( The virtual world, Luke's POV )
A week had passed since principal Wood initially gave Luke his training routine and the academy was now finally in session.
With Luke now expected to take part in schooling activities, his initial training plan was no longer valid, however, there were a couple teachers who wished to continue their private lessons with Luke after they acknowledged his potential in the past week.
From 7-8pm everyday, after school hours, Miss Elara held a private hand-to-hand combat session with Luke, molding him to become a better grappler.
Initially, Elara was not sure as to how Luke secured his spot as a master knight's disciple as unless he was a bastard child of a master, Elara did not see anything special about him. However, that view of hers was shattered after a week of training Luke.
*POW*
*Block*
*Grapple*
*Block*
In just a week, Luke had improved so dramatically that he could successfully block several attacks by Elara as he gained a basic understanding of the various joint locks and how to counter them.
*Swish*
*Swish*
As Elara tried to sweep him off his feet, Luke nimbly jumped over her leg sweeps, evading her attack as he remained agile on his feet like Elara had wanted him to be.
"Haiiiiiyaahhh", Elara grunted, as she used all the strength in her body to grab Luke's wrist and try and dislocate his shoulder, however, instead of resisting, Luke allowed himself to be pulled closer to her as he turned the move into a counter as he head-bashed Elara with all his might.
*THUD*
-50.
A steady trickle of blood dripped down from Luke's forehead as he felt his vision go blank for a second, however, Elara felt a tad bit of pain as well as she was forced to rub her forehead with a frown.
"Is your head made of metal or what?" she asked, as she paused the training session, looking at how Luke had become completely disoriented by the headbash.
" I have to admit Skylion, your talent is the real deal.
I've been training students for close to a decade now, but you're twice as talented as the most talented disciple I have ever taught.
Your fighting instincts, your foot movement have become so refined in just a week that I can happily graduate you in my subject with a D grade.
With the whole semester still left, I wonder how much more you can improve?
You're certainly blessed with an innate talent for fighting, as I've never seen anyone grasp concepts as fast as you do" Elara wholeheartedly complemented Luke, as she felt his rate of improvement to be alarming.
The same guy, who could not counter a single one of her moves just a week ago, could now provide her with a fun sparring session, which was a massive improvement in Elara's point of view.
Naturally, the fight was fun only because she was facing Luke with equivalent strength to him, as if she used her real strength then Luke would not stand a chance, but the fact that his technique was improving such rapidly was definitely commendable.
" Thankyou, Lady Elara, I will try and keep this up" Luke said, as Elara nodded and approved of his attitude which was the second thing she admired about him.
Luke was a very humble child without an ounce of arrogance, which made him very likable as a person.
*************
( The academy stables )
At night, after dinner time, Jerome and Luke always headed off to the academy stables together as they worked on forming a bond with their mounts.
One of the activities that Principal Wood had given Luke as a part of his training was to learn mounted combat, however, since Luke did not have a mount of his own, he was first told by the stable master to tame his own mount from the wide variety of choices available at the academy.
Coincidentally, on his first visit to the stables, Jerome was there as well, as he came to the stables to spend time with his gorgeous white Pegasus which he had brought alongside him from his family estate.
The pegasus's name was 'Storm' and he was given to Jerome by his father, the Duke on his fifteenth birthday.
At the time, Storm was only a newborn and forming a bond with him was easy, as Jerome and Storm formed a strong connection, which was fostered over the years although Pegasus were a notoriously hard species to tame.
In contrast, Luke had no mount of his own and had to form a connection with an academy issued mount from scratch, which was why Jerome decided to help him with the selection and bonding process as it turned out to be an area of interest for him.
While Luke could have gone for an easy species to tame such as a horse, a direwolf or an ostrich, he decided to go for the only Griffin in the entire stable, for two specific reasons.
Firstly, Luke wanted to take this opportunity to bond with Jerome as much as possible, so he chose a mount that was difficult to tame so that the two could spend the maximum time together and that when they finally attained success it could be something extra special.
Secondly, a Griffin was a flying mount compared to just land mounts and was the most expensive species to tame, costing almost as much as Jerome's special winged Pegasus Storm.
Since the stable master told Luke that one also got to keep their mounts after graduation, Luke was hell-bent on taming his flying mount at any cost necessary.
" Hey, BrownPudding, I'm back-" Luke said cheerfully as he came back to meet his chosen Griffin who immediately turned away to face the wall once Luke arrived.
" Hey, Storm, hey buddy, I'm back-" Jerome said, as the second he arrived, his mount neighed in joy and allowed Jerome to pet him lovingly.
As Luke noticed the difference in treatment, he could not help but feel slightly jealous as his mount was nothing but a headache to work with.
According to the stable master, Brown Pudding was a mount the academy acquired two years ago, however, she never acknowledged a master and refused to submit to any new student.
It was this behavior of hers, that prompted the stable master to warn Luke against trying to tame her, as she was a proven tough nut to crack.
" Hahaha, look at her, she won't even look at you….. you really suck at beast taming" Jerome said, as he rubbed salt in Luke's wounds by making fun of him when Brown Pudding ignored him.
" Hey, I've brought you a rice cake. I know you like to eat sweets.
Come have a taste" Luke said as he put a rice cake in his hand and tried to make brown pudding turn towards him, however, even though it was her alleged favorite food, she did not turn to face Luke when he offered it.
" Hey Brown Pudding, Skylion here made this himself- ,he actually learnt the recipe from the academy chef and put in the effort to make this himself for you-
Don't ignore him, atleast" Jerome said, trying to make a case for Luke, however, just like Luke, his words were ignored too.
" Wow man, that's a tough nut to crack, she won't even budge for her favorite food…." Jerome said apologetically, as he was the one who suggested to Luke to follow this method, however, yet again it yielded no result.
" No worries man, we will try again tomorrow" Luke said as he put the box of rice cakes down in her paddock and turned to leave.
" I've made it myself, so give it a try if you wish" he said before leaving as he hoped the stubborn beast accepted his sincerity.