“These are the Lords of two of the greatest families to ever walk the surface of this world. The Leaders of two of the Families ladened especially with the burden of slaying the demons that threaten our existence, the Fated Families.” Dean Godsthorn’s introduction was a bit too dramatic even for the two Lords.
Lord Terrace had his head facing the ground while Lord Acheon sighed and cleared his throat. “Hello kids, I’m Lord Acheon of the Acheon Family, a group of mostly Mages and he’s Lord Terrace of the Terrace Family, a family filled with warriors who tread the path of weapons.”
“Greetings Lord Acheon!”
“Greetings Lord Terrace!”
The voices of the students echoed through the entire hall in unison as they showed their respects to the two esteemed Lords before them.
Lord Terrace nodded while Dean Godsthorn scratched his beard gently. It seemed Lord Acheon was doing a better job at the introduction than he was.
“Go on. Don’t stop now.” Dean Godsthorn whispered to the Acheon Lord urging him to carry on with his speech when he noticed the man had stopped speaking.
Lord Acheon lightly chuckled, shaking his head at his teacher’s request. “Myself and Lord Terrace will be taking you guys through a different training routine that’ll span for two days, starting now.”
“Lord Terrace would be in charge of physical training and close-quarter combat training while I’ll take you all through essence manipulation. How to cast spells more effectively and how to merge two spells to create a variant.” Lord Acheon’s words were like music to the ears of the student and they couldn’t even wait for him to finish talking before the murmurs began.
“Woah!”
“We get to receive direct training from two Lords!”
“I bet the others would be jealous when they return soon enough to find out that we received training from two Lords.”
There was noise in the hall as the students whispered words to one another, briefly forgetting the presence of the Dean as well as the two men who were about to train them.
Dean Godsthorn clapped both hands with a frown displayed on his face for all to see. His clap did indeed draw the attention of the students and his frown caused them to all go silent. They had a feeling they’d sinned and that a second time would attract a heavy punishment.
Dean Godsthorn didn’t say anything about their momentary display of untamed excitement. They sighed in relief as they believed they’d been saved.
They were wrong.
Lord Terrace walked forward with a subtle smile on his face, ready to address the students.
They too were ready to listen to what he had to say but Lord Acheon knew it wasn’t going to be anything good so he slapped his forehead anticipating how badly things would escalate quickly.
The students had smiles of anticipation covering their faces but the moment Lord Terrace opened his mouth, the anticipation drained entirely from their faces. “Outside! All of you! We have some heavy running to do to get you all synced a few rounds of sprinting should do it.”
A sigh of regret came from both Lord Acheon and Dean Godsthorn. ’We shouldn’t have let him speak out in the first place!’
Reluctantly but surely, the students began walking. Lord Acheon had stated that they—himself and Lord Terrace—were in charge of them—the students—and since Dean Godsthorn hadn’t spoken a word against it, the students knew it was true.
Now that their trainer had requested they go outside to sprint, they had to obey. One by one, they walked toward the entrance and just then, one of the students, a young male in his late teens with black hair and a rebellious face raised his hand. “Excuse me, Instructor. How many rounds are we supposed to go?”
Dean Godsthorn knew this kid personally. He’d been sent to the old man’s office a few too many times and since Lord Terrace was here, a man who never took nonsense, Dean Godsthorn decided to feed him to this man.
“Watch out for that one. That’s Drakon Vhaosigg and he’s quite the stubborn one.” Dean Godsthorn’s voice rang in Lord Terrace’s head forcing him to pause for a moment as he hadn’t expected a telepathic message from the old man.
stopping
Hearing the Dean’s warning about the boy, Lord Terrace gave a subtle nod of acknowledgment. “Understood.” He sent back the the Dean.
Lord Terrace narrowed his eyes at the boy who seemed like he was up to no good and sighed. “A few rounds. You’ll stop when I see it fit. I’ll be the judge of when every single one of you stops.”
“As for you,” Lord Terrace said, his eyes fixed on the young boy who’d just questioned him. “You’ll be running till your legs hurt.”
“Now, just the others, Drakon. I need you all to be coordinated.” Lord Terrace added and the boy reluctantly walked away, stealing a few glances even as he walked away. Even though he gave Lord Terrace a few cold stares, he didn’t dare say a word.
As they all walked outside to begin their training with even the initial teachers joining in, Lord Terrace smiled. “Even the teachers are willing to train, huh? Then I’ll do this to the best of my ability.”
~~~~~
In the large open area outside of the Fourth-Year student building, there was currently an ongoing running challenge. There were over two hundred students running around the building, sweating like they were being chased by wild beasts.
Dean Godsthorn watched his students run around the building repeatedly, each of them panting like the next one could be their last. It had been over four hours after all.
“You, you’ve done well, come here.”
Every now and then, words like this could be heard from Lord Terrace’s mouth as he called out random students. It seemed like random students to the others but for him who was calling, he had a pattern.
Lord Acheon and Dean Godsthorn seemed to begin noticing it too and Lord Acheon asked with a playful smirk “It’s the ones who’ve gotten to their limit but refuse to show it, right?”