Prickly

  All quiet on the western front.-Report from general Maltza

  The training yard was a rge open area with some mages arouing spells. Our css made its way over to one of the more open area's only to enter a rge burly man with more armor than on sehe man was overly jovial and quick to hug, but Ky tazing him with lightning saved me from any attempts made by the ma everyoo spar with each other, but I had other pns and instead started sharing ideas with Urist.

  "So, yer tellihat yer old dy just had one of these things lying around?" Urist was fasated by the mae I described.

  "I'm pretty sure it was my grandma that had ohat or my grandpa, but that's less likely. You have to know, these things were more ahan my gran' herself at this point. Called it a spinning jenny from far out west." Urist is almost looking insulted at this point.

  "Eight coils is a? I think I uand why ye don't want to share things ya wouldn't call a." Gd to see he uands.

  "What the hell are you two eggheads doing? This isn't engineering school! Get fighting!" The teacher butts in, sounding very excited.

  "We are mentally sparring, it seems I'm currently winning." Besides, from what I'm seeing from the other mermaid who is currently sparring the cow dy, things get pretty dicey. Sharks are often seen as dangerous, but cows kill a LOT more people than sharks do, for many reasons.

  "She ain't just winnin', I'm getting me ass kicked here teach'. Say Esstrey do you think ye give me a rough drawing hoinnin jenny looks like?" I give a nod to Urist who is clearly enjoying the show as much as the information. The teacher tries to berate us, but is interrupted by one of the human students.

  "You dare disrespect imperial education? We are gracious enough to educate you fools on the proper way to use power, even if you are historical enemies. Yet you sit there, squandering it! ce did you crawl from for respect of education to be this bad?" Judging from his stance, he's most likely some high ranking noble's brat. I 't exactly say I'm from a try where we shot his kind, so I improvise.

  "I'm from Quintillius." The rown brat starts sputtering angrily, and instantly takes off his glove, which he throws in my face. I don't bother to dodge, as im left w why he threw his glove in my face.

  "You dare! I should have known someone as uncouth as you would be a pirate! I challenge you to a duel, scum! Face me and defend your honor!" More eyes start turning our way at his loud procmation. Did I do something to offend him? Well, this might be a great time to test some stuff.

  "Depends on the rules but sure." I see no reason not to accept this. Might be able to blow off some steam.

  "Of course a criminal like you wouldn't know the rules. We will use sparring rules, dull ons and first one down loses." One of the studeedly es over with two dull swords. I give my shovel to Urist so he has something to i, and throw my crossbow to Cathy.

  The teacher is still looking baffled, but me taking his lesson seriously has him stu non-intervention for now. At this point, everyoopped sparring to either do something else or look. I notice a few human students snickering as if something is funny.

  "I am Marcellus of house Northspire." He bows slightly while looking at me with disdain.

  "I am Esstrey... the mad Queen of Quintillius." I think I have been called that in every official situation ba Quintillius.

  ositions across from each other, and one of his ckeys starts ting us down. Once we are started off, I dart forward to the surprise of Marcellus. He mao deflect my early dash, and strikes back with his bde. He recovers quickly thanks to the fact he has legs, and I don't. I quickly back off afterward as to not get caught off guard.

  "I should have known you wo-" I dash fain while he's distracted attempting to monologue. This time however, he dashes back faster, and starts hitting back. I back off under his assault. He pursues, and forces us into a feng battle. It quickly bees clear he is the better fencer, as I'm pushed further and further. Right until he goes for a strike on my sword, and mao disarm me. The sword falls to the ground, too far for recovery. The snickering of his ckeys turns to giggling, some of the other students have decided to join in on the snickering as well. Marcellus himself takes the time to look triumphant as he points the dull bde at my face.

  "Well, this was nid all, but you really should pay more attention to the lessons of your betters. You will never raise yourself to bee better if you associate with criminals." He starts talking again, I decide it's time. Enough skill rating. Time for the durability test.

  I dash towards his sword smiling, he is surprised by the dash again, but knows it will enough to instinctively thrust his sword toward my face. I respond by biting the sword to pieces. Spitting out some of the iron pieces I move closer, and cw him across his left shoulder. He screams in pain and panic as he tries to throunch with his right arm. I intercept his arm with my left hand, using my right hand to break his arm. The screamies, aries to fall over backward, but I intercept his attempt at surrender by stabbing him in the abdomen with my right hand, doubling him over. I pull out my cwed hand, and lift him higher from the ground. The teacher is moving to intervene.

  "Cathy." I utter a single word, and the teacher drops to the floor as tentacles trip him up.

  "I uand wanting to protect your [students/proteges/disciples], but this is a duel. The [rules/parameters/ws] of the duel state this is betweewo of them, and the fight ends when one falls to the floor." At this point the life has quickly drained from most student, even some nearby practig mages tried to interveil Cathy moved. To add insult to injury, the fn students are now snickering at the sight of an arrogant imperial ting his shit kicked in. I simply tih my experiment, and start pummeling the faarcellus until it's unreizable. After I'm satisfied, I drop him to the ground, and call for a life mage.

  The momes the ground, a woman in white robes rushes over to Marcellus, and gives me a mean gre. She tries to pick Marcellus up, no doubt t him to a better pce to heal, but he groans in pain in response. She gives me anre.

  "Don't mind me, I am simply here to observe your work. I reend doing it quickly, as I punctured his liver." The nurse briefly panics, and quickly starts healing him up. I watch closely, as I see the shoulder recover fastest. Followed by the liver wound, pulverized fad broken arm respectively. I waddle over to my wheelchair, and Urist seems to be done iing the shovel.

  "That is some nice work." I don't know if Urist refers to me dismantling the noble or the shovel itself, so I simply nod. Cathy joins us, and gives me a small bow.

  "Thanks Cathy, I owe you ohe teacher would have ruined my experiment. Ky also rushes over, but she seems rather angry.

  "What was that?! Do you have any idea what you just did?" Other than terrifying most students here enough to stay out of my affairs? Of course I do.

  "I wao see how effective healing magic is, and what is effective to ter that. Broken bones are clearly the hardest to fix, followed by an damage."