Jerome walked out of Kilian’s Palace the next day ready to join the Royal elites at their training ground for another sparring session. He was also looking to use some of their equipment.
The moment he walked out, he was immediately drawn to the courtyard and the changes that had occurred since he last saw it. The vibrant greenery seemed to have come to life in a way he hadn’t seen before. The bushes and shrubs were bursting with dense vitality, and he could almost feel the energy emanating from them.
A gardener was already hard at work pruning the shrubs. It was clear that his cycling session the day before had remarkably transformed the courtyard into a breathtaking display of nature’s beauty.
Jerome rushed off to the training ground. Today, he was also putting on sparring robes, but his was gray. When he got to the training ground, there was no one there.
Perfect, he thought. Now I can train with their equipment to my heart's content.
Taking a closer look, there were apparatuses of various shapes and sizes. Some of them even looked like huge rocks someone moved to the training ground.
Why put rocks here? he thought to himself confused.
He decided to deadlift an anvil-looking chunk of metal. Nothing in the training ground looked anything close to barbells or dumbbells. Positioning his legs on either side of the anvil, he grabbed hold of two handle-type things sticking out on both sides of the top and lifted. Or he tried to… The anvil didn’t even budge.
He heard someone burst out in laughter at that moment. Turning around, he found that some of the Sprouts had arrived.
Jerome glared at the boy who just laughed. There was a girl beside him holding back her laughter but after a while, she couldn’t hold it back anymore and erupted.
“What? Come give it a try yourself, let’s see if you can!” Jerome exclaimed.
The two kids didn’t answer him immediately as they couldn’t hold back their laughter. Jerome cursed them under his breath and continued trying to lift the anvil.
“Ahem,” One of the kids walked up to him and cleared his throat to get Jerome’s attention.
“What?” he asked in irritation.
“That’s not for lifting,” the kid said.
Jerome quickly stopped what he was doing. The fact that this kid came to speak with him showed he probably wasn’t egotistical like the leader the day before.
“How do you use it then?” He asked.
“You use that,” the kid pointed to a huge maul, “to hit the top. The anvil measures the force of your hit.”
“Thanks. But is there nothing to lift that can help improve muscle strength — not that this can’t do the job?” Jerome asked.
The two young Sprouts looked at Jerome inquisitively. He could see it in their eyes that never expected him to be educated enough to use terms like improving muscle strength.
“The boulders to your left are useful for that,” the boy answered. “There are special cores inside them that can make them heavier the more essence you transmit into them.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I’m Hyde by the way.” he said, “This is Alana.” He gestured towards the girl beside him and she waved.
“Jerome,” Jerome nodded curtly to both of them and walked up to the huge boulders. The boulders were almost half as tall as him which was something because he was over six feet. They were also wide enough that it’ll take two people as tall as him to wrap their arms around them. But how the hell was he supposed to lift something so wide then?
The boulders were separated by a conspicuous circular area away from the other apparatus. He carefully hefted two of the boulders to see how heavy they were. To his disappointment though, they were not very heavy. But he was quite pleased as the boulders seemed to be attracted to his palms, which in turn, changed their center of gravity. Except it was the other way around and they changed their center of gravity to attach themselves to his hands.
Jerome quickly transmitted his essence into the boulders making them twice as heavy as they were before. The boulders weren’t so big, and he could comfortably lift them up and down. He formed a bench made of earth using his earth-attribute essence so he could bench press the boulders.
“Why do you lift them like that?” Hyde asked. He and his girlfriend — at least Jerome thought that was who she was — both observed as he hefted the boulders up and down.
“Isn’t that how it’s done?”
The Sprouts shook their heads. This time Alana spoke up. “The normal thing to do is to hold them up for as long as possible.” Her voice had a surprising depth to it. But it was still feminine.
“Well, I guess you can say it’s a new way to lift.” Jerome’s voice strained a bit as he pushed more essence into the boulders. “This way, I get to repeat the lift multiple times, putting more strain on my muscles. But holding it up is also good. I’ll try that later.”
They looked at each other and Hyde shrugged his shoulders as if saying that it was not their training, so what do they care?
It seems five times the original weight is my limit right now, Jerome mused as he sensed the painful tension in his muscles. He had increased the weight of the boulders five times the original weight.
He did about 500 reps before getting up to take a break. Looking around, he noticed that all the Sprouts from yesterday had arrived and many of them were busy working out or sparring with each other. Forester walked up to him looking at him with a smirk on his face.
“Do you have a good challenger for me?” Jerome asked as he rubbed off the little sweat from his body. This made everybody stop what they were doing to focus on them.
“Fight me,” Forester said.
“Are you sure?” Jerome asked. “I won’t hold back.”
That angered the teenager more than anything Jerome had ever said.
“Sorry,” Jerome said. Best not to have a repeat of Hedon.
Forester drew his sword. “The rules are the same as yesterday. No killing.”
Jerome responded by forming a spear with Suzie as he walked toward the center of the training ground. Everyone around moved far away from both of them.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Without a word, they both attacked.
~~~
Forester Vorthe
Forester stabbed at Jerome with his sword covered in golden light, but Jerome slapped the flat of the blade away with the blade of his spear. The sheer force from Jerome’s blow almost knocked the sword out of Forester’s hand but he gripped the hilt of his sword hard and spun around, chopping at Jerome with his other hand, his fingers straightened like the edge of a blade covered in sword force.
Forester watched as Jerome stepped aside, deftly dodging his blow. Jerome stabbed at him with his spear but Forester already anticipated that move. With his sword covered in golden light, he slashed at Jerome, sending an arc of golden light toward Jerome as he shot backward.
Jerome covered himself in earthen armor right before the sword light hit him. What?! The armor cracked from the impact and disintegrated — the force pushing him back a little. Jerome shot a series of fireballs at him. Forester’s face twisted in surprise. He never anticipated that his opponent was able to form an earthen armor to protect himself.
He weaved in and out of the way of the fireballs as they got close to him, exploding as they hit the ground. The heat they gave off was enough to turn him into roast meat. He split the air horizontally once again with the Sun’s Wrath — sword force weaved into light. It was a beautiful but deadly creation! And he hoped his opponent would underestimate it.
His opponent reformed his earthen armor and shot toward him. Forester watched as the brat ducked out of the way of the sword light, rolling on the ground before shooting back up and running straight for him. All the while shooting fireballs at him.
How the hell does this whelp have so much essence to waste? he thought in annoyance. No normal Sprout should have this much essence. It should take at least three times as much essence as that of an average Sprout to manipulate earth and fire essence at this level.
Forester dodged two more fireballs and slashed one with his sword — big mistake. The fireball exploded the moment it touched the blade of his sword, and the heat wave, though not so intense, heated the blade of his sword to dangerous levels. He had to push his core harder to offset the heat reaching the hilt of his sword while jumping backward to dodge more fireballs.
“Bastard!” he shrieked. There was no time to counter.
Forester could sense his opponent running toward him again, the ground shaking with his heavy footsteps. He started to activate the Sun’s Wrath when the whelp jerked to a stop a few paces away from him and the spear in his hand dissolved into a whip. Jerome snapped the whip in his direction — not directly at him, but close.
The tip of the whip blurred with blinding speed toward him, and Forester felt fear for the first time, and something else — hesitation. He instinctively knew he could not take that blow head-on — what with the glowing tip that was sizzling with condensed fire essence!
He quickly surrounded himself in his golden aura to aid his speed and shot backward. The glowing tip of Jerome’s whip struck the air, detonating in a flash of blue light.
Boom!
The ground shook with the force of an earthquake, threatening to collapse in on itself and both of them were pushed away from each other. Heat and pressure blew Forester’s hair out of his face, and he felt like the heat would scald him.
Forester, like most Vorthes, followed the Path of Resplendent Radiance — a Path of light and sword force. He was one of the few Sprouts who could wield two forces — light and sword force, which was impressive in itself. But against Jerome, he found that Idrienne’s claims were not unfounded. The spear-wielding Sprout in front of him didn’t give him a breather. Jerome just kept attacking with unpredictable moves.
And what’s with that whip? he thought to himself. He was out of breath already and couldn’t help but plop down on the ground to rest. A quick scan of his core told him he couldn’t continue the fight as his core was almost squeezed dry.
And since when did he learn to wield earth attribute essence? he thought, frustration setting in. This new development wasn’t accounted for when he decided to take on Jerome. Jerome’s defense had become sturdier. Almost every attack he made was countered easily by that earthen armor.
Forester got up from the dirt floor after resting for a while. He looked at Jerome with venom in his eyes and walked away from the training ground in shame and anger. There wasn’t anything he could do to Jerome, at least not right here.
You wait until we get into Terra Praeta. I’ll deliver you myself into Hedon’s hands, he thought to himself. The whelp had cost him a void bridge. This was grounds enough for him to be pissed.
~~~
Jerome caught himself with a back foot as his earthen armor disintegrated from the sheer force of the impact. The whip was one of his latest creations. He had spent a lot of effort making sure that his fireballs didn’t just sputter out, but exploded on impact, causing more damage. He smiled to himself as he witnessed the impact of his creation himself.
Jerome was still brimming with energy, ready to continue the battle, but one look at his opponent told him that Forester was spent and unable to continue. He didn’t have the essence to spare, not like Jerome. He had also noticed the golden aura in the middle of the fight.
The fast kid from yesterday also had this golden aura surrounding him too, he thought.
Another thing was the way their essence moved through their bodies. He didn’t consider it during the fight yesterday. But now, it was clear this was a kind of technique the Royals used to cycle. Jerome made a mental note to ask Rihal about it. The golden aura technique must be tied to the unique way their essence moved through their bodies. Some kind of secret technique then.
“Thank you for the fight,” he said with a slight bow of his head. At this point, it was clear who the winner was and the truth hung in the air unsaid. He dusted off his gray training robes and turned to look around.
Most of the Sprouts turned away from him, their displeasure evident on their faces. There were two girls in the crowd he noticed yesterday — twin siblings. These girls had white-blonde hair and deep blue eyes making them a sight to behold as they were incredibly beautiful. Besides some folks with red-brown hair and dark brown eyes, there was scarcely any other person with different hair color in Farryn other than black.
The Itakars from the banquet the previous night were also rare.
Jerome had scanned the twins and found out they were hiding their true strength. He didn’t feel threatened by them, but he felt each of them could hold her own against him. On the surface, they looked like every other Sprout on the training ground, but the sturdiness of their core put them in a league of their own.
Of course, they didn’t know Jerome had scanned them. Their senses couldn’t be as sharp as the Sovereign’s. Jerome had also learned to scan people as mildly as possible so as not to arouse them to his actions.
Forester stood up and left the training ground with his face red with shame and anger. Jerome watched him go before walking toward the training apparatuses to resume his training in peace.
Many of the Sprouts gave him a wide berth, avoiding his gaze. Only Layla, Hyde, and Alana walked toward him.
“You know you’re in trouble, right?” Layla said. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail revealing strong jaws and a beautiful neck.
“I hear ya,” Jerome said, sitting himself on his earthen bench.
“Just don’t make all my work be in vain.” Layla turned to the side, looking at Hyde and Alana with curiosity.
“You should talk to Senior Rihal about your fight. He can help mitigate the damage you’ve done… maybe,” Hyde said.
“I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”
Hyde and Alana walked away, not saying another word.
“You know,” Layla began, “everyone here reported to their parents when they got home the day before — a common disciple beating up Royal Sprouts should have been punished and then executed.”
“And?” Jerome asked, mockery in his eyes.
“‘Might maketh right.’ It’s what Idrienne’s father told him.”
Jerome raised an eyebrow at that, not knowing who she was speaking of.
“The speedster,” Layla said, and he nodded in recognition. So the Sprout’s name is Idrienne. Maybe he’d get to challenge this Idrienne to a battle some other time. “Even my mother was a bit wary when I told her about it.”
“What are you getting at Layla?” Jerome asked. From the look in her eyes, he was sure she must have glimpsed something odd.
“None of our parents acted the way they should have, which was odd.” Layla tilted her head at him, her gaze never leaving his eyes. “It was like they all ganged up on us… to protect something. Or someone… perhaps you.”