Help! I'm just an extra yet the Heroines and Villainesses want me! Chapter 53

The next morning started with William heading to Combat Training earlier than usual. Valdris had sent a ssage the night before requesting that all students arrive fifteen minutes early for formation drills, which sounded ominous in the way most things Valdris announced tended to be.

The training ground was already half-full when William arrived. He recognized most of the faces from his regular classes, like students he had been training alongside for months but had never really talked to beyond brief exchanges during partner drills.

"Cross!" soone called out.

William turned and found Marcus Valen jogging over. The Valoris student looked significantly more awake than William felt, he had an eager expression on his face which looked like he actually enjoyed early morning training.

"I heard you made the Inter-Academy team," Marcus said while falling into step beside William. "That’s impressive. I didn’t even make it past Valoris preliminaries."

’This happened a long ti ago buddy ’

"You fought well in the house competition," William offered. "Just bad bracket luck."

"Bad bracket luck called ’everyone in Valoris being really good,’" Marcus corrected with a laugh. "Our house has the most balanced skill distribution, which ans even making top five is brutal. I lost to Sara in the quarterfinals and she lost to soone else in semifinals."

They reached the main training area where other students were gathering. William spotted Sara herself talking with Elena Marsh near the equipnt racks. Elena saw him looking and waved with a friendly expression on her face.

"I still can’t believe you beat in the first tournant," Elena called over. "I’ve been working on the weaknesses you exposed then but I doubt it would be less effective. Do you want to spar soti this week?"

"Sure," William agreed. "I could use practice against wind affinity users."

"Deal." Elena returned her attention to Sara, who was demonstrating so kind of footwork technique.

More students filtered in over the next few minutes. Cole Rivers, the first-year William had fought during Ascendant preliminaries, arrived and imdiately started warming up with practice forms. Devon Thorne appeared with a group of third-years from Luminara, all of them discussing sothing about essence circulation forms.

Instructor Valdris erged from the equipnt building exactly fifteen minutes before class was officially supposed to start. He and a stern expression was as severe as always, with his eyes sweeping across the gathered students with the kind of assessnt that made everyone instinctively straighten their posture.

"Formation drills," Valdris announced without preamble. "You’ve all been training individually or in small groups. Today we will practice on coordinated group combat. Most battles don’t happen one-on-one. You need to learn how to fight as units."

He started dividing students into groups of five, apparently having predetermined the compositions beforehand. William found himself grouped with Marcus, Elena, a second-year earth user nad Thomas Reid, and a third-year from Arcturus nad Kira Stone—not the sa Kira from the Inter-Academy team, apparently there were multiple students with the sa naa.

"Each group will face another group in tactical exercises," Valdris continued. "The objective is to breach the opposing group’s defensive position while maintaining your own. It is similar to the Inter-Academy training exercises, but with students at varied skill levels."

William’s group gathered to discuss strategy. Marcus imdiately took a leadership role, which the others seed comfortable with.

"Thomas and I can handle defensive positioning," Marcus suggested. "Earth users are good for that. Elena, you’re the fastest with the wind affinity, you can handle flanking and harassnt. William, you’re fire affinity right? You’ll cover offensive pressure. Kira..."

"Shadow manipulation," Kira supplied. "I can provide cover and disruption."

"That’s perfect. We can create a strong defensive core and strike from multiple angles." Marcus looked at each of them. Is everyone comfortable with that?"

The group nodded in agreent. Their opposing group was already forming up on the other side of the training ground, they were five students William vaguely recognized from various classes but had never really interacted with.

"Begin!" Valdris called.

Marcus and Thomas imdiately moved to establish defensive positions, using earth essence to create barriers around their designated zone. The technique was similar to what William had seen during Inter-Academy training, but less refined—these were regular students, not top-tier competitors.

Elena circled wide with wind-enhanced speed, trying to find an opening in the opposing group’s formation. William moved forward with fire enhancent, engaging one of the enemy students directly to draw attention and create pressure.

His opponent was a third-year with water affinity who fought defensively, using water techniques to deflect William’s fire-enhanced strikes. It was an effective counter in theory, but William had more essence capacity and could maintain offensive pressure longer than the water user could sustain their defense.

Kira’s shadows crept across the battlefield, creating areas of darkness that obscured vision and made coordinated defense harder for the opposing group. Elena used the confusion to slip past their defensive line and make a run at their zone.

"Left side!" soone from the opposing group shouted.

Two of their mbers moved to intercept Elena, which left their formation weakened. Marcus saw the opening and called out, "William, pressure center!"

William shifted his attack angle, forcing his opponent to commit more essence to defense. The water user’s techniques were starting to show strain from sustained use—water essence wavered and lost cohesion, creating gaps that William exploited with precise strikes.

Thomas launched an earth technique that disrupted the opposing group’s footing, making their defensive positioning unstable. Elena used the opportunity to reach their zone, crossing the boundary line and holding position while the enemy scrambled to force her out.

"Ten seconds!" Valdris announced.

The opposing group tried to organize a response, but their formation had already broken down from multiple simultaneous pressures. Elena defended her position with wind techniques that kept attackers at distance, and the countdown finished before they could dislodge her.

"Match concluded," Valdris said. "Acceptable coordination from the victor group. Losing group failed to maintain formation integrity under pressure. Reset and prepare for second round."

William’s group regrouped while catching their breath. Marcus was grinning, clearly satisfied with how their strategy had worked.

"That was solid," he said. "Way better than I expected for a first attempt."

"Your earth barriers gave us good foundation," Thomas pointed out. "Made it easier to coordinate when we had clear defensive structure."

They ran the exercise twice more against different opposing groups, winning once and losing once. The loss ca against a group of fourth-years who had significantly more experience with coordinated combat, but even that match was closer than expected.

By the ti Valdris called an end to the formation drills, everyone was breathing hard and sweating from the sustained tactical combat.

"Better than anticipated," Valdris said, which was probably the closest thing to praise any of them would get from him. "Formation combat will be incorporated into regular training moving forward. Dismissed."

Students dispersed toward the washing facilities or the dining hall. William was heading toward the main building when Marcus caught up with him again, this ti accompanied by Sara and Elena.

"We’re grabbing breakfast together," Sara said. "Want to join?"

William considered briefly, then agreed. He’d been eating alone or with just one other person for most of the sester. Sitting with a larger group might be a nice change.

The dining hall was crowded with the morning rush, but they managed to find a table large enough for the four of them. William grabbed his usual breakfast while the others loaded their plates with various foods.

"So how’s Inter-Academy training?" Marcus asked once they’d settled. "Is it as intense as people say?"

"More intense," William admitted. "Instructor Reylan doesn’t waste ti on anything that isn’t directly useful. Every session is focused on specific skills or tactics."

"It must be amazing training with people like Liam and Seraphina every day," Elena said. "I would kill for that kind of consistent high-level practice."

"It’s helpful," William agreed. "But also exhausting. They’re both operating at a level that’s hard to keep up with."

"You’re keeping up fine from what I heard," Sara pointed out. "You had third place in the Inter-House competition and you were selected for the team as a first-year is ridiculous. Most people don’t make the team until third or fourth year."

"Or never," Marcus added cheerfully. "Like , probably."

"You could make it next year," Elena told him. "You just need to work on your defensive fundantals. You commit too hard to offense and leave yourself open."

"Says the person who literally uses wind affinity to avoid getting hit instead of blocking properly."

"That’s called strategy, not poor fundantals."

They continued their good-natured bickering while William ate and listened. It was surprisingly comfortable, sitting with people who had no complicated history or romantic tension or curse-related complications. Just normal academy students talking about training and classes like normal people.

Sara turned her attention to William. "I saw you at the garden yesterday with Claire. That looked... romantic?"

William nearly choked on his food. Marcus and Elena imdiately leaned in with obvious interest.

"We were just hanging out," William said once he’d recovered.

"You were on a date," Sara corrected. "I know what a date looks like, and that was definitely a date."

"How would you know what a date looks like?" Marcus challenged. "When have you ever been on one?"

"I’ve been on dates!" Sara protested. "Just because you haven’t seen them doesn’t an they didn’t happen."

"Na one person you’ve dated."

"I don’t have to prove anything to you!"

Elena laughed at their argunt, then turned back to William. "Ignore them. But seriously, you and Claire? I didn’t know you two were close."

"We’re not... I an, we are, but it’s complicated." William tried to figure out how to explain without actually explaining anything. "We’ve been training together recently and just decided to spend ti outside of that."

"That’s called dating," Sara said matter-of-factly.

"Can we talk about literally anything else?" William asked.

Fortunately, Marcus took pity on him and changed the subject to the upcoming midterm exams, which everyone had been studiously avoiding thinking about. The conversation shifted to complaints about Professor Ashcroft’s tendency to include obscure theory questions and speculation about what Combat Training’s practical exam would involve.

They talked through breakfast, the conversation flowing easily between different topics—training observations, gossip about various students, complaints about specific instructors, and general academy life discussion. It was the kind of normal social interaction William had been missing without realizing it.

After breakfast, they headed to Magical Theory together. The classroom was already half-full with students reviewing notes or discussing the previous lecture’s material. William took his usual seat and found Lyanna sitting a few rows ahead as always.

She turned and noticed him, offering a slight nod in greeting before returning to her notes. Their interaction during Inter-Academy training had been professional but distant since their match. William suspected she was still processing whatever she’d concluded from her research into the "dical condition" she thought explained the situations with Seraphina and Claire.

Professor Ashcroft entered precisely on ti and began his lecture on advanced essence manipulation theory. William took notes while half-listening, his attention drifting between the lecture content and observing other students.

Cole Rivers sat near the front, writing notes with intense focus that suggested he was actually trying to understand every single word. Devon Thorne was two rows back, occasionally raising his hand to ask clarification questions that were actually helpful rather than showing off.

A girl William didn’t recognize sat near the window, her attention clearly elsewhere despite her open notebook. She had distinctive red hair pulled into a braid and kept glancing outside like she’d rather be anywhere except in this lecture hall.

"Miss Ashford," Professor Ashcroft said suddenly. "Perhaps you could explain the principle of essence resonance to the class, since you seem so disinterested in my explanation."

The red-haired girl startled and looked up. "Um. Essence resonance is when... two affinities interact and amplify each other?"

"Oversimplified but fundantally correct." Professor Ashcroft didn’t look particularly satisfied with the answer. "Pay attention. This will be on the midterm."

The girl—apparently another Ashford, though William didn’t know if she was related to Mira—returned her focus to the lecture with visible effort.

The class continued for another hour before Professor Ashcroft dismissed them with a reminder about the upcoming exam and several reading assignnts that would definitely be referenced in test questions.

Students filed out into the hallway, most heading toward their next classes or cultivation practice. William was making his way toward the cultivation halls when soone called his na.

"William! Wait up!"

He turned and found Cole jogging to catch up, his bag bouncing against his shoulder.

"Hey," Cole said once he’d reached William. "I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to help with sothing."

"What kind of sothing?"

"Fire affinity techniques." Cole looked slightly embarrassed. "I know you’re busy with Inter-Academy training, but I’ve been struggling with maintaining consistent enhancent during extended combat. You made it look easy during our match and I thought... maybe you could give so pointers?"

William considered it. He didn’t have any specific obligations this afternoon aside from Inter-Academy training later, and helping Cole seed harmless enough.

"Sure," William agreed. "I have so free ti before team training. We could work on it now if you want."

Cole’s face lit up. "Really? That would be great!"

They headed to one of the smaller practice grounds that was usually less crowded during afternoon hours. The area was empty except for one student practicing forms in the far corner who didn’t pay them any attention.

"Show your current technique," William said.

Cole drew his practice sword and channeled fire essence into the blade. Flas appeared along the edge, flickering and sowhat unstable. He held it for about thirty seconds before the enhancent wavered and faded.

"See?" Cole said, frustrated. "I can’t maintain it consistently. It either burns too hot and drains my essence too fast, or it’s too weak to be effective."

"You’re trying to force the flas instead of letting them flow naturally," William observed. "Fire essence wants to burn. You’re fighting against that instead of working with it."

He demonstrated with his own sword, channeling fire essence in a smooth flow that created stable flas along the blade. "Don’t think of it as creating fire. Think of it as giving your essence permission to express its natural form. Guide it, don’t control it."

Cole tried again, and this ti the flas were slightly more stable. Still flickering more than they should, but better than before.

They spent the next hour working on technique refinent. William showed Cole how to smooth out his essence flow, how to maintain consistent output without wasting energy, and how to transition between enhanced and normal strikes without losing rhythm.

"This is way more helpful than I expected," Cole said during a water break. "Most upperclassn just tell you to practice more without actually explaining what you’re doing wrong."

"I had good teachers," William said, thinking of Liam’s patient sparring sessions and Master Erian’s technical guidance. "They taught to understand the why, not just the how."

They practiced until William had to leave for Inter-Academy training. Cole’s fire enhancent was noticeably more stable by the end, though he’d need a lot more practice before it beca truly reliable.

"Thanks again," Cole said as they were packing up. "Really. This helped a lot."

"No problem. If you want to practice more later this week, just let know."

William headed toward the eastern training facility with his mind in a better space than it had been lately. The morning had been surprisingly normal—training with classmates, eating breakfast with friends, helping soone with cultivation techniques. No romantic complications, no curse activations, no mysterious stalkers or cryptic warnings.

Just regular academy life.

It was nice while it lasted.

The Inter-Academy training session started normally enough, with Instructor Reylan having them review the opponent profiles from yesterday and discuss tactical approaches. But halfway through the session, Reylan made an announcent that imdiately complicated things.

"Next week we begin intensive paired training," he said. "You’ll be assigned partners based on complentary skills and areas needing improvent. These partnerships will be maintained for the remaining training period."

He distributed a list with the pairings:

- Liam Hemsworth & Seraphina Ashenheart

- William Cross & Claire Hivolt

- Lyanna Stormweaver & Adrian Thorne

- Patricia Crane & Devon Marsh

- Marcus Reid & Kira Stone

William stared at his assigned partner and felt the comfortable normalcy of his morning disappear completely.

Of course he was paired with Claire. Of course the universe—or Instructor Reylan—had decided that spending intensive one-on-one training ti with soone he’d just gone on a date with was a great idea.

Claire caught his eye from across the training area and offered a small, uncertain smile.

This was going to be interesting.

At least the morning had been normal while it lasted.

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