14 Done with Magic, Go scare the Knight!

He was just lucky that he reduced the power of his spells in order to prevent harming the students. If he would have used a spell at his full power, the quickly erected barrier that he used to defend himself would never have been enough to hold off the amplified attack.

The instructor slowly got back on his feet, before he did his best to get rid of the dust and once more return to his earlier dignified look.

"Yes, I think we should switch to something different for now." he glanced at Myra and her still unblemished shield. "This is really an exceptional shield miss …"

"Myra" the girl quickly answered him with a guilty look.

"Miss Myra, I see." Zoran once more turned his focus to his other students. "As you might have noticed, this shield is a little bit unusual. It is not only shaped in a certain way, but also has the property of reflection. I guess this is made at least with the power and skill of someone who is at the affinity or even at the persistency stage. You would all do well to learn from such a fellow student."

"The shield has a normal inner side, but at the outer layer, there is an area of affinity that reacts to an opposing force. You can make two forces interact more harmoniously and as we have just seen, you can also turn them against each other. It takes a lot of control to only reflect an incoming attack without making the shield turn against the environment around it and fall apart. It takes even more control to hide it so well to the point where it is not different from a normal simpler type of shield. Really well done."

He did not want to add, that such a shield was likely beyond his own means. He was at the beginning stages of the violet realm, of what they called persistency stage, but neither were his spells as stable nor could he hide their properties as well as Myra did. He already took note of her and decided to have her move on to one of the more advanced classes.

'There are probably not many instructors other than the principal who can teach her anything at all with this level of skill.' Zoran thought to himself.

The class went on without any more incidents, maybe because there were no more showcases of magical power in any way and their time was spent with just more theory. Myra was happy to learn about all of these things, even though some of it did not make a lot of sense to her. Not only was she creating her own magic spells quite differently than those around her, but also the theory they learned was not totally accurate.

After all this was just one country of many, just one world of many. It was not unusual that different places had a different understanding of magic. It is not as if everyone had access to black grade magic to prove their theories right or wrong.

After their magic class was completed, Myra and Liam both looked for Nell to grab a quick lunch. They could not find Aaron, who seemed to have some assignment outside of the academy. They quickly finished their lunch, which consisted mostly of a vegetable stew and some bread before Nell and Myra headed to the warrior hall.

A tough looking tall middle aged man was already waiting for the students in the hall. He did not look like a scholarly person and it was not unexpected that he didn't even say a word and just waited for everyone to arrive while standing there, unmoving like a mountain. He wore a chainmail shirt that covered his chest, with his arms mostly free of any armor or clothes showing off many scars.

Even his face looked kind of rough, more like that of a bandit than what one might expect of an instructor. It did not take a genius to figure out that this was a person who had seen many fights before and managed to survive to be able to teach them.

Once it looked like everyone had arrived this mountain of a man finally moved.

"Welcome to Silverspire Military Academy!" his eyes wandered over every single one of the students and many of them took a step back as if his gaze alone could force them back.

"I am your instructor for battle skills this season, you may call me Gorm."

"You are here to train as knights! Not just any knights you are here to learn what it means to be a magical knight. A warrior using their innate magical gifts to fight with their weapon and their body. My part is teaching you the skills to fight and to survive. You won't learn any etiquette from me, nor will I tell you some bullshit about what's morally right or wrong. There are other instructors who will happily take over those things."

"As long as you are students of this academy, it is my responsibility to make sure you act as a student should. If you don't listen to my commands, you will have to face the consequences. If you decide to simply disregard the knowledge I pass on to you, that's your own problem and loss. If you however disrupt others from learning, then I will throw you out. You can decide on your own, how to behave."

"Let's go, follow me."

He then moved out of the hall with fast steps, with the students quickly following him, none wanting to be left behind. Some students were rather surprised about the little speech and quickly hushed discussions about their instructor broke out.

"I heard instructor Gorm usually does not train students himself, I wonder why he would be here now." one of the students said.

"What's so special about him? He just looks like a brute, not any different than the mercenaries my father often hires." another one asked with a frown on his face.

"Moron, looks alone say nothing about someone's skill!" Nell interjected. As his father was also an instructor at the academy he heard about Gorm 'the Meteor' more than once.

"Instructor Gorm is a Saint Warrior in the Skylord realm, even grandmasters would love to learn from him. Some say that when Saint Gorm is around, enemy soldiers would check the sky in fear, because it would be way more devastating to have him dropping into enemy lines from above than any magical siege engine could ever be."

Another student quickly agreed to Nell's explanation. "He's somewhat of a legend, one of the three big figures of the Silverspire Military Academy."

"Three big figures?"

"Yes, Silverspire Academy has three powerful figures among the staff. One would be the principal, he is an Archmage said to possess exceptional abilities in enchantment magic. The second is obviously Saint Warrior Gorm, he is known for his big double axe that can cleave everything that stands in his way and even cause earthquakes when he drops down from the sky."

"Then there is also Lady Dhalia, who is a priestess of Reia. She sometimes takes in disciples to teach them divine magic. She's really nice, but sometimes also very scary. All of them are said to be Skylords."

"Are those three … " - "Shhh.. quiet."

As they finally arrived at yet another hall, filled with various weapons, Gorm stopped and waited for everyone to catch up.

"This is our weapon's hall. There are many stories about people who bought powerful magic weapons, but essentially all of these stories belong to normal warriors. Weapons can be enchanted, but no matter how powerful a weapon enchantment is, it will always remain a normal enchanted weapon."

"What differentiates a magical warrior from a normal warrior is not just that they can use their magic potential to improve their bodies and attacks, it is their weapon. The weapon of a magical warrior is bound to them, it will grow together with the warrior and remain at their side for all their life."

He pointed to one of the swords in the hall before picking it up at its sheath turning it around in his hands and showing it to the students. The weapon seemed to react and try to 'flee' away from his grasp, but Gorm's power was too strong. It couldn't escape his grasp.

"These weapons are not just tools of war. While the metal they are forged of is just ordinary, what makes them special is the seed that they have imbedded which will grow into a spirit. Once they are bound to a magical knight, they can reform themselves by using your power, they will never need to be sharpened, will never be completely destroyed and never be lost."

Gorm put the sword back down before a big double axe appeared in his hands.

"As they are bound to you, you can summon them as you like, as well as unsummon them when you don't need them." the axe in his hands disappeared again like it was never there.

"This does not mean that the materials are not important. Weapons with a weapon spirit can still be enchanted and upgraded as other weapons can be and a weapon can still break if your enemy has a weapon forged of a better material or has more power and skill. It's like the weapon has a blueprint of itself in your soul that is there for you, whenever you need it. You can change the weapon and blueprint, but if it gets destroyed you just need to reform it."

"All of these weapons have a weapon seed embedded. Weapon seeds can be very stubborn though. Even though they only have a trace of a personality at this stage, not yet fully forming a spirit, making one submit to you depends on luck and finding the right weapon seed, as well as your talent. Your task for today is finding a weapon seed to form a bond with."

The first few students tried to pick up some of the weapons, but soon noticed that the weapons did not want to stay within their grasp, the same as they had seen with the sword Gorm picked up before. Unlike Gorm however, they did not have the strength, to keep holding on to them and the weapon either escaped or they were thrown back as if by an invisible force.

"If you find none that will accept you, you can train your weapon skills some more and try again later, it usually means your skills are not enough to catch the seed's interest. Obviously weapon types you are more skilled and familiar with, will have a higher chance of holding a weapon seed that will bond with you."