Mantle of Supremacy: The Skrytosphere Book 1

by T. Z. Leigh

  She paused again, and her eyes searched theirs as if trying to ascertain whether they were paying attention or not. April didn’t dare look at the others to see for herself. Nehaya infuriated her, but also scared the crap out of her.

  “Assist Team!”

  Two females and two males placed themselves behind, but to the left of the Ail Team.

  “The Assist Teams are the sweepers. They trail the other teams and offer help whenever it is needed. They consist of all four races working together to help any injured or endangered allies. Countless skryts owe their lives to them. They are the reason we survived so long against Irisena.” She paused. “Each team plays a part, none more important than the others...I don’t want any of you to think you are better than one another...because you are not,” she said firmly, letting her gaze settle on Sam as she finished her sentence.

  “After that lengthy introduction, do I dare ask if there are any questions before we begin?”

  “Yes, I have a small question,” Jamie uttered defiantly. “How the hell am I supposed to fight if I can’t even speed run yet?”

  “You’ve been training for nearly a month and you haven’t developed your ability yet?” Nehaya retorted, raising one side of her top lip as if she had tasted something foul.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Well, you will need to find another way to fight then, won’t you?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sam saw rocks the size of basketballs fly across the air. Some skryts whizzed around with sticks in their hands, while others stood behind the gigantic rocks, planning their next move. Apart from the skryts who came forth as part of the teams, it seemed the rest of them were supposed to act like the enemy.

  “I thought they were actually going to fight,” Jamie said.

  “This must be how they train...wouldn’t make sense for them to try hurting each other,” Zachery replied.

  “That makes me feel a bit better. I was scared we were gonna die today,” April admitted.

  Sam now watched the demonstration with his full attention. This was familiar to him. He had studied hours upon hours of footage for his wrestling matches to gain the skills and knowledge to win them. A Mezat held a rock over his head, about to throw it when he suddenly cried out for a second in pain. The rock flew high above him and Sam expected it to hit him on the head.

  If that was a boulder, he’d be finished.

  The Mezat shouted in a rage, jumped up, and punched the rock before it hit his head. Sam was impressed. He watched the Mezats even more closely, as he would need these skills to show Nehaya how true a Mezat he was.

  The demonstration had gone on for around thirty minutes. Sam could see that most of the skryts showed little signs that they were getting tired; breathlessness, hesitation, and clumsiness in one skryt’s case.

  “Stop!” Nehaya screamed.

  The skryts didn’t move from where they were, standing with their backs straight and hands behind them again, their faces filled with dread.

  “For most of you, that was pitiful! How are these children supposed to learn from your pathetic demonstration?” She stared at them, incensed. “I will deal with you all later, but for now...Marlo, Katrine, Sorrain and Waysha stay. The rest of you clear out.”

  Except for the named four, the skryts moved to the side of the plain where Sven and Fyzer waited, shamefaced. The remaining four formed a line staring straight ahead of them.

  “Students, take your place opposite your own.”

  They had seen enough of the demonstration to know who their own were. Sam and Zachery stood in front of two females, while April and Jamie stood in front of two males. It seemed customary to know their opponent’s names because the skryts said theirs, the students having to reply in turn.

  “Waysha.”

  “Sam,” he replied, unsure if he was even supposed to respond.

  “Marlo.”

  “April.”

  “Katrine.”

  “Zachery.”

  “Sorrain.”

  “Jamie.”

  “You can’t kirosko yet?” Sorrain asked quietly while sneering. “This will be easy.”

  Jamie’s eyes narrowed and her face contorted.

  “It’ll be a shame to ruin that pretty face of yours,” Waysha muttered to Sam, smirking, “but if it must be done...”

  Sam’s face stayed neutral. He knew this ritual very well; psyching out your opponent was standard practice before a fight.

  “You’ve learnt how to keep your shield. I wonder how your friends will fare against my illusions,” Marlo whispered, just loud enough for April to hear, smiling.

  April kept Marlo’s gaze, then peered briefly at Waysha, before looking at Sam. Her eyes begged him to hurt Marlo, and judging by the look she had given Waysha, Sam guessed that she was planning to do the same to her.

  “I heard you’re good,” Katrine said to Zachery, “let’s see how good you are against someone who isn’t a little old lady.”

  “You will,” Zachery replied confidently.

  “Begin!” Nehaya ordered.

  In a split-second, Jamie was on the floor holding her stomach and Zachery screamed. Waysha had punched Sam in the face so hard he flew back several feet and Katrine put a hand on April’s chest, making her cough and wheeze enough that she couldn’t breathe.

  The four skryts straightened in a line again, waiting to see how long it would take them to recover. Sam immediately flipped up onto his feet, refusing to be beaten. Jamie slowly stood up, her eyes watery as she glared at Sorrain. Zachery breathed heavily, and April held her chest and tried to regulate her breathing but kept her gaze on the floor.

  “What was that?” Jamie shouted to Nehaya. “Those skryts never hit each other!”

  “Then they were demonstrating, now they are fighting. Continue!”

  Sam sweep-kicked Waysha and she fell to the ground. Jamie had just managed to punch Katrine in the jaw before she was kicked in the back by Sorrain. Zachery gave Sorrain a right hook on his face when he saw Jamie stumble forward, and April kicked Marlo in the groin, making him double over in pain. The students formed a line, waiting for the skryts to be ready, relishing their comeback.

  Sam thought back to the few training sessions he’d had with the others. They whined and complained the whole day that he was just like Nehaya, ruthless and unemotional against his opponent. Though something told him that they would be thanking him later.

  “Guess you’re not so tough without using your super-speed, huh?” Jamie said.

  Sorrain fumed as he stared at her. “I don’t need to kirosko to beat you.”

  “Yeah, you’re a brave soldier, fighting someone with no combat experience,” Zachery countered with disdain.

  “Well, let’s go, smart mouth...you and me.”

  Katrine glared at Jamie. “That was a lucky punch. See if you can hit me again.”

  “I’m going to get you back for that,” Marlo said to April.

  “No, you won’t. If you touch her, I’ll kill you,” Sam told him.

  “That was fun, Sam. Maybe we can meet later and exchange tips,” Waysha said, winking at him. “Your man’s nice, April,” she added, smiling at her.

  “Yeah, I know. If you weren’t ugly, he might’ve looked twice at you.”

  Waysha frowned a little but then smiled smugly, obviously enjoying the banter.

  “Did I bring you here to talk or to brawl?” Nehaya shouted.

  Sam cried out as he felt his limbs twist and bend in unnatural directions. April kicked Marlo in the stomach to stop him. Sam was freed from the illusion and saw Marlo punch April in the face. Sam punched the ground and watched him fly up in the air, landing far away from them on his back. Zachery and Sorrain fought hand to hand only, as did Jamie and Katrine; punching, kicking, or dodging each other. April caused Waysha to cry as she forced the Illusion of Fear on her. She watched as Waysha screamed, looking into the distance and clawing at her own face. Sam’s shriek broke April’s concentrat
ion. When she looked, his whole body was frozen stiff, his teeth gritting to endure whatever was being done to him. April ran towards Marlo to stop his illusion.

  “Zachery, watch out!” Jamie shouted as Sorrain had obviously used his speed to grab a stick and now stood behind him, ready to strike.

  Sorrain smacked him across the head before he could react to her words. Katrine saw her chance and gave Jamie an uppercut, sending her flying backwards. Sorrain squealed in pain as Zachery grabbed his leg and forced a vicious cramp to form over the entire length of it. Jamie was about to stand when she noticed something that sparked a fire on all her nerve endings. Sam and April were preoccupied with Marlo, oblivious to the fact that Waysha had picked up a boulder the size of a bathtub, eyes crazed and full of tears. She flung it at them with all her strength while they were looking the opposite way. Marlo had seen it and ran to avoid being crushed.

  “April! Sam!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, knowing they wouldn’t have time to move out of the way.

  The only thing she could think to do was run. As fast as she could. She ran towards them and every cell in her body was supercharged, the friction between her and the air causing minor shocks to her skin. She bent forward to wrap her arms around their mid-sections to tackle them to the ground. Sam and April were thrown back without warning as the boulder crashed just a few feet in front of them. Jamie pushed herself up onto her knees and gaped. She had reached them in two seconds.

  “I did it!” she said, grinning.

  Sam would have smiled, but another boulder coursed through the air, set to land on them. He ran a few steps forward, jumped as high as he could and punched it with all his strength, so it recoiled and smashed into pieces on the ground.

  “Enough!” Nehaya bellowed. “Form a line, now!”

  They obeyed, though moved at a moderate pace. Each of them was injured in one way or another and not in the mood for her commands.

  “All of you get lost...apart from Sam.”

  The four skryts walked away without hesitation, joining the others. The four students stayed where they were.

  “Did you not hear me? You three, move it!”

  “Just go,” Sam said, eyeing Nehaya.

  They left his side hesitantly. April stopped and looked back at him, but the look he gave her told her to carry on walking.

  “My patience is wearing thin. You are still holding back,” Nehaya said.

  “How am I?”

  “This is not the Sewasphere. Here, women...especially Mezat women…” she said smiling, “…are not weaklings worthy of your mercy. You did not hit Waysha once. Why not?”

  “Look, I’ve never hit a woman in my life, and I’m not about to start now.”

  “Do you think this is a joke? A soldier from Irisena will try to kill you, and just because she’s a woman, you’ll let her?” she spat.

  “Real combat is different to training.”

  “Is that so?”

  Nehaya let out a roar of rage so loud her voice echoed across the entire flatland before she pounded the ground so hard the nearest rock broke into pieces. It took ten seconds for what was as big as a house to become a rocky pile of debris resting on the plain. She ran to the rubble with incredible agility, lifted a large piece over her head and hurled it at him without a second thought. As the rock came down on top of him, he punched it, but a tyre sized piece landed on him, knocking him over.

  “I told you I would break your head. Enlightened one or not, you are a failure, a pathetic excuse of a grandson...if you can’t fight me, you don’t deserve to live.”

  She threw bits of debris at him one by one as he dodged or punched them. She sent a mound under him and he flew up, landing on his side. Again and again, she targeted her attacks, not giving him a chance to stand up.

  “Get up! You’re a waste of space and a waste of my time!” Nehaya shouted, then spun around. “Come here, April! Maybe I can teach you a lesson instead!”

  She picked up a boulder, ready to throw it as the majority of skryts ran out of the way.

  “Stop!” Sam yelled.

  He gave the mound nearest to him a roundhouse kick, then chucked it before it could hit the floor towards Nehaya. The mound just about missed her.

  “You think that’s going to stop me? She will be the second girlfriend of yours to die!”

  Sam screamed out in a fit of fury as he hit the ground multiple times, sending Nehaya soaring. His eyes were cloudy with tears as he picked up a rock the size of a small car that rested near him and launched it at her. It fell from above, trapping her underneath...his fury dissipated as quickly as it had taken him over.

  “Nehaya!” he yelled, running to her.

  He lifted the rock off, threw it to one side then knelt on the ground beside her. “I’m so sorry,” he groaned as she lay there with her eyes closed.

  After a moment, her mouth flickered into something resembling a small smile. “Are you just going to sit there or help me up?” she mocked.

  His eyes widened, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She cackled with laughter for so long, he thought she must be suffering brain damage, but she suddenly sighed and patted his cheek gently with her hand while looking warmly into his eyes.

  “You did good, softie,” she said before limping away to join the other Masters.

  Sam was in so much shock from her little show of affection that he only noticed April once she had flung her arms around him.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  He wasn’t totally sure.

  “Yeah, I’m okay...I think.”

  Back at the hut, they nursed their injuries. Sam hadn’t spoken much since his fight with Nehaya, and mostly stared into space with a frown on his face.

  “What are you thinking about, Sam?” Jamie asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because you look miserable. I’m feeling depressed just looking at you,” Zachery told him light-heartedly.

  Sam stood up abruptly. “I need to go for a walk.”

  He put on his shirt and left. At first, he wandered around, trying to figure out what exactly was bothering him. When he found himself in front of the Masters’ hut, the thought occurred to him that it had something to do with the uneasy feeling he got whenever he thought of Nehaya. He walked up to the doorway and heard laughter.

  “Nehaya, are you in there?”

  “Enter,” she called out.

  He found the four Masters inside, now looking at him expectantly. His eyebrows were knitted as he addressed her.

  “Can I talk to you privately?”

  Nehaya nodded to the others and once they were gone, she folded her arms.

  “What do you want to speak to me about?”

  Her facial expression was softer than he had ever seen before.

  “I feel bad,” he said.

  “For?”

  “For hurting you.”

  She laughed. “It will take more than rock to hurt me, Sam. Tell me, what’s really bothering you?”

  “You used my real name.”

  “And?”

  “It feels weird...that you’re being nice to me.”

  “Well, did it occur to you that I might feel bad too?”

  No, it didn’t, I didn’t even think it was possible.

  He couldn’t speak for a minute. It took a very deep breath before he was ready to talk.

  “I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me,” he said firmly.

  “Fire away.”

  “Are we related?”

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s just a feeling I have.”

  Nehaya paused for a second before exhaling heavily. “Yes, we are.”

  He felt his ears pull back as he raised his eyebrows. She said it so casually that he almost didn’t believe her, even though it was his suspicion that had caused him to ask in the first place.

  “And the reason you never told me is?”

  “I thou
ght it was better not to, if I would be training you.”

  “I get what you mean, but were you ever going to tell me?”

  “At some point. I wasn’t really sure when.”

  “How are we related?”

  “Qayto is my cousin. Our mothers were sisters, mine the oldest sibling and Qayto’s the youngest. That’s why there’s a considerable age gap between us.”

  When he insisted on gazing at her lovingly, she scowled.

  “If you keep looking at me like that, I might have to revert back to my old self.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut for a couple of seconds, then showed her his best poker face.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just...being in the Skrytosphere feels lonely at times. It’s good to have one of your own close by.”

  Her eyes instantly became warm.

  “I know.”

  April exited the hut, intending to look for Sam. She turned left and saw Waysha sitting on her own under a tree, so she averted her eyes to ignore her altogether.

  “April!” Waysha called out as she approached her. “I was hoping to see you around.”

  April glared at her. “What do you want?”

  “I wanted to tell you that I didn’t mean what I said. I’m not some pervert, or shameless enough to hit on a guy who’s already with someone. Our job was to make all of you angry and convince you that we were fighting for real. It was an act more than anything else. I mean, yeah sure, Sorrain can be a hothead sometimes, but we’re all cool. There’s no point in you hating us for no reason.”

  “So, that whole thing was just for show?”

  “No, no, you all had to learn about our battle tactics and see how to use them in a conflict. That’s a given. I’m talking about the way we four were behaving...except maybe Marlo after you kicked him.” She smiled. “That was probably real.”

  April smiled back. “Thanks for telling me.”

  “No problem,” she said, turning to leave.

  “Hey, are you doing anything right now? Do you wanna come and chill with us?”

  “Err...okay, sure.”

  Sam returned to his hut after a couple of hours to find Waysha sitting on his bed, laughing at something Zachery had just said.