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Paragon
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Training Grounds
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Today's third class was a joint free training period with the school of aura users. Our combat teacher, Edward was kind enough to give us a free period because Steve was missing and he had to take care of both the classes. He didn't feel much burdened with such a task because after yesterday's elemination exam, everyone seemed to have matured up a bit.
"You all are allowed to spar with each other, just don't kill or gravely injure anyone. Don't cause any chaos, and lastly don't be kids," Edward announced from the conner of the room. He didn't even need a speaker, his voice that was enhanced by aura was loud enough to echo though the hall for four times.
Although, Edward announced that all the students could spar with one another, there wasn't enough room for all one thousand five hundred students to spar. It was bound to create some chaos if they tried to do so.
Paragon let it's students grow by themselves for most of the time, if they got lazy they will remind themselves of the elemination exam and Paragon wouldn't even have to lift a finger. When a school is run by fear, you have to agree that it's good if it is still running.
This class also made it easier for me to learn archery from Tommy. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't have time to explore this field of expertise unless the classes were over for both of us for the day. However, this class gave me a perfect opportunity to learn it in a single day.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tommy asked being annoyed by my inaccurate bow shots. This was the fifth time I missed the target completely.
There was just a distance of fifty meters between me and the effigy made of hay bale. Yet I had somehow managed to miss five arrows consecutively.
Tommy had showed me how to properly use a long bow because I was a starter in this field, but he couldn't explain how much strength do I need to use to pull the strings and all. I had to figure it out by myself, I thought it would be easy but it was anything but easy. Hell, it was harder than using a gun.
"The strength used for pulling the string, distance of the target, force of the wind, all those factors play a huge part in the accuracy of the arrow," Tommy explained. "If you can't aim it right, then try to calculate the accuracy using these factors. You are one of the smartest people I know, I refuse to believe that you can't even do something as simple as that."
"You sound weirdly like someone I know," I replied without diverting my attention from the target. "Calculate this, calculate that... Sadly, he was always right... Maybe I should try that then."
I calculated the distance, wind speed, the direction it was flowing, my grip strength, speed of the previous arrows that I shot and the accuracy rate was pretty high. Well, just because I calculated it all doesn't mean that my arrow is guaranteed to hit... Should I go for the head anyways... Or aim for the bigger target?
Swoosh~
I released my grip on the string, letting the arrow fly off from my wooden bow. This time, it didn't miss... It was a headshot, a perfect headshot.
"See I told you that it works, archery isn't reliant on talent, as long as you work hard it will show you it's results," Tommy stated, feeling a bit proud because I hit an accurate shot after listening to his advice.
"So you are saying that you don't have any talent for archery either?" I asked, getting ready to hear a stupid answer.
"No I... Wait..." Tom muttered, getting confused by his own words. "Anyways, let's leave that for now, what is up with her all of a sudden?"
"I have no clue, I felt like I had said something to her but I can't remember what it was. Probably something irrelevant," I said brushing off the topic.
"You are more of an introvert than me, I may not know her as well as I know you but even I can tell that something happened to her. I mean a cheerful and energetic person, turning cold for some reason and not talking to anyone is weird, I believe you should talk to her," Tommy explained, shrugging his shoulders.
"Fine, I will be back in a minute," I said, giving the bow and quiver back to Tommy before walking away.
Crackle
As I walked past the students of both school, I felt that gaze yet again on my back. The same hostile gaze I felt on my back on the day of elemination exam, it was uncomfortable as well as irritating. I couldn't even find the ones keeping an eye on me in this crowd. Just wait till I reach B rank on Sage Force, I will gouge out those eyes and feed it to them.
After finding Sylvia, I thought of speaking with her but backed away instantly realising that she was shadowboxing. Shadowboxing is a method of 'moving' meditation that helps develop awareness and mindfulness anywhere, at any time. Alfred taught it to us hoping to strengthen our instincts, and it worked wonders in that regard.
Last time when I got close to her while she was shadowboxing, I ended up with a few broken bones.
'She usually does that to relieve stress... Did something happen?' I thought to myself. 'I did say something back then... Damn it Savitar, why do you always mess up such small matters all the time?'
"Ray? I didn't see you there," Sylvia smiled, wiping off her sweat from her temple and walking towards me.
"It's nothing, I didn't mind watching you train," I replied with a smile, silently turning on a sound barrier. "I was just wondering... Did something happen? You feel off for some reason. Mind telling me about it?"
"Oh, it's nothing..." Sylvia said before whispering quietly. "Don't you think that our substitute teacher having two hearts is kinda weird?"
"That's the only reason you are like this? Look if you don't wanna talk about it, it's fine but you are not the type of person to be shaken up by something like that. We live in a world where so many races coexist, there are bound to be mutations. If you feel like it, let's go talk to her, maybe that's because of her meta ability," I wispered back.
"Then why were you so excited?" Sylvia asked.
"I wasn't excited... I was just surprised," I answered.
"You were. You were so excited that you said you were going to kiss me for helping you figure it out," Sylvia said, smiling.
"I spoke that out loud in excitement... I really need to keep my mouth shut sometimes," I said.
"It's alright, but try not to say something like that in the class it's embarrassing," Sylvia added.
"So you are worried about the place and not the fact that I said it?" I asked.
"Should I be? I don't have a problem if it's you, do you?" Sylvia asked.
"No, absolutely not... I will explain it in detail later on. You should get back to you training and don't hit someone in the process because it will probably kill them," I said, slowly walking away before running back at full speed.
Crackle