Destiny No More

Chapter 15

Beacon was a large school, larger than any other Huntsman Academy except perhaps for Shade. Not that many people would count the sand dunes as worth anything. Beacon didn't have the most attendees, in spite of the fact it was most people's first choice, that title also went to Shade.

The kingdom of Vacuo had an almost unhealthy reliance on the school and the Huntsmen it produced. With the official government of the kingdom so weak, Shade was left in a position of unparalleled power within the country. Concerns of corruption or the danger of so much power being consolidated in one place were short lived however, the practical demands of the desert meant that nobody could focus on such comparatively simple problems for long.

Despite Shade's larger student body, Beacon was far more expensive in its size and grandeur. Whoever had designed the school clearly possessed a vision for something far more than a simple school, and it had been granted more resources than any other Academy by the last King of Vale.

It was his project after all.

While the school's funding and attendance had risen and fallen throughout the years, the campus stayed the same. The large architecture and numerous splendid gardens could take students their entire time at the school to explore, even if they tried to see it all.

Pyrrha pulled back before thrusting forward, the simple sword she had borrowed from the arms room puncturing air as she panted for breath.

The best part about such a large school, in her opinion, had to be the sheer number of places one could find themselves alone. There were plenty of places one could go to relax or destress from the life of a Huntress. Usually she would have spent her free time in the gym, but with classes having already finished for the day, it wasn't the peaceful place she had wanted. Besides, she had already gotten her conditioning in for the day.

No, her goal now was adapting to the strangeness of her situation.

Pulling her sword back, she forced herself lower to the ground and kicked out with her feet in a motion she had practiced countless times in her last life. This time the action was slower and there was less force behind the motion than she had expected.

Placing her free hand on the ground she spun her legs around in a move that would catch her opponents legs, tripping them and forcing them to the ground if they failed to dodge. Again, the action came off as sluggish and she thought for a moment that her arm might give out before she could complete it. In the end she managed to bring her feet all the way around, landing in a low crouch, but only just barely and her body was burning in places that hadn't caught up to her new level of skill.

Standing back up, she reset herself to a basic guard and ran through the actions once more. She couldn't truly recall the number of times she had practiced the move, nor could she say how many times she had used it in a fight, but when executed seamlessly it had won her more than a few spars.

Despite the fact her body wasn't prepared, she ran through it almost without paying attention. Rather, she allowed her mind to drift as she forced her body to continue through the burning and pain that she hadn't allowed to go away since she had started her training.

She couldn't really remember how she had found the secluded area she was now practicing in, but it was one of her favourite places in Beacon. Hidden away between the main building and the study hall was a small area no larger than thirty feet across. It was clear that when designing the main school body, the study hall had been added in as an afterthought because the main building had several windows higher up that looked out into the side of a building. The garden there had likely been added to make some use of the windows.