Chpt. 34) Wrong Fight

“I can’t believe you left us there,” Cami complained.

“Well, I did,” I said.

“You could’ve waited for us.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

“You could’ve asked for the money we owed you.”

“I paid for everything! Be glad I didn’t charge interest!”

“She’s right, you know,” Scarlet said, agreeing, “We should be thankful.”

“Yeah, well, it’s my money!”

“Will you three stop arguing!” Haze yelled, turning to us, her voice echoing in the training room. We were having a team training session because we had our next team battles tomorrow. And our arguing had gotten our asses kicked almost right away for the past six days.

The three of us bowed our heads and said, “Yes, master Haze. Sorry, master Haze.”

Haze nodded, “Good.” While her back was turned, Shiro took advantage of the opening and charged at her from behind and unleashed a barrage of explosions at her back, quickly enveloping them in smoke. A second later, Shiro was thrown out of the cloud of smoke at mach speed and slammed against the wall knocking him out cold. The smoke cleared and revealed Haze staring directly at Jax and Xiao.

They looked at each other nervously and gritted their teeth as they nodded. Xiao charged forward first and swiped a clawed hand at Haze’s face while Jax circled behind her and kicked at her legs. Haze dropped to a crouch, dodging the first attack, then jumped with her toes executing a backflip a few centimeters from the ground, dodging the second attack. Jax and Xiao stumbled as they missed their attacks, and Haze made two quick strikes at their abdomens, making them crumble to the ground.

Haze stood and wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from her brow, “That was close. You almost made me break a sweat.”

“Yay, you won. Whoa,” I said, unenthused.

“If you had all tried harder, maybe you would’ve stood a chance.”

That pissed me off. I stood and drew my sword, and its blue and red blade glowed with energy, “Okay, that’s it! I’m fighting you. One-on-one! You and me! Let’s go!”

Haze turned to me, and her manic smile curled her lips, “Ooooh, I’m shaking in my boots. Let’s go, pipsqueak!” she dragged Jax and Xiao out of the way, created a jagged, rusted sword out of black and purple chakra, and stood at the ready.

I took my sword in both hands and felt my Inferno chakra course through my body as flames covered my katana. I charged at her, closing the distance in an instant, and swung my sword in an upward slash aimed at her chest. She casually backhanded my blade with hers leaving my torso wide open, but she didn’t take it.

Stumbling back a few steps, I got my feet under me and took a deep breath. I charged again, this time with an overhead strike. Haze parried the blow, making me stumble back again. I stopped and took a few more deep breaths to calm myself. There has to be an opening somewhere. I just have to find it. I took a step forward and planted my feet before taking another strike. Haze blocked it, but I didn’t stumble back this time. I followed the strike up with a slash at her side, then at her head, neck, and left thigh.

Haze blocked, redirected, and parried each attack. Then she swung at me. I got my sword up in time to block the attack, but the force behind it knocked my blade from my hand, and she pressed her blade against my neck. The manic smile never left her face for a single second of the fight, not even as she said, “I win.”

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My arms slumped as I sighed, “Fine, you win.”

Haze’s sword evaporated into black mist, and she said, “Everyone gather around!” Everyone did, even the twins who sat watching the fights, “Do you know why you lost to me?”

Still groggy from being knocked out a moment ago, Shiro raised his hand, “It’s because these three wouldn’t stop getting in each other’s way.”

“That’s one reason. What else?”

“I nu!” Shersha exclaimed, “They telegraph their attacks!”

“Right on the money, Leila!”

“I’m Shersha!”

“Oh, who cares. But she’s right. You all telegraph your next move. Shiro and Scarlet are the best at not doing that, but even they slip up from time to time. Let’s take Zeana, for example. When does she telegraph?”

“When she takes a breath,” Scarlet answered quickly.

“Precisely. Zeana, whenever you breathe, you look around before focusing on a single point you want to attack. You need to focus on the enemy’s eyes and strike without looking. Got it?”

I nodded, “Yes, master.”

“Good. Now for Jax and Xiao, when do they telegraph?” Haze asked, and the lecture continued for another ten minutes. Giving each of us pointers on how to improve and where our weaknesses lay.

After the lecture, she let us go off and do solo training, and I immediately turned to pick up my sword. My eyes shot open wide as I didn’t see it. My katana wasn’t where it landed when Haze knocked it out of my hand. I looked around wildly, and my hand touched the hilt of my blade on my … waist? I looked down and saw Crucible was back in its shieth as if I had already gotten it from the ground. I shook my head. How did this happen? Did I pick it up and just forget about it? No that can’t be right. I would’ve remembered that. Did it return to its shieth on its own? No, impossible! Swords don’t have any legs … or arms … or minds of their own. How then? Did someone put it in my shieth without me noticing?

“Zeana! Come here. Let’s talk for a moment,” Haze said, taking my attention away from my mysterious sword.

I turned to her, “Coming!” and jogged over to her.

Haze casually leaned against a wall and waited patiently for me. Once I got to her, I bowed, and she waved me off, “We need to talk about your next core. I see you’ve gotten the Inferno spirit—”

“Apollo,” I interrupted.

“What?”

“Apollo. That’s what I named him. The Inferno spirit.”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “Whatever. I see he’s taken one of your cores, and I need to know what you want for your next one. The empty one you have now. Have you given it any thought?”

I nodded, “Yeah, but I haven’t made any decisions and am unsure what to do about it.”

“Well, tell me what you’ve thought.”

“Well, I was thinking of a single chakra for this one. Have a bit more control over power.”

Haze nodded, “Well, that would open a lot of options for you. Lots of chakras to choose from.”

“I know. Got any suggestions?”

Haze thought for a moment, “Well, you could go with the Edge chakra. It would synergize well with your sword.”

“Yes, it would. But what if I don’t have my sword with me?”

“Hmm, true. You would get more control over bladed objects but be hard-pressed to form a blade or use the chakra without a blade.”

“So, any other suggestions?”

Haze thought for a moment more, then shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve always used combos, so control chakras are out of my expertise. Give it a little more thought, then get back to me.”

“Okay.”

“Anyways, that wasn’t all I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” I asked, “What else do you want to discuss.”

“Well, since you have five cores now, that opens up more abilities for you. Such as chakra sight.”

This got me excited, “Oooh! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”

“All right. Chakra sight lets you see a person’s life force and cores through walls and thick underbrush. It costs a lot of chakra, won’t reveal what a person’s core consists of, and the range is limited. But it will help you in many fights.”

“How do I do that?”

Haze sat and said, “I suggest you use your Healing chakra for this one.” I sat in front of her and began cycling my healing chakra. “Now, once you’ve cycled your chakra, send it to your eyes. Chakra can always see chakra, so they won’t accidentally mix with other chakras. That being said, when you collect it in your eyes, you will be able to see another person’s chakra cores and see their life force.”

I began cycling my chakra to my eyes and felt the power pool there. For a few minutes, nothing happened. Then, in the distance, I saw five sparks of light in front of me, with webbed red vanes and a beating heart floating alongside them and glowing slightly. I gasped, and Haze said, “Don’t be so worried. It always takes a while to do something like this. It took me several ye—”

“I did it.”

“Say what?”

“I did it!” I repeated and looked around the room. I could see Haze and … and … and that was it. My range was only a meter long in front of me.

I opened my eyes, beaming from ear to ear as Haze sighed and smacked her forehead, “Of course, you did it on the first try.”

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly and said, “Yeah, well. I’m apparently good at that. But I can only see you in front of me. Nobody else.”

Haze sighed, “That’s to be expected. It will take a long time to get your sight any further. But hey, you did it.”

“I did it!”

“Okay, that’s enough celebrating. Go train before I kick your ass again,” Haze threatened. I nodded and ran off to do more training, for I had a tournament to fight in tomorrow and bets to place.

***