A million different thoughts were racing through Vanagloria's head.
"Why is he after me? Is he mad? I am screwed? Is this actually the day I die? Does he want me to get out of the car? Does he not want me to have lightning powers? Why does he have to be so dramatic? Is this my dad? Will he let me at least pet the horses before he kills me? Are Blair and Martyr screwed too? How far behind are the rest of the group?"
The man standing before them was without a doubt the air champion, Styrmir. He looked like a god atop his chariot, clad in his flashy armor. His eyes were pure balls of electricity right now, lightning flowing under his helmet like it was smoke. He was just standing on his chariot staring down at the truck, waiting.
"I think he wants you to get out of the car." Martyr said, not taking his eyes off the lightning champion.
"W-wait don't make me go out there alone!" Vanagloria started panicking.
"We will be right behind you, right Martyr?" Blair glares at Martyr.
"Yes, we have to be ready to run at any moment though because we definitely cannot take this guy." Martyr said holding the handle to open the door.
Vanagloria takes a deep breath to calm herself down. "Okay, let's go." She swings the car door open and attempts to get out but is halted by the seat belt.
"Ow."
"Blair, how do I take it off?"
'Click'
"Oh thanks."
As Vanagloria steps out of the car onto the shattered road, she looks back up to the chariot. The light the horses gave off was much more clear and defined now that she wasn't looking through a car window. They illuminated the ground around it, showing off the hard dry deserted dirt below.
She walked up to the front of the car which was a few meters from the horses of the chariot.
She looks up to Styrmir on his chariot. "What do you want sir?"
His eyes light up and in a fraction of a second and a small "BOOM" he is standing within a foot of her. A gust of wind blows right into Vanagloria's face pushing her hair straight back.
His dark figure was towering over Vanagloria, his eyes glowing gold through the visor of his helmet. She had to tilt her head back just to make eye-contact. He must be way over a foot taller than her.
He extended out an open gauntlet, the other still holding the massive lightning spear.
Vanagloria notices the gesture and cautiously puts her hand in his, shaking the cold metal glove.
"That was an incredible performance at the colosseum!" Styrmir said enthusiastically, his voice was very deep and growly. He even had a slight German accent to his voice.
"Oh… Thanks. Wait, you was… you were at the colosseum?" Vanagloria could feel her stress fade away as they shook hands. She watched as Styrmir's intense lightning filled eyes slowly cleared up back to normal. He had a gold color to his eyes.
"No, I didn't come to the event because I had been in a bit of a fight with Nova, but that's about politics and I don't really want to get into that right now. But I ended up watching from my city in the clouds. The direction our city in the clouds was traveling happened to be very close to the event so I brewed some winds to make us right above the colosseum." He took off his helmet and threw it back onto his chariot.
Styrmir looked exactly his age, mid 40's. He had very short gray-blonde hair and one massive scar going from the middle of his cheek to under his jawline.
"I remember watching that storm come above the building after your name got called out. You are Vanagloria, right?"
"Yep, this is me. I'm the earth girl." Vanagloria said proudly, hands on her hips.
Styrmir said. "How well have you adjusted so far to your powers?"
"Oh uh, I'm still having trouble really controlling it without shocking someone, I was able to figure out how to do this though." Vanagloria points her two index fingers at each other. She very gradually concentrates on the nerves in her fingertips and pops out a little spark of lightning that connects itself between the two.
The minuscule spark jerks around, sporadically changing shape and size.
"I don't understand like any of the science behind it, but it's super cool either way."
"Elements are magic gifted to us by Astreum, there's not much science surrounding it. There's some sciency things you should know, but for now just worry about getting used to it." Styrmir says after he sniffs.
Vanagloria looks back up to see Styrmir with a hand in front of his mouth. It looked like the sight of seeing the little spark was enough to make the grown man cry.
"Wait, there aren't any others?" Vanagloria said, shocked. She knew that it was rare to have specific combinations of elements but she didn't think it would be to this extent. Plus if one of her had to have lightning powers if one of them didn't even have elemental powers.
"No, there are others but all of them work for me as knights." He responded quickly.
Vanagloria paused for a second before asking Styrmir a question that was on her mind.
"Styrmir?"
"Yes, little one?"
"I know this is kind of a weird question, but uh… I've been an orphan and I've never seen my parents before. And I was wondering if you happened to know anyone that could be either of them."
It was hard for her to keep eye contact with Styrmir while she said this. But she had to ask. If one of her parents was from earth that must mean that one of them was pure lightning and if Styrmir knew a lot of them, then he might know.
For all she knew, Styrmir could be her dad. He was about the right age, and had lightning powers.
"Did your doctor say none of the other elemental shots would work." Styrmir said after a few seconds of thinking.
"No, he said my DNA showed I was exactly 50 percent lightning and 50 percent no element at all."
Styrmir's expression looked like it hurt him to hear this.
"No, I'm terribly sorry. None of my knights would have been old enough to have you, and my wife certainly isn't from earth. I can still help you find your parents."
"Thanks…"
"It was worth a shot." She thought to herself. Her parents really were a complete mystery.
"Anyways, I should tell you why I visited you." Styrmir collects himself and clears his throat.
"I am here to tell you that I would like to recruit you for my squad of knights after you are done with the Vying."
"Wait no way… already?! But I jus…"
"I would still like you to prove yourself if you were doing a normal trail, but also…"
Styrmir clears his throat once more.
"I will give your whole team the opportunity for a secret trial after the Vying. For my endorsement."
Before Vanagloria is able to respond she hears a shocked deep male voice from behind her "Did I hear that correctly?"
Vanagloria was so shocked by this whole interaction she was having with the lightning champion she completely forgot her friends were supposed to be following her out of the car.
"Yes you heard me right. I'm still not going to participate in the Vying but I will make an exception for my lightning brethren." Styrmir tilted his head up looking directly above Vanagloria.
Vanagloria looked behind her to see her two friends cautious creeping up to the lightning users.
"It's ok guys he's not trying to kill us." Vanagloria laughed.
"Are you sure? He almost killed us already." Blair said, looking at the sharp golden spear glistening in the night. "Can you at least put away Gungir?"
Gungir is one of the most famous weapons you can find on the islands. A few centuries ago Gungir was almost the cause of a part of earth finding out about the islands.
The air champion at the time, Odin, went down to earth with him as a way to steal new technology in Europe but he brought Gungir with him. At first sight it is a normal spear, maybe a little big but as soon as any sort of wind or storm picks up it starts to activate and makes Odin have to leave it after it was seen shooting lightning back at a storm.
The spear is also the reason why he is considered a god by parts of earth. He was also the father to one of the most famous lighting champions every, Thor.
On the islands there are types of weapons called "elemental weapons" obviously, that are used to help control an elemental user's powers and channel it through the weapon.
Gungir is an example of an elemental weapon made out of the air metal, aerolite. Metal for somebody like Styrmir, who's powers would probably break a normal steel weapon.
"I suppose my entrance was a bit dramatic, I apologize. Coming down like that in any situation is too addicting." Styrmir threw the legendary spear up on his chariot like it was a stick.
"So I guess I owe you a few requests." He said as he dusted off his hands.
Vanagloria flinches at the grinding noise it makes as the tip of the spear scratches at the floor of the chariot.
"Can I get a request?" Martyr said, still untrusting of him.
"Shoot."
"You said you can see down here from all the way up from your clouds right?" Martyr said still positioned to defend himself at a moment's notice.
"Yes." Styrmir seemed completely unthreatened by Martyr.
"Did you see any other cars behind us? If so, how many and how far away from us right here?"
"If you are talking about Vulcan's minivan he is about ten minutes away from you the last time I checked. I didn't see any others." Styrmir seemed impressed by the question.
"There's also a town down this road about a mile or two, you should stop down there if you want to rest and possibly meet up with your team again."
"Ok good to know. Thank you." Martyr loosened up from his battle stance.
"Although you must not tell Vulcan about my visit here." Styrmir requested.
"In fact you must not tell anyone other than the rest of your team, none of the champions can know I am inviting your team up to my capital. That is my request for you."
"Okay we can do that, why can't they know though?" Blair said confused. "Oh wait, yeah why didn't you come to the colosseum?"
Styrmir sighs. "That is something I can explain to you when you come up to my capital, but not now. All you need to know right now is that Nova and I disagree on quite a touchy subject."
A quiet rumble comes from the sea of dark clouds above them. Styrmir looked up towards the sky like it was speaking to him. "It's about my time of departure. I'll allow one more request before I leave."
"I have one!" Vanagloria said quickly, raising her hand. She didn't want to miss her opportunity.
"Would you be able to help teach some lightning moves at some point? Like the one you did to get off the chariot, just as an example."
Styrmir smiles at her. "Yes, it's going to take a lot of sneaking around from the other teams and champions but I would like you to visit Valhalla at some point to train. I'll send my knights to your home once I find a space in my schedule."
"In the meantime, put your hand up like this." Styrmir turned over towards the side of the broken road and put his clenched fist out.
He then put his thumb up, along with his index and middle finger, forming a finger gun.
Vanagloria repeated his motion with unnecessary precision. "Okay."
"Now focus your elemental energy to the base of your finger for a few seconds." Styrmir says as his finger starts to glow yellow, getting brighter and brighter the longer he holds it.
Vanagloria uses all of her concentration to focus a small amount of energy in that one very specific area.
"This feels like trying to get two opposing magnets to connect." She thinks, frustrated at her inability to get her lightning energy to stay in one place.
She had no problem letting out a lot of energy, but when it came to focusing on getting a specifically small amount of energy to a specific part of her hand it became infinitely harder.
"And then shoot that energy down your finger as quickly as you can." He shoots out a small spark out of the tip of his finger effortlessly, blasting the pebble he was aiming at, sending it flying into the dark valley.
Vanagloria watches as the energy she concentrates over to the base of her fingers shoots down to the tip, hitting a random spot on the road that she definitely was not aiming at. Vanagloria frowned, she was disappointed at her attempt. Nonetheless she was excited to try out her new move.
"Impressive for your first try." Styrmir says, looking at the tiny scorch in the road.
"I want you to practice that zap gun, try and get better at it. It's not the best fighting move, but with more practice it will help you with concentrating your lightning in one spot of your body. It will also help with being more precise when shooting lightning." He started walking back towards his chariot.
"Thanks, I will definitely use that." Vanagloria says, looking down at her hand.
Styrmir jumps on top of his chariot, grabbing the reins. "I expect you to have mastered that move by the time we meet next."
He whips the reins of the chariot, causing the horses to flair up. Blair jumps back from the light horse she was petting.
As the chariot starts to take off the ground following the horses running on air, barely missing the telephone pole next to them. He looked like Santa, or at least from what Vanagloria had seen on movies from earth.
"Good luck on your journey Vanagloria!"
"I will be keeping an eye on your team! I expect nothing but the best!" Styrmir yelled down as his chariot carried him towards the chaotic storm above.
"Guys." Vanagloria looked over at Martyr and Blair. "What just happened?"
"I thought today was over." Martyr said, looking straight up into the sky.
"AH!" Martyr winces and puts a hand over his eye.
"Are you okay?" Vanagloria said worried. It looked like he really got hurt.
"A drop of rain hit me right in the eye." Martyr said. He was fully bent over, both hands on his eye. "That shit burns!"
"Wait, where did the rain go?" Blair said, walking up to them.
"Oh yeah, I guess I didn't even notice but there was no rain as soon as I got out of the car." Vanagloria started to hear rain splatting against the ground, slowly increasing in speed.
"I think Styrmir stopped it when he talked to us." Blair said.
"We gotta get back in the car, quick!" Vanagloria grabbed onto Martyr's arm and tugged on it, trying to avoid touching his muscles as much as she could despite the temptation to do so.
"Ugh, normally getting water in my eyes hurts but I can take it. But that thing smacked my eye hard, it feels like water is flowing into my skull." Martyr gets up, one hand still on his eye.
"We can take care of your eye when we stop at the gas station." Vanagloria said, trying to reassure Martyr.