Heat in the Dark

Chapter 3

After lunch the instructors sent everyone to free training. Most students stayed on the main field. High ranks practiced flashy moves. Low ranks sat in groups and complained.

Erix walked the other way.

He followed the east wall until the noise faded. Behind a row of old storage sheds stood a low brick building with broken windows and a rusted door. No one was around. Lira had been right.

He pushed the door open. Dust floated in the thin light that came through the cracks. The floor was concrete. A few old training dummies leaned against the wall, their stuffing half gone. It was quiet. Perfect.

Erix put down his water bottle (the new one he had bought with three of his twenty points) and started moving.

He practiced the same climbing motions from the obstacle course. He jumped and landed until his knees hurt. He swung from a low beam again and again. Every time the strange hunger rose, he pushed harder. Every time the ache in his chest returned, he forced himself to keep going instead of stopping.

After an hour his shirt was soaked. His arms shook. He sat on the floor and breathed hard.

The door creaked.

Lira stepped inside, notebook under her arm. She looked around once, then nodded.

“You found it.”

“Yeah.” Erix wiped sweat from his face. “Thanks for telling me.”

She walked over and sat on an old crate. “Ren’s friends are already talking about you. They say you got lucky on the course and need to be put back in your place.”

Erix’s jaw tightened. “I figured.”

“They’ll try something small first. Steal points if they can. Or make you look bad in front of an instructor. Don’t give them an easy chance.”

He looked at her. “Why are you helping me?”

Lira was quiet for a moment. “Because last year I was the one everyone laughed at. C-rank isn’t high, but it was enough for people like Ren to notice me. I learned the hard way that staying quiet and training alone works better than shouting back.”

She stood and pointed at one of the broken dummies. “Your footwork is messy. When you land, your weight stays on your heels. That slows you down. Try again. I’ll watch.”

Erix got up. He jumped and landed the way she said. It felt awkward at first, but after a few tries his balance improved.

They practiced in silence for another half hour. Lira only spoke when she saw a clear mistake. She never treated him like he was hopeless.

When the afternoon bell rang, she closed her notebook.

“Same time tomorrow if you want,” she said. “I come here most evenings anyway.”

Erix nodded. “I’ll be here.”

She left first. He waited a minute, then followed.

---

Back near the dorms, trouble was already waiting.

Ren and two of his friends stood in the hallway outside room 214. One of them held Erix’s old broken water bottle from the morning.

Ren smiled when he saw him.

“There he is. The lucky F-rank.”

Students in the hallway slowed down to watch.

Ren held up a small academy card. “Funny thing. This card has twenty points on it. Same amount you got this morning. Someone must have dropped it.”

Erix’s stomach dropped. That was his card. He had left it in his desk drawer.

Kael stepped out of the room behind Ren, face calm but eyes sharp. “That’s his. Give it back.”

Ren laughed. “Finders keepers. Rules say lost cards can be claimed after one hour. It’s been longer than that.”

Shota appeared from the stairwell and walked straight up to Ren. “Hand it over.”

Ren’s smile faded a little. Shota’s quiet voice carried more weight than shouting. Still, Ren did not move.

“Make me,” he said.

The hallway went silent.

Erix stepped forward before Shota or Kael could. His chest ached again, but this time he used the feeling. He kept his voice steady.

“You took it from my room. That’s not finding. That’s stealing.”

Ren’s friends shifted. A few watching students whispered.

An instructor’s voice suddenly cut through the hall.

“What is going on here?”

The tall thin instructor from the morning drills walked toward them. His eyes moved from Ren’s hand to Erix’s face.

Ren quickly changed his expression. “Just returning a lost card, sir.”

The instructor took the card, checked the name, and looked at Erix. “Is this yours?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How did it leave your room?”

Erix met Ren’s eyes for a second, then looked back at the instructor. “I don’t know, sir. I left it in my desk.”

The instructor’s mouth tightened. He scanned the card and handed it back to Erix.

“Points are still there. Be more careful. And you three—” he looked at Ren and his friends—“stay out of other students’ rooms. Next time I will deduct points from all of you.”

Ren forced a polite nod. “Yes, sir.”

The instructor walked away. The crowd slowly broke up.

Ren leaned close as he passed Erix. His voice was low and cold.

“This isn’t over. Next time there won’t be an instructor around.”

He left with his friends.

Inside the room, Shota closed the door hard.

“You should have let me handle it,” he said.

Erix sat on his bed and stared at the card. Twenty points. Still there. But only because an instructor had arrived in time.

“I need to get stronger faster,” he said quietly. “They won’t stop.”

Kael leaned against the wall. “Then we help you. Quietly. No big scenes that give them reasons to report you.”

Shota nodded once. “Tomorrow after classes. We use the storage building too.”

Erix looked at both of them, then at the window. Somewhere outside, Ren was already planning the next move.

The ache in his chest pulsed again, stronger than before.

Something inside him was waking up.

And this time, he planned to be ready when it did.