The bell echoed throughout the silent hallway. Rick and I just made it through the door. We both found our seats. Rick was in the back near the window, I was sitting in the front near the door. I got out my history book and tried to remember what we were studying.

Mr. Onix opened the door to the classroom. He was a middle-aged man with gray hair and black lines all over his face. Adding a slouch and a cane made him look older. His gray goatee swayed with every movement. A fun thing for kids to joke about when he wasn't looking. Old man or middle age when it came to teaching Mr.Onix was through.

He made it to the table in front of the desk. There were four rows of desks each has five seats. He stood in the front with all his set plans for the day on his desk.

After class was almost done Onix finally got to something I cared about.

“Alright class, what do you know of kings?” adding bravado to gather our attention. His eyes scanned the room to see if everyone was paying attention. He looked down each row until he rested his eyes on me. I knew he would ask me...

“Dynames what do know about it?" Onix usually knew who to ask about certain things. I cleared my throat.

“Kings are beings who possess massive amounts of magic," I said with excitement. "They are chosen by a race to inherit their blessing. They have the power to change the outcome of any battle.” I replied to him, starting to get excited.

“Good,” Mr. Onix said as he patted me on the back. He walked back up and returned facing the board. "You have the basics down, but you’re missing the real defining features. Kings have a certain abilities or traits that the species have. The species with trust in their heart give the King one unique power. They give the selected Slayer magic”.A little pain went through my head at the sound of that word.

Many students looked at each others whispering the word. Even I with all my knowledge had little on the magic. He rose up his hand for silence. He continued with his speech. “Slayer magic is a very unique and rare magic. It has the power to kill the entire species or cause a decline in the population.”

“But what is it and doesn’t this mean they are the biggest threat to the species?” said a girl in the back.

“Ah, you misunderstand the term slayer. The slayer is given to those the race as chosen to inherit their history and their real power. Slayer magic is a unique magic because it comes from within the body”.

Everyone gasped at this. Magic has only ever been heard of coming from the outside from the lye lines. Onix turned to the whiteboard and drew a human figure standing alone in the middle.

“Now, magic is typically taken from the lye lines and used outside while body acts as a conductor." He stuck out his hand. A ball of light flew from it. "Like so the magic comes from outside of us.” Now he drew a circle around the figure. He drew lines around the feet and lines coming up from them.

“Slayers or kings bodies act as a lightning rod and take in the magic and store it in them." The lines went toward the center of the body. "Here the magic is adopted and sent to all parts of the body." The lines spread all over the figure.

“But how do they uses it, if it comes from inside don't they need a weapon or staff to focus the raw magic?” Asked a boy in the middle of the third row.

“Ah, that my young boy is the beauty of it all," Onix smiled and his enthusiasm grew. "They use their bodies as the focal point. The magic becomes part of them."

“How do they use it, though?" The boy asked. "If they don't know how to use this magic like we do with regular magic?”

“Good question. My boy that is where the knowledge gained comes in. The brain uses the knowledge gained to sort out the complicated formulas and tells the body what to do. It is a subconscious system if you will. With this, they can change their body or their very presence. Their very personality can change and their power can double or even triples depending on the knowledge."

My blood seemed to rise to my face. They feeling was like when a thought is there but you lose it before it becomes reliable.

But one question was reacquiring.

“So how many kings have there been and what species made them that way," I asked. Everyone looked at me I tried to calm myself, but my face went red.

“Dynames interesting question." Said Mr. Onix. "There have been eight kings so far."

Someone sat up from the back saying there were only seven. Many other agreed but they seem to remember they were interrupting class, and there was still more to learn. After the rack stop, Mr. Onix spoke.

“You see there was one king before the great Argeis Ward the second king. They say he never used his powers. He was very young at the time. His name and abilities were kept hidden from the public and his identity was never released. Indeed, it would be simple to say almost nothing is known of the first king.”

"Then did he or she actually exist?"

"That is the real question." Mr. Onix seems unsure of how to respond. "The other kings appear to recall the person in question, but even they are vague on the topic." He scanned the room, but other than my serious concentration, the other were wavering. "Well, let's  move on to the others now. Also, this will be on the test!" After a collective sigh from everyone, he moved on.

“We have, Argeis Ward, who is the second king also known as the giant slayer.  He is king of Dergas. He rules mostly over ogres and giants. Mountains invest this region along with hard seasons and severe climates too harsh for other species. It is the largest country right now. They say his strength alone could conquer the world. He can change his appearance at will become a giant or man”. He hands went out and diagram of the world, as it stood, appeared. Dergas took a majority of the space on the continent they were on.

“The third king is Darkan Forstir, the werewolf slayer. He is the master of forests and wolves. He possesses the wood style magic and rules Fersta. A large jungle area. Its sizes does fall short of Dergas but it is still quite large. He is known to be a very territorial and cruel to his enemies.” A new border line formed and then the second kingdom was made. More to the north of Dergas. Its size was smaller,but it still looked imposing.

“The fourth king or queen, in this case, is Ashira Highgirth, the elf slayer. She is master of healing spells also is known as the barrier priestess. She is the ruler of Esperus. A place infested with plants and is said to rival Aphrodite’s beauty. It is a very average sized kingdom and is not known for much violence. She is an excellent leader and stunningly beautiful or so the rumors go. Not many humans or other races have the luck to see her in person.” everyone tried to imagine her. I didn't really care so I watched the map draw the country in. The new one was farther south from the other two countries. It moved to a new continent, one below ours, and took over the top have and extended ag good ways. My observation was cut short by Onix moving on.

“The fifth King is Solomon Siege, the leviathan slayer. He is master of the sea and rivals Poseidon in control of it. He rulers Sigo an underwater palace that is said to be able to be at the surface and dive deep in the ocean. It is a realm of water and few land walkers are permitted to go there”. He waited for the pencils to stop moving before going on. Even then most eyes saw a large thing fill the sea away from all the countries. Like a lurking predator, it consumed space and filled a large section of the ocean between most of the contents of the world. No diagram appeared of what it looked like, but I imagined some underwater kingdom.

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“The sixth is Queen ,Melanie Lurker, the Vampire Slayer. She is the ruler of Blandian. The country itself is in a veil of eternal darkness. The only light comes from their blood moon. Trees with black leaves and odd species of animals exist here. It is the homeland of darkness and where the line of trust is as thin as ice”. A cold chill went thru the class just trying to imagine in such a place. The map ,unable to show fear, just went on to drawing the location. To the far east of the world, a section was consumed and a hellish looking image filled it. It just screamed vampires were there.

“I’m afraid for security reasons I am forbidden from talking about the seventh. So I can’t tell you much other than he is the ruler of Titus. A kingdom in the sky. It is full of hawk men, angels, and future magicians of great power.” Many people began to whisper. It was a place of ahh for future magicians. Only the truly gifted are allowed there. More of a pipe dream for me. The map this time eliminated a section of the sky far above the world. What looked like a fly fortress soon was formed. It shapes was that of a spinning top. As a large spike-like structure was below the great city floating in the sky.  A strange almost foreign emotion worked it way into my heart. I couldn’t identify it so I let it stir in my chest.

“The eighth is the king of ghouls and the dead. He is a terrible man beyond words. His name...Mr. Onix seemed to look everywhere as though the very name is taboo.

He took a deep breath. “His name is Samuel Lugosi.” A profound and unbelievable hate surged from me. I don't know why but my blood seemed to boil at the name. My grip on my desk tightened. I was trying hard to control my groundless hate.

"It is said he took control of the first King domain after slaying him eight years ago. Which has put the country through a living hell. He has shrunken the boundaries and I hear he uses the peasants for his entertainment. Having renamed the country Havan for fun. It's real or original name lost to time. My focus broke. I snapped a piece of the desk off and scared everyone in the class.

The bell rang hollow through the deadly silent room. The map, however, finished forming the small country west of Dergas. It may have been a country but its size compared to all the other was sad. It was like a dot before a giant. If Dergas continued to grow, it was easy to guess the country would be swallowed whole.

Mr. Onix remembered class was over demised class but kept his eyes glued on to me. I left the room last after apologizing for breaking the desk. I ran down the hall towards the gym. Many smug glares and smirk filled the halls. Most did not approve of a non-magical being infesting their school.

In the locker room, finding my sword and some spare gym clothes was simple. I slipped off my jacket and went to changing.

Once finished, I slung my sword over my shoulder and walked out the door to the outside. I wrapped the jacket around my waist. In extra comfort in the arena.

Rays of light broke through the room. The sun was high in the sky. Black clouds were far in the distance. It was going to rain soon.

The dome. What most kids in the school call the gym, but it was an artificial area. It could change in an instance. Today it was a classic open field with tables near the doors and some trees in the back which was my usual spot. I walked away from the door and top to look at one of the tables.

At one of the tables sat Erica Strider the student council president. For six months now she held the peace which was a big thing as the position changed monthly before she came.

Her hair rejected the sunlight with its solid black. Her brown eyes scanning the book in front of her. Her clothes reflected her standing. A mere black dress,but its style echoed nobility.

We held a complicated friendship, and she was kind of a weird one. I chose just to run by as I didn't have much to say to her today.

I reached the back and found my usual practice dummy. It was a cut-out of a human figure. The wind seemed to only fan my hate fire. I couldn't let it go without using it in some way.

The model responded to touch, so not having magic didn't hinder me. It glowed and a voice asking for a level to fight at. I selected level seven out of ten. The black silhouette moved away from the cutout. It took the full shape of a human. A shadow sword filled its hand. We both bowed to each other. I had no idea why. It just always did it, repeating it back just seemed natural.

After seconds of bowing, I jumped back drawing my blade. Little time existed before the silhouette met me. We clashed blades. I tried to improve my footing and  pressed its defense making it back off. It worked. With an opening, I sought for its heart, but It parried me and went for mine. Blocking it with the hilt of my sword barely deflecting it. It nicked my hand slightly. I tested my grip. No problem.

After minutes of swings and failed attempts at each other, the difficulty only increased. To eight, its pace grew as did its speed. At nine, the power struggle was slowly turning in its favor. The balance would be decided at ten. After mere minutes of combat. An enormous amount of sweat caked my body. I could barely believe was still standing. My body ached, and my arms could hardly move anymore. This was farther than ever I had gone before. The fire lit in me was still burning, In fact, it got hotter as we went on.

The outcome would have to come down to a single swing. We faced each other sword raised toward the sky. It was hot as if the sun was at my back. The wind blew through causing a leaf fall from a nearby tree to fall. As it gently fell unaware of the consequence, it touched the ground carefree.

In that instant, we both sprinted at speeds barely believable. Blades both aiming to kill crossed more time than one could count. Backslash, thrust, side slashes, parries, and all kind of moves were thrown.

We never gave ground, unmoved until we saw an opening. The first to back away would lose.

I lost focus for a second.

Its blade went through getting my past my defense at a moment’s hesitation. Both my legs were wounded. Since it was practice no actual wounds would show up. To add realism, red lines would appear in the place of blood. It felt and acted like a wound. The pain of what it would feel like to be cut for real. I fell to one knee. Standing was now beyond me alone. I leaned on my blade to get back up.

Many heads turned to watch with awe at me. Many were beating me to lose. I could feel their hate. My need to win burned all the hotter. A pool of sweat was at my feet. My legs were numb, but I could feel the lines fading slowly.

Magic wouldn’t help me here. Even if did have it.

No, it is just me and this blade right now!

It took my hesitation and charged me on the left. I met it, but my reaction was slow. It shot its blade at my head. I barely dodged it. A new red line on my cheek. I swung my blade sideways, but it backed off to a safe distance.

The fire burned hotter.

I was tired of this game of cat and mouse. A plan burned in my brain. I had no idea if I could pull it off, but the sensation in me said I could.

I ran toward him pain in every step. A cloud covered the sun over our heads. It darted its blade for my heart only to find its blade in my jacket. It threw it away only to find my scabbard thrown at its face. It shuddered back. The sheath flew into the air spinning with great force. I grabbed the remains of the jacket and  threw them over its head.

The sun peeked through. It pulled off the jacket. It searched for me only to realize too late. I had feinted to the right to get behind it. It was only able to look down.

The flame was coursing in my blood. Almost like a song had enchanted me to act.

I dashed forward with a lot of speed and cutting in a diagonal line, cutting it in half. My feet dug in, but my momentum was too great. I turned my feet and made some circles in the ground. Like rubber burned left in the ground it left marks on the ground.

I stuck out my sword to have the scabbard fall right on it and slide in. The movement felt so normal for a first attempt. I thumped it on the ground and used it as support.

I took deep breaths. I slowly realized how much energy and strength was used in the fight. My heart raced as though I was on fire. My hair covered my eyes as I tried to look at the sky.

I felt a cool breeze and my mind numbed. The fatigue seemed too faded as did the world. A Giant smile on my face. I felt the pain lines fade and the pain subside.

It was the best fight I had ever had.  I was excited to try again. After a break, a few more battles would do me good.

If magic was beyond me, then this sword will take me all the way.

Then a hard strike hit me in the back sending me into the nearby tree. The hit caused me to let go of my sword sending it flying near the open field. It made a thud as it dug itself into the ground. I place my hand on the tree and turn myself around to see my favorite person, Daniel Reeve and his gang of followers.

He was a tall boy. He had short blond hair and dark green eyes. He had a bulky upper body and his legs were well built too. Less friend and more enemy. In fact a bully of sorts.

It never was a fun encounter.