When Ro arrived at practice, Zephyr peered at her in stunned confusion from where he floated. Shiki had had to come get him to stop the windstorm that she had unleased in the grad room. When he had gotten there, he had been amazed. The girl had summoned ten sylphs, tiny invisible air spirits. That was no small feat.
Zephyr knew from experience that it took tremendous power to summon and control just one of the little creatures, because they have a will of their own. However, this non-assuming, ugly human had summoned ten with negligible training.
Six had gone to restraining the fuming Rin and the other four wreaked havoc on the room. It was a mess, tables over turned, chairs strewn everywhere, windows broken, and most surprisingly the fire was out.
When he asked the sylphs to release Rage, all of them had adamantly refused saying that he had hurt the Mistress. He had eventually talked them into returning to their own world but that had been something else that was odd. The sylphs knew the Nug's gender. Ordinarily, they called their summoner Master, regardless of gender. Zephyr hadn't realized that it was the Nug who had done it right away. He had assumed that one of the rulers had sent someone to teach Rin a lesson, but when asked, Rin had been reluctant to say who had done it. It was Shiki who had told him that it was the Nug. Zephyr had been floored. Even now as he peered at her, he wondered if there could be some mistake. While she did seem a little stronger, she didn't appear to possess anywhere near enough power to do that. But if she had done it, he would really like to fight her when she got stronger. Zephyr smiled in glee at the thought.
As Ro approached the gate to walk through Laine grabbed her arm and smelled her.
"Why do you smell like Ky?" He asked his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Did something happen?" Ro blushed and looked away, confirming that something did happen. Laine stared at her red face as he felt a cloud of anger descending over him.
"Hey, are we going to start practice soon?" Zephyr yelled at Laine from inside the gate. Laine felt fury with his friend well up inside him. Ky wouldn't have touched Ro had she been marked by him as he had already planned on doing, when they had a minute alone. Zephyr interfered with his presence. Still looking at Ro, Laine sent a sharp, thick tree root shooting from the ground straight for Zephyr who dodged. The tree root kept after him forcing him to stay on the move.
"What happened?" Laine asked gripping her arm hard and forcing her to look at him. Ro's expression became more embarrassed.
"He kissed me." She said quietly. Laine growled and a second tree root shot from the ground attacking Zephyr like the first. "Why are you so angry?" A third smaller tree root darted from the ground at Ro's feet and ripped through her practice uniform on her breast and neck, exposing the hickeys.
"That's why." Laine stated, anger thickening his voice. "And it's Zephyr's fault that he touched you!" Laine finished and turned sharply. His form shifted instantly as he looked at Zephyr. A dozen more tree roots exploded from the ground aiming for him. Zephyr dodged, swerved and spun gracefully avoided the sharpened roots, but he didn't attack. Eventually he began leading them as he flew around.
"This is fun! It's been a while since we had a good fight. If you keep this up, I will definitely have to retaliate though." He called as flew. Laine nodded a fierce gleam in his golden eyes.
"Bring it." Suddenly, a blade of air materialized in Zephyr's hand. He swung it and other air blades fanned out from it, heading straight for the stunned Ro. Laine moved faster than she could blink. He pushed her out of the way. She felt pain in her back as she struck a tree ten feet away. Slowly she pushed herself back to her feet.
"This is between us leave the girl out of it." Laine yelled at Zephyr. He had blood on his left arm from where he got hit. Zephyr paused in his evasion and shrugged.
"Any weakness, bud."
"It's okay. I've got this." She told Laine. Ro summoned the wall of impenetrable fire to shield herself. Zephyr sent more air blades at her. They fizzled harmlessly off her wall. He shrugged again and charged Laine. Laine waited and at the last possible moment a green sword appeared in his hand. He deflected Zephyr's blow with ease. Then struck with one of his own. Zephyr parried and swung overhead. Laine blocked and rammed his knee into Zephyr's exposed stomach. Zephyr flew back coughing. He sent more air blades spinning for Laine. Laine raised a wall of earth in front of him. The air blades struck and both them and the wall exploded in a shower of dirt.
Through this shower Zephyr charged. Laine blocked him again, swung at him and sent tree roots to come at him from behind, all in the same move. Zephyr blocked both attacks. Back and forth they went. Neither male giving an inch.
Ro could barely follow it; it was happening so quickly. She saw Laine get back handed. Then Zephyr got hit with the flat of a root. While they were fighting with their swords, they were also fighting with magic. Zephyr was sending exploding balls of air at Laine and his mass of tree roots. Laine was blocking with walls of earth and he kept having to pull more roots from the ground to make up for the ones that got blown up.
As it was, there were explosions shaking the ground all over. This was an example of real fighting and it was very different then what Ro had experienced in her class. The males kept this pace up for fifteen minutes until they both suddenly stopped moving.