Later that day I returned to our rooms. They weren't large or small. I spent hours cleaning up the kitchen, preparing dinner for the night, which consisted of some vegetables and roasted fish from the lake a couple yards away from the castle. I then set out a plate on the table and knocked three times on Ariel's door to let him know dinner's ready. After about twenty minutes the door finally opened, "Hi," Ariel walked out from behind me.
She wore a baggy pair of pyjamas and her hair was pulled up.
"Do you think I've gotten any prettier lately," Ariel said casually as she closed the door to her bedroom behind herself, walking over towards the dinner table.
"Nope, not really. How's that even relevant right now?" I really didn't care enough to comment on a 13-year-old's appearance.
Ariel looked offended but immediately started talking without replying, "My growth spurt should happen any time now. Hopefully I won't look so...boyish."
"Don't worry. You'll look amazing when you get older," I replied sarcastically while giving Ariel a wink.
Her cheeks flushed red from my compliment, but then a second later she composed herself enough to respond. "Whatever. Have you given any more thought to that idea of your father's? Don't give me your answer so soon. Let's eat first. Anyway, where do you think he is, Cyrus?" Ariel asked before bringing a forkful of salad to her mouth.
"Where'd the change of subject come from, anyway? And, no. No idea, not sure." I began digging into my fish happily. Six months prior to when I arrived at the Xuidian Kingdom, my father went missing. My mother didn't want me to worry and she said that the local village would continue to look for him in my absence. I can't afford to be held back by my father's disappearance, even though it did sting when he left. But I'll forgive him someday.
After dinner Ariel brought up the question again, asking where her father might have run away to. After pondering it briefly, I eventually decided that it wasn't any use trying to speculate why or where he disappeared. Instead, we should focus our energy into learning magic. We discussed plans until early into the next morning when finally exhaustion overwhelmed her and Ariel retired.
As the sunlight broke through the curtains of my bedchambers window, I decided it's probably time to get ready for classes. Pulling out a clean pair of trousers from the wardrobe drawer I went about picking out my best-looking school shirt and put it on, the soft linen material flowed against my skin perfectly and my freshly brushed hair felt like silk. I slipped my shoes on and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading off to meet with everyone else.
The morning passed quickly, just as usual, and classes passed as per norm.
"Alright kids! Let's get some practice! Let's head off to the training ground." Ego called the students attention to himself and led the way through the corridors. He led us out into the forest. Once we arrived, everyone started practicing some techniques, which I personally couldn't participate in since I didn't have an affinity.
"Now that we got some warmup today, I want to move onto the main reason why we are here. Since we are early into the course, I want to evaluate each one of your skills, I will be doing that through a tournament method where six people will be placed on each side of the bracket, and we will be determining who is the strongest by this method. The losers will lose all respect in my class. Not to say your classmate is worthless, just weak." The last sentence gave Ego a bit of a chuckle, as it was apparent that he was joking.
"Alright. Cyrus I'll have you battle Callum in the first round of the tournament, alright?" Callum looked shocked, obviously not having expected me being matched up so early. It appeared that Callum thought he would've gone much longer without losing face.
"Um.. okay?" I said while scratching my cheek nervously, unsure how to react to Ego's decision. When thinking about the abilities that Callum possesses, this shouldn't be too challenging to beat him with just hand-to-hand combat.
"Ariel, you'll be facing Quentin, Thorne, you'll be facing Ryfin, Amelia, you'll be facing Lyra, Emerson, you'll be facing Nykka and finally Magnius, you will be facing Vled." There were a series of murmuring among the class.
"Silence." Professor Ego boomed, silencing the rest of the class.
"We will start with Cyrus and Callum, step forward onto the sparring ground." Ego directed both Callum and I forward to an empty patch of dirt that served as our arena.
"You two will spar until either party either surrenders, or when there is an obvious winner. The person who wins by the greatest margin on each side of the bracket automatically qualifies for the semi finals due to the uneven amount of people in the class."
The two of us faced each other square on. Callum gave me a friendly wave as we prepared to face one another in a bout.
I moved my arm forward into a defensive position while he moved forward into a flurry of punches. Callum kept his arms raised as he continued forward with a series of attacks. Each blow connecting square with my arms. He wasn't able to bring my arms down with every strike, and it became clear to me that Callum needed to utilize his other limb in order to put me in submission. Callum was able to use his nature magic, but I was forced to just use hand to hand combat. This should be no issue since Callum doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would fight often.
After the initial exchange of strikes, Callum got low and tried for an axe kick to knock me down. I ducked under the blow and used the moment to capitalize by closing the distance and using an overhead hook. My fist connected square on the jaw of Callum. He was completely disoriented, and I rushed to press the attack. Using a kick to trip him back on his heel. Before the fight ended Callum collapsed onto his side unconscious, no doubt bruised. Before I could walk over my leg was strapped down by a vine and Callum got up.
"Egh..." Callum let a groan out as he rolled to the side, trying to find any position that wouldn't agitate his pain. He stumbled slightly before regaining his composure and raising his arms for another strike. He advanced forward and threw out several feints and blows before finally hitting a palm strike which hit my forehead, momentarily disorienting me before I felt a sharp sting and tasted metal in my mouth. The blow caught me unaware.
After a couple of exchanges he managed to land the palm strike, making my head snap backward violently. I felt dazed, but only temporarily. As my vision came back, I saw Callum charging me like a wild animal on the offense. Without a single thought my eyes began to glow purple for a split-second before Callum charged towards me at an incredibly high speed. When the moment he was close enough for contact he sent his arm in motion towards my face, trying to punch my head back again.
I grabbed Callum's wrist, stopping him with a hard grip. He tried to yank it free but my fingers dug deeper into him, cutting off circulation. With a sudden twist his shoulder gave an audible crack followed by Callum screaming in agony and collapsing to his knees, before passing out from the intense pain. "It looks like Cyrus is the winner." Ego said with satisfaction, smiling to himself.
Callum laid on his side motionless, unable to move while Ego signaled for Ariel to enter the circle of students. I accidentally leaked some of my aether, I just hope that Callum didn't notice my abnormal strength...