William:
"You know, William, sometimes when you fight, you get so worked up it's like you become a different person. Like all you want to do is win, and you'll accomplish that no matter what," Arthur said to me.
"Do I?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah, I mean it's a great thing, but that's why I don't want to spar with you. Because you'll do anything to win when you get into that state, even kill me, I think," Arthur said, amusingly.
I woke up from the dream in a panic, hurriedly getting out of bed and waking Arthur up.
"ARTHUR, WAKE UP! WE'RE GONNA MISS THE TEST!"
Arthur immediately woke up and started to change into his uniform. Judging from the sunlight outside, we only had a couple of minutes before the test ended, so Arthur and I ran out the door and out of the building, ran as fast as we could to the testing area, which was held where we trained inside the dome. Once we got close, we could hear a battle going on inside. We got in, and saw Caitlyn and Zax fighting, but from the looks of it, Zax was at the end of his limit. With a quick move from the back to his neck, he fell, and Sergeant Caitlyn looked at us and spoke.
"It took you two long enough. So, who's going first?"
Arthur and I looked at each other, and from all the drinking that Arthur had, I knew he still needed some time, so I stepped up.
"Ok, so the first is Whisk! To pass the test, you will need to defeat me one-on-one. If you can't do that, then depending on how you perform, you will be ranked accordingly."
I nodded and began to gather wind mana. In an instant, I had the max amount of mana I could hold. I got into my fighting stance and waited for her to yell.
"BEGIN!" she yelled.
I launched myself using air mana and threw a normal punch towards her face. She quickly activated her lightning and dodged my attack, then threw a lightning bolt towards me. I drew my arms together and coated them in the wind, but that wasn't enough to negate the lightning bolt. The bolt tore through my left arm, leaving it disabled. I used wind to stop my momentum and pondered my next attack. It hadn't even been one minute, and I was already down an arm. If I wanted to win, I needed to finish her in one hit. If this battle drags out, I lose.
I took a deep breath in and out. Ms. Caitlyn wasn't going to attack first; she'll just counter everything I throw at her. I can use this and make her aim at my head. Throughout our training together, every time she hit me in my head, I acted as if it did something. When she goes and attacks my head I'll counter attack her, she'll be quick to respond if I'm too slow, so I have to put everything in my attack, all the wind mana I have. If I fail to land the punch, I lose, but if it hits, then I'll win.
I gathered all the wind mana I had used and got into my fighting stance; she did as well. I charged yet again, this time a little slower so I could charge up a ball of condensed wind. I threw the ball aiming to blind her of my attack, which did not work. She batted the wind ball aside in time to counter my attack on her head. She grabbed my left-handed punch and was about to punch my stomach, but I quickly used wind to propel me over her head, making her let go of my hand. I was about to counter-attack, when she just kicked me from behind, making me tumble. I recovered and charged again, this time propelling myself as hard and fast as I could, trying to get her by surprise, but her fighting senses were too strong and quick. She quickly turned around and evaded my attack, but instead of letting me fly by, she decided to end the fight. As I flew by, she threw a punch at my head. Knowing this was the best chance I could get, I used all the wind mana I had to stop my momentum and flipped my whole body sideways. With all the power I had, I threw a punch at Ms. Caitlyn.
I could see her shocked expression and her desperate move to block my attack, but it was futile. My punch was just a few seconds from landing, but would my attack kill her? I had thought about my conversation with Arthur. Perhaps my attack would kill her. I was about a second from hitting her, so I used the little remaining wind mana I had to blow it away from her face, and it worked. Instead of landing a punch, I just collided with her body, but we collided pretty badly, which made us both fall backward and roll over continuously.
I tried to get up, but Ms. Caitlyn had gotten up before me and put her lightning-infused hand on my neck and spoke.
"You lose, Whisk."
I just lay on the floor and waited for Evelyn to come heal, but she never came. Instead, Ms. Caitlyn gave me her hand. I took it, and she lifted me from the ground and spoke exhaustingly.
"You did great, Whisk. We'll talk more later, but for the meantime, go to the infirmary."
"Is that where Evelyn is?" I asked.
"No, She hasn't been seen since yesterday. I assume she left, knowing that she wouldn't have a shot at fighting me," Caitlyn spoke.
I nodded and began leaving, but before I left, I went towards Arthur, laid my hand on his shoulder, and told him,
"It's all up to you, hero."
Instead of looking at me with his usual happy smile, he looked at me with anger and spoke to me.
"What the hell was that, William? You should've won that fight but let your heart take over. We still have a mission to accomplish, you know," Arthur said and walked away.
Arthur:
I know that William's just a big, quiet teddy Grumbaloo. Even when he gets into his flow state when fighting, he subconsciously holds back, not wanting to hurt anyone. I know I told him long ago that he gets a bit carried away when fighting, but I was just teasing him. I wonder if he actually took it seriously. Anyways, that's all for another day. Right now, I need to win, no matter the cost.
"Are you ready, Key?" Caitlyn asked.
"I'm ready, but are you ready to lose?" I said confidently.
"Ha, we'll see, Key, we'll see. Ready when you are," she said.
I activated my sword style with my lightning and charged at Sergeant Caitlyn while infusing my sword with lightning, for I had been working on a move that Caitlyn had not seen. I threw my lightning-infused sword at her and conjured a lightning fist. She quickly dodged my sword, which had landed just a few inches behind her, and caught my fist attack. I had her where I wanted. With my sword style, I had unlocked a new power when I used lightning. If I infused an item with my lightning and activated my sword style, I unlocked a new set of paths. Instead of the regular paths, which tell me in which direction to go to avoid the least amount of damage, these new pathways allow me to teleport myself to my infused lightning item. So, in an instant, I teleported out of the hands of the Sergeant and to my sword behind her. I turned around and hit her with my infused lightning punch, sending her forward. Wasting no time, I picked up my sword and infused it yet again and threw it right back at her. She re-stabilized herself and just barely managed to avoid my sword, which was a big mistake, as I teleported to my sword, grabbed the sword, and flipped my body using wind mana to throw a kick to her face.
This did not catch her off guard this time, and she quickly covered her face using both her arms. While in the motion of kicking her, I infused my sword and threw it behind her. Once I kicked her, and with the sword now behind her, I yet again teleported behind and, right as I was about to strike the finishing blow, she yelled,
"STOP!"
"It seems that you're the winner of this battle, Key. I would rather not take any more damage, so I mark you as the winner. Congratulations."
"Ah, man, couldn't you just let me finish you off? I worked really hard to pull this move off," I said disappointedly.
"Ha, we'll talk after, Key. You have to show me how to use that move. Now go!" she said, waving me out the door.
I walked out of the dome and headed to my room. Although my technique had worked and I had won, I just felt empty. No matter how many times I won, every time I just felt empty. Everything in this world came easy to me, as if the world revolved around me. Many people would love to have this feeling, but I hate it. I should be celebrating my victory and be happy, but how can I be happy when I already know the outcome? I wish I could be like William. Everything in his life he had to work hard for, and it seems like the world is desperately trying to ruin his life at any given moment. Just when he thinks everything's alright, something happens. That's how his life's been ever since I could remember, and I wished we could switch lives. Even though it sounds bad, I'd much rather work from the bottom and reach the top than start almost at the top and just climb a little to reach the top.
That's one of the reasons I like staying with William. Because no matter how gifted I am and how much this world loves me, it would much rather make William suffer. So, if I stayed close to him, I would catch some of William's bad luck, and also, William would catch small parts of my good luck, so it evens out. At the end of the day, I just wish I could feel failure.