"Stand up, maggot!" shouted Anna, standing over Sami's body as he lay on the ground, breathing heavily. "You wanted revenge, right? How will you get it being weak? Get up and continue to fight. As my students, we never surrender; we either fight or die!"
Sami's training clothes, which they bought before starting the trip a month ago, lay in tatters. His shirt resembled rags clinging to his body as sweat dripped onto the ground. Struggling to get to his feet, Sami leaned on his sword, taking in deep breaths.
"Her training is harsh. I feel like my body is breaking. Since the training started, she's upped the weight that I've been using to the point I feel I'm always swimming through water just to move." Sami thought to himself.
"Eventually, I'm going to land a hit on her, even if it's not today. I'm not some loser she just throws around!" Sami continued as he tried to stand but kept failing as his body was injured.
Anna sighed in disappointment as she knelt before him. "You've been out here training for a month and you can barely handle a small fight," she muttered to him.
"Y-You call this a small fight?!" Sami spat, a glob of blood on the ground in front of his sword. He raised his head and glared at her. "At least I'm not a midget."
In anger, she picked Sami up by his throat to make them eye level, his legs still dragging on the ground because of how short she is.
"Pathetic you are, reinforce your body with magic you must," lectured Anna, tightening her grip on his throat as Sami began to struggle to breathe. "Before you talk, make sure to be strong enough to back it up."
"Right, he's pathetic, says the old lady using magic to make herself look young," muttered Lyra, as she was hitting the training post with her wooden sword, though her movements were more sluggish than usual. Anna reinforced both the sword and her body with weights so she could continue her training.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, MAGGOT?!" yelled Anna as her head swung around to face Lyra. Fire in her eyes as she glared at Lyra.
Lyra took a few steps back, shaking in fear. "No… no… nothing, Teacher An… Anna," she stammered out.
"DIE, YOU DISRESPECTFUL BRATS!" Anna screamed as she threw Sami's body at her.
"AAHHHH!" Sami screamed as he collided with Lyra's body, both sprawling on the ground.
Lyra and Sami both were groaning on the ground as Anna slowly marched across the ground at them. Lyra was the first to recover, backflipping to her feet as Anna sent a sword slice at her. The attack missed, but left a gouge in the ground as it continued forward, cutting a tree in half.
"OLD LADY, I am, huh? Come, my apprentice. Let's see if your skills have surprised mine then," Anna snarked, lunging at Lyra quickly.
Lyra raised her sword, but it did nothing to block the attack. Her body flew through the air.
BOOM!
Lyra's body hit the ground, causing a large dent to form. Anna once again began to slowly stalk towards Lyra, as she tried to quickly get to her feet.
"Calling me an old lady," whispered Anna as she gripped her sword tighter. "I'll show you old lady, you and that nerd." Lyra didn't reply, just tightened the grip on her sword as she got prepared to fight for her life.
---
Onyx heard a loud boom as she was searching the forest, but decided to ignore it, thinking that Anna was going hard again in practice with those two.
Anna has been training them hard, more so Sami than Lyra. Sami has taken to the training in stride, especially since soon Sami himself will be inheriting more of her abilities.
Recently, Onyx found out the familiar spell used by Sami (the one she taught him) is now illegal in the kingdom. Only in certain issues, like a life or death situation, may the spell be used.
Only two people in the kingdom even know the spell, not including her and Sami. So somehow they'll have to petition the school to make sure Sami doesn't get in trouble.
Sadly, that is a future issue. For now, Onyx has been searching the woods for animals to cook for dinner. She likes to do the hunting to give an excuse for drinking the blood from the animals she captures.
Admittedly, she was cursed long ago as the first vampire, how she's lived so long up till now. While she doesn't necessarily need blood to live, like the vampires she created after herself (a mistake she tried to rectify before dying).
The magic in the blood she's hoping will be able to help recover her magic, since it's been recovering slowly. Absorbing light, mainly the light from Sami, did help, but she hasn't asked since the forest and meeting her adopted son once again. Guilt eating at her for forcing him to stay alone for some years, but she couldn't bring herself to kill the once shy boy who lived alone.
His real name was Noctus, back when he was innocent. His family sadly died, leaving him alone, when she found him. It helped mend some of the broken heart from when the kingdom killed her family.
Sadly, she wasn't over the loss of her family or she would've never raised him the way she did, making him into a weapon against the kingdom. Sigh, if she could go back and redo it, she would've raised him with the love he deserved.
A stick snapped, breaking Onyx out of her thoughts. Quickly following the noise, she hopped fast, catching up to the deer that was running through the forest. Onyx, running to the side of the deer, raised her hand, pointing it at the deer.
"Umbra Tela," chanted Onyx as an arrow made of shadows formed out of her palm before shooting forward and going straight through the deer's body, hitting its heart.
The deer stopped in place, before falling to the ground, not moving anymore as its life was gone, blood falling on the ground from the small hole on its side. Onyx quickly ran forward and began drinking the blood, making sure to not let a single drop hit the ground.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Little bunny, so this is what you've been doing when you go hunting," A voice mocked.
Onyx jumped, glancing up at Anna who was squatting on the other side of the deer, looking at her. Onyx wondered how she appeared before her without her noticing. "It's not what it looks like," Onyx tried to explain as she waved her arms back and forth.
"No, you broke my heart, bunny, you broke my heart," Anna cried out as tears began to pour down her face.
Onyx just looked at the disturbed woman as a sweat dropped on the side of her head. Not knowing what to do as she slowly walked to Anna before slowly rubbing her back in circles.
Onyx hoped that this would help Anna out, but knowing this eccentric woman, it'll probably make her even more crazy.
"OH, my precious bunny!" Anna cried as she hugged Onyx tightly. "Blood magic is illegal in the Kingdom, including being a vampire. My poor bunny, I'll have to kill you, just know it'll kill me knowing that I, Anna, took your life."
"WHAT?!" Screamed Onyx as she was being shaken by Anna.
---
Sami's eyes opened when he heard a loud scream that sounded like Onyx. He wanted to move and try to go find her, yet his body lay in the hole he was thrown into earlier when he collided with Lyra. Turning his head, he saw Lyra, looking in a way worse position than he was.
Her clothes were torn, pretty much scraps, not leaving much to the imagination, causing Sami to blush. Making the blush go away, he could tell Lyra was knocked unconscious as her chest raised slowly with each breath.
Looking up at the sky, after turning his head away from Lyra, he could see the sky was turning darker, meaning he'd been knocked out for over four hours.Sami can admit he learned a lesson: don't piss off the teacher. She will get revenge in training and he doesn't want to experience it once again.
His body shivered at the thought of another hellish training like today. Usually he could at least walk after a spar. Today, it felt like the bones in his body were broken apart, and that it'll take a long time to heal.
Sami hopes Lyra wakes up soon so she can heal them, or if Onyx gets here, she can heal them both. Even though he's been getting his ass kicked, he has to admit: he loves finally learning something other than books.
For the first time, he felt he found his calling in life. Unnoticed by Sami, his ring also glowed bright before stopping, as if agreeing with Sami's thoughts.