Chapter Six: Countdown

Several days passed since the Dark Elementia attacked us. Everyday since then I was training nonstop with Jinny, sometimes even staying awake to train on my own. I knew I had improved greatly since my first day there. It had been over three weeks since then. Akari predicted we would be attacked near the end of the month. It was late August; August 26th to be exact. That meant there were five days left until the end of the month, five days left to train and become strong enough to stay alive without having to be defended. I won't lie, I was pretty anxious.

I ate breakfast slowly that morning as these thoughts circled my mind. A few of the others seemed to notice how quiet I was while we ate, and Agni lightly elbowed me. "What's wrong with you?"

"Ah, what?" I was so lost in thought I hardly noticed their stares after Agni elbowed me.

"Is everything alright Sanda?" Hanako spoke up, looking concerned.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about the future I guess..." I looked down at my food.

"I understand, but remember: we're here with you and we always will be." Akari smiled at me from across the table and I nodded. Her confident smile made it hard to not have faith in her words, but I had a bad feeling for some reason. My gut was telling me something bad was coming, I just didn't know what. I finished eating and went out to train with Jinny again after she finished. I could feel everyone's gazes on me as I walked off.

"Alright, show me everything you can do. I need a little review." Jinny said as we reached the training arena.

I nodded, thinking of everything I could do. I took the stance that now felt natural to me, and sparks emitted various parts of my body. Soon enough, my entire body was encased in lightning, the hairs on my arms and legs standing up as well as any other hair I had, including my already spiky hair. I did a few of the moves Jinny taught me, punching and kicking rapidly, doing a few feints as well. Through my training I had learned several things: how to control my inner energy with lightning, shoot several lightning bolts from my hands at once, and call lightning from any point I wanted as long as I could see it, including the sky itself.

I demonstrated all of these things to Jinny, and she nodded in approval, smiling at me. "Now, we fight with our elements every day until they come. Got it?" I looked at her with a serious, determined gaze, and that was all she needed to know I understood. She took her stance, parts of her body turning transparent, like water.

"Normal punches and kicks won't work... They'll go right through her... I'll have to use my lightning..." As I thought of shocking Jinny and hearing her yelp or scream in pain, I faltered. "I-I can't-" Before I could even finish my thought, Jinny was in front of me.

She kicked upward toward my face and I quickly ducked back. "Ah..!" My eyes widened I watched water stream from her foot like a jet and she brought her foot back down, the stream of water strong enough to slam me down into the ground, knocking the wind out of me. I coughed and held my gut, groaning, my eyes wide with pain.

"Lose focus in a real fight and you're dead." Jinny said sternly with a cold gaze. "I've taken a beating before. Don't look down on me Sanda." It was like she could read my mind.

I grit my teeth and stood up slowly, lightning encasing my body once more. "You asked for it..." I flashed over to her like a bolt of lightning. She quickly jumped out of the way and I felt something wrap around my waist, a water whip of sorts, but my lightning started to shock it, making its way to Jinny's hand. However, she threw me quicker than the lightning could move.

I spun around and caught myself, skidding against the ground. I looked over to her and she was directly in front of me. My eyes widened as she punched my gut and a stream of water sent me flying back. I grunted and she jumped, kicking upward whilst a stream of water shot out from the bottom of her foot, hitting me up into the air, and then swung her other leg as she spun around, hitting me in the back with another water stream and sending me crashing into the ground. I groaned, but quickly stood up, glaring in Jinny's direction, and she returned it.

"It'll be worse than this... I need to give it my all..." I shot my hands forward and several thin bolts of lightning flew out of my palms toward Jinny. She fired water streams from her feet again, flying into the air. Her whole body turned to water and she started spinning rapidly like a buzzsaw, flying at me. I held out my hand again and fired a massive bolt of lightning from my palm, trying to push her back, but before I even realized it, she was behind me. The thing I was shooting at was now just steam, having been a decoy.

She held her hand close to my throat, water encasing it like a blade. I shivered and closed my eyes. She chopped my neck with her hand that was now just wet. "And boom, you're dead." She snickered.

"Damnit." I sighed.

"You did pretty well for your first time, but you're obviously gonna have to do a lot better."

"I know..." Even if I knew how to fight, I didn't have experience like the rest of them. That's why I needed to gain as much as possible in the next few days. Suddenly, Daichi, Kazane, and Agni walked out as well.

Jinny looked at them and tilted her head. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"We've been watching and-" Daichi started.

Kazane cut Daichi off. "We wanna help! After seeing Sandy so nervous, we decided he'd get a lot more experience fighting all of us at once!"

"Not to mention fighting multiple different elements will let him adjust in case he ends up fighting more than just the plasma...which he most likely will." Agni stated after Kazane's rant.

I smiled a bit. "Thanks... I'll gladly accept all your help."

Jinny smiled as well. "All you guys had to say is that you're worried." She thought to herself.

Daichi practiced martial arts with me, Kazane and I worked on speed, Jinny and I practiced how to be smart in a battle, and Agni taught me more special ways to use my element, like encasing his fingers in flames like claws. I tried to do the same, but it took a lot of focus and I couldn't keep it up for long. With all of them teaching me at once, I knew I'd improve at a much greater rate, but time could only tell if it'd be enough to face the so called prodigy.

Atiyama's P.O.V.

I watched as the Plasma Elementia showed off his skills. From his fingertips, five tiny balls of plasma formed on each hand, each one firing a thin beam of plasma, all being controlled to go in whatever direction he pleased. He made every one of them hit a dead tree and each beam went straight through with ease. He smirked and looked back at me. "And that's not the worst I can do."

I nodded, somewhat impressed with his speedy growth. "Good. Continue training. The 31st is when we attack." I then turned and snapped my fingers, the other five Dark Elementia jumping out and attacking the Plasma Elementia suddenly, but he merely smirked, fending off their attacks with his plasma.

"Now this is what I call training!" He laughed wildly, the Dark Elementia's elements flying through the air.

I walked inside the shack as they trained, several thoughts running through my mind. I looked at the light coming into the shack. I instantly covered every crack and crevice of the shack with my shadows, no light coming in anymore. "I'm going to beat you Akari... Just watch..." My shadow rose up from its place, curling around my body like a snake. "I'll crush that stupid smile of yours...and watch it fade as I make you watch me kill all your so called friends..."

I waved off my shadows and walked upstairs to my room, a place no light reached. I looked around at the black cube that was my room. I walked in and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, able to see every inch of my room with my dark eyes. To anyone else, my room would just look completely black, though it's not like it mattered. Either way, my room was still empty.

I ran a hand through my hair, remembering things from my past. I grit my teeth as a certain memory came to mind, but I quickly shook my head as I heard the sounds of battle and laughter outside. "Do you want to go out there?" A voice muttered in my head and my eyes darkened. "Why do you think no one's coming to get you? They're too scared, like everyone else. You're the Darkness Elementia; you're meant to be alone like this."

"Yeah... I know that..." I muttered. Time passed and I stood up, walking out of my room. I watched as everyone was in the process of walking back inside, sweating and light injuries littered their flesh, their clothes covered in dirt. Everyone had some kind of energy and emotion about them.

"Time flies when your life falls apart, doesn't it?" The voice said again, but I simply walked downstairs, ignoring it.

"How'd it go?" I asked in a mutter.

A few of them jumped a bit as they hadn't even noticed me. "Well, I got my ass handed to me..." The Plasma Elementia muttered, looking much worse than everyone else. "I'll have to fix my hoodie, thanks lava girl."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

"I don't think that was a compliment Angie." Attor snickered at the ditzy girl. Angie was the nickname we called her, from her last name. It's what she preferred to be called since she didn't like her actual name very much.

"I-It wasn't? I'm sorry..." She muttered, pressing her fingers together nervously.

"For a Lava Elementia, she doesn't have much fire..." I thought to himself as I watched them.

"Is something on your mind Atiyama?" Kristy mumbled as she caught me looking at them all.

"He always looks like he's got something on his mind." Boris chuckled.

"There is always something on my mind. Nothing for you all to worry about." I walked past them.

"He's probably just nervous about the fight... I know I am..." Angie poked her fingers together, looking down, her bangs covering her eyes. She thought of Agni, how terrifying he was in battle. However, he showed restraint against her for some reason. Despite her feelings, she knew she would have to kill him eventually.

"You really need to harden your resolve. They're not all that tough and we could kill them easily." Boris grumbled as he fiddled with an icicle in his hand, crushing it.

"You shouldn't think about such violent things all the time Boris, it's not good for your mental health. You shouldn't underestimate them either, it'll get you killed..." Isek chuckled softly.

"Whatever." Boris rolled his eyes.

Sanda's P.O.V.

I laid on the ground, panting heavily. The sun was going down and I was exhausted from the intense training from all my peers, but it definitely helped me improve quite a bit.

Jinny knelt by me and ruffled my hair. "You still with us sparky?" She grinned.

I laughed weakly. "Fortunately... For how long I wonder..." I spoke weakly as my stomach growled. "So...hungry... I don't think I'm gonna make it..." Everyone paused for a moment before bursting out into laughter, though Agni just facepalmed.

"Come on you dork." Jinny helped me up and we all headed inside to have dinner. We were greeted at the door by Akari and Hanako. Hanako gave all of us light treatment, healing our wounds.

"I can see you're all working very hard. Keep up the good work everyone!" Akari smiled and raised her fist slightly. This made my eyes go a bit wide. I never expected something like that from her. She was always so quiet and somewhat reserved, but I guess it still made sense with her element.

We all raised our fists as well, Agni holding his in the air as he walked to the kitchen to make dinner. I grinned, looking up at my fist and my grin turned into a simple, confident smile. "I'm not going to lose to you...whoever you are..." The image of the Plasma Elementia flashed through my mind with that stupid smirk on his face. Atiyama and the others flashed through my mind as well. "We'll beat you..." I muttered to myself.