“Hey,” I said, panting as sweat streamed down my forehead and dripped to the ground. “I've been meaning to ask, how come everyone here can speak English?”
Leonard cocked his head, confusion painting his face. “Eng…lish?” he asked. “What is that?”
Now, it was my turn to be confused. “What do you mean? It’s the name of the language you speak. It’s the name of the language I’m speaking right now.”
“Ahh,” Leonard nodded slowly, understanding dawning on his face. “I see. I forgot to explain the translation rune.”
“The what now?”
Leonard put his hands up, boxer style. “Straighten up, I’ll explain while we spar.”
I obeyed, groaning as my thighs and arms ached with exhaustion. Still, the smile plastered to my sweaty face was genuine, as the excitement of learning to fight properly had yet to wear off.
“Basically, there’s a part of the rune written into this ship – and the teleportation rune we drew on that field – that can recognize the languages spoken and immediately translate each into the other,” Leonard said, before suddenly lunging forward.
My eyes darted around his body as I analyzed his movement. Deciding that it wasn’t a feint, I leaned backward and to the left, not a second before his fist whistled past me. Immediately, I followed up with my own attack: a bent knee headed for his abdomen. Swift as wind, Leonard backed up just far enough to be out of reach of my knee, only for me to extend out my leg and catch him on the side of his torso with my shin.
It felt like kicking a solid concrete pillar, obviously causing Leonard a trivial amount of pain, but I counted it as my victory regardless.
“So to my ears, you're speaking the language I speak, Sunoct,” he went on, backing up again. “But to your ears, I would be speaking the language you speak, Englash…losh, whatever.”
I chuckled, breathing hard. “It’s English, but wow, that’s amazing. These rune things sound real powerful. I can’t even imagine how that would be possible.”
Leonard nodded. “Runes can be immensely powerful things. And the translation rune is quite a high-level one, too.” As he spoke, he lunged forward again, moving faster this time. His foot swung towards my head like a club, travelling so fast I had less than a second to dodge. Still, we’d been doing this for over a few hours now, and I was getting used to his speed. I ducked under his kick and lashed out with my own, aiming low at his knee. The blow connected, yet his knee did not buckle as I had expected. Instead, I was forced to roll back to avoid the overhead stomp he retaliated with.
“It was quite the costly endeavour for the Grand Order to outfit the rescue division S.T.A.R’s with the translation runes,” Leonard continued as I pushed myself back up to my feet. “And even more so to supply an actual copy of the Arte itself, but it was necessary for our work.”
“Your work?” I asked.
“We are part of the rescue division of the Grand Order,” Leonard explained. “The entire fleet you saw, and all the mages here, from Grace all the way to the Archbishop, are all a part of it. We are dispatched to nations across the universe when the people there face calamities they aren’t equipped to handle. That’s why we need the translation runes. Most of the wild planets we visit have their own cultures and languages, and the translation rune is required to communicate with them.” As he finished speaking, Leonard rushed at me again, striking out at the side of my head. It was a weak attack, and I blocked it with a single arm. Leonard followed up with five more blows, each faster than the last, but I managed to slip through his moves. The same instinct I had felt on that van, fighting the Fight House mages, kicked in as he attacked.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
It was more refined now, more distinct. It even helped me attack, making openings more transparent and Leonard’s moves slower. I attacked almost on instinct, letting my body move as it wished. My arms and legs struck forward in rapid succession, each hit aimed with precision. Leonard was constantly forced back, using his immense forearms almost like shields. Still, his body absorbed my full-force strikes with almost no reaction, as if it were a child hitting him with a pillow instead.
Soon, he backed up out of my reach and stopped again, breathing a little hard.
“We don’t normally come out in full force like we did for Earth,” he said, continuing from where he left off, “but this was obviously a special case. The fact the enigmatic Planetary Seal was coming apart, at last, was a great historical event – not to mention this mission would mark the capture of one of the Grand Order’s longest-standing targets.”
“Speaking of which, did you guys catch him?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath. “Is he dead, or do you guys have some sort of prison system? I heard the strong old dude mention something about sending him to some palace for a billion years.”
“Ah, yes. You were probably sleeping for the entire fight. A shame that you missed it, ‘cause it was quite the spectacle. The Insect Monarch put up an amazing fight, but in the end, it was impossible for him to beat the odds. With his ascension foiled, he simply did not have the power to overcome a lineup of our Archbishop and the Cloud Saint, especially with the Mother Saintess herself healing.”
“So is he de-” I started to ask, only for Leonard to suddenly rush me again, his fist coming at me so fast I knew instantly that it would be impossible to dodge. Crossing my forearms in front of me, I took the blow head-on, the force sending me skidding backwards more than a meter. My arms ached, far worse than before, but I had no time to pay attention to that.
Leonard was already upon me, his fist aiming for my head. With no time to think, and even less time to act, my reaction relied purely on instinct. My eyes shut as I lunged forward to greet the oncoming blow, my fist extending with my full weight behind it. It was a move I’d never make if I’d had the time to think, since my conscious mind knew the difference in the levels of our strength. And yet, as our two fists collided, I wasn’t blown back as I’d expected to be. Instead, our fists stuck together as a massive shockwave buffeted our clothes, the cape on my shoulders fluttering violently in the wind.
In shock, I opened my eyes to find the length of my forearm, from my elbow to my fingers, encased in brilliant orange flames. The white that surrounded my clothes bled into the flickering orange-yellow of its fingers, the heat distorting the air above it. The thing writhed and danced like it were alive, reflecting in the pools of my dark eyes.
“What…” I muttered, my voice quieted with awe. Although this had apparently happened twice already, it was the first time I had seen it for myself.
Leonard smirked at my reaction, his fist still pushing against mine. “Now that you’ve consciously converted Flux into fire, and subconsciously done it twice, you’re body is getting better at doing it. Right now, it can only be done on instinct – when your body is desperate to save itself – but with enough practice, you’ll soon be able to do it on command. And with more practice, you’ll be able to control the fire you make as well, allowing you to do more than just use it to strengthen your body.” As he finished, he backed off, releasing the pressure on me. Immediately, the fire on my hand was doused, disappearing into the air. The only remnant of it, all that told of it being more than a figment of my imagination, was the lingering heat on my face.
In awe, I brought my hand before me, studying it intensely. It was one thing to see fantastical powers being wielded by someone else, but entirely another thing to see it on my own hand. Somehow, it hadn't felt quite so real until now.
A towel crashed into my face as I stood in wonder, startling me out of my trance.
“That’s enough for today,” Leonard said, chuckling at my reaction. “Rest a little. Take a shower, get something to eat. Walk around, talk to someone. Learn about the universe,” he said, turning around to leave. “You’ve got a few weeks here until we land; enjoy them,” he called over his shoulder. “Don’t spend all your time training.”
I grinned as I wiped my face with the soft towel. I knew he was right, but I also knew there wasn’t a chance I was done training for the day. I’d just taken my first step toward the strength that I so desperately wanted. It may have been a tiny, tiny step, but it was a step nonetheless. The gates to the road I wanted to walk had finally opened, in a way I'd never expected. And it would take the universe and all the mages within to stop me from following that path down to the end, as fast as I possibly could.