Academy of Arkanis [Translation]

Chapter 3

The dagger rested shapelessly in Quincy's hand and sweat ran down his brow, not from exertion, for hand-to-hand combat training had just begun, but from fear. To his left, a red-haired girl fell to the mats, panting, and her teacher's commanding voice echoed through the room. "Watch your footing! You can't just let yourselves be knocked down! Always stand firm and tense!"

The students stood spread out on the mats, practicing the fighting moves that had been explained to them at the beginning of the lesson. Some more successfully than others, but in general the training seemed to be working quite well. Leonidas, who was training with Dexter, seemed to be really enjoying himself. The dagger was loose in his hand and the movements he executed looked powerful and confident.

Of course, they weren't fighting with real weapons yet, the daggers were blunted so they didn't cut the skin. Still, it hurt when the cold metal hit a body, Quincy had already had experience with that. His opponent was Jyn and it was obvious that it was not the first time that his opponent had such a weapon in his hand. The partners had been divided by the teacher and he had claimed that the division had been made by weight. Either he had lied or Jyn was much lighter than he looked. Quincy had actually hoped to compete against Chyler.
Of course, he knew that he didn't stand a chance against her either, but he was sure that the brown-haired girl would have been gracious enough and wouldn't have finished him off completely. Briefly, Quincy allowed himself to look over at her. Chyler's movements with the dagger were fluid and quick. She looked kind of elegant swinging the blade around. "Hey, it's your turn to attack! Do it already!" Quincy gulped as Jyn's annoyed voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Come to think of it, he would have even preferred to fight Leonidas, and that was despite the fact that the two hadn't really had much to do with each other since the incident in the refectory.

Quincy had the feeling that the taller one had been avoiding him ever since and was acting cool towards him. Somehow the white-haired boy blamed himself for that. He shouldn't have gotten involved in the argument between Hux and Leonidas back then, and he certainly shouldn't have started revealing things about Leonidas that he had only found out because of his good knowledge of human nature.

Actually, Quincy would have liked to talk to Leonidas again, but when the opportunity arose, he usually didn't dare to bring up the subject again. Besides, there was another reason why Quincy often couldn't stay near Leonidas. Leonidas had started spending more time with Dexter and Jyn, who in turn enjoyed teasing Quincy and making fun of him in a conspicuously inconspicuous manner. Quincy wasn't sure if Leonidas simply didn't notice the teasing or didn't care, but somehow he hoped it was the former.

A sudden pain in his temple made Quincy spin around. Jyn had attacked him without any warning. "Now don't look like that! If you're not going to attack, I'm going to have to!" Quincy was still too befuddled to react when the blade shot toward him again. Instinctively, Quincy raised his dagger and the metal clashed. Actually, this was the end of Jyn's attack, but unfortunately he didn't see it that way. With a sardonic grin, he struck again at the white-haired boy, who instinctively took a few steps back. This was not going to end well.

"Dodging is for cowardly losers, but that suits you!", Jyn laughed briefly before attacking Quincy again. "Now fight back!" Quincy screwed up his face. Where was that damn teacher when they needed him? Or had he noticed what was going on and just didn't intervene? As Jyn's dagger thrust in his direction again, Quincy held his against it. A startled, pain-distorted sound escaped Jyn and he instantly dropped his dagger and held his hand. Quincy's blade had struck his knuckles and they were now quite on fire. Of course, this move by the white-haired man had not been intentional at all. He had nowhere near enough talent to use a weapon so purposefully.

Still, Jyn was furious as he glared at Quincy. "If that's broken, you're dead!" Of course the hand wasn't broken, the blow hadn't even been hard enough for that, but the words still had an effect. Quincy dropped his dagger in fright and screwed up his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I..." Since Quincy had been looking at the ground during his stammered apology, he had missed the fact that Jyn had already picked up his dagger again and was walking towards him. The apology from the white-haired boy was interrupted when the blade hit his temple.
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"May I have your attention, please?" The cadets fell silent as Captain Jen, their combat instructor, a former elite soldier, entered the hall. Quickly, the operated a few buttons on a large crate that hovered behind him.