The Stream Quarter Training Center was not very far away from the cafeteria by ground.\u00a0 The blistering winds however dictated that the young Crisho stay inside as much as possible.\u00a0 Instead, she chose to traverse the buildings using the tunnels and bridges between them.\u00a0 These paths were only meant for connecting two or three buildings for ease of class access.<\/p>\n
The trip ended up taking much longer but was worth it.\u00a0 Being a creature only a few centimeters high, she would freeze without proper precautions.\u00a0 Metcalf walked the halls with her game face. \u00a0She had no need for war paint.\u00a0 Her face was naturally split down the middle with red and white.\u00a0 A slight tint of the adolescent\u2019s green still covered most of her skin but that would fade.<\/p>\n
Up two floors and a bridge, left turn and a hallway, right turn, down the long ramp, down three floors and a tunnel, up a floor, halfway through the hall and an elevator, she had traveled this path for many winters.\u00a0 She had no reason to question where she was or where she was going.<\/p>\n
Usually, the center was a place of genuine training.\u00a0 Students would use this facility to hone skills; to practice and eventually eliminate faults others had discovered in their fighting styles.\u00a0 Not today.<\/p>\n
When she reached the three double-door entry to the training center she knew what Koh was talking about.\u00a0 The roar of activity was unmistakable.\u00a0 The training center was large enough to house sporting events from professional teams.\u00a0 However at this time of year, it seemed more packed than ever.\u00a0 When she entered the training center, she saw students everywhere in their various, armor styles and colors.\u00a0 Many were either competing fiercely in drills or waiting in line to challenge other students.\u00a0 Full of hope or simply naive, they all looked for their chance to get more Academy Points.<\/p>\n
There were even more students standing at the walls or sitting in the bleachers, some studying their handhelds.\u00a0 The holographic image of the school rankings and the red zone was all too familiar.\u00a0 Some looked at the image happily and relieved.\u00a0 Others were very worried.\u00a0 No one wanted to take the Final Exam, but in the end everyone knew that some of them had to face expulsion.\u00a0 They had less than a week left to adjust their fate.<\/p>\n
Quite a few of the students seemed to be from other Quarters of the Academy.\u00a0 She did not recognize them.\u00a0 Perhaps they were embarrassed and did not want to be seen gambling points.\u00a0 Either that or this was the place with the most action.<\/p>\n
She looked at the battling pairs of students for a while, picking her targets.\u00a0 She cared little about how good they were; she was better.\u00a0 The ideal target had little to do with whether they won or lost.\u00a0 It was all about how they won or lost.\u00a0 Selfishness was self-defeating and she watched the students for signs.<\/p>\n
Proud winners and sore losers always made the best targets.\u00a0 They took the outcome personally and often wanted a rematch.\u00a0 The proud thought they were unstoppable and wanted to go again even when it was unnecessary.\u00a0 Losers often thought too much about the outcome.\u00a0 Vowing not to make the same mistake again, they would make a different mistake and dig themselves even deeper into a hole.\u00a0 Too late, they realized they could not escape The Red.<\/p>\n
She saw Naoh in her plain looking white armor with aqua highlights.\u00a0 She was competing in a three strike drill with her dual short strait swords.\u00a0 She moved effortlessly, countering all of her opponent\u2019s attacks with parries, strikes, and stabs.\u00a0 She hit him much more than three times; the second to score three hits ends the match as the loser.\u00a0 The penalty was determined by how many more hits the winner landed.<\/p>\n
Even with his face covered Metcalf could tell that he was getting frustrated.\u00a0 Apparently, he did not expect a girl to have such powerful strikes.\u00a0 It seemed that he could not land a single strike with his dual canes.\u00a0 To lose a test of strength against a petite lady with everyone watching had to be embarrassing.\u00a0 Not to mention the amount of points he was losing.<\/p>\n
Just then Metcalf felt a tap on her shoulder.\u00a0 She turned to find a female student in armor with a crossbow.\u00a0 She seemed to be older with a look of a predator.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey kid,\u201d she said as an introduction, \u201cYou wanna do a target drill?\u201d\u00a0 It seemed as though she already knew the answer before she asked the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
#1<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Lost and Found #2<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Lost and Found #4<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Stream Quarter Training Center was not very far away from the cafeteria by ground.\u00a0 The blistering winds however dictated that the young Crisho stay inside as much as possible.\u00a0 Instead, she chose to traverse the buildings using the tunnels and bridges between them.\u00a0 These paths were only meant for connecting two or three buildings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,89,26,88,2,80,142,107,58,170],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-isabeau-bo","tag-koh-lai","tag-metcalf-luo","tag-naoh-lai","tag-sons-of-sword","tag-stream-quarters","tag-sword-mint-academy","tag-tales-of-glory","tag-training-center","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}