Chapter 7:Blossom's 4th Year class

"As I was saying before being interrupted, I want all of you to show me your weapon capabilities. And before you complain about them being broken, you can pick up a substitute just for this lesson. Expect them to be fixed by the time we have our next lesson." Barbados thought it was better for them to practise with lower quality weapons to test their adaptability. If they were to fight in a war, it's not certain they would have their specialised weapon right next to them. The only one exempt from this was Aisha, who used a crossbow and was intact. A sly smile wriggled onto Barbados's mouth as he approached her. With his hands behind his back, he asked her to show him how fast she could load a bolt and shoot it. She did it in 6 seconds, faster than actual professional crossbowmen.

"Well, what about this?" he said as he proceeded to take the weapon and make it disappear. He then handed her a roll of string and some uneven sturdy stick. "Make one."

"What?" she tried to ask but he left her to ponder her situation.

Dranim wielded a single-handed great axe in his left hand while doing a vertical slash. Barbados looked and wondered if he should push onto a different path. The axe wasn't for him, the weapon screamed in the inside of the Sinborn's cranium, begging him to guide the young boy towards a brighter future. Barbados wished he could, but that would heavily impact the boy's mentality and consciousness that could easily cause a ripple effect, and who knows where that could spiral off to. The best choice right now was to push them to their limits, and only then, suggest a different weapon. Barbados won't need to interfere much though, he could tell the boy was showing early signs of struggle. It won't take long until he starts doubting himself.

"Hey Dranim. You're holding too close to the blade. Move your hand further from the edge and closer to the knob. You aren't making use of the extra length that is restricting the versatility of your weapon." Dranim tried adjusting it and there was visible improvement, but not enough to justify the use of the axe.

Chloutarg seemed to have already mastered his 2 weapons, knowing the reason for each weapon and their purpose in combat.

"Chloutarg, how good is your mana proficiency? You seem to have no room for improvement with the cleaver, although the war hammer may be too big for it to be convenient to use but with your strength you seem to be managing." Chloutarg seemed to quiver at the question.

"Not good, sir. I can barely keep it manifested for 5 minutes." Barbados questioned if that was a little amount of time as he still had a surface knowledge of man. "Yes, the average at my age should be around 20 minutes."

"You should use these lessons by focusing on that. I assume there's a way to forcefully increase that timer?"

"Not that I know off."

"I'll ask Grog the next time I see him. Maybe he knows something but for now, maybe try alternating your initial strikes. It would make you less predictable when fighting against a warrior," and as Barbados began leaving he had an idea, "Try attacking with both weapons attacking in a diagonal slash."

Porfan was half-heartedly slashing with a dagger that resembled a blank canvas devoid of any detail. Well, that's what it would seem like to a person who lacked experience. Barbados could hear, or feel, the weapon resonating with the boy. Those moves didn't lack energy, but were energy efficient. The small blade was quickly moved and swiftly struck into the imaginary target, specifically for the weak points. However, with all this praise came downsides. He was lost in a trance, repeatedly striking and losing grip of reality. If a stray arrow had just so happened to pass by, he would most definitely get hit and perish. "We can't have that now can we?" he thought as he silently picked up a stick, pulled on one end and let it rebound, striking Porfan in the head. The boy was speechless.

"Are you awake now? You were lost in a stream of attacks."

"Oh. Uh. I was?" The boy sounded exhausted after realising his previous aforementioned storm of swings. Intrigued, Barbados questioned the technique he used.

"Simple slash to the artery vein, repeatedly."

"Very effective, and very assassin-like. Is that the only dagger you wield or are there more?"

"I use more. This is just for basic attacks. All the other daggers have their own purposes and different beginning strikes." Porfan reached for a different, more thin dagger that resembled an ice pick, but Barbados stopped him.

"No need. I trust your abilities. What I don't trust is your sense of self. You seem to forget who you are when you get in the zone. Practice by attacking and muttering to yourself your name, age, number of siblings or any other aspect about yourself."

On the other side of the open air classroom, Minteen was using a wood root to pierce into a dummy. It seemed as if she tried to increase the speed of the root, but inadvertently caused her fatigue. Barbados was ecstatic, it was going to be the first time he would advise a young druid on how to use their powers.

"Hey Minteen how ar-" but the young druid scoffed at Barbados.

"Hey teach. You might want to stay far so the root doesn't haphazardly pierce through your stomach." He clenched a fist and imagined himself punching her and pummelling that snarky attitude of hers, but he didn't because he was a superior creature that would never lose their composure to a little girl.

"I know you enjoy striking with roots but I'm just here to give suggestions. Bow about usi-"

"Don't tell me how to use my gift."

"No Barbados. Be the bigger man" his mind repeated to him as the pressure of his grip caused a blood vessel to shatter. He walked up to the moving root and tore it in half with his bloodied hands. The young druid had lost the cocky attitude and assumed one of pure fear.

"I'm being respectful, you will be respectful. I don't wish to bring back the ways your kind used to be treated during my time." His tone had lost the warm friendliness that it possessed and was now full of commanding annoyance.

Barbados walked away and grabbed a hanging vine that had crawled up a tree.

"Watch what I'm about to perform." He held the vine and twisted it, while pulling it and forcing it to assume the shape of a whip. He lifted it up and spun it around the dummy, and with a mighty pull, he created enough friction to burn and disembowel the dummy.

"Now. You try." he said as he handed her a fresh vine.

"But how am I meant to do that? All I can control are the roots."

"Aren't vines just small independent roots with minds of their own? And how come you're able to only use roots. You're a druid, nature is your weapon." The girl tried to twist the vine but it caused her hands to become sore. "No. Use your druid powers to force the plant fibers to twist." The girl did as he told her and it worked. "Now using that same force, pull the fibres until they reach their maximum length." Again, after following those orders, she achieved it and had created a whip. "Now this step you can customise to your heart's content. You could make the vine's texture coarse or grow poisonous flowers. You could even cause it to grow into a sharp wooden scythe. All you need is your imagination and a visual image." The girl stood in silence while biting her lip.

"I'm sorry for my rude remark." she said while bowing her head.

"And I'm sorry for my harsh actions. But you know what they say, fear is the best motivator."

As he walked towards Unim, he felt the air in the distance ripple, and moved out of the way of an oncoming crossbow bolt.

"No way," he said out loud as he looked at Aisha, "Aisha you are definitely something. Congratulation. Here's your crossbow." He threw her the weapon and she caught it. The human crossbow woman had a vivid smile on her shy lips. "I should give her metal parts and ask her to create something more complicated as a challenge." he thought as he continued walking to Unim. To his shock, the boy had taken his advice to heart and already wielded a bident.

"I'm surprised they even had a bidet in that box of ragged weapons. I hope you didn't switch just cause I told you to do so."

"No, I switched because it fitted my preffered style of fighting more than the trident."

"What's with the formality, you're making me feel old." he said while chuckling. "That style of fighting you mentioned, was it perhaps focused on stabbing rather than deflecting a weapon?"

"Yes?" responded the boy confuzed. "How did you know? Are you a mind reader?"

"Ha no I'm n-"

"Please don't tell Minteen what I was thinking. She would kill me." The student grovelled at Barbados's feet. When Unim looker uo, they were met with the stone hard realisation that Barbados was no mind reader, complimented by their face of disappointment and the face of Minteen peeking over his shoulder.

"What were you thinking about that related to me?" she asked in the most passive aggressive tone with whip-like knives pointing at Unim's neck.

"Uh, teach. Some help."

"You got this." Barbados said while giving him a heroic smile and a thumbs up.

The poor boy was beaten to a pulp and he was left with steam vapours coming off his body. Barbados chose to let the 2 students alone and focus on the last one, Marten. This boy had many flaws. His techniques were out of sync and his fighting would stutter and stop when moving from one technique to another. But there was something that drove him to attack fiercer than any of the other students. In terms of strength, the half-orc could win. But in terms of mana-amplified attacks, Marten was superior. The problem for Barbados was if he should try teaching him a new fighting style or try to improve his current one.

"Marten, your fighting style is sloppy at best, but it is something you are definitely comfortable with. I present to you 2 choices, I help you improve your current style or I teach you a brand new style. The choice is yours." The boy was lost in thought for a minute but swiftly responded as the hand struck 60 seconds.

"Could I pick option 3?"

"And what would that be?" Barbados asked confused.

"You help me improve my current techniques, but you also teach me a new style."

"Greedy aren't you." It was now Barbados's time to think. "Sure kid. I expect you to meet me 2 hours before the Academy opens for the first period tomorrow. But for now, you need to hold the weapon straight outwards." Barbados graped one of his own and demonstrated the perfect angle to hold it. "It's a good starting point as it improves your sense of balance." He left and walked around the students again just to check if the students were good and didn't need anymore advice.

Unim was still on the floor, and a flower had sprouted from his head.

"A daisy?" he thought but saw Minteen a few metres away, and it all clicked in his head. The boy had feelings for her, and she was aware of it and playing with him until he actually confessed. It was a funny scenario for Barbados. He left and walked to Minteen, who was practising using the whip to restrain the dummy rather than destroying it. She had sprouted other whip-like vines from it and controlled them to tightly grab on and get twisted up to make it harder for a person to escape. The bell rang and it was the end of the lesson.

"Right, before you leave. I want you all to leave a notice on the details you want your weapons to have. Aisha you can give me details for a knife as it's recommended to have a small melee weapon when using ranged weaponry. You are dismissed." He had conquered the worst class unknowingly. He finished cleaning the grounds and waited for the next class to arrive.

****

Time passed quickly and it was the end of the day. Barbados walked out of the secluded forest as he finished arranging the equipment. Holding in his left hand were the details he had asked from the 4th years and he was heading towards Adam's office. He saw one of the teachers he saw at the meeting run a club about mana mimicking and the shortcuts one could take to enhance their abilities. The orange light of the falling sun stroked his skin as he walked towards the academy, feeling an unusual feeling of calmness, the morning scandal being only a fleeting memory. "Have I grown attached to the academy in only 2 days of working here and being forced to wear bunny ears." he questioned himself, shrugging off the thought. He knocked on the door and Adams' voice beyond the door welcomed him in.

"Ah, Barbados. How are you? What seems to be the issue?"

"I am fine thank you. Do you happen to know any places that would let me use their forges? I broke all the weapons for my 4th year class and I want to forge them new ones."

"Yeah that's fine. I can give you the details of a colleague of mine that owns a blacksmith. What class was it?" Adam asked.

"I don't know. I'm still not used to your naming styles but I can tell you some of the students' names. There are two girls by the name of Minteen and Aisha. There's a half-orc named Chloutarg and-"

"No, don't tell me! There's a lad named Porfan and Dranim!"

"Yes. I'm surprised you knew my class that well." Adam got up, looked him straight into his and told him the trouble that single class brought.

"Well, they should act better now." As Barbatos turned to leave, Adam called his name.

"Barbados, I know you're a busy man. But would you be able to take that class for the morning registry? You would only need to stay with them for 15 minutes." Barbados considered it.

"Will you pay me more?"

"Definitely."

"That's a deal."