Chapter 11

"Tarren!!"

"Yes sir"

"Explain yourself"

"I was feeling sick when I got back to my room yesterday and slept past the time for the evening shift"

"How was yesterday's dinner?"

"Missed it, sir"

"Report to your station, you should have learned something from yesterday. Get to work"

"Got it, sir"

That was Warden Bo, a real charmer. He was basically an army officer that required discipline in everything.

Aiden found his way to the training grounds quickly.

As a worker, he was expected to report to his post early and leave late. 

As expected, there was almost no one else there except for the other workers in their uniforms.

There were six men and three women there. The men were much taller than he was and were talking to each other while laughing loudly when he got there.

The women had two teenagers and one young woman who were also talking to each other. 

He greeted them good morning and found somewhere to sit.

This section was filled with obstacles, lined along the walls and racks of weapons that seemed too many to count, weights, and many other body training pieces of equipment.

The men had quietened down ever since he greeted them but he paid no attention to them.

They all stared at Aiden for a moment before they returned to their conversation, albeit a bit quieter.

The women kept to themselves while the men would say something to the women every once in a while.

Thankfully, they did not bother him and thirty minutes later, the first group of trainees walked in. Soon after, another group walked in. Then another and another...

There was one similarity between all of them, they were talking about almost the same thing and it was clear that they were excited.

There were a few who came alone but that did not matter.

By the time it was seven that morning, the section had close to two hundred people standing around. Their talking caused a loud murmur that felt too loud.

They only quietened down when five adults walked in with some young people following behind them.

The adults looked to be the instructors. There was an old man with a wizened look among them while the others were a middle-aged man, two women, and a young man who had a mature look to him.

The young people behind them were seventeen in number. 

There was a girl who was poised as the 'noblest' of them. She was wearing a white dress that was sewn with gold threads.

Around her, there were eleven boys and five girls. Every one of them wore clothes that were beautifully crafted.

Their clothes were very expensive and you could tell that they were from noble families.

Aiden stood up just like the other workers and lined up by the side of the training ground. 

"Today, you will be wielding any weapon you can find. This is a step in your journey as Arcanas"

Aiden was confused for a moment but he soon understood the point of doing that.

"As Arcanas, you will eventually settle on a fighting style and a weapon you find easy but it is a good idea to know how to use most weapons you can get your hands on"

"You will all choose a partner and practice with whatever weapon you can find for fifteen minutes before switching to another. We have an elder of the Pagoda of Inheritance here with us who will be watching over you and might give a tip or two if he wishes to"

"There is no need to be overly aggressive and even more so, no reason to hold back. Any injuries can be healed in a jiffy"

"Now pair up and begin"

There were no flourishes or considerations. It was instructions right from the start. 

They all paired off, running to the racks of weapons before starting their first fifteen minutes of the spar.

Aiden and the other workers only had two jobs and that was to hand out new weapons every fifteen minutes.

There was a five-minute rest period after every fifteen-minute session and this was the time for Aiden and the workers to do their jobs.

There was one thing they had to keep in mind. They were not to hand out a weapon that had been used.

The way this was accomplished was by sectioning the field and having each worker, work on one.

The second job was to help anyone injured to the instructor's side.

Just a little over an hour later, one part of the field had three people who were injured. 

The morning training session was to last five hours in the morning and five hours in the evening.

This person was the girl who had a white training suit on.

She attacked like the wind and no matter the weapon she used, none seemed capable of stopping her ease in fighting.

It was such a visual treat. She was too much for the people who fought her, and some of them got injured in no time.

At the two-hour mark, the old man with a wizened look to him said something very puzzling but understandable?

"That's enough Princess Diane. They are also here to learn. If they keep getting injured, that would not be ideal"

Aiden who heard this was not surprised and he was finally sure of her identity.

He knew she was a very important person by the way the others behaved around her. They were like puppies that wanted their master to like them in front of her and wolves to everyone else.

"You workers should fight her for a while...

Princess Diane, you need to learn to hold back. I don't want any of the workers injured"

Aiden and the rest were jolted badly by the news and they all turned to look at the old man.

What sort of logic was this? They were workers, not guards, let alone warriors who would be qualified to take a beating from someone on the road to being an Arcana.

The thoughts had hardly settled in when the old man called out, "Boy, you're up first".

Sam did not react in time but when he had multiple eyes turned toward him, he almost declined out loud. The old man had called out to him first.

He walked up to a rack and picked up the staff. He found things odd but there was nothing he could do especially when he thought of the kind of surveillance the king would have on him for his 'special' blood.

He walked up to Princess Diane without that much of an expression.

He looked into her eyes and was mesmerized for a moment. He quickly snapped out of it but at that moment, he felt like he had been caught in a swamp. 

It was only a moment and his steps did not seem too affected by it.

"Get back to practicing", a voice boomed from the middle-aged man. 

The training ground had paused in some sense since the wizened old man had asked Princess Diane to stop.

"Your Highness", Aiden bowed slightly with the staff held in between his hands in a vertical position.

"Let's get to it"

Her reply did not mean much to Aiden and he completely ignored it until she attacked. 

She was also using a staff but the way she attacked felt like she wanted to smash him into pieces.

On instinct, he dashed to the side quickly and swung his staff in a horizontal line, hitting Princess Diane's staff and making his staff rebound back to him. 

This made it so he could dodge the first attack and block the second.

All most people heard was a couple of twacks but the workers who were watching, the five adults, and some of the trainees who were nearby had expressions of surprise to varying degrees of intensity.

Princess Diane also had a little surprise in her eyes as she took a glance at the wizened old man.

She looked back at Aiden and her expression turned cold. She attacked like the wind, which made Aiden incapable of attacking.

Aiden made numerous dodges with very small clearances and after two minutes, his arms were aching. 

As the son of a general, who had the goal to be just as great as his father, he had been trained from a young age, learning to use many weapons and to use them all well.

That all meant nothing now that he met someone who matched his skill level in the weapon he chose to fight with. The worst part was the power she had behind every attack.

Aiden's thoughts wandered to when the voice that had told him that apprentice-level Arcanas only tried to train their bodies. 

He could confirm that this Princess was already on her way to a whole new level.

Suddenly, he felt pain in his side. It was like he'd been whipped on the ribs.

His thoughts had only just returned to reality when he noticed that he was flying through the air and the pain at his side made him feel like it had been set on fire.

Without thinking he put his hands to the sides of his head and tried to position himself to land and roll in order not to break.

He landed and rolled about a meter away before stopping. 

He laid there face down, as the pain continued to increase. He now had bruises on his body but he couldn't care less about those, he knew he had broken ribs.

How had he gotten so distracted, that he ended up absent-minded in the middle of a fight?

He tried sitting up and the only thing that stopped him from screaming out in pain was his teeth which were tightly clenched.

He finally saw the injuries on his hand. His skin had peeled off and there was a lot of blood dripping down from the wounds.

The weird thing was that, even though the blood was dripping, it was only soaked up by his clothes and not a single drop dripped on the sand.

His uniform now had a few scrapes from his acrobatic landing.

He carefully got to his feet, holding back any whimpers or grunts, and bowed his head slightly to Princess Diane, "You win, Your Highness", before walking toward the sides of the training ground he had been standing in before he was called away.

There were still about five minutes left in the fifteen-minute session when he heard an aged voice, "the session is not over yet. Get back to your post and help the Princess to practice"

Aiden paused in his steps when he heard the voice that seemed to be directed straight at him.

He turned around to see the indifferent look on the wizened old man's face as well as the slightly anxious look on the lady who had been healing the wounded trainees.

At that moment, his heart turned cold. He glanced at Princess Diane, only to see her give him a nonchalant glance.

For some reason, the rest of the trainees did not hear what the old man had said. This made Aiden incredibly angry.

He walked toward the staff he had dropped and kicked it up with his leg. He couldn't bend feeling like hell, so he remained standing.

With an equally indifferent expression on his face, he faced Princess Diane again.

For a moment, they both stood there, then Princess Diane suddenly attacked. 

Aiden also swung his staff in defense with both hands, even though it made everything hurt even more.

The collision he expected did not come, what he got instead was the wind being pierced through by his side.

In another act of instinct, his body spun around and in the process, he drew his outstretched arms and staff back to dodge and hit back.

He planned to use the spinning motion to dodge the staff as best as he could but with a painful injury as the one he had, his body stalled for a moment, which made the staff hit him in the shoulder mid-spin, sending him into a spiral as he face-planted the dirt.

Still, there was no call to end the fight from anyone. At that moment, it felt like he was invisible to everyone else. Even the young woman who had an anxious look now had an expression of happy surprise for some reason.