October had been a good month for me and Ethan. The two of us had progressed faster than ever before, and we only had a few Breathing Techniques left. With each day it looked more and more likely that we would, in fact, be done by Christmas.

So, as the two of us headed to the peak of Piz Vadret for our second-to-last sword-training day of October, we were practically jumping up and down.

Why? Because we were finally on the Breathing Technique that we had been looking forward to most: Fire Breathing. Just the name of it sounded powerful. Maltor simply would not survive if I mastered this.

William was already waiting for us at the peak when we arrived. He beamed the moment he saw us.

The air, despite technically being the coldest yet, didn’t feel the least bit chilly. I could’ve spent days up there with no problem whatsoever.

‘You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?’ William said, still beaming as the two of us got closer.

My hands were already on my swords and my shirt was already off. I think it was safe to say that we had been waiting.

‘What gave you that idea?’ I replied sarcastically.

‘Just a wild guess. That and the fact that you already have your shirts off. And the fact that it’s all I’ve had to listen to this week.’

The two of us grinned.

‘And we’re early,’ Ethan cut in. His smile was almost ear-to-ear. ‘It’s only quarter to.’

‘Let’s take advantage of this time, then, shall we?’ William said. ‘We’ll start with Fire Breathing, First Form: Clockwork Fire.’

Ethan’s face lit up at just the sound of it, and mine must’ve too.

‘It can be tricky to learn, but once you have the hang of it, you’ll never forget how to perform it again, I can assure you,’ William continued. ‘To perform it, your blade must, ideally, be coated in flames. Then you, starting from the top, swing your sword clockwise in a circular fashion, with somewhere around your lower torso being the centre point.

‘We’ll first slowly practice the movement. We’ll slowly speed up before adding the flames.’

Ethan and I immediately unsheathed our swords. William demonstrated a few times with his staff, before finally letting us do it ourselves.

Now, in my opinion, I performed it flawlessly the first time I did it, but William had other ideas. Apparently I ‘flicked my wrist too harshly’ and ‘flicked my wrist too late’.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally got the hang of it. And then I made the exact same ‘mistakes’ when we sped up. I severely underestimated the amount of concentration that was required for this.

As a descendant of Titan, I had a natural immunity to demigod-cretaed flames, and a resistance to natural flames. So, in my mind, there was no risk involved with performing the Form with fire right off the bat.

But I also remembered that, even though it was Fire Breathing, fire was not essential. William had explained this when we had learnt Water Breathing. We didn’t need water around our weapon to perform the Technique, but it, of course, would provide a huge boost.

Throughout the process, William periodically checked that we were breathing correctly. For each and every Form of each and every Technique, there was a specific way that you had to breathe in order to perform it. And we had memorised them all as we learnt them.

Believe it or not, the breathing was the easy part. Partly because I had always had a good memory, and partly because it was breathing. The only problem William found with our breathing was the pace at which we did it, but we had the general idea grasped immediately.

The breathing required for Clockwork Fire was unlike any of the breathing we’d done so far in the sense that it actually made me feel warm. I don’t think either me or Ethan had expected that. It felt as though the harsh winds were powerless against me. They couldn’t do anything against the might of Fire Breathing.

And that feeling only got better after lunch, as that’s when we added the flames.

The air was alight with dancing orange fires as Ethan and I practised the Form over and over again. They rose powerfully, seemingly cutting straight through the battering gales.

I felt powerful. Sure, I’d had fire on my sword before, I’d done it plenty of times, but now that I was doing something official, it felt a lot more meaningful. It felt a lot more like I was actually doing something.

Maltor couldn’t control fire. What was his dark energy thing supposed to do against this? How on Earth was he supposed to defend himself against me now? I was nearly done with all of my training. I would be practically unbeatable once I was.

‘Come on, Albert,’ William whispered encouragingly after telling me once again to not flick my wrist so harshly. ‘Think about why you’re doing this. You want to save the world.’

Hell yeah, I did. And I’d look good doing it, too.

Nobody else could or would do it. I would save the world. I would save the world whilst flames engulfed my entire body. The world was not ready.

***

I ate to my heart’s content that evening. I went up for seconds, and even thirds, before deciding that I had had enough. It was bizarre, how much more I ate whenever I was happy.

‘You did brilliantly today, boys, well done,’ William had said when we first sat down. He seemed genuinely proud. ‘We should even be able to finish Clockwork Fire tomorrow morning. Then we can start on Blazing Red.’

‘That sounds badass,’ I murmured to Ethan through a mouthful of food. He nodded aggressively.

‘Have you decided whether or not we’re gonna train on Wednesdays as well yet, or do you still need more time to think it over?’ Ethan asked after swallowing his mouthful of food.

William took a deep breath. ‘We’ll train on Wednesdays from this point forth. I-’

It was too late. Ethan and I had erupted into a unanimous cheer of ‘Yes!’ before clasping each other’s hands together in glee.

Nearly half of the week would be spent sword training. That was insane to even think about. We would improve at such a spectacular rate that nobody else would even be able to come close. I almost couldn’t wait to see the look on Angela’s face when we completed our training in six months.

William waited for the two of us to calm down before continuing, ‘I believe your strength and conditioning is already very good. Of course, we’ll still train it, but there’s no need to train it so extensively when it is already at your current level.’

I felt like I could reach the moon. That was most likely the biggest compliment I had ever received. The day just kept on getting better and better.

‘I have one question, though, William,’ I cut in. ‘And sorry to change the subject.’

‘You have nothing to apologise for, my boy, do not worry,’ William replied, smiling warmly. ‘Ask away.’

‘Just how many Forms are there in Fire Breathing?’

‘Eleven, and then the Destructive Art,’ was the response, and my eyebrows shot up along with Ethan’s. ‘It has the second-highest amount of Forms out of all of the Techniques.’

If there hadn’t been food in my mouth, my jaw may have dropped.

‘But Fire Breathing is one of the most destructive Breathing Techniques, and I imagine that you don’t need to be told why.’

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‘I think I can make a guess,’ I said, smirking. ‘Just a wild guess.’

I thought for a moment about just how destructive he meant. What if my next fight with Maltor levelled the entire battlefield? I mean, Maltor himself had said that we could do that at any time, but he had almost certainly been hinting at our Powers, which neither of us would be using.

We’d promised each other that we wouldn’t. They were far too powerful. Mine may have been impossible to contain at certain times, but I didn’t use it to kill anybody. The last time they’d been used like that was the day that we had escaped The School. Maltor had absolutely demolished their forces with his Power whilst I fled into the night sky.

What if that was part of Maltor’s drive to do what he was doing? Revenge for what I did that day?

No. That was impossible. If it were, then he would’ve taken the chance for revenge when we had first reunited three years later.

Even so, being abandoned by a singular person was hardly a good enough reason to commit genocide. Not that there was a good enough one. For something as petty as that, the only reasonable reaction would be revenge on that one person. And I hardly believed that Maltor was using genocide as a comeback against me.

I tried to turn my mind to something else, but this proved to be immensely difficult. Even if I turned my mind away from Maltor, I found that my mind would then be pressed by the issue as a whole.

Presuming that Maltor had not launched an attack during my absence, most people in RoCity would most likely have forgotten that the whole thing even happened. I, however, would of course never be able to do that. Training, in a way, solidified that task as impossible. The mere fact that I was training to fight and beat Maltor meant that every single day I woke up with it fresh on my mind.

Then there was the issue of what had happened whilst Ethan and I had been training. He had removed all messaging apps from his phone, and as a result, we had not had contact from home since we left. We had absolutely no clue what was going on there, just as they didn’t know what was happening to us.

Removing any form of communication from his phone had been an obvious choice; it eliminated the chances of the two of us getting distracted by a message or a call. We hadn’t thought of the repercussions of not being able to know if anything bad happened in the city. There was an insanely high chance that Maltor had launched an attack. He knew that I was gone. He had no reason not to attack.

Apart from the fact that, in my opinion, he did have a perfect reason not to.

Funnily enough, Ethan and I had discussed this very topic at the beginning of October. Ethan was worried that he had launched a huge ambush on the city and that masses of lives had been lost. I knew otherwise. How? Because I knew Maltor.

He would want to wrench the city from my hands. He would see no point in taking the city if I wasn’t there. He would want to see the devastation in my eyes as he took it from me.

RoCity’s defences were very good, though, so I had faith in them. But it would be preferable if nobody died or got hurt whilst I was not there to save them.

That fear dogged me all the way to my bed, and I was already dreading a difficult night’s sleep.

And sure enough, I got my nightmare. Somewhat. It was possibly the most bizarre ‘nightmare’ I’d ever had.

Firstly, I couldn’t actually see anything. Everything was dark, meaning I had to rely completely on what I could hear, and, Gods, I did not like it.

I first heard somebody, presumably a young man, screaming the name Isabelle. He sounded like he was in the most agonising pain a human could go through.

Then I heard my own voice. I sounded completely and utterly broken as I apologised for something. For what, I do not know, but it sounded serious.

Emma’s voice came last, ending the seemingly short dream. She was pleading with someone. It sounded as though she was trying to save somebody’s life. I could barely make out her words, but the tone was enough to set my blood alight.

My mood instantly brightened upon waking up, however. Not because it was Halloween, I wasn’t a huge fan of it anyway, but because it was a Sunday. More Fire Breathing training.

‘We’re gonna be early again,’ Ethan said as the two of us devoured our breakfasts like there was no tomorrow.

‘You don’t sound like you’re complaining,’ I retorted.

The two of us smirked at one another.

As it turns out, Ethan was right, which didn’t happen often. We were even earlier than we had been the day before. By fifteen whole minutes.

Nobody was complaining, though, so we began immediately. I would take a headstart any day.

It was definitely strange, though. We had struggled immensely with Clockwork Fire the previous day, but it felt almost natural when we tried again. Or at least it did to me.

That must have been clear to William as well, as he said that Ethan and I were pretty much done just before lunch.

While we ate, William explained his plan for the next few Forms. Now that we were done with Clockwork Fire, William obviously wanted us to begin the Second Form: Blazing Red. But, on Wednesday, he said we’d begin the Third Form: Handled Fire. He said that Handled Fire was possibly the simplest Fire Form there was, so he was confident that we could learn both it and Blazing Red at the same time.

Speaking of which, Blazing Red was another move that I quickly found myself growing fond of.

The first step was, of course, to coat your weapon in flames. The move itself was a giant slash that would, in effect, go from the opponent’s shoulder to the opposite side of their waist. In William’s words, it would ‘carve your opponent like butter’.

As we had done with the Form before it, Ethan and I first practised the movement slowly. It was a lot easier to get the hang of than Clockwork Fire by a long shot.

That’s why it wasn’t long before the mountaintop was alive with our flames as we repeated the move over and over again, desperate to perfect it.

The sheer intensity of the flames was nearly enough to make me sweat, which was a relief. I didn’t ever think I’d quite miss sweating, but after being on a cold mountaintop for four months, it felt like bliss.

Blazing Red did require a higher intensity of flames than Clockwork Fire, which definitely aided the move in both looking and sounding menacing. Maltor couldn’t resist flames. He wouldn’t be able to beat me now.

As we worked, William also explained how this Form could be used best. He had said that Clockwork Fire would work best if you were trying to advance on your opponent, but this was better if you were already dominating the battle and needed a heavy hit.

It made sense that each Form would have a certain ‘strategy’ to go with it, but I much preferred to go with the flow. As he was explaining it, I already knew that I would more than likely just go with whatever came to mind during a fight.

We trained until well after it went dark. But that wasn’t our fault. The sun was setting a lot earlier than usual now, and we were following our regime to the T. Yes, it meant that we had to deal with temperatures colder than anything we’d ever experienced before, but if that’s what it would take to save the world, then we would do it without complaint.

I poured all of my negative emotions into the flames, and it was a much better mechanism than I had originally anticipated. It was just cruel. I had saved the world not even two years ago. That should have been the end of it.

Cursing myself for again falling into the depths of my own despair, I clenched my jaw tightly. I had to keep going. No excuses. Nothing mattered anymore other than saving the world.

One unexpected thing that kept pushing me forward was how gorgeous the night was with our flames. They danced upwards into the sky, illuminating it with unforeseen beauty. It seemed almost as though the night itself was alive.

I also found it quite humourous that we had melted all of the snow at the peak of the mountain. Not a single flake was left anywhere near us. There was an almost perfect circle centred around us that didn’t have even a trace of snow. It was hardly the time for laughs and jokes, but I found it difficult not to smirk at this realisation.

***

As Ethan and I climbed into our beds, he asked me a question that he had asked only a few nights prior, but that didn’t make it any less strange to think about.

‘Isn’t it bizarre? How we’ve only got two months, maximum, of this training left?’ he said quietly as he stared up at the ceiling.

I stared across at him for a moment. His brown eyes seemed to shine, even though the only light in the room came from the dim lanterns.

‘It’s nearly time to go home,’ I said finally. ‘Then we kick Maltor’s ass back to the grave, and continue our lives as ‘usual’. Sound good?’

It stung a little to say ‘kick Maltor’s ass back to the grave’, but it had to be done, right? As much as I didn’t want to do it, I had to put myself in that frame of mind if I wanted to get anything done. The world could not be saved by somebody in a fragile state of mind, right?

Ethan turned slowly to stare at me. He had clearly also noticed my choice of words, and he had also realised how out-of-character they were for me.

After frowning slightly for a moment, he said slowly, ‘Yeah, that sounds good. But you forgot a major step.’

‘Oh yeah? What did I forget this time?’ I replied, smirking.

‘Before you can kick Maltor’s ass, you’ve gotta tell Emma how you feel,’ Ethan continued, a huge grin now coating his face.

‘Shut your fat mouth!’ I yelled.

He raised an eyebrow cheekily. ‘Oh? But I thought we agreed that you have a fat crush on her?’

‘A what?’ I spat.

‘You don’t know what a crush is?’ Ethan asked, sitting up. He sounded purely appalled.

‘I spent seven years in a cage,’ I said, staring at him. ‘I don’t know what a lot of things mean.’

Ethan’s eyes widened. He began to apologise before he realised that I was smirking. After which, he scowled and lay back down.

‘Remember when we said you liked Emma?’ he asked, ignoring the past few comments. ‘A crush is basically that. If you have a crush on someone, you like them.’

He realised very quickly that he had given me a golden opportunity for a joke, so he cut in.

‘Someone you like romantically is a crush. Don’t even think about it.'

I beamed.

‘That does sound like a decent plan,’ I said, still beaming. ‘But we’ll just have to see what happens when we get back, don’t you think?’

Ethan shrugged. ‘Whatever you say, I guess.’

I bid him goodnight before rolling over and facing the cave wall, my mind buzzing.

Two more months. That’s all I had to push through. Once I got through that, I could go home and tell Emma exactly how I felt. Then I could beat Maltor’s sorry ass to the ground.

I smirked slightly to myself. All I had ever wanted to be was a normal kid, yet here I was, sitting in a cave, plotting to ask out a girl and then stop a genocidal maniac. It was hard to even think of a life more normal than that.

So, as I drifted off to sleep that night, the only thoughts in my mind were pleasant. I was enjoying training, yes, but I simply could not wait to get back home now that I had been reminded of exactly what I was missing.

I couldn’t wait to see the look on Maltor’s face as his entire world became enveloped in flames. He wouldn’t be ready, there was no way around it.

He knew I was training, but I doubted he realised just how much I had been. I was not only stronger, but I was faster, and I was able to predict moves better. I could counter things he threw at me. Oh, and I could do some funny sword movements.

‘You’re not ready, Maltor,’ I mumbled as I felt myself slowly beginning to drift away to sleep. ‘I’m gonna beat you to the ground.’