Page 31 of The Blackened Blade

Ifinished the last of the ham and cheese baguette I grabbed from the girls dormitory kitchen.

It wasn’t nearly as good or as fresh as the cafeteria food, but it will do for now. It also gave me more time to change for the Physical Defence class.

I throw on the academy's training gear; a matching pair of marl grey sweats with a navy silk embroidered crest on the chest. The grey sweatshirt had a long zip down the centre and you had a choice of white or black vest tops for underneath. I went with black, it was better for stains,or blood.

I make my way outside and toward the training grounds. That was where most of the Physical Defence classes were held, even in cold or rainy weather.

The grounds were located to the far left of the main academy building and spanned the length and width of around three football pitches.

The only thing bigger than the training grounds was the forest that surrounded it, and the academy, on all sides.

I see the training grounds in the distance. It was a bit of a walk from the dormitories, but I was excited to finally join in on a class that might actually benefit me.

I had only heard rumours about the instructor, Mr. Valor. He was a high pure-blood elf, who’s reputation on the battlefield made him someone even the academy's dean fought to get his hands on.

From the snippet of whispers I heard from the other female students, he was also apparently the most attractive among the faculty. But with a glare so icy you couldn’t keep your gaze on him for long.Not that I cared.

I walk past a row of wooden benches, the training ground now in sight, as I suddenly notice a group of boys making their way closer to me.

Their eyes harden when they meet my gaze, but they turn and continue chatting and chuckling to each other as they get closer to me.

I watch on from my peripheral view as they near me, my guard up and hands balled into fists and ready for any sort of shift or attack.

They continue to laugh and talk as if I don’t exist, my fists clenched and shoulder stiff as we stroll past each other.

My body begins to relax as they leave in the opposite direction, my shoulders slightly dropping as I make my way toward the training grounds again.

I guess with all the other incidents I’ve been a little paranoid lately.

Suddenly a hand wraps around my mouth from behind with an arm joining it around my waist. They pull me into the shadows behind a nearby building and out of sight. It's so quick, I don’t even get the time to react or fight back before I’m thrown hard against the building's stone wall.

Pain slices up my back as three large figures stand towering over me.

The three boys from moments ago.

They sneer down at me, their eyes dark and leery as they watch me.

“What do you think you're doing?” My back hits the wall as I watch them, cursing the slight tremor working its way down my legs from the hit to the wall. If I had been stronger, I would’ve brushed something like that off with ease.

A boy in the centre, with sandy-brown hair and dark brown eyes bends down toward me. His hand extends and reaches for me. I slap it away as the two boys beside him chuckle.

I could tell by their eyes that they meant business. And that whatever they had planned for me, was not something I would be walking away from with just a few broken bones.

“It's better if she fights a little,” Sneers a boy with beady grey eyes and murky moss-green hair. His eyes narrow, pulling at a small, thick scar above his brows as a slight glow of silver slices through his iris’.A shifter then.And by the colour of it, and his hair, he was more than likely some type of reptilian.

“She’ll learn soon enough how things will work.” His eyes roam up my legs as his grin grows darker.

His look mirrors one I’ve seen hundreds of times before, one that without fail, makes my skin crawl, and screams for me to gouge out the eyes giving it.

A foul feeling slithers up my back, knowing what will come and questioning whether I can do what I have to. If this body can truly fight back like I need it to, and if it can find the strength it needs to defend itself against not one, butthreeshifters.

Because unfortunately for me, shifters usually group together, and by their large frames and the littlegrabfrom a moment ago, that seems to be what I’m facing.

Either way, I’ll have to fight.

“Are you sure we’ll be alright here, Dean?” Calls a blonde boy to my right, as his green eyes flicker back toward the pathway. “What if someone comes? Wearepretty close to the cafeteria.”

“It’ll be fine.”Dean,the boy directly in front of me, stands back up and straightens himself.

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