SWNOVELS Chapter 8: Welcome to Arcos
Log #762: Biology
Not only were its physical and mental abilities superb, its last-resort was damn near unbelievable. We have no accurate measurements of its dimensions as of yet since it was surrounded by dozens of Shade and cannibalized as soon as it was slain. Nothing remained, aside from the pools of blood and a few shattered bones. For some strange and incredibly disappointing reason, however, none of the bones or blood samples made it to the labs. We have reason to believe that this sudden cannibalization as well as the sample disappearance were to prevent us from dissecting its corpse and gathering information about this new creature. For now, we only know what we experienced during the encounter, and have yet to discover another of its kind. Dragiants may very well be a sort of Alpha species, a higher form which can command even Core Stalkers to do as they please. Judging from the way it was so mercilessly torn apart by the other Shade, it is almost certainly one of many.
-General Shura Averin
0010 BPE
“Come... on!! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
“Coming, Rosa! Sheesh, why the rush? It’s just Junior year, nothing different from last year, is it?”
Despite my words, I could relate completely with my sister. I remembered my first day as a Junior at Sentinal, when little Rosa was just being introduced to the Academy. She had every right to be excited; like me before, this would be the year she forged her own personalized weapon. Twilight’s Fury was my personal blade, and I was about to carry it with me towards the rest of my life.
In that sense, we both had an exciting year to look forward to.
Rosa had changed much more than me in the last two years, both physically and mentally. Her personality was nearly identical to as it had been, with a bit more maturity and confidence. Her hair had grown longer, spilling down her back all the way to her waist. Her skin was light, but not quite as pale as Alison. Her body was lean yet not skinny, her muscles strong yet not bulky. At some point even I had to admit she had grown into a stunningly pretty girl, unlike any other I’d seen before. She wore an almost-pink buttoned jacket, with a red T-shirt underneath. Most of the time, whenever she wasn’t in combat, she wore her jacket unbuttoned. The jacket was plain, and its sleeves ended in blue and pink frills at her wrists. There was a hood on its back, but I’d never seen her wear it.
Her shirt had an image of a pack of chibi-style Silverwolves running in a circle around a little plant with three blooming flowers, each a different color. The biggest flower was red, the middle one blue, and the smallest flower was golden. Below her jacket, Rosa always wore blue jeans, seemingly unfazed by temperature spikes. Her eyes were curious, sharp, and coal black, and she never seemed to get angry, creating a true picture of beauty. Her boots were still black with red outlines, just long enough to cover her foot and ankle, sturdy enough to tread through mud, snow, and rocky terrain, and soft enough to be quite fashionable and comfortable.
I couldn’t help but try them on at least twice.
Rosa was attractive, bubbly, smart, and an amazing fighter; it was likely that she was the most popular girl in her year. Despite the fame, she never really adjusted her personality, and never thought too much about society as a whole. Once, she was actually offered a job as a model, but declined, saying that she admired her father, and loved his work so much as to aspire to it. When asked wasn’t her father a mechanic? She simply responded in a matter-of-factly manner, “He’s a fighter, too,” and walked away. She seemed completely uninterested in fame or guys, which was commendable in her situation. The most admirable attribute of the sixteen year-old girl was her attitude during a match or hunt. There was never a moment she wasn’t smiling, never a time she wasn’t enjoying herself completely. She was my little sister, but I was sure she would surpass me someday.
Of course, nobody was without fault, and in Rosa’s case, her best attribute was also her most dangerous. Her refusal to take any matter seriously had not only accumulated a handful of haters, but also gotten her into trouble during training. Even still, she always came home with a smile, so we never felt the need to talk about it.
As we had exactly two years ago, Rosa and I headed out of our two-story house, Dad waving goodbye. He had recently received a letter from work stating that he was not needed at the Barricade for a while, since one of his friends had taken his shifts for the next few weeks. Apparently he needed the money for his family, and Dad was more than happy to take the time to enjoy life with his kids. It was amazing, having Dad home whenever I came back from hunting, sparring, or anything else, and actually being able to spend time with him without the old man staring into space during dinner. A part of me, a feeling I never dared entertain, wished he wouldn’t go back to work, that he would stay home forever.
It was a silly thought.
As we reached the crossroads that led to Sentinal, I let Rosa make the rest of the journey alone, waving and wishing her a good first day at school. I turned right, and jogged another two kilometers to Arcos’s campus, when I turned a corner and gasped at the sight.
The Academy exclusively for Slayers was, in a word, grand.
The main building was shaped like a spire, with a diameter of at least fifty meters, possibly more. The silver walls were bright, as if it had just been painted a few weeks instead of many years ago. The spiral roof was sturdy, but brilliant; it peaked at a large golden orb, which looked rather pretty. The main building was surrounded by four other buildings in the corners of the campus, each shaped like smaller and less grand versions of the primary building. Three large hallways connected the outer spires, the fourth side containing a massive gate, facing me.
All together, the whole thing looked like a futuristic castle.
The four spires each peaked at a blue orb, similar to their golden companion in the center. On the side of the main building facing me, a balcony stretched along the side, high enough to make me nauseous, even from where I was. The courtyard below was already filled with dozens of students, the majority of them standing and talking with one another, filling the space with unintelligible clamor.
As I walked through the gate and showed the guards my student ID card, I almost tripped over a pair of legs. Startled, I looked back, and saw a girl with short-cut blue hair, lying against the gate and reading a book. Her hair covered her eyes partly, but not enough to hide her hazel eyes. She drifted her gaze upward from the book, looked at me indifferently, and spoke quietly yet firmly.
“Sorry, did you need something?”
“N-no, sorry for bumping into your legs, I just wasn’t really paying attention...” I stuttered, getting a better look at the girl on the ground. She had the expression of a teenager bored with society. Beneath that though, I felt something deeper. Just from glancing at her, I could tell there was something much deeper than your average teenage angst driving her from the crowd.
Of course, I hadn’t the slightest idea what that could possibly be.
The girl wore a purple leather jacket, unbuttoned lazily. Her blue jeans were slightly loose and baggy. Dark purple sneakers covered her feet, worn out and dirty. Her hair, which was her most distinguishable physical trait, was a darkish blue, not quite navy. She didn’t appear to have any makeup on her face that I could notice. Her demeanor was apathetic, almost annoyed; she slouched as she read, not even bothering to get up while talking to me.
“’K. Well, see ya, then,” she said, and returned to her book.
“U-um, yeah, goodbye, I guess.”
With that, I continued into the courtyard.
I was still marveling about the marble floor when I heard two noises rapidly growing louder from the same direction. I barely had time to turn around before I was tackled to the ground. Alex and Tyler, the Twin Beaks, were on top of me, greeting me with a hearty dual-noogie.
“Oww...stop...please...”
I grinned and flipped over, knocking the two to the ground next to me. I leapt to my feet, and ceremoniously banged the pair’s heads together, causing them to start laughing hard. They tried getting to their feet, only to sway around dizzily.
Slowly regaining his senses, Tyler stepped up to me with a smile. “Hey, Kazu, how’ve you been doin’ bud? Been a whole two weeks since we last saw you. What’ve you been up to?”
Tyler was the one who did the talking, and man, he did a lot of talking. His blond hair was always brushed and combed short; rather visually ironic, since he expressed no formality whatsoever. He always wore a red jacket with a brown chest-plate covering his vitals. Whenever in a social situation, he left his sleeves limp at his wrists, but in combat he rolled them up and donned matching gloves. His pants were navy blue, with grayish plating protecting his thighs and shins. His knee-pads were of the same shade, and elbows protected by similar pads. I haven’t seen him unhappy or angry in years, so he brought an air of relaxation and sociability wherever he went. The real catch, though, were his eyes. They sparkled with a strange purple energy, energy that he always seemed to use designing his next quirky comeback. Despite that, I could never help but wonder if that’s all that his eyes designed.
“Eh, not much, just hanging a bit with Alison, nothing new,” I said.
This time Alex came forward, hefting me up by the shoulders. “Alison, eh? Do you even realize how much you talk about her? I’m beginning to think you want to spend more time with a girl than your own buddies!”
He grinned, and shook me about playfully. Alex was less talkative, but just as outgoing as his companion. He was the better fighter of the two, with noticeable yet not bulging biceps and abdominal muscles. He was not extremely tall, yet like his twin, somehow stood much taller than me. His hair was spiky and undone, also blond, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know how to “operate a comb” as he would say. His getup was similar to Tyler’s but larger to fit his physique. On his forehead rested an orange bandanna, something I never really cared enough to ask about. Like his twin, there was an odd miasma that always seemed to be accumulating in his powerful purple eyes, but no end goal ever seemed to release all that energy. That didn’t stop him from being energetic and playful, though.
“Yeah, but no! Of course I’d never ditch you two, it just feels good to have another friend to talk to, someone who I don’t know better than the back of my palms!” I reached up and twisted his arms away, laughing at his expression of surprise. “And she’s not ‘a girl’; she’s different, okay? It’s not anything weird, don’t worry. She’s just a new friend, that’s all.”
“Well, we’ll see how long that lasts, eh?” Tyler got in my face, grinning mischievously. His marvelous eyes twinkled as he spoke. “How long before the friend zone is too boring for you, Kazu? You’ve always been one to, you know, experiment around a bi-” An uppercut to the chest prevented him from finishing that thought, instead sending him stumbling back a few feet, gasping for air while laughing his little head off.
“Shut up! I’m telling you, there’s nothing like that between us. Now back off, man.”
It was the truth; there was nothing romantic between me and Alison, we just complimented each other’s personality. I could tell that Tyler was about to whip out one of his infamous comebacks, but at that moment a man stepped out onto the balcony and called for all students’ undivided attention.
The man looked be in his fifties, with dark black hair cut fairly short. He wore a dark green suit with a black bowtie and white gloves. His face was composed; his jaws were sturdy yet lean. It was difficult to tell clearly from the courtyard, but he appeared to have dark blue eyes, eyes that stared into every soul on campus simultaneously. For some reason, it felt reassuring just to have him around, as a five year-old feels when their father comes home and tucks the child into bed. He brought with him the same aura of power as the walls of Sentinal, standing with complete authority. His voice never quivered, but instead sent a wave of superiority and power resonating through the courtyard.
“Listen well! My name is Commander Gregory Arcos, Headmaster at Arcos Academy. Everyone here has graduated from some combat school, be it Sentinal, Patrel, or Syntry, and have proven talented enough to enroll in this prestigious Academy. Now, this isn’t a military school, but many of you will at some point drop out, whether it be out of terror, pain, uncertainty, or fatality. Our job is to select the best of you, and to prepare them to battle against Shade, not to throw bodies at the enemy to slow them down! We have no need for fodder, so if any of you came here to be just that, turn back now. This isn’t like the other schools you’ve seen before; some of you will die if you remain here. We will be travelling outside the Barricade fairly often, where any and all rules you’ve grown up with will be irrelevant at best. Now, that is not to say it is impossible; a handful of you will not only survive every test we can prepare you for, but excel at this Academy. I have faith that many of you will make up the greatest Slayers in the new generation, but faith alone is far from enough to let you pass, and that is a fact.”
He paused, took a gulp of what I assumed to be a bottle of water, and continued, “I will be present at all times during training, but very few, if any of you, will ever see me again for years to come. Remember, all of you: there is no glory in pointless sacrifice, no redemption in struggles without benefit, so if any of you have even the slightest doubt that this is what you were born to do, then keep this in mind. There is no shame in self-preservation, no dishonor in sparing yourself if all you would accomplish otherwise is pain and suffering. I do hope, however, to see most of you continue and excel at this academy. Dismissed! Oh, right, one last thing,” he added with a grin.
“Welcome to Arcos.”