Megan traced a finger down the inside of Eric’s forearm, cooling the flesh there. It felt as though ice was wrapping itself around the tender, bruised flesh as Megan guided cool water there. It was uncomfortable at first, but quickly soothed the bruises, and the swelling there shrank quite a bit. In a matter of seconds, his arms looked as they had before, minus some light greyish-green bruising. Still tender to the touch, but not as painful.
“Thanks,” he sighed, poking at the bruises as if testing to see if they still hurt.
“Your body will take care of the rest,” she said, waving aside his gratitude. “Nexians heal really fast, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
He nodded. “Almost like ki healing, but automatic.”
“I was never good at the physical magicks, so I wouldn’t know. I could always achieve the same results with arcane magic.”
“I thought the College made physical training mandatory?” He asked. His teacher, Ehran Tokugawa, had mentioned the fact to him in passing.
“They did, but I was already in my third year by that time,” she reminded him. “I trained in it for about half a year before I got my Master title from Samuel, but I never really kept it up.”
“Until you got here,” Eric replied. “Or maybe it’s just Will that makes us train in hand-to-hand every day.”
Even Ehran hadn’t trained him so intently after he stopped being an apprentice. Eric was in the best shape he’d ever seen in himself. He was stronger and faster, and his stamina had skyrocketed. It was almost a shame that he couldn’t keep this body when he returned to Ahya. That thought made him wonder briefly about something.
“Do you think these powers will remain when we return to Ahya?” He asked her, pitching his voice low so that none of the Nexians nearby could hear. “These powers came from another world already, right? They might transfer over.”
“I doubt it,” she replied after a moment of thought. Seeing his confusion, she explained. “We’re going to be remade into proper Ancients, right?”
“That’s what Ahya told me,” Eric agreed. “Well, she didn’t say it explicitly, but what else could she mean? What did she tell you?”
It occurred to him that they’d never discussed their meeting with the creator of that other world. For Eric, it was about as close to a religious experience as he’d ever had. Megan screwed up her face in a thoughtful expression, seeming to struggle with something in her mind, then said, “Same as you, I expect. I help Grimr with this mission, and I get a new life in Ahya.”
Eric deliberated on that for a moment, but the thought was complete as it was, and didn’t seem to require a response. So he returned to her first point. “Why would us being remade into proper Ancients have anything to do with the Nexus powers?”
“Well, the way Samuel explained it to me, Ancients are so different because of what they’re made of.”
“Right. They have a stronger body, mind, and soul.”
“Exactly. And the reason they’re so strong is because of how they’re made. Their bodies are quite literally solid pieces of Ahya’s life force. Indestructible. Their minds and souls are their own, but they’re given the same strength.”
“Ah,” Eric said lightly, finally getting her point. “So because we’d have new bodies, minds, and souls, we won’t have the Nexus powers.”
Megan nodded. “I could be wrong, of course. Compared to how much the world knows about the Ancients, I’m sure there’s still a ton we don’t know.”
But Eric was prepared to accept her opinion as fact. She was a scholar, after all, and had spent the past five years learning from one of the most famous Ancients of the world. If she thought it wasn’t likely, he was inclined to agree with her. He thought to ask another question, but before he could, the horn that announced a new round blared, and he turned to face the large screen that had been placed before them. Later, he’d try to think of the question, but would not be able to remember.
This match was between the Air and Fire Nexuses, and it took place in the Forest Arena, alongside a river. If the Water Nexus had participated, it would have given them a significant advantage. Eric was looking forward to this match for several reasons. First, it would give him a glimpse of exactly what Nick was like in a fight. There was, after all, a sharp difference between learning combat skills and applying them in an actual battle. The body and mind tended to lock up in inexperienced warriors, preventing them from using what they’d learned.
The Air Nexus was, as expected, the first to reach the halfway mark. More than half of them had charged forward for the advance, and they were all in the air, to capitalize on the advantages their Conditions gave them. Eric wasn’t too surprised to see Nick in the lead of his Nexus. He was a Captain, after all. It was difficult to make out expressions with the wide, overhead view that the camera drones were offering, but he saw the calm, fluid movements that the young man performed, indicating at least a little confidence in his ability.
Fire began to fly at the Air Nexus, in streams and blasts, forcing the Air Nexians to spread out a bit. Yet Nick maintained his forward trajectory, darting around the attacks. One fireball launched a few seconds later than the others, nearly caught him in the middle of a dodge maneuver, but he conjured a blast of air so powerful that it smashed the fireball backward, sending the embers scattering in the opposite direction.
The crowd of spectators, both human and Nexians, roared their approval of that opening exchange, even as the Air Nexians to the left and right began to break away and flank the Fire Nexus. Nick remained where he was, blasting powerful torrents of air down at his opponents, keeping pace with the half-dozen people currently attacking him. Even in the stands, the breeze changed slightly, and they were half a mile away.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Now, however, the Fire Nexus seemed to be adjusting to the speed of the Air Nexus. There was a bright flash of fire on the ground, and a figure launched into the sky, fire streaming from his legs like rocket boosters. The fire disappeared at the perfect moment to carry him up to Nick, and then two new massive streams of fire appeared as the Fire Nexian struck out. Was that Jerik, or another? Eric couldn’t tell with the distance of the camera and the bright light of the flames.
Once the flames had dissipated, Nick was still in the air, protected by a whirling current of solid air. The Fire Nexian dropped back down to the ground, controlling his fall with yet more fire, and rolled out of the way as Nick retaliated. It was the same tactic he’d used against Eric during their sparring match, he realized, but much faster.
To the left, one of the Air Nexians mistimed a dodge and was knocked down to the ground. At once, he was pinned in place by a spinning sphere of flame. Eric didn’t have to wonder who had sent that attack. Emmet Fenn, still a member of the Fire Nexus after Will had formed the Thunder Nexus, specialized in making and maintaining those traps. The Air Nexian he’d trapped couldn’t escape without sustaining some damage, and the disorienting flames would break his focus, making it much harder to conjure air to break free.
Predictably, several of the Air Nexians broke off from their attack to aid their trapped companion, but it was a mistake, and clearly what the Fire Nexus wanted them to do. Within seconds, two more were trapped after being knocked down, and Eric watched as the view of the fight switched to a new camera drone, one that was focused on Emmet. His face was contorted in concentration as he trapped a fourth opponent, but he was clearly holding strong.
Another screen switched its view to the Fire Nexus as it made another advance. With less Air Nexians on that side to hold them back, four of them had broken out of the fighting and ran together toward the flag. Surprisingly, none of the battling Air Nexians tried to pull away to help the defense. Instead, they redoubled their attack so that, by the time those four Fire Nexians reached their own defensive force, they’d pushed back the Fire defensive line by several meters.
“How are they going to break through if they don’t free their companions?” Megan asked, frowning at the screen. “They’re outnumbered now.”
“Yeah, but they’re faster,” Eric pointed out. He’d been keeping his eye on the Fire Nexians’ defensive force as the Air Nexus came closer. They were calm and collected, waiting for their opponents to move closer before attacking. Not wasting their energy. “The Fire Nexus knows they have to wait, too, so they’re letting them push up.”
“If they’re just waiting, how do they expect to win?” Megan asked, shaking her head. “You can’t win capture the flag if you’re playing defensively.”
“Well, they’re not,” Eric corrected her. He pointed to the four figures rushing the Air Nexus base. “Neither Air or Fire is particularly good at defense, so they have to be careful not to over-commit on anything. Even those guys aren’t moving as fast as they could, just in case they have to turn back.”
“So they’re just being careful,” Megan guessed.
Eric nodded, though she couldn’t see it. “I’d wager Jerik is one of those four. He used to be a sniper, right? And in Ahya, he was exceptional with a sling and a bow. He’s at the safest distance now, where he is. He can shoot to either attack or defend.”
And, at that exact moment, the four attacking Fire Nexians came to an abrupt halt. Judging by the crowd’s reactions, this was unexpected. There was plenty of confused murmuring. Many seemed to be of the same mind as Megan, not sure why there was so much unnecessary movement. But when the four Fire Nexians turned and began to launch a barrage at the rear of the advanced Air Nexians, Eric felt a rush of satisfaction, knowing his suspicions had been right.
The trick had worked for the Fire Nexus, and exceptionally well. The flurry of fire that rained down upon the Air Nexians in the center of the battle line took them completely by surprise. Within the first few seconds of impact, two had fallen to the ground, where they were immediately restrained by Fire Nexians. Eric was sure that Nick wouldn’t have been bothered by the attack, and would likely move out of the firing range before resuming his own attack. His eyes searched the battle line and the air above it, trying to find the thin fighter.
He wasn’t there. Eric half rose from his seat, drawing a questioning look from Megan, but his attention was flicking between all the camera feeds, trying to find Nick. One of the fastest, most dangerous threats in the Air Nexus wasn’t where he’d been a moment before, and the Fire Nexus didn’t seem to notice the fact.
“There!” one of the Nexus spectators shouted, jumping to his feet and pointing to the screen on the far right. Eric turned, seeing that the camera drone had zoomed in on a figure moving at blistering speeds, doing its best to stay within range to record. Nick was funneling wind around him separate from the gust that was helping him fly. He was moving so fast, in fact, that the camera was shaking unsteadily in his slipstream.
The defenders of the Fire Nexus base caught sight of him quickly in spite of his rush and launched their counter-attack. Their aim was fantastic, and their projectiles forced Nick to change direction suddenly, losing momentum. He seemed to actually bounce on the air as he veered suddenly to the right, now racing across their defensive line like a silver bullet. More projectiles followed.
“Fools!” James cried out, also jumping to his feet a few seats away. “That’s not him!”
Eric frowned, then realized his senior Thunder Nexian was right. The object that had darted to the right was not, in fact, Nick, but a clump of air so dense that it looked like it could be hiding a figure of Nick’s size. Instead, it vanished as the projectiles rammed into it. Nick was lost to sight again for several seconds. Then, suddenly, there were blasts of wind where the Fire Nexians stood.
One of them, it seemed, hadn’t been fooled. When Nick had dropped out of the air using the fire as a cover and ran the remaining distance on foot, the Fire Nexian had been ready and went on the attack. But it was all he could do to stay on his feet as Nick overwhelmed him. His air staff in hand and battering down on the poor man. It did give his allies enough time to recover, however, and they surrounded the lone attacker. Six on-one seemed too much for Nick to handle while on the ground, so he jumped back into the air, avoiding their strikes with minimal movement.
More Air Nexians had broken through the ranks of the battle line along the river and rushed to Nick’s aid. Once they were free of the fighting they moved much more quickly, and the Fire Nexians were struggling to catch up. The charging Air Nexians unleashed a flurry of ranged strikes that forced the defenders back onto the defense, which allowed Nick to slip past them and, flying low to the ground, snatch up the flag.
“Look at the Air Base!” Someone in the crowd watching this match said. On the opposite side of the field, a camera had zoomed in to show Jerik and Richard, one of the Fire Nexus Captains, turning to race back to the middle point. Jerik was holding the Thunder Nexus flag high as he tried to run as fast as he could. But it was now a race to the finish, and unfortunately, the Air Nexus was far superior in that skill.
Both Nexuses turned in the middle to attack the flag carriers, to no avail. On one side, Nick simply darted around the attacks, and on the other, Richard’s counterfire kept Jerik far from harm. They both raced forward, undaunted, until Nick crossed the halfway point, nearly ten yards ahead of Jerik, and the horn sounded to mark the end of the match.