Trock didn’t hesitate for even a second and kicked off the fight by charging towards Joule. She was paralyzed in fear, unable to even react.
"Oh, how courteous, go after her why don'tcha" Riza remarked.
I sighed "Fine… I guess I don't have a say in the matter." I built up a bit of flame energy and blasted it towards Trock, which quickly got his attention.
He smirked at me. "So the prince wants to fight, does he? I’d be happy to oblige!" He angrily shifted his attention towards me.
I created a small flame on the palm of my hand which had engulfed my fist.
"Alright, then here goes nothing…" I whispered.
"You think that’s gonna do anything?" He was starting to speak more arrogantly. "Stop treating me like a damn newbie!" he shouted.
I was about to once again attempt the flame strike from the day before.
I threw a punch, but to no avail; Trock managed to power through the attack and send me tumbling to the ground with a violent lariat.
He instantly followed through by taking hold of one of my arms, pinning me to the ground.
“Come on, don’t tell me that’s it? FIGHT BACK DAMNIT!!” he shouted out.
“You know what, now that I think about it… maybe this wasn’t such a great idea huh?”
Trock tightened his grip “You little…”
"Prince! Please move out of the way!" I heard a shout.
To my surprise, it was Joule; her hair was standing on its ends and a large surge of lightning was beginning to build up around her body.
After a few seconds, all I could see was a bright light heading towards me.
"Are you trying to kill me!?" I shouted back.
I quickly let out a small burst of flame from both of my hands which caused Trock to finally let go.
Trock had been struck by a very powerful burst of lightning, but he was still standing.
"You’re… gonna regret that," Trock said as he turned around; his voice clearly showed that he was in immense pain. "I’ll knock some sense into those insufferable heads of yours."
"I think you’re forgetting something," Riza gave a playful scoff at Trock as we heard a loud crack.
"You idiot… I told you to wait," Blade said to him as he placed his hand on his forehead in frustration.
Riza had snatched Trock’s marble during his outburst.
"And that makes Trock the first one out," the captain announced to the group.
At this point, Trock had become furious, "What?! This is bullshit!" He began to shout, "Fight me for real, you bunch of cowards!"
“Hey, you’re the one who got all psycho on us. Pipe down and go sit in your little corner over there.” Riza continued goad him
“Oh, that’s it!” Trock took a step towards Riza.
"Trock!" the captain shouted. "Need I remind you what happened last time you had an outburst like this?" The captain spoke to him; it was almost like a threat.
Trock let out a deep breath, “No… I-I apologize.”
Trock had slowly calmed down after that and reluctantly began to stand on the sidelines.
I walked over to Joule, who was now kneeling down on the ground "Are you alright?" I asked her
"I-I’ll be fine; just give me a minute," she said to me with a heavy pant.
"Would you two quit flirting over there and focus on the fight?" Riza remarked back at us.
I then noticed that Blade had turned over to whisper to Marz while pointing towards Riza.
"Riza, watch out!" I shouted.
The ground below us began to shake, and Riza lost her balance. Marz was lifting the ground up above him, creating a large boulder.
"What, do you think you can just manipulate the earth whenever you want now?" Riza laughed, "You’re a Neptarian, why can’t you get that through your thick skull?"
“Joule, can you move?" I quickly whispered
"I’m sorry, I think I overdid it this time," she said with a slight whimper.
“Alright, then. Rest up, I’ve got this.” I replied to her.
I quickly built up enough energy to create a small ball of fire which I used to blast the huge boulder, destroying it before Marz could attack anyone.
I groaned in pain. "Yep… that might’ve been a bit too much flame usage for one day," I quietly said to myself.
The ground stopped shaking, and Marz turned to look in my direction. I quickly dropped my marble in front of Joule in hopes that she would hide it before my fight against Marz.
Though my combat skills weren’t the best by any means, I was still better at a closer range, so this fight definitely put me at a huge disadvantage.
While I may have praised Blade for being the prodigy he was at his age, Marz was actually the person who held the number one spot in his rank.
He had an extremely powerful abnormality which gave him telekinetic abilities, allowing him to move various objects around according to his will; he primarily used this ability to control large pieces of dirt and stone to mimic the abilities of those found on the earth planet Kelklia.
I had to, at the very least, hold Marz back until Joule recovered or until Riza had finished her fight against Blade, which… didn’t seem likely.
I looked over to Riza and saw that the fight wasn’t exactly going the way she expected. Riza was actually on the defensive, unable to catch Blade off guard.
"Are you done ignoring me?" Marz had asked with a scoff.
"Just about," I mocked him jokingly.
He sighed, "Not taking it seriously this time either then I see."
I blasted a bolt of fire towards him but he was able to change its trajectory and cause it to swerve around him. At this point, my stamina was nearly depleted. I couldn’t do much, and he could tell.
"Fine… be that way then," he remarked as he let loose a barrage of stones onto me.
I was then bombarded by a rain of stones on all sides. I was unable to approach him, much less deliver any sort of counterattack. It was very clear that I was severely outmatched, and before I knew it, a chunk of the ground behind me had risen, taking Joule with it.
"Both Mistery and Joule are out!" the captain shouted out and the bombardment stopped
I looked over to Marz.
"I swear… one day you’re gonna have to take me seriously," he said to me with a slight frustration in his voice.
Both of our marbles were in his hand, shattered. I dropped to the ground. I was completely out of energy.
"Yeah yeah, haven't heard that one before… Anyways, aren’t you going to help Blade?" I asked him while ignoring his previous remark.
He let out a disappointed sigh, "There’s no need, at least one person here is actually giving it his all."
There was a huge cloud of smoke covering the opposite side of the field and not long after, I saw Riza get launched out of it. She struggled to get up off the ground, her legs were trembling. Blade had then emerged from the smoke, he stomped his foot down in front of Riza and shattered the last remaining marble.
Marz looked over to me one last time, “The rest of you disappoint me,”
"And there we have it, a clean 2-0," the captain announced as the training exercise had concluded.
I went over and helped Joule stand up.
"Thanks," she said to me, still in pain.
She was still quite damaged from her attack earlier, not that I was any better. Apparently, she had a strange abnormality that caused her damage whenever she used her lightning. To compensate for that, however, her lightning was said to be many times stronger than normal. Not every abnormality was all sunshine and rainbows.
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“That was a decent showing from all of you. Battles are rarely ever won through brute force alone, some semblance of strategy and teamwork is crucial if you want to succeed.” The captain shouted out. “All of you rest up for now. We’ll reconvene soon. I still have two more lessons I would like us to get through before we begin our actual training."
"You’re telling me that wasn’t training?” I asked as I nearly collapsed on the spot. "Yep, it’s settled. I’m going to die here."
I then walked over to Blade. "You did great; how’d you manage to create that smoke?" I asked him.
He looked back at me.
"Oh uhh, my fire isn’t very potent, so it just naturally does that," he explained to me.
"I would’ve never thought to use it that way. Here I thought Riza would be able to put up more of a fight, I should really keep an eye on you."
"If I were you, I’d be more worried about Marz. That guy is practically untouchable," he had warned.
"Yeah, I saw. I couldn’t get anywhere near him."
"You better prepare yourself. He has his sights set on taking you down specifically."
"What? Me? That's funny," I brushed his comment aside as I walked over towards Marz.
"Well, I warned you; don’t blame me for what happens," I heard Blade remark as we parted ways.
"It’ll be fine," I responded, “I just want to congratulate him.”
Marz turned over to look at me. Like me, he was fairly short. He had brown, messy hair and used glasses. He would also always wear a large gray jacket no matter the weather.
"Can I help you with something?" he had asked with a seemingly blank expression on his face.
"I just wanted to congratulate you," I said to him.
He began to look at me in disapproval and his blank face quickly changed to a smug grin.
"Oh, the great prince. How honored I am to be praised by you," he said in a sarcastic tone.
"Pardon?" I responded clearly confused.
"Let me give you a word of advice," he approached me. "Stop pretending to be weak,"
"You’ve got the wrong idea," I nervously chuckled.
"The mere fact that you’re even attending this class in the first place is proof that you’re hiding something. But what that also means is that you can’t be that much stronger than the rest of us."
I sighed. "You really don’t know anything, do you?" I was getting ticked off.
"You know damn well, the only reason anyone even remotely respects you is because of your grandfather..." I cut him off and quickly held him by the shirt, I had finally lost it.
"You think I need you to tell me that?" I asked him, "My whole life, I’ve grown up knowing that. I don’t need some uptight noble like you to explain it to me," I let go of him as I finally decided to walk away.
"You know… Power such as yours doesn’t come naturally to many people; you should be more grateful," he said behind my back as he readjusted his shirt.
Joule had caught sight of the situation and approached me.
"Is… everything alright?" she nervously whispered.
I had finally managed to calm down, not wanting to scare the poor girl away or drag her into my problems. "Yeah, I’m fine. I just got a bit carried away there."
"Please don’t mind, Marz. He just tends to get a bit self-conscious, especially after a big fight. He just really wants to see your true strength."
“True strength?" I asked, "Oh… you’re also on about that?”
“Believe it or not, Marz actually holds you in high regard. So much so that he sees you as a bigger threat than anyone else here. He’s always studying your fighting style, trying to figure out how strong you really are,” she began to explain to me. "So I know he’s just purposely trying to get under your skin."
"Everyone keeps talking to me as if I’m much stronger than I actually am." I sat down.
"What do you mean?" She asked, "You’re the prince; I don’t hold it against you. I understand that you need to hold back in order to compete with us."
"That’s not it at all," I replied, scratching my head, "the fact of the matter is that I’m not as strong as you all give me credit for."
"W-what?"
"Contrary to what everyone thinks, I’m not this great warrior that everyone should look up to. I’m not like the prince of Otoma, Reaver. I’m not adept at everything I do; in actuality, I’m painfully average," I let out a laugh.
"B-but you inspire so many people; they all admire you," she said to me.
"I never tried pretending to be something I’m not. It’s just that nobody believes me when I tell them the truth," I sighed. "To be perfectly honest, I don’t even think I deserve to be in this course."
"Oh don’t say that," she attempted to comfort me, "No one here is perfect, I mean, you saw what happened earlier," she quietly giggled.
"Yeah..." I said under my breath. "So... what’s up with you and Blade?" I asked her in an attempt to change the subject.
She seemed embarrassed. "W-what!?" She had raised her voice suddenly.
"I mean, you’re always staring at him, no?"
"N-no, it’s not like that!" She continued to raise her voice, much to my surprise.
"Not like what? I thought you two were very close since you both dorm at the castle."
"N-no, I just..." She went silent.
"Oh, I see…" I continued to tease her as I finally put two and two together.
She began to blush.
"Don’t worry about it; this will be our little secret," I chuckled.
"I don't…" Her hair slowly started to stand up on its ends as her eyes went wide.
"Huh…? What’s wrong?" I tried to get her attention, but she remained silent.
"Hey, Joule, Prince," I heard a familiar voice behind me. "The next lesson is about to start," Blade had called out to us.
"Yeah, we’ll be right there," I responded. "Let’s go, Joule."
I heard no response. She was practically lost in thought.
"Joule?" I once again tried to gain her attention, but to no avail. I sighed. "We don’t have time for this."
I took hold of her arm and practically dragged her back to the training grounds.
Captain Strek had lined us all up before beginning his lecture. “While you all may have risen the ranks in your own way, the gap between A-rank and S-rank is larger than that of E to A. Even your slightest mistakes and faults will be taken note of.” he went on to eye us all down one by one before continuing, “Riza, you suffer from an incredible level of overconfidence, that, paired with your obvious lack of motivation to actively participate in class will be your downfall.”
It was clear to me that Riza was furious and was trying to hide it, so I didn’t mention anything so as not to provoke her even further.
“Trock! I’m sure this goes without saying, but you need to keep that temper in check. When used effectively, anger and rage can be a powerful tool that can propel one to unfathomable heights, but it is also a weakness you must get rid of. Your companions here are just that, companions, not enemies, try not to forget that.”
Trock scoffed in response, clearly still angry about the situation. But deep down he knew the captain was right.
“Joule, your overall demeanor is a weakness in and of itself. You are powerful and you have everything you need to succeed,yet due to the way you hold yourself I see that you are unable to even take that first step. Marz, the top A-ranked student, truly a feat worthy of its praise. But because of that very reason, you see yourself as invincible. Allow me to impart some words of wisdom, you may think you’re close to achieving great status, but let me tell you that is not the case by any means. The top of A-rank may be impressive, but it is only the starting line. Please do keep that in mind”
Marz turned to look at me as the captain finished. I avoided making eye contact as he did so. To think the Captain would even mention Marz was insane to me, I guess even the strong have more to learn.
Captain Strek then turned over to Blade and I was curious as to what he would say.
“Blade, you’re an exceptional fighter in nearly every regard. Whether that be due to your training or upbringing, your exceptional abilities matter not when you yourself don’t even seem to trust in them. You always tell yourself you need to learn more and improve more, yet you never take a moment to think about why these lessons are important, never taking the time to refine them, always just learning and forgetting. Patience is what you lack.”
Blade remained silent.
And finally, the Captain turned over to look at me. “And then there’s Prince Mistery… you are the very definition of insecure. Always comparing yourself but never truly taking a good look at what makes you special.”
Was that it? I couldn't help but notice that the captain’s critiques for me were a lot shorter than everyone else.
"Now then, it’s time to begin our next exercise," the captain announced. "Joule, you may be excused for now. We are going to be working on our flame. Our next task will be to increase the accuracy of your fire," he continued to explain. "As you all know, most higher-ranking Neptarians refrain from using flame too often since it drains our energy quite drastically. However, there may be key moments when we may need to use it.”
Classes on Neptar had always taught us to embrace our heritage and to use it to our advantage. But they also taught us about the differences between Neptarians, Ottomites and people from all of the five major planets.
The captain continued his lesson. “The people of Otoma don’t rely too much on accuracy since lightning is attracted to most sources of energy; the people of Kelklia tend to use earth in extremely close combat, they refine their bodies and surroundings utilizing the ground’s tough nature; Water isn’t used for combat all too often, however people from Yulemn are absolute masters at water manipulation utilizing the water’s fluid nature in tandem with their bodies. As rare as it may be, when utilized correctly it can be a force to be reckoned with; and finally the people from Arium use wind, which covers a large area, not to mention that since air exists all around us precise movements aren’t really needed for them." he explained to us. "Fire is a much more volatile element, one prone to harm to the user if not utilized correctly and as history books mention is the element that has changed the most throughout history. Neptarian biology is vastly different than it was just a few hundred years ago, over time we have lost touch with our innate connection with nature, thus manipulating fire has grown taxing on our bodies."
He held out his arm and pointed his hand towards us. His palm began to glow red.
"Are you crazy!?" Trock shouted.
The captain blasted a huge bolt of fire in our direction; the flame sped past us and hit a metal target just a few paces away.
"For this lesson, accuracy is key," he said to the group with a huge grin on his face. "Begin to warm up. I’ll have you all take turns once everyone is prepared."
"We just need to hit the target?" Blade had asked the captain.
"Targets. You each get five shots. Hmm…let’s see now…" Captain Strek walked away, and it didn't look like he was planning to stop anytime soon. "From this distance should be good!" He marked a line on the ground; he was barely within our range of sight.
"That’s absurd!" Trock then shouted towards him, "We can’t do that!"
Well, you’re going to have to find a way if you want to pass this course!" The captain blasted a bolt of fire and once again hit the target with deadly precision, as if to show off.
"You all must collectively hit at least 15. If you miss the mark by even a single target, I’ll have you all sweep the entire training grounds."
"What?! Why do I have to make up for their failures?" Marz remarked.
"Don’t make me bump it to 20," the captain glared at him before he went back into the academy hall and left us to warm up.
"I have to be honest with you. I don’t think I can hit any of those targets," Blade said to me.
"I don’t even think I have enough energy left," I replied to him.
I took a look around and noticed that both Trock and Riza were trying to hit the targets, but from a much closer distance.
"How the hell is this even possible!?" Trock shouted in a fit of rage.
We might as well have just picked up our brooms and started sweeping. This captain of ours was out of his mind.