Dire Wolf

Chapter 13

"Welcome to the Auxiliary Classroom, Keenan," Sita said happily as we entered the red-painted door at the farthest corner of the east wing away from the rest of the jam-packed classrooms we walked past by just now, "It's a bit empty but, hey, more elbow room, unlike the other classes!"

Empty is a generous word.

Absolutely no one is here but the six of us who just arrived, "The other class has how many students?"

"Well, Classes One to Twelve have fifty students in them," Sothea answered as she and her boyfriend choose the farthest corner of the room to settle themselves in, "Now that the children of the wind gods have arrived plus the large wave of new demigods, they can expect to have more or less a hundred students on each class right now."

Rex laughs out loud as he entered the room with Surt closing the door behind him, "Not our problem, though. They wouldn't dare put any new students here with us, especially with Keenan joining our unholy ranks."

"Unholy ranks?" I asked in confusion that made my beloved howled in laughter.

He leads me in front of the teacher's desk in front of the classroom, and we took a seat not different from what we usually have back at Ms. Peregrine's class back in his province.

"It is what he means. Auxiliary Class is created for highly problematic students who can't be with other students for safety purposes," Surt explained patiently as I looked ignorantly at all his friends and shook my head in disagreement.

"I don't understand why. I mean, yes, Surt is uncontrollable at times when pushed to his limits, but you all look so mellow and downright nice to me. I can't imagine you all being a problem student at all, sorry."

Sita giggled a little as Sothea heaved a sigh like I am someone so cute in his naiveness before speaking on behalf of my new classmates, "We are nice to you because we immediately feel a kinship with you. I mean, heck, if anyone would immediately throw Surt at the slightest provocation, then you are automatically one of us."

The daughter of Demeter nodded quickly and winked at me, "At first, I thought you are a yes-man of our friend here, but goodness gracious, it is the complete opposite! You managed to tame the boy who decimated an entire battalion of soldiers and students on his own when he lost his temper and began rampaging inside the school campus because an idiotic demigod insulted him."

"So, just like him, you did something to be kicked out of your respective classes before?" I asked in amazement that made them all smile dangerously.

"Well, I was kicked out of Class Six when I am "too forceful,"" Rex said innocently that made his friends howl in glee, "My mother rarely have children at all, even in the distant past, so I can forgive them for not understanding that it is only natural for me to be rather rough whenever I get excited or something.

Sita sighed and looked at her dainty hands sadly, "I am so far the only Olympian demigod in this school. When I was in Class Eleven, no one wants to be grouped with me because of my powers far beyond the normal demigods. They are terrified of me, and I am treated as an outcast and never have real friends or even acquaintances."

"To be honest, my girl and I don't have that "much" of a problem with our classmates back in Class One. However, we tend to always keep to ourselves so much, we are seen as outcasts and can't work well with other students during our field studies. So, when the citadel decided to shove some students in the newly created Auxiliary Class, our class happily volunteered us to help populate it," Bliz said nonchalantly that made his girlfriend wink at me playfully.

"Good riddance, I say, Bliz. At first, I thought we are just going to butt heads with our new classmates, but goodness me, we get along rather nicely despite our massive differences," the daughter of the goddess of sanctuary said matter-of-factly, which made me look at them all in a somewhat different light.

"Wow, that's a rather fascinating story, to say the least. But tell me, what is this field study that I keep on hearing about?" I asked curiously.

Sita stretched her arms before answering, "It's the nicer term for monster exterminations they sent us on a weekly basis."

"Wow, really?" I replied in surprise as Rex nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. We may be "valued" demigods for the citadel, but soldiers can only do so much to control monster swarm outbreaks regularly on the island at the end of the day. They work themselves to the bone for nine months and the three months we are here for our immersion is like a vacation for them of sorts. To relax, recuperate, repair, and upgrade their weapons against the monsters that are trying to break out from the territorial waters of the island."

I blinked at him as I looked outside to see several children of Zephyrus playing at the skies above, "Ms. Peregrine taught me last year that even normal mortals can be as powerful, and sometimes, even overpower a demigod with their own elemental prowess. I just noticed that soldiers here still use conventional weapons as a means to defend themselves against monsters. Are they not taught or aware of elemental manipulations?"

"It is not like they don't want to use invocations, Keenan. As you heard what Ms. Peregrine has said earlier, the Olympic elemental particles are so low in volumes, and they are the catalyst for normal mortals to wield the elemental powers at a whim," Sita explained patiently as Bliz followed it up.

"What she said. That, and even here on the very island close to Mount Olympus, it still requires a lot of effort for us demigods to invoke our elemental affinities at all. What more of the regular mortals themselves?"

I shook my head as I pointed out the obvious, "But Ms. Peregrine can manipulate the elements outside the island. Headmaster Clarion is a mortal, right? By the looks of it, he can control his flames rather easily while the Grand Duchess herself subdued Surt here with a single incantation at the Kalalitan Military Port."

"There will always be those who are an exception to the rules, Keenan," Sothea said calmly, "Ms. Peregrine, as you are already aware, is a powerful woman of unknown origins acting as a liaison between the island and the mainlands for goodness knows how long. Headmaster Clarion wouldn't be in charge of hundreds upon hundreds of demigods if he can't easily manipulate his elemental affinity, and lastly, it "is" the grand duchess herself. The woman who united the four warring nations under a single unified state. I wouldn't expect anything less from her, and clearly, she is fit for the role."

"Well, that and I heard from my father that she and the emperor himself are direct descendants of the God-Emperor Faulken the First. Now that some Olympic elemental particles, it is only natural for her and her twin brother and other direct descendants of the powerful demigod nobilities of old to manipulate the elements they have an affinity of rather easily," Sita followed quickly before giving me an approving look, "If you can make a pebble move outside of the island, then goodness, you are already better than most of us here when it comes to invocations. I can't even make my glass of water cold back at home no matter how hard I try."

I look around the classroom as we wait for our adviser to return from her meeting with the headmaster, "I wonder why Ms. Peregrine still teaches outside the island for the rest of the year?"

"Apparently, to try and find someone like you," Surt said simply, "Kids who are sensitive to the Olympic elemental particles, demigods, or those who are intelligent enough to get to the bottom of things that cannot be explained by mere logic alone."

"Too true. It is said that it is Ms. Peregrine filled the island with outsiders to populate and revitalize it. I heard from other teachers that they are invited here by our adviser after being scouted, as well as she is one of the ones who confirmed the existence of this place to the government leaders and allowed them to move in and take control of the place," Rex said in an amazed tone that made Surt scratch the back of his head and took a deep breath and sigh.

"I wonder just how old she really is? I mean, even Old Man Ogawa learned all that he knew from her. Gods, she must be..."

He didn't manage to finish that sentence when the door opened suddenly, and our adviser walked inside fuming, "Care to finish that, Mr. Shimizu?"

"Why do I feel like if I did, it's not just the sentence that will be finished," Surt said meekly that made Ms. Peregrine nod in approval.

"Good. At least, unlike your predecessors, you seemed to know when to shut up," she then nodded at Bliz and pointed at the door, "Close it for me and let's get started with our itinerary for this year's immersion at the Hellenic Citadel."

The son of the goddess of snow quickly acted upon her orders, and she proceeds to take a deep breath and began talking the moment the door was closed, "As you might already know, Auxiliary Class will not be getting any additional students this year as well. Except for Mr. Loussier here, of course."

"Nothing new here, Ms. Peregrine," Rex said pointedly, which made our adviser nod in agreement.

"Of course, nothing new for us all here. Next on the agenda is the order of Headmaster Clarion to suspend all academic studies for this year's immersion to focus all our resources on safeguarding the entire island from monsters. We need to subjugate and reduce the populations of monsters around the immediate vicinity of the citadel, Elysian, and Olympus, as much as possible. It's either we do it our own or let the deities who are about to appear the moment the gates of Olympus open purge them with impunity."

Surt raised his right hand, and our teacher nodded to him, "Will it be bad if we let our parents do the heavy lifting?"

"It will not just be bad, Mr. Shimizu. It will be catastrophic, to say the least," Ms. Peregrine in a scared voice that made us all fear for our lives, "Imagine the several millennia of pent up aggressions of the gods and goddesses unable to exert their powers physically being brought to bear against the monsters of this island."

Sita gasped as if she remembered something, "Mother said the same thing when I talked to her in my dreams before going here, Ms. Peregrine. Olympians, in particular, wants to release some pent-up stress and "stretched their limbs" the moment the gates has been opened. It wouldn't be pretty, to say the least."

"It will be gruesome, Sita," Sothea said grimly as she looked outside the window, "My own mother said that she'd rather be seen as a benevolent being, not a rampaging monster that needs to be put down. The faster we purged this island of monsters, the lesser chance our parents will be seen as evil forces of nature whether they really are like that or not."

Our adviser nodded in agreement, "Agreed. First impressions count, as they always say. Anyways, that's the plan so expect to be deployed almost daily to field studies starting tomorrow."

"I don't think I would be much of a help with combat, Ms. Peregrine," I said pointedly that made her raise an eyebrow at my direction, "My control of the earth element is laughable at best and downright useless at worst."

"There is more to battle than fighting, Keenan," Bliz said quietly as he summoned a rather awe-inspiring crimson of aura around him, "That's what my mother, the goddess of force, has repeatedly told me back when I was young. She said that there are many types of force other than brute one, which she is more popular to be associated with and accurately at that. However, there is also the intellectual force at play. You need both to achieve absolute and total victory. That is why she gets along rather well with the god of war and goddess of intelligence since time immemorial despite the two's irreconcilable differences. Both of those Olympian deities need force in different ways."

"Bliz is right. With Ms. Peregrine teaching you all that is needed to be known for a whole year, I am sure she imparted more knowledge than we can ever grasp," Rex agreed as he shook his head at the grinning son of Lytta sitting next to me, "With our furry beast here transforming most of a time into a dire wolf during our field studies, we will have to rely on you if we encounter something that we don't know at all."

Sita nodded quickly in agreement and roll her eyes, "Believe us when we say that we encounter monsters of things that are a complete enigma to us all. How many times we almost lost our lives because we don't know how what the heck we are dealing with."

"There you have it, Mr. Loussier. Your role in Auxiliary Class' field studies. By the way, you will be staying with them in the same dorm back at the Elysian," Ms. Peregrine said, and I just nodded quietly, "Well, now that that's settled, let's move on to the leadership of your team. We have a new class member, so I think if there's any need for a change or not?"

The boys raised their hands to show that no change is needed at all.

"Sothea is still our Class President, and Sita will be the Vice President. No need to change anything. Let girls run the show, eh, Keenan?"

I nodded at Bliz in agreement, "No arguments here from me. I will follow; you all lead. I just hope I will be of big help to you all."

"Oh, don't worry, I am sure you will be. I am sure of it," Ms. Peregrine said rather confidently, which made not just me but the entire class look at her rather ominously.