Rain woke up to the noise of birds chirping. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Apparently, Cassandra had told him to pick the gears he would need for the contest, and that meant he had to go to the Town square. He groaned. He disliked walking around in Finah. Anytime he was in the market, he was pointed and stared at. Rain looked around his modest looking room. There was a mirror in one corner near the wardrobe, a velvet carpet was placed in the room, and he had a table neatly stacked with books for studying. He got up and headed to the bathroom.
After showering, Rain dressed up and got ready to leave. He walked out to the court yard, and to his surprise, there was a carriage waiting for him.
"Huh? What's this?". Rain asked the butler standing by the carriage.
"Madam ask-"
"Shut up and get in the carriage". A voice called from the carriage.
He knew who exactly that was. He smirked and entered the carriage.
"Well well! What a surprise to see you here, Keziah"
Keziah glared at him.
"You know I wouldn't sit with trash if I had any choice in the matter. My sister asked me to go with you so you aren't beaten to death"
She sighed. "Why are you so useless?"
Rain frowned. "Do you really hate me that much?"
"Of course not. If I did, I would call you trash"
"But you do call me trash"
"Oh? Then I guess I do hate you"
Rain smirked. What Keziah didn't know was that, Cassandra asked her to come so Rain didn't end up beaten anyone. This was how the conversation went anytime he was with Keziah, and what was even sad was that she was the closest thing he had to a friend. At this time, they were already on their way to the town square.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"What is it now?" Keziah asked.
"Well, this special ops... Why are the elders so hell bent on selecting new members. I mean I know it's a tradition to pick new members every year, but that was during the period of war. With no war to fight, what would be the use of the special ops"
Keziah stared out the window, so long that Rain thought she would just ignore him.
"Because of resources"
"Huh?"
Keziah turned to face him.
"I'm sure you know this by now, but, the kingdom of Finah is among four other kingdoms. The kingdom of Rehab, Lesta, Forege and Hiram. There was a sixth kingdom, your homeland, but it was destroyed."
"Yes. I know all this but what does it have to do with any of this?."
"Our kingdom, Finah, is the most powerful kingdom. This is largely due to the resources we obtain from hunting plasma beasts in the dark forests"
"So what you are saying is that since there are no wars the special ops will be used to hunt plasma beasts?"
"Yes. Units will be given assignments based on the difficulty"
"So if I'm in unit one, I would probably get to fight the strongest monsters"
"Right again. But I recommend you join unit 9, the last unit. With how weak your plasma force is you'll only be a liability to those of us in unit one. Your sword skills may be great but even the weakest of beasts can't be harmed without plasma force."
"Wait! Did u say 'us'? Are you also participating in the tournament?"
"Of course. I'm a princess, it's not like I have a choice"
"You've not even taken the test, and you're claiming to be in the first unit?"
Keziah eyes flashed green with plasma force. "And do you expect any less from me"
Rain grimaced and turned away from Keziah. As much as Rain wanted to fight, he didn't want to waste time on beasts which he could just destroy with a flick of his wrist.
"We're here". The coachman called out.
"Thank you". Keziah replied.
Rain didn't understand how she was so polite to those around her, but treated him like a fly.
"Let's go. We'll begin with finding the gears we'll need for the tournament, and after that, we'll register our names at the arena"
Rain gave her a nod. The market was bustling with activities. People walked around moving from stalls to stalls. On the right various food stalls were clustered together. There were also clothing shops, weapon stalls and blacksmith workshops.
Keziah begun to walk towards the stall with the weapons while Rain followed close behind her. As they approached, Keziah flashed the royal seal at the shop keeper.
"Oh! It's the princess. Please what would you like? You can take anything you want with no cost at all."
"We don't accept charity. Just show me your best weapons collection"
"What about the young lad behind you?"
"I'll be paying for his weapon"
"You will?" Rain asked.
"Just... Don't make me regret this"
The shop keeper sent them to the back of the shop. The place was well polished. It seemed to be the VIP area. Various weapons hanged around. These weapons were treasure level weapons. Weapons were graded into base weapons and treasure weapons. Base weapons were normal weapons forged by blacksmiths. Treasure weapons weren't that different from base weapons, just that they were forged from powerful plasma beasts and had some uniqueness to them. For example, a treasure weapon may have the ability to conjure fire. Rain walked around for a bit. He didn't really want anything powerful, well, because he didn't need it.
Rain and Keziah scanned the weapons. Finally, Keziah picked a fire attribute treasure weapon to match with the nature of her plasma force. Keziah turned to Rain.
"Still haven't picked one?"
"No"
"Choose already. Ugh! Forget it, just take this". Keziah picked a random sword from the stack and thew it at him. The sword was heavy but well-balanced. It had gold streaks on it and the hilt was about seven centimeters long.
"Shop keeper, what is this sword's power?"
The shop keeper stood there nervously.
"Well... Compared to other treasure weapons, this thing isn't that unique. It's formed from a dragon plasma beast and the only thing special about it is that it's unbreakable. It is believed that even a bloodlord of Princess Cassandra's level can't break it. Also, the color of the blade changes with the pressure of plasma force. It goes from blue, red, and then gold"
"Hmm... I'll take it."
Keziah looked skeptical.
"Are you sure you don't want anything fancy?"
"Nahh"
She shrugged. "Well, it's your loss. Let's go then"
Keziah spent the rest of the day picking out other gears she needed, while Rain just followed her.
"Ugh. It's already evening. Rain, let's go register for the tournament. The arena is in the middle of town square"
They made their way to the town square. By the time they reached the arena there were only a few people in the queue. People were called forward by the registrar who was seated at the front of the arena to register.
"Princess Keziah and Rain-" the registrar stopped mid way.
"Errm... Princess, I can register you but.." the registrar looked in Rain's way.
"I can't register that scum". The registrar said it with so much disgust that Rain's anger flared.
"What do you mean you can't register me?." Rain clenched his fists.
The registrar began cussing at Rain. Rain felt a tap on his shoulder and whirled around. Standing behind his was a brown haired guy around the same age as him. He wore a yellow jacket with a crest embroidered on it. He was probably a noble.
"Didn't you hear the man. Leave here you're wasting the time of those behind you"
Rain released his plasma force, his blue eyes flaring. Red plasma force shrouded his body.
"And who are you to tell me what to do?"
The guy backed away, and then laughed.
"Do you know who I am? I am Furgison, the second son of the house of Zerex. And you want to fight me? With that? That's the smallest size of a plasma force I've ever seen. As if that wasn't bad enough your plasma force may be dense, but it's still at the level of an average human, I mean, it's light red. It's almost like you have none"
The people there laughed at this and begun to murmur amongst themselves. Rain's head was bowed, his hair covering his eyes. In their world, living creatures were created by two things, the life force and the will of the creatures. The life force resides in the blood and could be used as fuel for power. This is what is known as plasma force. Humans used the power of the plasma force straight from their blood, this form was called innate plasma. The strength of a person's plasma force was determined by how deep and large the aura of his plasma force was. The deep color represented how dense it was while the size determined just how much plasma force you had. While Rain was half human, for unknown reasons his innate plasma was so small it was like he had none at all, so according to human standards he was useless. At least that's according to human standards. Vampires were creatures loved by plasma force, the very source of life and existence, because of this their power was pure and unrivaled. They drew their life force power from nature itself. This form of plasma force that was only accessible to vampires was known as revived plasma. And Rain WAS half-vampire.
Rain's revived plasma began to seep into his innate plasma as his anger boiled.
"STOP!"
Rain lifted his head to find Keziah standing between him and Furgison. She folded her arms and turned towards the registrar.
"A mere registrar like you has no right to decide who can and cannot participate".
"Princess. This isn't the royal palace where you can flaunt your power like it's no one's business. There's no one to protect you here. I can easily destroy you"
Furgison smirked at the princess. He knew he was strong, so he could fight with the princess and beat up the scum with her. Since his father was an elder, the worst punishment he could get for hurting the princess was just breaking an arm or two.
"What... Did... You.. say"
Keziah's hair begun to flail in the air. Her green aura seeped from her body.
"KNEEL!"
Thoom!
The force of her aura forced Furgison's knees to crash into the ground with a loud thoom. A large crater appeared where his knees had landed. The other people begun to flee in fear.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT DESTROYING ME?"
"N- Nothing... I... I'm... Sorry".
Furgison could barely get the words out. He was choking on his words. Keziah turned towards the registrar.
"I'l.... I'll register Mister Rain right away"
She smirked and dispersed her plasma force. She turned to Rain.
"Let's go."
"Thanks"
"Humph!... I didn't do it for you... I just don't like Furgison". She turned and walked away.
Rain wondered whether she could be lying, whether she did indeed do it for him, but he immediately cleared those thoughts. There was no way Keziah would save him unless she was ordered to. That's how it had always been.