As alien as the words sounded, I don’t think I had ever felt more pride than when William informed me and Ethan that we only had one Breathing Technique left to learn.

He had saved what he believed to be the most powerful Technique for last. Dark Breathing. The Technique with the most Forms; thirteen of them in total. And then, of course, it had its signature Destructive Art.

‘Isn’t it so bizarre?’ Ethan had said on the night that we had found out. ‘We’re nearly done.’

‘Yeah,’ I had answered as I climbed into bed. ‘Just this and the Destructive Arts and then we can go back home.’

‘I can’t wait!’ Ethan said, suddenly excited. ‘Just imagine the look on Maltor’s face when you beat him to a pulp!’

I nodded slowly. ‘I didn’t even know if we’d come this far, you know?’

‘Oh, believe me, I know. I was shocked when we made it to Thunder Breathing, imagine my shock now.’

And that’s why it meant so much to me when the two of us stood there, on the seventeenth of November, ready to begin the final Technique.

‘Alright!’ William exclaimed, his face alight with glee. ‘This is it, boys! The final Technique! If you master it and the Destructive Arts along with the schedule, you will be home the week before Christmas! How does that sound?’

‘Sounds good, sir!’ Ethan and I shouted back. It felt almost as though we should’ve saluted him.

‘Now, Dark Breathing is considered by many, myself included, to be the most powerful Breathing Technique there is,’ William continued, still smiling. ‘Some may argue it’s Fire Breathing, or Thunder Breathing, but Dark is the one that takes the cake for me.

‘It is also infamous for its difficulty to master. So, I hope you’re ready for the First Form: Night Claws!’

I shot a sideways glance at Ethan. The two of us smirked at each other.

‘We’re as ready as we’ll ever be, sir,’ Ethan said quietly.

Now, Ethan and I had to be taught Night Claws two different ways, as I had two swords and Ethan only had one. William did say that two swords were ideal for a move such as this, but one would work just fine.

William also said that one of the most difficult things about Dark Breathing was the darkness itself. He said that a lot of people performed the move with just their weapons.

He said that, ideally, one would use shadows or another form of ‘darkness’ in the same way that one used flames for Fire Breathing. Because darkness could not be created by demigod powers, natural resources would have to be used instead.

That made me remember something. Back during the war with Amy, Jay had been kidnapped for whatever reason, and Henry and I had gone to save him. Whilst there, I had of course been fighting. And whilst fighting, the darkness had seemed to grow and lights had seemed to dim. Then belts of pure darkness had warped around my blade. I assumed that William wanted us to do something similar.

As such, we didn’t train Night Claws on the peak of the mountain. We trained further down, where there was a bit of shade.

‘Sir?’ Ethan tried as we readied ourselves. ‘Isn’t this still a bit too bright? I understand that we are in shadow, but it’s not ‘dark’.’

‘Oh, do not worry about that, my boy,’ William replied, smiling warmly. ‘The actual level of darkness does not matter. Demigods cannot create darkness, but once you have it in control around your blade, you can make it as strong or as weak as you desire.’

After some more reassurance, Ethan finally realised that William was being genuine. And that was only because William demonstrated. He had not demonstrated any other power, so this sent a shiver down my spine.

He waved his staff in a circle around his head, and belts of black energy grew from the shadow at our feet. Ethan jumped back. As the belts got closer to the staff, they grew and warped, seemingly orbiting it. William lashed his arm out, and the belts scattered back to where they had come from.

‘I’ve done this before,’ I said quietly. ‘When Henry and I saved Jay. Belts like that swirled around my sword as I fought. It was weird.’

William chuckled. ‘Nobody has ever described Dark Breathing as ‘weird’, and yet I do not think there is a more perfect word that can be used!’

I smiled warmly, and then William began teaching us how to actually perform Night Claws.

First, he taught us the actual breathing required. Night Claws needed a deep breath in followed by a quick, harsh breath out.

We practised this for a while before William decided that we could perform it to a sufficient standard. It certainly was a strange way to breathe. The hardest part about it was letting out all the oxygen from the deep breath with such a quick one.

Next, we had to practice warping the darkness. I got it instantly, having done it before. Well, not instantly, but it was only my second attempt when I did it flawlessly. Ethan, on the other hand, struggled a bit.

Both William and I helped coach Ethan on how to warp the darkness. It made me feel useful in a way. I was teaching someone.

I then realised that we may have to teach people back in RoCity. Surely at least some people would be interested in the Breathing Techniques and would like to learn for themselves.

It took half an hour for Ethan to get the hang of warping the darkness, which was no surprise for William, but Ethan seemed to take it personally.

‘So it’s easier to control flames and lightning itself than shadows?’ he said. His tone suggested anger, but I could tell that it was not directed at either myself or William.

Then, finally, we moved on to the actual movement.

For me, I, with my blades coated in darkness, had to make my swords parallel to one another before slashing diagonally downward with both.

Ethan, on the other hand, had to, of course, coat his blade in darkness. Then he had to slash diagonally downward and then quickly back upward, if that made sense. In practice, he would strike from the shoulder to the waist and then back up to the shoulder.

All-in-all, it was a nice move. I immediately noticed that it could be used to get in some quick damage after opening your opponent’s guard, and that is exactly what William explained not moments later.

Utilising Dark Breathing did not feel unlike when I had controlled the darkness during the war with Amy. It felt powerful. I felt bigger than I actually was. I had been through some bizarre experiences during my time, but controlling the dark itself was certainly up there with some of the weirder ones.

Ethan definitely felt the same way. For the first hour of our training, he had a strange grimace on his face, and I even heard him complain under his breath once or twice.

During the lunch break, however, Ethan seemed to have nothing but positive things to say.

‘Imagine how badass we’re gonna look fighting when we get back,’ he said before even taking a bite of his food. ‘And William said the Forms can be modified depending on the situation, right? Imagine if we modify Night Claws to have flames or something!’

I pictured that scene in my head. It definitely would be badass.

‘Oh, my Gods,’ Ethan continued, now having taken a single bite of his food. ‘Imagine if we fuse two Forms together. Like, I don’t know, Hunter’s Breeze and Sparking Strikes.’

‘William said that would take immense concentration and skill, though,’ I countered.

‘He said it’s doable, though,’ Ethan replied instantly. ‘And because they’re unofficial, modified Forms, we don’t need to train to use them. You know, cuz we’re the creators.’

I began thinking of possible combinations. Of course, there were loads of them, but I was trying to think of some that would actually work in a combat scene.

A few did come to mind, but they were all entirely situational. And I knew as much as the next person that I preferred to go with the flow during a fight.

I was strange like that, and Maltor was, too. When fighting him, I had of course been assessing the situation somewhat, but I never made an actual plan. My moves depended entirely on his, and vice versa. It was brilliant.

Maybe that’s why it was always so close whenever Maltor and I fought. The two of us fought with the same style. One could’ve expected this, however, seeing as we did grow up and learn to fight together.

After giving it some more thought, I realised just how similar me and Maltor were. We were almost the same person. There was one major difference, however. I was against mass genocide, he was in favour.

‘You okay?’ Ethan asked, snapping me back into reality. ‘You just kinda stared into space.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,’ I assured him. ‘Just…thinking.’

He stared blankly at me for a few moments before continuing, ‘Are you done? If you are, we can go back to training.’

I smirked. ‘Looks like you’re eager, huh?’

‘Can you blame me?’ he fired back, now practically bouncing in his seat. ‘Dark Breathing sounds cool. We’ve barely even started and I can’t wait to learn it all.’

I flicked my head back slightly as I rose from my seat, gesturing to him. Ethan stood up, too, beaming.

I couldn’t wait to get to the end, either. The closer we got to Christmas, the more eager I became to go home. I had to see everyone. It was almost unbearable at this point. We had about a month left. That was it. Just a single month.

As much as it may have been tiring, we just had to push through one more month. Then we could go home and end this stupid ‘war’ with our new strengths.

I shuddered at the word ‘war’. I didn’t want to call it that. The thing with Amy had been a war. She had brought an entire army to RoCity just for me, and we had had to fire back with everything we had. Countless lives had been lost.

On the other hand, not a single life had been lost to Maltor since he had returned. Yet. He had yet to bring a sizeable force to the RoCitian border. It wasn’t a war. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was certainly not that.

I realised very quickly that I did not want it to escalate into a proper war. I couldn’t go through that again. Losing Grandad and Henry in the first war had been gut-wrenching, and I highly doubted I would even have the will to live if I lost anyone else. Especially if it were one of my friends.

Starting to feel sick at my own thoughts, I turned them back to training. We still had to continue. The indifferent cruelty of the world didn’t care about how I felt. It didn’t matter.

As Ethan and I worked our way through Night Claws, ignoring my thoughts definitely became the hardest part. I was acing the Form, according to William, so that quickly became no problem. I just had to somehow not succumb to my own mind.

To help with that, I instead turned my attention to helping Ethan perform Night Claws. Not only was this helping him, but by teaching him I was also teaching myself. If I ever found myself with only one blade, I would be better equipped to continue fighting.

I could kinda understand why Ethan was having more trouble than I was. It was easily more difficult to perform with just a single sword than it was to perform it with two. The hardest bit was definitely quickly changing your direction of movement. With such a quick movement downward, both Ethan and I began to struggle with suddenly bringing our blades back up.

Nevertheless, after seeing me join him, Ethan seemed to be fuelled with a newfound motivation. He gradually began to get the hang of it, and we even stayed up a little later than usual to make sure he did it perfectly.

‘That was brilliant sportsmanship there, Albert, well done,’ William said as we began to walk back down to the camp.

I smiled at him. ‘It wouldn’t have been fair if I were to let him struggle whilst I just watched.’

William beamed at me. ‘You are a remarkable young man.’

Then he addressed both me and Ethan at the same time. ‘I assume you’ll be pleased to know that the Second Form, Feigned Strike, is much easier than Night Claws. You’ll definitely ace that before lunch on Saturday. So, on Saturday we’ll most likely do that and Midnight Spin.’

‘See?’ Ethan murmured. ‘They sound cool.’

‘You really think we can do it that quick?’ I asked after smirking back at Ethan.

‘I know you can,’ was William’s response. He was still beaming. ‘The two of you are exceptional students. Nobody has ever learnt as quickly as you.’

A warm feeling spread throughout my body, and I saw Ethan puff his chest out slightly out of the corner of my eye. It was strange, how a few sentences could completely change a person’s mood.

As we got to our room, William bid us goodnight, and I could still see the smile on his face as he walked away.

‘Thanks for helping me back there,’ Ethan said as I collapsed onto my bed. ‘No chance I coulda done it without you.’

‘Nah, you definitely would’ve,’ I replied reassuringly. ‘William’s told us multiple times that we’re the best students he’s ever seen. I just helped you get the hang of it quicker.’

Ethan scoffed. ‘You know how weird you are? I don’t know if The School did something to you, or whether it’s just your nature, but you’re really weird, man.’

I grinned at him. ‘How so?’

He stared at me. ‘You. Literally everything about you.’

‘The School may have had something to do with the wings.’

‘You know that’s not what I mean, dumbass,’ Ethan countered. ‘I mean the way you act. And how quickly you learn stuff. Yeah, I learn fast, according to William, but it’s nowhere near as fast as you.’

‘I guess that’s just who I am,’ I replied after thinking for a moment. ‘As far as I’m aware, The School didn’t directly change mine or Maltor’s characteristics. Apart from, you know, the stuff that comes with being part bird.’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘Yeah, being weird is just how you are naturally, then,’ Ethan said, smirking.

‘I guess so,’ I answered, smirking back at him. ‘And that’s why you’re my best friend, right?’

‘Exactly.’

The two of us smiled at each other once more before silently deciding that it was time to go to sleep. And, once again, I fell asleep insanely quickly.

Luckily, I had a dreamless night. I had heard somewhere that some normal people found it strange whenever they didn’t dream at night. And I couldn’t understand for the life of me why that was. Whenever I had a dreamless night, it was a blessing. Dreams were pretty much just another form of torture. Well, usually. If I were dreaming about seeing Emma, my friends, or my parents, it was typically nice to have a dream. It was a shame that this did not happen often.

***

‘You know,’ I said groggily as I sat up on Saturday morning, ‘you’d think that after nearly five months of waking up to that alarm every day, one would get used to it.’

‘You still hate it?’ Ethan replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

I glared at him. ‘It almost makes me dread waking up.’

‘‘Almost’,’ Ethan taunted.

‘I will dice you into pieces if you don’t shut up.’

‘You’re hilarious when you wake up, you know that?’

I wordlessly rose from my bed and grabbed some clothes, trudging to the bathroom to get changed. Maybe he was right. I certainly felt angrier after waking up. But maybe it was because of that stupid iPhone alarm.

I ate my breakfast in silence, as well. Not even because I was angry, but because Ethan kept taunting me. He could imitate the alarm scarily well.

We had spent the past two days brutally training. William had told us that Dark Breathing required immense physical strength and good conditioning. I wasn’t too sure whether he was lying or not, but it definitely helped push me and Ethan through some of the tougher exercises.

He had said the same about Berserk Breathing, one of the Bare Techniques. That Technique undoubtedly needed a lot of strength, and it made sense that it was typically taken up by descendants of Ares. I wondered if Jay would want to learn it. Berserk Breathing’s Forms were nothing like Jay, at all, but, as he was a son of Ares, it might have at least caught his interest.

I gritted my teeth, cursing myself for thinking about home again. All throughout Thursday and Friday, I had done a great job at blocking out most thoughts of home. It was a slippery slope. One thought would send me down a spiral, and I would painfully realise how much I missed them, and it affected my concentration. I couldn’t afford it.

One thing other than my friends caught my mind, however. The date. It was the twentieth of November. My mom’s birthday. I remembered that day Grandad had informed me of this vividly. Amy had attacked us on that day. And who had come to help whilst I had been fighting her? Maltor.

I shook my head violently as Ethan and I headed up to the peak of the mountain. As much as I probably should’ve been thinking about my mom on that day, I reminded myself that there were other times for this.

As usual, when we arrived at the mountain’s peak, William was already there waiting for us. He smiled when he saw us, and I remembered what he had said about Feigned Strike. He had told us that it was much easier than Night Claws, so easy that we would master it by lunchtime. I grinned at the thought.

‘Hello, again, boys,’ William said as Ethan and I once again pulled our T-Shirts over our heads. ‘Today, or should I say this morning, I will be teaching you Dark Breathing, Second Form: Feigned Strike, and it is definitely one of the easier Forms.’

I glanced at Ethan. He was staring at William with ferocious determination. It was clear that he did not want a repeat of Wednesday.

‘As you may be able to assume, Feigned Strike is just that; a feigned strike. It can be used to force your opponent to move their guard, or even change their stance if done well enough.

‘Darkness around your blade is not required for this, but it belongs with the Technique due to the misleading nature. It is typically performed by striking the space on the side of your opponent’s head. Remember, Feigned Strike does not actually make contact with the opponent. You are striking the air next to them.’

William had prepared the wooden dummies from before for us, and it was obvious why.

As we repeatedly performed Feigned Strike over and over again, William watched us carefully. He rarely intervened, and only did so when one of us was breathing incorrectly.

As we worked, he did tell us that we did not need to necessarily strike the air next to the opponent’s head. This was just where the move was typically aimed, in order to make your opponent susceptible to a body shot by making them move their guard to their head. He said that, depending on the flow of the fight, one may choose to strike the air next to an opponent’s leg or stomach, in order to make them vulnerable to an attack elsewhere.

He also had a few words of warning about Feigned Strike. I had suspected that there was a drawback to such a simple move, and I was almost surprised that I had not figured it out myself.

Obviously, Ethan and I were practising on stationary objects that were not fighting back. In a real fight, our opponent would, of course, also be trying to take our heads off. William explained that in most situations, Feigned Strike was difficult to pull off due to your opponent moving, and the fact that it could be difficult to lead from another move into it. He did also say that this was the hardest part about Feigned Strike, however, stating that if we had the skill to pull it off in an actual fight, then it would hold great value to us.

And, just as William had predicted, we were easily done with Feigned Strike before lunch. He gave us the choice of going to eat early, or beginning the Third Form: Midnight Spin. I do not think I need to explain which option Ethan and I chose.

‘Midnight Spin is very similar to Water Wheel, in multiple ways,’ William began, beaming at us. He seemed overcome with pride that we had chosen this over an early lunch. ‘First and foremost, the way you breathe for both Forms is very similar, and the actual movement is, too.

‘A glaring difference is, of course, that when performing Midnight Spin, one would be controlling darkness as opposed to water. But the movement…that is certainly very similar.

‘Think of it as simply performing Water Wheel thrice, in quick succession. You want to first coat your blade in darkness, and then as you lunge forward toward your opponent, you spin around three times, striking them every time you spin.’

William very quickly noticed that Ethan and I were immensely eager to begin practising this, so he let us do so.

We mimicked his breathing for a while before we absolutely thrashed the dummies with our movements.

The ‘controlling darkness’ bit was quite simple now, for both me and Ethan and the movement wasn’t even too complicated. The problem arose from spinning three times. Both of us could spin twice with absolutely no problem. But we always, always, failed on the third spin. It was becoming clear to me why exactly Dark Breathing required a lot of strength.

At first, we practised without focusing on striking the dummies, we simply needed to get the movement down. And, as much as we tried, it simply seemed as though we could not get the momentum to spin thrice.

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime. I hadn’t even noticed how hungry I was until I heard the news.

‘I hope eating gives us the energy to do it,’ Ethan growled behind me as we trudged down to the dining area.

‘It better,’ I snarled back. ‘I mean, it’s so stupid! We can do two and a half spins, so why can’t we just do three, huh?’

Ethan scoffed. ‘Just round it up, right? We can do it. We’re the best students William’s ever taught. Come on, we better eat quick so we can learn it faster.’

Him saying that reminded me that we were trying to get home for Christmas. If this stupid move stopped us from doing that, I would never be able to forgive myself.

And, Gods, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ethan eat so aggressively. Sure, I was trying to eat quickly, too, but I had been on the brink of starvation before, so I was hardly setting any records. But Ethan was almost scaring me with how quickly he demolished his plate.

‘Holy Mother of Titan,’ I said, aghast, as Ethan shovelled the last few bites of food into his mouth. ‘I’ve never seen you eat so damn fast.’

He smirked at me. ‘You finished five minutes ago.’

‘Yeah, but…’ I replied, at a complete loss for words. ‘You just-’

‘I wanna finish this damn Form,’ he interrupted, rising from his seat. ‘And we’re gonna do it. By the end of the day. Come on, Albert. We can’t save the world on an empty stomach.’

I grinned at him. ‘Yeah…we’ve gotta keep going.’

As we climbed back up to the peak, Ethan growled, ‘When I see Maltor, you bet your ass I’m using this move on him. I’m not letting this effort go to waste.’

I scoffed. ‘You and me both. We should pincer him.’

He laughed at that. ‘Yeah, if you don’t kill him within your first three strikes.’

William seemed almost shocked that we had eaten so quickly, but he quickly masked it. He didn’t even say a word. He simply flicked his hand toward the empty space before him and Ethan and I knew what to do.

We spent half an hour performing the stupid move, and our patience was certainly wavering. But I had an idea.

‘Wait,’ I snarled. I slowly began to walk away from Ethan and William. ‘William said ‘as we lunge towards our opponent’, right? So this is intended to be used as you advance? Why don’t we run with it?’

And, with that, I dashed forward. I didn’t run as fast as I could, but I did go pretty fast. Right as it felt as though I was hitting the right speed, I poured all of my strength into my legs, took my breath in, and leapt into the air. I spun gracefully. Once…Twice…

‘That was horribly anticlimactic,’ Ethan said, trying not to laugh, as I wandered back over towards him.

I glared at him. ‘It was a good idea.’

‘It certainly was,’ William cut in. ‘I’m, in fact, quite impressed that you thought of it. But I am wondering why you don’t try it in the air.’

‘Cuz he can’t,’ I said simply. ‘It’d be unfair if I performed it flawlessly cuz I’m flying while Ethan struggles on the ground. I can try that once the two of us get it.’

William stared at me in amazement.

‘You truly are a wonderous young man, Albert,’ he said slowly. ‘Titan informed me of your nature, but I never expected that he would be making an understatement.’

For a moment, I began to wonder what Titan had said about me, but I dismissed it quickly.

‘You remind me much of my younger self,’ William continued. ‘And forgive me if this is awkward for your teenage selves, but I must say that you two are the best students I have ever taught. Not only in how quickly you learn, but in the people that you are.’

Ethan and I stared at him blankly. I think that the two of us were not quite sure how to respond to that.

William chuckled. ‘Apologies, I should have expected that you would not be able to formulate a response to that.’

The rest of the day was a blur, and I wasn’t sure whether or not it had anything to do with what William had said. Nonetheless, we still did not complete the move by the end of the day like Ethan had wanted us to. William, on the other hand, looked as though he could not have been more proud.

He patted our shoulders before saying goodnight that evening, and Ethan and I watched him walk away for a moment before finally pulling ourselves together and heading into our room.

‘Gods, it’s gonna be sad when we leave him,’ I said exasperatedly as I sat on my bed. ‘He looks so happy with us around.’

‘I genuinely can’t help but wonder what he’s gonna do when we’re gone,’ Ethan replied. He sounded truly upset.

‘We’ve only got a month left with him, if all goes to plan,’ I said, staring at the ceiling. ‘A few days ago I couldn’t wait to go home, and now I don’t know if I even want to.’

I was making a bit of an overstatement, and Ethan knew it, but the message was still there.

The two of us remained silent for a few more minutes. The noise was only interrupted by the sounds of Ethan getting under his blanket.

‘Well, goodnight Albert,’ he murmured. ‘And I’ll see you with the next alarm.’

I scoffed. ‘Night, mate.’

It was as I began to get under my own blanket that I remembered the date.

‘The twentieth of November, huh?’ I mumbled uncontrollably. ‘I at least hope I’m making you proud, Mom. And happy birthday.’

I dozed off gracefully, proud of myself for not succumbing to the thoughts.

***

Both me and Ethan were awake before the alarm went off, and I made the executive decision to force him to turn it off.

‘I’m not listening to that thing if I don’t have to,’ was my reasoning.

‘Whatever you say, Your Highness,’ he responded, grinning.

‘And hurry up,’ I grunted as I stood up. ‘We still have Midnight Spin to do.’

That certainly changed his mood very quickly.

He still ate breakfast with alarming speed, however. One would be able to safely assume that he had a personal grudge against Midnight Spin. He was like an entirely different person whenever it crossed his mind.

And, for the first time since we had arrived at Piz Vadret, Ethan and I were at the peak of the mountain before William. We didn’t waste any time.

We tore off our T-Shirts and immediately got to work. The two of us leapt and spun through the air so much and with such short gaps between goes that we had to pause multiple times due to the fact that we were going dizzy.

‘Watch,’ Ethan growled, sounding genuinely furious. ‘This is the one. I’m gonna do it this time.’

I sat on the flattest rock I could find.

‘Go on, Ethan!’ I cheered, slapping my thigh.

He readied his stance, and I saw him breathe steadily, even from where I was sitting. His legs tensed, and he jumped gracefully forward into the air.

And I don’t think there could have been a better moment for William to arrive.

Ethan spun rapidly through the air. Once. Twice.

‘Thrice!’ I yelled, standing up so quickly I saw stars.

Ethan landed elegantly back on his feet. He turned to me with such a look of joy on his face that one would’ve assumed that he’d found the cure for all diseases.

The two of us darted towards each other.

I had never hugged a male friend before. It was much different from hugging Emma and even felt different from when Natasha hugged me.

The two of us gripped each other tightly, thumping the other’s back with tremendous force.

‘I did it!’ Ethan whimpered in my ear. ‘I spun three times!’

‘Hell yeah, you did!’ I replied as he grasped my back.

We only separated because of the faint applause that had begun on my right.

‘Well done, Ethan!’ William said merrily.

Ethan beamed at him, but then his face faltered.

‘We just hugged.’

I stared at him. ‘What about it?’

‘We’re shirtless.’

William roared with laughter and I stared at Ethan blankly.

‘I didn’t think of that.’

We stood in silence whilst William continued to laugh in the background. After about thirty seconds of this, William finally spoke.

‘I apologise for being late, boys. But I must say, I am immensely proud that the two of you took the initiative and began training without me.’

‘Listen, yeah,’ Ethan growled, smirking. ‘We’re unbelievably determined to complete this damned Form. Nothing can stop me now. I spun three times.’

‘Now do it with your sword, striking the dummy three times,’ William added, smiling.

Ethan swore loudly, so loudly that it echoed.

William’s eyebrows shot up slightly, and Ethan began to frantically apologise. Upon realising that William was smirking ever so slightly, he stopped.

‘Are you sure I should?’ Ethan asked, sounding worried. ‘I mean, Albert hasn’t managed to do the jump yet.’

‘Well, if you feel that bad,’ William responded immediately, as though he had known this was coming, ‘practise the jump more. That could’ve been a one-off.’

As it turned out, that jump was not just a one-off. Yes, Ethan failed the next two attempts, and then once more after those, but from that point onward it was smooth sailing for him.

Strangely, I did not feel spiteful, or at least not spiteful enough to notice. I did wish that I could do the jump as well, but I was not angry that Ethan had in the slightest.

So, whilst Ethan began practising the jump combined with the sword movement, I stayed in the background, trying desperately to do the damn jump. My legs felt as though they were about to explode. I felt like giving up, I really did.

‘Come on, you worthless sod!’ I snarled as I leapt into the air for the umpteenth time. ‘If Ethan can do it, then you can, too!’

But it was useless. It seemed as though, no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not spin three times. It was always two and a half.

I used my time wisely, however. If I ever truly felt as though my legs could not continue, I practised some of the other Forms we had learned. I mostly performed Water Wheel over and over again, as that was the most similar to Midnight Spin.

I even tried doing what Ethan did. Just before he had succeeded, what had he done? He had told me outright that that jump would be the one. I spoke, out loud, multiple times, telling myself that every jump would be the one, and it never worked.

When William said it was time to stop and go down for dinner, I swore multiple times under my breath.

‘Come on, Albert,’ Ethan pleaded. ‘Just try it with your wings.’

‘No,’ I snarled determinedly. ‘That’s cheating. And I’ll stay up here for as long as it takes to do this stupid jump.’

‘You’ll freeze to death.’

‘Tough. Not being able to do this damn thing is worse.’

Ethan frowned for a moment, pondering what I had said. I saw William open his mouth to try and persuade me, but Ethan stopped him.

‘I’ll save you some food,’ Ethan said quietly before he and William descended the mountain.

Once I was certain nobody could hear me, I let out a horrific roar. I was not entirely certain why I was so stressed over this one thing, but I was, and I had to deal with it.

The wind picked up as I roared, and it stabbed my skin. I didn’t even wince. I flung my fists forward multiple times, barraging the air in front of me, and the wind continued to rage.

I laughed maniacally. So I could conjure up what was practically a cyclone, but I couldn’t do a stupid jump? And how was it that I, someone that had had to learn to jump powerfully, couldn’t do it? It was impossible to even count the times I had taken off without a runup, so it was not an understatement to say that I had a powerful jump. Maybe it was the momentum. Maybe I didn’t have the flexibility.

That was another stupid idea. It’s not like I was a contortionist or anything, but my body wasn’t stiff by any means.

‘Jump, you stupid pig,’ I growled under my breath.

I leapt into the air again, my hopes low. And I failed. Again. Two and a half spins.

‘I will do this,’ I snarled to nobody but myself. ‘And may the Gods have mercy on Maltor when I see him next. He’ll pay for this. I’m doing this for him.’

Maybe it was the height. Maybe I was simply not jumping high enough; causing myself to land before it was even possible to spin three times.

I felt myself growing angrier and angrier as time passed. I just couldn’t do it. No matter how motivated I became, how fixated on the simple task I was, I genuinely could not do it.

The clouds in the sky were a lot darker than they had been when William and Ethan had gone for dinner. I wasn’t too sure as to whether I had done that subconsciously or whether it was just really late. I didn’t care.

Either way, I had to accept that I had to go inside. I wouldn’t be able to train at maximum efficiency tomorrow if I weren’t rested.

‘What’s wrong with one more?’ I said quietly. ‘What if I have that kinda luck?’

I did not have that kinda luck, but it was nice to dream. But doing one more may have been a mistake, as it fuelled me to keep trying. So, no I did not go down for a rest just then.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and I readied my stance exactly as Ethan had done hours before. And, in the most poetic fashion possible, I leapt into the air, spun three times flawlessly, and landed right as lightning crashed down from the sky and hit the peak of a nearby mountain.

‘That’s such an ass-pull,’ I breathed. ‘There’s just no way.’

Out of my next three attempts, two succeeded.

‘You have got to be joking.’

I ran as fast as I could down to the main entrance to the camp. Two new people were guarding the main entrance. They gave me strange looks for a moment before realising who I was.

I barrelled past them, and I found William and Ethan sitting in the dining area. Thankfully, nobody else was.

‘Was that you making all that thunder?’ Ethan asked when he saw me.

‘You have no idea,’ I panted. ‘That was the greatest ass-pull I have ever bore witness to.’

‘You did the jump, didn’t you, Albert?’ William asked, smiling.

‘Right as the lightning hit a nearby mountain,’ I replied, smirking. ‘Watch.’

I readied my stance once more. Was I panicking that I would fail now that I had an audience? Absolutely. Did I succeed? Again, absolutely.

Ethan and William gave me a light round of applause.

‘Oh, and these are for you,’ Ethan said after he had stopped clapping, pushing a plate of toast towards me.

‘And well done Albert, I hope you know we really are proud,’ William added, a warm smile coating his entire face.

‘What time is it?’ I asked, exhausted.

‘Nearly midnight, we were worried you’d frozen to death,’ William continued.

I scoffed. ‘I stayed up til almost midnight training for him? Watch, Maltor is gonna get the greatest ass whooping of his life.’