19- Happy Birthday

"Today is the day" Kaius said to himself while looking in the bathroom mirror. His hair was dripping wet as he'd just gotten out of the shower.

Looking at his reflection he could see his aura, it was black with swirls of different colors swimming in it. As he looked in the mirror he studied it. It was mesmerizing watching the different colors swirl about in the black soup that was now his aura, It looked similar to the sky at night.

He thought about the previous night and how it felt when he combined his 7 elements and the black aura manifested.

Last night he had been sitting on his bed cross legged, seamlessly switching between the different elements. He'd gotten extremely good at it and it felt natural. He felt more aware of the elements around him.

After switching between them for a while, he wanted to see if he could hold them all at once.

First, he pulled in the fire elements and a red aura appeared around him. After that he pulled in each type of element one by one. As he pulled in the different elements he made sure to hold on to the previous one, being sure not to combine them.

He imagined himself as the sun, and each element he pulled in was a different planet, creating a harmony between him and the Elemental energy flowing through him.

BOOOM

Kaius felt like there was an explosion inside of him, he felt incredibly strong. As he focused on the feeling he began to actually see the elements in the air. They felt like they were a part of him, just by thinking he was able to shape and move them about.

He held on to the feeling for a while maintaining his perfect harmony of the elements with him as their center. After a bit, he realized he couldn't see the elements anymore. He could sense them and knew they were there, he just couldn't see them with his naked eye anymore.

He didn't care though, he could still sense them and if he really focused they would start to appear again.

He enjoyed the feeling, so he maintained his aura and went to bed.

When he woke up and hopped out of the shower, he tried swapping between the different Elemental auras. Regardless of which element he focused on, his aura was always a black rainbowy swirl.

He also felt a stronger connection to the Elements. Switching between them was no longer necessary. Kaius loved this closeness he now felt with the elements, twirling his fingers all the water drenching his hair flew out of it and hovered around his finger.

Kaius watched the water droplets float around his hand and had an idea. He wanted to see how long he could shape and hold this bit of water.

Thinking about how best to do this, he decided somehow wearing it like jewelry would be best. Twirling his fingers Kaius wielded the water around his wrist and wore it like a bracelet. He envisioned it being sturdy, but not heavy. He did a few exercises of swinging his wrists around to see if the water would be displaced but it seemed like a real bracelet and just hung around his wrist.

Kaius realized it took almost no effort to shape and hold the water bracelet like this. Wanting to push his power to the limit he decided to do the same with fire and made a bracelet around his other wrist. The fire was bright and looked really flashy.

As cool as it was, Kaius didn't want to draw attention to his little experiment so he dispersed the elements and the fire bracelet disappeared.

He decided to try with wind and put two wind bracelets on his ankles. They looked cool, and Just like with the water element it felt and responded like a real bracelet as he moved around. Being on his ankles his pants would cover them, even if he wore shorts wind elements weren't that noticeable anyway.

Feeling satisfied, Kaius left the bathroom which was connected to his bedroom and got himself ready for the day.

As he opened his door to leave he found Carina outside ready to knock on the door. Seeing him she smiled and immediately hugged him tight. "Happy birthday brother" she said as she released him from her bear hug.

When she hugged him he felt wet on his right side where his water bracelet was and noticed it was gone.

It wasn't only weird that the bracelet lost it shape, but also that his aura didn't protect him from getting wet. He assumed that as Carina hugged him he must have just lost focus, in the future he'd have to pay more attention to maintain the bracelets.

As she let him go he twirled his fingers pulling the water out of his clothes and once again formed the bracelet on his wrist.

Smiling he responded to Carina "thanks sis, lets go get some breakfast." The two entered the dining room and found Jason and their parents sitting at the table.

From the kitchen they could hear a mans voice. "Its a special occasion, let us have drinks to celebrate it." Then in walked a blonde haired man holding a bottle of champagne. The man looked a lot like Anna, and seeing him Carina shouted "uncle Patrick" and ran towards him.

Patrick placed the champagne bottle he was holding on the table and hugged his niece. Releasing her he smiled, "you look just like your mother when she was your age. Your making sure to behave and not beating too many people up right" Patrick said winking at Carina.

"Who me" she responded as she smiled and winked back at her uncle.

Patrick looked to Kaius "too old to give your uncle a hug Mr. Birthday boy" he said laughing. Walking over to Kaius, Patrick gave a him a tight hug. "Happy Birthday big guy, you've gotten a lot stronger since I last saw you" Patrick said while squinting his eyes at Kaius.

Anna grabbed Kaius and began smothering him in kisses. "My big boy is 16 I can't believe it, happy birthday baby." Kaius smiled awkwardly and groaned.

Micheal and Jason approached Kaius next. Jason ruffled his hair and wished him happy birthday. Micheal came over and hugged him, "i'm very proud of how strong you've become" he said, giving Kaius a squeeze. "Come, let us go to the training area I think its best you receive your gift there."

The group went to the training area and Micheal wished Kaius happy birthday again while handing him a box. The Box was a little over a foot long and about a half a foot wide.

Opening the box Kaius discovered a sword hilt. The hilt was all black with white engravings all over. Kaius was confused pulling out the hilt he asked, "where's the rest of it, its just a hilt and guard for a katana."

Patrick walked over, "let me see that kid." Taking the hilt Patrick flipped it over a few times observing every detail of it. After a minute of observing the blade he spoke, "wow, this is top notch work, you never fail to surprise me." Looking to Micheal he winked, "I wonder how many favors you called in to get them to make something like this."

Micheal shook his head and took the hilt from Patrick. "Let me explain," he said looking to Kaius.

"This is an aura blade." You use it by focusing Elemental energy into it. Making a slicing motion in the air, Micheal focused his fire element into it and a blade made of fire extended from the hilt. At the same time the engravings on the hilt turned red.

The blade looked like a real steel blade cloaked in fire. Micheal swung the blade a few times then removed his element, restoring it to its hilt form again.

Micheal handed the blade to Jason who demonstrated the same sword strikes as Micheal but used his water element, then his wind element. Every time a different element was put into the hilt the engravings on the side would change from white to the corresponding element color.

Jason handed the hilt to Kaius who was smiling ear to ear. "Amazing" he said while looking the hilt over.

Micheal spoke, "most aura blades can only hold one element, but this one is special. Another special thing is that it forms an actual blade when you focus an element into it, unlike some blades that only shape the element into a blade."

"How does it form a real blade" Kaius asked.

Interrupting, Patrick answered "well that's a trade secret that the Elemental blacksmiths keep close to the chest" he said winking. "What I do know is they use a special metal, something from some other planet that's stored in the hilt. Once the element is injected into the hilt, it combines and hardens the material forming the blade. There's not much that blade can't cut."