Chapter 28

The sun was rising quickly, I needed to rush back to camp before anyone would notice that I had disappeared. I Rushed through the swamp as fast as I could. Using the dragon eyes skill allowed me to select the best path and see what was good foothold to stand on making my journey back quicker. I arrived at camp and had managed to sneak into my tent just before the sun had risen. I didn't know how much time I had left. I went to close my eyes and a few seconds later. Bang* Bang* "Rise and shine you lazy bumps, time to get moving!" Lanon shouted. My eyelids felt like they were made of lead, bags started to appear under my eyes. I had only managed to close my eyes for a few seconds before hearing the banging. On top of that, I had been hunting all day. I simply had no energy left to do anything. Gary woke up stretching his arms like he had just had the best sleep of his life. For some reason, this scene really annoyed me. "Woah what happened to you, did you see a ghost or something?" Gary couldn't help but look at my bloodshot eyes. "I couldn't sleep last night." The group packed their belongings and continued to journey through the swamp. The swamp had a pathway that was mostly made of dirt and gravel but was incredibly narrow. It was just big enough to fit the carriages on. While each side was covered in swamp water. While riding on the carriage I kept nodding in and out of sleep. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant ride, for the road was full of bumps. The path became quite smooth for a short while, so I managed to fall asleep for a little bit. Suddenly Lanon started Yelling out loud. "Prepare for battle, we are under attack!" Everyone quickly left the carriage and headed into the swamp. The group formed a circle with their backs towards the carriage. Thankfully the swamp wasn't too deep. The muddy water came up to the top of our boots. Still, it would slow down our movements and give our enemies an advantage. Looking around me I could see a rainbow of different emotions. Some students were scared, shaking, most likely never fought a magical beast before. While others were excited and ready to prove themselves in front of the other knights and Wilfred. Wilfred was calm on the other hand and moved back towards the middle of the circle as if to keep an eye on everyone. Me, well I was tired, I had stayed up the whole night fighting creatures until I couldn't count anymore. It was a struggle just to keep my eyes open. I had cast my dragon eyes skill and the creatures surrounding us were of the basic tier so I knew I didn't have to worry. I put my sword away and started to head back towards the carriage. It was not worth my time to deal with this. "What are you doing, we need to stay in formation" a student shouted at me. "There just basic tier beasts, you need no help of mine." I carried on walking and leant my back against one of the carriages observing everyone, similar to Wilfred. "Leave him be, a person like that will only be able to obtain a red sash." one of the knights said. "Perhaps he is just scared" The students carefully looked in the swamp and could see movement in the water but couldn't quite make out the creatures inside. Until one of them shot out of the water and headed straight towards Gary's face. It was a Sharp worm, the group had been surrounded by about a hundred Sharp worms.

While the Sharp worm was flying through the air towards Gary's face, he simply held his sword tighter and swung his sword at the worm. A second later the worm's body had been split in two. Straight after another worm jumped towards him and he stepped back and sliced down horizontally, again the worm had been split in half. "Did you see that? he defeated it in one strike!" "He's using such minimal movements." "Perhaps he will become a white sash." One of the knights said. The rest of the students were struggling. Most of them blocked instead of using the opportunity to strike. It allowed the worms to use their razor-sharp teeth and get a hold of the students' weapons. Some of them breaking and even causing some students to throw away their weapons, leaving them unarmed. The knights were watching over the students and whenever a student would struggle, they would step in the help. Wilfred was moving his head around checking on the students as if he was evaluating them all. There were three students he seemed to focus on more than the others. The first one would be Gary, he fought instinctively managing to strike the critical parts of the worm. It was impressive since he didn't even have the dragon eyes skill like me, he was simply just talented. The other student was female. Slyvia Heart, she was the opposite of Gary, she carefully waited and watched the movements of the worms looking for patterns, kiting her enemy in and out returning a strike now and then. Although her strikes were not powerful she took the safest route and didn't have a scratch on her. Lastly was a muscley man with long red hair. A student whose name I didn't know but I recognised well. He was very strong, sometimes not using a weapon at all. He would pick up and rip the worm apart with his bare hands. What was even more impressive though was his ability to look out for those around him, when fellow students were about to get hit, he would quickly step in and help, sometimes taking the damage for them. Although it seemed as if his body was made of iron for barley a scratch would show on him. Wilfred was observing these three greatly, he would also occasionally look at me from time to time and I would give a yawn as a response. He simply would shake his head in disappointment. Even though I said I did like Wilfred, it didn't mean I was out here to please him. I was at Avrion academy for my self. To get stronger and learn about the world. I didn't care what others thought about me. After thirty minutes had passed all the worms had been defeated. Students began to walk back into the carriage with minor injuries. As they walked past some would give me a look of death. "Didn't feel like joining in?" Gary asked. "I was too tired, besides you had the knights to protect you if anything went wrong." I said while sitting down on the wooden bench in the Carriage. While on our journey the other students couldn't stop talking about the big three, it was a nickname they had come up with. Gary, Slyvia and Ian the red-haired fellow who I know knew his name thanks to them. They were talking about how they most likely would become White sash squires. Their amazing techniques they used while fighting. Gary could hear the others talking and it was making his face turn red a little, while I was wondering what the hell a white sash squire was?