SPARRING MATCH

Christian opened his eyes to the sound of a bird chirping on his window pane

"Uhn?" He looked around dazedly

"Oh right, so it all wasn't a dream" he mumbled.

Picking himself up from the floor he laid all night, he walked over to Sam laid on the other side of the room shaking him awake.

"Hey buzz head, wake up!"

"Uhn" Sam stared lostly at Christian for awhile

"Oh hey it's you" he finally replied some seconds later getting up on his feet

"So the sword thing, what are you going to do about it?" Sam asked rubbing his eyes sleepily as he stifled a yawn

"Am going to keep it" Christian replied nonchalantly as if it was the most obvious thing to do

"Keep it? Dude didn't you see what happened to us yesterday?" Sam asked in disbelief wide awake

"Yeah I know, that's why I won't use it carelessly and just stick to the daggers uncle bought for me" Christian retorted

"And what about when you finally use it" Sam asked once more not backing down

"Then whoever is exposed to it would have to bear through the experience" Christian stated as a matter of fact shrugging his shoulders

*Sigh*

"Why is it so hard to dissuade you once you've set your mind on something?" Sam asked rhetorically

Christian shrugged his shoulders "I don't know, besides what am more concerned about now is what these are" He said pointing to the flask and ancient looking book

"Yeah but I strongly suggest we find a solution to the Kelsia problem first before any other thing" Sam said seriously

"What do you suggest we should do about her?" Christian asked staring fully at Sam

"Well, we could take her along to the military school as a tax evader" Sam suggested

"And what happens when they find out she already has an ability?" Christian contemplated

"We will just say that she's among the previous year's set, and my family has been the one covering for her. I'll let my dad deal with any further trouble from there on" Sam explained

"That sounds like a horrible plan" Christian deadpanned

"Got anyone better?" Sam asked mockingly

"Screw you" Christian replied throwing his hand in the air as a sign of defeat

"Where's Kelsia even?" Sam asked looking around

"Haven't seen her since I woke up," Christian replied absent-mindedly walking into the bathroom

"That's weird" Sam muttered

"Hey Sam" Christian called from the bathroom

"Can you please tell your butler or anyone in charge to bring some clothes and other necessary stuff for Kelsia?"

"Yeah, got it" Sam replied stepping out of the room

*****

The trio had prepared themselves for the journey ahead of them and packed all necessary items they needed in their respective backpacks. Both boys were nervously fidgeting with their fingers as they sat still in the living room waiting for the arrival of the military guide meant to escort them to the school.

Sam was dressed in a neat dark pant and a white long sleeve buttoned shirt. He left the first two buttons of the shirt undone, exposing his fairly taut broad chest laid underneath.

His hair that was always seen falling down his face on a regular basis were neatly combed backwards today, and his well chiseled face was in full view. His dark coloured eyes were narrowed to a slit and his lips were firmly pressed together in a thin line as he watched the minute hand of the clock getting closer to the much awaited hour.

Christian wasn't fairing any better himself and felt his heart pounding away at an alarming rate in irregular beats. His brows were knitted together in a nervous manner and the look on his face was one of total obliviousness.

He anxiously swiped off a speck of imaginary dust on the dark hood top he wore over a pair of black pants, then reached down to tighten the laces of the pair of sandals on his feet while stealing a few glances at the wall clock ticking away.

The most composed of the group was none other than Kelsia. She sat gracefully beside Christian wearing a serene expression on her face.

Kelsia was the kind of girl whose beauty could make all of the boys head trun on her. Her body shape and proportions were perfect, not too big and not too small, coupled with the strange magnificent golden hue her red fiery hair possessed made her seem like an other worldy beauty.

Seconds later, Sam suddenly spoke up;

"You guys do know the time is only '08:15 AM' right?" He asked nonchalantly, to which both Christian and Kelsia nodded, probably wondering what he was driving at

"There's still about 45 minutes left, so why don't we use that for a little sparring?" He asked raising a brow at the both of them

Both Christian and Kelsia's head Instantaneously turned to their sides and stared at each other full in the face.

Christian nodded slightly to Kelsia as a sign of approval then turned to Sam as a wide grin suddenly appeared on his face

"Why not" he said smiling brightly at Sam.

Afterwards the trio found their way towards the battle arena in the underground basement of the Jones mansion.

Christian's jaw slacked to the extreme as soon as his eyes landed on the arena. It was the same size as his previous school arena being at half the size of a football field with white accent. There were around 300 seats surrounding the entire arena with a protective bubble protecting the stands.

'I knew this mansion was huge, but to think it was big enough to house something like this' Christian thought in awe.

"So who's having a go first?" Asked Sam bringing Christian from his thoughts

"Master, can we spar together?" Kelsia suddenly asked in a low voice, staring sheepishly at Christian with a slight bow.

Christian eyes went round in shock as he clarified

"You want to fight with me?"

"If my Lord permits it" Kelsia said hurriedly

There had been this sudden fear and respect Kelsia had for her master 'Christian' in her mind since last night when she learnt that he was in possession of 'that thing' and that it had willingly opened to him.

'that thing possess immense power beyond anyone's imagination and was known to select it's owner as not just anyone could wield it's power. If such a thing opened to him and acknowledged him as it's owner, then I've made a terrible mistake in undermining the strength of my liege' she thought as she snuck glances at Christian's face to read his expression

"Alright, but you better go easy on me" Christian warned as he got into a fighting stance on the arena while Sam retreated to the side.

Once the both of them were ready and got into a fighting stance, Sam who was acting as the referee of the match yelled out loud

"Begin"

Almost instantly Christian sprung into action and released his dark mists, forming two Spears hovering above both hands.

"Go" he ordered.

Instantly the dark Spears shot out towards Kelsia at an impressive speed that might seem mesmerizing to most low ranked ability users. But in front of Kelsia, an ancient ultra beast lord, there was only one key word to describe the attack 'slow'.

Kelsia simply evaded the attack by moving her upper torso to the right, then left without budging an inch from her spot.

Reducing her speed greatly, she dashed forward at an almost normal pace preparing her counter attack.

Halfway towards her target she felt something was off as she sensed an imminent approach of danger from behind. She expertly spun her body around and sneaked a peek behind her before casually avoiding the attack by stepping to the side.

Almost instantly a huge boulder of hardened dark mists crashed into where she stood previously.

'BOOM' the arena shook as the boulder made contact with it and sent several debris flying in the air as dust rose from the spot of impact and spread out covering the arena.

Christian had inputted a lot of energy and expanded a lot of his stamina from controlling something of that magnitude, he was hoping to end the fight in one quick blow as he knew he stood no chance against Kelsia in a full on fight and opted to use his trump card when he still had the element of surprise and had failed miserably

"Now that was a little impressive, I wasn't expecting you to know how to use the 'dark control' skill already" Kelsia said, sounding a bit surprised

"But it's still not strong enough to help you out" She yelled then vanished from sight.

Christian became alerted at her sudden disappearance and pushed his perception to the max. His five senses became sharp and sensed every minute detail of everything nearby, but still failed miserably in locating her.

"Aggh"

He cried out as he felt a powerful kick strike the side of his ribs and was sent flying several meters away.

Too bad for him though, he just learnt that Kelsia had no intention of going easy on him.

Immediately as Christian's body regained it's balance and came to an halt, Kelsia reappeared before him and sent him flying again with a more powerful kick to his abdomen towards the opposite end of the arena and rammed him into the protective shield 'clang'.

"Ke-hoek"

Christian spat out a mouthful of blood as his body came to an abrupt stop from the powerful impact and he laid there unmoving on the floor as he felt sore and aching all over his body

Kelsia suddenly reappeared before him once more, preparing to attack again, but Sam's voice panickedly yelled out

"This match is over, Kelsia is the winner" he declared before running to Christian's side to check on him. He was feeling remorseful about him ever bringing up the idea of having a sparring match between themselves, and letting these two fight against each other when he should have opposed it.

The reason he had in mind for even suggesting they had a sparring match was because he wanted to fight with Christian and see how far behind he was from him, and not to see his best friend get beaten up like this.

"What the f*ck Kelsia" Sam roared as he stared at her angrily

"Was there a reason to beat him to such state?"

Totally ignoring Sam's question and angry stares, she spoke directly to Christian still laid on the floor

"Your ability prowess are fairly impressive, but your combat and physical capabilities are nothing to write home about. That's why from now on and with your consent, I wish to train and bring up my liege' to the standards of other dragon riders"

"Well, you should have at least trained me properly first before pounding on me" Christian managed to voice out gritting his teeth in anger as he struggled to stand on his own two feet

Kelsia bowed her head somberly, almost feeling remorseful of her actions

"But I understand and I totally agree with you. I need to get a lot more stronger, imagine a master being toyed around with by his pet!" Christian said jokingly trying to ease the tense atmosphere that felt suffocating.

It was at that moment a voice called from the arena's entrance

"Young master, your guide meant to escort you to school has arrived" butler Kim announced.

*****