by R. J. Batla
She swept her staff parallel to the ground, an arc of fire rocketing my way. I knew enough to shift my right foot behind me, then raise the back of my fist in front of me, redirecting the fire up.
“Good,” she said, standing and talking with her hands, “but that was a water-style move. Every element has slightly different techniques, different stances, different motions. Remember, you can use any technique with any motion, but it will be stronger with the correct style.”
She continued, “Fire is aggressive, remember. Simple. It wants to burn. Straightforward, like this,” she said, performing a perfect jab-cross with a fire burst each time. “Aggressive movements, not fluid movement, will work best.” Tossing me her staff, she said, “Use this. It will even the odds until you learn more. It will enhance your fire. Now you attack.”
I’d never used a weapon to enhance my powers, but I assumed it worked like an extension of your body, so I sent fire energy into it and the staff responded, pulsing red and small flames shooting out the ends. I could tell it had been made to aid a Fire Senturian.
I stepped forward and jabbed with the staff, sending a burst of fire at her. She countered easily and slipped in close to me, firing two bursts. I dodged those two, but let my defense down and she was suddenly right there in front of me. Trying to bring the staff to bear, she grabbed me before I could move and hip-tossed me out of the circle.
Landing with a crash, I got to a knee before she was there, helping me up. “That was horrible. You must learn faster than that. Again!”
We went back and forth like that for hours; sometimes she would show me how to block, sometimes not. If I didn’t get something, she wouldn’t let me move on until I had it down pat. Every basic strike, both with and without the staff, was drilled until I could do it without thinking. We finished at the same time as the others, Morgan and I joined them and ate together in the cafeteria.
“How was it?” Leona asked as I plopped down beside her. She smiled at me, saying with her eyes “You poor thing; you look like you got your ass kicked.” I returned it, hopefully saying, “You’re right.”
I knew I had to look bad – I didn’t stop all the attacks, so my clothes were scorched in a couple of places – all over – I knew I had burns I hadn’t had time to heal yet. And I smelled like singed hair. “It was rough – Morgan’s a tough teacher.”
“He was a good student. Learned very fast,” Morgan said. “After he decided to not take it easy on me. Tomorrow will be harder.” She then began scarfing down food as fast as she could. I looked down and saw that her plate was piled to the point of overflowing. Did I say plate? I mean plates. Plural.
“Are you going to eat all that?” Gilmer asked. He was fidgety – his whole body tense, almost bending his fork in half.
Morgan gave him a quizzical look. “Of course. Why would I put it on my plate if I wasn’t going to eat it? That would be wasteful, and an insult to the animal or plant that gave its life-fire so that we could consume it.”
“Sorry, what I meant was….” Gilmer backpedaled. “I mean, that’s a lot of food.”
Morgan smiled at him and he flinched. Slightly, but he flinched. “You will too when you learn to store your energy.”
That night, lying in bed, I reached over and tapped Gilmer. “So Morgan’s pretty cool huh?”
“Hmmm. Um…what did you say, Jay?”
“I said Morgan’s pretty cool, huh?”
“Yeah she is.”
“She’s pretty too.”
“Uh huh.”
“And she fights naked.”
“Yeah she – wait what?” Gilmer asked, sitting upright.
I laughed. “Yeah didn’t think you were paying attention. Goodnight, man!”
He cussed me out as he rolled over. But it was still funny.
We were at it again the next day. Aggressive moves did work better with fire. Straight jabs would send a powerful blast. A rolling hand motion, while it would still produce a flame, was much less intense, much less powerful. Same with kicks and sweeps. When controlling the streams, balls, or walls of fire, you had to force it, had to make it follow your will. You couldn’t just suggest it, you had to tell it who’s boss at all times. Otherwise it either fizzled out or spread apart.
Today, Morgan used her staff almost exclusively, making me work open handed. I tired faster, meaning she had a continual advantage on me.
“Build your endurance, Jayton Baird. You’ll need it,” she would say after I almost collapsed. Or she knocked me down. Or I fell trying to dodge an attack.
We took a break around noon. She caught me eying her staff. “You like it, yes?”
“Yeah, it seems to enhance your power. Why did you pick a staff?”
“When I received my weapons, it was the only one that presented itself. Plus, Phoenix prefer staffs as a general rule. I have adapted my fire to incorporate my staff, and use it as a focus to concentrate and guide my powers. I’m sure you’ve picked up I can manipulate the fire much better when I use my staff, yes?” I nodded. “You do not have a weapon yet, so you must learn to use your body as the weapon, as your focus, as your channel. You need to be able to do both, and depending on what your weapon is, it may be better to use your body anyway. It all depends on the situation, and it’s usually a function of efficiency and ease of use. But every Senturian is different. Now, let’s get going again.”
Two more days until my day off. That’s all. Two more burnt, beat, battered and bruised days.
“All right, Jayton Baird, show me what you’ve learned,” she said. “Show me all ten fire forms.”
Taking a deep breath, I stood straight and tall, spreading my hands wide then bringing them down in front of me. Then I moved, whirling, punching, kicking, sending fire everywhere like an out of control blowtorch. Breathing heavy, I kept going, pushing myself – blast here, duck, jab-cross-knee combo, sweep kick, front flip. “Vortex!” I said, leaping into the air while spinning and blasting fire from hands and feet, a veritable tornado of flame. Landing, I stood again and pressed my hands down. Only then did I relax and look at Morgan.
With one arm across her chest, and the other tapping her chin, I didn’t know what to think. “You’re not ‘ready’ in any sense of the word. If you were a Phoenix, I’d send you back to basics. You’re sloppy on your transitions, your stances are off, and I don’t know what you did in the middle.”
Well crap.
Then she smiled. “But, you’re in a good enough spot for me to say you’re ‘trained’ in the art of fire.”
I jumped with a fist pump. “Ha ha! Uh…so what do we do now?” I asked her as we walked back to the circle where the rest of the team worked on a combo drill, each with their different elements.
“I train with your team, teaching them what I know and getting to know them. Their strengths and weaknesses. How we can work together to help you in your task. And correct your mistakes – don’t think you’re done with me yet. You still have much to learn. I think I’m even supposed to move into your room, as I am one of the escort group. We’ll train much more together.”
I wondered what this escort group was going to look like by the time we left. “Have you ever been to the West Side, you know, where the tournament is going to be? People don’t talk much about it, so I don’t know a whole lot of what’s going on,” I asked.
“No, I haven’t. They say it’s a rough place, only fit for pirates and monsters. But it’s in such environments that life thrives,” she said, shrugging. As we approached the others, she grabbed my arm. “You will tell me something, yes?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Is there something wrong with your friend Gilmer? Every time I talk to him, he seems only capable of one word answers or grunts.”
Chapter 23
Morgan was right: after five days, I could tell my power, control, speed, and abilities had drastically increased with fire. Level two, er, I guess level eight fire training complete! Morgan and I rejoined the rest of the squa
d and started training together again. For two days, at least. That’s when the Manu showed up.
Euless Deport was literally a ball of energy. His yellow and orange robes hung loose, like all Manus, and hid everything but his hands and head. Sometime his skin would actually pulse, like feeding a flame more gas, then cutting it back again. Capital m’s decorated his orange/yellow hands and he had shoulder-length light brown hair slicked back like Gilmer’s. As a matter of fact, if Gilmer had a goatee, they could have been twins. They were the same height, had the same slight build, and each looked like they had been raised in the upper crust of society.
Euless was fast. Not Katy fast, but his connection to his energy power gave him extra speed, almost like electricity was running through him instead of blood. And he did everything fast – talk, walk, train, eat, even sleep! It was like electricity ran through him, not allowing him to move slowly.
After introductions, Euless said, “All right Jayton, let’s go see how much you don’t know.” He turned with a wave, and then we speed-walked away from the group to another of the multiple training circles. He stopped about two yards in front of me and turned around, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Energy is one of the hardest elements to master,” he said, embellishing each statement with a motion. “It’s also one of the most versatile. It can flow like water, be locked in place like earth, burn or heat like fire, and be scattered or directed like air. You can use it to push and pull objects – as long as you keep a connection with it. Energy behaves as an extension of your body because, well, it is.
“I’ll show you how to create a shield that will stop almost any attack, no matter the element. You can lace anything with energy, any weapon, and make it more powerful. You can charge objects, basically making a bomb you can throw or set in place for a trap. You can use it to boost your strength and speed, as long as you brace the rest of your body for the impact of lifting or moving more than it’s used to. Your muscles can take it, but your bones and heart, well, they might not.” He said all this really quickly. “Now, let me show you h – question?”
I had raised my hand. Like I was back in kindergarten. “Yes, sir.”
“Don’t call me sir.”
“OK, Mr...”
He slapped his forehead. “Don’t call me mister. Call me Euless.”
“OK, Euless...”
“Yes?”
I smiled. “Morgan told me that each element has its own style that works with it. For fire, it was aggressive moves that worked best, so what’s the best tactic for energy?”
“Ah ha, you are learning, apprentice,” he said with a grin, stroking his goatee. “You’re correct – Energy, to be used most efficiently, requires semi-aggressive, but much more complicated movements than Fire. Kind of a mix between water and fire, actually. See if you can tell the difference – energy shot with a fire-style stance.” He jumped back, took a normal fighting stance, and did a straight right cross, sending a burst of energy at a target that had appeared sometime while I was not looking. “See?”
“Yes.”
“OK, now with energy-style,” he said, taking the same stance, and performing a modified right cross. “See the difference?”
“Yeah, you made several slightly different moves as you went through the same motions just before the punch. And the footwork was different,” I said.
“Right you are. Good eye,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Energy is subtle and a little off from the other elements. If the move you’re trying to use is fire-like, then the corresponding energy move will be fire-like, but with a couple of twists.”
“Understood, sir…” I started, then got a look. “I mean Euless.”
“Good. So let’s go!”
Energy came pretty easy to me, and Euless was right: it behaved like all the other elements, but always slightly different. It would flow, but you had to massage it a little. It would burn, but you had to flare it a little. You could lock it, but you had to bond it a little. We dove in and trained hard.
I was doing pretty good until a girl walked by. She wouldn’t have caught my attention all on her own, but as she passed us, she changed into a man. Euless blew me backward with an energy blast.
“Sorry, Jayton, but you can’t get distracted,” he said, eying the girl. Er…man. Er…now a girl again. Euless gave a huge shudder and shook it out through his limbs. “Man, those Shifters. I can’t be around them – they give me the creeps. Just think if one got close to you…they could be anybody…”
By the end of five days, I was again impressed by how much I gained in knowledge and abilities. The shields gave me trouble though – they wouldn’t work right for me without the Ignis. In the real world, I could barely stop one of Euless’s minor attacks. Otherwise, I did great! Afterwards, Euless and I joined our squad, bringing our number to seven. Well, eight, counting Royn.
Exhausted after training late, I ate in the cafeteria, and decided I needed some fresh air before I went back to the room. So I wound my way down and walked around, enjoying the crisp night air. Nothing like getting a little chilly to wake you up and clear your head.
“Have you thought about our offer?” a gruff voice said behind me and I jumped. Turning around, the same hooded figure who talked to me before stood at the edge of a building, just inside the shadow where I couldn’t get a good look at him. “Master has been waiting.”
You’d think I’d learn to stop walking around by myself.
I could smell him from here; damn it stunk. “No, I still don’t think I need his help – I’m doing just fine.”
I didn’t like the situation – alone, no one really knew where I was – you know, everything they tell you not to do. This looked too much like a cougar cornering a deer. There was something odd about this guy, feral maybe, like he was always poised to attack. I gathered energy, readying it just beyond my skin, providing an invisible shield around me for the moment. I kept it at a low level, but put enough that I’d be able to bring it forward with just a thought. It made me feel better, however slightly.
The man, er…creature started walking toward me now slowly, the stench intensifying with each step. He said, “Are you sure?” He stopped almost at an arm’s length, slightly glowing red eyes the only thing I could see under his hood.
“Yes, I’m sure.” I shifted my weight ever so slightly into a better fighting position.
“Very well. We will see you soon,” said the gruff voice, and he walked past me, patting my right shoulder with his hand as he walked by. Wincing, I almost passed out from the smell, garbage and rotting flesh assaulting my nostrils as I gagged for breath and exhaled in relief at the same time. My shoulder felt funny where he had placed his hand. I rubbed it, trying to remove the oddness, and shivered – I didn’t like the feeling that guy gave me. I turned and walked back to the tower, then back up to the room to an uneasy rest.
My head spun after my meeting with the stranger. There was no way I was going somewhere to be trained by another Morsenube user. I knew of only one other – Malstrak.
But what if he could teach me to control it? No. He’s a madman.
But what if I lose control and hurt people? And if I went ballistic at the wrong time, then it would be the end of me.
Was I actually considering this? Was this a possible backup plan?
I picked up my badge. “Royn, do you copy?”
After a second, the gem blinked back. “Go ahead, Jay.”
“Is there someone who can train me to control the Morsenube? I mean, really control it?”
“Jayton, the best trainers in all of Terraunum are right here. And most of them are sleeping. What’s going on?”
“Someone approached me tonight. Said they knew someone who could help me.”
Royn made a frustrated noise on the other end of the line. “Jayton, there are very few people to whom you could be referring. I feel like you know this would be a bad idea. I don’t need to tell you how dangerous it is to even talk to people who might be suggesting thi
s. Let’s make a deal, right here, right now. Do you promise to tell me if you’re contacted again? To talk to me if you start to even consider their offer? I’ll remind you that the best place to get help is right here. If you agree, I’ll forget I ever heard this. If not, we’re going to have a different conversation. Deal?”
“Deal, sir. But, Royn –”
“Jayton, listen to me: stop worrying. You’ve got the best warriors and minds right here. You’re safe. Let it go and let me do my job, okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Goodnight, Jayton.”
“Goodnight, sir.”
The next morning, Royn had us meet him outside Harlingon’ s walls, saying something about being outside would help everyone’s moral. Apparently we were getting cabin fever. So the whole team grabbed their packs and some weapons and we marched out.
After a mile of hiking, we entered a particularly dense group of trees and Royn said, ”Ah, here we go. This clearing will work nicely for –”
“Um, for what, sir?”
Getting no answer, I turned to find everyone was frozen in place, like suddenly time had stopped. Royn stood still as a statue. Anton was in mid-stride, Gilmer was looking at Morgan, and everyone else was in various states of casual hiking. Except Leona. She was pointing ahead of us, into the clearing. I gulped as I turned around.
A lone figure stood on the other side of the clearing, hooded black cloak billowing in the wind. Some kind of dark armor was all over him and he wore an armored mask over his face. This was the same guy from the Int attack!
“Uh, Royn, what do I do here –”
“They cannot help you, boy. It’s you and me now,” the man said, walking to his left, putting him out of view of the rest of the team. “I can’t believe how much leeway they’ve given a monster such as yourself. You should have died. You should have been killed before you ever got on that train.”
Well, this put me in a bit of a pickle. I couldn’t help my friends. I had to concentrate on this guy in front of me. I didn’t really want to fight him because I wasn’t sure how good he was, why he hated me so much, or what he was willing to do to actually see me dead. So I figured it was a good thing I had an ace up my sleeve.
