Annabelle’s Bastion

It was around 3 PM when Anna got back to her dorm.

Thagrin’s class went by quickly since he waited not even a minute between fights, throwing others in even while the last ones were getting healed.

Aria wasn’t back yet, and the few dormmates that were around were in a similar situation to her, suffering injuries physically or mentally.

Gromak wasn’t in the lobby, so Anna decided to head to her room and wait for Aria to return so they could discuss their fights and mana.

Anna had a lot she wanted to talk about.

She won her first fight and witnessed where everyone else tentatively stood, at least with pure physical ability and mana potency. However, nobody could definitively say if those who won had better mana or if those who lost had weak barriers.

Of course, not counting pure technique. There were also the embryo-like states of their barriers. It seemed like they needed time to fully shape.

Only a few of the fights were surprising, and Thagrin didn’t offer any educational input after letting them know about their barriers.

The fights were all over in under 10 minutes, with most being a matter of better technique using ordinary means like punching and kicking. All magic did was make those hits stronger and faster.

After Anna’s fight, the blonde-haired man who answered Thagrin’s question fought and dominated his opponent with bonafide boxing techniques. Guard up, bouncing around, surgical punches. His opponent was downed in less than a minute. That was also the man who pointed her out at the start of classes, but he rubbed her the wrong way.

Anna’s new friend, Mia, did something very similar to Anna and took a devastating blow so she could take advantage to levy a hit of her own. However, similarly to Jared, her barrier shattered after that one blow, and she was sent screaming to the ground.

Luckily, Alice responded instantly and healed Mia’s broken rib. However, that was when she told everyone that their wounds wouldn’t be fully healed, and they’d still feel some of the effects. Thagrin said something about how it wouldn’t teach them anything if they woke up like nothing happened. In fact, he apparently was actively trying to get healers away from the combat classes unless for grievous injury.

Mia spent the end of the training in depressing silence. Without knowing more about the ins and outs of mana, it would be challenging to truly learn anything from the first few rounds of fights. Mia seemed to treat it like the end of the world; Anna regrated talking about pecking orders with her.

Anna couldn’t offer much comfort since she was in her own head much of the training, and Mia shut down further than she already was after that.

Thus, her first class in Bastion, her first use of magic, and her first fight where she injured someone ended. At least the class walked away with more than bruised egos and pain; Anna felt like she could control her mana a little better. Her body didn’t feel as odd anymore, though the feeling was still present. Hopefully, everybody else felt the same, and the brutish methods weren’t just pointless violence.

Anna lay on her bed, staring at the classical-style fan on the ceiling, slowly spinning like the gears in her mind.

The right side of her jaw hurt, and she felt tired, even though it was the middle of the day. If she kept using her mana, she fully believed she’d eventually fall fast asleep, and not even a tornado would wake her—a mistake caused by keeping her enhancements at maximum capacity the entire fight and even before.

She jotted down where the drainage came from and how it worked. First—the largest culprit—was the mana her barrier seemed to allocate for its sole use. Then, it was the actual usage of it. The mana used for manifesting the rings, the first cast of enhancements, maintaining the enhancements, and the drainage from increasing the effect of enhancements.

The real problem was that barrier. There had to be a more efficient way to do it, a way to control the mana used to passively power it or to alter its properties; as it stood, she didn’t even feel its presence.

She also wanted to see if she could increase the barrier’s durability at the cost of more mana or disable it entirely to funnel more energy into other things. Especially when her barrier was powered by a sizeable chunk of her mana.

Anna had a big smile as she kicked her legs that were hanging off the edge of the bed.

Figuring all of it out, making theories, and eventually, testing was the exact experience Anna hoped magic would be. She hadn’t even touched spellcasting yet!

A heavy knock hit her room door.

“Aria!” Anna exclaimed, but instantly remembered she had a key.

“My head’s a little too bald for that, but I can see the resemblance,” Gromak said, mirth in his tone. “It’s a common mistake, wouldn’t ya know?”

“Oh.” Anna sighed. “Hi, Gromak.”

He snorted. “Don’t sound too happy, might make me think you fell in love.”

“Sorry.” Anna sat up. “I’m thinking about our fights today, that’s all.”

“I’m comin’ in?”

A weird way to say it, but Anna respected his decorum.

“Sure, it’s unlocked.”

Gromak pushed the door and stepped in. He had to angle his large body slightly due to his sheer width. He left the door open and stood before it. “Those fights will be very good for the lot of you; do take them seriously. Ah, I see you got clobbered.”

Anna took her hand off her aching jaw and snorted. “I won, but I did take a punch to my face.”

Gromak’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell like he had just heard that a mountain of gold was buried under his house.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Anna defended, scrunching her nose and raising her fists. “I do know a little about how to fight, you know!”

Gromak’s shocked face returned to normal, and he smirked. “I’m just messin’ with you.” Still, he looked at Anna with renewed interest as he tugged his beard. “Those fights mean nothin’, but it’s still an impressive feat to win... How’d you do it?”

Anna smiled back and hopped off her bed.

After the training ended, she felt a bit happier about her win, especially after realizing it would be like that all year—people getting injured, whether accidentally or intentionally. She couldn’t pretend it didn’t bother her to be the source of her peer’s injuries, but she’d get over it.

“I decided to let him land a punch so I could catch him off guard, then gave a swift kick to his knee! My kick was so strong it instantly shattered his barrier and injured him.” She replayed her movements as she spoke.

“Hoh?” Gromak’s eyes widened in real surprise that time. “You either have powerful mana or your opponent was defective.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I poured all the mana I could into the kick...Ah,” Anna shook her head, feeling a little guilty for saying it so proudly. “I didn’t mean to hurt him that bad.”

Gromak waved his hand in dismissal. “We have plenty of healers here.” He gazed at Anna’s jaw. “But why did you let him hit you rather than block his blow?”

Anna shrugged. “I thought it’d impress Thagrin if I did it like a brute, and it’d show everyone I’m not weak just because I’m smaller. You know… make people think I’m willing to go far to defend myself… or something. Like in TV shows.”

In other words, spur of the moment.

Gromak chuckled but looked at Anna with pity while exasperatingly sucking air. “Damn, you got Thagrin.”

“You know him?”

“The Barbarian.” Gromak snorted. “Of course I do. At least you’ll come out stronger than the rest. Good for the dorm. Lucky for you. Probably. Win, win.”

Anna scoffed. “Why is it good for the dorm if I get my face beat in every Monday? The so-called competition?”

“No direct competition, at least not until your 2nd year. However...” Gromak tugged on his long beard and looked as though he was making a decision. “For the first year, I get to say my dorm has the best students! At least two—no, three of you need to be in the top 10!”

Reaching for the higher ranks had yet to show its importance beyond ego.

“I’ll try my best.”

“Bah. You’ll get that enthusiasm soon.” Gromak reached into his pocket. “Anyway, here’s an extra key.” He tossed a room key to Anna’s bed. “Forgot to make two for each room. Oopsie.”

“Oh~ Thanks!”

“I am considerate, aren’t I?” Right as he entered the doorway to leave, he paused. “Ah, I forgot! I came to let you know that little Aria got herself into a tiny bit of trouble.”

Anna nearly dropped the key in shock.”What?! How?” She ran up to Gromak. “Why didn’t you say so sooner?!”

Gromak’s turned to show his playful smirk. “‘Cause I like how you react to things. Don’t get too worked up; she won’t have anything happen for now. Just a stern talkin’ to.” He sighed. “That girl’s a little too willful for some folk. She really outta play it safer.”

“Where is she?”

“Hm. Let me check the tracker spell I cast on her in her sleep.” He closed his eyes in intense concentration, then snapped them open immediately. “Oh, wait, I don’t have that.”

Anna believed him for a second and was about to ask why!

“Just say that!” She clicked her tongue. “Fine, let me go find her!”

Gromak laughed and moved outside the room. “Sure, sure, just make sure you’re back by dark. And eat something good!”

“Ok!” Anna shut her door and ran directly out of the dorm.

While it was likely true nothing would happen to her, it had to have something to do with the fights. She needed to go eat something anyway, and there wasn’t any harm in being a little nosey.

Anna didn’t get far outside. To her surprise, Aria was already walking down the path through the forest, headed back to the dorm. Her posture and countenance said nothing about what happened. Furthermore, she appeared entirely unharmed and not at all tired.

“Damn,” Anna mumbled. Honestly, it should have been expected for someone raised around magic.

Then Anna saw someone not far behind Aria and the likely reason for whatever scolding she received. There was a man who looked at the back of her head with daggers in his gaze. If Anna didn’t know any better, she’d say the man was stalking Aria.

Aria’s expression remained unchanging as she caught sight of Anna. She didn’t do anything, even when Anna gestured behind her. She stopped when she reached Anna.

“What are you doing?” Aria asked.

Anna beckoned her forward and continued walking. “Soo~ you are aware of the dude following you?” She rubbed her jaw, which still stung a little when she spoke.

“He lives here.” Aria looked at Anna’s face. “You got hurt?”

Of course, he did—fate was cruel. That was not the gaze of someone who could be reconciled with.

“A mighty punch to the jaw. Destroyed my barrier and hurt a lot. How about you? Though, I think I can guess.”

Anna could feel those daggers directed at her, too. Guilty by association, it seemed. To make enemies by simply doing natural things...

The more she learned about the magnificent world of magic, the more she learned some things stayed the same.

“Did you win?” Aria asked.

“Yup!” Anna excitedly nodded and widely smiled. It felt good to get to brag to Aria, even though she wouldn’t get the reaction she wanted. “I broke his barrier with a single blow and almost broke his knee! That… was an accident, but I might have better-than-average mana potency.”

“Thagrin... Well...” Aria took one look at Anna’s face, then stopped herself and lightly cleared her throat. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks!” If only her peers said that to her. Her chest felt far lighter after that. “How did your fight go? Gromak told me you got in trouble. What happened?”

“The man following me is a vulgar pig...” Aria glanced back. “...So I shattered his barrier and broke his arm.”

“Uhhh.” That was what Anna predicted from the glare behind them, but she had mixed feelings about it. “Was… was it on—” she stopped.

So what if it was? Anna didn’t like such extremes.

“The damage was more than I anticipated; Earthlings are more fragile than I thought. But we had a healer.” She lightly shook her head. “His discomfort and the memory of his shattered bone will teach him to watch how he speaks to me.”

Anna felt like the whole scene was just implanted in her head. It probably wasn’t on purpose. It was hard to believe a professor would allow Aria to break her opponent’s barrier and go in for another attack. Aria, because of how vile the man was, decided to make it seem like it was on purpose. If it wasn’t a convenient accident, wouldn’t she be in way more trouble? All she got was a stern talking to.

But what if it was on purpose?

Anna couldn’t say she liked it or approved of it. Sadly, though, most people didn’t care for that sort of hesitancy—she could tell. Jared wouldn’t have felt a thing if she were the one screaming on the ground.

In the past, restraint only worked because of who she was and the people behind her. If her parents weren’t around, any problem she had would not have ended with words.

Within Bastion, she was a nobody.

“The guy I hurt on accident also called me a bitch,” Anna muttered

Aria shook her head. “It shouldn’t have been an accident. Pain is the best lesson. “

“Maybe,” Anna said, shrugging. “But I think Bastion encourages crap-talking. At least, Thagrin did.”

“Not surprising; Thagrin is a Barbarian. He would sooner have you learning spells related to swinging an axe.”

Anna snickered. “He did say he’d take one of us as a personal pupil if we managed to swing his axe.”

But she still couldn’t come to dislike the brute. He came across more like a brawn-over-brain type, but not with evil intent driving his actions. Just crude.

“It would be a waste for you to carry an axe larger than you.”

“Uh... thanks, I think?” That sounded like a compliment on her appearance yet simultaneously a dig at her height. With Aria, who thought it was funny to not tell her there was a uniform, it could have been both.

“You’re welcome.”

They reached their dorm, and Aria stopped.

“What?” Anna asked.

Aria waited a few moments, and Anna heard the steps behind her stop.

“If you try anything outside our combat class, you will die.” With that, Aria opened the door and stepped inside. “Do not test me.”

“Oh.”

Anna fully believed Aria, even though there were no changes in her as she spoke them as if stating an undeniable fact. It sounded like she just read a line from a book.

She did not want to stick around, so she scampered after.

Once they reached the stairs, Anna stopped and grabbed Aria’s hand to stop her from going up.

“Hm?”

“We... we gotta go back out there to eat lunch...”

“Oh.” Aria’s eyes widened slightly. “I forgot.”

Anna swore she saw a little embarrassment on that stoic face.

“How are you not starving after today’s class?”

“It was too easy.”

“Oh.”

How envious.

Luckily, Aria wasn’t too uncouth, and they waited for the man to head to the second floor. His fists were clenched so tightly Anna feared he’d draw blood, but he didn’t even look their way.

Anna didn’t get a good look at his face, but he did put a hoodie over his head at some point while following behind them.

“Let’s go,” Aria said after he disappeared.

“I think you made an enemy for the both of us.” Anna sighed. “I really hope these people can be reasonable; I don’t want my time in such a fantastic place to be ruined by such stupid squabbles.”

Aria started moving, and Anna followed.

“Alisha says loss builds character... if one has the ability to be humbled.”

People from Earth definitely lacked that. It was a bit tragic, but she’d try to smooth things over before they got out of hand.

Anna dryly chuckled. “Ability to be humbled, huh? What about you? Can you be humbled?”

Aria shrugged. “I haven’t discovered that.”

“Damn.”

“Let’s go to the cafeteria; it will be packed.”

Anna’s stomach growled before she could affirm, which brought a layer of red to her cheeks and the ghost of a smile on Aria’s face.

“Good… Good plan.”

That smile almost made the embarrassment worth it.