CHAPTER 4: Training.

After Liam told us that he had a place for us to train, we headed to his house. But when we arrived, I realised that "house" was an understatement. Before us stood a massive mansion almost the size of Duvlin Academy. We walked up to the door which took way to long for a normal house we reach the 2 big double doors and Liam knock after a moment the 2 doors slowly opened and a balding middle age man in a suit opened the door and said

"oh welcome master Liam, you're here early today"

The butler opens the door and lets us. in

"We need to use the courts privately. Is that possible?"

"Of course master Liam right this way"

The butler moves to the side and lets us pass. We walk for minutes, whole entire minutes. I couldn't believe how big this place is. Eventually, we arrived. The butler, whose name I learned, was Fredrick, opened the door to reveal a huge courtroom with football, basketball, and tennis courts all in a long row. Frederick let us in and said

"Here we are master Liam. I will take my leave. If you need anything, please call"

Frederick closes the door and leaves

James walks through the court, looking up and around

"Damn Liam, i knew you were rich but not richey rich rich"

"Yeah but I don't like to brag, so I never revealed how rich I was. This place was for my brothers to train but we should be able to use it to train our powers. My brothers moved out years ago, so this place has been empty for a while now"

We walked into the middle of the courts, and I stretched my legs slowly warming up

"Okay so I say we start off with figuring out how to use these powers we got"

I stood up straight and shot my hand out, pushing my strength into my palm. I felt a surge of power envelop my hand as a push with all my might but then poof, nothing but a simple poof.

"Okay that was something. I guess we should all try doing that until we figure this out".

For the next hour, all 4 of us trained our power. We stepped back then forward, shooting our hands out over and over, but nothing even after the 2nd hour passed, still we got no results.

James walked away, muttering something before stomping the floor

"Come on, we've been at this for hours, and nothing. How do we know we didn't get some defective powers"

I walked over to him

"James calm down. we can't force this. You need to be patience"

"Be patient I've been patient and-"

 as James shouted he threw his hands into the air and the same ball of light shot out and hit the ceiling causing debris to fall right in front of us. James slowly looks to the roof, then to the floor and then to his hands and exclaims

"YES I knew we could do it. We just needed to be patient, right, Nate"

And just like that, James' mood flipped entirely.

I looked over to Liam, who was lost in thought. I myself pounder what just happened, then it clicked, i looked over to Liam, who looked to me and asked

"Do you think our emotions play into our powers?"

"I think you might be right. Think about it when James and Noah both used the power they were angry. Maybe anger plays into it"

Liam stepped forward and told us to move back, which we do. Liam takes a deep breath he steps back pulling his two arms back he shoots them forward as a much bigger ball of light shoots out across the courts hitting the wall with a massive thud we all cheered until we saw Liam fall to his knees panting i waked over a kneeled down next to him.

"Liam bud you alright"

"Y-yeah i-i im fine just... weak... seriously".

I stood up. Weak hum, I wonder.

I stood back, pulling my arms back similar to Liam. I thought of memories of stan of moments that made me feel weak and angry. I shot my arms out my palms facing the wall, and just like Liam, a basketball size ball of light shot out hitting the same wall, which threatened to crumble. I fell to my knees, panting, and looked at my hand. I clenched my fist, which felt weak, but i wasn't tired but weak that's when i knew.

"It's... our... energy, the power... is using our energy... as fuel".

Noah looked at me confused

"I didn't feel weak when i used the power"

James also agreed that he, too, did not feel weak

"that's because your energy ball was smaller while mine and Liams were bigger, which meant it needed more energy"

It took most of my remaining energy, but I stood up and pulled my arms back and shot them out exactly the same as before, but this time, no energy shot out, proving my point.

After a few more hours of training we were wiped and we decided to call it a night.

Me and James reached our home safe and sound. I threw my bag, which slumped against the wall when James spoke up.

"It's crazy how different our lives will be now, huh"

"It is isn't... you know you don't have to do this"

James looked at me confused

"What are you saying"

"I'm saying this is a huge responsibility we have. You don't have to do it"

James looked down, clearly thinking about everything. I wasn't wrong we had a huge responsibility on our shoulders if what Hunter said was right millions of lives would be at stake while we needed all the help we could get i wouldn't force this on him. While lost in my own thoughts, I didn't notice James walk right in front of me. I looked up at James, who hit me in the shoulder

"Were in this together whether you like it or not"

James chuckled to himself as he walked into his room.

A smile crept across my face as I walked into my room. It felt good having people to help it helped knowing I could rely on James Liam and Noah.

I lay down and closed my eyes, prepared for what's to come.

Over the next week we trained we decide it was best for us to temporarily leave school lucky for us me and James didn't have parents to stop us and Liam's parents were nowhere to be found and since he and Noah lived together we were all free to train and we temporarily moved into Liam's mansion which me and James were more than happy with. The training took its toll on us, but by the time week 2 rolled around, we could successfully use a basketball sized energy ball 3 times before collapsing from weakness. Week 2. After a while, we decided that we needed to train physically. That's when Liam called Frederick in.

"So you want some tips on fighting ey. Well, come at me"

We looked at each other before Liam spoke up.

"Which one of us"

Frederick laughed

"Why all of you, of course"

We looked at each other again, now determined.

Liam was first he rushed Frederick on his left Noah took his right James ran towards his back and i went straight towards him but in flash Frederick disappeared and we all ran into each other falling to the ground. i looked up and saw that somehow Frederick was on the other end of the court laughing and that's when i realised how far we needed to go if we wanted to stop Lucius but first we needed to beat Fredrick. Over the 2nd week, we solely focused on beating Frederick. since we couldn't fight after using our energy, and we couldn't use our energy after fighting we thought it best to learn how to fight then try master our powers . We decided not to tell Frederick why we wanted to learn how to fight, but I could tell he was curious about it, but he never spoke up. there was something odd about the butler, every time we fought him and lost the questions grew more and more, like how was he able to move at unnatural speeds, how Did he know how to fight, he clearly wasn't an ordinary butler by any means but he never gave anything away that might help me guess how he knew what he knew.

But by the end of the 2nd week it happened, Liam ran in front of Frederick and launched a punch in his direction Frederick effortlessly dodged to his left but just as he did James jumps down from above sending a kick at him, Frederick just barely blocked the attack but failed to notice me run at him from behind. I punched with all my strength, causing Frederick to skid forward. Frederick looked at me and clapped

"Well done, boy, well done indeed"

Before i could respond or gloat, Frederick zipped behind me and swiftly knocked me off my feet,

"But you're going to have to try a lot harder if you wish to beat me".

Week 3 came faster than expected, and that's when things became interesting. Me James Liam and Noah were stretching in the courts, getting ready for our next sparring match against Frederick when the doors swung opened and Frederick walked in, but instead of getting ready to fight, he instead said

"I think it's time to switch things up, don't you think now follow me".

Frederick walked out into the hall. We followed him across the mansion until we reached a dark brown door. Frederick takes out a key and unlocks the door as we walk in. I was amazed to see an array of weapons, swords, staff bows, axes knives, and throwing stars lining the walls. Liam walked forward, looking around.

"Since when did we get a weapons room".

"This room is strictly forbidden, but so is rough housing in the manor, so why not use what we have"

Frederick walked forward and said.

"Now you 4 have made surprising advances in your training, so i believe it's best to start your weapon training now pick a weapon you want"

Frederick stepped to the side, letting us look at the fine array of weapons. Noah was first and he went straight for the bows he picked one up and pulled back the string, he let it go and the string shot forward Noah put the bow down and tested a few more until he found one he liked.

"You know how to use a bow, Noah?"

Noah turned to me and nodded, and then Liam said something strange.

"Yeah he's actually really good with bows he picked it up fast when we were in the wild"

I wanted to question what he meant about benign in the wild, but something caught my eye. I turned and saw a beautiful teal sword with a bright gold hilt, which had purple stripes run across the hand hold. I walked over and picked up the sword, which felt surprisingly light. I swung the sword, which slashed through the air with surprising speed. Frederick walked over to me and reached out his hand. i gave him the sword and lifted it up into the air

"You've got a keen eye, young Nate. This is the best sword we have used it myself during the wa- never mind it's a great choice".

Frederick handed me back the sword, his face a little sadder. Was he going to say war. There's something off about him and this place, what mansion has a weapons room like this. I quickly brushed these questions away as Liam and James picked up their weapons. Liam picked up a long wooden staff with a gold ring in the middle, and James picked up a beautiful long glavie with an intricate vine patterned along the hilt. Once we all got our weapons, we headed back to the court, Frederick walked into the middle of us and took out a small pocket knife.

"Now I want all of you to come at me, but this time I want you to try to strike me with your weapons".

I took my sword out and ran towards Frederick Liam Ran Beside me taking the lead, he swung his staff at Frederick, who stepped back just out of range of the strike. James came from the side, sending his glaive towards Frederick, who shifted his body to the side. James tried to hit Frederick repeatedly, but he kept shifting his body, not moving a single step. Frederick stepped forward and threw his hand out to his side catching an arrow mid air, i looked to my side and saw Noah across the courts holding his bow Frederick threw the arrow at James which pierced his shoulder and pinning him into the wall James yelled in pain trying to remove the arrow from his shoulder

"Now now young James, you must learn the pain which may be inflicted on you in a fight-"

 Before Frederick could finish speaking, I zipped to his side and swung my sword at him but Frederick was fast he used the small pocket knife and swung it at me trying to parry the attack but using what I learned I shifted my body down and left ducking under the swing, as I ducked beneath I decided to try something I manifests some of my energy, but this time I used them around my legs I used this new found boost of speed to shoot behind Frederick I swung my sword at his back but as the sword was inches away Frederick pivoted and threw his whole body around swinging the pocket knife which clashed against my sword causing them both to fly out of our hands and onto the floor. Frederick looked at me with shock and concern for only a moment before putting on a forced smile. He wiped his clothes and walked over to his knife. He picked up his knife and my sword, which he threw at me. I caught the sword and placed it in its Sheath, which I had strapped to my back.

"Well I must say young Nathaniel, that was quite the impressive display of speed, but you're lacking in strength. There's no power behind your swings. You will start strength training tomorrow". 

We finished up the training session, and Frederick exited the court. I sat on the floor, legs crossed, exhausted. I looked up at James, who was sitting on a stool, while Noah wrapped bandages around his shoulder. Liam walked over next to me and leaned against the wall.

"So what did you do against Frederick"

I looked up at Liam

"What move?"

"Don't give me that, one moment Frederick was swinging his knife at you the next you were behind him, so how'd you do it"

I thought for a moment, how did I do it while I use the ability fairly easily I never actually thought how I did it.

"I used my energy but instead of conjuring it around my arms I pushed it down to my legs which gave me a boost of speed. But be careful my legs gave out moments after".

Liam simply nodded before walking over to Noah and James. I sat there thinking I wonder if I had been able to use more energy but this time in my arms as well as my legs would I have been able to hit Frederick. it was a plausible theory but i had no way of testing it due to only being able to use small bits of energy at a time, but lucky for me it seems using energy to enhance my body used less energy them making it into physical attacks.

It was later that night I had left the mansion to pick up some of my clothes. Liam tried to offer me some of the clothes at the mansion but they were a little too fancy for my taste. As I walked I started to get an eerie feeling as if someone was watching me. I checked my surroundings but no one was there. as I was about 10 minutes from my house, I noticed something. I was at the same spot where I met Hunter. I saw police tape around the crater, I walked past it peering into the hole. once past it i continued down the road when i saw a black flash shoot past my eye i whipped my head around but all i saw was a wall i stared at the wall wonder what the hell i had just saw, after a few moments i went to turn away when i heard a laugh i turned back to the wall and was horrified to see a shadowy man emerge from the wall he reached his shadowy hand towards me but i realised in horror and shock that i knew the man.

"HUNTER!"