Kellen dreamed that night of walking through endless dark blank space. The air was filled with ink-like raindrops floating upwards. Kellen looked up to see if he could see where the ink was going yet as far as the open sky stretched it was all grey as if it was about to rain. Further enhancing this feeling Kellen tasted salt on the wind as in this vast empty space, a little breeze could be felt on one's skin, even with the scenery being gray Kellen felt at home here as if he was out fishing with his grandad when he was young. Just then Kellen felt as if someone was looking at him, as he peered over his shoulder Kellen saw a distant figure standing on what looked to be another shore-like place seeing the silhouette triggered some kind of memory that made him feel a familiarity with the stranger. As the stranger turned to walk away Kellen shouted "Who are you?!?". But before he could get an answer to his question, Kellen woke up with his body covered in a cold sweat. Seeing this Kellen immediately went for a morning bath to his surprise when he went out to the hot spring the spring's spirits were already awake. However after some thought he remembered that spirits don't have to sleep since they gain energy and nourishment from their surroundings, therefore, they will always have energy if they are close to the place on earth to which they are bound. Kellen personally found the hot spring spirits cute, they were small beings looking like small green balls of energy having small arms and legs with a red bowl worn like a hat with their white boba ball eyes peeking out from under the edge. As Kellen got in his bath he finally started to relax, remembering his dream he felt weird as he could sense someone inside the bath. but there was no one other than him and the spring spirits soaping in the hot water, feeling cleansed from that weird dream earlier Kellen decided to see his father. After cleaning himself up he left the baths and went to Darwin's office. Walking through the corridor Kellen met the same maid that shouted at him yesterday looking at him with a frown Kellen tried his best to ignore her while passing her in the corridor.
Kellen approached the door to Darwin's office and opened the door without knocking. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock on the door before you enter, Kellen," Darwin said in an irritated tone "Please take a seat son". "Good morning Darwin" Kellen said, which made Darwin raise his eyebrows, at the comment of using his name instead of 'Father'. Paying no mind Kellen continued "Since the time has come for me to train with my brother I wanted to know whether or not you've got the healing mage, I requested, on standby to save me from death's door" Kellen opened the conversation by going straight to the point. As Kellen had finished asking his question a man in white robes entered the room as if on queue. "Hello, Master Kellen I believe I am the one charged with healing and overseeing your training with young Master Jericho. Oh, forgive me my name is Master Gorm a healing mage instructor from the academy of Strom Griffin." After the pleasantries were done Kellen left the office to find his weapons. The weapons were located at the Knight quarters where all students could store their weapons, this was mostly for the people who did not have the money to buy new ones. But to get to the headquarters Kellen had to walk past the training grounds like last time this earned him angry looks from some students who were training. As Kellen walked past a group he heard "Did you hear, that magicless loser has to train with Jericho, whats you guys' bet" said the tall one in the middle. "I bet that he will last about 2 minutes". 'News sure does travel fast and even then I thought Darwin would keep something like this to himself or perhaps it was Jericho venting to his classmates' Kellen thought entering the building he could hear the knights around the inn area having small talk, some of the master knights were discussing, what their lessons should be today. After walking through the room Kellen got to the stairs to where the storage was, when Kellen entered to find his weapons he saw Master Arthur standing next to his locker. Ignoring him Kellen took out his one-handed flanged mace and iron buckler both infused with the power of hex-tech crystals as he did this Kellen heard a voice in the back of his mind "*bah* how primitive" shortly after Arthur broke Kellen out of his thoughts "Are you even listening? *sigh* just be careful in your fight today", "I will try, but no promises," Kellen said exiting the room after putting on his light armor mostly made of leather but also had metal shoulder pads and arm guards. When he got outside to the training grounds the other students had cleared out since they all wanted to see Jericho fight his new victim. Since most who fought in spares with him did not get off the arena with just a mere scratch, Jericho was a fire mage, a very strong one at that and since people had heard he would be fighting Kellen the only one with no magic to speak of in the school, they all had the same outcome in mind. All things considered, Kellen did not care as long as he could keep the old man off his back, that would be enough for him with this in mind he walked into the pit in the middle of the arena as he looked up he could see must of the school came to watch today's match. While in the middle of his thoughts, he could hear "You're late... brother, like always" Jericho sneered. "Dear younger brother, who would I be if I actually showed up on time, anyways let's just get this over with so I can be free of that old geezer breathing down my neck about my promise" Kellen answered back nonchalantly. Shortly after knight Arthur entered the arena followed by a man in white robes from earlier, Arthur's voice rang throughout the arena "The battle between Jericho and Kellen Celric will now commence I will be witness and judge of this match, should any of you get hurt we have a healer on standby, absolutely under no circumstances are you allowed to kill your opponent those are the only rules" after a brief pause Arthur asked again "Is there any questions from the combatants?". The silence said everything and Arthur signaled the battle to begin after standing at a safe distance. Kellen let out a heavy breath trying to concentrate under the roar of the people in the spectator seats, readying his mace and buckler Kellen waited for Jericho to make the first move so he could get some idea of how he would fight. Jericho was a pure mage meaning he did not practice with martial arts or physical weapons like Kellen did, right now during all of Kellen's thoughts there had only been a second or so in the real world, and Kellen noticed that Jericho was about to cast a spell. Jericho is highly skilled and sent a blue fireball with incredible speed straight at Kellen's face who dodged it just barely. "danm, brother you sure are inpatient," Kellen said as he closed in with weapons in hand ready with a strike aimed at Jericho's left shoulder seeking to dislocate it, in hope make sure he could not duel cast, therefore, limiting the frequency of spells. Though Jericho was purely a mage and he knew air magic dodging out of the way before Kellen even got close to him, he appeared a few meters away from the point of impact. Arthur, who was the observer stood on the sidelines making sure nobody got killed, but in the audience, he could hear people mocking Kellen for not being able to enhance his speed with air magic like everyone else who had chosen to become magical knights. Air magic was a must for magical knights otherwise they would never be able to find an opening in a fight against a mage or another magical knight who used air magic to enhance his or her speed in combat.
'If only I could use magic as I used to'