look gone without a trace.