Lined in Silver and Gold

Chapter 8

I jogged my final lap around the sparring field and walked towards the assistant instructor, a burly man with swirling tattoos across his bronze skin, ready to be assigned my partner for the day. But, as I approached him, instead of assigning me to a person as usual, he told me to stand in a row of other students who completed their laps before me. For a moment, I stood dumbfounded, confused by this change of schedule. I looked around to see all my fellow classmates looking equally perplexed.

"Do you know what we're doing?" one of the students, Mardin, asked me as I approached the group.

"Nope, I just arrived." I adjusted my armor and sword sheath as I stood with them. I looked expectantly at the Cadius, who had stood there before I even arrived. "Do you have any ideas Cadius?"

"No idea, they've never done this before."

"So it must be some sort of surprise event?"

"Yeah probably." Cadius's eyes then lit up. "Wait. Actually, now that you mention it, the same thing would happen whenever a member of the royal family visited. I read about these instances in one of the Academy Regulation Books."

"That sounds interesting..." I thought about it for a moment before deciding that he was probably wrong (as he usually was). When I had walked through the front doors, I saw nothing that would indicate the arrival of royalty, or anyone of similar standing for that matter. But, being the supportive friend that I was, I kept silent so that Cadius wouldn't be embarrassed again (this happens very frequently).

While those thoughts were circling around my head, one of the Instructors, Fulis, a blonde man with amber skin and eyes as green as the shrubs outside the dining hall's window, finally arrived carrying a bundle of papers under his arm.

The moment I saw him, I quickly took a step towards him, with many of my fellow students doing the same. As I was about to open my mouth, preparing to bombard him with questions, he gently placed a finger on his lips and warded us back with his other hand. How he managed to do it so naturally with so much luggage was a different question altogether.

When we stood still and fell silent, he gave a small chuckle and bent over to set the papers down.

"You will all be taking part in a small tournament to determine your rank within the student body." He said, gazing upon the students to gauge our reaction, as he repositioned his posture until he stood upright.

"Rankings?" Mardin queried, his quizzical expression matching the rest of the students in the group.

"The Dean got the idea from one of the other Academies. The administrators there saw immediate improvement among the students as each of them were willing to do better to improve their rankings." Our instructor smiled. " Our school could use a good competitive spirit. Oh, also, this is gender neutral so both genders can challenge each other. The tournament will take place every Friday, so be sure to practice extra hard during the week to improve your skills. You'll need them to improve your skills and ranking. Oh, by the way, rankings do come with a lot of benefits, so I would be thinking about it if I were you."

With that, he handed the bundle of papers to the nearest student and told them to pass them around. Once I got mine, I briefly scanned the little information on its face. He explained most of the parts except for the mention that only fifty percent of the kids will actually be ranked. The ones below that percentage will just be dubbed "unranked." It was probably some method to avoid getting people upset. But, that part didn't intrigue me. The next section did. Competing students are allowed to use catalytic weapons in combat, but the weapon must be inspected and inhibited two days before the tournament day. I had not expected such a bold authorization of a catalyst. They would be modified of course, an inhibitor would be placed along the flats of the blades to reduce their volatility; but they were still catalysts, artifacts that could potentially cause mass destruction. This was a very risky move by the Academy.

"So, when do we start?" I asked the instructor, feeling a flicker of excitement from this announced event. A tournament style training session that would crown the winner, essentially meaning that they would be crowned as the top student of the Academy. This is exactly what I needed to stand out amongst my fellow students here.

The instructor smirked, and his green eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"Right now."