Ascelmo sat at his desk, furiously jotting down notes as Mage Warren went through his lecture. “Now today we’re going to be learning a new spell, and this will be a simple spell to learn, but it will probably be the most important spell that you will ever learn.” This made Ascelmo look up from his holopad. “Today we’re going to be learning the healing spell. Now, normally when a soldier is injured, we use potions to heal them. However, we’re at war, and in war, you never know what’s going to happen.” Warren came around from behind his desk. “Now demonstrating this spell is a bit difficult, since we don’t want to injure anybody, even if we are just going to heal their wounds right away.” A student raised his hand and Warren looked over and pointed at him. “Sir, what makes learning how to heal so much more important than any other spell?” Warren smiled. “Simple, wars can only last so long, therefore learning spells for combat can only get you so far. But learning how to save someone’s life in a split second notice, that’s vital.” The student nodded with a sort of half-understanding. There was a knock at the door and Warren went over and opened it, as he did, five androids stepped into the room. They all had a red stripe on their neck, indicating that they were used for medical training purposes.
“Now, since we only have a limited number of androids you’re gonna have to take turns here.” He held up a small clicker with a button on it. “When I press this button it will simulate a number of internal medical injuries, you’re going to need to heal all of their ‘injuries’ within a certain amount of time.” He pulled out a stopwatch as the androids moved over the first row of students and laid down. As they went down the rows, everyone seemed to be getting the hang of it fairly easily, and Ascelmo was no different. Warren smiled with satisfaction as the androids left the room. “Now let’s move on to something else.” He moved to the door. “If you’d follow me, we’re going to the simulation room.”
They arrived in a vast open room, larger than the mess hall or the firing range. There was a control panel on the side of the room that Warren moved over to. After a few button presses, most of the floor panels lowered about 20 feet, the other panels all scattered at different elevations. Warren looked out at the class as he stood at the edge of the drop he’d created. “Now, we’ve covered spells for offense, defense, and support. But now it’s time to cover something else, movement. Now, your armor does provide some mobility, we’ll cover that tomorrow, but that can only get you so far. Now as you’re aware, everything exists in three dimensions, however, this spell you’re about to learn allows you to travel through a hidden fourth dimension, taking you from point A to point B within the blink of an eye, hence why it’s called a blink spell.”
“Now your goal is to reach the other end of the simulation room using these platforms and the blink spell. Allow me to demonstrate.” He turned to face the closest platform and extended his hand, the yellow lightning of his vitality element appeared concentrating in his hand. However, rather than being pure yellow, there was a faint white glow in the center of the small ball. He released the lightning and within a second it shot out toward the platform, and when it made contact Warren appeared, standing there. He blinked back and moved toward the wall. “Now it’s your turn. In order to prevent chaos, we’ll go in groups five.” He split everyone up, Ascelmo, Elenaire and three others were last.
They stood ready, waiting for Warren to give the signal. When he did, they all blinked forward, moving from one platform to another with grace. As they neared the end, Ascelmo extended his hand ready to blink, but as he blinked forward, he realized that he had undershot by a tiny margin, causing him to lose his balance and fall. Luckily, he was just able to grip the edge of the platform. There were a few gasps from the spectators. He extended his free arm form help, hoping Elenaire would pull him up, but much to his dismay, she kept going. He took a deep breath, what he was about to do was risky, but he didn’t really have much of a choice. He let go and reached out with his arm. But as he focused, he realized that time seemed to be moving slower the more he concentrated. He used this to his advantage and aimed for the end of the course, but he aimed just a little bit above the floor. He could hear his heart beating in his chest as he slowly fell further and further. But he released the energy in his hand and it shot out. He then landed safely at the other end.
Warren returned the platforms to their original position as the floor and looked over at everyone. “Class is dismissed for today. But tomorrow will be a joined class starting here with everyone that will start a bit later than usual.” As everyone started to file out of the door, Warren stopped Ascelmo. “Hold on, that stunt you just pulled. In all my years as a Magi, I’ve never been able to pull something like that off. So how’d you do it?”
Ascelmo shrugged. “I’m not sure, I just focused hard enough and everything seemed like it was moving in slow-motion.”
Warren was both confused and amazed at the same time. He stood silent for a moment but then nodded. “Alright, you better get going, Bradford will be starting soon.” Ascelmo nodded and ran off.
“Alright everyone, today we’re gonna take a break from the usual training to talk about this.” Bradford pulled the hilt of a void blade off of his belt. It looked exactly like the one used during Empress Eliza’s coronation. “This is a void blade, and make no mistake, you may not use it during most combat situations, but if your back is ever against a wall, this blade will be your best friend.” He activated it and a vantablack blade shot out.
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“Now a few things you should know about the void blade. First of all, it can cut through almost anything, except for plasma, but I’ll get to that in a second, and Magi’s shield.” He walked over to a small metal plate and sliced through it like scissors through paper. “Now, as I said, they can’t cut through plasma, but they can deflect it, but it takes an incredible amount of timing and coordination to block the shot of a blaster.” Now today we’re going to learn how to use void blades efficiently and effectively. One of the panels on the wall retracted revealing rows upon rows of void blades with training blades attached. Everyone grabbed one and they all split up into groups of two to spar with each other.
Ascelmo stood a few feet away from Orokas, both of them in a fighting stance, waiting for Bradford’s word. As soon as they began Orokas immediately went on the offensive. He made swing after swing, each one more powerful than the last. Although, despite how powerful they were, they were all fairly easy to block. Every time Ascelmo blocked, Orokas would swing harder. Bradford was moving around the room, inspecting each pair of cadets. Orokas made one really hard swing, but Ascelmo parried it with ease, sending him off balance. Ascelmo used this to his advantage and went on the offensive. He made a few successful hits while Orokas was off balance and kept pushing him back, eventually, the two got in a lock. With all his strength, Ascelmo twirled both of their blades around until he had enough momentum to send Orokas’ blade flying out of his hand.
Bradford stood over them while this happened, he looked over at Orokas. “Brute strength can only get you so far.” He picked up his blade and handed it to him. “Try again, this time, less power and more speed.” Orokas nodded and the two got ready once again. This time their fight was a lot more evenly matched. Orokas actually ended up beating Ascelmo the second time. They spent the next few hours sparring, rotating out with the others from the squad. Bradford called everyone back together and stood in front of them, looking very pleased. “You all did well today, I’m impressed. Tomorrow class will start a little earlier and it will be in the simulation room. It’s going to be a joined class with the Magi cadets. That’s all for today, have a good rest of your night everyone.” The cadets all filed out of the firing range and went back to their barracks.
It was quiet and dark, the only thing lighting the long and winding hallways were a series of small, dimly lit lights on the floor. Bradford walked up to the door and stuck his keycard into the slot before pressing the buzzer. He pulled his keycard out and the door shot up. He entered to see Mage Warren hunched over his desk, writing something down on a holopad, the only thing lighting up his office was a small lamp.
Bradford sat down across from Warren, who looked so tired he could fall asleep at any second. “Jamie, I’m sorry to disturb at this hour but I’ve got some important news.”
Warren sat up, trying his best to stay awake. “Alright shoot, what is it?”
Bradford sighed. “It’s about Ascelmo.”
Warren looked much more attentive now, he had Bradford’s full attention. “Empress Eliza finally found out about him, and she wants to be there for his final test.”
Warren looked confused. “You’re making that seem like it’s a bad thing.”
Bradford looked at the floor. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure if they can do it. From what I’ve seen, all that squad does is argue and bicker.”
Warren nodded with understanding. “So what do you want to do about it?”
Bradford sighed. “I don’t know, I guess all we can do at the moment is wait and see what happened.” He looked at Warren. “All right, well I just thought I’d tell you.” He started heading for the door and stopped. “Oh and one more thing Jamie, get some sleep.” He smirked. “That’s an order.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “You can’t give me orders, we’re the same rank.” Bradford opened the door and headed out.
The whole squad headed down to the simulation room in a two by three formation. When they arrived, most of the other squads were already there. They waited a few minutes for the rest of the squads to arrive and they began. Warren and Bradford both stood at the front of the class. “Alright everyone, as you might have noticed, we’re doing something a little different today.” Warren said.
Bradford nodded and stepped forward. “That’s right, today we’re going to talk about your armor and equipment that you’ll be using in the field. They had an armor stand next to them wearing the standard uniform of the Void Regiment. Like the weapons, it was black with a glowing light blue trim. The helmet was fairly average with a tinted glass faceplate. The armor itself wasn’t that special either. It wasn’t too light or too heavy, just the perfect balance.
“Now as you’ll notice, the armor comes with several utilities, but we’ll get to those in a second. I’d just like to point out one thing, this armor is completely resistant to the vacuum of space, so on the off chance that you’re stranded, this armor will protect you. Now, let’s move on, the primary feature here is the jetpack on the back.”
Bradford spun the armor stand around to show it off. “The jetpack also has retractable glider wings attached to it.” He pressed a button and a wing shot out from either side of the jetpack. Bradford retracted them and spun the armor stand around again. “Now on the right arm is a grappling hook, this can come in handy when your jetpack runs out of fuel, and yes, it does run out of fuel, although it’s not very common. But even so, there are some places you can reach with a grappling hook that you just can’t reach with a jetpack. Now aside from that, the only other thing there is to cover is the utility belt for things like your sidearm and void saber.”
“Now we’re going to organize an obstacle course that you need to pass using only what you have on your armor.” Warren moved over to the control panel and pressed a few buttons, the course was strikingly similar to the one the Magi cadets maneuvered yesterday. But despite that, it was still fairly easy for everyone to complete.
They kept going over the course several times for the rest of the day until they could get across the gap in a matter of seconds. Bradford and Warren both looked pleased with the results. “Alright everyone, nice work today, we’ll be spending the rest of the week here learning how to do things live dive-bomb attacks with your glider, but for today, get some rest, you’ve earned it.”