Chapter 19 - Developments

The new cavaliers had an incredible improvement in their combat skills since the first time they trained with Haamiah. In the last classes, the Gold Soul used all of the pieces of her armor and still was not enough to take all of them down, that is the natural progression of the Cavaliers combat training. Haamiah knew that there would be a time where she would not be able to win against all of them anymore, that is good, it means that they growing stronger, but, due to the amount of people in the class, this time came faster than she expected. Now, she will separate the class and fight them in smaller groups, since they are now working outside of the castle, she had to organize the groups according to availability. She talked with Alíthela and asked her help with it, in the same afternoon, Haamiah received the class schedule with the division of the groups. This is what Alíthela planned: \\

In the first group — ValonVorum, Sotíel, Onami and Prospounae. \\

In the second group — Mikael, Tius, Amniela and Sanael. \\

In the third group — Asphela, Exoutius, Thysíla and Laylah. \\

The second and third group were originally the same, since the students in those have similar schedules, but in order to make things fair with the first group, Haamiah separated them. Their classes are still in the same day, but she only fights four of them at the same time, for now the second and third group do not mix, but in the future, it might happen.

The first group was fighting the Cavalier in a Thursday morning. The arena consisted of giant yellow plants, similar to wheat; the cavaliers were all together near each other, Haamiah's location was unknown to them. \\

—Can you locate her? —Prospounae asked Sotíel. \\

—No, I don't think she is close to us... \\

—I'm going to walk away and fly to see if I can locate her without revealing our position, be prepared for an attack. \\

Valon carefully walked about fifty meters away from their original location, turned invisible and took flight. The only think that he could see was the yellow sea they were in. When he was about to glide down, something exploded in a big ball of fire, from it two trails of that same red fire started to make circular paths towards the others; one of them looked like it was going in Valon's direction but quickly changed. Sotíel warned the other two, he prepared himself to defend the side closer to Valon and Prospounae positioned himself on the other side, Onami was the one in charge of attacking as soon as Haamiah reveal herself. Valon sent a signal to Sotíel and both of them charged at full speed to attack the trail between them, before they could reach it, Haamiah appeared and attacked. She jumped from the other trail, above Prospounae and Onami, to slash Valon in half. Sotíel stopped charging to see if he could help his injured friend, but he only saw one half of the cavalier. After killing Valon, Haamiah tried to attack Sotíel, who was the one closest to her, but when she swung her axe down, Prospounae stood between them and blocked the attack with the lion shield. From below it, the eagle shield emerged and he used its beak to attack Haamiah's belly; the tip of the shield extended like a piston and pushed the Gold Soul away, who was shot by Onami in the leg right after Prospounae attack. \\

Now, they were all in an open area created by Haamiah's flames. Sotíel and Onami positioned themselves behind Prospounae and started to attack. Haamiah was able to avoid two of Onami's shots while fighting close combat with Prospounae, the arrows that she missed flew right back to her quiver. On the third shot, she stopped moving and the arrow pierced the lower part of her abdomen. Prospounae and Onami took advantage of the situation and attacked at the same time; Haamiah grabbed the lion shield and threw Prospounae's head in the arrow's path. As soon as she let his body go, Sotíel appeared in front of her and touched the plate of her armor that covered her belly. The gold Cavalier jumped away, when she reached the ground, started to feel an extremely intense pain, in the exact place where the boy touched earlier; she fell to her knee and craved her axe in the ground protecting her from possible attacks, when looked down, noticed that her plate had a small crack in it. When she lowered her head, Sotíel grabbed the axe and opened a way which Onami's last arrow passed through.\\

—Well done. You guys did well, I have only some small points to make, but first — Haamiah turned to Sotíel — What did you do to me? How did you break my armor by just touching it? \\

—It wasn't me... \\

—If... it wasn't you... Oh... — She understood it. \\

Prospounae made a small crack on her plate when he attacked with the eagle; it did not have to be a hole or even a big crack, the only thing Sotiel needed was a space where he could pass his mana through. \\

—Then, what did you do to me? \\

—Oh... I cut your intestine. \\

… \\

—What? \\

—Your intestine, I slashed it. In the healing classes we already learned how to heal small cuts, so I kind of did the opposite. \\

—Smart... That was an excellent plan, were you the one who thought of it? — She asked to Valon. \\

—Yes. \\

—It was good but you need to be more careful with your plans. So far, all of them were, use some people as sacrifice to deal a small amount of damage to the target, slowing it down until the ones left can kill it. These are not bad strategies, but you should always value the life of those who are beside you. During real combats you won't be back when killed. Always... remember that. But beside that it was really good. I'm actually surprise at you guys... usually, when we divide the class, people get a bit lost — She laughed. — You'll become some interesting people... — She said staring at all of them. Looking at Prospounae's feathers, at Onami's quiver, deep in Sotíel's eyes and the crown on ValonVorum's head. \\

When she looked at him, Valon spoke: \\

—If you allow me to ask... How did you know where I was when you killed me? I was invisible... Do you have the same eyes as Sotíel? \\

—Two things showed your location to me. The first one was the Flare.\\

—Did you shoot a flare? \\

—Not a flare... The Flare is a spell, I shot two of them. One was the little fire trail that you and Sotíel were going to attack, and the other was where I was hidden. The Flare is a detector spell, it searches for enemies near by the place where you aimed it. It is capable of following any type of mana trail left by... anything basically. When I shot the first one, it started to follow you but it changed to the spot where the quantity of mana was bigger, the only reason I knew so precisely where were you is because of your wings. When you fly you create a flow of wind bellow you, I saw the way the wheat was moving and attacked. \\

The class ended and the students remained in the arena, but not for too long, another group of Cavaliers was going to train there so they had to vacate the space. Outside of the building, they were talking about the class. Sotíel was quieter than normal, Valon noticed but did not said anything to him, sometimes, when someone is in their own mid, the best thing is to not wake them up. After it, when the two boys were going to the hospital, in silence, Sotíel finally spoke. \\

—Haamiah is very strong... \\

—Did you just notice it now? She's been destroying us for half a season and you just noticed that she's strong now? — Valon laughed. \\

—I mean, she is crazy strong — Sotíel said serious. Valon stopped laughing. \\

—Why you say that? \\

—Today, when she used the two flares to misdirect, I could not tell the difference between them. Which means that she separated half of her mana into the one where she wasn't so I could not predict her attack. \\

—That doesn't seem like it is that... \\

—She is a warrior, how many warriors in the castle have you seen with that kind of ability? That kind of skill is usually from assassins but I bet that even some of them can't use it as well as she did. Do you remember the first time we fought her? \\

—Yes... The first combat class. \\

—When you and Mikael hit her. Her eyes started to shine and the edge of her axe was melting. We never saw her doing that again. \\

—What is your point? — Valon asked a little confused.\\

—I'm just wondering... How strong she really is?

The situation of the second group was not good, Adam was dead and Mikael's leg was deeply wounded. Tius and Amniela were trying to stall Haamiah so Mikael could heal himself enough to fight, but, none of them were able to do this very efficiently. Amniela's armor was not made for this kind of hand to hand confront so she tried to be at a safe range and cast the two spells she knew at the gold soul, none of the spells do real damage too but considering the situation, they were quite useful. One of them increases the target's speed, target that needs to be a living being of any kind, and the other one decreases the speed of a target, independent of the target's current state of life. She was constantly using the first spell on Tius and the other one on Haamiah to give him bigger chances to survive the Cavalier onslaught. \\

Unable to land her hits, Haamiah hid herself far away, in the middle of the wheat. The place where the fight took place was the same where the first group fought before, but this time, the Gold Cavalier had burned part of the field during one of her first attacks. When she left, Tius approached Mikael and asked. \\

—Hey. How long are you going to take? \\

—What you mean how long? She almost cut my leg... I'm gonna die here. \\

Tius seemed a little annoyed. Mikael know exactly what that face meant. \\

—Do you have a problem with my condition? — He angrily asked. Tius took a deep breath and answered. \\

—I think we should give up now. \\

—What? — Mikael screamed. \\

Haamiah came in jumping from the sky with her axe in hands ready to land the edge of it on them, Tius quickly pushed Mikael and jumped away; no one got hurt in the attack. When Haamiah saw that she missed the attack the located Mikael and leaped to him to attack again, Amniela slowed the gold soul and Tius ran into her, pushing the Cavalier away from them with his body. \\

—I don't think we have a way to defeat her now. — Tius said to Mikael and Amniela — One of us already died and the one that can deal actual damage to her is basically dead weight. We don't have a good strategy for this kind of situation. Our best shot is to give up now and try again later with a better strategy from the beginning.\\

—I'm not dead weight and we have a strategy... All you guys need to do is distract her for some time while I finish healing my leg. \\

Tius sighed. \\

—First off. We can't just distract her for long enough without she trying to attack you, she knows that you are the biggest possible treat to her. As soon as she sees you, far away from us and without being able to move, she will run to you and kill you like a wolf kills a baby lamb. — Mikael was speechless — Second off. What do expect to do when you cure your leg? Limp to her and asks if she can stand still until you slowly swing your knife? — He sighed once again — Listen... what I'm trying to say is that... if you guys really want to keep going with this, we should think a better way to do it, because I don't want to die. The death is fake but the pain is real. \\

—If you are criticizing my idea so much, why don't you think a way for us to win? — Mikael was very angry. \\

—I already did. We give up now, plan something else and then try again — Tius smiled, making Mikael's blood boil. \\

While the two boys were arguing, Amniela was alone in her thoughts. "Why isn't she attacking us, it has been a while since we saw her, this can't be good". She was going to stop them when a heat wave came in from her left side. On reflex, Mikael made an ice wall and protected them, the whole area around the wall started to ignite and within seconds, colossal flames surrounded them. The area Mikael was able to protect with his wall had an interesting shape, it started with the same size as the wall but it would increase as you moved away from it, like the trunk of a cone. Tius noticed that, sat down and started biting his nail.\\

—What was that? — Mikael screamed.\\

—Was it the lava from her axe? — Amniela asked herself. \\

Tius looked at the wall Mikael made. \\

—I think... it was too big for it to be the lava on her axe... — Mikael said. \\

—It felt like a heat wave... like when you open an oven. — Amniela said. \\

Tius looked to the opposite side from where the wave came from and then turned to Mikael. \\

—Can you do a giant spike one hundred meters in that direction? — He pointed at their back. \\

—What? \\

—Can you make, a Giant pike, appear precisely, One hundred meters in that direction? \\

—I don't know... I think so. \\

—Try it. \\

—Why? \\

—Just try it. \\

Mikael touched the ground and a huge ice stalactite emerged from the ground. Tius stared at it, almost disappointed and then whispered to himself: Shit.\\

—Listen, both of you. — They started to listen to him — Amniela and I are going to run in there and at my signal, you — He pointed to Mikael — are going to make one of those Exactly in the point where you here my voice coming from. Do you understand?\\

They stared at him with empty eyes, he already knew the answer. Tius sighed.\\

—Are you going to kill yourself? — Amniela asked. \\

—We are Not going to give up. — Mikael said.\\

—I noticed that, so apparently, I'm going to have to do something... — He sighed once more — Listen closely. Haamiah is standing still preparing to attack us about one hundred meters in that direction. — He pointed to the wall — I will go there and stand exactly where she is, when I do that, I will scream and you will make a spike to kill her from below.\\

—How do you know where she is? — Mikael asked.\\

—The shape of this area.\\

Amniela started to think.\\

—How do you know she still standing there? \\

—She is probably charging another one of these attacks. Remember how she was gone for a while before this? — She nodded — She saw that straight up brawling us was not going to work because of your spells, so she stood far away and prepared an attack that could affect a large area. After that we should be dead, trying to not die or running to her. Since we did not show up at her yet, she probably thinks that we are dead or almost. Either way, she will do it again to make sure. Until she finishes, we have a window where we can attack, but it needs to be fast.\\

—It can work. — Amniela said — Can you do it? — She asks Mikael. \\

—All I have to do is create the spike, right? \\

—Yes. But it needs to be Exactly where I scream... \\

—You said you did not want to die; wouldn't that kill you? \\

—Not if you don't miss... \\

Tius and Amniela stood up and started to prepare themselves. Mikael summoned Toliman.\\

—I will make a water path for you guys to go through. \\

—No. If you do that, she will see the steam and it will stop charging the attack. It will be better if we run.\\

And so they did, through the fire and heat they ran until the Cavalier was in reach. Amniela, while in the way, buffed Tius' speed, and when Haamiah was in sight, casted the other spell on her. With easiness, the boy approached the gold soul and managed to get behind her; Haamiah kicked him in the abdomen and sent him away. She saw Amniela near and charged at her but before she could reach the girl, Tius grabbed her by the feet and pushed it, making her fall on her belly. Tius screamed at Mikael, who heard it and immediately started to create the spike. In a split second, Tius jumped back while pulling Haamiah, but in the middle of the jump he realized that the spike was not in the exact place where he was standing so he tried to go in the direction of it but it was too late, the ice pillar had already been established in place. He screamed again and Mikael did once more but this time the spike started to rose in front of Tius. He pulled Haamiah making the spike pierce her in the abdomen and lift her about ten meters in the air. When the structure emerged from the floor almost took Tius too, who stood paralyzed right in front of it. When the blood of the Golden Cavalier slid down the pillar, Tius fell down and sat on the floor and deeply sighed. \\

—I really, deserve to sleep after this...

Right after that, the third group fought Haamiah, who had an extremely bad time against them. This group was the only one that did not lose a single member during the fight, Asphela and Thysíla surrounded the gold soul and attacked without ceasing or opening for the Cavalier to react while the other two girls bombed her from far away, Exoutius with different type of elemental magic and Laylah with literal bombs that she made for the occasion. In the end, Exoutius killed her with a large jet of water that slashed through her already damaged armor.\\

Exoutius has been training this attack for a while now, ever since the internships started, she has been trying to adapt her elemental magic to other things that do not involve killing other human being. Ironically, the only times she has to test it are during the combat and dueling classes.\\

Almost at the end of the spring, the students have been working for about five weeks now. Some of them are trying to improve on it and others are not, but so far no one changed its original choice.