A few minutes later, Sydra finds himself standing alone in front of Prof. Curtis, who was tapping a pen against his face. After he had finished making the bet with Dean Crue, Prof. Curtis had rushed Sydra back to his office to discuss his plan.
"We have to get you prepared for the arena within this next week, which means you have to take your training with my brother very seriously," Prof. Curtis says, "I'll have him focus on teaching you mostly defensive abilities, and one major attack ability,"
"That's great and all," Sydra says, "But why exactly am I fighting against Percy? I don't really have any reason too,"
"Oh... right," Prof. Curtis says, realization dawning on his face, "I guess I just got caught up in the moment, and the idea of showing up that egotistical old man sounded really good. So... Would you be interested in participating? I'll make it worth your time,"
"How so?" Sydra asks, his desire for more wealth showing, "I might be persuaded to enter the arena for the right price,"
"What if I was to give you a set of armor made from the scales of an Emperor rank Thunduster?" Prof. Curtis asks while making his over to the wardrobe in the corner. As he swings the doors open, Sydra lays his eyes upon a suit or armor that must have taken several Master Blacksmiths years to craft. The armor is a mix between yellow and brown colors, and is covered in a layer of scales laid upon one another.
"This armor was forged several decades ago, after I managed to slay a beast that had been tormenting people passing through the desert. It would hide underneath the sand, and when someone unexpectedly wandered over it, the Thunduster would call down a bolt of lightning to fry them," Prof. Curtis says as he runs his fingers over the armor.
'I could probably use a real set of armor,' Sydra thinks as he looks down at his leather outfit, 'I can't always be relying on the bone armor to protect me,'
"What are the armor's abilities?" Sydra asks, his eyes running over the detailed scales on the armor, "I assume it has something to do with speed?"
"You might be surprised by this, but even though the Thunduster had lightning aura, it was an incredibly slow creature," Prof. Curtis says, "However, it was still an difficult creature to beat, due to its ability to create a defensive barrier of sand and lightning,"
"That is the same ability the armor gained after being forged. If you wear all the pieces of the armor together, you can create a sand and lightning barrier that protects you from all sides, and also deals damage to anyone who gets to close," Prof. Curtis says as he closes the wardrobe, "So, are you interested?"
'If I had had this armor while fighting Holan I might have been able to keep myself from having my powers sealed away,' Sydra thinks, imagining himself protected by a whirling storm of sand and lighting, "I accept, I wanted to beat Percy again, anyway,"
"Fantastic, then tomorrow we'll have you begin your training with the others," Prof. Curtis says as he shows Sydra out, "Make sure you get plenty of sleep, my brother doesn't go easy on his students,"
Leaving the office, Sydra heads back to the room at the end of the corridor, where the others are gathered while they wait for him.
"How did it go?" Jason asks, "Are you really going to fight against Percy in the arena?"
"Yeah," Sydra says as he glances around the room, "But I'm going to need to know as much as I can about him first,"
Sitting down at a round table, Jason began to explain what he knew of Percy's abilities, "Although he has the power of lightning, it's not his main ability. That would be ice, and he knows how to use it to turn almost any terrain in his favor,"
"What terrains can he turn?" Lucas asks, busily writing all this down for Sydra, "And go into detail about it,"
"Well, let's see," Jason says, "Obviously he can turn all water terrains, and I've seen him cover a layer of dirt with ice as well, making it slippery for the opponents. Of course, his ability isn't good enough to freeze the magma terrain and its practically useless against the wind terrain,"
Leaning forward, Indra looks Sydra dead in the eye, "You should pray to get one of those two terrains, otherwise the battle might be over before you realize it,"
"Is he really that dangerous?" Kayla asks, her eyes widening as everyone nodded, "Then how is Sydra supposed to beat him if he does end up with one of the other terrains?"
"There is a way to do it, which I discovered in my match against him a year ago," Jason says, "When Percy first activates his ice ability to change the terrain, there is a moment where he is completely defenseless. However, to take advantage of that moment, you'll need to be fast enough, that even time looks like it stopped,"
Over the next few hours, everyone came up with ideas for how Sydra could overcome Percy's ability to use both ice and lightning. By the time they were done, it was already past midnight, and everyone was beginning to yawn.
"I think we should probably head out now, it's getting really late and we still have training in the morning," Cho says as she glances at the clock on the wall.
"That's a good idea," Jason says, standing up and gathering his things, "We'll come to get you in the morning, okay Sydra?"
"Yeah, I'll see you guys then," Sydra says, opening the door for the other to leave. While everyone else goes out, Tio stops and looks back at Sydra.
"I'll help you train tomorrow," Tio says, "That way you can knock Percy down a few levels when you win in the arena,"
"Thanks, I look forward to it," Sydra says, smiling as he shuts the door behind Tio. Turning around, Sydra looks back at Lucas, who is fighting Kayla out of his bed, "Are you sure you're okay waiting a week before heading back to the Ivory Kingdom?"
Lucas stops fighting with Kayla for a second to look at Sydra, which allows her to jump into his bed, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure my father has already taken care of the assailants, and is fixing the palace as we speak. Like I said before, it isn't the first time something like this has happened,"
Nodding his head, Sydra drops the subject and gets into his bed, falling asleep almost instantly. The next morning he wakes up as rays of sunlight wash over his face. After getting out of bed, Sydra gets dressed and prepares breakfast for himself and the other two.
'I wonder what Captain Zeis is like,' Sydra thinks when he hears a knock at the door. Opening it, he finds Jason and Indra standing there, dressed and ready to go, "Let me grab my food, and I'll be right out,"
Rushing back over to the stove, Sydra grabs his food and places the rest on two separate plates for Lucas and Kayla, who are tangled up together in bed. Once that is done, Sydra closes the door behind him and follows Jason down the hallway.
"We'll be meeting up with the others outside of the academy, where a carriage will take us to Captain Zeis," Jason says as the three of them race down the stairs, "We better hurry, otherwise it will leave without us,"
Stationed outside of the academy was a yellow carriage much like the one Sydra had seen Rachel show up in when she had attended the Ashlock Ball. The carriage was also drawn by two horses with yellow wings that crackled with electricity.
"Hurry up, you guys!" Cho yells from the inside of the carriage, "We leave in three seconds, with or without you,"
With the idea of missing their first day of training to motivate them, the three boys increase their speed as much as they can, making it inside the carriage right as it began to take off. Gasping for breath, Sydra sits down next to Tio and looks out the window, "Looks like we're flying to our destination,"
"I think I heard the driver say something about the Royal palace courtyard," Tio explains, "It's the place the students from last year trained as well,"
As the carriage flies higher into the air, it passes through a barrier of lightning that keeps everyone else from just flying into the palace whenever they please. Once through, the carriage makes its way to the palace, where it lands in the middle of a large courtyard, filled with guards training against straw golems.
Stepping out of the courtyard, the group finds themselves in front of an intimidating man covered in battle scars. The man has long white hair as well as a thick beard, and his blue eyes look like they could pierce through the heavens, "Are you really the students that scored the highest on this year's test? God, is this truly the best the Academy could train this year?"