Lance Strong

Your mind flutters into an alert state, you're in your room and there isn't much light, you can barely make out your hand inches away from your face, you can feel a bead of cold sweat running down from your temple. A bad dream? You shift in your bed and try to go back to sleep, but a rhythmic knocking sound that started as silent as the dead of night but grew louder and louder until you just couldn't ignore it, you pop your head off of the pillow and look towards the door, the door creaks open ever so slightly allowing beams of light to intrude into your room and with it came the sounds you knew you'd heard before. A womans screams and crys for help, not just one but two of them, momentarily stunned out of shock you snap to it and bolt to the door, opening it so fast it slams against your bedroom wall, stepping inside of the room you were once again stunned, but out of an debilitating fear this time.

Propped up on the dining room table is the woman that had given you life, your mother was as naked as the day she was born and overbearing atop of her was a monstrous entity, the creature had purple skin with white tribal marks across its skin, it's limbs distended and corrupted in an almost nonhuman way, the creature had heavy tits that looked bigger than its own head and what you could only guess was a huge dick if the bulge in your mothers abdomen was any inclination. It looked like someone had made a hellish parody of a human, but that wasn't what sent the shivers down your spine, it was the twisted and stationary toothy grin it held on it's face as it slowly twisted it's neck to look at you, along with its almost scaly dry eyes from a lack of blinking.

As its cold dead eyes met with yours you felt your bladder empty itself out of fear, a warm puddle formed at your feet, splashing against your toes as you dared not to look away. The creature in front of you laughed, never changing its facial expression, the laughter sounded deep and ethereal, as if the source of the sound didn't come from its mouth, your head was spinning as it laughed, what was happening?

Brought out of your panic there came a sound, it was a heart wrenching sound and it filled you with the utmost dread, you seized the initiative to look away from the inhuman beast that was mounting your teary faced mother to see an ungodly sight; your older sister lay hunched over a chair, along with another beastly creature, it's skin pitch black with horns growing atop its head, red tribal tattoos covered its body just like the first, and like the first its massive male member was deeply inserted into your beloved sisters cunt, as your tears begin to fall anew you examine her body from her feet and come to a stop at her head. Where was it? Where was her fucking head?!

You feel something brushing up against your bare feet, you dare to look down and see and wished that you hadn't. Your sisters bloody head had been rolled in your direction while you were tunneled on the sight of your mother, her dead eyes stared up at you frozen with terror and pain, you found yourself retching on the floor, you're too terrified to scream, to cry, you try to run and you can't, you try to fight and you just can't muster the courage. Instead you stayed there, hunched over your dead sisters head, knees covered in your piss, puke and your dead sisters blood. You look up shakily to see the creature atop your mother snicker as it readied a knife and struck it down deep into your mothers chest cavity, again and again making a grotesque almost pleased noise as it savored your pain etched face.

Somehow this action filled you with a rage, a rage you could of used moments ago but nevertheless, your body moved on its own and ran towards to hellish apparitions. You raised your fist and was just about to plunge it into the beasts chest when you felt the hard smack of the creatures back hand that sent you flying across the kitchen and head first into the cupboard drawers. Your eyes flicker open and shut as the light begins to fade around the corners of your eyes, as you're about to pass out you see the two creatures standing over you, snickering.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

Your hand slams onto your magically powered alarm clock with a dull unappreciative bang. That dream again, you were prone to night terrors ever since that fateful night, it was like your brain wouldn't allow you to forget, to always relive those moments that had ruined your childhood innocence and use that anger you felt as a fuel source. As much as you hated your old man, he was right about hatred being a great way to temper your skills and discipline the mind.

Your eyes were bloodshot like usual, the 3 hours of sleep that you did manage to get was filled with those taunting faces and so you felt anything but rested. Still you soldiered on, you go through your morning ritual as usual, eat, shower, brush your teeth, get dressed, put on your training bands around your arms, wrists, ankles and thighs and got to training. First was a hundred pushups and sit ups, followed by a 3 laps around the neighborhood and as many spear thrusts before you need to set off for the academy.

You'd recently been accepted into the most prestigious fighting academy in all of Tabula Rasa, 'RotchDale'. You didn't get in on merit however, at your previous school you scored the lowest in your whole class, if it wasn't for your notable albeit declining family name you'd never even get to see the gates of RotchDale, as your classmates and even your father like to remind you of whenever they can. Since today was your first day at RotchDale you assumed more of the same kind of treatment was in store for you here as well.

As you were practicing your spear thrusts into the wooden training dummy, your father silently walked past your open room, stopping to peer inside, turning his nose up in disgust as he carried on walking. Your father was a fearful man, said to be one of the best spear users in the country, he had a shaved head, cold and hate filled eyes, covered in scars and wrinkles due to his age and taller than most humans at 6ft 2. Just as you think you avoided an encounter you hear his voice bellow from down the hall.

"Shouldn't you be heading off now? Or are you slacking in your timeliness too now?" Just as he finished that sentence your alarm rang again to alert you that you should start walking to the academy. You grit your teeth and mumbled something out of anger, your father always did this, make you feel like a worm even though you were trying so hard.

You exited your rather impressive looking house and began your trek up the hill towards the RotchDale estate, a massive compound consisting of many buildings, grounds and facilities. You wondered if what you were wearing would make you stand out? You're wearing your academy supplied black and blue trimmed school uniform but could clearly see the dark green training bands around your wrists and ankles, back at your old school kids used to pick on you for wearing something against the schools dress code, and you were anxious that here would be the same thing.

Brought out of your internal musings you failed to slow down at a corner and bumped head first into another person, falling back on your ass you bring yours hands to your forehead as you winced in pain. Looking up you see a pink haired Elven girl, she's just as tall as you are and has an eloquent, even regal face. She stares at you with a stare that tells you she's expecting an apology however your mind wanders to her sizable chest, jeez those things are huge! Back to her face again she turns her face up in disgust.

"In your dreams, you creep!" Turning her back to you she carries on walking up the hill, it's at that moment you notice she's wearing the same color coded uniform as you are. You scold yourself internally for being such a dunce at times and pick yourself up. Walking into someone and being the only one to fall to the floor, especially when the other person is a woman and you're a guy. You felt pretty pathetic right about then.

Deciding to spare yourself any further embarrassment you took the long way to the academy, deciding to run instead of walking as an excuse to train a little more. As you finally make it the quarts cut gates of the RotchDale academy, you notice a small gathering of people around the gates security, buff men in menacing looking uniforms, they definitely weren't for show and if you wanted to make your way inside you had to prove to these guys you're actually a student here.

As you got close enough you could hear some of your peers conversation with the guards.

"As I've already said, my family name is Leeds, you surely know of my father, the dreaded Darius Leeds? Of course you have, so stop wasting both of our times and let me through!" Came the clearly irate cry of one of the students, a slick black haired and slim man unlike you he worse his blazer buttoned and meticulously ironed without a crease in sight, fitted to his exact dimensions as you'd expect of a rich family. The guard sighed, clearly this wasn't a one sided issue.

"And as I've told you, sir, we are under strict orders from the dean to send away any student that cannot supply us with their ID card issued to you with your acceptance letter. It's academy policy, you were warned in the letter that this would happen, you still have time, you can go back home and-" Before he could finish the student interrupted him.

"Look I don't have time to mess around like a delivery boy, that station is beneath me. My father has a lot of sway over the dean and you know this, so why don't we make a deal." The black haired student pressed his index finger into the guards chest. "You can either let me in now and I can bring you my ID tomorrow, or you can send me away now and find yourself homesless on the side of the street? Does that sound good to you?" The student said as he carried on poking his finger into the guards chest.

"You're new here, I get that, so you don't know how things work. We've all been there, cockiness is the folly of youth, so I'm going to give you a counter offer that is extremely generous and has a limited time available to accept. You can take your finger away from the chest and go and get that ID for me, and in return I won't break it off of you. Sound good?" The guards face was calm and collected but his eyes portrayed a calm rage brewing behind them, and a promise that he wasn't joking. The student seemed to get the idea as well, walking away with his tail between his legs.

"My father will hear about this! We'll see who has the last laugh!" As he said that he shoulder barged his way passed you. "Move out the way, low birth swine!" You could see he had his teeth gritted at such an act of public humiliation. You shrugged, you'd been called worse.

"Alright shows over, next please." The guard motions to a beautiful red headed woman, as you were admiring her face your eyes bulged as you saw her slither across towards the guard. Slither? That's because her lower half was that of a snake! You'd heard that the prestigious RotchDale had began accepting talent from all over world for the first time, all kinds of races of students were finally cohabiting under one roof for the first time in RotchDales racially hegemonous existence. The snake

"A snake lady huh? Welcome to RotchDale, it's my first time seeing a Lamia in person." The guard blurted out, clearly as taken aback by it as you were. The busty redheaded snake lady giggled at the mans sudden off hand outburst.

"I've been getting that a lot here, sorry to say but you're not my first human, and you certainly won't be my last if I have anything to say about it." You can't tell but you think she just winked at him. The guard cleared his throat as he took the ID from her hand, gave it a once over and sent her on her way. Motioning to the next student to come forward, this time it was a green haired harpy, she was short and her hair unkempt, not a lot of cleavage to speak of and a look of determination on her face.

"Now I've definitely seen a Harpy before. Welcome to RotchDale, ID please." The guard informs the winged girl.

"H-hi thankhhhs" The harpy tried to say but bit her tongue out of embarrassment, you found it cute and endearing but the guard laughed at her without restraint.

"Slow down there birdy! Don't get ahead of yourself now!" The man slapped his knee as he dried a tear from his eye. The Harpy was clearly wishing she could dig herself into a hole where she stood all the while as the guard looked over her ID. Handing her ID back to her and allowing her entrance she quickly flew as fast as she could fly towards the main gates, narrowly missing a tree causing the guard to laugh again.

"Next." He tried to stifle his mirth as he motioned to the next student. This time it was a slime girl, what was with this years students? Are all of them going to be other races? The slime girl walked up to the guard, you were entranced by her rippling breasts as she walked. Her slimy skin was a clear blue with a hint of green in places, she was just a little shorter than you are, and had sizable hips that swayed when she walked. If the guard took notice of this he did well to hide it.

"A slime huh, now that's rare. Most slimes stick to their swampland homes on their own, I never thought I'd live to see a slime wanting to living among humans." The guard confessed, the slime merely handed him her ID. "Well that part isn't rare at all, I swear the rumor that you can talk is just an urban legend." The guard scanned said as he scanned her ID, handing it back to her and motioning with his head that she can pass.

"Next." The guard motioned to the next student, this time instead of hearing footsteps going towards the guard you hear hooves clopping against the pavement, it was a very pretty short haired brunette with tits that could rival the red headed Lamia's. She wore a horse-made sundress around her horse like body, clearly trying to cover up her nether regions as best she could. Before the guard could speak the centaur spoke first.

"Save your asinine greetings and commentary, lets just get this over with." She curtly handed the guard her ID, clearly not too eager to converse with the guard. The guard grumbled but read over her ID and sent her on her way.

"Alright, next. Ahh finally a human." He motions to you to come forward with a smile, you were sort of pulled out of your thoughts once again as it took you a second to realize he was talking to you. You walk over to him and take your ID out of your wallet.

"A lot of other races this year, don't you be getting outclassed by them, you're a human and that means something here. Do us proud now won't you?" The guards eyes bore deep into you as he said this, you're unsure what he meant by that but you nod anyway, trying your best not to stick out.

"That's good to hear, we can't go losing face to those animals now can we. Go and head on in, your ID checks out." He curtly sends you on your way as you watched the quarts gates open for you as they had opened for all the previous students. It was a daunting feeling walking into such a noble and esteemed place, you had dreams about this happening but never thought it'd feel this majestic. You looked around the grounds and saw ponds with koi fish swimming around, fountains with older students reading up on their studies nearby, training grounds with equipment lined up against the walls ready to be used against the numerous and diverse amount of training dummies. It was simply incredible, but what really stole your breath was the main building, it was a huge tall reaching almost cathedral like building with a large circular glass window that also acted as a functional clock, the building was lined with marble and looked absolutely meticulous in its upkeep.

Just below the main building you noticed a large congregation of people, new years just like you who were waiting to be sorted into a house. There were thousands of them, all of them had gotten into the academy either by merit or in your case, by family association. These were some of the worlds future strongest warriors and you were going to be training among them, the thought was both sobering and exciting, with that thought you hurried forward to join them.

As you approached the mass of fellow students you felt a rock land squarely against your temple, it wasn't a large rock but it still stung a little. You directed your gaze towards a group of boys and you felt a little bit of dread when you recognized them. They were the three kids from your old school that had also been accepted into RotchDale academy, they were all very skilled and dedicated in their choice of combat, and had bullied you throughout your old school for coming in dead last every time. You hated them, not as much as you hated the Fleshless or your father, but still, you hated them.

"Look it's the class loser, I told you he got accepted." The first bully said, he had curly ginger hair and freckles, he was well proportioned and was deadly with a sword and shield, if your memory served you well.

"No way, you were actually right. I guess I owe you a drink." The second bully said, he was smaller than the first bully, more lithe and had short blond hair with a scar going from his right cheek to just under his chin. He was really good with daggers, you definitely recall a time when he would throw wooden training daggers at your head as hard as he could, you really hated him.

"My dad said he got in because his father gave the dean a bribe, he doesn't really belong here he's just bleeding his dads dwindling funds so he can gain status by being here." The third bully scoffed, spitting to the floor in disgust at how corrupt the system was. He had spiked black hair and wore darkened chains around him, it was against school etiquette for students to stray from the school uniform until at least the second year as a sign of respect to your seniors, but he was never one to respect the rules. You remember he was really good with bastard swords, two handers that took a lot of strength to swing and he definitely had strength.

You looked to each of your bullies, trying your best not to call too much attention to yourself you decided to be curt and be on your way. You looked to the first bully. "James" You looked to your second bully. "Adam" and then to your third bully. "Jack. Stay out of my way, I don't want anything else to do with you fuckers." So much for trying not to gain too much attention, your little outburst had attracted the attention of a the few people that were around you. With that you began to walk more towards the center of the crowd, you could physically feel your bullies stare a hole into the back of your head as you walked.

You had promised yourself that things would be different here, you'd stand up to your bullies and stop enabling their . You'd promised you get stronger too, you can't let them outdo you after all the trash they'd talked about you, maybe something about what that guard said made some kind of sense after all. With that you notice that ahead of you, a grey haired woman with a pointed hat and a walking cane, garbed in a grey dress and black boots and gloves had walked up to the podium, her presence hushed the crowd within seconds of her appearance on stage.

"Attention all students, I know some of you have had a long and arduous journey to make your way here, that hill can be a treacherous one, I should know! I'm nearly 90 years old and my knees aren't what they used to be. Cherish your youth won't you, boys and girls?" She asked the crowd as if expecting a response. When silence was all she was met with she carried on. "But your journey to admission doesn't end at reaching those gates, no no no you must first be sorted into dorms, what would we all be without a roof under our heads that we belong to? We'd be savages!" Pausing again the old woman cleared her throat. "Savages indeed, so you shall find that there are academy staff among you dressed in white robes, they'll be handing you a special stone that will sort you into your chosen house. From there you'll be further processed and so on and so forth, I don't know how you kids can stand this heat." The old woman sort of steered away from the topic at hand. You wanted to laugh but again, you didn't want the attention.

Like she had said, you looked around and saw the men in white robes that she was referring to, they had blue bags strapped around their waists, and were handing out small pebble like clear quarts crystals. You noticed that the men all had gloves on as one of them handed the quarts to you, as you touched it the crystal began to glow.

"Those little rocks dictate, seemingly randomly, one of four colors that will grant you residence in one of the four corresponding dorms. The first dorm is the Djene dorm, if your stone is green then that's where you belong. If your stone is red then you belong in the Tsar dorm, if it's blue then you belong in the Atrien dorm and finally, if like me you were lucky enough to get yellow, then you belong in the Sonnet dorm!" The elderly woman clasped her hands together with glee at the mention of her dorm.

"Now now, a dorm representative from year three will be along to pick you kids up and process you properly. Now unless there's any question, I think it's time I have a little nap." The elderly woman didn't even wait to see if anyone had any questions, had their voices even been able to reach her ears from so far away in the first place, she was already half way down the stages stairs. Just who was that mental old lady? She didn't even introduce herself.

You look back down at your quarts.