This was not so bad, Mikel thought as he followed the teacher’s instructions and closed his eyes.
Just as he had suspected, Mental Defense was more of a meditation class and it centered on fortifying the mind against spells from No Blessed and mental attacks from demons such as hypnosis, taught by a wizened old man named Shunsui.
Right now, the apprentices were attempting different meditative poses, with most of them going for shoulder stands, a trend Mikel quickly copied despite its strangeness.
Mystic fauna were naturally flexible and because of their small bodies, balancing their weight on their shoulders was not hard. Mikel only succeeded because he had taken yoga classes before.
“Now I want all of you to imagine yourselves in a peaceful place, somewhere you’ve always been able to relax. It could be anywhere,” Shunsui said, sitting down cross legged on his walking stick which was suspended in air.
Mikel imagined himself sitting on his couch back home, with a bottle of fizzy soda on one side and the latest episode of Game of Thrones playing on his laptop. Unconsciously he smiled.
Shunsui looked around his class, noting the peaceful looks on the faces of his students. Opening his palm, he let a thick yellow dust cloud flow out and envelop the bodies of his students. After a few seconds, their expressions began to change, ranging from discomfort to outright fear.
One of them screamed aloud, and waved his palm, a fierce wind sweeping through the room as he opened his eyes fearfully.
The cold gust seemed to rouse everyone else and they all broke out of their positions, unceremoniously falling over.
“Did anyone else see that?” the tanned dryad who had screamed asked, his voice trembling.
Several other apprentices nodded and looked around wildly, scanning the room.
Shunsui made a ‘tsk’ sound with his mouth, lowering himself from his staff. “If such small things scare you, then what will happen when you face monsters in battle?”
He looked around the class, “Can anyone offer their experience for analysis?”
A purple skinned naiad offered up her hand, quavering as she did so.
“I was in the woods near a pond, looking at my reflection in the surface,” she began, “when I heard a low rumble like thunder. I looked behind me to check if there was a monster approaching but when I turned back to the pond, there was something ugly staring back at me and smiling wickedly. Before I could do anything, it reached out and dragged me into the water with it, tearing into me…”
Some of the apprentices shuddered as she trailed off but Shunsui only nodded.
“That is a good example of how monsters can take you unawares,” he said slowly to the apprentices, his hands folded neatly on his lap. “Just as there are natural affinities for every faction, monsters too have their own natural affinities, some of which coincide with ours.”
“Sometimes it is where you feel safest that a monster lurks. For example, I am an Eremite, something of a hermit and I feel very at home in nature, especially when I am alone.” He turned to look at the naiad who had spoken. “But where I feel safest, is where Goliaths live and often time, I am at risk. You my dear, might feel safe around natural bodies of water but as you saw just now, water is also the home of Hydras and Trolls.”
“No matter where you are,” Shunsui added. “There is always a present danger waiting for you to let down your guard so it can devour you. That is why our minds must be sharpened at all times, for without the mind the body is nothing but a shell. Class dismissed.”
YOU ARE READING
No Blessed ✓
Fantasia- Completed - For Mikel Ark, being offered a job by the world's biggest gaming company is a dream come true, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will launch his career as a hotshot programmer. But what Mikel hasn't been told is that his employer's...
