The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

After Sophia knocked on the door, giving him the all-clear, Basque took a deep breath. It's okay. This is for the students. He exhaled and released the minute Yani. Fading into the shadows, he masked his scent and watched.

No matter how many times he saw it, the transformation sent chills down his spine. Black, glossy skin grew up from the spotted pig's hooves as the animal stood there with unblinking, unfocused eyes. As soon as the blackness reached its knees, the process sped up. Black wind swirled around the animal. Then, it all calmed. The Yani finished its transformation: from an earthly creature to an ungodly horror.

The newly turned Yani wasted no time. It launched itself at the closest lights, destroying them. Then, it ripped off the other overhead lights from the ceiling, but left them operational. It was preparing for its hunt. The combination of darkness and flickering lights would prevent its prey's eyes—human eyes—from adjusting to the dark, ideal human-hunting conditions. Normal humans, that was. Basque was a master hunter. He could see the Yani with practiced ease.

As the creature had prepared its hunting grounds physically, Basque was able to breathe easier; it wasn't a mage-class Yani. Mage-class Yani were as rare as human mages and just as dangerous, if not more so.

A cook came out of the kitchen earlier than expected and called out, "Hello?" Basque's stomach dropped in horror when the Yani picked up one of the massive tables and threw it behind the cook, closing off his escape route.

The bastard wanted to play with its food.

As if Basque would allow that.

Basque felt guilty enough using the cook as an alarm; he'd never forgive himself if something actually happened to the man. There was no question about saving the cook. The only question was, could he do it unseen? If seen, that connection would be another chip the Kruamians could use in the cold war their two countries were waging while smiling at each other.

Grabbing a pheromone capsule from his inventory, Basque chucked it into the far corner of the unlit portion of the room. It hit the wall and cracked open. Immediately, the Yani shot over to the scent and smelled it.

Basque cheered on the cook as the man struggled to clear the heavy table out of the way. The Yani ignored the scraping of the table across the floor, but once the sound stopped, it realized its prey had cleared the path. Abandoning its search for the pheromone source, the Yani shot out into the light and taunted the cook: Grrrrrr-tok-tok-tok-tok-tah.

The look of terror on the man's face renewed Basque's sense of guilt. Move, dammit!

Hunter and prey sprang into action simultaneously. Basque pumped his fist when the man cleared the table, and the Yani crashed into the vacated spot, but that cheer turned to a curse when he realized the cook was now pinned behind the table. The Yani ripped and clawed at the thick slab of wood. The man screamed.

The cook cowered behind the table, and Basque made his move. Dissolving out of the shadows, Basque rushed the beast and grabbed it. His hand squished into the Yani. It was developing some sort of ooze around itself. Not caring what that was, he punted the creature back the way it'd come from, into the darkness, then Basque slipped into the shadows next to the main entrance. So focused on its prey, the Yani never noticed Basque.

The creature's brief confusion gave the cook time to squeeze his way through the door. After making sure that the Yani couldn't make it through the door, Basque left through the main cafeteria entrance. Basque still heard the cook's cry despite the numerous walls between them.

"YANI!"

Basque's heart raced. The cook had a set of lungs on him. Basque didn't have nearly as much time to get back to his room as he thought. He took off down the passage and fled to his room. That's where he had to be when they came looking for him or when the alarm went out—far away and inconspicuous. He zigged and zagged through the school until he made it back into his room.

Sophia was there waiting for him.

Basque froze. After she gave him the okay that no one was in the kitchen when Basque released the Yani, she was supposed to return to her quarters. She wasn't supposed to go to Basque's room. If she was still in her quarters, that would mean Basque should have been sleeping.

"<He see me,>" she said in Hianb.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh, Yani…"

She nodded.

With her limited vocabulary, that's all she could say at the moment, but he knew if she was saying that much, then it wasn't a good thing. "<Talk later.>"

She nodded and left. Basque put his sleeping robe back on and lay down in bed. Soon, there was a pounding at his door. He walked over to it, doing his best to act like he'd just woken up.

"Yeah?" Basque asked and opened the door.

Aevari, a fourth-year teacher Basque recognized due to his Cayelyn-like azure hair, stood outside. "Master Basque, your presence is required in the cafeteria," he said.

"What is it?"

"Yani."

"Yani? In the cafeteria?!"

"Go. Now." He didn't wait for Basque to reply again. Aevari just turned and bolted out of Basque's dorm hall.

Reianna and Fawna appeared in the hall. "Basque-Shr?"

He looked down at the girls and then looked above their heads. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Yani in the building! Remain in your rooms!" He looked at the girls. "Go back to your room."

They didn't respond; they just turned and ran back to their room.

Basque did the same, except he ran out of the dorm, following after Aevari.

A group of three teachers, including the one who'd come to fetch him, were sitting outside the cafeteria when he arrived, still wearing his sleeping robe. Half the teachers were dressed; half were still in pajamas like Basque.

One of the teachers was grabbing his arm. Blood ran down it and pooled on the floor under and around his body. The black telltale sign of a Yani attack scarred his upper arm.

"What's going on?" Basque asked. There were three of them. How had they not killed the relatively weak Yani yet? Why was one of them injured?

"There's a Yani trapped in the dining area. It's already taken the lights out. Roberd was struck when we entered."

"A Yani in the middle of the school?" Basque asked. "How the Yani did that happen? What sort of place is this?"

The teacher who'd explained the situation to Basque glared at him. "We don't know either."

"How big was it? Did anyone see?"

The man with the bleeding wound looked at Basque. "Probably minute to small in size."

Basque nodded, pretending he was just learning it. "Do any of you have a light source? We should— "

"Basque!"

Basque's head fell forward—that voice. Sighing, Basque turned around. "Good morning, Deputy Headmaster."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Krill stood with his hands on his hips. Six more teachers stood behind him. "There's a Yani loose in the cafeteria, what the Yani is good about this morning?"

"Terrible morning, Deputy Headmaster."

"You are a visitor here. This is our hunt. Stand down."

Nodding once, Basque did as told and backed away from the gathered people. For once, Krill was right. Basque needed to observe how these people fought Yani. They were the teachers; this would be an example of how graduates from the academy would fight and hunt the monsters that terrorized the Earth.

Krill looked at the injured man and shook his head. "Baronet Roberd, I see you already tried to take the glory for yourself."

The injured man lowered his head. "I apologize, Earl Krill."

"What manner of Yani is it?"

"It's no larger than a minute."

"Skills?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't in long enough to note them all, but the way my arm stings, it has a poison or venom skill at the minimum."

"So, no projectile abilities?"

Another head shake. "It's not a mage-class."

"I want a solo shot," a man with faded purple hair said. Basque thought he was one of the fourth-year teachers.

Krill shook his head. "No. One squad of four. Three on me. The kill will be divided into the usual quarters."

"Trying to cut the rest of us out? Ten of us have gathered, Earl Krill," Kohner, the head of the second-years, said.

"Fine," Krill said. "Baronet Roberd is AFK. Basque isn't participating. Two teams of four. Kill split between the killing team. Happy?"

Kohner nodded.

Krill looked at Basque. "You may enter and observe real Yani hunting. Don't even think of drawing a weapon."

Basque only had a slight idea of what was going on. They were forming squads of four, which was standard practice in Hianbru as well, but why would someone want to fight it solo when they didn't have to? And what was that about the kill being divided into quarters? Would they actually cut the creature's body into quarters and eat it or something?

Sure, it used to be a pig, but it wasn't anymore. Everyone knew Yani were no longer edible. No, to Yanis, humans were the food. Cutting the body into fourths made no sense. Kill it and dispose of it.

While Basque was lost in thought, the eight teachers had formed into two groups, as Krill suggested.

"Alright, my squad, form up. We're first in."

The other team moaned.

"Enough of that! We'll all have a chance. Basque, you're last through. Don't get in our way. Observe how it's done."

Krill put his hand on the door, twisted the knob, and shoved his way through. He dashed through the debris piled in front of the door and vanished into the darkness. The other seven teachers were quick on his trail, with the second group following the rest of Krill's.

Once they had all rushed into the cafeteria, Basque strolled in behind them, making sure the Yani didn't escape as he closed the door. Basque wanted the cafeteria destroyed, not injured or dead people.

While Basque was gone, the Yani had changed its tactics. It had taken out the remaining lights, and the room was pitch black. Several of the Kruamians pulled out a low-intensity light that glowed green. They tossed the lights around the room, illuminating it in green.

Standing by the door, Basque watched the others. His guilt from earlier was gone. These people were supposed to be professionals. They were supposed to teach others how to do this, and any injury they received would be on their heads, not Basque's. No, this time, his presence was purely observational.

The Yani sat on a table in its shapeless form, staring at the nine humans who'd entered its hunting grounds. Basque understood the Yani. He'd fought and killed enough of them that only mage-class Yani still could surprise him.

The Kruamians, on the other hand, made no sense to Basque. They were in two groups of four, and instead of setting up a formation that utilized the two groups together to end the demonic creature's life in a second, their formations overlapped.

One person from each group took a point in a diamond formation, a good position when dealing with the lightning-fast minutes, but there was a problem—an additional person from each group stood in the same position. The way their weapons tangled together was as if they were purposely interfering with each other.

The Yani's yellow eyes watched them practically ignore it. While it was in its smoky form, it could neither attack nor be attacked, so their current inattentiveness wasn't too dangerous. It shot out, solidifying behind the two men standing at the lead point. Thy Yani lashed out. The men ducked below it.

The man on the right lashed out. His attack should have ended the Yani, but the man jostling for position attacked at the same time, forcing both of their attacks to fly off the mark. The Yani smoked itself and flew to the far side of the room, behind Krill and the other man standing at the same point.

"Poison Claw confirmed," one of the men who ducked said.

"Well, tomorrow's going to suck for Roberd," someone said. Another person chuckled in response.

The battle continued. The Yani would fly in, solidify, and swipe at someone who would dodge without issue, then the counterattacks would foil each other, allowing the creature to escape.

What was going on here? No one complained about the interference. No one suggested that they separate. The only time they didn't interfere with the other team members was when the Yani attacked. Then, they made sure not to get in the other person's way. Their inability to properly cooperate was dragging out what should have been an easy hunt, to where the probability of someone getting hurt or worse was drastically increasing.

The Yani appeared in Basque's face. Razor-sharp claws dripping poison flew at him. His hand flew up to retaliate against the monster.

"Don't you dare touch that, Basque!" Krill cried out.

Having stepped into an attack position, Basque was already moving toward the Yani, but ducked to the ground to obey Krill's command. His forward momentum slowed his crouch—he wasn't going to get out of the way in time. This isn't going to be good! He reached up to cover his head, to prevent the claws from making a fatal strike. Blood drooled down his arm, pouring all over his body.

It wasn't his.

Rolling to the side, he looked at the creature impaled on Krill's sword. The man was looking down at Basque. "You're welcome."

'You're welcome,' my ass. Basque looked at his blood-soaked clothes. There was blood in his hair. He stood up and flung some of the blood off his arm. "Man, now I'm going to have to take a bath."

"The kill is mine!" Krill said.

"Hey! You said quarters!" someone from his group protested.

"I stepped out of formation to protect our illustrious ambassador. In doing so, not only did I save someone in danger, but it also granted me solo rights."

Krill pointed his sword down and, with his foot, pushed the skewered corpse off his sword. He picked the body up and tossed it into his personal space. "Thanks for being useful for once," the swordsman said.

Basque's mouth was slightly open as he shook his head. "What are you going on about?"

It was Krill's turn to wear a confused expression. "A whole kill to myself."

"I understand that, but what does it matter?"

"It's a whole status point! How the Yani do you guys in Harbarbar rank up, then?"

That…that was what the petty in-fighting was all about? Kills as social ladder currency? If his hands hadn't been drenched in blood, Basque would have rubbed his face, though not like it would have mattered, as blood was all over his face already. Not my society.

Basque gave a micro shrug with his hands. "You're welcome."

Glancing around the cafeteria, Basque hid his pleasure. The dining area was completely destroyed. As the Kruamians had tried to one-up each other and prevent the other group from scoring the kill while going for it themselves, their skills had torn the room up even further.

Basque slapped his blood-covered hand on Krill's shoulder. Droplets of blood spattered off his hand and onto Krill. "Let me know if you figure out how that thing got in here."

He pushed the door open, leaving a bloody handprint. The battle had taken a long time, too long. Servants were stirring in the corridors.

Seeing the non-combat-trained servants walking around angered Basque. Were the Kruamians so arrogant as to think they could stop anything and everything? What if it hadn't been just a minute? What if it had been a major or multiple Yani? Or even a magi Yani. All Basque could see was a hallway filled with blood.

He needed to calm himself. These people weren't his responsibility. Maybe that was the reason for rule three? Someone knew how the Kruamians fought Yani and how they disregarded non-combatants' lives.

Killing Yani was points to them. It wasn't something done to protect the civilians; it was a game they played. Whatever social structure was set up around that, Basque no longer cared. He just wanted his five years to be finished. He wanted to go home. He wanted to eat his mom's cooking.

Sophia met him outside the entrance to the dorm hall. She didn't say anything as she opened the doors for him, leading him straight into the bathroom.

"I shall prepare new clothes for you, Master Basque," she said before bowing and leaving the bathroom.

Steam rose from the water in the tub. Basque took off his bloody clothes and looked at himself in the mirror. There were still large sections of his skin covered in blood. He looked at the bath again.

What was he supposed to do? Get in and soak in Yani blood? There was no way to wash before he got in the bath. No way to shower off. There was no drain outside of the tub, so he couldn't scoop the water out and rinse before getting in.

Returning to the sink basin, he washed what he could off, then went and soaked off the remaining blood. He scrubbed his skin, and it cleared up as the water turned pink and murky.

He pulled the plug, letting it all out. He didn't feel clean, but he appeared clean. That was good enough. He was about to go back out and get dirty and sweaty again, anyway. Sigh. Only one thousand eight hundred and seven days left.