CHPT 112: The new Student

Claude walked towards the Professor along with the rest of the students. The bright late day sun heated him in his armor and canceled out the cool breeze settling over the field.

An odd feeling of panic supercharged his heart rate and drowned out the noise of the murmuring students as they all lightly crowded around and watched the new student.

Prof. Brennan waited a moment for everyone to quiet before he spoke, "Everyone, this is our newest student, Maris."

She looked a little different since the last time he'd seen her. Her hair no longer hung down her back in long black waves. Now it was cut short— stopping at her shoulders, looking clean and thoroughly brushed. The cut on her cheek healed up and now left her with a pale scar barely visible under her left eye. Now fitted with snug blue, silver and black leather armor and fuller features from eating regularly for the first time in a while, she looked less wild and weathered— pretty even, if what he noticed in the male students was correct.

"....."

They all silently waited for her to introduce herself further or simply wave awkwardly. The students were met with silence for a unsettling long time until she finally spoke.

"What are you all looking at?" She asked, wearing an expression of arrogant indifference mixed with genuine confusion.

Some of the students who were more meek in nature looked away from her reflexively while others scoffed or simply looked at her in surprise.

"Erhm....Anyway, as of today she will be a normal student of the University and regularly attending this class so please, treat her as such. Now! Everyone start running and don't stop until I say so!" Prof. Brennan said in his strong Irish accent.

Everyone immediately headed out to the field and started running at a semi fast jog.

Claude tried his best to look like the run was tiring as he paced himself near the Tanks and larger Knights at the back with Frosty at his side. The students' fear of the PitWolf created a gap in the line where he ran, so individuals behind him ran slower than usual and the students ahead ran with an extra amount of effort.

"Do you think she'll somehow remember me?" Claude thought anxiously.

"[I doubt it. For now, just keep your distance.]" Arne said.

Claude agreed with Arne and fought to stop his mind from wandering as he ran with the class.

"So, what do you think of the new girl?" Ursula suddenly said from his left next to Frosty.

"Wha— Oh.....I don't know." Claude said.

Ursula looked up the line to where she was running. "I think I like her."

"How? This is your first time seeing her." Warren cut in from Claude's right, after slowing down to run with them.

"I don't really know. She seems different." Ursula said optimistically.

"You got that right." Claude thought.

The students continued to run while they spoke on and off.

***

For some reason Prof. Brennan felt like making everyone run much longer than usual so by the time he called out for everyone to stop, a few students did so by simply falling hard into the grass.

No matter what your class was or how much you ran, the warm up laps left everyone sweaty and tired.

Few students were left standing but the ones that were included; Claude, the twins, Chase and Maris who stood up straight and tried not to look as tired as she was.

Prof. Brennan and the late arriving Prof. Raizen only gave them a few minutes to rest before they gave instructions for what to do next.

"Alright, everyone on your feet!" Prof. Raizen's voice boomed like thunder across the field, sending everyone up to their feet instantly.

"Today, we're going to be doing a light session of paired sparring before we resume with another game of Mob. So, pick your partners, draw your weapons and get to work!" Prof. Brennan said.

Students began finding themselves with their usual partners while other male students headed in a wave towards someone. Claude followed their trajectory until he found himself looking at Maris.

She walked purposefully towards the side of the field he was on, coldly turning down guys as sparring partners left and right saying things along the lines of, "You won't make me stronger." And the occasional one worded "No."

Claude closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose stressfully, "She's not going to make any friends." He thought.

"[Oh come on. I think we both knew she wouldn't be standing very high on the social ladder here.]" Arne chimed in before Ursula stepped in front of him.

"Headache?" She asked.

"Something like that." Claude replied.

He looked up and noticed she was carrying her battle axes. Behind her, Warren was lightly sparring with Isaac meaning she had no partner.

He noticed she looked like she wanted to speak. But, Before she could ask if he wanted to spar with her, Maris stopped next to them.

"Hey." Ursula said kindly with a slight bewildered look on her face.

"Hello. You look strong, spar with me please." Maris said flatly under the sound of students already clashing swords and shields.

Ursula's eyebrows elevated in surprise as she looked at Claude.

"Go ahead." Claude said to her before she hesitantly headed off with Maris.

"Now.....to find a partner for myself." Claude thought out loud as footsteps headed in his direction.

"Willing to settle for a rival?" A borderline psychotic sounding male voice said from behind him before adding, "Cool.....uhhh...Dog?"

Claude and Frosty turned and came face to face with a wild eyed smiling Archer, holding two daggers.

"Chase." Claude greeted with a nod.

"Wolfboy! How you been? Gotten any stronger?" He asked as he bounced on the balls of his feet and settled into his combat stance.

Claude rolled his shoulders before unsheathing his shortsword and replying, "A little bit. You?"

"Come find out." Chase said with a smile.

Since his PitWolf didn't have a light to moderate way of fighting, he had Frosty wait nearby as they spared.

After Frosty sat comfortably in the field nearby, Claude engaged Chase.

Clang!!

He delivered a downward swing of his blade at Chase. The Archer blocked it by making an x with his daggers before pushing Claude's sword away and swinging back at his chest.

Swoo!!

Claude easily dodged by back stepping and was given no time to collect himself as Chase appeared right in front of him, swiping at his face.

Swip!

Claude dropped down to a low crouch to dodge the strike. While he was low to the ground, he spun and hit Chase with an incredibly fast leg sweep.

"Ergh!" Chase made a sound of effort as his legs came out from under him and he flipped backwards.

To Claude's surprise, Chase gave into the movement and continued turning until his fists slammed into the grass and pushed him away from Claude in a back handspring.

"[He's good.]" Arne said after a few seconds.

"Yea." Claude agreed as he stood up.

"You've gotten faster." Chase said.

"Hadn't noticed." Claude replied with a shrug.

"Don't try to play cool with me." Chase said with a knowing smirk before adding, "You sure you aren't tired from the run? Because I'm just getting warmed up."

"I'm all good. Now let's get a bit more serious." Claude said before raising his sword and taking a deep breath to center himself in preparation to continue sparring.