Sharron arrived there a bit late, with how she was out of breath, she likely ran all the way from the other end of the academy to here.
"C-Cassain, did I miss your turn?" She asked as she huffed and waited for her breath to return.
"Yes, you did miss it. By like three minutes." Cassian replied and gave her the sword he used.
Sharron looked at Cassian with a deadpan expression, "give me five minutes, my brother is going to watch and I seriously do not want to be teased anymore than he has already done."
"Has Eric always been this loud?" He questioned as he practically flaunted his sword to Sharron.
"Did you sneak it out of your family's treasury? This is clearly a sword above the normal standards of a first year." She forward her hand as though she wanted to hold it.
"You want to test it?" He asked.
And she simply nodded, it was not every day when she saw a sword this fine. Her family members were more keen on using spears, but even then they had a fine collection of sword relics. Cassian dropped it in her hand as she caressed it and lightly swung it.
But none of those could come close to the sword the Ironveil family had and the Morrigan family, which was second to them in terms of having the best sword relics.
"Sharron, why are you so late?" A voice called out from behind her, it was none other than her annoying elder brother Eric.
She gave the sword back to Cassian and turned to face her brother. "Brother, I…well there were too many students at the Gold Ledger, mistake on my end." She replied and looked down.
Eric chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder, "it's fine, Cassian here had predicted you would come here at the end and later than everyone else."
She turned her head towards Cassian who shook his head but then Roland saw them and jumped in.
"Sharron! You better beat your brother's record from when he first joined." He elbowed Eric playfully.
After a few minutes of catching up with Roland, she moved to take a stance in front of the target.
She held the sword vertically straight in front of her with one hand, then she brushed her other hand over the sword, and as her hand moved the sword got covered in a turquoise colored aura.
Her breathing mimicked flowing water as it was really steady. She didn't do anything flashy, just a simple downward motion was enough.
It looked as though a wave of water disguised as an aura arc jumped from her sword and cut the target.
Cassian measured how deep was the cut and gave her a thumbs up as he walked towards her standing alongside Eric and Roland.
"Well? How deep was it?" Eric said.
"That's what she said." Roland blurted out before Cassian could reply.
Ugh what a moron, Cassian cringed internally. But he had to tolerate him, and like he said total humiliation created enemies and measured defeat created doubt.
"It was a tie with Eric's score, almost cut through half of it." Cassian replied and despite his playful nature, Eric smiled genuinely for his sister.
"Good job, Sharron. Welcome to The Sword and Aura Discipline Circle." Eric greeted her while Roland smirked as he was deep in thought.
Just when Cassian was going to leave to visit the detective agency, Roland pulled his arm and stopped him.
"Where do you think you are going? Don't you know the tradition of our circle?" Roland questioned.
A tradition? God what now, I shouldn't have half-assed it this much that I don't even know some of the minor information myself. Giving free reign to an editor had definitely come to bite me in the ass.
Cassian once again cursed himself but he couldn't do anything now other than agree to what Roland wanted.
He cleared his throat and replied, "I have no idea, seriously."
"That's even better, come with us both. It's initiation ceremony time for you cadets." Roland replied.
***
Cassian accompanied Roland and Eric to their dorm building alongside Sharron who was just as confused as him.
Turns out there was a custom passed down among the Sword and Aura Discipline Circle for centuries, and since they were new members they needed to do a certain task.
When they arrived the seniors were all dressed up in cloaks and threw the group a cloak each.
"Wear them, we're going out of the academy." Eric said and put it on.
Cassian and Sharron looked at each other in confusion and did the same. Next thing they know, they're in front of a forest clearing.
The sun had almost set when they got there, Roland raised his index finger into the air.
"By ordered aether and luminous accord,
Gather, condense and obey my will.
Manifest."
[Lumen]
A light started pouring out of his finger and soon formed a ball which illuminated the path in front of them.
Lumen was a basic spell but despite that, the size of the ball was bigger than normal. After all, Roland was a powerhouse in terms of mana.
"As you will learn in combat class and the special course, all about aura. It is the most effective against undead creatures." Roland started.
"Those include but are not limited to Death Knights, Wraiths, Revenants and even a Dullahan. Though the last one is considered something none of us here are qualified enough to handle." Eric added.
"Your task is inside the forest. Though we don't have any undead creatures on our hands, other creatures can do. You both have to either individually kill one wild boar each or kill a great boar together." Another senior said from the sidelines.
He had long blue hair tied in a warrior's bun and amethyst eyes, all along his arms he had tattoos indicating he was from someone from a vassal of the Aurelian family, the current ruling family of the Aurelian Empire.
"Yes, what Callisto said is also true. Just point to the sky and cast Lumen both of you. If you're in any kind of trouble, we'll come get you instantly." Roland reassured both of them as they walked into the forest.
"So, do we hunt together or separately?" Sharron asked, as she held Eric's sword.
"We could do either but only one benefits both of us. That is to hunt together, it would take less time so I can go back and sleep."
"Really? Sleep…" She was bewildered by his response but he shrugged it off.
As they walked further they noticed a faint rustling in the leaves. Then a boar almost as big as Cassian ran past them.
He turned around quickly and swung his sword, the aura cut through two trees and injured its side.
But the odd thing was that other animals ran past them just after the boar. Sharron was confused but Cassian had figured out what had happened.
Whenever a new predator enters a forest, the weaker animals always run in the opposite direction. Well fuck me, the day couldn't get any worse.
In the far corner of the forest, the sound of horse hooves resounded among the trees. Then a black horse revealed itself and on top of it sat a creature due to which all the flowers in a small radius around it had wilted.
***
[Chapter 9 - The Peculiar Members of The Sword and Aura Discipline Circle(2)]