The arrowheads were buried in fifteen bright blue circles, placed in the very center of each target. The targets themselves were rather simple, bound-hay circles wrapped in white-stained canvas. Each had two blue lines, one at the very edge and another in the middle, halfway between the outer line and the circle in the center. He hadn't even noticed their design, focused as he had been on Toon and Hashim's directions.
Not that it mattered much, of course. It wouldn't be hard to replicate them, not really. The arrows didn't go in as deeply as they should have, likely reinforced by the ability of the craftsman. The pattern and make was simple, but they were of high quality if they were so sturdy. It would also make it easier to retrieve the arrows.
Regus walked over to the rows of targets. They were set in three rows, each a few yards back from the one in front of them, each with five. Lillian had given him exactly fifteen arrows. He walked up to the closest target, the one that was to the left of the middle target in the first row. He had been at a skewed angle from the center, which had made the shooting more difficult. Without looking back up at the students of Lillian, like he wanted to, he crouched and placed a hand against the canvas.
It was clearly a cheap replica of well-crafted fabric. It looked good enough, but to the touch it was nearly as scratchy as regular canvas, and some of it lacked the white stain that made it seem so sterile from a distance.
Regus had no idea how to pull an arrow out of something like this. They were so small, and probably fragile. If he just yanked on them, unless he was precise enough with his movements that it didn't matter, he would snap the shaft or its connection with the arrow's head.
But one of them could be precise.
Regus silently told Hashim to summon Toon.
It took a few seconds, but Toon eventually came up and reluctantly took control. He leaned forward, extending a leg back to counterbalance his weight, and touched the wooden shaft. There was a small slit where the arrow had bitten through the canvas, but it would catch on the head if he tried to pull it out slowly. Toon shifted his weight, adjusting his point of view until he could see it at the same angle that Regus had shot from. Instead of simply taking the most efficient path and walking straight to the target, he had walked to it and then repositioned himself so that he was head-on with the target.
Toon grabbed the shaft, blinking as he internally thought through the process. He would need to have steady hands, which luckily, he did. It was so much easier when he didn't need to steady himself every time he wanted something precise, so he had fundamentalized his motion and energy expenditure.
That being said, he was obviously the proper choice for this job. Someone behind him was saying something. He didn't listen.
There was a nagging itch, though. Why did they think that they could just have him come out and do the things that they needed him to when they needed him to do them? It was really unfair. Toon considered deliberately breaking every single one of the arrows. It would send some sort of message, but it wouldn't be the message they Regus wanted to send. Perfect competence without prior experience. Not just a good student. Not even just a great one.
The best.
So he started.
With silent calculations, he ripped each arrow, one by one, from the targets, leaving angry rips that quickly were obscured by the shifting canvas as he stood and turned around, promptly colliding with Professor Sky.
She stumbled a step back, but Regus took over the body before Toon could do the same.
Lillian blinked a few times, unsure what to think about the situation, but then Regus held out the arrows like a trophy, a bouquet of deadly flowers.
She nodded, quickly taking them and then turning to walk back to the rest of the class. Regus paced himself as he made his way back, perhaps walking a bit more slowly than he usually would. Toon's awkwardness took a couple of steps to sort out, and after those he kept going at the same pace.
No weakness. No hesitation.
Lillian was lecturing the other students on the importance of careful precision when recovering arrows, and also reminding them that the arrows that were here for training did not belong to them, so they should be sure to take good care of them if they used them.
That, of course, caused more than a few glances towards Regus. After all, Toon had just yanked them out without pausing for any considerable amount of time. He had done it precisely. He was Toon, of course he had, though it may not have seemed like it. He had just done every calculation beforehand. But they wouldn't necessarily know that.
Just another stone on the pile. Slowly, he was building up his reputation. True, it wasn't anywhere near as large as the one added by the fight against Rekhard, or even the speed and accuracy he had just demonstrated with the bow, but even a small imperfection would let them know.
They couldn't know. No one could be allowed to think that Hashim Kamal was human like them.
If he had to be a monster, he would do it.
Gladly.