I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Several students looked disappointed when Selene Ashford told them to put their weapons away.

One student had already loaded his heavy crossbow and frowned as he set it back on the bench.

Arthur leaned Whisperwind against the wood. Elara set her own recurve bow down beside it without complaint.

Selene headed onto the range and waved for them to follow.

"Selene Ashford," she said over her shoulder. "Advanced Ranged Combat."

She led them straight past the obvious, neatly marked firing line near the benches. The western range looked more like a training ground than a normal archery lane. There were raised dirt banks, scattered wooden walls for cover, a shallow ditch cutting through the middle, and a cluster of trees along one edge.

Selene stopped near the center of the field and turned around.

She pointed toward a cluster of heavy practice dummies sitting roughly a hundred meters out.

"You’re being attacked from there," she told the class. "Pick where you’d shoot from."

The students spread out across the range.

The crossbow users immediately drifted toward the wooden walls or the raised earth banks, looking for a solid, flat surface to rest their heavy weapons on. A guy carrying throwing axes picked a spot much closer to the targets. A mage scrambled up one of the elevated wooden platforms to get a clear line of sight over the entire field.

Arthur looked for somewhere with a clean shooting lane and enough distance to use Whisperwind comfortably.

He found a slightly elevated patch of ground near one of the wooden barriers. He had a perfect view of the target cluster. Nobody could approach the barrier without crossing directly through his line of sight, and he had plenty of room to draw the bow.

He thought it was a solid position.

Selene walked slowly across the range, letting everyone settle into their chosen spots before commenting.

When she reached Arthur, she stopped. "Why here?"

"Good sightline," Arthur told her. "Plenty of distance. Cover right beside me."

Selene looked behind him.

Behind him, the ground dropped sharply into the ditch. Trying to retreat that way at speed would be asking to trip.

"Where do you go when something reaches you?" Selene asked.

Arthur glanced back at the ditch. Backing away quickly through that slope would be a good way to end up on his ass.

"A good firing position that traps you is a bad position," Selene said, already moving on.

Arthur stepped away from the ditch.

Selene moved over to where Elara was standing.

Elara had chosen a position near the cluster of trees on the right edge of the range. She had a little elevation, natural cover from the trees, and the ridge behind her kept her from standing against an open sky.

"Why here?" Selene asked.

"Clear sight over the main lane," Elara answered immediately. "I have natural cover from return fire, and if they push, I can fall back directly through the tree line without exposing myself to the open field."

Arthur listened from his spot, mildly annoyed at how sensible that sounded.

Selene nodded once, then looked past Elara toward the trees.

"And the ground?" Selene asked.

Elara frowned. She looked over her shoulder at her chosen retreat route. The ground just inside the tree line was soft, choked with thick roots and muddy patches that would drastically slow down anyone trying to move quickly backward while shooting.

Elara let out a short, quiet breath. "I’d trip."

Selene tapped the side of her leg. "You’re relying on concealment that disappears the second they flank you, and your only exit route slows you down. Move."

Elara adjusted her position immediately.

Once everyone had picked a spot, Selene casually changed the rules.

"Now there are six targets instead of one." She pointed toward the tree line. "Two more are approaching from the left."

Students started shifting almost immediately. A mage climbed down from his platform, while two crossbow users abandoned the wall they’d picked earlier.

Selene walked them through moving without their weapons in their hands.

"If you have to run across open ground every time the target moves, you picked badly," Selene called out as students shifted around the field. "If you can only shoot while standing in one exact spot, you picked badly. If your teammate has to move around you because you blocked the only clean path, move."

She stopped near the center. "Get into pairs."

Arthur was already standing close enough to Elara that they paired off together.

"One of you chooses a firing position," Selene instructed. "The other has to find a route that would get close enough to threaten them. Then switch."

Arthur took the first turn. He picked a solid spot near the elevated bank with multiple exit routes.

Elara didn’t hesitate. She started walking a route he hadn’t even considered, cutting wide around a practice wall, dropping briefly into the ditch to hide her movement, and coming up on his flank much closer than Arthur wanted her to be.

Arthur watched her step out of the ditch. "That’s cheating."

Elara brushed dirt off her uniform. "Walking?"

"Sneaky walking."

"Pay attention next time," she said dryly. "Switch."

Elara picked a much stronger position near the wooden barricades, giving herself excellent cover and clear sightlines across the most likely approaches.

Arthur studied the barricade for a few seconds. If he were actually trying to reach her, he wouldn’t come anywhere near the obvious approaches.

He circled much farther out, staying behind the walls and dirt banks until he was almost beside Elara’s position. He came up through a blind spot that forced Elara to turn her back on the targets just to keep track of him.

She caught sight of him only after he’d reached the blind side of the barricade. By then, dealing with him would have meant giving up her original position.

She looked annoyed.

Arthur grinned. "Sneaky walking."

Elara gave him a flat look.

Selene had been watching from several paces away. She nodded toward the route Arthur had taken.

"That’s closer to what I want," she told the class, raising her voice. "Stop looking at the target first."

She pointed around the range. "Look at where you’re standing. Look at what can reach you. Then worry about what you’re shooting."

Halfway through the class, she finally sent them back to the benches.

The students grabbed their weapons, expecting the actual shooting to start. Arthur picked up Whisperwind. Elara quickly strung her recurve.

Selene changed the exercise again.

"Move to a marked position," she instructed. "Fire two shots. Relocate. Fire again. You cannot use the same firing point twice."

Arthur stepped onto the range.

His first run started well. The heavy draw of Whisperwind felt natural in his hands. He hit the marked position, drew, and slammed an arrow directly into the center mass of the furthest dummy.

He moved.

His second position was noticeably worse. The angle felt cramped. He wanted to stay because he had a clean lane on the next target, but he remembered Selene’s lecture about getting trapped.

He moved earlier than he normally would have. A dummy swung into view on a mechanical pulley just as he reached the next cover. He drew and fired. Another hit.

As he moved again, Arthur activated Mana Quiver.

He fed less mana into it this time, lowering the flow until the familiar spectral arrow formed in his hand. It felt exactly the same. Arthur drew and fired. The arrow buried itself in the target. Arthur could feel the difference immediately; he’d spent less mana forming it.

He watched Elara take her run a few minutes later.

Elara moved between positions more cleanly than Arthur had. She rarely had to correct her footing, and more than once she was already turning toward the next target before it started moving.

But Arthur noticed she took slightly longer before firing, waiting a little longer each time for the shot she wanted.

Selene noticed it too.

"You don’t always get the shot you want," Selene told her as Elara finished the rotation.

Elara lowered her bow. "Then I should take a bad one?"

"Take the best one you have before you lose it entirely," Selene corrected.

As people began packing up, several students wandered over to check one another’s targets.

Arthur checked Elara’s target and frowned. "You beat me by what, two?"

"Three."

"I’m blaming the range."

Elara started unstringing her bow. "Of course you are."

Selene called the class together.

"Next class, you’ll be shooting while something is actively trying to close the distance," she announced.

A few of the more combat-hungry students looked excited.

"You won’t be as excited when it starts hitting back," Selene added mildly. "Clean up the gear and get out of here."

Arthur and Elara walked back toward the main campus together.

"Still glad you didn’t test out?" Arthur asked.

"Yes." Elara glanced back toward the western range. "She caught things I’ve gotten lazy about. Most ordinary fights don’t make me think that much about my footing."

Arthur smiled. "You admitting you’re lazy might be the most useful thing I learned today."

Elara looked at him. "You picked a firing position with a ditch behind you."

That shut him up for several steps.

After a minute, Elara glanced at him. "You changed something with Mana Quiver."

"Mira’s class this morning. Apparently I’ve been wasting mana keeping it active."

Elara’s mouth twitched. "So you do listen."

Arthur gave her a look and kept walking.

They split near the library. Elara headed toward the archives while Arthur checked his phone again. His schedule was finally empty.

He shoved the phone back into his pocket and turned toward the dorms.

Halfway across the central courtyard, Arthur ran into Emily coming from the conditioning halls with her heavy bag over one shoulder and dust streaked across her uniform.

She dropped the bag onto the grass, caught him by the front of his shirt, and kissed him hard enough to stop him in the middle of the path.

Arthur caught her around the waist and pulled her closer.

Emily finally pulled back.

"My room tonight. Bring food."

Arthur grinned. "I have a choice?"

"No."

She picked up her bag and continued toward the dorms.

Arthur changed direction and followed.