Soon after, it was finally Shui's turn to go.
Making her way onto the stage, she took a deep breath. A hint of fear clouded her eyes as she gazed at the ignition fuel in her hands. She had just tried to convince Gavin to let her pass but in the end, she was met with the same result as Vollax.
But unlike Vollax, she wouldn't stay still.
Regulating her breaths with the breathing exercise that her father had taught her, she gripped the fuel tightly deforming the lump.
It was a solid compound made of some foreign material. The color being completely gray with blue spots.
Like the previous attempts, the first few wolves bounded ahead of the pack ready to rip Shui apart.
Blood pounding in her ears, she finally activated her gift and simultaneously threw the fuel.
The lump of fuel flew as Shui's gift dragged universal energy from around it and compressed it around the lump.
Mid-flight, a sudden spark appeared and started the ignition process. The fireball that was forming, rapidly expanded until it covered half of the arena. While the fireball made out of the fuel was indeed powerful and big, it failed to kill all of the wolves.
The wolves at the front of the pack were incinerated immediately due to their unfortunate positioning. Witnessing their comrades' unfortunate fate, the ones at the back had stopped and were now waiting for the wall of fire to stop expanding.
Shui gazed at the wall of fire with a wry smile. She had put all her energy into igniting that fuel, yet it had only covered half the arena. Now she was dead tired and awaiting the arrival of the wolves from the back.
Turning her head, she locked eyes with Gavin and pleaded silently.
Sighing, Gavin snapped his fingers and froze everything in the arena. Even the flames were frozen completely, causing a beautiful scenery to be created.
"Fail," Gavin announced the result and marked it down.
Downcast, Shui made her way off the arena, she had expected to fail, but the result still hurt.
'That lump of fuel should have been enough to cover the entire arena and some more,'
Shui thought despondently. 'Why can't I make it work?'
Joining back with her friends, she was cheered up by them as the class exited the arena. Emmia accompanied Luna, while Sefir dragged Icarth's sleeping body across the ground.
Jade on the other hand was put into the cage to be transported back to his home. He slumped down, staring at Icarth's sleeping figure with an intelligence that no mere beast should possess.....
------
Icarth jerked awake when he felt something crawl across his ear. He looked around alerted, only to find Sefir and Emmia in an empty bus.
"You didn't have to wait..." Icarth yawned.
"We can't exactly leave you here overnight," Emmia rolled her eyes while retracting her hand from tickling Icarth's ears.
The trio made their way out of the bus and bumped into Luna who was standing alone outside the bus.
"Luna!" Emmia exclaimed. "I thought you left?"
Shaking her head softly, "I just thought I should wait for you."
Emmia grinned and said, "Let's go out to eat I guess. Ica will take us there."
Turning to her brother Emmia gestured with her head to get a move on it.
Icarth led the way, dragging his legs down the streets towards his one and only stop for food.
Along the way, Emmia explained the places in the streets to Luna. Sefir was walking with Icarth to make sure that he wouldn't fall asleep mid-way. You would think it wasn't possible, but Sefir was acting out of the experience.
"Over there is the processing district of the city, and to this side is the manufacturing district. We'll have to go through the manufacturing district to get to the food district."
"Manufacturing~? I distinctly remember it being called something else." Icarth interrupted Emmia.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Emmia narrowed her eyes.
"Mmmm~ What was it? The production- no that's too long....."
"Ica....."
"Oh right, it's the bUiLdiNg district." Right after finishing his sentence, Icarth bolted forwards through the crowd.
"Ica!" Emmia shouted in frustration and gave chase to her brother.
The twins began their chase through the city and left Sefir and Luna behind.
"Haaah" Sefir sighed. "Don't worry I know where they'll end up."
Luna nodded and the two walked in silence. Leading the transfer student through the crowd, Sefir felt the awkwardness set in. He wasn't like Emmia who could continue a one-sided conversation for hours on end.
"Sooo... what do you think of Aster City so far?" Sefir asked to try to break the ice.
"... It's very organized," Luna answered after a pause.
...
Again silence prevailed which was filled in by the bustle of the street surrounding the pair.
Sefir felt sweat form on his head. He wasn't the best talker at all. Now that he was left to deal with a wall of a person, he was feeling very constricted. Unconsciously he picked up the pace to the restaurant where the twins were headed to.
'Emmia...Ica....why must you two torture me so much....' Sefir thought helplessly.
----------
Now the twins in question were still running through the streets. Emmia huffed, trying to keep pace with her brother. But she just couldn't. Her limbs burned, her lungs screamed, and eyes blurred. The sounds of the streets were drowned out by her own heartbeat in her ears.
She tried to keep track of her brother who was effortlessly staying ahead of her while cutting through the crowd.
Gritting her teeth, she sped up and tried to catch up. The image of her brother now was overlapping with his performance in the practical today. While Icarth had aced the test without any issues, Emmia had failed. She had failed miserably.
Memories of the test forced their way to the front of her head. Standing in front of the wolves, she activated her gift. Merging with the mineral in her hand, she grit her teeth as pain spread through her body. Soon her skin became as hard as the rock, and the wolves were on top of her.
Defending herself, she tried to use the moves taught to her by Seril, but her body just wouldn't move as she thought. Finally, after two minutes of struggling and getting nowhere, Mr. Gavin ended the test and failed her.
A sharp pain struck her, thinking it was the sting of failure, Emmia cleared her thoughts and focussed on following Icarth. But soon after the pain reverberated in her body. Coming to a stop, she leaned against the wall of a warehouse meant for manufacturing furniture for the city.
Gasping, Emmia felt dizzy as her body throbbed in pain. She always hated using her gift.
Every time after it, her body would ache and pain as if she had just finished a full body workout.
"You shouldn't have run after me like that." A voice called out to her. Emmia turned to see Icarth walking back casually. His blond hair reflected the evening sun as he leaned against the wall beside her.
"Hah...*huff*...Like...*huff*...I would let you go so easily...." Emmia forced out in between breaths.
"Mmmm," Icarth hummed and didn't say anything.
Emmia turned to look at her brother once more. At one point, she could read him as easily as a book no matter the distance between them. But now, even when he stood or rather leaned against the wall this close to her, she couldn't even fathom what he was thinking.
Thinking back it was back at that time when Icarth left their home to live in the hostel for Nova Academy. That was when things started to fall apart...
"...When will you come back home?" Emmia blurted out without thinking.
Icarth's face froze and his crimson eyes seemed to get paler and colder as he tilted his head. Not for the first time, Emmia felt deep regret for talking without thinking after seeing her brother's face.