Chapter 93 (Patreon)

Lillian sat down hard in the couch with a sigh, a couple breakfast wraps on her plate and a cup of coffee balanced between them. Her eyes sparkled as she looked them over, the food was still good even after that first night. She grinned to herself and took a bite as the others made their way over. Snow sat down on the arm of the couch to her left. While Lillian was in her tank-top and sweatpants, Snow wore a sweatshirt so big one couldn’t see her shorts. Alex and Greg had gone for t-shirts as well while John and Val wore their usual. Ollie appeared at some point and sat down with all of them as they ate.

“Okay, so,” Ollie said, adjusting his glasses, “Roll call will be in an hour, so we got a little time.”

“When do classes start?” Lillian asked, sipping at her coffee.

“Noon, so we gotta get at least our first few days figured out,” Ollie explained.

“It’s ten weeks, right?” Alex asked, licking his thumb and setting down his plate. He leaned forward, “Plenty of time for everything.”

“You’d think,” Ollie said, “Take a closer look at the daily schedules and you might be surprised. Getting your schedule right and tailored to what you need is as much a test as the actual classes.”

Alex scratched his head, “Really? Damn man…”

“Same length of time as basic training,” John mumbled over his same obsessively neat stack of sandwiches, “Soldiers designed this, and the courses.”

“Right on the money,” Ollie said with a grin, “Most of it was organized by Black Lotus herself, she’s ex-military.”

Lillian waved her hands, “We’re getting off track, what’s on for today?”

Ollie nodded, “Right! Of course,” He opened the book, “At noon there are a few options, there’s a physical assessment with Black Lotus for those who are unsure about where to go, followed by drills that take up a good portion of the afternoon,” He said, “There’s also a hand-to-hand basics course with… Miss Chernovna?”

Greg coughed into his cup, “That tiny thing is gonna teach hand to hand combat?”

“That’s what it says,” Ollie said, scratching his head. “I read it last night but it’s still a little hard to believe.”

“I’m going,” Lilly said, “I’m confident in my physical fitness but I wouldn’t mind joining in on the drills later, what else?”

Ollie nodded, “Okay so, there’s a timeslot after that set aside for pretty much the entire camp, it’s about an hour to study policy, criminal law, and pandora regulations with a teacher, no name, at the end of the ten weeks there’s a test,” He said, “Then there’s a scouting course later in the afternoon with Sonya as well, a focus on mapping out and exploring dungeons safely. At the same time we have the option of taking a course on gear and pandora-tech theory.”

<I’m interested in the theory course.> Snow chimed in with the tick-a-tap of her nails against her phone.

“What about going forward?” Lillian asked.

“Let’s see,” Ollie said, flipping through, “A few highlights, battlefield rescue, disaster relief, field first aid training, several combat courses, power theory, you can register to get one on one for certain days with one of the instructors to work on your abilities,” Ollie said, “Oh, and then there’s the monster class.”

Everyone stopped and looked at him, “...monster class?” Val asked, “Like, actual monsters?”

“A course centered around combating the standard two variations of monsters that commonly appear outside dungeons, Hounds and Lurkers. Students will be exposed to live combat with the aforementioned entities after sufficient education,” Ollie read and looked up at him, adjusting his glasses, “Would seem so.”

Lillian leaned back and glanced at Snow who looked uncomfortable, she grinned at her, “It’ll be fine! No biggie, right? Hounds and Lurkers are the least of our concerns. Yeah? We’re heroes!” She said with a big flex of her arm, “We got this.”

The others seemed to relax a little bit after that, Val and Greg even sending her a small smile and a nod. Alex still looked nervous though, he swayed back and forth in the couch before hopping to his feet. “I gotta walk around.”

They continued talking for a while after that, going over their schedules. Fortunately they were given pens and highlighters to make notes in the catalogs and map out their schedules for the first day or two to get a feel for things. Before long, time for roll call came around and they looked around to see if anyone was there. It took another five minutes for Miss Mint to come walking down the hallway, looking a little flustered. Next to her, Sonya was laughing. She wasn’t in her usual suit and tie but instead a dress shirt and vest to go with a long pair of slacks. 

“I said I was sorry!” Sonya laughed.

Carla harrumphed, pulling on the collar of her turtleneck as she schooled her expression and marched into the common area. Sonya smirked at her from behind before impishly wandering off with her hands behind her back. As she did, a familiar blonde head of hair got to his feet and made his way towards her, waving her down. The woman paused for only a moment before gesturing for him to walk with her. Marc? Is he looking to get signed with ASTA? She wondered, Would make sense for his goals. Lillian thought.

The others were caught up on another topic.

“They’re banging.” Val said.

“Totally banging.” Greg agreed.

<Damn what did she do to her neck?> Snow wondered.

“She’s rubbing her wrists too,” John muttered.

“Oh my god she is,” Greg laughed.

“...pretty sure it’s a bit more serious than you’re thinking,” Ollie muttered, his face a little red as he looked down at his notes. Miss Mint made her way to the front of the room and pulled out her notepad before adjusting her glasses and going over a few things. The others squinted at Ollie suspiciously, waiting for him to elaborate. He shifted a bit under their scrutiny and sighed, “The- the choker. It’s a pink diamond at least twenty carats and platinum, that’s got to be worth more than Miss Mint’s annual salary. So, just saying, maybe don’t upset her, since it’ll get back to Sonya?”

They all stared at him, then immediately looked up at Miss Mint who was staring directly at them with a scornful glare. Lillian suddenly felt the urge to stand up and not say another word for the rest of the day if she could get away with it. From the stiff backs of her friends, they seemed to share her thoughts. Miss Mint searched their faces for a moment and shook her head before clearing her throat, “We’re beginning roll call, I just saw Mister Mallory leave with Miss Chernovna so I’ll count him present,” She said stiffly, “As for the rest of you, let’s begin.”

After roll call she went over a few more things, mostly reminding them about the various rules that were already in the guidebooks and that they had until noon to decide on their upcoming class. “That’s all,” Miss Mint finished, putting her clipboard away and standing up straight, “You are all adults, act like it, compose yourselves, and if you’re going to do anything improper at least find somewhere private and clean up after yourselves. We aren’t stupid, we know things will happen,” She said, scanning the room, “Finally,” She sighed and managed to put a smile on her face, “This will be my only roll call, the instructors will be handling them going forward. It was a pleasure meeting all of you. I will be in my office if needed but otherwise you may not see a lot of me.”

She met everyone's eyes and bowed once, “Thank you for your future service,” She said and straightened herself up, “Good luck to all of you.”

One guy raised his voice, “Let’s hear it for Miss Mint!” And a chorus of shouts and clapping followed as she turned on her heel and walked back down the hall.

After that the rest of their morning passed by in comfortable conversation and hanging out. Lillian met a few of the other aspirants who wanted to hear a bit about what happened in the ASTA interview, she told them what she could. It didn’t take long for it to be time to go to the first class, Lillian, Alex, John, and Greg went their separate ways with Snow, Val, and Ollie. The latter three going out to the grassy field where the dark figure of Black Lotus stood waiting. Lillian and her group went to a large open building set beside the main facility.

Inside it looked like the interior of a hangar, open air. The floors were made of a comfortable material that had light springiness to it. Probably for falls, I’ve used this stuff before. Other aspirants followed them in, looking around. Ahead of them, standing at the far end of the room, Sonya Chernovna stood in her vest and slacks, a pair of suspenders holding them up. She wore gloves and had her hair pulled back. She turned a rakish grin on all those present.

“Oh goodie!” Sonya chirped, “So many for the first day! You’re mighty brave,” She said and slowly slid a knife out from behind her back. It was a long, deadly looking trench-combat knife. She spun it between her fingers before catching it firmly and slipping back into a stance. “Alright, who’s first? Come at me. Let’s get your measure. No powers first, I want a baseline to work with.”

Alex cleared his throat next to Lillian, “Hey Lil?”

She swallowed, “Yeah, Alex?”

“You go first,” He said.

She whipped her head towards him, “Me?”

John stormed past them, reaching up and tightening his tie. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade that he flicked once and extended. He took a stiff step forward before dipping into an easy sway. He darted towards Miss Chernovna who grinned wildly at him, her mechanical eyes moving erratically. She waited for him to get within just a few meters before she shifted and tilted the blade of her weapon, Lillian squinted at the gleam of light that reflected off of it. John pivoted, holding his arm up over his eyes and hopped to the right just in time to miss getting his legs kicked out from under him.

He dipped low beneath a swipe, but Lillian could see him blinking rapidly. Sonya kicked her leg up, doing a vertical split as John’s knife cut across. She brought her foot back down and onto his wrist. He grunted, losing his grip on his weapon. Sonya took a step forward, following the momentum of the downward kick and snatched her hand out, grabbing him by his tie, pulling him close, and pressing her blade against his neck. “Ten seconds, good!. I’m impressed.”

She dropped him and brushed her hands off, turning to the others. “Everything is a weapon! The light of the sun, the lights above your head, the floor, your feet, your head, your hands, everything. Discounting your surroundings is a sure way to get yourselves killed,” She said sharply. “His opening attack was good, the swaying path was an excellent way to keep the opponent guessing. He even managed to recover quickly from me attempting to blind him. Great form,” She turned and looked down at him, “You need situational awareness, John.”

He got to his feet and bowed, “Yes ma’am!”

“We’ll talk about the specifics of knife fighting later,” She said to him, “You’re suited for it, but you need technique, not just instincts.”

He nodded and walked back over to the group.

Lillian and the others looked at one another. They looked up at the lights over their heads and only just now realized that they’d been set to be extra bright in the room. There was also a switch just a few feet behind Sonya that she could use to turn them all off. Lillian felt a wave of excitement wash up and over her, a heat burning in her chest that just didn’t want to die down. She grinned and bounced on the balls of her feet a few times before stepping forward, I can really learn something from this. She’s good! Crazy good!

Sonya watched her approach and grinned, “Miss Landrey! I’m glad you came to my lesson, you’re wasted on Black Lotus’ drills, aren’t you? Come on! Show me what you got!”

Lillian didn’t have to be asked twice. She darted forward in a low run, crossing the distance in a heartbeat. She let out a huff and dropped as Sonya flicked her blade to shine the light in her face. She stretched her arms out and to the right, catching herself and pivoting into a near breakdance turn, swinging her entire lower half in Sonya’s direction. Sonya took a half step back, guard up as Lillian pushed hard, throwing herself a few meters and landing on her behind where Sonya had been standing.

She didn’t stop moving, she darted forward only to throw her head back as the blade of the knife appeared in front of her face. She kicked out and Sonya wrapped her arm around Lillian’s ankle with a grin, she twirled the knife into a stabbing grip and brought it down towards Lillian’s thigh. Shit! Lillian kicked downward, pulling Sonya with her only for the woman to let go and pivot into a goddamn one-handed handstand on Lillian’s descending leg. Lillian looked up at the the woman’s body as it spun and the knee came down.

Lillian saw stars.

She landed on her back and blinked a few times, an aching spot right between her eyes.

“Ow…” She groaned.

“Seven seconds, but good technique!” Sonya said, “You did parkour and free-running, right? I can see it,” The woman tapped her chin over her, looking thoughtful for a moment, “You need a weapon, something with reach to compliment those dynamic movements. Not too much reach though, polearm would overcomplicate things and you don’t seem the kind to use a gun.”

She turned and pointed at a random aspirant in the crowd, “You, cute one! Jessica Wayne!”

A girl who had dyed the tips of her hair blue pointed at herself, “M-me?”

“Is there another Jessica Wayne?” Sonya asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“R-right! Sorry ma’am!”

Sonya snorted and shook her head, “Right, do you know of any weapons that would work well for her? You practice with weapons too, don’t you?”

The girl mulled it over for a moment, frowning, “A mace might be too heavy if she’s moving at speed, but that momentum would complement it well,” She shook her head, “A sword? Not a short sword, something longer. That or tonfa to extend her reach.”

Sonya nodded, “Good! That’s what I’m looking for,” She turned back to Lillian who had brushed herself off. The brief fight had been exhilarating. She didn’t even feel the pain in her forehead anymore as she looked over at the girl and then back at Sonya, nodding along. “Do you know what I expect of you?”

“Find a weapon that suits me, explore those options first, and come back to you,” Lillian said quickly. This is great! 

Sonya glowed with approval. “Right! In the meantime, spar with John, he’s a good match-up for you.”

Lillian beamed, “Yes ma’am!”