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“Do you have a partner?”
Lohen’s face twisted in absolute disgust, so utterly appalled at the idea that he raised a hand to interrupt his professor’s next sentence and said calmly, “No. Never. What the actual fuck.”
His professor waited for him to finish. “I understand your lack of synchrony with meisters but I cannot permit missions unless you have paired up.”
“Justin did it.”
“Justin is an exception.”
“And I will be too. I’m not a sword or a scythe, I am a combination of weapons that can be fully self-sufficient without a meister.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Is it not?” Lohen snapped, his patience getting low. “I’ve proven myself enough already. I’ve hunted almost 30 demons on my own already.”
On the surface, his logic was sound. He was self-sufficient in ways that other weapon students didn’t really manage. But the professor had seen the result of his independence, someone who was increasingly incompatible with other students, someone who didn’t bother with formation, skill, or teamwork. It was detrimental in higher risk missions. It was detrimental for his own potential.
The professor calmed himself. “Lohen. I am assigning you a partner.”
That got his attention, and by extension, his short temper.
“You did this without my permission?”
The professor watched him, level. “Unless you want to be expelled, I suggest you comply. This partner is highly experienced…especially with problematic weapons.”
Lohen sat down on the chair too intentionally. “Hah! So what?! You dragged a poor student to ‘tame’ me? I doubt they can keep up.”
The professor sighed. “No worries, they can keep up just fine. They’ll meet with you tomorrow.”
“And if I refuse to cooperate?”
“You will be expelled.” The professor said. It was mostly a bluff. Having such unchecked talent and skill in combat is rare even among meisters and even less so in mult-tool weapons. Lohen didn’t need to know that. It just needed to be effective enough to be a threat.
Her face was carefully professional, giving away nothing.
Lohen narrowed his eyes. “Fine.”Lohen jumped up and walked out. “No promises that I’ll cooperate still.”
And, to be honest, that was the best the professor could hope for.
–
Combat class was the same as always: some basic lectures, a demonstration by seniors, and then a practical session where they could try out the newly demonstrated information in light sparring.
As per usual, Lohen was practicing on his own, lunging on the straw dummy with ease as his hand morphed to daggers in a blink of an eye before morphing into a crossbow to shoot a bull’s eye on to the head on the next roll. The arrow wasn’t nearly sharp enough to penetrate the thick target paper but served enough to confirm his current skill.
Today’s lesson was something so boring that Lohen barely paid attention. It seemed to amaze his classmates but he nearly slept through the lecture itself.
Some seniors came in, one meister and one weapon, and demonstrated sharing wavelengths and handless wielding. As far as Lohen was concerned, this just meant that the wielder was lazy and wanted the weapon to do all the work. Nothing to do with wavelengths or whatever.
A light tap on his shoulder made him flinch, his body turning on instinct and his arm becoming a large bladed weapon.
In the same breath, gloved hands seemed to effortlessly stop the blade by a four-finger pinch just before the blade could hit his scarred neck.
Despite that, the student was smiling with gentle eyes and a matching mole. He was dressed far too heavy for the summer weather outside and a flurry of scars visible on his neck, just disappearing under the turtleneck.
“Hello to you too.” The voice was smoother than it had any right to.
Lohen scowled. “Do you make it a habit of sneaking up to your fellow classmates?”
The other pushed the blade off of his just as Lohen’s blade morphed back into a normal arm. “I’m not one of your fellow classmates. I just got reassigned here.”
Lohen remembered the conversation from a week prior.
“Ugh, you’re the student sent to be my meister.”
“Seems so.”
Lohen eyed the stranger up and down. “So, new classmate, may I know your name before I convince you to not be my partner?”
“Illuga.” He said, reaching out an open hand. “And yours?”
Lohen took it. It was much firmer than he expected.
“Lohen.” he smiled. “Nice to meet you, Illuga.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
Lohen walked over to the target dummy and replaced it as Illuga watched. The new dummy was made with looser straw and Lohen tacked another target paper on the head and heart.
Illuga seemed intent on just watching him.
Lohen tried not to roll his eyes. He could watch all he wanted, Lohen wasn’t giving him a time of day. Professor’s orders be damned. Illuga seemed to take the hint, grabbing a sparring spear and setting up his own dummy.
Lohen leaned back to observe. If they were forced to work together, he might as well see what Illuga was capable of and he was capable of quite a bit, surprisingly. He was steady, low to the ground, a strong core, and a very secure guard. Even Lohen might struggle to get past his defenses. His fighting style was stable, a total opposite of his own. How boring.
Then he saw it, a tiny slip up. The way Illuga stood and thrust the spear, the hand nearly at the other end of the spear’s pole. The prop spear wasn’t even that heavy. If his weakness was spears, well, Lohen wondered if Illuga ever learned that Lohen was an extremely heavy spear in full weapon mode.
Illuga stabbed the dummy and resumed a neutral stance, his eyes meeting Lohen’s.
“Thoughts?” Illuga tilted his head.
Lohen shrugged. “Meh. Could be better. Wanna try my weapon?”
Illuga made a confused face. “You would let me?”
“Sure, why not?” Lohen held back a smile. “I’ll warn you, it’s heavy.”
Illuga’s eyes seemed to brighten at that. “Sure. Only if you’re comfortable.”
Lohen outstretched a hand and Illuga took it. In the same second, Illuga was holding the staff of a heavy and large polearm. It wasn’t heavy enough that he needed to have two hands to hold but it was definitely heavy enough to make the difference between a sparring spear and the real thing super awkward. On closer inspection, the tip was decorated with gears, guards, and carved metal.
It was beautiful, in a strange mechanical and highly practical way.
“Gonna stare all day, pretty boy?” Lohen asked, Illuga blinked out of the daze. “Or are you going to practice?”
Illuga tried not to strain his arm as he balanced in a standard spear stance. He tried to keep the exertion out of his voice. “It’s kind of…heavy.”
Illuga could hear a slightly amused voice reply. “Hm, a lot of people have said that.”
The spear moved to pivot on Illuga’s wrist, the weight lightening for a moment where the weight crashed down on Illuga elbow instead. Illuga rebalanced the pole with his second arm.
“What are you doing?”
Lohen hummed. “Demonstrating. Come on, let’s go.”
Rather than Illuga being in control, Illuga felt like he was the one being controlled. Lohen moved with the fluidity of an inanimate object made of liquid. The weight shifted around too hard for Illuga to control with one hand. His core was being challenged and he gritted his teeth on more than one occasion when the weapon tipped so far that it almost hit the ground.
It was also cold, freezing even. If Illuga wasn’t wearing gloves, he swore it would’ve felt like wielding a pole made of solid ice. It definitely felt like it was like that on purpose.
“Can you…warm up?” Illuga asked after backing away from the dummy after a flurry of strikes.
Lohen feigned ignorance. “Hm? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Illuga sighed heavily and tossed the spear high up. The weapon transformed midair and Lohen dropped back down in human form, landing gracefully with a barely concealed smirk.
Illuga’s eyes narrowed. It was definitely on purpose.
“You know, we can’t work together on missions if you intend to be this stubborn.”
Illuga watched as Lohen hummed to that, as if deciding whether or not his question was worth answering or ignore it with some sort of selective deafness.
He stopped pacing, seemingly decided. “No.”
Illuga raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“I’ve decided, “ Lohen said with all the confidence of a Death Scythe, “that I don’t want you as a partner.”
Iluga stared.
Lohen didn’t look back. “Oh, and I’m deciding to skip class.”
With that, Lohen was gone. Illuga groaned and sat down on the ledge where the straw dummy was set up.
Why did the universe bless him with such a difficult partner?
“You’re getting paired up with a weapon.” His professor said.
Illuga’s eyes snapped up. “Really?”
The professor nodded though their attention was on a paper in front of them. “I understand your lack of compatibility with weapons has caused problems for you. But, I assure you, that this weapon is compatible.”
Illuga straightened in his seat. “I understand. I’ll do my best.”
The professor looked at Illuga’s eagerness and sighed. “I would temper your expectations if I were you. This weapon can only be described as…difficult.”
Illuga opened his mouth to speak but the professor raised a hand to stop him. “He’s difficult but I’m sure you’re compatible. From this day forward, unless you are partnered with this weapon, you aren’t allowed to take on any demons on your own.”
Lohen was dumbfounded when the professor told him this.
“You are forbidding me from demon missions unless it’s with Illuga.”
“Correct.”
Lohen laughed. “Of course, you would make that stupid rule. Fuck you.”
Lohen exited the room with the slam of a door.
The professor’s only reaction was a raise of an eyebrow.
Lohen’s not blaming his partner this time. Progress, he supposes.