29: A Rusty Dragon Whip

After a few hours had passed since the alchemy class ended, it was almost evening at Rylinth Academy. In a vast hall designed like an arena, students stood gathered, murmuring to each other in groups.

It was time for their combat class, and this hall was the combat training hall in the Combat and Weaponry Department. After the previous class, students were given a break of about two hours. Within this period, they can hone their skills or do whatever they want in the academy environment.

"Hey students, can you please be quiet? We should start our class immediately," the teacher in his late forties said, standing at the very center of the hall. This man, Mr. Ronald, the head of the combat and weaponry department, stood on a circular yin-yang-like drawing on the floor, with both of his hands clasped behind him.

He had a muscular build and was of average height. Just as he spoke, the hall was pulled into silence as the students looked at his wrinkle-less face, which was void of any emotion. Mr. Ronald had a very distinctive feature that set him apart from the other teachers in the academy: his grey hair was pulled back into a ponytail. His irises were also greyish, which made it seem as if he were blind, but he was not. Additionally, he sported a curly grey mustache. He was also a Grandmaster, just like Mrs. Xora of the Elemental Arts Department.

Mr. Ronald was a renowned mage and swordsman in all of Humaldor, nicknamed the Grey Swordsgod. He was among the very few prodigies who contributed a lot in the war with demons several decades ago. He has dual variant affinities: a grey light variant and another variant that nobody knows about.

Ronald was from the Hamilton family of Yaldor City. He was recruited by the academy here in Rylinth City to teach students combat skills and how to integrate them with elements and weapons. This was because he was the best combat training teacher in all of Humaldor, and he needed to be a teacher at the top academy in Humaldor.

"Are we ready for our first combat class?" Mr. Ronald asked, and the students nodded in agreement. "Then we shall begin the class," he said, taking a stance.

"Today, we shall start with the basics of combat and combat skills," he said, still in his stance as he scanned the students that flooded the hall.

"You!" Mr. Ronald pointed at a guy who stood out among the rest. The boy was tall and handsome, with brown hair and grayish-brown eyes. "Step out."

The brown-haired guy stepped into the center of the hall. Whispers among the others followed immediately because this boy was popular among the first-year students. He was Logan Brown, the genius of the Brown family in Zyra City. Apparently, anyone with light brown hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and eyes is supposedly from the Brown family.

"Now, I want to demonstrate the combat forms that you will be learning from me in your first year here at the academy. May I know your name and rank, young man?" Mr. Ronald said to the students before focusing his gaze on the brown-haired guy.

"Logan, sir... My rank is 7-star," replied Logan, lifting his wrist to show his rank to the teacher and others.

"Good! I want you to hit me with all the strength you've got, without using any of your elemental abilities. Just two calculated and precise hits... If you can't even land a single hit, then I will show you how it's done with just one strike," the teacher said, grinning while maintaining his stance.

Logan took his own stance and rushed to punch the teacher in the stomach. However, the teacher skillfully dodged the hit with a slight twist of his abdomen. Not giving up, Logan, who had already moved to the other side after missing his punch by just a few inches behind the teacher's body, attacked with his elbow.

'Bang!'

This time, he aimed at the teacher's head, but his elbow was met with another elbow from the man he had attacked.

Logan retracted his hand and moved away from the teacher, clutching his elbow. His face contorted in pain.

The other students were astonished by how the man swiftly parried Logan's elbow hit with his own. He certainly lives up to his name as the best combat mage in Humaldor.

"Now, this type of combat is known as hand-to-hand combat or close combat. With this combat style, you are required to learn how to both attack and defend yourself against others' attacks using only your fists, legs, or any other part of your body that may be convenient. That was just the essence of this brief demonstration I had with... um... Logan," Mr. Ronald explained.

Just as he finished speaking, he took out a small white pill and threw it at Logan. "Take it now, it will instantly soothe the pain in your elbows," Logan caught the pill and gulped it down. After a moment, he raised his hand and stretched it out twice, indicating that the pain had disappeared.

"Thank you, Mr. Ronald."

The class continued; then he brought out his sword, which was hanging on a sword stand next to the wall of the hall. After unsheathing it from its scabbard, he performed a brief sword dance, leaving all the students in awe with their mouths agape. When he finished the display, he sheathed the sword and glanced up at the students.

"This is the second type of combat known as weapon-based combat. Buying a weapon that you can't even use skillfully is as good as buying a stick. So, this combat type is very important to learn because very soon you will start acquiring weapons, including beast weapons.

"The last type of combat is not something I should demonstrate with any student because it possesses immense destructive power and is the most challenging to master. It is the best combos style when it comes to offensive attacks. Elemental combat... It is the practice of infusing mana, spiritual energy, or your elemental powers into your strikes and attacks. It is actually of two types: elemental hand-to-hand combat and elemental combat with weapons." Mr. Ronald raised his hand and balled it into a fist.

"In hand-to-hand elemental combat, you can channel your spiritual energy or unleash bursts of elemental energy through your strikes, punches, and kicks. This is a very tricky situation because your opponent cannot see the invisible spiritual energy you have infused into your attacks... unless you have reached the master level where you can condense spiritual energy into a faintly visible blue energy burst... Allow me to demonstrate," said Mr. Ronald as he pulled his fist back and unleashed a punch into the air. The students watched as the air distorted, and a faintly visible light-blue energy emanated from his fist, striking the wall with a resounding "bang!"

After that, he took the students outside the combat training hall, where he showed them how elemental combat with weapons works. He threw a dagger that he retrieved from his dark blue robe towards a tree. The dagger left his hands with a burst of gray light and struck the tree, instantly cutting it in half.

Mr. Ronald led the students back indoors to the academy's weaponry vault.

Here, there were several assortments of weapons arrayed horizontally on the weapon racks that lined the walls of the vault.

There were several melee weapons on the racks, such as swords, sabers, katana blades, daggers, spears, maces, tridents, staves, scythes, battleaxes, etc. There were also several ranged weapons, such as bows and arrows, crossbows, whips, throwing knives, javelins, and slings.

"This is the weaponry vault of my department. I will allow all of you to test the weapons in order to determine which one will best match your elemental affinity. However, please note that you are only permitted to test the weapons; the academy does not provide weapons to students. So, after practicing and discovering the best weapon for your affinity, you should put them back in their racks… After getting the weapons that suit you best, do let me know," he said as he went to sit on one of the seats in the vault.

The vault was so spacious that it could contain up to 500 students at once. As a result, all the first-year students were busy exploring the arrays of weapons of various sizes, shapes, and uses to find one that suited them, at the same time.

'I already had a bow, which is a ranged weapon. Let me check the melee weapons section,' Evelyn thought to herself as she began testing the melee weapons.

But none of them were to her liking, even though most of them could complement either her flames or lightning.

There was actually a trident she saw. It would have been a perfect weapon for her lightning or even her flames, but she didn't like it. It will take her months and years to become skilled at it, and that was the last thing she needed now. She is currently searching for a weapon that she can master in a matter of weeks or even days, so that she can embark on her beast slaying adventure as soon as possible. By extracting beast cores, she hopes to exponentially enhance her strength.

As she strolled around the vault, her amulet began to pull her towards a specific weapon on the weapons rack. Previously, she had retrieved her amulet after the alchemy class before coming to this class.

'Go for that whip! It has been calling on your amulet. I think there is a connection between the two.'

Evelyn heard the voice again speaking in her mind. However, when she wanted to question it further, particularly about how it was able to contact her, she couldn't hear the voice again. It had disappeared.

She raised her head and saw the weapon that was causing her amulet to react. It was a rusty whip filled with dust. However, it was short, so it was hung in the melee weapons section. The whip has black scales covering it, with small bud-like spikes running along its short length. From the looks of it, it was an old whip, and it had been a long time since it might have had an owner.

"A dragon whip!" Evelyn exclaimed as she extended her hand to grab it. Just as her hand touched the handle of the whip, she felt a pulse in her body. Her amulet also stopped vibrating.