Dana came over after lunch, intending to study and meditate in the silence of the balcony. But Hawk had other ideas. He had far too much energy after his change in diet, and he needed to burn some off, so he wanted to play.
By play, he meant practising their skill control together, since his and Karl’s were too similar to be entertaining.
So, she studied new ideas and techniques between rounds, while Karl focused on expanding the ‘lake’ to the size of a pond from a puddle. He worked on that until mid-afternoon, when the urge to go do something crept up on him again.
“We should see if there are other things to do on the day off. They have to have some sort of entertainment that isn’t working.” Karl suggested.
“There are movie rooms, the games lounge, and a few other facilities that we haven’t explored yet. Or we could go to the pool.” Dana suggested.
The pool was technically a training area for aquatic specialists, but on the rest day, it was simply a leisure spot for everyone to hang out, swim and relax. The problem was that it meant there would be a crowd of people around, and neither of them were really the social butterfly sort.
Being the first to Awakened Rank in the first year would draw a lot of attention, and they were hoping to let the furor die down for a few more days before they went out to mingle with people who didn’t have anything better to do than ask questions about their training regimen.
“How about the movie lounge? Just sit and watch a movie and eat popcorn.” Karl offered.
“That sounds excellent. But even better is the fact that nobody will crowd us and ask loads of questions because there is a movie playing.” Dana replied, nodding in satisfaction.
So, that was how they found themselves side by side in a dark room, eating junk food and trying not to laugh as a group of girls ahead of them in the small theatre gushed about how handsome the star of the action movie they had picked was.
According to the boy they had seen leaving when they came in, it was just starting again, for the third time that day because the girls had put it on repeat and nobody was brave enough to argue with them when it was actually a good movie.
After the movie, they took dinner to go, and ate on the balcony as they watched the sunset. Karl couldn’t help but feel that they might have just been on what would pass for a proper date, but by the time that he worked up the courage to say anything about it, Dana had fallen asleep in her chair while meditating.
Karl moved her to the hammock where she usually slept and placed her bag on the table where it would be easy to find, then turned in for the evening and forgot all about the stress of Academy life for a night.
After waking up late and rushing to get showered and fed before class, morning training still managed to go even more smoothly than usual with the innovative ways that they had come up with to modify Rend. Instead of a simple claw streak, Karl focused on expanding and stretching them as they flew, and then cut a second pattern perpendicular to the first, creating a square grid of Rending attacks that took out a whole swathe of spells at once.
It wasn’t perfect, as some managed to fly through the pattern, but with a minimal energy cost, he could block five or six out of twenty spells in a volley.
“Is that even the same ability anymore? I mean, it looks the same at the start, but that’s all they have in common.” One of the mages complained.
“It is. It’s just an extended reach version of the attack. If you notice, it’s shorter range as well, as I can’t stop it expanding once it has started, so it destabilizes if it flies too far, unlike the original.” Karl explained.
“So, it’s similar to the process that led to creating the Water Shotgun, except not as extreme of a modification. I like it.” One of the other mages replied with a gesture of approval.
Even the teacher thought it was impressive, and horribly difficult to evade if it was thrown at you that way. The best that anyone could do was to block it, there would be no evasion. That would be a nightmare for the Rogues and the agile monsters, who weren’t well known for their ability to take a hit.
“Alright, that’s it for today. See you all here tomorrow.” The instructor shouted seconds before the bell rang, giving the mages time to finish one last spell.
Karl and the mages relaxed through lunch as Hawk preened and showed off his new red feathers, the change from learning a second skill. Everyone had seen them all morning long, but they hadn’t had a chance to really admire them with the Hawk flying around above them.
“You know, I have never seen a Windspeed Hawk with feathers like that. I’ve got my tablet with me, and the photo analysis doesn’t even recognize it. It says that it’s a mutation and not a strength progression for the species.” One of the mages explained.
One of the others gave an excited look, eager for all types of new information. “So, you think that Hawk is on a whole new path forward now that he’s learned another skill? Usually, monsters that reach maturity in the Common and Awakened Ranks will have one skill at the most, and they rarely learn another. Since learning that Shred skill changed his feathers, I think it might have been part of what he needed to break through the racial limits for a Windspeed Hawk.
At least, it certainly doesn’t look like it was a detrimental change, and Shred is supposed to be much more powerful.”
Karl nodded. “Hawk thinks the same thing, that he will be able to advance quickly. With my help and maybe another skill as he gets toward the top of Ascended Rank, I think that he can make Commander way before I graduate.”
The mages sighed. None of them in that class would be making Commander before graduation. In fact, it was unlikely that more than a handful in their year would show that sort of potential, but Karl was already looking past the Awakened Rank and into Ascended when they had barely started their first semester.
Common Grade? What was that, he had barely even touched on it before he had left it behind. That alone was enough to let his training partners know that he was abnormal in the growth department.
They finished lunch and went their separate ways, leaving Karl to face a grumpy Sergeant Rita all by himself when he reached the training grounds for the martial arts class.
“Did you enjoy your new training regimen with the Bureau of Elite Development? A bit more exciting than the usual group training in the field?” She asked, and Karl realized that she wasn’t upset at anything that he could control, she was mad that her authority as his development guidance counsellor and personal tutor had been usurped by people from higher up the government food chain.
“It was definitely different. They focus on working in pairs instead of in a bigger team, so the whole mindset is different. Really, doing both would probably be better, but there are only so many days in the week.” Karl replied carefully, not wanting to volunteer to give up his leisure time.
“I am glad that you think so. Now, with your official advancement, we are changing your training partners to someone more durable. Meet Tank, he is the berserker combat instructor, and you will be helping him demonstrate the ways for unarmed and agility fighters to deal with berserkers today.”
Karl decided that Rita was definitely taking out her frustrations on him. That guy was huge.
