Chapter 13: A Bizarre Beginning to My Training

The once beautiful garden now turned into a battlefield. The air above us was turbulent, tossing numerous branches, leaves, and other debris overhead. The ground was partly scorched thanks to the training done by Klaus who let another lightning bolt let loose from his palm before crumbling on the soil underneath him. The entire place also rumbled about thanks to the exercises given to Geon who was supposed to open a smaller set of doors, this time adorned with a green jewel instead of the bright orange one… However, he and his lackeys laid there, eyes rolled open as if they had been killed…

Cora? The person I sought inspiration from? She was crumbled in a heap on the floor beside her dear friend Adria who was also passed out beside her… The only one awake was me, possibly Klaus, and Xion who looked at me with a devilish grin.

“It is nice to see you here Pyre… After that stunt you pulled I thought you’d vanquish all of them to the afterlife.”

He chuckled softly as I stood there with shaky legs, losing the confidence I once had before. Just what did he do to them?!

“Ehehehe… Whatever do you mean Sir Xion?”

I took a step back, feeling a drop of sweat roll down my face as I flashed the Principal a wry smile. He covered his face with his hand, still chuckling. The principal then held his hand out, palm open before beckoning me to come to him. That was when I felt it…

It was a heavy sensation, like I was being pinned to the ground without being touched by anything. My feet also felt as if they were sinking into the loamy soil underneath with something pushing from above

“What’s wrong Pyre. Is something wrong? Why not come up to me like you normally do?”

You know what… Screw you and your taunting!

I closed my eyes and felt the same pressure, the same fear of failing and nervousness of letting them down, and sure enough, my hands flared up again.

Seeing this, Xion’s eyes widened as he looked on with his brows raised in anticipation. Well, I refuse to disappoint. Giving him a smug grin, I closed my eyes before imagining the flames traveling into my shoes, followed by and explosion from beneath my soles…

I didn’t think this through, haven’t I?

My body soared through the air like a ballistic rocket, but I drew nowhere close to Xion. Instead, I apparently launched myself to the ceiling, moving upward instead of diagonally. Pooling whatever courage remained inside me, I looked at the ground, waiting for an opportune moment. This time, my flames were blazing up to my forearms, proving my theory right… More pressure is more power…

From my mouth escaped a loud roar as I slammed the ground with a wave of flames. I imagined yet another explosion from the floor and sure enough, after a lit spark, the fire erupted, propelling me forward in an arc, this time, successfully launching myself towards Xion.

He looked at me with wide eyes, his mouth open in surprise. As for myself, I gave him a huge grin, still nervous about how I’d stick my landing but happy that I at least managed to achieve the bare minimum with my powers. Feeling elated, but still nervous, I sent another blast behind me and with a sharp decline to my altitude I set my sights to Xion whom I locked on to like a missile.

The principal let out a chuckle, prancing away just in the nick of time as I slammed face first into the ground…

It hurt… I could taste the tang of iron on my mouth and that my neck was contorted into a bloodied mess, but that was not the end of it. A strong searing flame engulfed intensifying the pain as I gurgled on my own blood and screamed…

Yet in mere moments, the seething pain vanished, replaced by only a sting on my skin. I heard soft footsteps approaching me and soon enough, a soft pair of hands tapped on my shoulder.

“Now, now, eating dirt was not a hobby of yours the last time I checked.”

The sounds of the old man chuckling to himself echoed into my ears as I picked myself off the ground. Using a slight push from my arms, and some balance from my legs, I got up good as new despite the puddle of blood that soaked his garden. I turned to him with a slight frown and a knit pair of brows.

“That could have been dangerous… I never knew how to control my power so…”

Yet the principal merely replied with huff, wagging his fingers in the air.

“Yet here you are… Tell me, how did you manage to at least let the tap flow?”

I shot him a sidelong glance before looking at my hands who were still shuddering, palms lined with sweat out of worry that I could not showcase whatever strength I had to my team… After all, I still have ways to go in terms of proving myself.

“Do you remember the time yesterday, when you confronted me? In that moment I kind of thought about it and after a bit of muddling I inferred that this skill of mine tends to respond really with stress… which is a drawback that really gets on my nerves.”

I flashed him a smile, lips still quivering despite the match or test having been concluded with that one task. The principal nodded and clapped when he saw my face, and with a simple extend of his arm, he brushed my head with his hand… a pat, if you may.

“And that was splendid. I always knew you had it in you Pyre, you just have to believe. Well, since you got that power, why don’t we start training?”

His hand found its way to my shoulder, giving it a gentle pat like a reassuring hand of a father…

How were they doing I wonder?

I bit my lip to keep my thoughts away from things like that. Missing them would be a death sentence to my mental state and with something as unstable as spontaneously combusting hands, I’d rather not have that.

Returning to the current situation at hand, Xion was currently pulling on my wrist as I was snapped out of my thoughts. Light filtered from the ceiling of his garden and unlike the beauty filled central area; this section had been more similar to a winding forest, complete with sprawling branches and shrubbery. In an odd way, it looked like a more hostile version of the training area. Soon we were met by a thicket that sprawled across the trees, blocking our path and hiding what lied past it. I tried squinting but there was hardly a gap in the way the branches sprawl, almost as if it were keeping someone out instead of in.

Being quite frank, it was spooky.

Xion tapped his sole against the soil and as if they conversed, the brambles crawled out of the way, revealing a small enclosure that housed a single rock. The enclosure had barely any light filtering through thanks to the rows of nettle that acted like ceiling to the rather unwelcoming space. Even the dense thicket of vines and brambles provided it a wall.

The principal walked over to the rock and with a soft tap the dust fell off revealing a grungy orange stone. He gave it a tap and as soon as he did the stone lit up brightly despite its aged appearance and muddied exterior, the layers of brim and soot crumbled slowly as the simple stone bathed the area in a warm light.

The sound of thousands of twigs snapping and contorting echoed around us. Swiftly pivoting my head to check the walling, I was astounded to see an amorphous mass of roots reaching for the rock. Soon, me and the principal were swarmed but branches and leaves and in mere moments the walls retracted, revealing the same rock which lost its warm glow.

“This rock is what we would like to call a brightstone. Each Epico is given a piece of it when they first venture on a mission but very few people actually get to see it in action… such as this occasion.”

I glanced at the principal who looked at me with a playful smile before winking. Rolling my eyes before sighing, I walked closer to the stone to examine it. I leaned closer to the gem but it felt no more special than a gem, a topaz, or any clear cut rock. No aura, no immense luster or shine, in fact it actually looked like crystallized gelatin, but what was my say on this, I was no geologist.

Heaving yet another sigh, my hands gently rubbed the rock and as soon as I did, a faint flicker of light emerged from it. A soft heat wrapped around my palm, like a hand heater, it was almost as if the rock was saying hi.

This place will definitely drive crazy someday, I am sure of it…

“Did you feel the heat? If so then that stone considers you as its ally.”

The principal’s voice echoed from behind me accompanied by the sounds of footsteps. Soon enough, he was at my side, crouched beside the brightstone.

“This brightstone is the source of my strength while the voidstone would be the source of that Wyzen’s power… This stone is fueled by the power of our students that is released during training, similar to a vein of energy that absorbs the power emitted by the students through the school.”

My forehead creased when I heard his explanation. Was this thing alive? How does it even absorb the energy from the school?

“Listen… I don’t get half of what you were saying, But, I assume that this thing and the voidstone are actually alive… How does it absorb the power from its students though?”

Xion shrugged and stood up with a smile.

“That is a story for another day… now where was I? Ah right training.”

He beamed with a smile. Hitting his fist and open palm together like a teacher would.

“You would have to train with the brightstone, how to manage the energy within its bounds and how to condense it inside. “

He walked closer to the rock, and with a gentle grip, he guided my hand to the stone. With a simple flick of a wrist, I felt a surge of energy pass through my wrist, jolting inside the stone as if it were being supplied by power. It’s as f the energy wrapped around it in a warm embrace.

“Remember this sensation well; your control over your power and the amount you can output would rely on this feeling. Panicking and simply flailing about like how you did earlier would not do well in a real fight. How well and how frequent you use your powers is what’s important.”

We carried on like that, me analyzing his power as it continuously flowed inside the rock. in minutes the stone grew in size, the ground shaking as it did.

I quickly jolted up when the earth started shaking, but my fear was soon turned into amazement when the stone finally grew to be as tall as me. It now had a gentle luster compared to its appearance from earlier.

“And that… was a demonstration. Starting today, study on how to do that so that you may get better leverage on your strength. I will be leaving you here in the morning and picking you up in the afternoon.”

Xion let go of my wrist before walking back to the path that was blocked by the brambles. I panicked, seeing that there would be no one to teach me how it worked, how it was going to be processed.

I held my hand out, still running behind him however; it felt as if his speed was substantially way faster than mine despite walking…

“Good luck…”

It was the last line I heard from him as the brambles swiftly curled to a close, blocking my view of the outside….