Sparring, Training and a young lady
As Professor McAllister left the room, Principal Harris went to his desk and picked up the phone. He rapidly went through his contacts and selected a specific number. There was no answer at first, but someone replied after two or three rings.
"Luis, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Leia, you are lovely as ever, am I right?" said Principal Harris in a low tone.
"Stop wasting my time Luis. What do you want?" Leia answered irritably.
"Something happened," Principal Harris said.
"What, you got hemorrhoids?" she sarcastically replied.
There was an instant pause before Principal Harris replied: "No." Then, more quietly, he said: "An awakener appeared at school" he paused again.
"Are you messing with me?" the old woman asked.
"Do you think I would joke about something like that?" Principal Harris asked in irritation.
She sighed wearily. "When?" she asked.
"Today, but apparently, he awoke only recently."
A long silence ensued until, finally, Leia spoke up: "Who's this guy?"
"It is an F-ranked student, unfortunately. We have not tested his power yet, but he should have also received a boost to his brain crystal."
"An F-ranked is still better than nothing," the woman replied.
"I agree," Harris said. "But there are some problems; it seems that the student couldn't progress much in establishing neural links. I put him under one of my teachers' care, but I don't know what he will be able to achieve before he comes to your school," Principal Harris said, sighing.
"Don't talk like this is my problem, Luis. It was you who failed to notice the kid," Principal Christensen replied.
"Maybe, but it will be yours if he comes to military school without the proper training."
"Don't worry; the military school will make a man out of him. Did you already call the office to tell them about him?" Principal Christensen asked.
"I'm going to do it after our conversation ends."
"Ah, so I was the first one you told?"
"The whole school already knows about him."
Another momentary pause followed. "Good for you," she said sarcastically.
"Now go ahead and get off the phone with me. I'll send someone down tomorrow morning to assess him." She hung up without waiting for a reply from her old friend.
Principal Harris frowned slightly, then shook his head. He was worried about the situation, but perhaps things might turn out all right anyway.
After that, he picked up his phone again; this time, he called another person. The phone rang, and after a while, Principal Harris said, "Good morning, sir. There is news for you."
***
Erik ended his work at the farm at 17:00. He had to head back to school if he wanted to arrive on time.
Professor McAllister wasn't known to be one of the most tolerant people, and he didn't want to upset him on his first training day.
Once he arrived, he walked toward the school premises and arrived in front of the main massive entrance gate.
Erik never saw it closed since it was already open when he arrived at school. Another difference was that there weren't many students around either, just some of them performing extracurricular activities.
There were probably people at the gym, the library, or the garden at the back of the school, training their power and testing their limits. But on average, not everyone was as diligent as these students, who usually were the best in the school.
Erik expected some particular people to be here at this hour, including Nathaniel McConnell and Anderson Worthington, the top dogs at school.
They would probably be here with their clique of friends, who were in a different league than people like Erik, but still not at Nathaniel's and Anderson's levels.
Erik walked through a smaller gate near the bigger one. Still, as he did, he was surprised to see two people walking in his direction.
A tall, muscular boy wearing the blue and white school uniform, which he immediately recognized as Anderson and a girl with short red hair wearing glasses.
How could Erik not recognize the girl? She was Amber Joyce, the school goddess. She was beautiful as a flower, with a perfect body and a lovely face. But looks were not everything she had. She was strong, very strong.
Most of the boys liked her because of her beauty, others because she was powerful but also smart enough to have the best grades in the whole school. These features made her popular among the school's male population as Anderson was for the female one.
Anderson looked at Erik without any particular interest. He knew him only because of his status as the school's trash and knew nothing aside from that, which clearly made Erik appear as someone not worth being friends with.
Anderson was the kind of guy who appreciated only strong people and the ones who gave their all while training. He stood before the Awakener without saying anything and left the task to the girl beside him.
"You should be Erik Romano," Amber said.
"Yes, I am," Erik replied.
"A pleasure to meet you. Rumors about your Awakening spread around the school in a single day. Should I guess this is the reason why you are here?" Amber said.
"I guess so. I'm only doing what the Principal told me to do."
"Well, let's go inside; we can discuss everything later. Professor McAllister hates people who are late."
The door closed behind them once they entered the building, and the lights came on automatically. They walked through the school's courtyard, seeing people training or reading books here and there, but they were not the top 20 students. They were at the gym.
The trio reached the gym where Erik was supposed to come. Anderson remained silent for the whole journey. Erik suspected he didn't like him very much, but he was grateful because, during the morning, he came to his aid in front of the entrance.
When they finally arrived, several people were already present. The three of them all went beside the other students facing Professor McAllister.
They were the top students and were all Amber's, Nathaniel's, and Anderson's friends. When Erik arrived, Professor McAllister stepped out from his position and greeted the new student.
"Welcome, Mr. Romano. Please join the others."
Erik, Anderson, and Amber stood in a row and waited for their teacher to start training.
"Since there is a new member among us, I decided to make you all spar today while I start teaching the basics of hand-to-hand combat to our newest addition."
The students didn't reply, but Erik noticed they didn't take the news happily. He smiled apologetically, but the other students gave him bad looks.
"You guys, pick a partner and start your training. Erik, come with me," Professor McAllister said.
He brought him far from the other students where they could train without risking injuring Erik and where he couldn't bother them. Once settled down, the professor started talking again.
"As you know, each person has their way of using power, even though some are similar to others. But before developing any power, usually, a good soldier must train his or her body. For this reason, all the top students have to learn some basic techniques to defend themselves."
The students at Thornton high school were not forced to learn martial arts or do weapon training since they would officially receive this kind of training once they went to the army.
It would have been better for the country if everyone could do this. Still, the problem was that the school dealt with kids, and not everyone diligently studied and learned to control their brain crystal power, so the training before the military school focused on teaching the students how to deal with them. Besides, there was also the risk that the kids misused their abilities.
Moreover, the government understood that leaving the students' freedom before their 16 was suitable for their mental development.
"This will prove beneficial as you increase your neural links because you will become a weapon capable of killing without even using your power. Aside from that, there are two reasons why we teach martial arts: the first is that you will probably face people, not only Thaids, during the military, and you will not always have a weapon available," the teacher paused.
"The second one is related to mana. Once you end it, as will probably happen, you will be a sitting duck if you can't fight without it. Your physical strength and speed will be present regardless of mana, so you will still be a weapon even without it. "
Professor McAllister then started walking around Erik, looking at him with an inquisitive face.
"From what I heard, you can now make things sharper since you could cut through Logan Reid's chest like butter with a tray. So, learning hand-to-hand will become particularly useful with your power."
The teacher paused again and then said to the young man. "I will show you some moves, and I want you to repeat them as much as possible."
"Understood."