MAZE - The Endless Quest

All students had made their demonstrations to Mr. Greyson. Aside from Pamella and Leonidas, only one other person got a score above 16, and even the man who managed that only did it because his strength was at 15.

"Very well, ye will have a few tests during the training. One of them is to beat the score you just got. It can be with a different weapon, but you need to do better than this. Even you two," The teacher said, pointing at the two students who got a score above all the others, "Work to be stronger by the end of the training."

Leonidas just gave Mr. Greyson a nod, while Pamella started to complain to Hera.

"Is he crazy? I got double my strength D O U B L E. How am I supposed to beat that?"

Hera looked at her and, with a smile, said, "Maybe being angry will help."

Pamella scoffed at her, "Well if that helps, I should do it right now. I'm really pissed."

"All right, now ye all should have a feel for the weapons. Each of ye pick a weapon ye never used and hit the dummy. Try to see if ye find something ye like."

That's how the recruits spent the rest of the day. Trying out all the weapons they could to see if they would find the one that suited them the best. Even Pamella and Leonidas were testing new options, but they started close to what they knew. Using a lance, the trainee that held the top score made a move that could only be described as barefoot jousting. That gave him a score of just 13 before changing back to other types of spears and glaives. By the end of the day, he even had tested a scythe which was extremely clunky.

Pamella was no different. She started testing out arm guards, moving on to shields, and even trying out whips. After the third time, she almost hit someone else. Mr. Greyson told her to choose the weapon as part of her practice in the next weeks, but to keep it in the wall for now. When the class ended, she was closer to what she knew, using a pair of glove claws, which were essentially gloves with pointy fingers. That seemed to work well with her grapple based combat since it could hold her opponent better and give a bit of damage in the process.

Hera tried most swords, daggers, and maces. None of them felt right. Then she moved to shields. They were all too big. It made her movements feel awkward.

She looked back at the big weapons, picking up one of the double-bladed heavy axes. It had a nice movement, but it wasn't a quick weapon. She would have to be sure to strike at the right time since it would take too much time to go for a second strike.

Putting the weapon back on the wall, she went for the bastard sword. It wasn't as heavy, and maybe the swing would be better. It was also a common weapon for cartoons and movies. Because of that, Hera had a few ideas on how to wield it.

Sadly, it was just an idea. After hitting the dummy a few times, she realized that the weapon was weird. Its reach was smaller than that of a two-handed weapon, and its weight was too much to use it with one hand.

Then she noticed a Chakram, a circular blade with a handle in the middle. It was the weapon that the hero used in her favorite TV show. She picked the Chakram up and tried a few times, swinging it and getting ready to throw it at the dummy. But before she made her attack, one of the boys in the class said.

"Hey, look at the warrior princess over there."

That caused a few of the other students to laugh and snicker. Hera decided not to bother even testing the weapon. She had already received special treatment from the guild. The last thing she wanted was to give the other students any more reason to pick on her.

The last weapon she tested was the hand axe. It had a powerful impact, and the speed wasn't that bad. But even though she managed to hit the wooden blade on the target most of the time, she realized that it was something she needed to keep in mind while fighting. Since a big part of the weapon was just the handle, if she got distracted, she would end up missing the blade. Against a target that would not fight back, there was no problem, but if it was an actual monster, she would probably have gotten badly hurt.

Hera felt comfortable with the axe, even if it was a bit trickier to use. But at the end of the day, she went back to the sword. It was easier to learn something that most explorers used.

Leonidas gave some tips to Hera during the practice, mainly about letting her body loose. It didn't take long for Pamella to do the same regarding the movement of her feet.

Hera thought she should have felt bad about disrupting their training, but for the first time in a long time, she just thanked the duo for their help.

"Okay, yer all done for today. Grab whatever ye left in the class and go home. Tomorrow ah want all of ye here at seven."

"But Mr. Greyson, It's past ten, and I take a couple of hours to get here." One student said.

The teacher stared at her, "So, ye better get moving, lassie. Explorers might need to spend a few weeks with almost no sleep. It will be good training for ye."

Hera looked at the girl, feeling sorry for her. She remembered what it was like to work two hours away from home. Right now, she felt glad to have found a home just one hour away from the guild.

With the class dismissed, Pamella walked beside Hera towards the classroom, talking about the weapons they tried.

"There is nothing for me to use. Maybe I should get a spiked armor to hit the monsters when I'm throwing them."

"Wouldn't the monster get stuck? And if they didn't, you will be showered with their insides. Imagine what the blood would do to your hair, it might even turn purple," Hera said.

Pamella stopped walking and just stared at Hera, looking horrified.

"How can you even say that? Not my beautiful hair." She started stroking her hair like it was a puppy who just got hurt.

"Girls and hair, that is one relationship I will never understand," Leonidas said after he slowed his pace for the two of them to catch up.

"Don't even try to, we can lose our life but never our hair." Pamella still was pouting after imagining the scene Hera described.

"Are all of you like that?" Leonidas was rolling his eyes which made Hera laughed before answering

"I can't say for all of us, but I would gladly lose my hair to save my life," she looked back at Pamella "Sorry,"

With a look of shock, Blue chanted, "Heresy, treason, blasphemy."

The trio giggled and kept discussing the weapons they tried and how each felt. It was just like Helena had said that once you become an explorer. It is hard to think about anything else.

When they reached the classroom, Hera saw the students picking up a bag that had the guild symbol in the front.

"Humm... Pamella? Where did you buy that one?" She said, pointing at the bag.

"You mean the bag? It was in the care package we all got when we enrolled in the class. Didn't you get one?"

Hera froze. She just realized Helena asked to meet her after the class, and she was making her wait.

"I have to go. I need to go talk to someone."

Before even getting an answer, she was walking back to the reception. Picking up her cellphone, she quickly typed.

"I'm so so sorry, I forgot we still had things to do, are you still in the guild?"

She went to the stairway, almost jumping the steps, before seeing a new message pop on her phone.

"You forgot about little old me? Ohhh Hera, I thought you liked me T.T JK!! Don't worry, sweetie. I'm still here dealing with some paperwork. Meet you at the Heroes Hall in 15."

Seeing the text, Hera relaxed a bit and stopped running. She didn't want to make Helena wait, even if it wasn't something she knew it would happen. Hera felt she owed Helena everything. She even laughed at herself for being so dramatic. It was just the second day after she had a life-changing event.

Stepping on the ground floor, Hera noticed she still had over ten minutes to kill, so she decided to go to the training area. She wanted to see how real explorers trained.

She walked towards the big glass wall and saw that the training area was far from empty, although it wasn't exactly crowded either.

A couple was sparring near the dummies they used during class. The man used a two-handed sword while his partner used a pair of rapiers. They seemed to be training a specific move. The sword wielder repeated the same attack, an overhead swing, while the other man tried to parry it, using the rapiers in various ways.

Hera was looking at both, trying to see how their body moved with each attack. Where they were putting the weight of their body, and the point where they were focusing, trying her best to absorb some of the technique.  Until in one parry, a loud clang rang, and the two-handed sword has pushed back, making the men holding it spin around. Both of them looked at each other with a big smile and repeated the same move a couple more times.

After the fifth time in a row that the sword was pushed back, both men laughed and gave each other a high five. That turned into a hug and then a kiss. Hera looked away at that point. She never had a problem with public displays of affection, but it wasn't like she enjoyed watching it.

Hera started walking towards the Heroes Hall when she turned the corner she almost bumped into a man wearing mirrored sunglasses, a long burgundy trench coat, and a bright pink Mohawk.

She froze for a second. It was the same man that tossed her out of the leveling chamber. He stretched out his hand towards her, and instinctively she ran.

The ground floor had many hallways. She knew it wouldn't be impossible to get to where Helena would meet her if she went another way, and that was exactly what she did. Not even looking back, Hera sprinted as fast as she could towards the Heroes hall, making a few people look at her wandering. 'Why would that girl be running like that?'

When she finally arrived at her destination, she looked around, but Helena was still nowhere to be seen. Hera walked towards the back of the room, panting a bit, but before she could relax, she saw the man with the pink mohawk walk in the hall.

Hera stepped back, panicking until her back hit the wall under the stained-glass picture of Cyrus. She saw the man getting closer and raising his hand towards her and then...

Darkness...