CHAPTER 45: FIERY HOBBIT

"Right, she’s also supposed to be here," Astra said to herself as she looked at Ayla walk in, "of course I didn’t forget."

That was a lie, she had completely forgotten that the headmistress’s kid was supposed to be part of the first years, a fact that the voices in her head called her out on.

Nox had just confirmed that he was the only who got the feeling of dread in her presence, after all, the other students didn’t even seem to have noticed her until Astra spoke up.

Like previously, he allowed his SE to freely flow within him as he suppressed the feeling of dread, allowing him to fully look at her.

Ayla, like all the other students in the Combat room was wearing a black uniform with golden lines around the neck and cuffs.

Without a change in her expression...or even one on her face, she walked forwards until she was standing next to Nox.

"You’re not scared of me anymore," she commented the moment she was close enough to him.

"I found a way to surpress it," Nox muttered with a small sigh.

"Good," she nodded without a single change in her expression, "I don’t have to try and smile again, it hurts my face."

With that, the two turned towards Astra who was observing them before sighing and saying, "that makes thirty one."

Usually, the combat division always had around fifty students but due to the unforseen circumstances during the test, only thirty...well, thirty one students managed to pass, hence the number.

"Who the hell is she?" Flint whispered under his breath, but unfortunately for him, Atla clearly heard and turned to him.

The moment her grey eyes locked on him, a never felt before dread washed over him. He felt like a mouse in front of a predator and without even realizing it, he had stopped breathing and there was sweat pooling on his forehead.

He took a step back in fear, but lucky him, Astra pulled all their attention towards her.

"Alright then," she clapped her hands, causing Flint to snap out of the state he was put in, "start pairing up."

Ayla turned to Nox but before she could request they paired up, Astra cut in, "I’ll be your sparring partner, shadow girl."

She hadn’t come up with a suitable nickname for Ayla yet, so she was going with shadow girl for now.

Ayla frowned before pointing to Nox, "I want him as my partner."

Devon, by Nox’s side, chuckled before leaning in and whispering, "looks like you’re the new chick magnet after Cass."

Nox just sighed in defeat at his words, he could explain that Astra was only interested in him because of his ability to absorb solar Energy without a core, but Devon wouldn’t believe, since no human was capable of that.

And as for Ayla’s case, he’d prefer not to explain, after all, what would be say? She’s interested in him because of his scent? That was even worse.

So he wisely chose to remain silent.

"No," Astra shook her head, "he’ll only be your sparring partner when I say so, for now you’re stuck with me."

Ayla seemed to have a displeased expression on her face, but she then remembered what the headmistress had said so she just nodded.

"Hey man," Devon turned to Nox, "wanna spar with—"

He didn’t even get to finish before a voice interrupted.

"You," the two turned towards the direction of the voice only to spot the red haired kid, Flint, walking towards them.

"Spar with me," he demanded, the moment he was close enough.

"Yeah, but I already got a partner," Devon said in response, only to have Flint look at him with what seemed like disgust.

"Not you," he said before pointing at Nox, "him."

Nox turned to Devon, his surprise evident on his face before turning back towards Flint.

"Me?" He pointed at himself and asked.

"Yes you," Flint said, "I believe you don’t deserve to be here and I will prove it by beating you in this spar."

Devon blinked in surprise, then slowly leaned toward Nox again.

"Ayo... how do you know this little man?"

You see, Nox was short...a lot more sor than he would admit, but Flint was even more so and he very much hated being called short.

Nox didn’t respond. He was too busy trying to figure out what he’d done to attract this brand of trouble.

"What?" Flint spoke up again, "are you scared? Do you dare to prove that you being here is not because you caught Ascended Dawn’s attention?"

Nox was even more confused now, "listen kid—"

"Kid?"

Well, that successfully set Flint off.

A visible vein popped on the side of his forehead as he marched right up to Nox, who had to tilt his head down slightly to look at him, something Flint noticed immediately and absolutely hated.

But it was definitely a first for Nox, especially here in the city since everyone looked like giants compared to him and he had to admit, it felt good.

"I’m not a kid," Flint snapped, his jaw tightening. "I’m eighteen, I’m only short because my growth spurt hasn’t kicked in yet—"

Devon snickered, quite Loudly at that.

Flint slowly turned to him with the slow-burning rage of a lit fuse.

"Something funny?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Devon raised both hands. "Nah, lil’ man, you good. Keep goin’."

Flint’s expression got even darker as he was called little man by Devon, but for some reason, he only had a problem with Nox.

Astra on the other hand looked at the two with an amused expression, yes Flint was accusing the academy of playing favorites but it didn’t bother her in the least bit.

Instead, she was entertained by the exchange, the second years were rarely, if ever, this entertaining.

’Are you going to stop them?’ on of the voices in her head asked.

"Why?" Astra asked.

’Because this is supposed to be a combat class,’ another reminded.

"Right," she said loudly, realizing that she was supposed to be assessing the kids.

"Alright then," she said loudly pulling their attention towards her, "Nox, you’ll spar with the little."

Astra paused mid-sentence, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly at Flint as if searching for the right nickname.

"—with the fiery hobbit."

Flint’s soul visibly left his body, he wanted to scream that he wasn’t short, but this was Ascended Dawn, doing that would just be asking for death.

So he turned to Nox and muttered, "ready yourself," before walking back to his previous position , leaving behind a very confused Nox.