^^ Sir Arthur, Paladin ^^

--- Wrens POV ---

I opened my eyes, and stared at Mei-Fan, who was frozen, inches above me.

She lost her balance, squeaking, and I picked her up with one hand, setting her down on the bed. "Don't do that again. Waking me up is dangerous." I said simply, and got dressed swiftly.

She blushed and covered her face, but I chuckled. "You're the one who came in here to kiss me awake, princess." I winked.

She growled and pegged a book at me. I caught it, and set it back on the shelf. "Don't throw books. They're precious." I chided her, and got hit with one of my boots.

I sighed and put them on, and then checked the time. "Exams are in only a few minutes... hmm..." I nodded and washed my face quickly.

She breathed deeply, and centered herself. She opened her mouth, and I placed a hand over it. "Whatever earth shattering secret you're about to tell me, hold it until after the Exam. And if it's about you being born male, I truly don't care. Doesn't matter to me, it's not my business." I said simply, and patted her frozen cheeks as I picked up my satchel, and stepped out onto the roof.

I looked towards the exam hall, and backed up to the opposite edge, getting a running start. I snagged Mei-Fan as I launched myself into the air, and she screamed in pure terror as the land disappeared from under her.

I laughed, using my sigil to its fullest to make us accelerate, and then laughed again at her as she clutched me, squeezing her eyes shut.

I held her tighter, to make sure I didn't drop her at these speeds, and tapped my feet onto solid ground, my sigil making it a manageable landing. I ran a bit to settle my momentum, before slowing, and then set her on her feet.

"A good jolt of adrenaline to start the day, huh?!?" I laughed. She just slowly looked at me, and then punched me in the gut as hard as she could.

I grinned and brushed it off as she shook her hand, hissing in pain. "Shouldn't punch someone with Stone Skin, ninja girl." I winked, and we ran towards the Exam Hall.

My impromptu jet flight had actually gotten us here early, so I strode in, whistling happily. "You shouldn't abuse your Sigil like that, Wren." Menai chided, throwing an arm over my shoulder.

"I've been using the Sky for transit for my entire life. I don't abuse her. A bird flying everywhere isn't abusing the ability, is he? No. and besides, I can't fly. I just glide really well. It's like falling... but with style." I shrugged, a mischievous grin spreading across my face.

He laughed. "Fine. True... a bird doesn't abuse the ability to fly... I like that line, I'm stealing it, the next time someone tells me I rely on my ability." He nodded. "Well, I must be off. Good luck!" He patted my shoulder and Mei's head, and then jogged away, greeting some more people.

I looked around, and grinned. Above the rest of us, in the rafters, was a blonde woman with luminescent blue eyes, and slightly pointed ears. She was covered from the neck down in a black suit, pants, and gloves, so I couldn't see any Runes, but she held a gorgeous Golden Sword in her hand, embedded with Square Sapphires.

I drooled. "Mei, make sure I don't steal that..." I said softly.

Mei chuckled. "Sure thing."

The woman slowly turned her gaze to me, and I grinned. "I like your sword. Very... spiffy... care to part with it? I'll make it worth your while." I shrugged.

She smirked, and then leapt off the Rafters, slamming down onto a platform with more force than she should've had. "Gravity manipulation? Interesting..." I grinned.

Mei hummed. "Yeah... so she's Sir Arthur... wow..."

"What?" I asked her.

"How can you be so smart, but so stupid at the same time? That sword's name is none other than, 'Ex-Caliber, The Gilded Thorn'. It was crafted by the First Uruk Paladin, almost 200 years ago." Mei hissed at me.

"So?"

"SO!... Jeez... So, that means that it's wielder is Sir Arthur, the Paladin of Uruk Order! Her sigil is Gravity Manipulation. She can make herself weigh nothing, or her enemy weigh tons. It's only for a few seconds, but in a Duel..." she shrugged.

"A few seconds is death." I nodded.

"AHEM." She cleared her throat, her voice echoing. "I am Sir Arthur of the Uruk Clan, and the Paladin of the Uruk Archipelago Order. I welcome you all." She sheathed her sword, and then sat down slowly in what looked like a simple chair, laying it on her thighs.

"Now... for your examination... the first phase of your Exam will be mental. You will answer a series of questions meticulously crafted by both myself and Sir Talbot, our resident Mathematician." She gestured to an elderly man in a robe, and I growled softly.

She smiled. "The second test is physical. You will test your skills against mine in a duel to First Blood." She said simply.

I blinked, and grinned. "Devilish..."

"Oh geez! We have to fight her?!?" Mei started freaking out.

I whacked her skull gently, and snapped my fingers. "Calm down. It's a scare tactic. She's trying to make you lose focus on the exam. Focus on one before the other. Remember, she's the Paladin. She won't just kill you, so you're relatively safe. Focus. Breath." I said simply.

She breathed deeply, and nodded. "Yeah, you're right... o-okay... I'm good."

"Silence." Sir Arthur announced in a soft voice that somehow echoed throughout the building, over the pandemonium.

The room immediately silenced, and my single, impressed chuckle was like a barking dog on the bank of a calm lake, loud and disruptive.

She gazed at me coldly, and then swept the room with her powerful gaze. "Now. Find a seat. And be careful of who you sit next to. It may end up being your downfall..."

I calculated the number of people in the room, and chose a seat, shooing Mei away. "We fight our seatmates, choose wisely. Go." I whispered in her ear, and pushed her gently, and walked away. I sat next to a larger, pudgy guy with thick glasses, and nodded, smiling.

She sat next to another woman, a small, thin girl with a lightning Rukh Rune on her knuckles, and I hissed. 'Bad choice... you're going to lose that fight... damn.' I sighed, and looked around. 'So... We fight our seat-mates... Then the victors fight her.' I reasoned quickly, and nodded. 'Obviously... she's not going to waste time fighting 400 or so students.'

A test appeared on the holographic screens on the desks, and I hummed. I looked around, and realized I couldn't see anyone else's. 'Cheating control... smart.'

I focused on the test, and growled in annoyance. 'Inane, baseless questions, with little to no information given... what else did I expect?' I answered the arithmetic as best as I could, and then the vocabulary was easier, and the science was completely pathetic, so I answered them all at an easy pace, checking my work.

The last question was something that confused me. First of all, it was written in another language, but also, it was filled with symbols... 'Do you have-':

I leaned back, and closed my eyes, then opened them quickly, to shock my eyes into looking at the problem with fresh eyes.

I grinned, reading it easily now, and laughed softly, snickering uncontrollably. I calmed after a few minutes of the guy next to me glaring, and typed the answer. 'Not at all, sir, my eyes are just fine. How about yours?'

I leaned back as the test graded itself, and shrugged at the perfect scores in Vocabulary, Physics, and Logic, but the Biology was only 85%, and the Mathematics was similar, at a disappointing 88%.

My hologram chimed, and Sir Arthur looked at me slowly, and then down at a table next to her chair. She raised her eyebrows, and then smirked at me again. "Well done, Wren Polisavich... you may leave. The Second Phase begins at exactly Noon. Be in this room before then."

I shrugged and climbed into the rafters by use of the diagonal X-Struts that held the building together, and laid down, my hood covering my eyes.

"Ah... yes. Or you could do that. Hm." She chuckled a single time, and then looked back at the students.

I swept my eyes over the test-takers, and watched each and every student as they went through the phases. I couldn't see their screens, but I could track the movements of their fingers over the boards. Several were exceptionally talented, and seeing as I could read Sir Arthur's tablet, I could read their results as they finished, and walked out.

---

Mei finally finished, at 11:45, almost four hours into the test, which began at 08:00, and I grinned at her perfect scores across the board. She wasn't nearly the first to accomplish that, meaning I was not the smartest new student, but she sure took the longest, that was for sure. The rest, even the careful ones, had finished around 10:15-25.

I grinned and landed next to her. "What did I say? See? Focus, Breathe. You got a Perfect Score, well done!" I congratulated her.

She grinned. "You're right... I should be more confident!" She tripped, and I caught her collar, standing her up.

"Whoa nelly. Don't get crazy. You're still a Klutz. Work on your balance, as well. And focus on your feet while you walk, not your hands." I sighed. "Anyway, get ready. The fighting will begin soon."

"Fighting?" She asked slowly, and I pulled her out of the way as two boys rolled past us, throwing punches.

The air cracked, and my vision blurred, before the Paladin simply stepped on both boys, her body crackling with electricity.

"Yeah. And that. She told them to fight, I bet, to make a point. Some students don't know about the rules. So now, she'll say something like 'since you like to fight so much, fight the person you were sitting next to', or something like that." I smirked and whispered to Mei.

"Well then... we have a Rabid class this year... alright. Since you like to fight so much... go ahead. The last person standing will fight me." She grinned, and stepped off of the two boys.

I picked up Mei, and leapt up into the rafters again with my sigil as a boost.

We knelt, hiding, as the group of students became a riot of runic magic and bare-fisted brawling.

I smirked. "Or something like that. Ha. Stay up here, and cover me. You and I will be the last people standing, alright?" I asked.

She nodded slowly. "Okay... I have a lot of seeds..."

"Good. We'll let them tire themselves out for a moment... the fewer people to fight, the better." I hummed. "Start covering me, when I get down there. If I don't see someone, throw something to slow them down."

Soon enough, only around 80 of the 400 were still in any shape to fight, and I made my move. I gathered all the energy I could into my Sigil, and then jumped, punching the ground in the center of the Hall.

Simultaneously, I ripped the air around me into a vacuum, and then collapsed it, doubling the power of the shockwave that slammed everyone in the room into the walls except for three people. Mei held onto the Rafters for dear life, and Sir Arthur stepped in front of the wizened mathematician 'Sir Talbot', blocking the air easily.

I looked around at the few people who were getting up, and choked one boy out, then looked at the 8 that were left, and standing ready to fight, but wisely not attacking yet.

I hummed in surprise, as one of the people standing was the guy who sat next to me in the test.

He grabbed the guy next to him, and roared as he picked him up, and threw him like a sack of rice, slamming into two others, knocking both out.

I darted at one of the 5 left, other than him and Mei, and laid a haymaker into his jaw with my new fire Rukh Rune.

He was floored backwards, slightly charred, and unconscious. I turned to the others, and found that the larger man had finished off two while I snagged my one, simply slugging one guy and then kicking another hard enough to throw them both away from him like leaves.

I kicked one of the last two in the temple in a single, lightning-quick movement, and continued on as he slowly sank to his knees, and simply stayed there, eyes rolled up in shock.

The last one was a tall man, well-muscled, and I could see both of his forearms were caked in impressive Urn Runes, while his hands were covered in Earth Rukh Runes.

Before either of us got to him, Mei rained down seeds on him that grew violently, creating massive steam explosions. He fell, burnt all over, and slammed into the stone floor.

I turned to the last man. "Your name?" I asked.

"Jared Silk." He said simply, and disappeared. My ears tracked his movement, and I simply stepped to one side as he swung at me with a telegraphed, incredibly strong straight Right.

As he tried to recover from over extending himself, I got him in a choke, and jerked, cutting off blood flow to his brain for exactly three seconds. I then dropped his limp body, and looked at Sir Arthur. I called Mei down, and smiled. "How was that, Lord Paladin?"

"Impressive... but there's a problem. There's still two of you." She said simply. "Fix that."

I blinked slowly, and then simply chopped the back of Mei's neck with the side of my palm, knocking her out, and then bowed. "Looks like you're fighting me, Lord Paladin. It's truly an honor. I hope you're not too mad when I win. Maybe you can bet that shiny blade of yours?" I asked.

She laughed gently. "Oh? And why would I do that?" She asked.

"Because I have a blade that's much more valuable than that shiny copy of the legendary Ex-Caliber." I drew my dagger, and smirked when she stilled.

"Hmm... interesting... you have a deal." She bowed her head, and then the air warped around her.

I activated my runes to their maximum, and then simply pushed outwards with my Sigil, and then pulled myself towards her. The air flexed away from me, just as gravity slammed into the place I'd been standing, and I lashed out with my dagger.

She disappeared, and I jumped on instinct, tapping a hand onto her wrist, and then nicking it with the dagger.

I blinked when it simply scratched her skin, instead of cutting it, even as it passed through her wards.

The flat of her palm slammed into my chest, sending me hurtling away, but my runes stopped any broken bones, or even bruises.

She gave chase easily, and I grinned, begging the air to simply halt me.

The Sky complied, and the Paladin impaled herself on the dagger, the blade digging into and through her shoulder, ripping and tearing her flesh severely... or so I thought. Instead, a tiny drop of blood dripped down from the tiny pin-prick on her skin.

She stopped, and sniffed. "My blood... interesting... never in my career as a Paladin or Grand Knight has anyone ever drawn my blood in battle. I am Truly Impressed, Wren Polisavich, Tinker Legacy." She sheathed her Sword, an extremely well-made copy of the original, Ex-Caliber, and handed me the Sheath and Blade. "How'd you know it was a copy?" She asked curiously.

"I knew it wasn't the same weapon, simply because of the way you handled it. You swung the magical blade without care, and anyone who ever handled a weapon powerful enough to destroy islands with a single misplaced blow simply wouldn't do that." I said logically, and gripped it gently.

It sparked a bit, almost in agreement, and I grinned as she laughed. "Seems he agrees with you... true. Well then... I look forward to your progress, Wren... But your sigil, it's... odd. Is it an Air Sigil or a Physical, like mine?"

"Air." I nodded. "I have a... relationship with the Sky, and Air in general usually obeys me, to a point."

She giggled. "Ahh. I see. Well then. Good day, Trainee... I'll see you again soon."

"I hope we spar again, as well... it's almost humbling, to meet someone whose body is just as unbreakable as your own, but a thousand times stronger and faster." I grinned.

She laughed. "Yes... true. Your runes are impressive. Even a Grand Tinker Knight wouldn't scoff at the level you've reached, but your attacks are relatively weak. Without that magic dagger, you'd have never broken my wards."

"I've spent most of my life fighting humans, so... I've never used magic to attack anyone. I usually just run away. Fighting for no reason is stupid, so I try not to. Also, the attack Runes are only three days old. Menai gave them to me." I grinned.

She blinked. "Now that is interesting... and yes, I think we'll spar again soon. It's not very often I meet someone within my clan that I'm able to hit without fear of their death."

"Ha! I suppose that's the price you pay for getting stronger than everyone else so soon." I nodded.

"Soon?" She asked, confused.

"Yeah. You're what, 24? 25? You got way too strong, way too quick, I bet." I shrugged.

She laughed uproariously, and sobered. "Oh dear... I'm 42, little one. I graduated this school many, many years ago. Almost 3 decades ago, now." She clarified, smiling.

I blinked. "Oh... well then. You'd like my aunt. She's a captain in the police of the Fifth Tier on Council Island." I changed subjects, grinning mischievously.

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Why's that?" She asked.

"She's you're type." I shrugged, and pulled out my wallet, holding out a picture of my aunt.

She looked down, then back at me, and then laughed again, clutching her stomach. "Oh wow. Little one, I haven't laughed this much in ages. Yes, she's very beautiful, and definitely 'my type', as you say, but I'm not looking for anyone right now... trying to set me up with his aunt! Heh! Hmm. Ahem. Moving on..." she cleared her throat, and dusted herself off.

"If you like." I shrugged.

"Your class schedules will be in this Exam Hall, you'll get them over there, there'll be people here handing them out." She pointed at the wall behind her platform. "And... I'll be teaching your Fencing class. Prepare to be used as a practice dummy for a couple hours a day!" She said cheerily, and patted my head roughly as she stepped away, picking her way over students.

I hummed and placed the blade on my left hip, then winched the belt tightly. I practiced drawing it a few times, and nodded in appreciation of the beautiful, nearly-silent Tone when it was drawn.

"Sweet..." I commented softly, and looked around at the sea of unconscious students. I collected Mei, and carried her back to our roof, setting her on the chair next to her futon.

Then I took a bath, and went to sleep.