Harem Master - RPG story Ch. 005

Asher came back to the room just as she was finishing dressing herself. He stopped in place and again was ogling her body. She was pleased that she could grab his attention and see the same lust in his eyes even in her training clothes.

I have my clothes on me right now," Elara teased, moving towards the door and waving at him to move.

"Maybe I just love looking at you, despite what you wear or not."

He was following Elara towards the door but stopped mid step.

"Oh, wait, I almost forgot," Asher said, moving towards the backpack that he brought with him earlier. They didn't have any materials for their classes right now so Elara wasn't sure what he packed in it.

Asher took out a small container out of his backpack. He moved towards Elara and handed it to her. "I made you a sandwich, nothing special, but you should eat something."

Elara took the food from him, a warm feeling spread through her body as his gesture filled her with joy. He often thought about small things like this so that he could take care of her. She looked affectionately at him. She loved him and she knew that he loved her.

She had a flashback of her dream, the moment when she entered the room. He was fucking another girl. But he invited her in, and she could see it in his eyes back then. He still loved her, and he would love her, even if she would share him with other girls. As long as he would be with her, and would still show her his love with affection and these little gestures she should be fine.

"Eat it," Asher said, snapping her out of her thoughts. Elara was standing there looking at him with food still packed in her hands. "And we should go," Asher added, leaving the room.

Elara took one last look at the clock, they had five minutes. Not a lot of time, but they had a close walk to the square. She closed the door, and they moved together to the stairs. They walked in silence while she ate her sandwich.

They went through the doors that a man pointed at yesterday, and they were standing on a big square.

It was a rectangle surrounded by the Academy buildings from every side. On the left side there were two red circles on the ground, and tribunes around them. Designated places to fight.

On the right side there was one circle, but in place of a second one there were posts to train fighting on dummies. They were made of silver material that Elara couldn't recognize, but she knew that she would spend hours training there.

Further into the square, on the left side, were some shooting tracks. They stretched for half of the square, at the end stood shooting targets or dummies made of the same silver material.

On the right side were bigger tribunes surrounding one bigger red circle. It was at least two times bigger than the previous ones. Maybe it was dedicated to team fights, where more than two people fight against each other.

People around the square were clearly standing in groups. Elara caught the sight of a symbol over one of the groups, the bow with an arrow. Rangers she assumed. They were divided by their classes.

She looked around, searching for her group. The next sign was the wooden stick with a snake around it. Supports. She looked at the group, as far as she could see, it contained only girls. Classes were supposed to fit the owner. It was common that supports were women.

Looking at the group she realized that Asher is going to stand out. She could now see there was only one other guy in the group at the moment. He was short and skinny. The rest of the group consisted of only girls.

"Yours there," she said, pointing towards the group for Asher. He nodded and started to move towards them, but she grabbed Asher's hand and pulled him into a short kiss. "Love you, have some fun."

"Love you too, sweetie," he answered and moved towards his group.

She wasn't sure if he would be happy to stand out of the group so much. It would only remind him that he didn't get the class that he wanted. But for now she couldn't make anything with that.

She only ran her eyes over the mages group, but stopped at the tanks group. It mostly consisted of guys, but there were few women there. Elara looked for them, realizing now that if they wanted a female tank that might be problematic. All of the other three classes were more balanced with genders, supports were mostly women, while tanks were mostly men.

She should focus on finding a tank first, so they would avoid the situation in which only male tanks were left available. It could cause them a lot of problems. She moved towards the last group on her right. It had two symbols over it next to each other. Assassins and warriors, and it seemed like they had class together now.

The group in front of her contained men and women in similar proportions. They were of various builds. Some of them were tall and big, others were rather small and slim. But all of them looked fit and strong. She closed the distance and stood between the people, they were talking between themselves, but she didn't know anyone right now.

She noticed the man that welcomed them yesterday standing under the sign. He looked as if he was impatient, probably for the class to start.

He was older, like she suspected most of the teachers at the Academy. They were too old to explore, so they were teaching now. Elara would guess around fifty. He had short brown hair with first traces of gray showing. A stern expression and wrinkles on his face made him look unpleasant. Attached to his side was a short sword that at first glance looked expensive.

"Okay. We're going to start. I'm Nolan, tutor of warriors and assassins. Is there some idiot here that didn't recognize the symbols?" He looked around the group and then nodded. "Okay, follow me." He turned around and moved towards the racks of weapons that were standing behind him.

He stopped in front of the racks. "I'm going to be fast. Every class has their specialized training, yours would be with me. There are other lessons that you have with other teachers." He was pacing in front of the group, moving his eyes over every person. Elara had an impression that he was trying to evaluate them.

"The most important things you will learn with me. How to kill. And how not to die." He stopped by the rack and grabbed the sword. "All of our training would be here on the square." He swung the sword in his hand and frowned.

"These weapons don't come from the dungeon, so they don't give any stats. During trainings we will use these weapons only."

Elara realized that this way no one could buy themselves expensive weapons and have an advantage from it. So only the person's capabilities and class have an impact.

"In your free time, you should train with your exploring items to get used to it." Nolan threw the sword back on the rack dismissively and turned towards them.

He looked around their faces. "You need to give everything of yourself into this training. The dungeons are not a game. People die there every day. Even experienced explorers sometimes fail and never come back from the dungeons," Nolan paused, all of the group was completely silent.

"I'm going to push all of you to your limits. In a year everyone that would still be alive would be grateful for that." He started to pace in front of them slowly again.

"All of you have a favorite weapon. You will train with it most of your time here, but we will put you in situations when you need to use some other weapons. So don't ignore them completely and train with them sometimes too." Some people in the group groaned unhappy, but Nolan ignored them.

"I should tour you around the Academy, but I believe you can find everything on your own. If not, you should really reconsider if you want to go to the dungeons," he paused and looked around the group.

"Any questions?" he asked, but no one came forward with any.

"Did any of you fight seriously in the past? Raise your hands," Nolan asked them, in response everyone in the group raised their hands, along with Elara.

Nolan shook his head. "Not during training." Some of the hands went down. "And not drunk in a club. I'm talking about a true fight, in which you die if you lose. As it's in a dungeon." Elara noticed hands around her going down and in the end only she had her up.

Nolan looked her up and down and folded his arms on his chest. "Come closer. What's your name?" The group parted in front of her, she moved to stand before her teacher.

"Elara River, sir," she answered, not sure how she should address him.

"Who did you fight?"

"With a monster. Two days ago, when I was walking through the forest we were attacked by the Smaller Goblin. Outside of the dungeon," she added at the end to point it out.

Nolan's face twisted in unhappy grimace. "Fucking monsters, going out of dungeons." He shook his head. "Describe how the fight went."

Elara didn't want to give details about her class and skills. They were her potential fighting opponents. But this was an occasion to make a good impression and gossip would go around.

She described the fight, skipping health points of the goblin and details about her skills. Nolan didn't move his eyes from her and only nodded through her explanation.

"You beat level one monster alone. With training weapons. There might be some potential in you."

"I wasn't alone, I was with a support. He gave me a boost." She thought that it was good to mention that Asher took part in a fight too.

Nolan nodded but was looking around the group, he stopped at someone and pointed at him. "You," he said, waving him to come closer.

He moved to the side of the rack. "Choose a weapon, and you will take the first fight." He looked from the guy to Elara.

She expected that she would need to take some fight today, but not the first one. At least this way she was sure that she still had her bonuses when she fought.

She looked at her opponent. He was tall, even taller than Asher, and well built. He was probably a warrior, too muscular and too big for an assassin. His chest was broad, and his arms muscular.

Elara looked through weapons laying on the rack. Earlier she checked what was available, around all sorts of weapons she noticed a pair of daggers. She trained with a similar one at home most of the time.

They allowed her to make use of her agility, light and short allowing her to move with them swiftly and nimbly. It allowed her to dodge attacks and inflict her own. When she moved around her opponents it seemed like dancing, a very deadly type of dance.

She grabbed those daggers and weighted them in her hands. Now she could look them up close, they were similar to those that she had at home. She would prefer to get used to them first and get a better feel of them before the fight but her opponent also was using a new weapon.

Elara looked at him, he looked through weapons and picked the big two handed axe. That only confirmed that he was a warrior, an assassin would not choose a weapon like this. She didn't want to be overconfident, but with her speed she should be able to easily dodge his attacks and hit him at the same time.

She turned towards their teacher. He was observing her and when their eyes met he moved towards the closest zone. Elara followed Nolan, while stepping through the border of the zone she turned her head and caught her opponent staring at her ass.

Elara shook her head, she needs to be focused. She is going to show what she can do, with her agility she can win a fight without getting hit even once. And with her Powerful Attack she could win the fight really fast if she landed the blow.

She moved to the edge of the zone and stood there with her daggers. Her opponent stopped at the other end of the circle. "Don't worry, baby. I'm not going to hurt your pretty face," he said, smirking. "Permanently," he added after a second with a chuckle.

Elara clenched her fists on the daggers. She is going to destroy him, he's asking for it.

Nolan moved towards the end of the zone standing between them. Rest of the group moved to stand on the opposite side.

"We have three rules of fighting here. First, you don't interfere in fights and you don't get help from outside of the zone during the fight. It means no boosts from support." He looked intently at Elara.

"Second, when I say that fight is over it's over. You stop any attacks immediately. The zone is not only specifying the place to fight. It blocks all skills preventing them from going in and going out. But it also allows teachers here to check the health points of the fighting people. We control them to stop the fight at the appropriate moment, so no one would get killed."

"Third, and last one, fight for the win. You'll stand in a fight against your friends here. You would go easy on them, because it's only training, because you don't want to hurt them or whatever reason. You're not doing them a favor. You'll go easy on them now, and monsters in the dungeon will not. Monsters would kill them if they are not prepared. I want to see all of your potential in every fight."

He looked at Elara with a gaze that didn't allow objections. She nodded her head confirming that she understands, then Nolan looked at her opponent. He nodded without thinking with a cocky grin on his face.

"Start the fight," he said, moving a step back from the zone.

"Come on, baby. Let's show them what we can do," Elara's opponent said, but she ignored it. She needs to be cautious all the time and don't let him surprise her with an attack. Nolan might be harsh but he was right, they need to give their best.

Her opponent moved towards the center of the zone slowly, holding his axe on his arm with one hand. She could easily win this fight if she hits Powerful Attack. She considered when to use it and decided that fast in the fight and then made use of the surprise that would inflict on him.

She was moving along the side of the zone, waiting for her opponent to make his first move. He was moving slowly, observing her and she realized that even with this all talk and taunting he wasn't some inexperienced asshole. No one at the Academy wasn't, all of them trained to get accepted here, so she can't underestimate them.

Warrior in front of her grabbed the axe with his second hand, and pushed it with his arm twisting his body slightly. He jumped forwards trying to strike her down with his weapon.

When Elara noticed a change of his grip on the axe, she activated her Fast Attack, readying herself for his first move. With additional agility she easily dodged the axe, moving to the side and cutting with her dagger at his torso.

She didn't cut him deeply but blood splashed on his clothes. His axe struck the ground and penetrated it. He was trying to pull it out of it. Elara moved step forward as if trying to cut him on his back, but stopped and leaned back. Her opponent seeing her move forward tried to kick her, but she predicted it and cut at his leg that he pushed in front of her.

She jumped back and he pulled out his axe from the ground. He was bleeding from his side and the cut on his leg. She could see that he was furious. He held his axe in both of his hands holding it horizontal. He wouldn't have so much force in his blow this way, but it was much harder to dodge if he attacked this way.

"You are going to need a lot of cuts like this," he snarked and started to move towards her quicker than last time. Elara at this point was too focused on the fight to even care what he was saying.

She moved to his right side, towards the blade of his axe, giving him less space to take momentum for his hit. She activated her Powerful Attack and dashed forward.

Her opponent tried to cut horizontally at her, but she was moving too fast. Before he had a chance to react and actually swing his weapon to hit her, she was already at his left side and cut him with her dagger at his hip.

After a cut during her dash next to him, she was behind him, she turned around and saw that he was kneeling on the ground. His axe laid next to him and he was gripping his hip where she had cut him.

She had only one thought in her head right now. He was defenseless and she could finish the fight. She jumped forward and cut him at his back with her daggers. He screamed with shock. She was taking a sweep to cut him again, he lost and she needed to finish the fight.

"Stop!" she heard scream behind her and freezed with her dagger in the air. She turned around, Nolan was standing there looking at her with confusion on his face. Her opponent groaned in pain and she looked at him again.

Her eyes widened in realization. She was going to kill him. She won the fight but she wasn't stopping. He wasn't defending himself but she didn't stop attacking. Would she have stopped? She wasn't sure about an answer to this question and she didn't like it.

Nolan moved in front of her and pointed at two guys standing in the group. "You two, take him to the healers there," he said, pointing at one of the doors in the building.

Elara looked at him, he was bleeding badly from his wounds, it didn't look good, he must have been low on health. She would kill him, if Nolan wouldn't stop her she would attack him until he was dead.

Her teacher moved in front of her. She looked him in the eyes, worried how angry he would be at her about this. They stayed like this for a moment.

"Don't waste your potential," he said in the end, then turned towards the rest of the group. Elara was shocked. She almost killed one of her peers, and he just told her to not waste her potential.

She looked around the group, some of them were looking at her with appreciation, others were surprised.

"You two, choose your weapons, you will go next," Nolan said pointing at two guys. He turned around and looked at Elara.

"Leave the zone," he said looking at her confused as to why she was still standing in the zone. "You are free. You can go do whatever you want. Train here or stay and watch others fight," he finished, then turned towards the next fighting pair.

Elara, still shocked about her behavior during the fight, just moved out of the zone. She was supposed to kill monsters, she already did, she killed a goblin two days ago. She didn't have a problem with that.

But could she just kill a human? What if Nolan wouldn't stop the fight? She looked around the square, but couldn't see the supports group anywhere. Asher with them probably went somewhere into the Academy.

She heard weapons cling behind her and turned around, the next fight started. Two well built men were fighting against each other using swords. That was what she needed, something to distract herself. her group was connected with warriors, she looked around the group. There were a lot of girls in a group, some of them warriors. She would need to find one to join in her team, so she should probably pay attention to them, to find someone suitable.

For the next hour the next pairs were fighting. Elara watched them but at the same time moved around the group talking with people, looking out for female warriors. There were few girls, she observed them during their fights.

One girl especially caught her attention. She introduced herself as Tamara. She was a little bit shorter than her, but with more wide shoulders. Her hair was dark brown and curly, her face looked fine, she wasn't a model, but she wasn't ugly either.

Elara had a short conversation with her before her fight. She seemed nice and when they talked about ongoing fights Elara had the impression that she was well trained and was familiar with tactics. She fought against another girl that had an assassin class.

Her opponent was faster than her, but she never let herself get hit without striking her opponent too. As a warrior she had more health and strength and in the end she won the fight because of stronger attacks.

She left to the medics after her fight, so Elara didn't have an occasion to talk with her more, but she decided that she would pay close attention to this girl.