by R. J. Batla
All right. Point taken. “Yes, sir!”
Royn lead the way to one of the now-familiar empty circles and sat right in the middle, gesturing me to sit across the center dot from him, cross-legged. “Now, the others have started to learn this, but you need to master it now.”
“Yes, sir. Uh…what is it?”
“How to store your energy,” he said. “Say two fighters go into the ring, equal in every way except one: one has extra energy stored somewhere, the other does not. Who wins?”
I shrugged. “Obviously the one with the more energy, if they’re equal otherwise…”
“OK, how about if one is stronger than the other, but the weaker one has more energy stored up?”
“Depends on how much stronger, and if the weaker one can outlast the other to use his stored energy, or if he can use it for one big strike.”
“Correct. Now, say both of those fighters have been competing for, oh, say a month? Say they started out with the same amount, but one had some stored. What happens after that month?”
“Well, that wouldn’t matter; you regain all your energy back overnight. Right?”
Royn chuckled. “Ah, there’s the rub. You would think you would, right? Start each day with the same amount or more because it works like a muscle and you can build it? While, yes, that does happen over time, the next day, just like a sore muscle, you don’t have access to all your energy. It’s locked up, being used to repair and rebuild the stores. So it’s there, it’s just not available.” I gulped. OK, that kind of made sense. “And after a month of that?”
“You’d be running very low.”
“Bingo! Now you see?” He waited until I nodded. “Many-a-battle has been won by the one with the most stores of energy. You ready to learn?”
“Yes, sir!”
“All right then, now, since you are an Energy user, it should be easier. Go through the motions of firing an energy bolt out of your hand, but instead of shooting it out, you place it in your bracelet. Can you feel the bracelet?”
“Well, yeah, it’s on my wrist.”
He smacked me on the head. “Feel it with your mind, not your hand. Feel the entrance of where to put the energy.”
“Oh.” I tried and got nothing.
“Close your eyes, Jayton. Let your energy flow. Try to find your bracelet.”
Wait – I felt? Yeah, that was right, I could just…sense. I began to feel other things around me – the grass, the paint, every detail of my equipment, even Royn sitting there patiently in front of me. I couldn’t explain this state, or how I got into it, but here I was. I scratched my right arm.
Now this was interesting, like the Ignis kind of, like I was reaching out and touching things while just sitting here. My arm itched. There were a few imperfections in my shirt, and I think I needed new boots here pretty soon. My damn arm itched.
“Jay,” Royn said, “you feel it?”
“Yes, sir, I feel just about everything.”
I swear I felt him roll his eyes. “Your arm, dimwit. You feel the itch, where the bracelet melded with you? It’s still there, very close to your skin, almost blended to you.”
Oh. “Yeah, I feel it. Why’s it itching?”
“That’s your bracelet’s connection to you, and where you send the energy. Try now – send the energy to the exact spot where you feel the itch.”
I moved the energy, and to my amazement, it just sort of disappeared when it reached the itch. Well that was too easy. I popped my eyes open. “What’s the catch?”
Royn grinned. “There are two. One – although you can store a lot in that thing, it’s not infinite and it will reach its capacity. At which point, it has the potential to explode if broken or struck too hard, releasing all the energy at once.”
“Not good.”
“No, not good. The other catch is it’s not one-hundred-percent efficient. You lose about one percent going in, about two percent while it’s being stored, and another two percent on the transfer back. Five percent may not sound like much, but it’s reason enough not to be careless with the energy you store there.”
“Yes, sir.” I sent more energy in there, and the bracelet ate it up like a piece of candy. I did it again and again; it got easier every time. And every time, I got more tired, weaker, and sleepier. This thing had no bottom! I assumed I would fill it up in one night, but I was wrong.
Finally, Royn said, “All right, I think that’s enough. You’re about to fall over. You see how it drains you?” I nodded. “That’s why you wait until the end of the day, when you’re done with all your activity. Don’t give it too much, or best case you’ll sleep all the next day. Worst case, you might not wake up at all. Got it?”
I nodded again.
“Remember, if it’s struck too hard, it might explode.” Another nod from me. “All right, go get some grub, hit the sack, and we’ll get back to your regular training tomorrow. I want you to put all the energy you can into your bracelet right before you go to bed every day. Not tonight, but every other night. You’re dismissed.”
Damn good thing too – it took all I had to get up. Then to get up the stairs. Then to eat by myself. Must have been pretty late, because I was alone in the cafeteria.
Except the damn executioner, who walked in and sat a couple of tables away and stared at me. I just ignored him, but he kept staring at me then looking at the door. Like he was waiting on someone.
Sure enough, a minute later, a hooded and cloaked figure came in, totally obscured by shadows and cloth. Had to be a concealment power at work – I couldn’t tell anything about the guy. Except that he was a jerk, as he promptly walked over and sat down across from me, knocked my tray to the floor and snickered in a raspy disguised voice. “Dropped something, rat.”
I slowly rose to my feet. “Dude, I don’t know who you are, but I’m in no mood for your shenanigans. Leave me alone; I’m going to bed.”
“How dare you talk to me that way!” He moved fast, and had a knife up against my throat, backing me up against the wall. “Yeah, no one here to save you this time, vermin. No witnesses. You think you could just leave and get away with it? Like going to get your weapons would excuse you from judgment?”
“It wasn’t my fault! When your commander says go, you go!” Damnit, if I wasn’t so tired, I’d throw this joker through the wall, but as it was, I could barely move, let alone defend myself.
“Liar! Oh, look at that, I think I see the Morsenube trying to take control of you. Are those black spheres, I see? Yes, yes, I do believe it is, and you know what that means, right, Mr. Executioner?”
“You do not! We both know nothing of the sort is happening! Tell him, man. Do your job!” I screamed.
OK, this was getting too real. And the executioner just stood there.
“That’s not what the authorities will hear in a few minutes when I call in to report the dead rat in the caf –”
Clang.
The man and the executioner jerked their heads around. The man pulled back the knife and dropped me from the wall.
The executioner said, “Someone’s coming. Someone’s here!”
Clang. There it was again, something like someone moving fast through the kitchen area, closer this time. The man holding me turned and punched me right in the gut. I was not ready.
“Hurmbph!”
“Luck favors you again, vermin. You escaped my Int, you escaped me, and now you’re doing it again. You’d best watch yourself. I’ll be waiting for you to slip, for you to be ever so slightly unaware. Then it will all be over,” he said, bolting out the door with the executioner close behind.
After I caught my breath, I moved my finger ever so slightly. Clang. I did it again. Clang. Dumbass. If he’d remembered I’m also a telekinetic, he might have thought through my ruse. Lucky me.
Too tired to clean up, I muttered a quick apology to the janitors for tomorrow. I stumbled up the stairs. Made it through the door. Clothes stayed on. Night.
Chapter 34
&n
bsp; Despite what happened in the cafeteria the night prior, there we were, back at training again. Seems like that’s all we ever did. Royn put us through our paces, challenging everyone. We ran so much my hands hurt. Swimming. Pushups. Pull-ups. Climb the rope! Blast the target! Do it again; that was too slow! It seemed that the new additions to Squad Four needed some extra training. Not in the use of their element, but in working with a team of people not of their element. Frustration abounded as they argued over where someone was supposed to be or not be based off what they would have done.
The new weapons were amazing. With the new arm guard I was finally able to get a good handle on making shields. Amazing what the right tools will do.
I could definitely tell a difference in Squad Four. Muscles were better defined, and larger than before. Stamina improved – we could fight longer and harder, both with and without powers. Knowledge was gained exponentially – everything from combat techniques to Senturian history. And I soaked it in like a sponge.
***
Time kept right on moving, now the middle of July. After we had a quick lunch and were working on a water-fire-energy combo with Gilmer and me directing everyone, the Dwarf showed up.
And he was not what I was expecting. He was five-and-a-half-feet tall, like most Dwarves, but he was clean shaven, which was definitely not like most Dwarves. He was skinny, wore a dark brown, long-sleeved shirt, pants, and boots, and carried a smaller battle ax on each hip. Black hair, cut short – again, odd for a Dwarf – sat atop his head, while heavy eyebrows shaded deep set brown eyes, looking slightly older than me. A huge smile sat on his face.
“Well now, it looks like I showed up just in time!” he said, as everyone stopped and walked over to him, Celeste kinda hanging back. “Troup Stafford’s the name, earth’s my game. How is everyone?”
“We’re good Troup, how about you?” Royn said as he shook his hand.
“Excellent, excellent,” he replied, shaking all our hands. Celeste did so stiffly, even though Troup acted like nothing was amiss. I was last. Again. Seems to be a pattern. “Good to meet you, Jayton. I hear I’m supposed to train you in the ways of the Earth warrior. That right?” he said, waving his hands over his head in a mystical sort of way.
“Yes, sir.”
“All right, Royn, you mind if I steal him to get started? I know I got here half a day late, but I’ll still need the five full days, plus this one to train him up right.”
“If you must Troup,” Royn said, slapping him on the back. “But you’ll owe me!”
“Ha! You still owe me for last time, my friend. Jayton, if you would follow me, please,” he said, turning and heading to another circle. We leisurely walked to the middle, and he said, “Tell me what you think you know so I can correct it.”
I laughed and told him. After I finished, Troup stood there a second, drumming his fingers on his arms. I say a second – more like five minutes.
Finally, he said, “All right. Royn’s done an OK job getting you started, so we’ll build on that. I guess I don’t have to berate him for your shoddy education. First we’ll talk about the element itself – what do you think of when you think of rocks?”
“Um…they’re heavy?”
“Close! I would say it’s a very stable element. A very stubborn element. It doesn’t want to move. It’s content to sit and rest on its potential energy. What we have to do is convert that potential into kinetic energy, or movement, however you want to see it. So, with that being said, let’s get going.”
We started, and just like with the other elements, I progressed rapidly. Troup was a good teacher – patient almost to the point of being slow. He spent half the day thinking. Troup never moved or acted without first thinking on it. A lot. No wonder he was late getting here.
But that patience paid off – he was consistently able to beat me in sparring. I moved around very quickly, while he hardly moved at all.
“You’re wasting time and energy doing that,” he said, “at least with earth, anyway. It may work for the other elements, but not earth. You have to feel it, wait for it. Minimize your movements and you’ll maximize your power and speed. A flick of the wrist can yield a devastating landslide, or simply plunk a pebble into the lake. Now, again!”
I hit the deck. Hard.
Troup offered a hand. “That’s the third time I’ve done that same move to you and you’ve pulled back. You’re not going in for the kill. Why?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And yet you’re going to be a soldier, and fight in a tournament to the death? Doesn’t seem very smart to me, my friend.”
“I, um…well, I um…”
“You’d better get over that right quick. Especially with earth. It takes power moves – quick, strong, stable movements. Precise. Not aggressive, not passive. It takes a strong will. To make it move. Make it obey you. Now, try it again.”
So we did.
Troup applied the same philosophy to interactions with people. He didn’t say much, but when he did, it was either profound or hilarious. With him in our ranks, our group grew again.
The next day, Troup basically made me be “patient” all day. That and be in control, since, in his words: “If you cause your own quicksand pit, no one is going to pull you out.”
Another day and I got: “Good good…you waited that time. Slide your foot, though…subtle moves, timing, and patience.”
Then, all of the sudden, the bastard started moving much faster during our sparring sessions.
“What gives?” I asked, picking myself up again. Dusting off everything. Again. “I thought you said slow and steady wins the race?”
He grinned, tossing a stone – i.e. boulder – at me, which I had to redirect before it crushed me. “It will, unless you meet a gentleman who happens to be fast and steady. The idea is slow teaches you the control, the form, the technique. From there, you should be able to speed it up. It should work similar for all the elements.”
Well I’ll be damned.
The final three of our group had apparently arrived overnight and had come to the room before we started our training the next day. There were some introductions to start it off: Marlin Ralls from the Reka, Sonora Aledo from the Aeren, and Josey Lamesa of the Elves. Even though it was five in the morning, we were still polite as we got dressed and talked to our new teammates.
Marlin was shorter than me, and he shook my hand first. A well-built dude, his tight clothes showed off ripped muscles. His skin, hair, and deep blue eyes were almost the exact color of Aurora Helotes’.
“How do you do, Ranger? I hear good things about you from our Prin…I mean, our Queen.” He grinned. “Still getting used to that. I was her personal guard, you know.”
“I’m good, thanks, good to meet you,” I said.
It surprised me that Aurora thought enough about me to have good things to say, as our relationship seemed a bit superficial. But I kept that to myself.
Marlin continued, “I hear you’ve already had your water training, so we won’t be doing any one on one, eh?”
“That’s the rumor,” I replied, which brought a laugh and a back slap from Marlin, as he headed out the door to wait in the lobby.
Next up came Sonora Aledo, another pretty girl – not that I’m complaining, but seriously, all of them? The general lack of clothing showed off light green skin with a tattoo between her eyes, shining in the light. Only a couple inches shorter than Katy, she was heavily muscled, which seemed counter intuitive to me since she was an Aeren. A smile hit her lips as she shook my hand and reached up to kiss me on each cheek. Which made me blush. And when I said reached – I meant she floated up. Literally.
“Hello Ranger, I’m Sonora Aledo. I believe you’ll be training with me today. You’d better bring your A-game – air is a lot different than these other gravity-bound elements you’ve been working with,” she said, and then exited as well.
Then came our Elf. She glided toward me, tall and thin, her pointed ears poking ou
t from her long blonde hair, clashing brilliantly with her light purple skin. Graceful to the point of insanity, every move was almost hypnotizing. I saw a longbow and quiver on her back. Her woodsman clothes looked as if they would provide camouflage in almost any environment. “Josey Lamesa, Ranger, how are you? Your head hurts?”
“Good to meet you Josey, and yes it does, how did you –” She gently touched my temple. A jolt of static electricity jumped from her hand and the headache went away. “Wow, thanks!” I said.
“You’re very welcome. We will train in the coming weeks. Good luck with the Aeren training…” she said, and turned to leave with a smirk.
We hustled to breakfast and were still talking as we emerged onto the training grounds to find Royn already there and waiting. No surprise there. He simply pointed to the right, and Sonora peeled off, so I followed. Evidently she knew the drill. We walked to the middle of a circle, and sat down facing each other. This was starting to be a bit repetitive.
“All right Jay. First thing, can you grab air?”
“Uhhh,” I said very smartly.
Sonora rolled her eyes. “Pull your head out – that wasn’t a hard question. No, you can’t grab air in the same way that you can grab water or earth. Fire’s closer to air than the other two – it’s actually part air, depending on who you ask. Anywho...” She had her legs crossed, hands on knees, staring intently at me. The tattoo between her eyes blinked when she talked, which I couldn’t stop looking at me. “Stop watching my tattoo – they all do that, don’t let it distract you.” So I dropped my gaze. “Don’t look at those either; they’re just as bad. Ugh, men.”
She rubbed her eyes. “OK, try to focus. Air can flow like water, cool like ice, burn like fire, and become as solid as a stone. It’s the most versatile element, and therefore one of the hardest to control. It will sit still unless prompted, while it will move unless stopped. Get it?”
