While Krass held the gold for speed among his colleagues, Perren was in the top three contenders; his nimble hare-like feet barely touched the street, but he still left a dust cloud in his wake, gunning it like a madman on the run.

His eyes were scattering like crazy, dashing from left to right, grabbing on the slightest clue to help him distinguish the strangers from his students. Any woman with an emerald cloak and a sheathed weapon, or boy with shaggy hair and a sleeveless shirt on. The search brought him to a remote part of the town, where yells and bellows of excitement guided him toward a small park hidden between buildings. A crowd was surrounding something, an event of sorts, cheering on and talking about a fight.

Perren's ears perked at that, and after groaning about having to choose between his civic duty or teacher responsibility, the former won and figured he should probably intervene.

 -” Excuse me, what fight?”, Perren asked, hoping that the minuscule percent of his worst fear wasn’t about to come to life.

Two of the bystanders were ready to jovially explain the situation until they met the deadly stare of the annoyed asker.

-” Oh crap, you’re one of the Union guys. Listen, pal…” then quickly changed it to sir after getting a better look at the interrogator, “ The guys got the ok from the local peacekeepers and have supervisors present. Paper’s bolted right there”. The bystander then sheepishly stepped aside, pointing toward a wall.

In the middle of the crowd, two firgs were slowly doing circles around each other, prodding, checking each other's movements. On the right was a lanky one, with large, thin legs, that would bend into a squat with each arched side-step. His hands were wide open, while his claws were itching for when they could strike his opponent, who hadn’t unsheathed her weapon yet, only keeping a tight grip on the scabbard.

The audience was placing bets, sharing their “professional” opinions on the winning rates, most of them in favor of their local star, an infamous cutter in the area for how many victories his claws brought him. About his opponent, though, they weren’t so sure about her chances;

-“Look at that silly cloak, she’s totally blind with it, right?”, the audience added in scoff. Except for one person, a human girl with wild, long cashew hair. While the shortest one among the public, her shouts of encouragement were loud enough to breach the chorus . “ C’mon Brigit, you said you can take him down, show that creep who’s who!”, yelled the human girl while shadowboxing and kicking the air.

After noticing her, a horrified Perren started to push everyone aside to get her. “Little girl!”, he cried, desperately trying to get her attention. The closer he got, the more his shadow covered her. When she noticed the dark patch in front of her, the girl turned around with ire, followed by a confused terror at the sight of the scowling masked duelist.

-“ Hello…”, Perren angrily voiced under his breath. “ I’m guessing you’re part of the human visitors we got recently, right?”, to which the girl felt a paralyzing fear she would only get when being admonished by an angry teacher. Worse, though, as she knew trouble wouldn’t fall on her head alone.

Girl -” Qu/ Yess…sir? Are you in the Union with Brigit?“, she gulped, trying to drown her fear. ” I met/saw most of the members by now, so I’m guessing you're the last one I haven’t seen; uhm, Brigit teacher?”

Perren -” Correct. So what are you and Brigantia doing here? Why are YOU here, to be more specific!”

Girl -” Well, you see, Brigi…Brigantia?”, she stumbled around the name, unsure which one to use “was honestly just showing me around, giving me a normal, honest, boring tour, as her stuffy dad told her. And we just looked around, honest to God, minding our own business, until that guy!”, pointing toward Brigit’s foe, “just jumped out of a back alley, stole my glove and ran off with it. “

Her attempts at playing the naive, innocent puppy dog didn’t seem to work on Perren, who was now more focused on stopping the supposed thief.  Before he could make a move, though, he was stopped by a tight tug from the girl. “ Wait, please! Please let her fight.”

Perren -” Listen, miss, I know this seems exciting to you, but this entire ordeal seems sketchy. If I intervene, then…”

Girl -” But then I won’t see how strong she is. Brigit said that if she can win this in two minutes, then she’ll feel worthy of entering a pact with me.”

Perren -” She wants to do what?”, replied Perren in shock. Besides Arim, the rest of his students plans were a mystery to him, but he wasn’t expecting Brigit to try and enter a pact so soon. He wasn’t sure of what to even say to the girl, so instead he started counting backward and followed their lead. “ Alright, miss, two minutes then. For now, I do think it’s a good idea for her to get actual combat experience.“

Right then, though, a sound like two metal bars clashing flew through the gathering. A claw was parried by the sheath of Brigit’s weapon. A second later, the same happened to the second one. The thin firg then started a barrage of strikes and swipes, aiming at any weak point he could conceive. He had a height advantage over her, but he never found an opportunity to use that leverage over her. Any time he tried to move in a more favorable position, Brigit would slightly tilt her body in his direction, switch the scabbard between her arms and enter a pose for a parry. When he picked a fight with her, he wasn’t expecting to be against someone with such training.

Still, he had other tricks up his sleeve. Using a faint kick, he successfully tricked her to make a jump backward, during which he launched his real strike. He quickly stretched his left leg into a wide arch backwards, then launched it into the air forwards and brought it down into an axe kick. The momentum gained by the large distance and speed pushed Brigit over her limit when she tried to shield herself from the strike, forcing her to drop the scabbard while defending. But before it could hit the ground, something made it fly towards his face, far too fast for him to dodge it. In a moment spurred by intuition, Brigit kicked the sheet as hard as he could, freeing her from the grip of the kick, and she was now on the counterattack.

A quick burst from the spot made her sprinting look like that of an animal, launching itself towards its prey, making the viewers unsure if there was something wrong with their vision. She caught the scabbard once more, and with a swift turn around, she hit him another time, putting all of her might into the blow, making him spin around from the hit and landing face-first into the ground.

With that, she declared herself “ The winner!” But before she could gloat and celebrate her victory, a harsh and angry voice from the public made her cower in sweat. “ Ahhh…damn it. Morning street cleanings for a month, probably. If I’m lucky.” murmured the champion.

-” Teacher!” exclaimed Brigit in a forced surprised tone, attempting to mediate the situation. “ I’m so glad to see you back. And here…right now…”

Perren, tapping his fingers rhythmically into furred biceps, used fake joviality for his next question -” Brigantia, who is this girl?”

She didn’t know if that was a trick question or a genuine one, so she wasn’t sure what the right answer was. “ Uh…that’s Maci, the human I’m taking care of whil…”

Perren -” Exactly, she is supposed to be under your care and supervision!”. His yell turned the previously brash fighter into a small jelly of a person now. She was expecting a long lecture about the fight, but she wasn’t expecting this kind of explosive reprimand from Perren. For the next two to three minutes, he repeated to a silent Brigit all about the responsibilities when tasked with taking care of others.

-” But she seemed serious to me”, replied Maci in her defense. “ I told you, that guy tried to steal my glove, Brigit only tried to help me.”

Perren -” I thought you said that he stole the glove, not tried to”.

Brigit -” Thanks for the assist, goalie, I appreciate it. But Perren is kind of right, I did promise to keep you safe.” She sighed, turning now toward her teacher. “ I wanted to show her some fun places around here, and one thing led to another…then I kinda irked into a fight. It was all my fault, teacher.”

Perren could only reply with long, exasperated puffs, and while still miffed by the situation, he did feel a slight sense of pride seeing his student winning with his teachings. “ We’ll talk about this later. And your punishment. Of which your parents will agree, trust me!”

Brigit -” I know”, she acknowledged, knowing that appealing to her father wasn’t going to help her out.

Perren -” Now, can you open your mouth for me? I had a worrying discussion with Victor before I even got into the city.”

Catching to what he meant, she did as requested and pointed to her new molars, explaining afterward how Victor’s food helped her out in the end. “ I don’t know what you’re so worried about, to be honest. He kinda trashed us, but we managed to hold our ground this time!”

Perren -” No, that just means he was just playing around. Trust me, Victor is not the kind to be holding back when wants to ‘trash around’. Ugh, that looks fine enough. I’m guessing that Arim and Zinc are also healed up as well?”

Brigit -” Yap.”

Perren -” Alright, I think I won’t check up on them then until later then. I still need to bring Ashen the cracked container for his ritual. Oh, and Brigantia, don’t make that pact yet; we’ll talk about it later!”

Brigit then stood up, facing her teacher with a hone look on her face and straight, upward back. “No offense, sir, but this is not your decision to make. I’m of the same age as Arim and he and Zinc made a pact without any fuss from you.” Her red cheeks shined even brighter on her greenish skin, and with each word she tried to restrain her irritation.

Perren -” Trueeee“, he replied with a long emphasis, as if trying to find an excuse-” but Arim has more experience than you. ” Perren tried to think of something more, but his tiredness stopped him from formulating a more reasonable response.

Brigit -” And how did that turn…” but then the girl clenched her fist, lowered her head, and apologized to him. “ I understand, sir, but I know what I’m doing. Trust me on this…”

Perren -” Fine…Little girl, were you educated about the Pact?”, to which the teen nodded back with a serious scowl, trying to imitate Brigit’s posture at the same time.

The teacher massaged the bridge of his nose under his helmet and gave up on his endeavor. “ You guys always make my homecomings filled with ‘pleasant’ surprises. Alright, I give up. Do what you want. Little miss, it was a pleasure meeting you. And stay out of more trouble for the day, ok?”

Brigit -” Alright teacher”, waved back Brigit.

-” Nice meeting you as well”, yelled Maci. “ You were right, he is a nice guy.”

Brigit -” Told ya“, she replied, mussing the teen’s hair. ”Well, that was enough excitement for the evening. Let’s meet up with Arim and the others.”

The girl, intentionally, then showed her obvious dislike of Arim with a large frown above a pair of biddy eyes. “ Ugh, he seems really boring and overbearing.”

Brigit -” At a first impression, though. On a second one, you’ll find him to be a relaxed, serious and very eager over-bearer. But he’s family and a good guy… You trust me, right?

-”... Yeah, fiinee, I trust you. Whatever you say.”