A/N

Just a quick disclaimer, I am not an expert in polearms by any means.


Chapter 7 - Training

Majorella Atmos

Majorella awoke to a loud bang and before she could even open her eyes, the sound of Nick's yelling filled the room. She turned over and opened her eyes. Instant regret filled her as the light in the room burned her retinas and made her already bad headache far worse. Being held back a year due to moving around so much had been a perk last nigh, since it meant she was allowed to drink, but now she considered it a hindrance. Especially with Maggy sneaking her more drinks than she assumed student were supposed to be allowed. With a groan she sat up to see what was going on.

"You're lucky my dust vials weren't in there," Nick was shouting at Nadea while he picked up what looked to be the extendable part of his sword. "You'd have blown up the fucking room."

From the looks of it, Nick was doing maintenance on his weapon as he did almost everyday and the bathroom door had knocked part of it on the floor when she left it. Majorella never failed to be impressed by the amount of parts that Nick's sword contained. The table he was working at was covered in small gears, latches and springs that he was cleaning while the bigger parts laid on his bed.

"Guys, I have a hangover," Majorella hissed before Nadea could respond. "Please shut up for one morning."

"Sorry Ella," Nadea said and threw Nick a dirty look.

Majorella would usually find a little pleasure from listening to them fight but every time either of them spoke this morning she just wanted to throw up.

She looked around the room as she stretched and saw that Camea wasn't in her bed. If she had to guess, she would say she had gone for her morning run. When Majorella had asked Maggy to talk to Camea, she had hoped it would help, but Camea had left the party early using a really poor excuse. On the bright side though, Maggy seemed to have taken an interest in Camea. Maggy was one of Majorella's older sisters best friends and she used to see her all the time until two years ago when she decided to attend Haven instead of Shade, the huntsmen academy in Vacuo. Maggy was the type of girl to flirt with almost anyone but rarely went out of her way to get a someone's number so the fact she had asked made Majorella a little giddy. Now she just had to find out if Camea was into girls.

She felt like her body was screaming at her as she pushed her way out of bed but she had to get up. The clock by her bed showed that she was due in the dojo in little under two hours. Her head pulsed with pain that made her feel even more sick as she leant down and grabbed some clothes from her drawer.

"So what do you two have planned for the day?" She asked her teammates.

"Workshop," Nick grunted while pulling the handle of his sword toward him and began to check the binding.

His answer didn't surprise her at all. If he wasn't in class or the dorm, you would almost always find him in the schools workshop working on something new.

"I've got a study session with Alyse and Ixia," Nadea replied as she gathered some of her books. "You?"

"Pretty sure I'm gunna be training all day, " She returned. "Just wish I could stay in bed though."

"Why don't you then?" Nick asked. "Its Sunday."

"I haven't been training as much as I would like lately, plus I told Silvic I would spar with him today." Nick laughed to himself when she said this. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I just remember him sparring with two other girls last week," He chuckled out, putting extra emphasis on the word sparring.

"Well he's not going to be doing anything more than sparring with me."

Nick simply shrugged and began to reassemble is sword.

She quickly disregarded his comment and went to take a quick shower. In less than fifteen minutes, she had Emission in hand, a bag with a change of clothes and was ready to head down to breakfast for a quick bite to eat before going to the dojo. As she walked into the cafeteria, she saw Camea sitting at a table along in her running clothes. One – nothing to me, Majorella thought to herself.

She didn't think her stomach could handle the usual bacon and eggs today so instead she grabbed a bowl of porridge and sat down opposite Camea, who was too busy typing on her scroll to notice her.

"Hey Cams," she announced, making the girl jump slightly. "Feeling better today?" Majorella felt it was only polite to ask, even though she knew the whole 'feeling sick' excuse was a lie.

"Better, thank you." Did that count as a lie? Majorella wasn't sure. "Do you know if Nick is going to the workshop today?"

"He said he was," she answered. "Why?"

"Well I realised that I have been trying not to deal with Nick since our team was formed but Maggy helped me see that's not what a leader does," Camea confessed. "He also told me some stuff last night that I really want to work on fixing, so figured a good first step would be asking him to help with my weapons."

"Help?" Majorella asked, slightly confused. "I've seen you take your shields apart and put them back together almost as much as I see Nick do it."

"Yes but that's because they're my weapons," she explained. "Plus, I've been thinking of adding some dust capabilities to Shrill for some time now but I'm not so good with dust injection techniques whereas Nick is."

"Good luck with that," Majorella chuckled. "Last time I asked him to look at Emission, I ended up wanting to strangle him." Camea just laughed at this. "Anyway I've heard enough of Nick for today, what did you think of Maggy?"

"She uhh... She was nice," Camea answered, her hand moving towards her scroll. "Like I said, she helped me figure out some stuff so please tell her thank you."

"Oh, she asked for you number last night," Majorella responded, a little disappointed that Maggy might not have reached out. "I thought she wanted to message you or something."

"She did," Camea corrected her. "I just don't want to bother her."

"I highly doubt she would mind," Majorella hinted. "But sure, I will tell her if I see her."

"OK, well I'm going to head down to the workshop," Camea sighed and got up to leave. "Looks like you are going to train so good luck."

"You'll need more luck than me," Majorella replied as her teammate walked away.

Now that she sat alone, she continued eating her porridge while thinking about the conversation she'd just had. She couldn't really tell if Camea was interested in Maggy or not. She seemed a little uncomfortable but that could have just been about spending time with Nick. Majorella hadn't been joking about wanting to strangle him. She finished up her food and put the bowl with the other dirty plates and set off for the dojo.

As she walked through the courtyards of Haven, she took a moment to admire the weather. It was something she did every time she walked through them. Back in Vacuo, she had become so used to being covered in a thin layer of sweat that most days she forgot it was even there. But here in Mistral, the weather was perfect. A gentle warmth seeped into every corner of the school while a cooling breeze blew across the grounds. It was weather she would have considered impossible even to exist before coming here and experiencing it herself. Much too soon however, she arrived at the dojo and stepped inside.

The dojo itself was the second largest building on campus. A large open space greeted her as she walked in, the floor made of dark brown wood with rubber mats placed a meter away from from each other. A glass ceiling gave the room plenty of light. Gym equipment from weight benches to running machines filled the room, though why anyone would use the running machines when the beautiful weather made running outside feel so amazing she didn't know, but options were nice she supposed. On either side of the room were five doors, each leading to a small, more personal training area and each one fitted with weapons and dummies for the students to use. Two doors also stood on the wall opposite the entry door, these led to bigger areas that were used for sparring matches and tournament style fights.

Fortunately the dojo was rather empty since, as Nick had said, it was Sunday and most student it seemed liked to sleep in or take the day off. The entry room was eerily silent since the few students that were there were busy either warming up or stretching their muscles after their training. Due to her hangover, she decided it would be wise to do her usual pre-training workout and instead chose to go straight into one of the rooms to begin her combat exercises.

Majorella entered the room and set the timer to alert her when ninety minutes had passed before she began to go through the same drills she had done since she was nine. The basics first because, despite being sure she could do them in her sleep, they were important. Doing these exercises also brought back fond memories for her. When she had first started to learn how to use a staff, her instructor had shown her how to hold the it and some basic moves to practice. The first was a front overhead strike. While now she could do if flawlessly, the first time she'd tried to quickly level the wooden pole on her shoulder parallel with the ground, she had accidentally smacked herself hard on the top of the head. She hadn't unlocked her aura at that point so even though she was still young,the force was enough to make her vision blur.

But those day are long gone, she thought to herself as she began to mix more advanced moves in with the basics. Her staff jabbed out and sliced fluidly through the air as she switched her stances and holds, adding the occasional twirl that allowed her to transition seamlessly into moves that were not possible from its current position. The whole thing felt effortless to her now. Like a dance she had performed a million times over. So she began to include some of the more complex non-staff moves.

For as long as she could remember, she had been fascinated with pole arms. The grace in which people who used them moved had always awed her. The simple elegance of a spear transitioning its low stance into a high one with a rising slash that allowed the user to continuously attack without the loss of momentum that usually came from switching stances was a beauty to behold. The wide arcing swings of the naginata were terrifying and seemed to reach for miles while also allowing the user position themselves to whichever side of the opponent they wanted. Her love for those weapons had inspired her creation of Emission and it was the stances and moves of those weapons that she was practising now.

She allowed herself to switch between the styles. While they all had the same fundamentals, they each brought something different to the table. The spear focused more on thrusting while the naginata was great for slashing, it also had more focus on stances and backwards movement due to the longer blade.

At some point Majorella had lost track of time and was surprised by the sound of the timer she had set upon entering. Now that she was no longer focused, she suddenly felt very thirsty. She decided to call it and go back into the entryway for some water since Silvic would be arriving any moment for their sparring session. As she waited for the water cooler to fill up her drink she heard her scroll ping. A message from Silvic appeared on the screen.

'sorry ella, cant make it to training. verdain called and wants the whole team for studying'

Majorella couldn't help but feel disappointed but nonetheless she replied back saying it was okay and they could do it some other time. She had been looking forward to the fight. While she could easily ask anyone if they were up for sparring and most likely get a yes, she had wanted to fight Silvic because of the estoc he used. She had always struggling against fencing class weapons and was going to use this to learn how to handle them better but now that plan was a bust she had no idea what to do. After spending a couple of minute by the water fountain rehydrating, she gave a resigned sigh and decided that she should probably train for a little longer.

Two hours later, Majorella exited the dojo. Her clothes were soaked in sweat, her muscles ached and her appetite had returned but she knew she had to go and have a shower before eating. Her dorm room was too far so she ducked into the girls locker room nearby and took a cold shower. While she wished she could stay under the chilling water forever, her stomach had begun growling at her so she finished up and made her way back to the cafeteria for lunch. When she arrived, she helped herself to some food and sat down at a spare table with a large helping of tuna and pasta.

Majorella was half way through her meal when a yoghurt slid into her plate. Her confusion only lasted a second however as she saw Maggy slide gracefully along the bench on the opposite side of her table. She came to a stop facing Majorella with a smile.

"You still like peach right?" Maggy asked. Majorella gave a nod in response since her mouth was full of pasta. "Good, so hows ya day been?"

"Tiring, you?" She replied after swallowing her mouthful.

"Dull," Maggy sighed as she took the fork and helped herself to some food. "Don't suppose a certain raven-haired team leader has said anything that might cheer me up?"

"Not exactly subtle, are ya," Majorella joked, earning a smirk and a shrug from the girl. "She said you were mean and pushy." Majorella was surprised at the brief flash of worry that went through her friend's eyes. Is she really that smitten? She thought to herself.

"Relax, she said you were nice and to say thank you," she corrected herself.

"Really, just nice?" Maggy said in fake hurt. "Not hot? Or sexy? Or wise? Just nice?"

Majorella couldn't help but smile at her friend.

"Ya'know, you could ask her yourself, right?" she teased.

"I could," Maggy said thoughtfully. "Or I could get my bestie's sister to find out for me and save myself potential embarrassment."

"Hmm I wonder what Skyla would say if I told her you've gone all lovestruck," she continued to tease, enjoying finally having something to make the girl swarm after the amount of time Maggy and Skyla tormented her in the past.

"Please don't," Maggy groaned. "She was unbearable last time."

"Last time?"

"Not important," Maggy replied quickly with an unusual edge to her voice.

Majorella knew not to push any further. While Maggy was very open about many things, Skyla was the only person she would ever talk to about more personal problems.

"Sorry," Majorella offered but just received a head shake and a smile in return. "But I'll do my best to find out."

"Great," Maggy said as she jumped to her feet. "Try find out in the next three weeks."

"Why?"

She didn't answer, instead she took another forkful of food before handing it back with a wink and walking away.

Poor Camea, Majorella thought to herself in jest.