Eternity made her way to the entrance of the classroom to leave. The crowd separated where she walked, giving her way. Though it wasn't from respect, but rather spite.
I watched her through the windows that showed the hallway outside the classroom. After she went out of sight, I tapped Ford's hand, "Let's go."
"Wait, where are we going?" He asked to my deaf ears as I started to follow the path Eternity took out of the classroom.
Eventually, I was walking down the hallway behind Eternity as Ford was close to my side whispering me questions. "Why are we following her?"
"Because I want to reserve a healing aspect for ourselves." I replied.
"You think she'll help us? I'm sorry, but did you not hear what she said before in that classroom?" He scoffed at me, but I ignored his words.
"Think about it, she's practically closed herself off from any connections. She may not realize it now, but she's screwed herself by saying those things. So if we become friends with her now--"
"--She'll become dependent on us, essentially forcing her to be our teammate." Ford nodded to himself, grasping my plan, then shook his head. "Wow, I pity any girl who ends up with you as her manipulative boyfriend."
"Look we are going into a life or death situation, the nightmare, and when I'm presented with an option that makes my chances of being alive way higher--I'm going to secure it. Also, I wouldn't be manipulative to my future girlfriend." I snapped at Ford. He shrugged but gave me a side-eye, making me hold back the urge to elbow him in the ribs.
Seconds after our talk, Eternity turns a corner into a passageway. The space she went to was unlike the other classrooms, it was a quarter of the size of the assembly hall that held Sleepers in the morning, but it was still multiple times larger than a normal classroom.
Looking at the plaque that displayed the name of the class, it made perfect sense to anyone as to why the class was so huge.
"Combative Training" was by far the most popular class chosen by the majority of the sleepers. It was the default class, so if you let the academy choose your classes for you, they'd likely place you in it. Though it made complete sense, one of the largest dangers of the dream realm were the disastrous nightmare creatures. Knowing how to fight was crucial to winning a fight against a nightmare creature.
There were multiple white rectangles spray-painted onto the padded floors, some of which had pairs or teams of Sleepers fighting each other. To the walls were metal racks that had wooden weapons placed in them, black lockers with fighting gear, and a shoe rack to place shoes in.
The class also had multiple awakened instructors, including Awakened Rock, monitoring and advising the Sleepers during their fight. Awakened Rock specifically was with a group of bulky Sleepers in the corner who were using their swords to hit punching bags again and again.
My eyes were drawn back to the figure of Eternity who was strapping on sparring gloves.
"Huh."
"Vincent!" I looked to my left to see Itri jogging over to me. The collar of his t-shirt was darkened by sweat and he had a sheath at his waist with a wooden sword. "You taking this class too?"
"Maybe, I want to try it out though before I decide." Itri's blue eyes seemed to sparkle at the notion of me joining.
"Hey, want to spar against my team?" Itri said, pointing a thumb behind him at fighting space. In the space were one male and female Sleepers. I recognized the girl as the raven haired beauty I saw during the Sleeper Assembly in the morning.
Her sword was slack in her hands and pointed to the ground as she watched the movements of her sparring partner. The guy she was facing was breathing heavily, a sword and a shield in each hand. The condition they were both in were completely different, the guy looked like he was about to collapse any second from exhaustion but the girl hadn't even broken a sweat.
I guess this was the difference between a Sleeper from a Legacy clan and a normal Sleeper.
While I couldn't help myself from wincing, imagining the legacy girl beating me with her wooden sword, I couldn't pass up on an opportunity like this. Battling with her would likely give me a lot of experience.
"Sure," I replied to Itri's proposal, "but we need a third team member to spar. Ford and I will try to find someone."
Me and Ford promptly moved in the direction of the lockers, which was coincidentally where Eternity was right then. While Ford went to a locker to get a pair of sparring gear, I greeted Eternity.
"Hey, so I was wondering if--" I was quickly cut off by Eternity who scowled at me.
"You want me to join your sparring team, don't you? I could hear you speaking obnoxiously loud, and then you walked in my direction. You want me as your sparring partner." She said in a conceited tone.
Nah, I actually wanted to ask if you knew where the damn bathrooms were. I wanted to say so badly to the girl to embarrass the hell out of her but I bit my tongue, stopping those words from gushing out of my mouth. She's smart, I'll admit, but she's just so damn haughty about it.
Suppressing my urge to insult the masked Sleeper, I spoke as if I hadn't just been rudely interrupted. "Exactly. So, are you in or not?" I asked kindly, smiling at her.
Eternity looked at her forearms indifferently as she fixed the straps of her sparring gear. "Alright." She said finally after glancing at me.
"Cool! The team we're sparring is over there, so just wait for me and Ford--Oh, right. I'm Vincent, by the way." I said while extending a hand towards her in polite greeting.
She glanced at it and turned her back to me as she made her way to where Itri and the others were.
I sighed, recruiting her to be my companion was going to be harder than I expected. Ford suddenly pushed a set of sparring gear into my arms, "Get ready." He said to me.
I nodded, as I slipped off my personal shoes and put them into the shoe rack. I strapped on the gear and turned towards the weapons rack. After pondering which weapon to choose, I settled on a long wooden spear.
Ford took a long sword, which would be too large to swing for a normal person, but it was the perfect size in his hands.
We both walked over to the rectangular fighting area where Itri, Eternity, the Legacy sleeper, and the male sleeper were standing in.
The raven-haired Sleeper took a step towards us, one hand on the hilt of her wooden sword. "I'm Lorelei, here's to a good spar." She said in a flat voice.
Me and Ford nodded. Simultaneously, I noticed Eternity making her way towards us.
***
The fight started out with a bang as Ford drew a large arc through the air with his long sword. The large swing forced Itri's team to take a step back except for Lorelei.
Lorelei dashed forward with her sword's tip pointed straight at Ford's chest. However, I launched my spear forward at Lorelei from my place behind Ford. Lorelei turned the angle of her front foot and the wrist of the hand that held her sword, deflecting the spear head.
Lorelei's delay in parrying my spear provided Ford with the opportunity to ready another lethal strike. As he brought the sword down in a vertical arc, Lorelei narrowly evaded the blade's edge, which left a dent upon impact with the floor.
Ford flashed a grin at Lorelei, attempting to provoke her, but her expression remained impassive.
Lorelei took another turn at attacking Ford but my spear held her back, keeping her outside of my spear's range, however she didn't have the reach to attack Ford either. It was somewhat akin to a fight between a stork and cobra.
The stork attempted to stab the snake with its beak, but the snake lunged forward keeping the stork away. The stork didn't want to be bit by the snake's fangs and succumb to its deadly venom, and right now, Ford was my venom.
Ford took whatever chances he had to slash at Lorelei, though his swordsmanship were quite elementary compared to the skills Lorelei displayed, the sheer power that was behind his swings made Lorelei wary. For every step Ford advanced, Lorelei retreated two steps back closer to the boundary of the fighting area.
Forcing Lorelei back wasn't the only benefit of our attacks, Itri and the other unnamed sleeper were standing behind Lorelei, even closer to the boundary than Lorelei was. They couldn't fight, probably thinking that they'd just get in the way of Lorelei. The only way they could help was if they could stop Ford's swings, which would be impossible for any normal Sleeper.
I glanced back at Eternity who was staring at the duel with her arms crossed. She was the one who had come up with a plan to fight against Itri's team. Though she was arrogant to a fault, there was no denying her strategic prowess.
Though there was one thing that Eternity's plan hadn't taken account of: Aspects. The tide of battle could easily change if someone had a powerful Aspect, and considering how skilled Lorelei and Itri were, they likely had a strong one.
Though I didn't know what Ford's aspect was, I knew that it would be as powerful as our opponents. It did annoy me a bit that I couldn't use my aspect, because of obvious reasons, I knew it would be the safer option.
Anyway, it seemed like everyone was trying their hardest to hide their own aspect, so there was little point in wondering.
I looked back at the fight in time to see Itri jumping over Lorelei. Startled by Itri's leap, Ford swung at Itri who was still in the air. Itri put his sword above him, and Ford's swing blasted Itri to the floor.
Though, before Itri's feet touched the ground, he spun in the air. Ford's eyes went wide as his sword was knocked away to the side. Once Itri made contact with the ground, he sprung forward without waiting for Ford to recollect.
Itri vaulted over Ford's knee and swung at me. I blocked the sword with my spear, the force making my bones rattle. Ford tried to make his way towards me but Lorelei intercepted him, knocking him back with a flashy array of slices aimed for his vital spots.
Ford tried to swing but without my spear, it allowed Lorelei an easy opportunity to get close to Ford. She used the hilt of her sword to make Ford drop his sword. Without giving Ford a break, she grabbed his solar plexus with his sword, making him topple over.
Without wasting a moment, Lofrelei swiftly closed the distance between her and Eternity. She raised her sword high above her head to slam it onto Eternity's scalp.
"Wait!"
Lorelei paused immediately with her sword inches from Eternity's face. Though she stopped, she didn't make a move to drop her weapon. Eternity's face, at least the parts that weren't hidden by her mask, was red. She was also breathing heavily.
"We…give up." She said, her eyes narrowed at Lorelei. Lorelei slowly pulled down her sword, and me and Itri disengaged our own duel. I stared at Lorelei and Eternity, the latter who was now glaring at the former.
"Why…" I began but Ford got to it first.
"Why the hell are we giving up?!" He grunted while facing Eternity. He had one hand over his solar plexus, but the other was tightly gripping the wooden sword Lorelei knocked away.
Eternity's scowl became deeper, "There is no point in continuing this. Anymore and you would be seriously injured-"
"But I'm fine!" He shouted.
"You can say that, but she hit you in the solar plexus-"
"So what? I've been hit in the solar plexus before during sports, it's not going to kill me."
"You know it can!" Eternity shouted.
The argument went back and forth between the two of them, their voices becoming louder and louder as they took turns shouting at each other. The argument became so fierce that the other Sleepers stopped their fights to look at the argument between a large guy and a small girl--it was actually somewhat comical seeing their size difference.
I also noticed that Awakened Rock was coming over to our fighting area with a not-so-kind expression on his face.
"I'm just saying, why can't you have any faith in my fighting abilities?!" Ford said.
Eternity scoffed, "Faith? When you couldn't even hold off one measly person for even a second--"
Without warning, Lorelei raised the tip of her sword to Eternity's throat. Though Lorelei's expression hadn't changed, there was a threatening aura that permeated the air around her.
Eternity stared into Lorelei's eyes without any fear in her eyes, she looked to be ready to argue when Lorelei spoke again.
This was the second time I heard the girl from a legacy clan talk, however, I never expected this tone of voice from her.
"And how useful were you?" She said, her tone colder than ice.
Eternity's eyes went wide as her mouth tried to give a response.
"You stood in the back of your two teammates who were fighting relentlessly and as you had your arms crossed. Even if your fighting abilities were lackluster, not even equipping a weapon is extremely disrespectful to both your teammates and opponents. Even a few throwing knives would have proved enough." Every one of her words were like a dagger that striked Eternity's heart.
Though Eternity was startled by Lorelei's words, she didn't back down.
"I'm a healer, I-"
"So what? Did you heal any wounds? The large sleeper I was fighting a minute ago is still clutching onto his chest in pain. Or are you saying that it wasn't worth your time to heal him even though you said that a hit to the solar plexus could plausibly kill him?"
"You don't know anything--" Eternity said as she took a step towards Lorelei.
"I don't know. I don't know anything about you. However, I do know one thing." Lorelei pointed her sword down and slid it into her sheath.
"If I had to fight with you in the Dream realm…I would leave you to die."
With those words, Lorelei turned away from Eternity, leaving her alone. All eyes turned to Eternity as she stood there, trembling from sheer fury. When it looked as though the anger would explode, Eternity's shoulder dropped.
She turned and left the classroom.