Student Council vs Disciplinary Committee
Saying our hellos to Curtis and Claire, me and Arthur get dragged to the side by the ever cheerful duo.
"Is this everyone that's going to be in the class?" Arthur asked as he looked around at the other students currently chatting away in their own groups.
"Tessia and Clive also have this class." I responded and then pointed them out when they began to walk over. Tessia's smile brightened when she saw Arthur and she waved her hand as she walked over, Clive ever dutifully walking right behind her.
"Arthur, Jaron. It's good to see you both." She said as she stopped closest to Arthur who smiled at her approach as well.
"You as well Tess, Jaron was just saying you and Clive were in this class. Can't believe we all ended up in an upper division class." Tessia nodded, only Arthur's mood doesn't stay pleasant forever. Luckily for him Curtis and Claire had moved off to say hello to a couple of other people, but me and Tessia were still here and immediately noticed his change. My eyes followed his and settled on the form of Lucas Wykes and that's when I understood what had angered Arthur.
I gesture to Tessia and she seems to understand what I was asking as she pinches Arthur on the side and it breaks his trance to look at her in annoyance.
"What was that for Tess!" He exclaimed while rubbing at the pinched spot. She huffed and turned her head.
"You were staring too hard at that boy." Arthur looked at her in confusion and I just chuckled. With a quick sound barrier I leaned to Arthur to whisper.
"For someone trying to pretend that he doesn't know Lucas, you sure stared at him with an intense fury." Arthur scowled at me before softening his face.
"You know what he did. Am supposed to just forget that.?" I shake my head as I drop the barrier.
"No it's just not like you to lose your cool around someone." He and Tess stares at me as Arthur absently nods as he goes into contemplation only to immediately be pulled out by a loud call.
"Good! Everyone's here." Our attention turns to the massive Hawk like creature flying over head with the body of our Professor for this class riding atop it. The flare Hawk locks eyes with me and when it comes into land it lands right in front of me. The beast bows as it lands, but I imagine to the others it just looked as if it was landing. Though Professor Glory seemed to notice and looked at me suspiciously, to which I just returned with a smile as I stroked the overgrown bird's head.
I won't lie, I thought about Tuk in that moment, but I could still feel him inside me and it lessened the pain. Still eyeing me Professor Glory dismounts the flare hawk and stands to face the entirety of the class. Meanwhile her bond was continuing to lean its head into my hand for more pets, it was an interesting situation as the one time I tried to pet Tuk he tried to bite me in return. Guess not all bonds are touchy-feely haha.
"I'm surprised, Jaron. Torch normally doesn't let other touch him, let alone pet him." She stares but it came out as more of a question so I paused in my petting to face her.
"Birds seem to be naturally attracted to me. I used to have a Sonic Hawk as a bond not too long ago." She looked at me with with sympathy.
"Used to have one?" She questioned already knowing the answer.
"Yes, he passed on from old age I'm afraid." Not completely a lie, after all he did pass on and he was old.
"I see, sorry for your loss." We could hear snickering from the back and I pin pointed it as being Lucas. Using a mana string to snake up his leg I speak directly into his ear using sound mana.
"Watch your tongue Wykes, or I may just have to burn it out." The malice in which my words were covered with caused him to flinch and begin looking around for the culprit, but he couldn't find who said it.
"Welcome! My name is Professor Glory and I will be the one teaching all of you brats! This Flare Hawk is Torch, my precious bond."
I could see Arthur flinch slightly and Professor Glory snapped her eyes toward him and I smirked. They may be the same core level, but her defenses around her core are top notch. Even I had some difficulty the first time I looked into her core during that Lance tournament.
"Well, if it isn't my newest colleague Arthur Leywin. It's a pleasure to meet you." Glory said cheekily as she stared Arthur, and the rest of the class joined her to look and see who she was talking about.
"What do you mean Professor?" One kid asked from the crowd and her smirk grew as she turned to face the rest.
"Apparently after Princess Kathyln defeated Professor Geist when he was going too far in his demonstrations, Arthur here was promoted to be the new Professor of the class. With Jaron, the Director and even the Princess herself vouching for his capabilities." Arthur was just standing there taking in all the shocked gazes until everyone burst out into shouts of disbelief at how a freshman could be a Professor. I decided to step in as this was pointless, their protests weren't going to change his station and Arthur could most likely defeat everyone here.
"Ahem! I'm going to assume none of you are actually trying to say that Director Goodsky, myself, and Kathyln Glayder were wrong in our assessment. Perhaps you all believe that you're better suited to run the academy." I said challengingly and the rest backed down, sending me nervous glances and Arthur sent a thankful one.
"Alright, alright. I'm sure you all are itching to test him, so how about we do just that. We'll have the student council face off against the Disciplinary Committee with Arthur as their 3rd." Arthur slightly raised a hand as he began to speak.
"Uh, actually Director Goodsky told me to take it easy in my upper division classes. It's only my first day after all." Glory grins at him before speaking.
"Oh come on, I'm sure all these good people here just want to see if you're worthy of the Director's trust." Shouts of agreement were heard from the crowd and I sighed.
"Professor Glory, you realize your forcing a 1 stripe to participate in a battle filled with people that the lowest rank is the dukes/duchess and a grand duchess as well as the current king?" She scratched her chin as she thought about my words before shrugging her shoulder.
"It will be fine, I'm sure the King won't have too much trouble defeating a single striped competitor." She grinned widely and I held a neutral expression but I was inwardly glaring at her.
"Very well Professor, but if anyone gets hurt you only have yourself to blame. Also you're walking a very fine line, I'd hate for something similar to the Geist situation to happen to you." I let my words trail off as I continued to hold her gaze and with an imperceptible nod she turned away.
"Alright, suit up and teams get to your respective sides. We'll have Arthur serve as the King for his side and Jaron will serve as King for his side, fitting right?" She smirked once again as if happy with herself and I just sighed at her stupidity. She just made it practically impossible for our team to lose unless I purposely allowed myself to get taken out.
However we lined up at our respective side and I could see Claire and Curtis looking towards me.
"You better prepare yourself Jaron! We're not going to waste this opportunity to defeat you." Curtis calls and I could see Claire nod as she drew her sword.
"This match will have a 30 minute time limit, and we will have a discussion as well as breakdown of it afterwards." Glory said and I could see Tessia helping Arthur out on the gear and I smirked. I called aloud to them from my spot across the field.
"Vice President, is it wise to be helping the enemy before the battle?" She straightened quickly and subsequently hit her head on Arthur's chin causing him to fall back clutching his chin as she clutched her head. The class began to laugh at the scene as Tessia rushed towards me with a scowl etched on her face.
"Youuu…" She growled at me and I just grinned at her.
"Oh relax, I was just joking. I didn't expect you to get a sneak attack in on Arthur before the battle. Good job." Her scowl only deepened as she looked away and prepared for the battle. Grawder had also taken the field and I smirked, the world lion seemed to shiver when it saw my eyes land on its form. Claire focuses in on me, but I just smile and shake my head before I point to Arthur and I could see her frown. She understood what I meant and reluctantly nodded her head.
If she wanted to get to fight me, she would have to get passed Clive and Tessia first. Arthur and me would spar until then. Professor Glory was now up in the air and she projected her voice to be heard by all of us.
"Let the battle commence!" With that everyone fueled their bodies with mana and took off to fight their respective opponents. Clive and Claire engaged, while Tessia and Curtis began to fight. Me and Arthur stared at each other for a moment before he began making his way towards me, Tessia and Clive ignoring him as he passed by them. Once he got close enough I conjured a barrier around us so no stray attacks could interfere as well as no sound would seep out.
"Are you ready Arthur?" I asked him with a neutral expression as he took his stance with Dawns Ballad held in front of him and wind as well as earth mana fueling his body.
"I have no illusions that I can win, but I will at least try to make you sweat." I smile at the determination, but could only sigh at the improbability of it. He's only a mid yellow, while I'm a white core. It's just not feasible for him to even give me any trouble unless he uses his beast Will.
"Then let's make it entertaining. I'll only use my sword, my wind and fire mana will only be used to deflect attacks and movements. This will be good practice for your wind and earth manipulation." He thinks on it briefly before nodding.
"Good. Then let's begin."
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Author's Note
Apologies for the slight cliff hanger lol, but don't worry there will be another chapter tomorrow that leads to the conclusion to this spar and the beginning of the tournament. The tournament will probably only last one chapter as i doubt too many people want to read about Arthur defeating people that they have no knowledge of. But I will add in a few rounds here and there.
See ya tomorrow
Thanks for reading.
-SocioPhobia