ESKARINA

An eerie silence filled the room, all eye's locked onto Nova. Most eye's were the eye's of the girls,who seemed to be in admiration,staring at him as if he were some god-like figure. While all the boys stared at him like they wanted to kill him.

Whispers started circulating the room almost instantly. Some I could hear,some I could not.

"That is Commander Nova?"

"I expected someone more...muscular. Menacing. Bigger"

"The Legend of the Imperial Army"

"They say he once slew so many men on the battlefield that he stacked all of their corpses on top of each other to build a small mountain of corpses which he then sat upon."

"He's really cute!"

"I know right! Just look at that jaw-line,and those hazel eye's. I could stare into them forever."

"I wouldn't wanna get into a fight with him"

"Please,he has little to no muscle on him,I could take him any day"

"Good luck with that. You could try,but I doubt they call him the Empire's Grim Reaper just because it sounds cool"

And so the whispers would continue,whispers of awe and wonder mixed with admiration and jealousy,lust and wanting.

"So that's the infamous Commander Nova hm?" Amaani asked beside me.

Honestly,I had no idea that this guy even existed. Yet everyone here seemed to know an awful lot about him.

"You know him Amaani?" I asked,turning to her for answers.

Amaani looked at me as if I was dumbfounded. "You're saying you don't?"

As I shook my head,Amaani's jaw was dropped so low it seemed as though it would snap straight off of her mouth.

"Okay so you're telling me you've never heard about the Empire's Grim Reaper Nova? His feats on the battlefield?"

Again I shook my head. "I lived way out in the country side,on the outskirts of FireKeep. I was a country girl."

"Alrighty then!" Amaani said. "Well where to start? People say Nova joined the Imperial Army at the age of seven years old,but thats just what people say. No one knows exactly when Nova joined the Army,but they do know that he's such an incredible commander and strategist on the battlefield that they erected a statue of him. Not only did they erect a statue of him,but they placed it outside the Royal Palace. Might not sound like a big deal,but his statue is next to the statues of the old Kings who ruled over Mordrid,and even the current Emperor himself. "

I looked at Nova who did nothing but stare at the classroom.

"He's apparently such an influencial person that the Emperor himself will send Nova as his stand in for some political issues,and he often asks Nova for advice on matters about the city,or even his own personal life. The Princess has also been rumoured to have asked for his hand in marriage on several occassions,but he's turned her down every time she's asked. Some people think he's homosexual because he's always rejected the Princess,but there's no evidence to suggest that"

"You seem to know an awful lot about Nova for an elf."

Amaani shrugged and looked back at Nova,who still stood saying nothing at all.

"I grew up hearing stories about him. About his feats in battle. That's why many people think he joined the army at such a young age. Not only is he the youngest Commander in The Empire at the young age of eighteen,he's the youngest Commander in the History of the Empire. He's all over the place in the imperial city. Posters saying that you should join the fight to fight by the Legendary Commanders side,and plenty more propaganda posters that Nova is featured in. But,there is a few thing's that nobody knows about Nova at all. "

"Such as?"

Not going to lie,Nova was starting to sound interesting. I found myself wanting to know more about him the more I learned about him.

"For one thing" Amaani continued, "No one know's where he puts his sword. People have searched his room and found nothing."

"What's so special about his sword?"

"Oh ho ho ho,only that it's the coolest thing ever! He calls it 'Nightmare' and all accounts say that when Nova wields this blade,he becomes an unstoppable killing machine,but nobody knows where he hides it. He doesn't sheathe it,and he obviously doesn't carry it on his person. But perhaps the most intriguing part about Nova is how much mystery he's shrouded in. Nova almost never speaks to anyone unless he's giving them lessons,he's anti-social,and not a speck of information is known about his past. "

"SILENCE!"

In an instant,everyone was quiet. No one spoke another word.

Nova sighed,ran his hand through his hair,and slowly scanned the room.

"You're all so annoying."

Nobody seemed to notice it except me. How Nova's expression seemed to change. His once lazy gaze had changed,and once more,I saw the eye's of a predator,but this time it seemed to be brimming with anger.

"You're all so...weak."

Not a soul said a word. The entire classroom remained silent as Nova stood there,now back to his normal lazy appearance. His eye's were low and he didn't seem to make eye contact with anyone very much,and for most of the time that he spoke to us,he kept his head down,almost as if he were afraid of looking at us,or didn't want us looking at him.

"Bullshit" A voice came. Everyone's gaze turned to the sound of the speaker,where all of our eye's fell upon a boy with green hair.

His armour was a tight leather,and two swords were sheathed behind his back. He sat with his feet propped up on the desk as he stared at Nova with a smirk.

"There's no way in the abyss that you're Commander Nova"

Nova continued to stare at the floor as if not taking notice of the boy who spoke.

The boy hopped off his desk and walked down toward Nova,slowly circling him as he scanned his body.

"Look at you,such a frail body,with barely any muscle on you,and you expect us to believe that you are the Commander Nova we see on the poster's in the City? The strong,powerful leader that everyone knows him as? Nova is a strong and powerful commander,not some non muscular,near skeletal figure like you"

Nova still didn't look at the boy,and kept his eye's on the floor. It was strange. He was screaming at us just a few moments ago,showing such dominance,yet now he was so distant,as if he wasn't even in the current moment at all. To me,it almost seemed like he was drowning out his surroundings,placing himself in a sort of trance.

The boy seemed to notice this too,that Nova seemed to be paying no attention to him. He stepped closer to Nova before he gave him a shove back. Nova fell back,landing flat on his back before he slowly pushed himself up off the ground.

"The real Commander would never let someone push him like that,and the real Nova wouldn't be that easy to push over."

Another shove,another fall as Nova hit the floor once again.

"Fake. Hypocrite. Do you know the penalty for impersonating an officer of a higher rank than you is two weeks in the brig?"

Nova stood and dusted himself off,looking at the boy through his bangs. "Fine then. What do I have to do to prove to you that I am who I say I am?"

The green haired boy took a step forward so he and Nova were face to face. "Duel me. I'll prove you aren't Commander Nova by kicking your ass. Then,the real Nova will notice,and I'll get promoted."

Nova seemed to think about this for a bit,and for a few seconds,he just stood there looking at the floor before he spoke. "Okay. I accept your challenge. Meet me in the auditorium. We'll have our duel there. Also lets raise the stakes. Let's bring not only this class but the entire barracks over to watch our fight."

"What? Why? Do you want the whole Army to watch you lose?" The boy asked with a chuckle.

"Yes. Yes I do"

By now,the entire class was buzzing with whispers and voices. Everyone was gossiping,wondering if the person in black was indeed Nova,or the product of some fake pretender.

Nova left the room without saying another word,and it wasn't long before everyone was soon making their way to the auditorium. Everyone packed inside,and not only my class,it seemed as if the entire barracks was packed into the small circular room. We all sat in the stands,with Amaani and I sitting in the corner of the room. The pit beneath us was lit up by the midday sun which shone in from in opening in the ceiling,giving us a clear view of the green haired boy as he stood in the pit.

I could see Pauline and Sven sitting across from me,with Elena sitting right beside them. They were focused on the pit,eye's glued to it,and unlike the rest of us,the higher ranking officers seemed rather intent on watching the fight. While most of the new recruits cheered and wanted the fight to start like some angry mob,the actual member's who had achieved ranks higher than recruit seemed to be much more calm about the fight,and waited with a very eerie patience.

The green haired boy seemed to be getting agitated. He soon began screaming and waving his hands round.

"Where is he?! Huh?! Where is the imposter?!" He yelled.

Surely enough,Nova did show. He walked out into the pit as the gates closed behind him,locking the two of them alone inside of the pit. Nova had no weapon in his hand. He stood with nothing at all,while the boy drew his dual long swords.

"See? How are you the Commander?! You have no weapon! And if you were you would be wielding Nightmare,but instead you aren't,because no one knows where Nova keeps it"

The boy waved to the crowd. "Do you see?! This is not Commander Nova! Just some imposter pretending to be someone he's not"

The boy looked at Nova,who,unlike other times,looked back at him. Nova's eye's were centered,locked onto him.

"What's your name?" Nova asked. "You seem to know my name. So what's yours?"

"My name is Nomad,you imposter. Remember it because I'm going to carve it into you-"

In almost an instant later,Nova appeared directly in front of the boy. No longer were they seperated by a few steps,They were now extremely close together. In less than a few seconds,Nova had closed the gap and was now breaking through Nomads defenses. Nova grabbed Nomad's right arm and twisted it,causing Nomad to yell in pain and drop one of his swords. Nova kicked Nomad away,picked up his blade off the ground and repostured himself.

Nova then went on the attack,giving Nomad little time to recover. He raised the sword above his head before he brought it down at blinding speed's. Nomad barely parried the blow in time as the blades clanged together and created sparks. As the blades connected,Nova kicked out,bashing his boot against Nomads gut and forcing him back. Nova kept pressing the attack,slashing wildly yet with a certain finesse. In his eye's,they were no longer the eye's of a predator nor someone lazy,they brimmed with anger. Rage fueled Nova's attacks and it could be heard with every clang of steel.

While he may have been fighting using nothing more than pure rage,It was clear that Nova was much more of a capable fighter than Nomad was. Throughout the entirety of the fight,Nomad was always on the defensive,almost never gaining any chance to find an opening in order to counter Nova's attacks with an attack of his own,and whenever a window of oppurtunity did appear,Nova would quickly slam it shut with a kick or another lightning fast strike.

Nomad soon backed into a corner,backing up against the wall of the pit,and for a few split seconds,he let his guard down. These few moments was all Nova needed to plunge his blade straight through Nomad's gut.

Nomad froze,and the entire crowd was as silent as the grave. Sure enough,red crimson began to slowly form around the blade as Nova pushed it deeper. Nomad coughed up blood,and as he did Nova grabbed his head and began bashing it repeatedly against the wall of the pit. The sound of Nomads skull smacking against the wall echoed throughout the arena,and was enough to make my skin crawl. If this was not Commander Nova,then he was definitley scary enough to be the next runner up for the position of Commander,and if he was,then I was scared shitless.

Nomad's body went limp and Nova pulled the sword out from his gut,letting him fall to his knee's. Nova had pushed the blade so deep inside Nomads gut that it had pinned him to the wall,with a blood stain now marking the wall where Nomad was once pinned. Nomad started crawling toward his weapon,and just as he reached for it,Nova jabbed his blade directly through the webbing of his fingers,splitting his ring finger and middle finger apart from one another.

I heard someone throw up,retching and coughing as the grotesque sight of Nomad's blood was a bit too much to bear. Nomad's yell for pain was cut off by Nova's boot which came crashing down against his jaw with so much force that his head rebounded off from the ground beneath him. Nova kept kicking,stomping Nomad's face into the floor time and time again,the sound of bone snapping and the sight of Nomad's now deformed face made bile begin to form in my throat. Nova stopped stomping and got onto his knee's as he took a handful of Nomad's hair and started slamming his face into the floor. He only did this twice before he stood up.

Nova's breathing was quick,heavy,like he was some sort of animal who had just returned from a hunt. Nomad was barely breathing at all.

The gate opened,and a man clad in plate armour walked in. He looked at Nomad,and then back at Nova.

"Sir,the POW is awake. He's ready for interrogation" The soldier said.

Nova's breathing had calmed,and I could see he was now back to how I had seen him before. His lazy posture and eye's that avoided eye contact with other's.

"I'll make my way there now."

The soldier looked at Nomad once again. "What about the boy Commander?"

"Leave him here. Only let the healing mages come and heal him tonight. Leave him to bleed for awhile"

"But sir-"

"He'll live. Don't worry."

Nova quickly scanned the stands until his eye's focused onto someone in the crowd.

I followed his eye's to spot Elena who stood up and leaped down into the pit. She landed with a roll and popped up at Nova's side.

"Ma'am." The soldier said as he placed a fist on his chest,apparently standing on attention.

"At ease." Elena said.

She exchanged looks with Nova and both of them looked back to the soldier. "Take us to the interrogation room"

"Ma'am!" The soldier said,as he turned round and began leading the two out of the auditorium. However,before he left, Nova stood and stared at all of us.

"Return to the homeroom,and wait for me there." And with that,he left without another word.