Chapter 6:

Once we found everything, we ended up going back to the mess hall for dinner, sitting as a small group at one of the long bench-style wooden tables that lined the mess hall. It was a simple setup, but it was functional, even if it was a little cramped.

After we ate a quick dinner, I split off from the group and went back out into the main hall, heading over to where we had found the gym earlier. Time to see if he's actually going to keep his word. I told Nova as I pushed the heavy wooden door open, only to stop dead in my tracks as I openly gawked at the pair in the center of the mats that covered the majority of the center of the gym. They were locked into what looked like a rather intense sparring session. Both held a single sharp short sword in one hand, but they moved so quickly and smoothly that it was honestly hard to track any actual strikes over the clang of metal on metal. It didn't help that there was also a whole hell of a lot of toned, tanned muscle on display, considering both of them were shirtless, but I wasn't about to complain about that show.

It took me all of about a second of looking the pair over to realize that the one with his back to me was Xavier. Even with his back turned, his stature alone could tell him apart, but the sheer speed and pure lethal skill in the way he moved was absolutely mesmerizing. I could absolutely get used to walking in on this more often...

Slowly, I let go of the door and walked a little further into the room, forcing my eyes to assess their strikes rather than their bodies, but that lasted all of about two seconds before something else caught my attention. My eyes caught on several crisscrossing scars that littered Xavier's back, and I couldn't help but look a little closer. They looked far too deliberately placed to just be battle scars.

I jumped when there was a rather loud thud, followed by a groan of pain, snapping me back into the moment, only to see the other guy on his back with Xavier's sword at his throat. After a moment, Xavier simply left him there, walking away over towards a bench that held two empty sheathes and two black undershirts. He sheathed his sword before grabbing his shirt and turning towards me. I, on the other hand, was damn near drooling, as I cursed the gods that decided to make every damn inch of this man downright lethally breathtaking.

Nova's laughter ringing through my mind pulled me out of my thoughts once more before she spoke up. 'As much fun as this is, now isn't exactly the best time to be ogling the human's body.'

'But... even you have to admit that it's a really nice body.' She just laughed a little harder, but I tore my gaze away from the miles of chiseled muscle and up to a pair of piercing emerald eyes. I honestly don't think there's a single soft thing about this man.

Surprisingly enough, he was actually a little less of an ass as he tortured me. He was actually rather helpful as I worked my arms and legs, attempting to start to strengthen the muscles. Although by the time he dismissed me from the gym, the floor was looking like quite a nice place to sleep, rather than forcing my aching legs to drag my ass all the way back up all those stairs.

Gritting my teeth, I slowly made my way back to my room, grabbed one of the night gowns they had given us along with some clean underwear, and made my way into the floor's bathing chambers. Pulling the curtain of the dressing room closed behind me, I reached through the curtain that separated it from the shower and turned the water on as hot as it would go before climbing in. I couldn't help the soft moan that fell from my lips at the instant relief of my sore muscles. 'I thought he said he was going to go easy on me tonight.' I asked Nova, and she snickered at me.

'He did, but I think his definition of easy is way different from yours.' She answered as she perched up on the basket screwed into the wall of the shower meant to hold soap as she used it to rinse herself under the warm spray.

'Be glad that you don't have to train like this. I feel like somehow he managed to make every single muscle in my body ache.' She just giggled at me as I turned the water off, quickly got dried off and dressed, before all but passing out in my bed.

The bell, which rang to signal that there was an hour before classes started for the day, came far too quickly, and I slowly dragged myself out of bed. Somehow, I felt even more sore today than last night. Pulling on my clothes, I followed Lexi and Genie out of the room and down towards the mess hall with the rest of the students. "You look like hell, Ari. Are you okay?" Lexi commented, and I just nodded.

"I'm fine. I decided to get a training session in last night, and I think I might have overdone it a bit." I gave her a small smile as we picked up our trays and claimed a spot to sit.

"Fair enough, I guess, but you know you didn't have to split off if you were just going to do some training. I don't mind helping out or even just joining if you want a friend."

"Thanks, but I already have someone working with me," I answered before focusing on my food. I didn't know exactly how much Xavier wanted me to tell people, and the last thing I wanted was to incur his wrath or make it to where he couldn't help me anymore.

After we were all done eating, Genie broke off from our group to go to her first class while Lexi and I started walking towards History. Until the end of the week, the whole student body was cut in half and rotated through classes. After the test at the end of the week, the numbers would be small enough that all of us would have the same class schedule, but we still didn't know exactly what that test would entail.

Walking into the room, we climbed the rows of seating that raised into a semicircle around the center pedestal. Lexi and I ended up taking two seats towards the center of the class as the rest of the students quickly filed in and found a seat. When the bell rang once more, the professor walked through the door, shutting it behind him as he settled in at the podium. He was a tall, rather bulky man, dressed in dark brown leather armor, as a small brown wolf sat on the floor beside him.

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Professor Tarsan, and I will be your history instructor. I have a quick announcement before we start class this morning. This week is one of the ones that will count the most for you in this academy. How you perform in your classes and outside of them will determine who you will be fighting at the end of it. Those fights are performed outside in the battle arena, where you will be expected to utilize every skill you've acquired throughout your life to win at all costs. The loser of each match will be removed from the academy." A collective murmur went through the class as everyone looked around at their fellow students. I looked over at Lexi, but she just gave me a reassuring smile.

'I think you might have actually made a good friend in this one, Ari.' Nova told me as I smiled back at Lexi.

'I really hope so. I have a feeling that I'm going to need it here.' After that, the professor went on about how this class would go over the history of the Alliance and work its way up into all the active battlefields, along with what to expect around each area.

"The reason our front lines have to be spread all the way across the border is due to the fact that the Beastial Kingdom doesn't attack in any reasonable pattern. Their attacks are seemingly at random, and the grouping of their soldiers tends to be odd. It makes it far more difficult to attempt to know their next move in this battle and spreads our resources across a wider area." He pointed to the line of camps covering the whole vast border of the Beastial Kingdom. "Not only do we have to worry about that, but in recent events, rebel groups have been sprouting up inside some of our encampments along this border. Now, more than ever, it's important for us to get more specialized soldiers into those encampments due to them now being attacked on two fronts. This is where all of you come into play. As you all know, this academy isn't just any military academy. We only train the top of the class in order to provide those specialized soldiers to our encampments. All others that still want to serve after this week will be sent to the encampments themselves to be trained." Honestly, it seemed far more unorganized than I had been expecting, and something about the way he was explaining things just didn't sit right with me.

Survival and my emergency medical class both went about the same. All the professors introduced themselves and gave the whole once over of what the class would entail. Lexi and I stuck together during all our classes, and I was honestly grateful for it. It was actually nice to have someone to talk to and just be able to relax around without feeling like she was judging me. I was slowly finding out that we were actually more similar than I originally thought. She also grew up in one of the outer Celestial villages, but she always knew she would be coming here and had already done a lot of combat training at home. That one made me feel better as we headed towards the gym for our combat class. Hopefully, they would let us pick who we work with, because at least, maybe she would be nicer about it than Xavier.