As Alyssa joined the group she could immediately discern which ones the newcomers were. It wasn’t that hard actually as they weren’t what she would call ’human’. Some had differently formed ears, other skin colors, such as green, red and blue, and had additional body parts such as horns or a tail.

She wanted to ask about these ’non-humans’, but stopped herself when she realized how racist that sounded. Shortly after the Transmigration people had set their differences aside to secure a safe environment and as such influenced the younger generation. While there were still racists they were in the minority.

So, Alyssa thought that while these people looked very different they probably came from the Empire and as such were defined as humans. Calling them non-human would be very disrespectful and very likely anger them. Hear thoughts were for naught thou as Alex commented, ”I thought we were hostile with the Circle, so why are there non-humans here?”

The chattering stopped and everyone stared at Alex with a disbelieving look. Alyssa looked at Dinesh, whose face was rapidly changing colors from his normal tanned look to blue and then finally to full red. Alex seemed confused at all the angry or disbelieving stares directed at her.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

Dinesh composed himself before answering.

“They…”, Dinesh pointed at the guests, ”…are HUMANS from the Empire and will be joining in your training today. I hope you get along considering our future cooperation with them regarding safety and technology. Thanks.”

You could see the look of panic in Alex’s face as the realization hit her. Not knowing what to do Alex stuttered some incomprehensible gibberish before sitting down and moving into a ball-shape. She probably wanted nothing more at the moment than to be swallowed up by the earth and disappear.

Alyssa knelt down and patted Alex on the back.

“It’s ok. Everyone could have misunderstood, to be honest that was my first thought too. I’m sure they understand.”

Alex turned to Alyssa, her face distorted as she tried not to cry. Alyssa wanted to soothe Alex further but was interrupted as a large, attractive woman with green skin and an ox tail, probably the gusts teacher, spoke to the group.

“Now, if you could split up into groups of two for training battles, preferably so that each person gets a partner from the other country. And for the people from the archipelago, if you could please give it your all from the start as my class is rather strong. We don’t want anyone to get hurt, do we?”

Alyssa didn’t really know what to do as Alex didn’t seem in the condition to fight. She turned to Dinesh for advice but he just snorted and turned around. She turned to Yakov only to see him pointing to Pebbles, who had begun nudging Alex and making funny faces in an effort to cheer her up.

Their predicament was solved when a girl, only half the size of them with a blue bob cut, pointed ears and bright purple eyes, came over. The girl sat down in front of Alex and spoke in a rather soothing voice.

“Hey, I’m Moyra. Don’t worry about what you said. If I met someone so different from me for the first time I probably would have asked something similar. So, what’s your name?”

Alex needed a moment to answer, ”I’m Alexandra, short Alex.”

Moyra smiled before turning to Alyssa and Yakov.

“I’ll keep Alex company, so you two should start looking for a training partner. Don’t worry, I keep the assholes away from her.”

Alyssa looked deep into Moyra’s eyes in an effort to see the slightest bit of resentment at them but relaxed when she couldn’t find any. She bowed to Moyra as she thanked her which got a laugh out of Moyra.

“You don’t have to bow. Didn’t you hear? We will cooperate in the future so it is only natural that we help each other. And don’t worry about Alex, when I’m done with her she’ll be the same idiot, that shouts out her problems for all to hear, that she was before.”

Yakov couldn’t hold his laugh in, which got him an angry stare from Alex, before he waved and turned around. Alyssa gave Alex a hug before she too walked off to find a partner, a happy Pebbles bouncing behind her.

Alyssa looked around. Most people were already partnered up while the rest seemed to shy to ask somebody they didn’t know to team up. She tried to walk over to a rather strong seeming guy when she was stopped in her tracks. A guy with blue skin and red back-combed hair stood in her way, a sinister grin on his face. She sighed as she could already guess that he wanted to ’give her a lesson’ because of her affiliation with Alex.

The guy tried to loom over her which didn’t really work considering their similar sizes.

“You’re friends with that red-haired bitch?”

Bingo, she thought before answering with polite smile on her face.

“Yes. So, let me guess. You want to show me a lesson for my friend disrespecting you, right? So, lets get this over with.”

She walked to a free field and got her sword ready, before analyzing her opponent. He used a scythe as weapon, which was in Alyssa’s opinion more of a farming tool than a weapon. Slashing was awkward, the balance was off and if you hit an opponent with something else than the tip it didn’t cut that deep as not the full power was transferred.

So not a melee fighter then, Alyssa thought. Maybe the scythe doubles as a wand?

Her thoughts were cut short as magical symbols rearranged themselves into a circle. Her opponent gave her an evil grin.

“I’d be a shame for you not know the name of the person that beat you into the ground. So, my name is Vasil of the famous Goren family, known for it’s skilled summoners. You bumpkin wouldn’t know, but summoners are a super rare and powerful subclass of mages.”

Alyssa just rolled her eyes as she knew that he was only buying time for his spell to finish. She charged at him but was stopped when a creature materialized before her. It was a reptile the size of a komodo dragon but looked more like a salamander. Its black scales glistened in the light the fires on its back gave off.

Alyssa kicked dirt into the salamander’s eyes before sidestepping to avoid the angry charge of the creature. Just as Alyssa wanted to bring down her blade its exposed side a firebolt smashed into her back.

Vasil laughed as a dust cloud spread over the field.

“Feel that bitch? That’s what you get for comparing us to those uncivilized, dirty, disgusting monsters. You disgust me you dirty…”

He couldn’t continue as a wind bullet smashed into his chest, sending him flying into the air before he smashed full force into the ground. Vasil needed a moment to realize what happened as adrenaline dulled his pain.

Alyssa walked out of the dust cloud, behind her the headless carcass of Vasil’s summon. She observed as the badly wounded Vasil began to scream at the top of his lungs and was impressed that he actually didn’t faint. His right arm was broken and his chest visibly caved in. Seeing that he couldn’t fight anymore she called for Dinesh. She hadn’t thought that Vasil would be so helpless against a single wind bullet that it would seriously wound him but couldn’t bring herself to feel compassion for a guy that had tried so hard to be as unlikable as possible.

“IT’S NOT OVER BITCH.”

Alyssa shook as she felt a large mass of mana being released behind her. She whipped around just to see as a giant, burning, three-headed dog materialized around Vasil’s scythe. She couldn’t move as fear chained her to her place. She closed her eyes as the creature charged at her.

…

…

…and waited…

…

She opened her eyes as the heat, that had permeated the area moments before, vanished. Before her the massive figure of a dog was struggling against its grey, bubble-shaped prison slowly being turned into mincemeat as blood splattered everywhere. People stopped their fights and watched on in horror at this grueling scene, many of them throwing up at the gory sight.

Alyssa, still processing what had just happened, didn’t react as Alex hugged her from behind, tears streaming down her face.

“You scared us, you dumb fuck. Are you alright? Are you hurting anywhere?”

Alex’s questioning stopped when she looked in the direction where moments before the giant dog had been and stopped her breath.

There standing was a dark red Pebbles holding out his stubby arms for a hug.